“In France, we had a timing effect.“More than a million copies of the manga Spy x Family written by Tatsuya Endo and published by Kurokawa have been sold in France, publisher Kurokawa announced. A record figure reached in just six volumes and less than a year and a half of existence.
The manga was released in September 2020, in the midst of a health crisis: “People were a little knocked out and needed positive vibes, fun things, a little fresh, which relax them. From this point of view, Spy x Family was the perfect manga.“
In Japan, the manga has exceeded 12 million copies in circulation. It is also the first time that a series has reached the one million reading mark on Jump Plusthe free-to-read online magazine of Shueisha (Japanese publishing house) on which new series are published regularly (available only in Japanese).
“Reaching such a level of sales without anime, so quickly, is something very rare in France as in Japan. This is exceptional. In Japan, the last time it happened was with Attack on Titan (Shingeki no Kyojin) because the manga was cult even before the anime came out.”
The reasons for success
“Spy x Family it is a universal story. It’s not a fight manga, with superpowers, with complicated rules. It’s not a shonen (young boy manga) fight where you have to train to be stronger.” indicates Grégoire Hello.
Tatsuya Endo leads us into a story of espionage where Twilight, the greatest spy in the world, must for his new mission create a family from scratch in order to be able to enter the most prestigious school of aristocracy. Completely devoid of family experience, he will adopt a little girl, unaware that she is telepathic, and join forces with a shy young woman, without suspecting that she is a formidable contract killer. This atypical trio will have to compose to go unnoticed, while discovering the true values ​​of a united and loving family.
“Everyone can get into it because it’s a contemporary story with a little parody side of spy movies and a family side with the characters. Tatsuya Endo specializes in characters that are a little dark, a little deep. For Spy x Familyhe continued to create very rich characters, which one has the impression of knowing because they are very well described.”
According to the French publisher, the recipe for success is simple: it’s a comedy for everyone, even non-manga readers. “You don’t need to know the storytelling codes of manga or shonen to get into it.” Spy x Family mixes all genres a bit: “There is drama, counterbalanced by humor. The author links the dramatic revelations with the funny implications it can have in everyday life.”
The arrival of the anime in April
The anime will be released in April and will be simulcast with Crunchyroll. On successful titles, the anime starts between the 7th and 10th volumes. “I think it will be half-seasons of 12 or 24 episodes and then a season 2, a season 3. Today, we are no longer in the model of 10 years ago with a release every week. We follow the American model a bit and we have short seasons knowing that people will come back to it afterwards.“
The anime will bring in new readers and therefore lead to new sales. “We have warned booksellers to shield their orders because they are going to be robbed, that’s for sure!“he rejoices.
Mangas are not spared by the shortage of paper. “They are selling faster than we can print them so we have to plan for several months for our orders. Reprints of Spy x Family in tens or even hundreds of thousands of copies.”