Spy x Family vol. 11

This volume starts off with a couple brief bits of nonsense involving a vengeful superior at the hospital Loid Forger works at and Yuri Briar’s latest series of failed efforts to show that the man his sister married is just no good.  The rest of vol. 10 picks up considerably as Anya, Becky, Damien, and the rest of the notable students from Eden Academy get ready to go off on a field trip to a museum.  They’re all excited to see stuff like dinosaur bones and mummies… right up until the point the school buses they’re on are hijacked by the extremist group known as the Red Circus!  They’re demanding that their comrades be released in exchange for the release of the children, and they’ve got enough guns and explosives to let the authorities know that they’re serious.  Mostly serious, anyway; because the one person who can see through their plans happens to be on one of the captured buses.

Putting Anya smack in the middle of a hostage situation could have wound up being the same kind of exercise in breaking tone and suspension of disbelief that we got with Loid’s origin story back in vol. 9.  That it doesn’t is because mangaka Tatsuya Endo keeps things just serious enough to seem dangerous, yet also silly enough to be entertaining – even when the terrorists place a bomb collar on Anya after she tries to get word out about their situation.  It may seem extreme, but this device and the antics of the entire arc walk a satisfyingly fine line between suspenseful and comedic in the way that this title’s best storylines do.  That makes this volume a welcome return to form after last time, and possibly a sign that Endo should do more extended arcs like this one.