Title: Spy x Family Vol. 15
Author: Tatsuya Endo
Publisher: Viz Media
Language: English
Format: Physical
Pages: 213
Genre: Action, Comedy, Shonen
Publication Date: December 9, 2025
The Story
We open up with more backstory on Martha and Henry Henderson. We see Martha’s struggles through the first war and being a part of the women’s brigade. I have to say that this story arc has been the darkest moment in Spy x Family’s history thus far. While I won’t go into many details, we do get to see how Martha suffered through the war and the fallout of her return home. It makes things come full circle between her and Henry, and I have to admit, it was quite the emotional ride!
Once we move past that, a seal named Belle has been spotted in the river. Apparently, it got separated from its herd, and of course, Anya wants to go see it. Despite Lloyd telling her no, he finally caves, and they do find the seal. Anya used the guise of doing an animal report on it as an excuse to get Lloyd to take her.
After this, we get caught up with Franky as he faces two issues: the first is his dwindling money supply, and the second is the collapse of his information network as many of his key informants are being captured by the SSS. Through it all, he gets two free tickets to the movies and aims to take Priscilla with him; however, just when luck finally turns his way, one of his informants is captured, and he’s ordered to rescue him, thus sacrificing his date… well, most of it. When he can rejoin Priscilla, it appears that luck never went his way, regardless.
Finally, we wrap up this volume with a festival. Everyone from Anya’s class showed up, including Sy-on Boy! Despite this, Lloyd sees his plans of getting close to the Desmond family through Anya’s friendship as a bust, but things are looking up for him because there are many other prominent and notable families there, all of which he introduced himself to. Despite the new connections, the one to the Desmond family is the true goal, and to think it will all be decided by a simple festival game of ring toss! Despite the outcome, there is another path as they decide to get their fortunes read by a clairvoyant. It turns out the one they visit is Damian’s mother! Luck has turned around for Lloyd!
Characters
Fleshing out Martha and Henry’s history was quite the ride. I knew that their history had a lot of depth from the previous volume, but I never expected to take this much of a dark and serious turn! You truly feel for Martha once you witness everything that she had to go through, along with the heartbreaking fallout after returning from war. Even on the way back to Berlint, she couldn’t just enjoy the ride home without some sort of tragedy happening. To be able to stand tall and stalwart today is a true testament to the strength she holds inside her! At the same time, you kind of want to punch Henry for what happened after the war. Though you can’t truly blame him either. It’s a simple tough aspect of life that it just moves on and never stops for anything. Still, one of my favorite character arcs in the series thus far!
Damien got some nice development here as well. He went on a treasure hunting adventure in an attempt to win a Stella Star; however, once it was over, he was informed that for the first time in a long time, his entire family would be gathered for dinner. It was one of the most uncomfortable dinners I had ever witnessed, and I cannot wait to see the moment animated. It felt like something out of an Alfred Hitchcock movie. Despite the awkward and tense silence at the dinner table, it drove home the reasons why Damian never liked going home and always found excuses to be anywhere else. You have to feel bad for him until he pulls his little stunts, as he did at the festival. He’s a nice yin/yang character where you understand his pain, but also want to smack him for redirecting that pain onto others.
Final Thoughts
This was quite the imbalanced volume. By that, I mean that we opened up with something dark, dramatic, and serious in the first half, and then transitioned back into the light-hearted comedy that we know and love in the second half. In the end, it truly felt as if I had read two completely different series within the same volume of manga. That’s quite hard to pull off, but Tatsuya Endo managed to find a way to do it.
As I said in the characters section, Martha x Henry is officially my favorite character arc in the series. I don’t know if it was because the story was just told so well, or if it was because it offered up something completely different than what we are used to getting, but either way you look at it, a good story is a good story, and this was just that… a good story.
Damian continues to be a complicated character. After fifteen volumes, though, I am kind of getting a bit antsy with waiting for his breakthrough. I feel as if that’s the one piece of the puzzle that is missing, which would allow Operation Stryx to move forward. This series is giving us a masterclass in stalling your main plot, so I wonder when that moment will come when everything gives, and we get some major progression on that front. I thought we would get some of that during the festival, but it was just another building block moment between Damian and Anya. Building blocks are fine, but I think it’s time to take a step back to see what was built and then get it across the finish line!
Overall, it was definitely a memorable volume. We were left off on a note that might just help finish those building blocks. Perhaps the answer all along was to just look at another set of blueprints? We’ll see.
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This item was provided for review by VIZ Media.
