Spy x Family vol. 8
The hope was that Yor’s duty as a bodyguard on a cruise ship would deliver the comedy/action goods and that’s (mostly) true for this volume. Garden, the organization she works for, has been tasked with guarding the wife and son of a recently murdered head of a criminal syndicate. There’s a price on their heads and it’s up to everyone’s favorite assassin to make sure that all the killers who have managed to sneak onboard the ship aren’t able to collect. However, she also has to make sure that her cover story of this being a work assignment isn’t blown because Loid and Anya are also on the same cruise. This means that Yor is just going to have to kill all of these bad, bad people before her family realizes what’s going on.
Well, Loid, at least. Anya just thinks that seeing her mother murder awful people in broad daylight in front of unsuspecting tourists is just the coolest! I’ve always been a little suspicious of how “Spy x Family” tries to maintain a family-friendly tone, yet has been totally cool with Yor’s history of murdering people for a living. Mangaka Tatsuya Endo clearly has no plans to address this as the Thorn Bride kills around two dozen assassins over the course of this volume. “YEAH, BUT THEY WERE ALL BAD!” is certainly an effective defense here, but having Yor take some kind of “I swear, I will not kill anyone” vow would go a long way towards keeping the tone consistent here.
Wanton murder aside, the action and comedy are still delivered in satisfying fashion here. Yor’s fights are slickly choreographed, with a standout one being a “street performer” battle that sees her taking on a guy with a sickle-and-chain. Anya also gets plenty of moments to shine, particularly when she schemes to lose Loid… only to wind up having so much fun with the ship’s activities on offer. All this means that “Spy x Family” continues to entertain… so long as you can accept that it wants to have its happy family action comedy aims coexist with bad dudes getting stabbed in the head whenever the plot calls for it.