Ghost Sweeper Mikami

Plot

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 31-year-old Reiko Mikami and her two assistants, the 17-year-old boy Tadao Yokoshima and the ghost girl Okinu, is said to be the best.

The 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 plot points, there are longer story arcs where new characters are introduced and the existing characters are further developed. While the overarching storyline focuses on Reiko's contention with her arch-nemesis, Astaroth, the series is mostly character-driven and serves 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)

A 31-year-old exorcist using Japanese traditional methods and the president and owner of the ghost sweeping agency, Mikami GS. She uses a lightsaber-like energy sword as a spiritual weapon, exorcism charms, ofuda talismen and martial arts skills when dealing with supernatural entities. She was initially trained by the pastor father Karasu, but she was not satisfied with a life of poverty and seeks to become wealthy from the success of her exorcism business. Her motto is "profit comes first", often gouging her clients for a higher fee and is stingy when it comes to paying her employees.

Tadao Yokoshima (横島 忠夫, Yokoshima Tadao)

Voiced by: Ryō Horikawa (Japanese); Wayne Grayson (English)

A 17-year-old high school student, poorly paid assistant of Mikami. His hourly wage is 250 yen per hour, but later increased to 255 yen. He likes beautiful girls and is infatuated by both Okinu and Mikami, although he will chase any attractive woman. He appears to have dormant spiritual abilities and later on, with the help of Shoryuki, Yokoshima gains various abilities of his own. He also gains the unique ability of creating balls from spiritual energy called Monju, apparently the only one in the world with this power.

Kinu Himuro (氷室 キヌ, Himuro Kinu) / Okinu (おキヌ)

Voiced by: Mariko Kouda (Japanese); Debora Rabbai (English)

A teenage female ghost who was sacrificed over 300 years ago at the age of 15 or 16 to calm a volcanic mountain's anger. The process was unsuccessful and she became jibakurei or earthbound spirit. She first encountered Mikami and Yokoshima at the mountain's hot spring and Mikami "adopts" her to become the secretary and errand girl for Mikami's agency. Yokoshima is attracted to Okinu and she is fond of him, but they do not form a romantic relationship. Okinu's spirit eventually reunites with her body which was safely preserved in ice. She begins the life of a normal teenage girl, but after temporarily losing her memory, she realizes that she is a natural necromancer with healing powers and the ability to understand a spirits' pain.

Karasu's Church

Kazuhiro Karasu (唐巣 和宏, Karasu Kazuhiro) / Father Karasu

Voiced by: Kazuyuki Sogabe (Japanese); Peter Patrikios (English)

A male Catholic priest exorcist who was expelled 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. It is suggested that he will become the chairman of the GS community one day.

Pietro de Bloodeau (ピエトロ・ド・ブラドー, Pietoro do Buradō) / Pete (ピート, Pīto)

Voiced by: Toshiyuki Morikawa

A 700-year-old half vampire. He's currently a teenager in his physical appearance. 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.

Doctor Chaos' Lab

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 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. While nearly all of the main Ghost Sweepers other than Meiko and Mikami are implied to be in a very deep financial rut, Chaos is the Ghost Sweeper whose dire financial straits is most often displayed and he is regularly pursued by his landlady for the rent. He had to loan Maria out to Mikami as collateral for a loan to build Teresa, and in an anime episode where the group entered a movie set in Japan's Edo period, he and Maria were depicted as peasants.

Maria (マリア)

Voiced by: Wakana Yamazaki

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. She is 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

A 29 years old dark-skinned female voodoo exorcist and chief competitor to Mikami's ghost sweeping business. According to Mikami, Emi is the strongest voodoo user worth competing with her and has three muscular assistants: Arnold, Schwarze and Negger. Even though they are competitors, they can rely on each other in times of emergency. Emi is apparently in love with Pietro de Bloodeau 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 when she gave up that career due to an incident.

Tiger Torakichi (タイガー 寅吉, Taigā Torakichi)

A large, muscular man, who is 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 and was nicknamed "molesting tiger", but he now has a fear of women. His has the ability to create illusions through telepathy.

Rokudō family

Meiko Rokudō (六道 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 Twelve Heavenly Generals, legendary Hindu figures who became Buddhists: (Indara, Ajira, Kubira, Basara, Shindara, Sanchira, Haira, Makora, Shôtora, Anchira, Bikara, and Mekira). They're in animal 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 regards Reiko as her closest friend because she was the only person to ever talk to her and was 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 Rokudō (六道 第48代, Rokudō Dai Yonjū-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 Saijō (西条 輝彦, Saijō Teruhiko)

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 Reiko Mikami'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.

Michie Mikami (美神 美智恵, Mikami Michie)

Mikami's mother, a first class GS who is in fact one of the strongest GS of all time, 39 years old. 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 Yokoshima's family members

Daishū Yokoshima (横島 大樹, Yokoshima Daishū)

okoshima'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)

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 Mikami's family members

Hinome Mikami (美神 ひのめ, Mikami Hinome)

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)

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 (伊達 雪之丞, Date Yukinojō)

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 魔理, Ichimonji Mari)

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 do not get along well. She is the brute strength type of fighter.

Kaori Yumi (弓 かおり, Yumi Kaori)

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

Megumi Marin (魔鈴 めぐみ, Marin Megumi)

Keeper of the restaurant Marin and an ingenious witch. A very honest and direct person, which is why she does not 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 does not 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 (タマモ)

Formerly known as Kinmō Hakumen Kyūbi no Yōko (金毛白面九尾の妖狐), she used to be a nine-tailed 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.

Gods

Shōryūki (小竜姫)

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 stated by Yokoshima.

Seitentaisei (斉天大聖)

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 (ヒャクメ)

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)

One of the few top class arch demon of Makai, on the same level as Satan himself. He is 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)

Reiko Mikami'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 Reiko Mikami.

Dogura Magura (土偶羅魔具羅)

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)

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 his child in the future.

Vespa (ベスパ, Besupa)

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.

Others

Yakuchin (厄珍)

Voiced by: Chafurin

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 Itō

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". It is implied that she is secretly in love with Yokoshima, who has a natural charm towards everything supernatural.

Kobato Hanato (花戸 小鳩, Hanato Kobato)

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

Written and illustrated by Takashi Shiina, Ghost Sweeper Mikami debuted as a one-shot in Shogakukan's shōnen manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Sunday on May 8, 1991. The manga was then serialized in the same magazine from July 17, 1991, to September 22, 1999. Shogakukan collected its chapters in 39 tankōbon volumes, released from March 18, 1992, to November 18, 1999. Shogakukan re-released the series in a 20-volume wideban edition, published from December 16, 2002, to July 15, 2004; a 20-volume shinsōban edition from June 16, 2006, to March 16, 2007; and a 23-volume bunkoban edition from August 18, 2016, to June 15, 2018.

Anime

A 45-episode anime television series adaptation, produced by Toei Animation, was broadcast on the Asahi Broadcasting Corporation from April 11, 1993, to March 6, 1994.

In North America, the series was licensed by Sentai Filmworks in 2010. The series was released on four DVD sets, in Japanese with English Subtitles, from November 23, 2010, to May 3, 2011.

Film

A 60-minute anime film, produced by Toei Animation, premiered on August 20, 1994.

The film was released in North America by Manga Entertainment on June 25, 2002.

Video games

A video game for the Super Famicom, Ghost Sweeper Mikami: Joreishi wa Nice Body (ゴーストスイーパー GS美神 〜除霊師はナイスバディ〜, Gōsuto Suīpā GS Mikami Joreishi wa Naisu Badi), published by Banalex, was released on September 23, 1993. Another video game for the PC Engine Super CD-ROM², simply titled Ghost Sweeper Mikami , published by Banpresto, was released on July 29, 1994.

Reception

In 1993, Ghost Sweeper Mikami, along with Yaiba, received the 38th Shogakukan Manga Award for the shōnen category.

Reviewing the anime series, Giancarla Ross of THEM Anime Reviews dismissed it as a shallow, inferior counterpart to Phantom Quest Corp, criticizing its characters, weak animation, and plots. While acknowledging some humor, Ross concluded the series was mediocre and overshadowed by better occult comedies.