Spy Family vols. 3 & 4

Vol. 3 kicks off with the arrival of Yuri Briar to the Forger family household for dinner.  Not only is he Yor’s brother, but he’s also a member of Ostania’s secret police, and he loves his sister dearly.  To the point of comedic awkwardness as he’s roughly as many social graces as his sister.  This leads to an evening of generally enjoyable silliness as Loid “Twilight” Forger has to prove that he’s a worthy husband for Yor.  Then it’s back to figuring out how Anya is going to be able to earn enough Stella Stars in order to stand out at Eden Academy.  Which is kind of a problem when it’s been made clear that she lacks both physical and book smarts.  So it’s a good thing that this mostly very silly volume’s one foray into drama shows us how she manages to get one in an unexpected way.

This leads to Anya wanting a reward for her effort, and that takes us to vol. 4.

[Cue the “James Bond” theme because the spoilers after the break demand it.]

Now it’s time to meet the newest addition to the Forger family:  Bond.  Bond, the dog.

You see, Anya’s request for getting that Stella Star is for a pet of her own.  While getting a dog should be as easy as going down to the local pet store, this is “Spy x Family” and it’s actually an excuse to kick off the next storyline.  The main thrust of it is that Loid gets roped in by his handlers to prevent the assassination of Western Ostania’s Foreign Minister at peace talks being held in the East.  A group of disgruntled youths are planning the assassination and they’ve got their hands on some dogs who were once part of an experimental program to carry the bombs that will kill the Foreign Minister.

One of these dogs is a big white fluffy one who we glimpsed briefly in vol. 3.  While it’s clear that he’ll play an important part in this story, the twist lies in exactly how he’s going to do that.  You get no points for guessing that he’ll save Anya from imminent peril.  Give yourself a Stella Star, however, if you guess that he does this because of his ability to see the future.

That’s right, the newest member of the Forger family is a clairvoyant dog.

I realize that checking one’s suspension of disbelief at the door is kind of a prerequisite for enjoying “Spy x Family.”  Much in the same way as it is for “Bond” movies in general.  I thought that Anya and her abilities were about as far as mangaka Tatsuya Endo was going to push that as far as this series was concerned.  Clearly I was mistaken as Bond’s clairvoyance requires even more suspension of disbelief.  It makes me wonder what surprises vol. 5 holds in store for us.  Will we get a moose that can shoot beams of energy from its eyes?

This bothers me because it was clear from the start that “Spy x Family” is catering to an audience that is much younger than I am.  Now it looks to be catering to an audience that is even younger than I assumed it was.  While I know that Shonen Jump titles skew towards young teens and teens in general, its best titles manage to appeal to kids of all ages (see also:  “Slam Dunk,” “One-Punch Man,” “Assassination Classroom”).  The thing is that when the baseline of your reality is “‘Bond’ Movies with Roger Moore” throwing a kid with psychic abilities into it is already a big ask.  With the addition of a clairvoyant dog, you get the feeling that Moore would’ve walked off the set of whatever movie decided to include that.  Not that I would blame him.

To Endo’s credit, he makes Bond’s addition to the cast work about as well as you could hope.  His clairvoyance isn’t presented as a get-out-of-jail free card as far as the plot is concerned as he and Anya have to do some real work to make sure the future comes out the way they want it to.  This leads to some pretty thrilling action scenes, some moments where Yor is able to put her bloodlust towards a positive end, and Loid getting to show off some of his quick thinking.  All while his family thinks he’s on the can, because that’s the kind of series this is at the end of the day.

In other words, this volume is the kind of slick, professional, crowd-pleasing kind of entertainment that I expect from Shonen Jump titles.  Only it all revolves around a clairvoyant dog.  While I ultimately enjoyed this volume, it also left me with the feeling that I may actually be getting too old for this kind of thing.  That the kind of craziness “Spy x Family” offers is best appreciated by those who can read about Bond and go, “Coooooooooool.”  So if I do manage to get to the end of this series, don’t be surprised if I wind up asking Rob’s daughter rather than Rob himself for her thoughts on this series.  This is because she’s six now and he tells me that she absolutely loves this series.