©遠藤達哉／集英社・SPY×FAMILY製作委員会
Yor’s inherent contradiction as a warm-hearted softie and a highly skilled assassin was probably intended to be funny. And it is, a lot of the time – from her weaponized cuisine to her life lessons for Anya, the humor of her two disparate sides coexisting in the same body works well. But sometimes the story manages to get something a bit more out of it, and that’s what makes this series shine. It never forgets its goofy roots while also managing to delve deeper into its characters’ reasons for being the weirdos they are.
This arc, with its focus on Yor, really brings that home as we finally get to understand her in all of her contradictory glory, and a lot of that comes down to this episode’s monologue. It’s one thing to be told as part of her backstory that she became an assassin to provide for her brother, but it’s another thing entirely to hear it in her own words, especially as she’s coming to realize that there may be room in her life for some changes. When Yor first took up contract killing, it was because she needed to put food on the Briar family table, and the bonus of keeping the world safe for Yuri to grow up in. Now Yuri’s (ostensibly) grown up and earning his own money, plus Yor has a day job and a husband who makes a good living. She still has a child to protect, but in a different way than she had to protect her brother – Anya’s life, as far as Yor knows, isn’t under constant threat because she has no parents. (Yor doesn’t know that Anya was ever an orphan.) The best way she can protect Anya is by being there as her mother.
When Yor is on the verge of being taken out by the swordsman with the lovely hair, her final thoughts are of the little things she won’t get to do if (or in her mind, when) he kills her. She muses that she won’t be able to pick up Loid’s shirts from the cleaner or return Anya’s books to the library. They’re mundane thoughts, things that would be classed as day-to-day annoyances if your car broke down or you were running late. That they’re also what Yor thinks could be her final thoughts is what’s important: they show where her priorities now lie. She’s more than just a big sister and an assassin now; she’s a mother, a wife, and a person in her own right. Yuri’s grown up, but Yor has too, and it feels like this is the moment when she realizes that she has a say in her own life. And if she wants to focus on being Mrs. Forger instead of Thorn Princess? That’s a choice she’s allowed to make.
Yor’s still not as dynamic a character as Anya and Loid, or even Bond and Franky at times. But this arc does wonderful things for her, and watching her fight is always a joy; the animation does a beautiful job of showing the weight of her movements, the moments when she slows down, and the grace of each spin and kick. Even the blood soaring through the air has a viscosity that makes it striking to watch. Add to this the juxtaposition of the fireworks, the peaceful insert song, and Yor’s battle against a slew of assassins she kills before they can even finish introducing themselves. This is a winner! The violence set to music trope is a bit of a shortcut, but when it works this well, who cares?
It’s a bit too bad that they decided to throw in a Yuri short at the end of the episode. Presumably, this was done to get another full episode out of Yor’s storyline. It’s fun to see little Yor casually return from picking herbs with a dead boar, but unless Yuri’s your favorite character, he’s not who I’d pick to focus on after such a strong outing. Still, the rest of the episode is stellar so I can forgive this once.
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