Spy x Family Ch. 90: Anya’s New Grandparents [Review]

Spy x Family Ch. 90 is the first chapter in the manga by Tatsuya Endo to introduce some new main characters in the story in a long, long while. As you can tell by the title, this chapter actually gives Anya some new grandparents to interact with. Not literal blood-related grandparents, mind you, since neither Loid nor Yor have living parents. However, they’re grandparent-y enough that they might as well be real grandparents to Anya. Even better: there are hints in the story that they might have a dark secret to them. Whether that secret is important to the main plot or not is something we’ll find out in the manga’s future.

Spy x Family Ch. 90: Details

Spy x Family Ch. 90 is the latest chapter of the manga by Tatsuya Endo (Blade of the Moon Princess, Tista). While it’s unrelated to the previous chapter of the manga, it’s not a standalone story like that previous chapter. Instead, it seems to be the start of a new long term arc with the introduction of a pair of new main characters to the story.

Casey Loe returns as the translator of Spy x Family Ch. 90, 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 English in the NA region.

Where to Read

Spy x Family Ch. 90 made its literary debut on November 12, 2023. You can read this chapter entirely for free on Shonen Jump on Viz Media. Ch. 90 will remain free for 2 chapter releases after it. Upon the release of the third chapter after it, Ch. 90 will go into the Shonen Jump vault. Once there, you will have to pay a subscription fee to read it and all previous chapters. Admittedly, the fee is only $2.99 per month, so it’s not that big a hit to your wallet. All the same, if you’re short on cash, then you might want to hurry up and read Ch. 90 for free before you can’t anymore.

Anime Adaptation Details

As a side note: Spy x Family now has an anime adaptation that premiered on April 9, 2022. In fact, season 2 just recently premiered on October 7, 2023. You can watch all episodes on either Crunchyroll or Hulu. Note though that only Crunchyroll has any of the dubs. So if you like watching the English dub for some reason, then you have to watch the anime on Crunchyroll.

Spy x Family Ch. 90: Plot Summary

Spy x Family Ch. 90 starts us off with Anya, Yor, and Bond taking a walk to their favorite park. Only, this turns out to be no normal trip to the park. This trip results in them encountering an old man who’s just sitting on a bench feeding some cute pigeons, and has apparently been doing this all day. At first, Anya latches onto the idea that he’s a spy thanks to some bystanders wondering about that, and thus she tries to read his mind to discover his spy secrets. Alas, her telepathy reveals that he’s no spy. He’s just a senile old guy who’s lost his way home. The sympathetic Forgers decide to give him some helping hands (and paws), and help him find his way home again.

Alas, Anya’s telepathy is no help here. The old man’s thoughts and memories are just a big jumble of unrelated and whimsical information of little to no use in finding his home. Thus, the Forgers have to find his home via an old-fashioned search. Their search takes them all across the city of Berlint. From malls to restaurants to even a mafia’s branch office (that results in a shootout and a quick getaway), they travel far and wide. Unfortunately, none of it seems to get them any closer to finding the old man’s house though. At the very least though, Anya seems to be having fun, and Bond seems keenly interested in the old man as well judging from how much he’s sniffing him through the chapter.

Anya and her New Grandpa (and Grandma)?

Fortunately, a small ticket falls out of the old man’s pocket by chance. Anya recognizes it as a candy shop near the Forger home that she frequents. From there, Bond is able to pick up the old man’s scent trail, which leads them back to…the apartment building that the Forger home is in?

As it turns out, the old man and his equally as elderly wife are the Forgers’ new neighbors. Their names turn out to be Sigmund and Barbara Authen. Get it? The Authentics are moving in next to the Forgers? I’ll just step away now, and wonder about why Bond seems so interested in sniffing the Authens even after leading them home. Could the Authens be hiding dark secrets of their own? Well, we’ll hopefully find out from Tatsuya Endo in future chapters of Spy x Family.

Spy x Family Ch. 90: The Good

As you might be able to guess: the story of Spy x Family Ch. 90 is the best part about it. Specifically: the introduction of a pair of new main characters in the form of Sigmund and Barbara Authen. And clearly, given how the chapter is framing the Authens, it looks very much like Anya now has a pair of new grandparents to dote on her. It actually makes a fair amount of sense for Tatsuya Endo to introduce the Authens as such. As Yor points out in the chapter: both her and Loid’s parents are dead. Thus, Anya has no blood grandparents, which means that these surrogate grandparents are the only option available.

And yet, there’s something off about the supposedly authentic Authens. Bond just keeps sniffing at them for some reason even long after Sigmund found his way home. There’s something really off about that. Why is he so interested in their scents? I’m honestly wondering if the Authens are connected to Project Apple in some way? You know, the secret project Bond was a product of? Where some mad scientists decided that what the military really needed was uplifted animals? Well, hopefully Tatsuya Endo will let us know if this theory bears any fruit in the future of this manga.

Spy x Family Ch. 90: The Bad

Honestly, if you’re 90 chapters into Spy x Family, and you still don’t like it? Why are you still reading this wonderful manga then? Just go read something else, mate. Something that will hopefully be more to your weird tastes.

Keep Reading:

Spy x Family Ch. 89: Yuri The Yor Fu Master [Review]