SPY×FAMILY Volume 08 Manga Review
スパイファミリー

–> Buy SPY×FAMILY Volume 08 from Amazon.com!

I actually read this volume back when it was first released. But I didn’t have time to blog it then. And then time passed. Now here we are, and I needed some awesome SPY×FAMILY goodness. So I found this volume and reread it. Man, I can’t wait for the next volume to drop!

* * * S P O I L E R S ! * * *

The Story, in Brief

Yor is introduced to Olka Gretcher, her infant son, and her bodyguard, under their alias. They talk and get to know each other. Elsewhere, Anya and Twilight find their small cabin and explore the ship. Yor’s official government boss and unofficial assassin colleague, Matthew McMahon, discovers the ship if full of assassins and that their cover is blown. Yor kills the first assassin, then moves the trio to another room.

While this is going on, Anya hears the thoughts of an assassin after Yor. She wants to help her mama, but at the same time, she doesn’t want her papa knowing Yor is an assassin, working as a bodyguard. She goads Twilight into trying on clothing while she slips out and observes Yor win a fight against an assassin while pretending it is a performance show. After getting Olka, son, and bodyguard to safety, Yor reflects that she hadn’t performed at her best.

The next day, Anya is desperate to ditch Twilight in order to covertly help Yor. But she’s unable to do so. That evening, Yor attempts to take her clients so they can board the rendezvous ship to safety. The assassins attempt to ambush the group, but with some cover fire from Matthew, Yor is able to get the trio to a better location. However, she’s forced to fight off the first wave of assassins, killing them all, but taking some damage in the process.

The second wave come and Yor ends up going down. Yor recalls why she continued to be an assassin, even after her brother Yuri became an adult. She thinks of her new family and draws strength from the thought that Loid (Twilight) would approve of what she is doing and why.

Yor Love

Up until now, we’ve really not seen much of Yor’s job as an assassin. We’ve seen Yor’s assassin skills, especially when she goes mama bear to protect Anya. But in SPY×FAMILY Volume 08, we get to see Yor on a mission. And boy, is it magnificent to see her at work. She’s her usual, over the top self when it comes to combat. Normally, I object to 125 pound women beating up 250 pound men, but this is Yor, and Yor is awesomeness. So she gets a massive pass.

Still, it isn’t as if Yor is some Mary Sue who can do it all. Yeah, she’s massively good, but she has help from her “boss”, Matthew. Here too, we have someone who seems to be in their sixties, so he shouldn’t be kicking the arse of someone younger than himself without a reason. However, if we accept that the Garden organization of assassins train their people to be nearly supernatural in their skills, then the old man can rumble as well. Besides, he mainly gave Yor cover and watched her back.

Where the Yor story had more impact was on the personal level. Yor recognized that in her first battle, she was holding back. I liked that Endo-sensei has Yor consider her life at this moment and asking “why?” And the fact of the matter is that Yor loves her new life with Loid and Anya. She may not recognize her romantic feelings for Loid, but in time she will. And thus Yor’s fear of losing that life negatively impacts her performance on the battlefield.

To that end, Yor is briefly taken down and nearly gives up. It is only her thoughts of her new family and wanting to be with them that gives her purpose. And thus she rises. Man, it is a shame that we have to wait until March to get a resolution.

Twilight and Anya

Twilight and Anya only show up from time to time in SPY×FAMILY Volume 08, but they are used effectively. Only Anya knows of the problems Yor has in battling assassins. She got to witness the first fight and wants to see more. Interestingly enough, as I think about it, I don’t think Anya was so worried about Yor’s safety as I originally thought. Instead, I think Anya wanted to see her mama kicking more bottom, and then help in little ways.

The interesting thing about Anya is that because she’s a telepath, it allows her to have moments of greater maturity at times. As such, she realizes how much her frustrations at her inability to watch and assist Yor negatively impacted Twilight. Therefore, Anya had to assure Twilight she’s having fun, only she misses Yor’s presence. And that was enough to give Twilight some reassurance.

As to Twilight, his frustrations at not understanding Anya’s reactions and such was understandable. He really does want to be a good father, even if it is only temporary. So it is fun to see his journey as well.

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

Let me wrap up my review of SPY×FAMILY Volume 08 with some final thoughts.

• We get an omake chapter dedicated to Yuri getting sick and recalling getting sick as a kid. That was a nice chapter.
• There’s also a page dedicated to talking about Garden more and how Matthew ended up getting more of a role than intended.
• Also of note, when this volume was published in Japan, the anime adaptation was announced. Just goes to show how far behind we are. (Ten volumes have been released in Japan with chapters from volume 11 published as I write.)

In the end, SPY×FAMILY Volume 08 gave me what I’ve been craving for along while — a story dedicated to Yor. And that story isn’t even over yet!