Ghost Sweeper Mikami

Ghost Sweeper Mikami: The Great Paradise Battle!! (Japanese: GS美神 極楽大作戦!!, Hepburn: Gōsuto Suīpā Mikami Gokuraku Daisakusen!!) is a Japanese comedic horror manga series written and illustrated by Takashi Shiina. It was published by the weekly manga magazine Shōnen Sunday from 1991 to 1999. In 1993, it won the Shogakukan Manga Award for best shōnen manga. The series explores some folk religion themes such as possession, exorcism, shamanism, Yurei, and Yōkai.

The series was adapted as a 45-episode anime television series by Toei Animation called Ghost Sweeper Mikami (GS美神, Gōsuto SuÄ«pā Mikami) which ran on TV Asahi and the Asahi Broadcasting Corporation from 1993â€"1994, covering most parts of the first nine volumes of the Manga (total 39 volumes). The anime lead to the release of a movie, which had been the only existence of Mikami in the United States (released by Manga Video). The TV series has been licensed by Sentai Filmworks.

Story

Overdevelopment and crowding in Japan has forced many of its indigenous spirits and ghosts to lose their homes. Due to problems caused by the homeless spirits, a new profession was created, the Ghost Sweepers (GS). Private exorcists for hire; they serve only the highest bidder to survive in the cutthroat corporate world. Among this, the Mikami GS Company, led by Reiko Mikami and her two assistants, the teenage boy Tadao Yokoshima and the ghost girl Okinu, is said to be the best.

The manga setup is scenario-to-scenario, with many plots intertwining classic Japanese culture and modern day realities, with occasional references to Western influences. In between these plots are some longer story arcs where new characters are introduced and the existing characters are further developed. There is no one ongoing storyline, therefore the plots are character-driven and serve to gradually develop characters, especially the main protagonists.

Characters

Mikami GS Agency

Reiko Mikami (美神 令子, Mikami Reiko)

• Voiced by: Hiromi Tsuru (Japanese), Sharon Becker (English)

The president and owner of the ghost sweeping agency Mikami GS, a strong-willed first class Ghost Sweeper, 20 years old. She was initially trained by the pastor father Karasu, but unlike her mentor, she was not satisfied with a life of poverty. Although she is wealthy from the success of her exorcism business, she is stingy when it comes to paying her employees, and often gouges her clients for a higher fee.

With her motto being "the current profit comes first", her motivation is not to help the people in need, but to earn the big money and to chase after the thrill. Her biggest weaknesses are small children, cockroaches and the thought of not being able to earn money.

Even though she would never admit it, she does show feelings towards Yokoshima with the progress of the manga. The two are revealed to have been connected together in a previous life and are told that they will most probably marry in the future.

Tadao Yokoshima (横島 忠夫, Yokoshima Tadao)

• Voiced by: Ryou Horikawa (Japanese), Wayne Grayson (English)

A high school student, started working as the assistant of Mikami at the age of 15. He is totally enthralled by Mikami, and often tells himself that he only keeps his dangerous job because of Mikami's charm. His official wages per hour are 250 yen, later increased to 255 yen. He appears at first to have dormant spiritual abilities and later on in the manga, with the help of Shoryuki, Yokoshima does gain various abilities of his own. He also gains the unique ability of creating balls from spiritual energy called Monju, being the only one in the world with this power. He is perverted beyond belief acting thus towards almost all the women, but the only girls who show any hint of liking him are not human (except perhaps Mikami and Kobato).

Okinu Himuro (氷室 キヌ, Himuro Kinu) also known as Okinu (おキヌ)

• Voiced by: Mariko Kouda (Japanese), Debora Rabbai (English)

A teenaged female ghost. First encountered by Mikami and Yokoshima as one of two ghosts causing chaos at a mountain hot spring, Mikami ends up "adopting" her when she didn't know how to go to heaven. Eventually, she ends up becoming the secretary and errand girl for Mikami and even develops feelings for Yokoshima. To the other friendly spirits she is considered a Senpai.

Later in the manga, Okinu does get her life back as her body was never destroyed. She is able to reunite her soul with her body (although weakly) and now lives a life of a normal teenage girl, but temporarily loses her memory. When she recovers her memory, she realizes that she is a natural necromancer for her ability to understand the spirits' pain.

Shibusaba Artificial Ghost no. 1 (渋鯖 人工幽霊壱号, Shibusaba Jinkō Yūrei Ichi-gō, A.Y.; Manga only)

An artificial soul created by the occult scientist doctor Shibusaba, it is also the rightful owner of its own house under the name of Shibusaba's son. In search for a strong spiritualist whose spiritual wave matches its own, Mikami has become the house's new owner, and the building serves her as her new agency since then.

Karasu's church

Kazuhiro Karasu (å"å·£ å'Œå®, Karasu Kazuhiro, Father Karasu)

• Voiced by: Kazuyuki Sogabe (Japanese), Yotee (English)

A male Catholic priest exorcist who was repelled from the church because of his methods, he used to be both Mikamis' (mother and daughter) mentor, 45 years old. He is said to be one of the best and most powerful exorcists currently active thanks to his training on Myoushinzan, but with the progressing story, he becomes more like an advisor than a ghost sweeper. In one point of the manga it is suggested that he will become the chairman of the GS community one day.

Pietro de Bloodeau (ãƒ"エトロ・ド・ブラドー, Pietoro do Buradō, Pete)

• Voiced by: Toshiyuki Morikawa (Japanese), Alan Steele (English)

A 700-year-old half vampire. He is the son of Count Bloodeau (Pronounced Blado) who is said to be "cousin of the husband of Count Dracula's sister". While he is currently a disciple of Father Karasu, he used to know Karasu years before. He also goes to the same school as Yokoshima, and because of his handsome look, he's very popular with many girls, including Emi Ogasawara. His big dream is to become an Occult G Man one day, which will be granted at the end of the Manga.

Doctor Chaos' lab

Doctor Chaos (ドクター・カオス, Dokutā Kaosu)

• Voiced by: Shigeru Chiba (Japanese), Tom Wilson (English)

An old senile male alchemist / exorcist with a genius level intellect. Being immortal (or at least 1000 years old), he has acquired much knowledge of the supernatural. Unfortunately, he forgets something he already knows if he tries to learn something new, which leads to him constantly rereading his old books and a lot of running gags. Note that Chaos, and by extension Maria, is the Ghost Sweeper whose dire financial straits are most often displayed. While nearly all of the main Ghost Sweepers other than Meiko and Mikami are implied to be in a very deep financial rut, Chaos and Maria's plight is most often depicted, along with Yokoshima, to the point where in the (anime) episode where the group had to enter a movie set in Japan's Edo period, he and Maria were depicted as peasants. He also had to loan Maria out to Mikami as collateral for a loan to build Teresa.

Maria (マリア)

• Voiced by: Wakana Yamazaki (山崎å'Œä½³å¥ˆ) (Japanese), Debora Rabbai (English)

A tough-fighting Gynoid and companion of Dr. Chaos, created from the image of Dr. Chaos's lover in his younger days. She is strong, fast and resistant to damage, hiding all kind of weapons in her body, and is yet a kind-hearted "person" who possesses a soul and the urge to serve mankind, unlike her sister Teresa. Maria acts as Dr. Chaos' main weapon, bodyguard and housekeeper.

Teresa (テレサ)

• Voiced by: Maria Kawamura

The second android Chaos invented, though relying more on modern technology than magic. This might also be the reason she regards the humanity as a failure and even tried to conquer mankind. Through the clash with her sister Maria, she sunk into the ocean and her body has never been found.

Ogasawara GS Agency

Emi Ogasawara (小笠原 エミ, Ogasawara Emi)

• Voiced by: Michie Tomizawa (Japanese), Jeanine Bartel (English)

A dark-skinned female voodoo exorcist, chief competitor to Mikami's ghost sweeping business. According to Mikami, Emi is the strongest voodoo user worth competing with her. Even though it seems they are enemies, they're in fact good friends and partners who can rely on each other in times of emergency. Emi is apparently in love with Pete and uses any opportunity she can get to approach him.

Unlike Mikami, Emi had a way darker past: she lost both her parents at the age of 10 and made a living as an assassin until the age of 15, at which she gave up this career due to a certain incident.

Tiger Torakichi (タイガー 寅吉, Taiga Torakichi, Manga only)

A large, muscular man, who has been hired by Emi to defeat Mikami. After his failure, he stays as Emi's disciple and assistant. Tiger used to be a woman chaser just like Yokoshima, thus his nickname "molesting tiger", but this habit of his turned into fear of women due to some reason. His ability is to create illusions through his telepathy.

Rokudou family

Meiko Rokudou (å…­é" 冥子, Rokudō Meiko)

• Voiced by: Kumiko Nishihara (Japanese), Jeanine Bartel (English)

An innocent-looking but extremely powerful female who directly controls 12 Shikigami, which are named after the Japanese names of the Heavenly Generals (Jyuni Shinshou), legendary Hindu figures who became Buddhists: (Indara, Ajira, Kubira, Basara, Shindara, Sanchira, Haira, Makora, Shôtora, Anchira, Bikara, and Mekira). These are animal in form, caricatures of the symbols that these figures carry, which come from the Chinese counting series Earthly Branches. Normally they are under control, but whenever Meiko becomes distraught, her "pets" destroy anything or anyone within their reach. Unfortunately for all, Meiko is sensitive, weak-willed and easily hurt, therefore the Shikigami are set on the loose very frequently. She is hinted at being a lesbian with feelings for Mikami, who was the only person able to calm Meiko down when she first lost control of her shikigami in public. Although she acts and looks younger than Mikami, she is actually older (her mother was shown to be pregnant with her before Mikami's mother even met her husband).

The 48th generation of Rokudou (å…­é" 第48代, Rokudō Dai YonjÅ«-hachi-dai)

• Voiced by: Nana Yamaguchi

The current mistress of the Rokudō mansion, and the former master of the Shikigami, she is still able to control them at will. She used to be both Mikami Michie's and Karasu's mentor, and after retiring from the GS business, she now runs the Rokudou Girl High school, a school for female elite spiritualists.

Occult G Men

Teruhiko Saijou (西条 輝彦, Saijō Teruhiko, Manga only)

Mikami Michie's only known disciple, 28 years old. He traveled abroad to England in order to enhance his abilities, and is currently working as an Occult G Man in Japan. He is Mikami Reiko's first love, and even though they have been separated for 10 years, he still has feelings for her. Even though he claims to fight for justice, his methods are sometimes very dirty, making him a hypocrite. He also notices Mikami's not-so-subtle feelings for Yokoshima, and is willing to stoop to some very low levels to try to swing her affections his way.

Michie Mikami (美神 美智恵, Mikami Michie, Manga only)

Mikami's mother, a first class GS who is in fact one of the strongest GS of all time. Her ability to time travel and absorb lightning might be due to her inherited powers from both of her parents, who used to be first class GS. Additionally she absorbed part of her husband's psychic ability and the power of a demon. At the age of 18, she became the apprentice of Karasu for a short period of time. With a very strong sense of justice, she believes that evil will never prevail, which is why she became a ghost sweeper in the first place.

Other members of Yokoshima's family

Daishuu Yokoshima (横島 大樹, Yokoshima Daishū, Manga only)

Yokoshima's father, and a Casanova just like him. But unlike his son, Daishuu is very popular with women. He is shown to have incredible power for a regular person, and even manages to beat up spirits bare handed, which might be an explanation of the origin of Yokoshima's high spiritual power.

Yuriko Yokoshima (横島 百合子, Yokoshima Yuriko, Manga only)

Yokoshima's mother. She used to work in the same company as Daishuu as his supervisor, but in the end she fell in love with him and married him. This puts her in a similar situation as Mikami currently, who is also showing feelings towards her subordinate.

Other members of Mikami's family

Hinome Mikami (美神 ひのめ, Mikami Hinome, Manga only)

Mikami's younger sister, who was given birth after the Ashtaroth incident. She possesses strong pyrokinetic abilities and is most likely to surpass her sister one day. Because her power is uncontrollable, it has to be sealed for as long as she cannot handle it.

Kimihiko Mikami (美神 公彦, Mikami Kimihiko, Manga only)

Mikami's father, who is currently employed as a university professor, specialized in doing animal research abroad. Due to an accident, he gained an unmatchable telepathy ability he cannot control, only with Mikami Michie's help, they were able to weaken it so he can live a normal life. The two got married soon afterwards.

Other spiritualists

Yukinojou Date (伊é" 雪之丞, Date Yukinojō, Manga only)

A strong spiritualist and battle freak who mistakes everyone for his mother, who died when he was a child. It is implied that he is even poorer than Yokoshima because he always spends his entire money on training and travelling. He first served as Medusa's henchman, but later left their group and became an ally of Yokoshima. His technique is the demonic art "Masoujutsu", where he creates an armor to enhance his basic abilities.

Mari Ichimonji (一文字 é­"理, Ichimonji Mari, Manga only)

Student of the Rodudou Girls' school class 1-B, Okinu's classmate and the first friend Okinu made on her first school day. Used to be a delinquent girl, who has always been looking up to Yumi, even though they don't get along well. She's the brute strength type of fighter.

Kaori Yumi (å¼" かおり, Yumi Kaori, Manga only)

The class representative of 1-B, a very serious person. Because of her tough training as a child, she's developed a strong urge for success, at cost of her classmates.

Megumi Marin (é­"鈴 めぐみ, Marin Megumi, Manga only)

Keeper of the restaurant Marin and an ingenious witch. A very honest and direct person, which is why she doesn't get along with Mikami. She used to study medieval arts in England together with Saijou, recovering long lost spells. At night, she works as an exorcist, who doesn't rely on heavy equipment like the rest of the GS, instead she sticks to her "Principle of balance and tidiness", on which Mikami seriously doubts.

Tamamo (玉藻, Tamamo, Manga only)

Formerly known as "Kinmō hakumen kyuubi no yōko", she used to be a nine-tailed demon fox living in the royal palace during the Yuujō period. After her unjustified execution, she has now been reborn as a fox girl simply known as Tamamo. Though she cannot remember much of her past life, she still possesses various abilities of her fox self. To help her integrate into human society, Mikami has adopted her.

Shiro Inuzuka (犬塚 シロ, Inuzuka Shiro, Manga only)

A young girl of the Jinrō (wolf people) tribe â€" though at times she acts more like a dog than a wolf â€" she is energetic and cheerful. Impressed by Yokoshima's "Hand of Glory", she became his apprentice, in order to avenge her father's death. After her revenge, she stayed as Yokoshima's disciple (always refers to him as "sensei"), and is planning to become a GS one day. After the main event, Shiro came back to the agency and is now officially part of Mikami's GS agency.

Gods

Shoryuki (小竜姫, Shōryūki, lit. "little dragon princess")

• Voiced by: Wakana Yamazaki

A female warrior of the dragon god race who owns a training center in spiritual martial arts on top of a sacred mountain, Myoushinzan. She helped in unlocking Yokoshima's latent spiritual skills and increasing Mikami's power to her limits. Even though her power is immense, she cannot fight outside of her mountain for longer than 3 minutes, creating a parody of the live action show "Ultraman" as Yokoshima stated in one chapter.

Seitentaisei (斉天大聖, Manga only)

Shoryuki's master and the ruler of the sky. As the protector god of Hinduism "Hanuman", he is one of the most powerful gods in existence. He helped in further developing Mikami's, Yokoshima's and Yukinojou's abilities.

Hyakume (ãƒ'ャクメ, Manga only)

A dragon goddess, and Shoryuki's friend. With her 100 visual organs, nothing can escape her eyes (or so she claims), yet her enemies manage to fool her vision more than once. She is the inspector of the god's realm, responsible for investigations.

Medusa (メドーサ, Medōsa)

• Voiced by: Kawanami Yoko

A renegade of the Dragon god's race and one of the top 5 wanted criminal on the black list, who vowed herself to Ashtaroth. She possesses equally strong powers to Shoryuki (or even stronger, since Shoryuki lost to her twice), and is able to summon her familiars (called "Big Eaters") at will. She dies during the siege on the moon by Yokoshima and Mikami's hand.

Demons

Ashtaroth (アシュタロス, Ashutarosu, Manga only)

One of the few top class arch demon of Makai, on the same level as Satan himself. He is the main villain of this manga, and Mikami's arch nemesis. Ashtaroth's plan was to control the world using the "Cosmo Processor", which lets him gain control over the boundaries of life and death, freely arranging the molecular structure of everything. When Mikami and company destroyed the device, the raging Ashtaroth tried to destroy the human world, but in the end he lost against Yokoshima's true power. It is later revealed that Ashtaroth was only trying to defy his fate as a 'villain' and was seeking for death, but was unable to because of the balance problem.

Mephisto Pheles (メフィスト・フェレス, Mefisuto Feresu, Manga only)

Mikami Reiko's past life, a low class demon Ashtaroth created. She fell in love with the mystic Takashima (Yokoshima's past life), and stole Ashtaroth's energy crystal. After Takashima's death, she became human, resulting in the energy crystal to be bound to her soul and inherited to Mikami Reiko.

Dogura Magura (土偶羅é­"å…·ç¾…, Manga only)

A living Dogū, and one of Ashtaroth's loyal servants. He is the one who created Luciola, Vespa and Papilio.

Luciola (ルシオラ, Rushiora, Manga only)

All three of Ashtaroth's servants have been granted with incredibly strong powers as compensation for their short lifespan. Luciola is the oldest of the three demon sisters, her origin is a firefly, thus her name luciola. Even though she is dedicated to fulfill Ashtaroth's will, she falls in love with Yokoshima and is willing to sacrifice everything, including her life, for his sake. Her prior ability is to control the light to create illusions. She dies but, due to her spiritual union with Yokoshima, it is decided that she will reborn as the child of her former lover.

Vespa (ベスãƒ', Besupa, Manga only)

Luciola's younger sister, her origin is a wasp. She is the kind of direct and sincere person, thus her fighting style is solely based on brute strength and speed to compensate her lack of special abilities. It is implied that she is in love with Ashtaroth. After his death, she joined the demon army.

Papilio (ãƒ'ãƒ"リオ, Papirio, Manga only)

The youngest of the three sisters, her origin is a butterfly. Being the youngest, she is very playful, and likes to raise pets. Her ability is to create a barrier with her familiars. After Ashtaroth's fall, she became a disciple of Shoryuki.

Valkyrie (ワルキューレ, Warukyūre, Manga only)

Siegfried (ジークフリート, Jīkufurīto, Manga only)

Others

Yakuchin (厄珍)

• Voiced by: Chafurin (Japanese), Alan Steele (English)

He is the owner of a store that deals with many magical items. He is very greedy and will often overprice his wares if he has the chance.

Aiko (愛子)

• Voiced by: Miki Ito

A yōkai of an old desk housing in Yokoshima's school, her only interest lies in getting to know the school life. Her catchphrase is "the spring of youth". In one chapter of the Manga it's implied that she's secretly in love with Yokoshima, who has a natural charm towards everything supernatural.

Kobato Hanato (花戸 小鳩, Hanato Kobato, Manga only)

Due to the influence of Binboukami (god of poverty), she and her mother have been suffering poverty their entire life. With the help of Yokoshima however, they managed to turn the Binboukami into a god of luck, ending their demise. She also has feelings for Yokoshima, and is even willing to marry him.

Media

Manga

• In Asia, GS Mikami used to be a very popular shōnen Manga with a large fanbase, and even nowadays the fans are still referring to it as an archetype of the supernatural-comedy genre.
• According to the author's note; Mikami name was based on the Asian inflation and the goddess of beauty Venus and Yokoshima is a play of word 'wicked' in Japanese.
• According to the author's statement, he originally intended to finish this Manga after volume 20 with the resurrection of Okinu (who is by the way his favorite character in this Manga).
• Despite the fact that the author created enough suspense for a sequel, with the possibility of a next generation GS team, he finished this Manga at volume 39 with no sign of ever making a sequel. According to the author's note in the final volume, the reason is that he doesn't want to draw the same manga his entire life despite its popularity.
• In 2013, a special two-part special was released as part of the "Heroes Come Back" anthology, in contribution to the relief effort for the victims of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, aside Ghost Sweeper Mikami, the special features tie-ins with other works of the author, like Ichiban-yu no Kanata.

Anime

• In the UK, Manga Video released only the last few episodes of the series.
• The anime was broadcast in mostly all Latin America in the late 1990s and it was a smash hit in countries like Mexico (aired on Televisa) and Chile (aired on the channels Chilevisión and Etc...TV), however, the manga has yet to be released in Latin America. The series were so popular in the Chilean Otaku scene that Tadao Yokoshima is known as a generic perverted character for mostly all things in the mainstream Otaku community (example: If you are peeking a girl's underwear, you are a "Yokoshima"). The series was also broadcast in India on the newly started AXN.
• In the United States, Sentai Filmworks has announced that they have licensed the Ghost Sweeper Mikami anime, presenting it via Video on demand on the Anime Network starting December 2, 2010.

Film

A 1994 anime film was produced by Toei. It acts as a sequel to the TV series.

Video games

Two video games based on the manga and anime were spawned. In 1993 a video game entitled Ghost Sweeper Mikami: Joreishi wa Nice Body (ゴーストスイーãƒ'ー GS美神 〜除霊師はナイスバディ〜) was released for the Super Famicom. In 1994 GS Mikami was published by Banpresto for the PC Engine.

Ghost Sweeper Mikami: Joreishi wa Nice Body

Ghost Sweeper Mikami: Joreishi wa Nice Body is a Japan-exclusive action video game based on the manga and anime Ghost Sweeper Mikami. It was developed by Natsume and published by Banalex, which was released in 1993.

Gameplay

Ghost Sweeper Mikami: Joreishi wa Nice Body is a side-scrolling platformer where the player controls Reiko through multiple stages. Reiko is armed with a magic baton that can be used to perform several types of melee attacks. The baton can be powered up to shoot various types of projectiles, though these powerups are lost if Reiko takes any damage. It can also be used as a type of grappling hook to access certain platforms. There are also limited uses of magic attacks that hit all enemies on the screen.

See also

• List of ghost films
• Yu Yu Hakusho
• Phantom Quest Corp

References

External links

• GS Mikami Gokuraku Daisakusen!! (manga) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia
• Ha'nts and Critters, a review of Ghost Sweeper Mikami, Vampire Wars, and Psychic Wars.
• Animerica review
• Ghost Sweeper Mikami: Joreishi ha Nice Body at superfamicom.org
• GS Mikami: Joreishi ha Nice Body (Reviews) at GameFAQs
• GS Mikami: Joreishi ha Nice Body (FAQ) at GameFAQs