英語検定ライティング準１級（第138回）

アーニャ「東西冷戦をアニメにしたらこうなる話」

An animation could reproduce a comic book faithfully.

東西冷戦は35年前にすでに終わっている。だがそれを漫画にしている漫画家がいる。それはアニメにもなっている。お茶目なようで内容は冷戦真っ只中の諜報活動をする工作員の話だ。
Cold War between America and Russia ended in 1989.
A comic artist, however, features such an event and continues to draw a comic “Spy Family,” whose anime program we could enjoy with streaming services.
Its contents seem to be comical at a glance, but what the artist wants to express might be a critical situation between a western nation and an eastern counterpart.
The main character is a western agent, who is selected to prevent a small evil event from developing into a heated civil war by his intelligence agency.

ある日、西国の要人の乗る車が高速道路で事故を起こした。この暗殺事件は東国が戦争を仕掛けている兆候だということで、西国の工作員が東国で諜報活動を始めたのが導入部分だ。
One day, a car with an important congressman of the western nation was involved in a terrible traffic accident on the highway, where he was killed after all.
This assassination incident was recognized as a hostile murder case the eastern nation caused, and the western nation considered this accident as a symptom of “Hot War” instead of “Cold War.”
As a result, one of the smart agents started to conduct espionage activities against the eastern nation.

最初の指令は家族を作れということで、孤児院で女の子を見つけた。他人の心が読めるエスパーだった。奥さんも早くに見つかって偽装結婚の契約をした。彼女は東国の暗殺者だった。
The first mission he received from his handlers was to make a fake family, which made him visit an orphanage to find a child, who was an esper with a special faculty.
She could read others’ emotions or feelings soon.
He could find a fake wife immediately, and they agreed with the contract that they should lead a fake marriage life, but she was an extremely capable assassin in the eastern nation actually.

ここまで来るとどんなミステリーなんだろうと推測しがちだ。しかし内容はアーニャのドタバタを織り交ぜながら進むコメディにも見える。だがあくまでも彼の任務は諜報活動なのだ。
Considering this, we tend to guess that this story should be a serious mystery, however, its content seems to be a comical one, where his fake daughter makes readers like me enjoy ourselves or entertained from the bottom of our heart, we agree.
It is because her way of speaking or thinking should be far away from ordinary citizens in our daily life, but her father’s jobs should be something crucial, which is sent from his handlers with numerous grave experiences.

彼は大事件になりそうな出来事をいろいろ未然に防ぐことに成功する。そこに娘と妻のコミカルな行動も貢献する。ロシアの大統領も彼が側近にいたらウクライナを攻めていないはずだ。
He narrowly succeeded in preventing various accidents from developing into a catastrophe in advance, where his wife and daughter could make positive contributions to his dangerous operations in their comical way.
The current Russian President might not have invaded Ukraine with a smart and clever agent like him nearby.

An espionage activity makes it in the diplomatic field.