What a straight up fun premise!

Twilight, one of the best spies in the world, has a new target. A political influencer who only socializes in a tight circle that forms around an elite school. In order to gain access to him, Twilight needs to go undercover and get himself a fake family, complete with fake child, to enroll in said school.

From there we meet Anya, an orphan that Twilight picks up in the hopes of training to be smart enough to pass the entrance exam. Only issue is, Anya is telepathic! Twilight is unaware of this an doubts her ability to pose as his child, but by reading his thoughts Anya can act exactly as he wants her to. From there they find her new mother, Yor, a simple civil servant who is 27 and single. In this world, it seems as though there is some dark theme that ties being single with being suspected as a traitor to your country, but that was something that hadn’t been explained. Yor and Twilight, or Loid as he is known, meet and strike up a deal: she will be his fake wife and he will go to a party to be her fake boyfriend and get her brother off her back. Only thing is, Twilight and Anya are unaware Yor is actually the famous assassin the Thorn Princess!

The plan goes well and the two successfully navigate the party and the entrance exams somehow. There’s a lot of ridiculous set ups and the art makes them look SO GOOD, almost as if you were watching this on TV. This absolutely was one manga where as I read I kept thinking “god I hope there’s an anime.” All of this volume would be so much fun when converted to animation.

I am super in love with this and ready for the next volume. Love the fake dating to fake family trope, love the small but noticeable change in Twilight from dark, lonely spy to maybe having room to fit two more people in his brain, loved the growth in Anya and their protection of her. Just loved it all.

Title: Spy x Family
Author: Tatsuya Endo
Format: Paperback
Pages: 220
ISBN: 9781974715466

Three Descriptors: High energy, Creative, Darkly Humorous