Summary
Spy x Family's biweekly release schedule allows for high-quality storytelling and art without sacrificing creativity and pacing. Enjoying a biweekly release schedule can lead to more realistic and grounded expectations for manga readers. Endo's approach to Spy x Family demonstrates the importance of prioritizing mental and physical health when creating manga.
Spy x Family is a series that I love very much even though it is not as popular in my life as many of my other favorite manga or anime. It is praised for being everything a comic series should be.including both artwork and writing, and it delivers a consistently strong sense of satisfaction with each new installment while leaving fans craving more. But thanks to Its publication on Shonen Jump+ and its more relaxed bi-weekly release scheduleSpy x Family changed the way I look at popular shonen manga in a more positive light.
With stories like Henry and Martha's origins in Spy x Family and the significant complexity in the world-building of Ostania, Westalis, and many others, The series is a compelling example of patience paying off.. Tatsuya Endo's imaginative story of a Cold War-inspired world where people live in anxiety over the relationship between two neighboring countries at its center, is skillfully laced with tense humor.
Custom image by JR Waugh
But following a series that isn't a weekly one like Spy x Family has helped me become a better manga reader with more realistic and grounded expectations.
Spy x Family Released biweekly is good for the pacing
Weekly manga release schedule is getting harder to defend
I remember the first time I wrote Spy x Family for work in the middle of the Red Circus Arc, and to avoid spoilers for those who only watched the anime, it was tense enough and ended on a cliffhanger as Anya was about to make a bold move. Released on December 25, 2022, this chapter is the last before the New Year holidays, giving fans the opportunity to speculate about what will happen. At the time, this seemed like it would drag on forever, but it was interesting to see how the community would process the events of this chapter in addition to predicting what would happen next for Spy x Family.
Spy x Family is a “fun” manga and anime: easy to understand, funny when quoted, and interesting to discuss among friends when a major plot development occurs. The wait for chapter #74 is especially painful because the New Year holidays are still not over even after the usual two weeks. Endo’s manga will return two weeks later, on January 22, 2023. This gives creatives free time to enjoy outside of work as well as maintain a healthy work-life balance.not forcing him to bear the pressure of weekly manga expectations for Spy x Family.
The payoff of this wait is immediate, with the next chapter practically cementing the Red Circus Arc as possibly the most serious arc in Spy x Family, featuring iconic Anya moments, callbacks to Loid's motivations for joining WISE, etc. It's awesome, and Rushing this part could have compromised the art, pacing, or storytelling making it weaker. more than the others. I see the benefit of a series like Spy x Family being published regularly every two weeks and it pushes me to notice other great stories that are outside of the weekly shonen formula.
Enjoy Spy x Family Relaxation Consumption Habits
Quality over quantity should be the guiding principle for the future of Manga.
Spy x Family isn't weekly either,
helps me relax and enjoy the detail and care that goes into each piece.
Like most average readers, I was introduced to manga through Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump properties while being familiar with series from other publishers, including non-weekly manga like Berserk and Trigun. For those who haven't experienced the wait between chapters of Berserk, this series is, at best, a monthly series, and with the quality of Kentaro Miura's (and later Studio GAGA/Kouji Mori's) artwork, it's worth the wait. Spy x Family isn't weekly either, helps me relax and enjoy the detail and care that goes into each piece.
Part of this less intense publishing schedule allows writers and artists to work at a similarly robust output level for each installment or, in the case of Yūki Tabata, allows stories like Black Clover to have a fitting ending. While part of the fun of enjoying manga is the hype surrounding a series of new details being released, Another important part is enjoying the great quality of a well written and meticulously drawn chapter.Spy x Family only has a little over a hundred chapters despite airing for five years, and even the short breaks have been incredibly worthwhile.
No Spy x Family Hiatus is a disappointment
Tatsuya Endo wastes no time preparing for future arcs
This reminds me of a simple but valid reason why many readers choose to read manga: to enjoy a quality plot and equally strong art.
and not just come back to read the new chapter of the week, rain or shine.
Breaks in any major manga series are to be expected, but Tatsuya Endo often treats us to short, fun missions or illustrations that remind readers to come back in two weeks to see what happens next. This has led to special cases like Spy x Family: Research Mission, before expanding into the Martha and Henry arc, which showcased the horrors of war and the peaceful beauty of the Westalis countryside. In the most recent case of an extra hiatus, readers were assured that a new story arc would be coming now that Martha's flashback, however tragic, had ended.
This reminds me of a simple yet valid reason why many readers choose to read manga: to enjoy quality stories and strong art continuously and not just come back for the weekly chapter, rain or shine. Spy x Family has done a good job of managing its other Shonen Jump+ works like its most important successes, setting an example of consistent quality while taking the appropriate but not too much time to polish things up. That's part of the reason why Black Clover's latest chapters are completely free of the issues that have plagued production in the past: limited breathing room for the creators.
Spy x Family is beneficial for both the author and the reader.
Mental and physical health are most important
Custom image by JR Waugh
Spy x family helped me get through dark times, But it certainly did much more for Tatsuya Endo, the creator.. Endo's creation of Spy x Family was his way of recovering from a brutally long period when his motivation was much lower. Scaling up production to meet the enthusiastic demand would be foolish, as it would inevitably add more stress to the process, potentially harming the quality of the series, not to mention Endo's health.
So in a way, acknowledging that this series only comes out every two weeks, with occasional breaks when necessary, is a good thing for any Spy x Family reader, and a healthier mindset for the manga audience. Not every series needs to come out weekly like One Piece or Kingdom, and the best currency we can have as audiences who love the work of our favorite artists is patience. Spy x Family is a special series because of the circumstances that shaped its concept and because it represents the quality and joy of the manga industry.
