“Spy x Family” Ch. 71: Anya Vs. Sudden Death Round Part 3 [Review]

Spy x Family Ch. 71 gives us part 3 of Anya’s sudden death round. Somehow, the stakes manages to reach a new peak, while also lowering at the same time. All thanks to Anya’s telepathy, no less.

Spy x Family Ch. 71: Details

Spy x Family Ch. 71 is part 3 (you can read reviews for part 1 and 2 here) of the latest arc of the action spy comedy manga of the same name 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. 71 made its debut on November 13, 2022. You can read it entirely for free on Shonen Jump at Viz Media. This chapter of the manga will remain free for 2 chapter releases after this release. Upon the release of the 3rd chapter, Ch. 71 will go into the Shonen Jump vault. After that, you’ll have to pay a subscription fee to read it. To be fair though, the fee is only $1.99 per month, so it’s not too bad. Still, if you’re short on cash and you like this manga, then you might want to hurry up and read it before you have to pay for the privilege.

As an additional note: Spy x Family now has an anime adaptation. The first cours (unit of Japanese television programming comprising 11-13 episodes, but usually comprising 12) of the anime premiered on April 9, 2022 and ran until June 25, 2022. The second cours recently made its debut on October 1, 2022. You can watch both cours only on Crunchyroll. However, you can also watch the first cours on Hulu if you have a subscription there as part of your Disney+ bundle.

Warning: spoilers for Spy x Family Ch. 71 below. If you want to watch Anya’s third brush with bus hijacking terrorists for yourself, then stop here, and come back once you’ve grabbed some peanuts to go with your bomb collar.

Spy x Family Ch. 71: Plot Summary

Surprisingly, Spy x Family Ch. 71 does not immediately pick up where we last left off. Instead, we get a look at the Berlint police response to the Red Circus bus hijacking. Unfortunately, the head of police decides that killing the terrorists takes priority above all else, even the life of the hostages. Fortunately, and ironically, the SSS are part of the operation, and Yuri Briar made himself part of it. Mostly because he realized his precious older sister Yor would be devastated if Anya died. On a side note: we also get a glimpse of Becky’s father’s response, and his over the top reaction to the whole situation (including an attempted deployment of tanks and fighter jets) before his head maid Martha stopped him was just the comedy we needed after that bleak drama.

Now back to Anya though, as you might expect: she and the other kids don’t take the bomb collar well. Anya though, has telepathy, and this allows her to read the Red Circus leader’s thoughts and find out that the bomb collar is fake. Armed with this newfound knowledge, Anya proceeds to act like an idiot and slap the bomb collar a couple times in a bizarre attempt to impress Damian. Predictably, the mental and emotional backlash from the other kids at her apparent stupidity makes her stop. However, Damian saw this as courage from Anya, which in turn gives him the courage to demand that the terrorists put the bomb collar on him instead. All this does though is get another (also fake) bomb collar on him too.

Fortunately, Anya is impressed enough that she tells him the bomb collar is fake, claiming that she heard the terrorists say it. She even thumps her own bomb collar to prove it. And that’s when a loud boom occurs.

A Very Sudden Death for Anya?!

Fortunately, the blast wasn’t from the bomb collars exploding after all. Instead, it had been from the bus running over a spike strip. The police have finally arrived, and their first step was to disable the bus. They then very quickly surround the bus with squad cars, from which armored riot officers deploy. Anya and the kids are overjoyed. What they don’t know is that the officers have orders to neutralize the terrorists at all costs. If a few kids die in the process, it’s no problem. I think the kids were safer in the hands of the terrorists. How will Yuri save the day here? Well, that’s what we’ll find out in the next chapter of Spy x Family.

Spy x Family Ch. 71: The Good

Just like in the last 2 chapters of this bus hijacking arc, Spy x Family Ch. 71 is the best part about it. The story is still deadly serious, as is appropriate for bus hijacking as professionally done as this one. And yet, this is still a surprisingly funny chapter. There is just enough humor in this chapter to keep it from getting into grimdark territory, without going overboard and creating a tonal clash. Tatsuya Endo once more displays his ability to balance a dark dramatic story with comedic elements, similar to how Hiromu Arakawa accomplished that in Fullmetal Alchemist. It’s why I love this manga so much.

Of course, what great manga is complete without equally as great artwork? Fortunately, just like in the last 2 chapters, Tatsuya Endo delivers his usual great artwork to Spy x Family Ch. 71 in spades. Especially in the facial department, since that seems to be Endo’s specialty. For example: we see Anya’s famously memetic “Nyeh” face return as she does something that looks ridiculously stupid to everyone around her. The accurately depicted spike strip is another plus for military/police fans here, and is the perfect cherry on top in terms of great artwork in this chapter.

Spy x Family Ch. 71: The Bad

As a longtime fan of Spy x Family, I happily admit to massive amounts of bias towards it. However, this arc in particular is just so magnificent that I can’t even bring myself to criticize it. It’s as good as the Loid Backstory arc, or the Cruise Ship arc. Whenever Tatsuya Endo decides to mix deadly serious plot with ridiculous comedy, it always works out well.

Source: Viz Media