The Fall 2026 Anime Preview Guide

Mission: Yozakura Family Season 2 Part 2

Taiyo Asano lost his family as a boy, but finds solace in the family of Mutsumi Yozakura, the girl he's loved since childhood. After learning the family's secret - that they're all super-powered spies - he's obliged to marry Mutsumi and join the family business. Receiving some of Mutsumi's special blood, he develops his own special power that enables him to join the Yozakura Family's dangerous missions. Now, the long-absent Yozakura patriarch, Momo, has returned, with disturbing plans that could affect the lives of everyone Taiyo loves.

Mission: Yozakura Family Season 2 Part 2 is based on the manga series by Hitsuji Gondaira. The anime series is streaming on Hulu and Disney+ on Sundays.

I don't normally make a habit of quoting poetry in my reviews, but I think this example is extremely fitting:

They fuck you up, your mum and dad.
        They may not mean to, but they do.
    They fill you with the faults they had
    And add some extra, just for you.
- Philip Larkin

For all that the Yozakura family are insanely powerful, with their amazing individual abilities, there's a cloud that hangs over the head of each and every member: the shadow of their parents. Since their mother died, their father, Momo, who it seems was already more than a little unhinged, completely lost the plot. During the first half of the second season, elder brother Kyouichirou went missing, partly to try and protect his beloved siblings from their father's actions.

Of course the rest of the family were absolutely not okay with Kyouichirou sacrificing himself without their consent, so they managed to retrieve him, and the first part of the episode is a delightful skit where each of them get revenge in turn. This includes everything from him being dragged on a brutal mountaineering trip, to having needles shoved in his face, to being dressed as a baby and threatened with diaper changes. Totally normal family things. This culminates in Mutsumi shoulder massaging him almost to death, though it does result in him falling asleep for the first time in forever. Turns out he uses some kind of anti-sleep technique to remain alert at all time, to protect everyone else. That's kind of sweet, if deranged. Kyouichirou never does anything by half. That's probably his father's fault. Traditionally, it would be the father's responsibility to provide safety for his children, but in his absence, Kyouichirou has had to step up instead, and this has made him hyper-vigilant, and obsessed with his little sister. (I'm not sure all of that can be blamed on Momo, though.)

When parents and older children go low or no-contact, it's hard to know what to do when one party makes attempts to meet with the other. In Mutsumi's case, she probably doesn't want to see her father, but the risks of not knowing his plans outrank any other considerations. Momo's disturbing behavior in the family restaurant has all the hallmarks of an emotionally abusive parent. He first love-bombs, then threatens his family. He displays unpredictable emotional responses so that others walk on eggshells around him. He attempts to control the situation's dynamics by limiting the invitation to only the children he wishes to see. Then, of course, there's the whole murdering everyone else in the restaurant and setting a creepy planty monstery thing on his kids, that's kind of poor parenting too.

Children's psychology is dominated by the attachment they develop to their parents. In the case of Momo, his unpredictable, selfish, inconsistent parenting can only result in a fearful or avoidant attachment with his kids. They're either indifferent to him, or hate him, or have no idea how to make him happy and thereby gain his attention. No wonder they're all screwed up. It's unusual for a shonen action show to have such deep emotional themes, and that's one of the things that makes me enjoy Mission: Yozakura Family so much. I hope this twisted family relationship comes to a satisfactory resolution some time in the show's future.