Spy x Family vol. 2

I talked about the first volume of this series with Rob and Myron almost two months back, and while we had some reservations about it, we generally liked vol. 1.  Yes, it’s a world whose level of realism is set at “Bond Movie Featuring Roger Moore,” but it had lots of charm to complement its excellently paced action and drama scenes.  Just don’t think too hard about the fact that one of the principal members of the story is a master assassin who nearly racks up a body count in the double digits over the course of this initial volume.  Or about how her murderous impulses are played for occasional laughs.  Vol. 2 of “Spy x Family” doesn’t find a way to reconcile these issues, even as it does find a way to mine some potentially interesting drama from Yor’s situation.

Vol. 1 left us wondering whether or not Anya would be able to make it into Eden Academy after her “Father Loid,” otherwise known as the master spy Twilight, lost his cool after one of the interviewers asked some condescendingly personal questions.  That she does get in should come as no surprise to anyone reading this.  It does lead to a couple chapters of frivolity as Loid and Yor take the girl to a castle to act out some scenes from Anya’s favorite cartoon, followed by Yor helping her “daughter” get ready for school by shopping and teaching her some (thankfully non-lethal) self-defense.

Once Anya actually gets into school, just about everything falls apart.  While Plan A involves the girl getting on the Honor Roll, allowing Loid to get to know Unity Party Chairman Donovan Desmond as a fellow elite parent.  Plan B, however, involves Anya becoming friends with Donovan’s son Damian and bringing the families together that way.  Damian turns out to be insufferably arrogant, leading Anya to make the worst first (and second, and third…) impression possible.  Forget looking for a Plan C, Loid is going to have to find a way to make sure his “daughter” still wants to go to school after all this.

There’s less “Bond”-style action in this volume, as most of the story takes place in and about Eden Academy itself.  It also means that if you didn’t cotton to Anya’s personality in the first volume then this one is going to be a harder sell since there’s much more focus on her here.  I thought she was cute enough and I still like seeing how she “looks” at the other characters’ on-page thought dialogue as part of her telepathy.

The problem is that while I think her struggles in school are fine, there’s no real surprises to be had from them.  It’s certainly satisfying to see her get under Damian’s skin, but after that we’re left with some straightforward stories about seeing her overcome her struggles in school.  Even if they’re not particularly bad, they’re not all that exciting either.

Much the same can be said for Loid and Yor as well.  Vol. 2 sees them get better acquainted with their roles as parents, to mostly comedic effect.  There’s a certain amount of fun to be had from seeing Loid scramble about the Academy to get his daughter to apologize to Damian.  Less so from seeing Yor threaten a bunch of thugs within an inch of their life, because seeing a genuine killer’s murderous impulses played for laughs in an otherwise family-friendly series still isn’t as funny as Endo seems to think it is.  I do have to admit, though, that all of the family’s talents come together pretty well in the volume’s final story, where a trip to the aquarium turns into a very penguin-centric mission for Twilight.

All of this being said, vol. 2’s strongest bits come near the end of  the main chapters when we’re introduced to Yor’s brother, Yuri.  You might recall that Yor became a killer because she didn’t want her brother to struggle as he was growing up.  Well, the grown up Yuri now has a proper job that he’s very good at and is almost certainly going to put him at odds with Twilight’s mission.  That’s because where “Spy x Family” is founded on the idea that an individual’s public and private faces are going to be at odds when spycraft is involved, Yuri is no exception to that rule.  I very much want to see how he’s going to complicate things for the Forger family.

As for “Spy x Family” itself, I’m still on board.  It usually takes some “Shonen Jump” titles a little while to hit their stride, and this one is proving to be no exception.  While I’d like to see Endo add some more surprises to Anya’s encounters at school, it seems more likely that Yuri’s story will provide the necessary incentive to keep me reading.  I will, however, concede to a certain nagging feeling that it may take until the “Eden Academy Arc” reaches its climax for things to really get kicked into high gear.