MANGA REVIEW | "Mission: Yozakura Family" - Volume Twenty
Five years. That’s how much time the Yozakuras have before Asa comes to collect them all. This means every member of the family needs to start preparing for the inevitable moment he arrives. In the twentieth volume of Mission: Yozakura Family, there is plenty of preparation done to secure the family’s future, including one thing even I couldn’t predict!
Momo Yozakura leaves his kids a helpful guide to prepping for battle against Asa, all of which will take roughly the five-year period Tsubomi’s father is giving them. Everyone leaves to go on their respective missions, with Mutsumi and Taiyo being the lone members staying at the mansion. Although Taiyo continues to train, he also aids in something that I thought wouldn’t occur until ten years down the road: adding branches to the Yozakura Family Tree! That’s right: Taiyo and Mutsumi become parents!
I’ll admit: it came as a shocker that Mission: Yozakura Family would go down this route. Even more so, after doing the math and seeing the five-year time skip, it appears Mutsumi wasn’t even 18 by the time she became pregnant! This decision certainly made me raise my eyebrows, as it also seemed like Taiyo and Mutsumi wasted no time procreating soon after the siblings left! Oh well, to be fair, when you have a brother like Kyoichiro that breathes down the couple’s necks all of the time, sex would be the first thing they’d do once they knew he wasn’t coming back for a long time!
So now we’ve got two new Yozakura members: the twins Alpha and Hifumi. Brother Alpha is book-smart, but daughter Hifumi is good with pranks and espionage skills. It seems like much of the Yozakura Family has rubbed off on these two, even when they’ve yet to meet any of their aunts and uncles. It’s a good thing then that these two have the family’s natural skill, as a bounty is placed on the entire family, and there’s only one guess for who could’ve done it.
Early on, we can already see the strengths and weaknesses of these twins. Alpha is smart, but not at all good combat-wise. Meanwhile, Hifumi is amazing at combat, but she lacks a certain plan in her actions. As a result, both need each other in order to combat anything that’s thrown their way. This can be seen well in their first battle against an assassin, as the twins give the baldy a fight unlike any other four-year-olds could. (Thankfully, Papa Taiyou comes in with the save.)
The bounty leads Taiyou and Mutsumi to make a tough choice: boarding school, and not just any boarding school. After witnessing all of the perks of the school, we see why the parents chose this place over any other educational establishment. That’s when a familiar face appears, and after five years away from his little sister, one can bet that this brother’s complex is on an extreme high now. (Good thinking on the twins’ part, as they show him no mercy for his creepy personality and his treatment of Taiyou.)
One-by-one, it would appear that the Yozakuras are reuniting. With the twins wanting to join the fight against Asa, they have a long road ahead to prove their worth. Win the approval of every member of the family, and the mission will have two more strong players. If not, well, more study time at their school, I guess. As we saw in its nineteenth volume, the beginning of the family’s most ultimate mission has commenced. Mission: Yozakura Family!
FINAL GRADE:
Promotional consideration provided by Chantelle Sturt of VIZ Media.
