Mission: Yozakura Family

Episode 13

The family fun shenanigans of the past few weeks have been great and all, but I'm glad that Mission: Yozakura Family is giving us another proper Spy Mission again; what's more, it's all about Taiyo finally uncovering the secret of his family's murder. These kinds of episodes, which place an equal emphasis on humor and sowing the seeds of the show's overall story, have been my favorite kinds to get from M:YF, and "Tanpopo" doesn't disappoint. Well, for the most part, at least.

Before we get to any of those quibbles, though, we have to address the best part of the episode, which is the segment that sees Taiyo infiltrating the Library of the Dead to uncover the secret documents that reveal the deadly link that ties both his and Mutsumi's families to the enigmatic "Tanpopo" organization. Sure, the story developments and whatnot are great, but did you all see the spooky murder librarian, Me-chan? She stabs people in the face for making too much noise in her library, which is to say any noise, and she's incredible! Granted, I am married to a kickass, spooky librarian, so I might be somewhat biased in Me-chan's favor.

Granted, I did leave that ominous "for the most part" tag up in the intro paragraph, and I have one minor gripe with how this all unfolds. While I am not necessarily against the notion that Taiyo's family just got wrapped up in a larger conspiracy that is really all about harvesting the special superpowered blood chemicals of the Yozakura family, how all of this information gets communicated makes the story feel a bit anticlimactic, at least so far. This is supposed to be a game-changing reveal about the moment that changed Taiyo's life forever, but it feels like you could take out his family's murder completely, and the story's stakes would remain more or less unchanged. I don't know; I was hoping for more, but we'll see where things go in the future.

Besides, the hospital infiltration gives us both a new mystery for Taiyo to unravel and the chance for Taiyo and Mutsumi to pair up for a mission and disguise themselves as an elderly married couple. It's just too adorable, especially when Taiyo drops that line about not knowing if he could live without Mutsumi. God bless these adorable kids with their sweet love for each other, and God bless the spooky murder librarians.

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Mission: Yozakura Family is currently streaming on Hulu in the United States and on Disney+ in other regions.

James is a writer with many thoughts and feelings about anime and other pop-culture, which can also be found on Twitter, his blog, and his podcast.