Spy x Family Ch. 91: The Unexpected Scars Of The War [Review]

Spy x Family Ch. 91 is another unexpected return of the great offscreen war that serves as the prequel to this entire manga. Tatsuya Endo touched on it in Loid’s backstory arc, and now he hints at more of it in this chapter. Fittingly, this chapter even stars Yor Forger in the main role. If Loid gets a part about the war, then so should Yor.

Spy x Family Ch. 91: Details

Spy x Family Ch. 91 (known officially as Mission 91) is the latest chapter of the manga by Tatsuya Endo (Blade of the Moon Princess, Tista). This chapter technically does continue the storyline of the previous main chapter, but only just barely. As you might imagine, though, Endo leaves the bonus chapter hanging for now.

Casey Loe returns as the translator for Spy x Family Ch. 91, with Rina Mapa also returning as the letterer after both of them took a break from the bonus chapter. 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. 91 made its online debut on December 10, 2023. You can read this chapter entirely for free on Shonen Jump on Viz Media. Ch. 91 will remain free for 2 chapter releases after it. Upon the release of the third chapter after it, Ch. 91 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. 91 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. 91: Plot Summary

Spy x Family Ch. 91 starts us off with a morning conversation between Yor and Anya Forger and their new elderly neighbors: the Authens. As it turns out, this day is the day of a charity bazaar for disabled veterans. Thus, Yor is working alongside her city hall comrades to make sure that this event goes smoothly. Fortunately, Yor’s superhuman strength turns out to be really helpful in that task, especially since said superhuman strength lets her lift several cardboard boxes full of stuff and a whole old-fashioned boxy TV in one hand.

Alas, one of Yor’s office comrades named Millie doesn’t seem too keen on the charity bazaar. Apparently, seeing disabled veterans triggers something for her, and results in her losing any and all motivation to assist with it. Her office comrades, including Yor (despite not having a clue what’s going on), are pretty understanding of her situation. Unfortunately, a group of crotchety old patriotic housewives are nowhere near as understanding. They begin to nag the group of office workers for not working fast enough, especially Millie. As you can understand, this makes Millie snap, and reveal that the reason why she hates the charity bazaar is because her father was one of the soldiers who didn’t come back from the war. Now you can fully understand why Millie isn’t fond of this charity, but alas, you can’t say the same thing about those patriotic housewives.

A Bigger Housewife?

Those very housewives ignore all the lessons Yor and the other office workers try to teach them. Indeed, one of them actually attempts to strike…someone. Whether it’s Yor, Millie, or someone else entirely is irrelevant, though, because Melinda Desmond steps in to stop them. Due to her being their chairwoman, she gets them to stand down, and even manages to become reacquainted with Yor again…while also proving to everyone present that Yor indeed has a friendship with Melinda.

However, Millie does blow up at Melinda (and Yor as well for being friends with her) specifically for being the wife of Prime Minister Desmond, who, even though he didn’t start the war, did prime minister over much of it. Melinda recognizes this though, and proceeds to apologize to Millie over it. Millie ends up apologizing to Melinda as well for mistakenly believing that her husband started the war, so all somehow manages to be well and good. Yor’s coworkers even take her out for another night of drinking, and include some lessons on words of poshness that Yor tries out on her family. Thus, all’s well that ends well. That is, until the next chapter of Spy x Family.

Spy x Family Ch. 91: The Good

The story of Spy x Family Ch. 91 is undoubtedly the best part of this chapter. In between the usual comedy, Tatsuya Endo manages to insert a poignant war drama into the story. Indeed, you can fully empathize with Millie Myers’ loss of her father in that great mostly offscreen war. It’s especially relevant in the current conflict-filled age we find ourselves in.

Of course though, you can’t overlook the comedy in Spy x Family Ch. 91. After all, what could be more funny than Millie complimenting Yor by calling her a “kindly gorilla”? Yor’s response that she’s a perfectly normal human being just like her. It’s the kind of response an alien would give, and I love it.

Even leaving the war drama for a moment, Spy x Family Ch. 91 gives us a look into Melinda Desmond’s personality. She seems incredibly different from the strange woman filled with opposing views that we saw from Anya’s perspective. Melinda here seems to be a genuinely kind and noble woman, with a modern sense of noblesse oblige that makes her quite the likable character. Now, whether that’s actually the case is impossible to tell without Anya there. We’ll just have to see if there’s another such an opportunity in the future of this manga.

Spy x Family Ch. 91: The Bad

Nothing bad to say about Spy x Family Ch. 91 from me. This is the first full chapter from Tatsuya Endo after his break on November 12, 2023. It’s practically a day to celebrate. And if you’ve been a fan of the manga since the beginning like I am, then you’ll be too busy celebrating and awaiting the next chapter to criticize it as well.

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