Mission: Yozakura Family – Episode 1

What’s it about? Asano Taiyo lost his family in a car accident, which left him shy and afraid to get attached to anyone.  His childhood friend, Yozakura Mutsumi, has been the one exception; and then one day he discovers she’s part of an elite spy family.  In order to avoid being killed by her insufferable older brother, Taiyo accepts marrying Mutsumi and works hard to become an elite spy so that he can protect her from danger.  

This definitely isn’t going to be a smash hit like Spy x Family, but if nothing else it’s a fun popcorn show.  Taiyo’s tragic backstory is the driving force of this premiere and it’s easy to understand why he doesn’t want to form meaningful relationships with anybody.  He’s afraid of losing another loved one and thankfully, he’s surrounded by incredibly kind classmates that gently try to break him out of his shell.  Taiyo appreciates that he’s always asked to hang out, but he just doesn’t know how to move forward with his life, which is hella understandable.  The rest of the premiere is full of colorful and zany characters that throw poor Taiyo into a frenzy when he discovers Mutsumi hasn’t been honest about her family background.  

While I like that Mutsumi isn’t a pushover and has a strong personality, I worry she’ll be treated as a damsel in distress throughout the series.  When it comes to shounen anime, I’m always skeptical of how women characters will be treated, especially the main love interest.  I don’t expect her to know how to fight or the art of espionage, but I’m hoping she maintains the spunk to her personality since she balances out everyone in her family.  It’s also extremely gross how possessive her older brother is towards her.  Even though the narrative tries to justify his behavior by comparing him to Taiyo, he frankly doesn’t deserve that comparison.  Even the rest of his siblings don’t tolerate his behavior and actively try to protect Taiyo and Mutsumi from his antics.  

The Yozakura family are full of stereotypes seen in spy movies such as the weapon specialist, the master of disguises, the hacker, etc.  Despite their eccentric behavior, they’re decent enough people.  The fact they are okay with suggesting that Taiyo needs to get married into the family shows their determination to save his life, BUT it’s still strange seeing two teenagers get married by the end of the episode.  Moving forward the series is going to depend on how Taiyo and Mutsumi are in a relationship with each other.  They may not be madly in love, but their intense devotion to protect each other is genuinely sweet.  The show’s comedy isn’t the funniest, but there are some decent jokes about the absurdity of spies having their own social media accounts and monthly magazines.  They aren’t exactly subtle about how dumb the story is and the show is at least having fun with its own premise.  

Mission: Yozakura Family isn’t going to change your life and it definitely isn’t going to redefine the spy genre.  However, it seems to be offering a simple good time for anyone willing to stick around and to be honest I can’t be mad about that.  If our readers aren’t interested in the anime, then there’s over 200 chapters available to read on the Shounen Jump app at your leisure.