Spy × Family (stylized as SPY×FAMILY; pronounced “Spy Family”) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Tatsuya Endo. The story follows a spy who has to “build a family” in order to execute a mission, not realizing that the girl he adopts as a daughter and the woman he agrees to be in a fake marriage with are a mind reader and an assassin.
Before making SPY x FAMILY, Tatsuya Endo published three one-shots for Jump Square: Rengoku no Ashe, Ishi ni Usubeni, Tetsu ni Hoshi, and I SPY. Endo’s editor, Shihei Lin, noted that SPY x FAMILY takes on the strengths of these titles. Lin said that reception from the editorial department was so good that its serialization was practically decided before the actual meeting.
The initial draft was given a working title of “Spy Family” written in Japanese characters before they decided to put the name in English characters with a cross between the words, inspired by the manga series HUNTER x HUNTER.
The concept of the volumes’ cover art began when Endo thought about using retro items like mid-century furniture on the covers to reinforce the series’ time period. He then came up with the idea to have the cast sit in famous designer chairs and to place items under or behind the chairs that the seated character would be hiding.
