Spy × Family is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Tatsuya Endo. In the story, a spy must “build a family” to accomplish a mission, but he fails to realize that the girl he adopts is a telepath, and the woman he marries is an assassin. In North America, Viz Media licensed the series for biweekly serialization and released the nine tankōbon volumes as of April 2022. In this article, we will see 10 manga like Spy x Family.
It is an understatement that Spy x Family is popular. In June 2021, Spy x Family had a staggering 11.7 million copies sold worldwide, just a year and a half after its release. An anime adaptation of My Hero Academia took three years to reach the same milestone. Spy x Family fans cannot get enough of it. This series has gained a lot of popularity because of its unique storyline. It’s a perfect blend of action and comedy, giving you thrills, chills, the mystery of mind reading, difficulties, and hilarious situations in between espionage, assassination, mind reading, and trying to keep a fake family together.
10. Kaguya-Sama: Love is War
This story is about two people, Kaguya Shinomiya, the vice president of Shuchiin Academy, and Miyuki Shirogane, the president. Both students are elite students from an elite academy, and they engage in an attrition war to force the other to admit their love first. For example, Kaguya and Miyuki use their genius minds to come up with elaborate ways of watching a movie together, just as Lloyd uses his expertise as a spy to choose the right clothes for Anya.
Love is seen by them as a war, and whoever confesses their love first loses. Because of this, they prefer to use their intellect to get what they want in a roundabout way, rather than being straightforward with their feelings. Because they always overthink the simplest things, funny things always happen.
9. Mission: Yozakura Family
When Taiyo Asano finds himself in the vice principal’s office, he discovers that the assassin has been identified as none other than Mutsumi Yozakura’s brother, the deadliest assassin in the world. Asano discovers that the Family of Yozakura is a bunch of spies. To save his life, he marries Mutsumi Yozakura and becomes a spy. The story is a rollercoaster, right? The Yozakura family story also centers around a spy family, just like Anya and her parents. As opposed to Spy x Family, where the spies have active social media accounts, a magazine dedicated to spying every week, and even star ratings for their services, Yozakura Family takes it to the next level.
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8. Gin Tama
Spy x Family and Gin Tama are popular comedic manga and anime series. Weekly Shonen Jump serialized the long-running sci-fi comedy manga from 2004 until 2018, which ended with volume 77. There were four seasons of the anime series and three anime movies aired between 2006 and 2021. As the title implies, Gin Tama takes place in a sci-fi world reminiscent of Japan’s Edo period, which is taken over by aliens called Amanto. Various funny and severe incidents occur around the main characters, including a silver-haired eccentric, legendary samurai, Shinpachi Shimura, an apprentice swordsman, and a young girl from Amanto, Kagura.
7. Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer
Asahina Samidare, the prophesized princess who will prevent such tragedies from happening, hovers between the moon and the earth. The Biscuit Hammer is a colossal weapon that could destroy the earth. Her twelve beast knights will help her save the earth from the catastrophic effects. Despite this, the princess and one of her knights – the lizard knight Amamiya Yuuhi – believe they can pulverize the earth once the mission is done. Therefore, they lie and play the part of the noble lady and her loyal knight. Likewise, Lady Lucifer and her devil knight are willing to play elaborate roles in order to achieve their sinister goal, just like Lloyd from Spy x Family did for his secret mission.
6. Nisekoi: False Love
The story of Spy x Family relies heavily on keeping the characters’ identities secret. That tension is what makes it so funny. Well, that’s basically what Nisekoi’s plot is about. It’s about people who want to hide their true backgrounds. In Nisekoi, Rohu Ichijo pretends to be a Yakuza heir, whereas Chitoge Kirisaki is actually a member of the notorious Bee Hive gang. They have to pretend their relationship to keep the two organizations from warring. A shounen romantic comedy at its best, Nisekoi is a must-see.
5. Love of Kill
The romantic feelings between Yor and Lloyd develop gradually and steadily throughout Spy x Family. Unlike Love of Kill, Love of Kill emphasizes that aspect of the story from the beginning. The twisted love story between a bounty hunter and a hitman is evident from the very first chapter of the manga. Whether dead or alive, Château Dankworth can always find her target. Son Ryang-Ha is a hitman who will kill his target and anyone else in the room. The deadly bounty hunter immediately caught his attention when they accidentally crossed paths when chasing the same target. Although both Yor/Lloyd and Chateau/Ryang-Ha are power couples, the conversation between them is far more twisted than the one between Chateau and Ryang-Ha in Spy x Family.
4. Hinamatsuri
Hinamatsuri and Spy x Family both feature male characters who work in dangerous professions: one is a spy, the other a high-ranking Yakuza member. Both of these men adopt a daughter who possesses supernatural powers: one has telepathic abilities, while the other is a mind reader. One of the greatest similarities between these two mangas is the dynamic between parent and child. Both mangas have adults who do not know what parenting is all about and children who constantly try to get their parents out of trouble, and this ultimately leads to some of the most hysterical scenes.
3. Sakamoto Days
Taro Sakamoto is a retired renowned hitman who falls in love, owns a general shop in a small village, and becomes overweight. Taro Sakamoto is a mother who moonlights as an assassin who kills drug lords and prime ministers as a side project, similar to Yor Forger from Spy x Family. Sakamoto had promised his wife to leave the dangerous world behind. After one gruesome fight after another, Shin ends up working as an employee at Sakamoto’s general store after a hitman named Shin, who is able to read people’s minds, brings him back to the dark world. Sakamoto Days have a similar mix of action and comedy as Spy x Family. Instead of the amusement provided by the exchanges between the family members in Spy x Family, Sakamoto Days depicts the crazy adventures of two ex-hitmen who utilize their lethal abilities to solve commonplace issues in a small town.
2. Happy Kanako’s Killer Life
Kanako Nishino just quit her job and is now desperate for any job opportunities. Imagine what she thinks when she discovers she is applying to a hitman agency in the middle of a job interview! As a hitman, she can earn a lot of money and receive many benefits. Which is how the legend struck. There’s no doubt in my mind that Happy Kanako’s Killer Life is an enjoyable read. It’s a happy story about a killer. These two opposing concepts are juxtaposed, resulting in some strange but amusing events, which is the secret recipe that also makes Spy x Family so entertaining. This manga is a 4-Koma manga, which means each page has just four horizontal panels to tell the story. And it’s full color on every single page, so you’ll smile from ear to ear as you read it. Resulting in a rich and colorful story about a killer, it will make you laugh.
1. Assassination Classroom
A humanoid creature with tentacle-like limbs just destroyed 75% of the moon, and Shiota Nagisa and class E of Kunugigaoka Junior High are tasked with killing it. Why would a creature such as that leave such an important job to their students? Well, that is because he thinks it will be more fun that way. Also, that creature is their new homeroom teacher too.
This story is so absurd yet so exciting at the same time. We absolutely cannot wait to find out what’s going to happen next. However, Assassination Classroom shares other characteristics with Spy x Family, including the amount of absurdity woven throughout the story.
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