English Dub Review: Spy X Family “The Symphony Upon the Ship; Sis’s Herb Tea”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Yor attempts to escort her charges to safety but ends up facing off against several enemy assassins with the assistance of her organization’s director. As she fights, she reflects on why she chose this mission, why she keeps fighting, and how maybe her priorities have changed.

Elsewhere, Yuri injures himself and recalls a time Yor risked bodily harm to take care of him when he got a cold.

OUR TAKE

While we’ve seen plenty of antics from Loid and Anya the past few episodes, this week is all about Yor. Yor worst nightmare. Yor, the one that I want. Yor, a mean one mister Grinch. That Yor. Puns aside, this episode is pretty much just about Yor dealing with the mission she signed up for, protecting this woman and her baby who want to escape peacefully, and how protecting them helps her realize just how much she has become emotionally connected to Loid and Anya with the family they’ve made over the past season (that I still haven’t seen but I swear I’ll get too, promise). In a beautiful sequence jumping between stuff happening on the ship and her fighting off assassins, we see in Yor’s head about why exactly she’s on this mission. She’s trying to get money. But why? Well, for her family. Wait, no, that’s just a mission too. Why is she on that mission? To fight evil doers? No, that’s not quite right. But if she dies and leaves them without a word, they’ll be sad. And she’ll be sad. But why? Back and forth these thoughts race in her skull, all while she’s caving skulls in of the bad guys in front of her.

I’ve probably said a bit about all of this last time, but this emotional dilemma is basically the core focus of the episode, so there’s not really much else to talk about. But yeah, even when Yor is finally overtaken, all she can do is think about the things she won’t be able to do for her family if she dies, even including Yuri since his well being was apparently why she took on assassin work in the first place. That actually makes the short bit at the end with him having a flashback make sense with its inclusion, even if it does mess with the pacing. Yor and Yuri didn’t grow up in a traditional family, they only had each other, and now Yor is in a family she’s found that she will also do anything to protect. In addition to not being all caught up with the anime, I’m definitely not caught up with the manga, so who knows if the two of them have made this more cognisant revelation, but even if it is telegraphed how obvious these character arcs will go, I’m eager to see where this ends up. Perhaps there are some major heart wrenching twists ahead that I can get all choked up about in the meantime. Who knows! I don’t!