Ghost Sweeper Mikami

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Ghost Sweeper Mikami
Cover of Ghost Sweeper Mikami DVD.
GS美神極楽大作戦!! (Gōsuto Suīpā Mikami Gokuraku Daisakusen!!)
Genre	Comedy, Horror
Manga
Author	Takashi Shiina
Publisher	Shogakukan Star Comics Elex Media Komputindo Comics House
Demographic	Shōnen
Serialized in	Shōnen Sunday
Original run	1991 – 1999
Volumes	39
TV anime
Director	Atsutoshi Umezawa
Studio	Toei Animation
Network	TV Asahi, Asahi Broadcasting Corporation Italia 1, Italia Teen Television
Original run	11 April 1993 – 6 March 1994
Episodes	45
Animated film
Director	Atsutoshi Umezawa
Studio	Toei Animation
Licensor	Manga Entertainment
Released	1993
Runtime	60 minutes

Ghost Sweeper Mikami: The Great Paradise Battle!! (GS美神極楽大作戦!!, Gōsuto Suīpā Mikami Gokuraku Daisakusen!!^?) is a comedic horror manga series 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 shōnen. The series explores some folk religion themes such as possession, exorcism, shamanism, Yurei, and Yokai.

The series was adapted as a 45-episode anime television series by Toei Animation called Ghost Sweeper Mikami (GS美神, Gōsuto Suīpā Mikami^?) which ran on TV Asahi and the Asahi Broadcasting Corporation from 1993–1994. The anime lead to the release of a movie, which is currently the only existence of Mikami in the United States (released by Manga Video).

1 Manga
- 1.1 Story
2 Characters
- 2.1 Movie Characters
3 Trivia
4 International releases
5 See also
6 External links and references

[edit] Manga

[edit] 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. Some of the main villains like the yasha Medusa and Astaroth are hard to vanquish and return after some time

[edit] Characters

Reiko Mikami (美神令子, Mikami Reiko^?)

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

The president and owner of the ghost sweeping business Mikami GS. Reiko has long red hair, green eyes, and usually wears a short purple strapless dress. She was initially trained by a priest of the Roman Catholic Church in the art of exorcism 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.

She uses a lightsaber-like spiritual weapon, various exorcism charms and martial arts when dealing with supernatural pests and entities. She apparently inherited her mother's ability to time skip.

Tadao Yokoshima (横島忠夫, Yokoshima Tadao^?)

Voiced by: Ryo Horikawa (Japanese), Wayne Grayson (English)

A high school student, working as the main assistant of Mikami. He is totally enthralled by Mikami, and often tells himself that he only keeps his dangerous job because he loves Mikami. His official wages per hour is 50 yen, later increases to 51 yen early in the manga. The plots often feature his possession. He appears at first to have dormant spiritual abilities and later on in the manga, with the help of Shoryuki, a dragon princess, Yokoshima does gain various spiritual abilities of his own. His most useful technique is using his spiritual energy to create special pearls, which grant various wishes to the user.

Kinu Himuro (氷室キヌ, Himuro Kinu^?) (Okinu)

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 doesn't go to heaven after the end of the first mission in the manga. Eventually, she ends up becoming the secretary and errand girl for Mikami and even develops feelings for Yokoshima.

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

Pietro de Blado (ピエトロ・ド・ブラドー, Pietoro do Buradō^?) (Pete)

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

A 700-year-old half human, 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". Currently, a disciple of Father Karasu. Also goes to the same school as Yokoshima.

Father Karasu (唐巣神父, Karasu Shinpu^?)

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

A male Catholic priest exorcist and Mikami's mentor, who draws holy spiritual energy from a bible for exorcism. He is said to be one of the best and most powerful exorcists currently active.

Doctor Chaos (ドクター・カオス, Dokutā Kaosu^?)

Voiced by: Shigeru Chiba

An old senile male alchemist / exorcist with a genius level intellect. Being immortal (or at least 300 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 manuscripts.

Maria (マリア, Maria^?)

Voiced by: Wakana Yamazaki

A tough-fighting, female android who is the companion of Dr. Chaos. Created in the image of Dr. Chaos's love in his younger days. She is strong, fast and resistant to damage. Maria acts as Dr.Chaos' main weapon and bodyguard.

Emi Ogasawara (小笠原エミ, Ogasawara Emi^?)

Voiced by: Michie Tomizawa

A dark-skinned female voodoo exorcist, chief competitor to Mikami's ghost sweeping business. Like Mikami, Emi has been the target of Yokoshima's lust more than once.

Meiko Rokudo (六道冥子, Rokudō Meiko^?)

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

An innocent-looking but extremely powerful teenage girl 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. Meiko is the daughter of a famous mad scientist and a rich heiress; her mother was the former mistress of the shikigami and is still able to control them at will.

Yakuchin (厄珍, Yakuchin^?)

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.

Shoryuki (小竜姫 , Shoryuki^?)

The Dragon Princess, a deity who owns a training center in spiritual martial arts on top of a sacred mountain. She helped in unlocking Yokoshima's latent spiritual skills and increasing Mikami's power. Her arch nemesis is the yasha, Medusa.

Hyakume (ヒャクメ , Hyakume^?)

Her name means Hundred Eyes. She is a triple eye deity with several more eyes around her body who is very curious, able to see through disguises, able to see things many miles away, and has various other sight-related abilities. She also uses a briefcase computer similar to a laptop.

Astaroth (アシュタロス, Ashutarosu^?)

Mikami's greatest foe, the strongest supervillain of the final major story arc in the manga. He has been around since antiquity and creates a complex plan of ruling the universe. He was thwarted once by Mikami's past life incarnation.

[edit] Movie Characters

Nobunaga Oda: Incarnation of the warlord Nobunaga Oda.
Mitsuhide Akechi: A historical warrior who assassinated Nobunaga.
Ranmaru: Based on the historical Ranmaru Mori. A follower of Nobunaga. Here, his alternate form is a spider.

[edit] Trivia

Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines.
The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.

This section needs additional citations for verification.
Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (February 2008)

Because Mikami represents an adult woman, her eyes are not drawn with as wide irises as are other female anime characters, so that the series can contain endless attempts by her male assistant to try and grope her without this being confused with groping a teenager or pre-teen.
According to the author's note; Mikami name was based on the Asian inflation and Yokoshima is a play of word 'poison' in Japanese.

[edit] International releases

In the UK, Manga Video took the bizarre decision to release only the last few episodes of the series.
The anime was broadcasted 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 underwear, you are a "Yokoshima")

[edit] See also

Ge Ge Ge no Kitaro, an anime and manga series which has similar themes.
Hell Teacher Nūbē is another 90's era manga/anime series dealing with exorcists and the supernatural. One of the characters in this series, the teen spiritualist Izuna Hazuki, could possibly even be a parody of Mikami herself in her obsession to use her exorcism abilities on the road to fame and riches.
Phantom Quest Corp, an anime series featuring a ghost hunting company that has trouble making ends meet. Though there are some superficial similarities, both series are actually quite different. The similarities are easily enough, however, to make it likely that Phantom Quest Corp was at least inspired by GS Mikami, if not outright paying tribute to it.