Yor’s job is the elephant in the Spy x Family room, in many ways. She murders people for a living, and it’s only when one doesn’t dwell on that fact that it’s easy to reconcile her with the normally jaunty character of the series (and her own goofiness). You does her best to maintain the delusion that she’s doing good and only killing bad people, but maintaining that self-deception is a full-time job. It’s only natural that at some point she’d start questioning her life path, so I’m glad to see actual signs of that at last.
We’re also getting our first (that I remember) real in-depth look at Garden, the shady death squad that has the Thorn Princess in their employ. Her boss is the “Shopkeeper” (Suwabe Junichi)), who looks like he’s said some serious work done in service (or because) of his job. As hinted they have deep ties to the underworld, as Shopkeeper wants Yor to take on a job as a bodyguard for the widow of the former crime boss who was a close ally. She’s being smuggled out of the country by sea before the new boss’ hit squads can take her (and her son) out, and thee Thorn Princess is there as insurance to guard them on the cruise ship that will ferry them to the foreign vessel taking them to their exile.
All this is deeply sketchy, but the most important element here is that Yor is seriously considering a life after Garden. She’s loathe to get her family involved, and with Yuri having grown up (after a fashion) and gotten a job, she theoretically no longer has to do this gig. The question of whether she – or anyone – would be allowed to leave Garden voluntarily is obviously a whopper, and I imagine it will eventually be tested. But for the now the matter at hand is the bodyguarding job, with Anya and Loid tagging along because Anya was a cruise in the raffle at the local department store.
The object of Yor’s protection here is Olka Gretcher (Endou Aya) and her young son Gram (Ooi Marie). Shopkeeper has set her up with a fake husband and a cover story (which overlaps Yor’s) but the enemy has already figured out she’s on the cruise ship. Yor’s worry about being spotted by her fake family doing her real job is a legit one, but with Anya and Loid down in scum class and the Gretcher pair in first, Olka – in the act of convincing Yor to let her take the air – reasons an encounter is unlikely. Loid is doing his best to follow orders and actually be on vacation, but the workaholic runs too deep and his senses are too sharp. He’ll lamp that something is going down and he’s not the sort to look the other way when he can meddle.
None of this is brilliant or anything, but it’s probably not a bad thing to see Spy x Family venture into serious mode like this. Anya has her comic moments of course (“have fun on the ship before it sinks” was an especially perverse remark) but basically, this is Yor’s story – for now. It certainly seems well-placed to force her to consider her priorities, both for her career and her life in general. I’m not sure Endou-sensei would ever grant her freedom from the assassin life – without that hook she’s a pretty generic character – but at least she has the sense to think about it.
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