Spy x family vol 4 by Tatsuya Endo

Hot off of her successful acquisition of her first Stella, the Folger family is on the way to get a dog for Anya. They have no success at a pet store (completely stocked with agency dogs and run by the agency), so Yor and Anya try a pet expo while Loid gets feigns a bathroom emergency in order to slip away to his handler. Loid finds out that a foreign minister is in the country for peace talks, and there is a terrorist plot to blow up the meeting using highly trained — what else? — dogs! Anya, with her telepathic ability, accidentally discovers one of the terrorists’ lairs, but one of the highly trained dogs comes to her rescue. Anya sees brief glimpses inside the dog’s mind, and she realizes that this dog has a special ability! In their own separate ways, Yor, Loid with the agency, and Anya with the dog work against them terrorists in the name of World Peace.

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While quite a bit of this series has had many laughs thanks to Anya’s telepathy, this volume was much more serious as everyone raced against the terrorists on many fronts. There were still plenty of Anya freak-out moments for outrageous facial expressions, but overall, this volume focused much more on the action that has been sprinkled throughout the previous volumes. Even though we added another character as we have every volume, the dog fits in so seamlessly within the narrative that the storyline paid much more attention to the terrorist plots and action than to quips and Anya eavesdropping on her parents’ thoughts. I feel this volume was a glimpse of what the rest of the series is going to be like after we have gathered all the new members of the Folger family.

Sara's Rating: 10/10
Suitability Level: Grades 8-12

Reviews of previous volumes in this series: vol 1, vol 2, vol 3

Publisher: VIZ Media
Publication Date: March 2, 2021
ISBN: 9781974721030 (Paperback)

Tags: Rating: 10/10, Suitability: Middle School, Suitability: High School, Manga, Action Adventure, Humor, Family, VIZ Media