Welcome to This Week in Shonen Jump, our weekly check in on Viz’s various Shonen Jump series. Viz has recently changed their release format, but our format will mostly remain the same. We will still review the newest chapters of one title a week, now with even more options at our disposal. The big change for our readers is that, even without a Shonen Jump subscription, you can read these most recent chapters for free at Viz.com or using their app.
This week, Rowan checks in with “Spy x Family.” If you have thoughts on this or any other current Shonen Jump titles, please let us know in the comments!
Spy X Family Chapter 32
Written and Illustrated by Tatsuya Endo
Reviewed by Rowan Grover
This week’s “Spy vs Family” takes a look at Damian’s school life and how much he plays the role of a subtle influencer to other students, especially his two friends Emile and Ewan. Endo gives these characters a level of innocence that manages to toe the line between being starry eyed and bratty, and makes each of them different enough that they toe that line in different ways. Damian seems to bear the weight of his family’s honor most unspokenly, and feels a little bit more endearing as an outsider, but is prone to bouts of privileged sass. Emile and Ewan lean a little more to the bratty side, but they become likeable by being devoted to Damian, whether they outwardly say it or not. From turning down going to the movies to make Damian’s activity of preference seem cool, to helping him catch fish, Endo makes these characters genuine through their actions and not dialogue.
The teacher in charge of the boys’ little field trip punishment, Mr. Green is an interesting character in his own right. Compared to the others he exists much more as a periphery character, but through his actions you can get a sense of nostalgia and inspiration balanced with a touch of lament. He’s pushing these boys during the camp to do things that feel out of their unbreakable, money-covered comfort zone, with an edge that makes them feel there will be repercussions for not doing so, but never without an underlying feeling of support. He feels like a fatherly figure when he reflects on his navy days when talking to the kids, and balances that with a hard edge when he tells them that they will have to scavenge for their own food. It’s short but sweet character building that makes this whole one-and-done story feel much more wholesome.
Endo has a beautiful, clean-lined style in this series, which serves to make subtle character and visual personalities much more distinct and easier to convey. One of my favourite things Endo does in this chapter is subtle character development of Damian through visuals. When we first see him at the start of this chapter, fresh out of bed and slothing around during the day, his body language is super stiff and his eyes are densely shadowed, which can be good visual language for someone tired and unmotivated. As we see the story progress, however, and Damian continues to learn more out in the wild, we see his movements become more limber and his eyes focus more on being sparkly and wide rather than sunken and dark.
There’s some great visual style here too that gives the comic a good sense of physical comedy. Once Damian’s aforementioned stiffness opens up (along with the rest of the characters), we see some fun little visual gags. In the rowing scene, there’s great use of speed-lines and limb-repetition that shows the characters paddling comically fast, giving a great sense of pace. Looking in closer, we can see how overly serious the boys are taking the scene with frantic, dramatic faces, as compared to Mr. Green who is much more clean-lined and composed, perched with a smile on his face. Not only does this make for fun visual comedy, but it also adds to the camp counsellor/student relationship these characters have, again making the comic that much sweeter.
“Spy vs. Family” continues to intrigue me with the plot dives it takes into it’s cast’s diverging narratives. One issue we’ll be busting up an underground boxing ring, and then we have this endearing boarding school-esque adventure. It shows how diverse the series can be that I love both of these extremes of the series.
Final Score: 8.8 – A solid exploration of some of the series’ younger characters.
