Praised as "Too Genius to Recognize All Characters from Just Rough Sketches," Manga Artist Tatsuya Endo Reveals Character Visuals Used for SPY x FAMILY Storyboards

Manga artist Tatsuya Endo has updated his X account. He has revealed character visuals used for storyboarding in his ongoing series SPY x FAMILY, drawing significant attention from fans.

The released images show the main characters appearing in the work, drawn with extremely simple lines for storyboarding purposes. Storyboards, or "name" in Japanese manga production, are the blueprints created before drawing the actual manuscript, roughly outlining panel layouts, composition, dialogue, and character placement.

The characteristics of each character are brilliantly captured, including members of the Forger family such as Loid Forger (CV: Takuya Eguchi), Anya Forger (CV: Atsumi Tanezaki), and Yor Forger (CV: Saori Hayami). Despite the minimal information such as eyes and hairstyles, the result allows viewers to instantly identify which character is which.

In response to this post, fans have shared comments such as: "Too genius to recognize all characters from just these rough sketches," "The expressions on these chibi characters are incredibly cute and healing," "Even though these drawings look so effortless, you can tell who they are," "The characteristics are well represented and easy to understand," and "Everyone's visuals are too cute!"

The manga SPY x FAMILY is a work by Tatsuya Endo currently serialized on Shonen Jump+ (Shueisha). It is a spy action comedy about master spy Loid Forger, who disguises himself as a psychiatrist for a top-secret mission, living with his assassin wife Yor Forger and his daughter Anya Forger, a telepath with supernatural abilities, as a "temporary family" while hiding their true identities from each other. The TV anime began broadcasting in 2022, and the theatrical film SPY x FAMILY CODE: White, released in December 2023, surpassed 6.32 billion yen at the box office.

(C)遠藤達哉／集英社