Title: Spy x Family Vol. 8
Author: Tatsuya Endo
Publisher: Viz Media
Language: English
Format: Physical
Pages: 215
Genre: Action, Comedy, Shonen
Publication Date: September 20, 2022
The Story
The eighth volume of Spy x Family involves the Forgers on a cruise ship for various reasons. In the last volume, Anya won tickets so she and Loid take a vacation; however, Yor is sent there on assignment to protect a woman and her child from being targeted by the mafia. While it is one overall story, it bounces back and forth to draw parallels between both Loid and Yor.
In Loid’s case, he’s spending time with Anya as she wants to go on an adventure. All the while, Loid senses something is off about the ship. He even notices all of the listening devices that have been planted all over the place. His spy senses are going haywire but he reminds himself that he’s here for Anya and decides to suppress those feelings. Anya, on the other hand, witnesses Yor battling one of the assassins and realizes that she needs to distract Loid so that he doesn’t accidentally discover that Yor is really an assassin! This leads to some pretty hilarious moments as Anya does her best to keep him distracted.
On the flip side, we have Yor on her mission. It’s just a lot of protecting and keeping watch but they make a grave discovery that it’s not just one assassin on the ship… there are multiple hired assassins who are going to make her job a lot harder. One by one they encounter them as it’s a race to see which assassin can kill Olka, Yor’s target to protect. The assassins begin to realize that going after them alone isn’t going to work. Now they have banded together! A big showdown awaits!
Characters
We get to see Yor at work in her natural environment but during this, there are some key things to take away from it… mainly on the development of a relationship with Loid. While nothing is concrete, those thoughts of “what am I doing this for?” along with thoughts of Loid and what he and Anya are becoming to mean to her start creeping in her head. These are the initial seeds that will eventually grow into something and have the makings of this series’ biggest development. It was pretty obvious from the beginning that it may end up this way but after eight volumes, it seems that we may be witnessing the beginning of an already forgone conclusion!
Loid, on the other hand, actually put his job on the back burner… somewhat. It is surprising for him to take a little R&R break from being a spy but that’s because he realized that his orders to take some R&R were nothing more than a clever training ploy to help him with Operation Stryx… or at least that’s what he believes it to be (classic Loid). It does help being him and Anya a little more together but until we start seeing things from Anya’s point of view, it’s pretty apparent that Loid was just being strung along the entire time and was gullible enough to let it happen!
Final Thoughts
This volume started off a bit on the slow side but once it was time to get Olka to safety, the action picked up. Seeing the contrast between Yor and Loid’s time on the ship was rather entertaining. Of course, Anya went all cute mode and became a highlight. Especially when she went Goofing (Golfing) with Loid.
Yor, on the other hand, was a bit sloppy for being an assassin. I was a bit surprised that they made her out to be a bit careless like that. Of all the talk she did throughout the series and with her ability to sense things, it all just seemed a bit off. You would think that she would just walk all over the opposition without any second thought but this volume showed that she wasn’t as disciplined as we all thought she was… then again… with those seeds being planted, it played right into her development which I thought was well done.
The action scenes were good but some of the assassins seemed pretty cornball. It reminded me of watching a comedy version of the Akatsuki group from the Naruto series. All of them had this weird power but it wasn’t supernatural. Things like being extra skilled at a sickle and chain, or having an uncanny smelling ability. Stuff like that. It added some spice but I couldn’t help but laugh at some of their “powers.” It is a comedy series so… mission accomplished!
Also… Frankie likes dogs now. That was hilarious.
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This item was provided for review by VIZ Media.
