Manga parents are usually either absent or flat stereotypes; is some ways Loid and Yor’s relationship in Spy X Family goes that way; they are not absent parents to Anya, but they do play into the “I think I like you but I can’t possibly say that out loud” trope. Their marriage was faked because Yor needed a man in her life to draw attention away from herself (she’s an assassin) and Loid needed a wife to complete his fake family that he needs for a mission (he’s a master spy); they both know the marriage is for convenience but not the other person’s reason why. Most of the story thus far follows either Loid’s exploits or Anya’s (she’s a telepath but she’s also about 6 so her understanding of what she hears is rarely quite right). Volume 8 belongs to Yor; we finally get to see her both be professional (bodyguard duty for a mob wife and child) and actually really have a talk with herself about what she wants, not what everyone around her might want or expect from her.
The set up is straight out of a slapstick comedy: Yor is on a luxury cruise ship with a few colleagues to protect her clients from a bunch of assassins who are also on board, but so are Loid and Anya because Anya won a cruise vacation in a drawing in a previous volume. Yor has to avoid Loid and Anya because they don’t know her true identity, Anya catches some of the murderous thoughts going on around her and wants to Loid busy so her momma can kick bad-guy butt in peace (and Daddy doesn’t dump Mommy for secret keeping or being violent), and Loid wants Anya to be entertained. There are a few small scenes with Anya and Loid, but Yor doing her job and trying to keep a low profile are the majority. As the assassins close in on them, Yor starts to wonder why she’s taking all the risks that she does. Is it for her country or younger brother (why she started in the first place), is it for some other more noble reason….? She’s distracted enough that her opponent actually gets the better of her and she has to really think about why she’s distracted if she’s going to survive: she has to get Loid’s dry-cleaning, return Anya’s library books, her brother’s a grown man with a job of his own (there’s a secret there too of course), so now what’s her reason to keep fighting? Cliff hanger! But not really, since these kinds of things do tend to go a certain way and this is a certain kind of story, but what might change after this mission is over could be interesting.
