Spy x Family Creator’s Latest Release Shows Struggles of His Early Career

Tatsuya Endo, creator of the charming and intricately crafted Spy x Family manga, stands tall as a writer/artist among Shueisha’s dominant roster. His meticulous worldbuilding makes even the most mundane recent chapters into a thrilling and comedic spectacle built upon individually well-realized characters and a believable setting surrounding them. But with his recently localized collection of one-shots, a gathered set of four distinctive stories published between 2000 and 2004, one can see the many difficulties and regrets Endo faced, along with the triumphs and lessons he took into creating Spy x Family.

Endo’s labors were not always massively successful and were more often indicative of the psychic and physical toll manga creation can have on mangaka in the industry. In his officially translated collection, Four Livies Remain: Tatsuya Endo Before Spy x Family, one can see the blueprint forming with each story into what would become the tale of the Forgers in Ostania. These aren’t wholly disposable stories, however; Endo’s knack for combining thrilling action and witty dialog has been around since the start and shows both the worldly savviness and persistent attention to detail for which he is presently loved. Endo is aware of his one-shots’ flaws, and while some, like Blade of the Moon Princess, wound up getting ongoing series of moderate success, it’s far more fascinating to spot what’s been retained along the way to creating Endo’s most iconic story yet.

Tatsuya Endo Remembers the Fun and Dread of His Work in Equal Measure

One of the most compelling cases for buying physical media collections like Four Lives Remain is in seeing authors’ notes placed between each installment, typical for one-shot collections. Much like Eiichiro Oda’s Wanted! or Koyoharu Gotouge Before Demon Slayer, one can clearly spot qualities retained from each story, such as Yor Forger’s physicality influenced by Western Game or glimmers of Yuri Briar’s visage in Witch Craze.

Endo’s closing remarks to every one-shot paints a picture of the positive experiences he retains, such as enjoyable all-nighters on a project like Blade of the Moon Princess, and envisioning a world influenced both by Western films and Bruce Lee’s Game of Death. There’s plenty of recognition of what has worked for him, including carefully-drawn renditions of authentic firearms. There are even creative, original close-combat weapons like the blood-sucking Siphstake swords from Witch Craze, but with the good, comes Endo’s fiercely self-critical reflection.

In his closing remarks for the latter two stories, Witch Craze and PMG-0, Endo douses the fun with the cold and painful reality of the work that goes into each story. For Witch Craze, it was another all-nighter production with his team where he nursed a toothache so agonizing he either couldn’t sleep if he wanted to, or would fall asleep standing up on his medication. In the case of PMG-0, for first-time readers, you’d have never guessed how much work Endo put into post-production for this re-release, but his honesty breaks that illusion, calling his work “sloppy and irresponsible” as the result of tight deadlines.

This is the reality many mangaka face, and Endo’s reflections are painful, sure, but it’s clear just how much he retained from each of them. Ostania’s East Germany-inspired Cold War aesthetic is not anomalous against Endo’s other work, with these sorts of pan-European skylines and architectural stylings present in his works like Witch Craze and PMG-0.

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Spy x Family Owes Its Success to the Ideas Assembled in Four Lives Remain

While none of these individual stories, or even limited ongoing series like 2010’s Blade of the Moon Princess or Tista hold a candle to the 38 million copies sold by Endo’s Spy x Family, their legacies are fully intact. One can appreciate Endo’s meticulous attention to detail such as in the realistic gun designs, distinctive characters, and a clear appreciation for Western aesthetics appreciated both by domestic readers and a global audience. Endo may feel he compromised by making a conventionally attractive male protagonist with Loid, but his clear soft spot for female leads comes through in the immensely popular Anya and Yor characters.

Given the documented instances of Endo’s editors pushing Spy x Family’s tone in a lighter direction, there’s a clear parallel between his struggles and those of Akira Toriyama. The manga industry is a brutal one that consumes the lives of its creators, and not everyone can have a 3-hour sleep schedule like Eiichiro Oda has allegedly kept. But when somebody amasses a legion of dedicated fans eager to read everything as Endo or his cohort has, even Four Lives Remain, seemingly loaded with his regrets, shines through with his comedic and joyful spark. As an added bonus for readers who followed through to the end, there’s even a sophisticated board game in the book’s final pages, delivered in Endo’s self-deprecating tone, but in its own way, celebrating a beautiful tapestry of his diverse ideas predating Spy x Family.

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Four Lives Remain: Tatsuya Endo Before Spy x Family was graciously provided to us by Viz Media. You can pick up your own copy through their website or your favorite online or local retailer!