“Spy x Family” Ch. 69: Anya Vs. Sudden Death Round [Review]

In Spy x Family Ch. 69, everything starts out fun and silly with Anya’s usual antics. That is, until she ends up in a very literal sudden death round against some people who probably wants to see her dead if she makes one wrong move.

Spy x Family Ch. 69: Details

Spy x Family Ch. 69 is the latest (as of this writing) chapter of the action spy comedy manga by Tatsuya Endo. Casey Loe returns as the translator, with Rina Mapa also returning as the letterer. Shueisha originally published this manga in Japan under their Jump Comics+ imprint in the magazine Shōnen Jump+. Viz Media is the company publishing this manga in NA.

Spy x Family Ch. 69 was released on October 16, 2022. You can read this chapter for free on Shonen Jump at Viz Media. This chapter of the manga will remain free for 2 chapter releases after this one. Upon the release of the third chapter, this chapter will go into the Shonen Jump vault. Once there, you will have to pay for a subscription to read it. So my advice is that if you want to read this chapter, then you might want to hurry.

Also of note: Spy x Family has an anime adaptation that premiered on April 9, 2022. The second cour of the anime actually premiered a short while ago on October 1, 2022. You can watch both cours only on Crunchyroll. However, you can watch the first cour of the anime on Hulu. Unfortunately, both streaming services require that you pay for a subscription. So if you want to watch this anime at all, then you’ll need to shell out cash for the privilege.

Warning: spoilers for Spy x Family Ch. 69 are below. If you want to read how Anya gets into a very sticky predicament for yourself, then stop here, and come back once you’ve grabbed some peanuts to enjoy the sudden death round with. Multi-flavored peanuts, to be precise.

Spy x Family Ch. 69: Plot Summary

After a brief aside about an extremist group who call themselves the “Red Circus”, we finally get to Anya and her Eden Academy schoolmates. Apparently, Eden Academy is taking her class out on a field trip to the Berlint Museum. However, that’s not important to Anya right now. What is important is her trying to befriend Sy-on Boy (AKA: Damian Desmond) for the sake of world peace. Her plan? Carry out her own version of Loid’s plan a few chapters ago. Only, her version of that plan can best be described as someone trying to carry out a plan they half-heard a friend of a friend briefly describe. The result is a hilariously extended daydream sequence, one of Anya’s most hilarious facial expressions to date, and Anya getting papery revenge thrown in her face by an irate Damian.

Unfortunately, while Anya and her schoolmates enjoy snacks on the bus (Anya, of course, only brought 2 bags of peanuts and a single piece of Bond’s kibble, and even then the lattermost menu option was an accident), events start to unfold around them in Spy x Family Ch. 69. To put it bluntly: things get real.

A Disturbingly Realistic Emergency?

As it turns out: the Red Circus aside at the beginning was an obvious case of foreshadowing. While Anya and co. blissfully enjoy their snacky treats, their bus, and the trailing bus suddenly break from the convoy. As their security escort vehicle makes a U-turn to investigate, the buses suddenly stop and allow strange people onboard. The chaperone on Anya’s bus, assuming that they’re commuters trying to board a school bus, gets up to stop them and explain the situation, only for the lead stranger to hit him with a taser. The lead stranger then casually opens the rear bus door, and shoots out the security vehicle’s tire with a shotgun, causing it to crash and leaving the terrorists in control of the bus.

The terrorists then announce themselves as the Red Circus, and announce to the kids that if they want to live, then they should do exactly as the terrorists say. Even Anya’s love of spy drama and being “starved for entertainment” doesn’t prevent her from being terrified of real life terrorism happening to her. How will Loid and Yor save their daughter as well as the rest of the Eden Academy kids? Well, that’s what we’ll presumably find out in the next chapter of Spy x Family.

Spy x Family Ch. 69: The Good

For obvious reasons: the story of Spy x Family Ch. 69 is the best part of it. The story is always a treat when it gets into hyper-serious territory here, and indeed, this is the pinnacle of that. Much of the hyper-seriousness comes from how realistic this bus jacking is. The whole operation Red Circus carried out felt like it was a professional bus jacking done by an experienced terrorist group from the start. Everything from the way the undercover operatives worked themselves into a position to drive the buses in the first place, to the Red Circus leader shooting out the security vehicle’s tires to disable it all felt like it was right out of a thriller novel like Rainbow Six. Honestly, this operation is so professional that I expect the first pages of the next chapter to feature Red Circus announcing their demands, and threatening to do something like execute a kid every hour their demands aren’t met. It’s really only a question of how realistic those demands are at this point.

The art of Spy x Family Ch. 69 is, of course, the next best thing about it. Especially in the facial expression department. Tatsuya Endo has given us one of the best Anya expressions in this chapter. Her “Call-Me-an-Uggo” face will almost certainly go down in the manga’s history as the most meme-worthy of them all. Seriously, I can’t even look at that face without laughing. Really, all that’s left at this point is for readers to decide if the “Call-Me-an-Uggo” face beats the “Nyeh” face. Leave a comment on your choice below if you want to vote for your favorite Anya face.

Spy x Family Ch. 69: The Bad

Seriously, out of all the chapters of the manga, Spy x Family Ch. 69 is one of the least I’m able to criticize. Even taking into account my bias towards the manga as a longtime fan of it, this chapter was just nothing but excellent. It’s just as good as the mini-arc about Loid’s tragic backstory, really. I will eagerly await the next chapter to find out how Loid and Yor resolves this whole bus jacking incident, because you know they’re somehow going to involve themselves into it to protect their precious daughter.

Source: Viz Media

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