‘Spy x Family’ Ch. 77: Mr. Austin Vs. PTSD? [Manga Review]

If you thought that the PTSD from the Red Circus Bus Hijacking arc was over and done with, then Spy x Family Ch. 77 would prove you wrong. I’m not talking about the students this time either. This time, it’s a teacher who’s dealing with his own PTSD: Mr. Austin. You might recall him as that one nice guy who the terrorists hit with a taser. Fortunately, he has one hope: Dr. Loid Forger, master psychiatrist.

Spy x Family Ch. 77: Details

Spy x Family Ch. 77 is the latest chapter of the manga by Tatsuya Endo. It also happens to be the latest chapter in what I’m titling the “Aftermath” arc that details the fallout of the Red Circus Bus Hijacking arc (you can read reviews for Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, and Part 6 here). Casey Loe returns as the translator, and as a pleasant surprise, Rina Mapa is back as the letterer. I guess she couldn’t work on the previous chapter, and John Bae had to step in for a chapter. But moving on, 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 the NA region.

Spy x Family Ch. 77 made its debut on March 19, 2023. You can read it online for free on Shonen Jump at Viz Media. Note that this chapter will only remain free for 2 chapter releases after this one. Upon the release of the third chapter, Ch. 77 will go into the Shonen Jump vault. Once there, you will have to pay a subscription fee to read it and all previous chapters. So if you want to read this chapter for free, then you might want to hurry.

As a side note: Spy x Family now has an ongoing anime adaptation that premiered on April 9, 2022. You can watch all current episodes on Crunchyroll or Hulu. Season 2 of the anime will premiere sometime in 2023, so you might want to check back into THS for release details when we get it.

Warning: spoilers for Spy x Family Ch. 77 below. If you want to read about Mr. Austin’s PTSD for yourself, then stop here and come back once you’ve awoken from your nightmare.

Spy x Family Ch. 77: Plot Summary

Spy x Family Ch. 77 starts us off by showing Mr. Thomas Austin (and helpfully giving us his background info to boot) waking up from a nightmare, yelling out in shock, and waking his wife. Concerned about his mental health from the traumatic experience of being kidnapped like that along with his students, Mr. Austin decides to take up Henry Henderson’s psychiatrist’s suggestion and actually see his recommended shrink. Who as we all know is Loid Forger.

Loid is a very professional and helpful psychiatrist as always, but while in a one-on-one meeting with Mr. Austin, Loid notices something…off about Mr. Austin’s statements. Loid’s skill in reading people tells him that Mr. Austin is lying about the root cause of his PTSD, but he doesn’t know who or why. Thus, Loid does what he does best: perform highly invasive research on Mr. Austin’s private life, with some very eager help from Nightfall. Fortunately, this is super effective against lies, and it reveals some very surprising things about Mr. Austin’s private life. Specifically: his love life with his wife. Or rather, the current lack of it.

Loid Forger: Love Doctor?

Dr. Loid’s research revealed that Mr. Austin’s marriage is basically falling apart. Not because Mr. Austin is a jerk or anything. He’s actually a pretty nice guy. He’s just very much lacking in self-examination and the ability to tell his wife’s moods. Apparently, according to the results of the investigation, Mr. Austin did things like standing his wife up on their anniversary, not participating in housework or child care, and leaving his dirty laundry lying around all over the place. It would certainly explain his wife’s cold and hostile behavior towards him.

Fortunately, now with the root cause of his PTSD identified, Loid is able to help Mr. Austin work out his real issues. With quite a few therapy sessions to work out Mr. Austin’s intense fear of his wife, Mr. Austin is able to speak to his wife again. Or at least, he’s starting to. Baby steps, after all. And so the world is “just a little more peaceful”, all thanks to Love Doctor Loid Forger. Who will this great Love Doctor treat next? Well, maybe we’ll find out in the next chapter of Spy x Family.

Spy x Family Ch. 77: The Good

It’s always nice to see Dr. Loid in action, and Spy x Family Ch. 77 shows that to a T. It shows that Loid takes his cover seriously. After all, any good spy should be able to be a professional psychiatrist to avoid attracting undue attention, and Loid is exceptional at his fake(?) job. It also shows off just how…dedicated Loid is at his job, putting in the same effort as he does for his spy work. Of course, this means some highly intrusive intelligence-gathering, but that’s perfectly within Loid’s character to do.

It’s also nice to see one of the side characters get some screen time in Spy x Family Ch. 77. Especially since Mr. Austin’s tasering at the hands of Red Circus. This may not be well-known, but being tasered isn’t as harmless as media makes it seem, especially to a fairly elderly guy like Mr. Austin. There’s a reason why it’s called a less-than-lethal weapon rather than a non-lethal weapon, and why it’s used as an instrument of torture as well. Something like that happening to a perfectly normal guy is going to be pretty traumatic. It makes a lot of sense to see him suffering some PTSD from it (even if it wasn’t the root issue of his PTSD), and so it’s good to see him dealing with it by seeing a psychiatrist about it.

Spy x Family Ch. 77: The Bad

I suppose that if you’re not a fan of slice-of-life or meaningful character development of a side character, then Spy x Family Ch. 77 isn’t for you. Otherwise though, if you’re a longtime fan of the manga, please sit back and enjoy the character development. Hopefully, this will be a nice extra episode for the anime when they get around to animating it.