Ghost Sweeper Mikami

From Takashi Shiina, the creator of Zettai Karen Children, comes a supernatural horror comedy.

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 cut-throat corporate world. Among this, the Mikami GS Company, led by Reiko Mikami and her two assistants, Ordinary High School Student Tadao Yokoshima and the Cute Ghost Girl Okinu, is said to be the best.

The manga and anime setup is scenario-to-scenario, with many plots intertwining classic Japanese culture and modern day realities (by 1990's standards), with occasional references to Western influences. In between these plots are some longer story arcs where new characters are introduced and the existing ones are developed further. There isn't one ongoing storyline; the plots are character-driven, serving to gradually develop characters, especially the main protagonists.

The series was later adapted into an anime in 1993 by TOEI Animation, and aired on TV Asahi from April 11, 1993 to March 9, 1994 on Sunday mornings (strangely enough Takashi Shiina's most recent series Zettai Karen Children also aired on Sunday mornings). An OVA was released in 1994, which features some great swordfighting choreography, as well as some face time for most of the main characters.

The series has a small fanbase in North America, and Manga Entertainment released the movie related to this show, but it received a terrible English dub, and strangely in the UK, Manga Entertainment decided to license the final episodes of the series. The Latin American dub, on the other hand, was fairly respectful and had good cast choices, helping the series reach cult status amongst anime fans. (reruns probably helped)

Then the unthinkable happened: the anime was licensed in North America by Sentai Filmworks.

There is a Character Sheet newly minted, so please post character tropes there.

": {tense prelude close-up} ...{next frame shows  victorious without even a scratch on his armor} I'm way out of your league now! I'm in a hurry, bye! Catch you later!
 * Action Girl: Mikami, Emi, Shōryuki, Maria the combat android,.
 * Action Mom: Mikami's mother, she can even travel through time!
 * She has appeared in the war-against-Ashtaroth arc....and has shown that her methods are quite...unethical, to put it mildly, showing to be willing to go to any length to defeat Ashtaroth.
 * And later on Yokoshima's, even Mikami admits she more then a match for her. She apprehends a planejacking terrorist in her first appearance, raise the stock value of the company she works for just by showing up, and outfoxes Mikami into revealing her feelings for Yokoshima...well, almost.
 * Adaptation Distillation: The manga takes about 6 chapters to deal with "the piper"; which gets kind of boring. The anime, takes one episode.
 * Adjective Noun Fred
 * Afterlife Express: One report is dedicated to a hijacked one.
 * Alpha Bitch: Yumi. What makes it worse is that she can't even stand the other students looking up to a successful GS like Mikami. Keep in mind that she's at a school where Ghost Sweepers are trained—she'd keep them from having role models, apparently.
 * Yumi's anger in that situation came from the fact that she idolized Mikami as much any of them, and was jealous that Ichimonji was getting noticed by her idol rather than her. Her hate also stems from the fact that she went through Training from Hell since the day she was born to be a worthy successor to her ghostbusting family's name while Ichimonji apparently is just so gifted that she starts out at a point where she's already about equal to Yumi's level without needing much training.
 * Ambiguously Brown: Emi Ogasawara, who seems to share Mikami's background and training, with the exception of using voodoo for her exorcisms.
 * And I Must Scream: A good chunk of the cast was at risk of this when they tried and failed to exorcise a cursed Crane Game. If you play it, and you fail to snag something, you become a doll prize. Inside the cursed game. Meaning that the only escape is for someone to successfully "win" you...and thus, risk getting trapped themselves.
 * Anime Theme Song: both the opening and the ending. They're even used in the manga in a sing-off battle against a siren.
 * Bad Boss: Ashtaroth. He thought little of wrecking Dogura in his fury after the loss of the energy crystal. Of course, Dogura, being a sort of golem, could be easily restored. However,
 * Battle Couple: Yumi and seem to be being set up as this.
 * The Beast Master: Meiko Rokudo is a shikigami tamer and can control a full twelve of them. However, her control over them relies heavily on her own self-control...and she has essentially none due to her insecurity.
 * Meiko's mom, however, plays it more straight. Being much more experienced and level-headed, Mrs. Rokudo can even make the shikigami drink tea with her easily.
 * It should be noted, however, that under Meiko's wing, they only lose control when she loses it. Anyone else who has had control of them (Emi and Mikami, among others) lose control of them on the instant they are summoned. A fellow shikigami tamer who was presented as being better than her even lost control and they started to attack him after he took control of more than three.
 * Beautiful All Along:.
 * Big Bad: Ashtaroth.
 * Big Damn Heroes:
 * Black Eyes of Evil: Yumi. In her case, they're constantly sparkling, which makes for an unsettling experience of their own.
 * Bratty Half-Pint: The Dragon Prince.
 * Butt Monkey: Yokoshima, even when he's not trying.
 * Lampshaded in that Dogura and the bug sisters—villains, mind you—treat him more nicely than the good guys.
 * Calling the Old Man Out: Yokoshima gets into quite a scrap with his father early on—he's sick to undeath of Daishuu's philandering (remember that Yokoshima is actually honest about his overagitated sex drive), and his trying to trick Mikami into his bed is the last straw. This kind of confrontation also happens with
 * Clingy Jealous Girl: Emi, to Pete.
 * Combat Pragmatist: Saijou, which makes for an...interesting...juxtaposition with his proclaimed dedication to justice. One could argue, though, that he's more concerned with just ends than just means.
 * Cosmic Plaything: Yokoshima, seriously. If he's not in some unpleasant situation by the end of a chapter due to Mikami's neglect or abuse (if it's not his own fault of course), then it's a whole chapter made to screw him over. Poor guy.
 * Crash Into Hello: Yokoshima and.
 * Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Yokoshima when he actually puts his mind to it. Even Mikami begins to realize it in later chapters.
 * Curb Stomp Battle: The  don't even last a full chapter's worth against the heroes. Actually,   didn't even last more than a page.
 * Curb Stomp Battle: The  don't even last a full chapter's worth against the heroes. Actually,   didn't even last more than a page.
 * Characters in shounen manga are always gaining strength too fast!"

": *Tense close up*
 * Another version of the translation:
 * Next frame*
 * You've been dead for a long time, man. I'm way out of your league now!
 * I hate the power inflation rate of shonen manga!"


 * This was justified by Luciola mentioning that the resurrected characters only come back with the strength they had when they were still alive. The heroes are much stronger at this point, so the restored spirits are pretty much just annoyances to the heroes. Nonetheless, it was cool.
 * Cute Ghost Girl: Okinu, arguably Aiko?
 * Cute Monster Girl: Likewise with a few of various youkai the characters encounter.
 * Dangerous Forbidden Technique: The masoujutsu, or Demon Armor Art. Gives you amazing strength and resilience, but use it for too long, and you become a demon.
 * Death Seeker: Believe it or not, this was )
 * Later on, there's
 * Defeat Means Friendship: In some cases, specially.
 * Demoted to Extra: Most of the cast after the tournament arc. Meiko, Dr.chaos, Pete, Emi, just to name a few.
 * Did Not Do the Research: In-universe example. Vlado intends to conquer the world, but would probably have fallen well short of it, if only because his "world map" dates to somewhere around the ninth century.
 * Eastern Zodiac: The basis of Meiko's shikigami retinue.
 * Empty Quiver: Part of how Ashtaroth tries to blackmail Mikami to his lair. In this case,
 * Even the Girls Want Her: Mikami's beauty is remarked on by both males and females, and Meiko is pretty much in love with her.
 * Evil Weapon: . Early on in the series, there's also a demonic sword that tries to kill Mikami while possessing Yokoshima, but runs afoul of her concealed ceramic armor.
 * Fan Service: It's written by Takashi Shiina, so it really isn't surprising, but it's done in a tasteful manner, but seriously you have to expect it by just looking at Mikami. Lampshaded a few times too.
 * The Film of the Series: Features Mikami and the gang going up against feudal Big Bad Oda Nobunaga and his loyal henchman Ranmaru.
 * Fire, Ice, Lightning: Nuru's favored means of personal combat.
 * Freudian Trio: Lust-addled Yokoshima would be the id, workaholic, money-obsessed Mikami the superego, and calm-tempered Okinu the ego.
 * Go Out with a Smile:
 * A God Am I: Ashtaroth certainly likes to think of himself as one, at least as far as his creations are concerned. In addition, he plans to displace all the current gods and take their place as a sole god without any peers, his idea of putting an end to the god/demon wars.
 * Gonk: Mega-hime, in immense contrast to her noble, self-sacrificing nature. And that's in contrast to her somewhat classist father. Ugliness is only skin-deep, indeed...
 * Greed: Mikami, of course.
 * This actually got her into major trouble when
 * Groin Attack:
 * He Who Fights Monsters: Michie. She's still oscillating back and forth a bit on this, but...
 * Heel Face Turn:
 * Heel Realization: Yumi, on finding out Ichimonji was not as lazy as she had thought her to be.
 * Heroic Sacrifice: Yokoshima jumping in front of Luciola to protect her from a blast from Vespa that would surley kill her. Keep in mind that Luciola was intercepting Vespa in a Heroic Sacrifice of her own so Yokoshima would have an opportunity to release Mikami from Ashtaroth's clutches.
 * Hey, It's That Voice!: Hiromi Tsuru as Mikami, Ryo Horikawa as Yokoshima, Mariko Kouda as Okinu-chan, Shigeru Chiba as Dr. Chaos, Wakana Yamazaki as Maria and Shoryuki, and Sailor Mars herself, Michie Tomizawa as Emi Ogasawara.
 * Honest John's Dealership: Yakuchin, to absolutely Jerkass degrees.
 * I Am Not Left-Handed: Like in any other battle manga, this happens a lot. Specially when mikami is involve, and she can cheat someway or another.
 * I Hate You, Vampire Dad: Pietro aka Pete is actually half-vampire, half-human. And yes, he hates his father Count Vlado.
 * The Idiot From Osaka: Yokoshima, in the literal sense at least? That is, he heralds from Osaka, and his mentality is at best inconsistent.
 * Not to mention Yokoshima's seiyuu, Ryo Horikawa also hails from Osaka.
 * Insulted Awake: When Mikami had her Heroic BSOD after getting recruited by Saijo into the G-men and forced to work for fixed pay and free charity events, the thing that snaps her back is Yokoshima making a move on her like he usually does.
 * Jack the Ripper: An interesting version in this series.
 * Jerk with a Heart of Gold: On the flipside though, Mikami does have a few rare moments of "humility", where she can be kind enough when she feels like it.
 * Jerkass: Mikami most of the time, especially when money is involved. The thing of it is she doesn't even realize it, and when told directly about it she tries to deny it.
 * Killed Off for Real:.
 * Lethal Chef: The binboukami has a pretty good sense of nutrition. Unfortunately, he forgets that "nutritious" and "delectable" or even "edible" aren't always the same thing. To give an idea, the "nutritious" burger he made are later used to perform soul-body seperation, simply by biting it once.
 * Licking the Blade: There's a serial killer in the Shiro vs. Tamamo arc who does this.
 * Lotus Eater Machine:
 * Actually happened several other times during the series.
 * Louis Cypher: Ashi Yuutarou, a man similar in looks to Ashtaroth. Mikami even thinks at first that this is a Paper-Thin Disguise for Ashtaroth, but it turns out he's an ordinary human with unfortunately similar name and looks.
 * Lovable Sex Maniac: Yokoshima, but you can't blame him, Yokoshima's a typical 16-year-old guy with a healthy libido, and it doesn't help that Mikami is a hot and sexually attractive 20-year-old.
 * It makes even more sense when you consider that his father, Daishuu, is an unrepentant Casanova. Looks like he inherited a measure of that...
 * It gets better. It turns out that Daishuu acts very much like Yokoshima does when trying to woo the woman who would be Yokoshima's mother ... and the latter acts exactly like Mikami does when rebuffing his over-the-top advances. Yokoshima's probably just taking a few notes from his parents' experience. Mikami was, quite understandably, disturbed.
 * Later on, it turns out that Yokoshima's past life, Takashima, was a womanizer on par with Daishuu. If you were a woman in Heian-era Kyoto, no matter your class, Takashima was probably interested in you.
 * The Man Behind the Man:
 * Medium Awareness: Not to the point that the Fourth Wall is non-existent, but it happens quite a bit. Some notable examples include Mikami snarling that Yokoshima's lasciviousness is pushing the boundaries of shounen manga; commenting that she's gone the course of the manga without killing anyone living (and that she wouldn't mind interrupting that if she gets to take down Medusa and/or Kankuro); and engaging in a singing contest with a siren using the anime's opening song. There's even a point where Yokoshima disparaged the author, who immediately sends down a bolt of lightning to fry him, on a sunny day, and in broad daylight. The frequency rises somewhat as the series goes on.
 * Miko: Okinu, until her death. Now she's a lovable ghost girl.
 * Mood Whiplash: Has a habit of going from tense to comedy and back again. Lampshaded on a few occasions.
 * My Beloved Smother: Yokoshima's mother, Yuriko. She's a general Control Freak who will not suffer anything to not go her way. This includes Yokoshima not wanting to live with her or Daishuu, and him working with Mikami. Thing is, she's actually one of, if not the most rational person in the series, as admitted by Mikami herself. There's a ridiculously short supply of rational thought and behavior in the manga.
 * My Skull Runneth Over: Dr. Chaos has a continuously solved version of this. Because of his lifespan and studies, his brain is literally full with information. Whenever he learns something new, his brain just overwrites something earlier. This leads to a spotty form of amnesia, to the point where even though he can understand the nature of the Tenshi Luopan, he completely forgets that 2+2 is 4, not 5...
 * Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
 * No One Could Survive That: Mikami thinks that Ashtaroth is finally out of her hair after . However, the fact that Hyakume still isn't getting any better makes Saijou think that this isn't the case. There's also the scene of Dogura (who admittedly thrives on radioactive material anyway) making its own escape...
 * The Ojou: Meiko.
 * Omnicidal Maniac:
 * Our Ghosts Are Different: Almost every single possible type.
 * Out with a Bang: After the Mephistopheles incident, Ashtaroth decided to prevent a repeat occurrence by installing several failsafes in his later created servants that would kill them if they took any similar steps. Bedding a human? Breaks failsafe #7.
 * Perpetual Poverty: Dr. Chaos is the epitome of this. No matter what he does to try to get his rent money, it backfires on him. Kobato and her mother were also caught in this, until Yokoshima lifted the curse attached to the binboukami. It's taking some time to properly wane, though. Yokoshiuma also suffers from this, due the absurdly low salary Reiko pays him.
 * Pet the Dog: After Meiko temporarily shreds her shyness to, Mikami pets the exhausted Meiko and decides for once to care more for her than for the money prize. She's also shown to care about Yokoshima a lot more than she'll ever admit.
 * Petting Zoo People: The inukami. Partly justified in that they're a kind of werewolf . The main traits they keep in human form are the tail and the fangs. There's also Tamamo, a kyuube no kitsune whose hair in human form resembles the nine tails of her fox form.
 * Playing with Fire:  and Tamamo.
 * Plot-Relevant Age-Up: Shiro is accelerated from about six to about twelve or thirteen by adsorbing a lot of ki from Mikami and Yokoshima to heal the wounds inflicted by Inukai.
 * Power Perversion Potential: Yokoshima uses one of his to make a demon fall in love with him. Time will tell whether he uses it that way again. The possibilities are endless, and a Lovable Sex Maniac of his caliber wouldn't let them go untried.
 * It happens in the very next story arc—he tries to use one to peer into the showers of a school while some of the students are in there. Only running into an emerging Okinu stops him.
 * Pure Is Not Good: Or rather, Pure Is Not Good Enough, when it comes to Marin's arts. She thinks it's enough to cleanse a place of all its current taints, but all that does is let weaker wraiths flock in with all the competition gone. In other words, the purity she induces can actually make things worse.
 * Reincarnation: Thanks to Hyakume, Yokoshima and Mikami get to learn about the past existences of three characters. Saijou/Saigou is as straight-arrow as ever, Yokoshima/Takashima is as lust-ridden and antagonistic towards Saijou/Saigou as ever, and Mikami...
 * Medusa pulls off a rather impressive one during the space arc.
 * And then, at the close of the War-Against-Ashtaroth arc,
 * It is also said that in a future (which is not shown in the manga)
 * Ret-Gone: Dr. Chaos tried to feed a P.E.T. poison that was supposed to do this to Mikami. Yokoshima was hit instead, and his history was steadily erased from present to past.
 * The Rival: Yukinojou feels this way towards Yokoshima.
 * Romantic False Lead: Saijou, the former apprentice of Mikami's mother. Yokoshima just gets more resolutely desperate to win Mikami back to his side (via keeping the agency in the black, of course).
 * RPG Episode: There was one episode where they were sucked into a possessed RPG.
 * Samus Is a Girl:.
 * Schoolgirl Lesbians: Meiko is infatuated with Mikami after she reprimands her for crying and letting her shikigami go loose.
 * Shout-Out: Early on, part of Pietro's training is shown as performing a "vampire Sho Ryu Ken" inside a waterfall. Also, Daishuu is shown repelling a wraith with his bare fists while yelling "ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA!!".
 * In chapter 56, on page 5, there's a certain spear-wielding boy...
 * At one point, Dr. Chaos claims that Isaac Asimov owes him money.
 * And then there's Meiko unwittingly emulating the opening of Iron Chef.
 * Chapter 284. Mikami pretty much copies the end to the movie Jaws with a great white shark.
 * When Gyakutengou is starting its attack on Myoushinzan, Papilio calls out "This week's surprise mecha!".
 * The Tanabata arc is, in part, one big shout-out to Terminator 2, with milk instead of liquid nitrogen.
 * Chapter 371 takes place in 1978 and contains an authorized cameo of
 * Shrinking Violet: Meiko. Oh God, Meiko
 * And it's hereditary.  is, if anything, even more childish and spookable. Meiko's mother manages to keep a cap on it most of the time, at least as long as she can keep her aggressive demeanor going.
 * Sissy Villain: Ashtaroth. In appearance only.
 * Smoking Is Cool: If his demeanor then is anything to go by, that's why Karasu was smoking back in 1978. On the other hand, getting winded trying to climb up the Sunshine building does convince him that quitting's a smart move...
 * Supervillain Lair: The War-Against-Ashtaroth arc has fun with this one. The heroes are trying to figure out just where on Earth Gyakutengou has been docked for repairs, and are checking every desolate and/or hard-to-reach place for this.
 * Taking You with Me:  really detest losing.
 * Talking the Monster to Death: The fate of Yodogawa, an author ghost who isn't defeated by Mikami, but rather a female author who had tagged along with them. Both authors get into an argument on writing styles (Yodogawa sounds like he takes after Yukio Mishima while his name is based on Edogawa Ranpo, Anna is general popular mystery-thriller) and Yodogawa exorcises himself when he finds out how many books the female author sold, proclaiming "Literature is dead!".
 * Tomato Surprise:
 * Took a Level in Badass: Yokoshima during the tournament arc. Just look at that face. He continues to take several as the story goes on, culminating in him defeating the Big Bad.
 * Tournament Arc: Shortly after the point the anime stopped, we get this. Yokoshima and Mikami are just there to fish out Medusa's infiltrators.
 * Training from Hell: Apparently par for the course for Touryu exorcists. It seems to be a big part of why Yumi acts like she does—she can't stand the thought that all her effort and suffering were somehow unnecessary, if compared to the likes of Okinu and Ichimonji.
 * Then there's what Michie puts Mikami through in order for her to be able to defeat Ashtaroth and Dogura...
 * Before that there was Shouryuuki and Hanoman's training...though the latter consists of playing a fighting game for months on end. It's the test after that latter training that constitutes the "hell" part.
 * Tricked-Out Time:
 * Voices Are Mental: Averted when Dr. Chaos traded bodies with Yokoshima to eventually snatch Mikami's body. Shigeru Chiba and Ryo Horikawa did a marvelous job playing each other's characters.
 * What Happened to the Mouse?: Suzume, the last pixie alive, is introduced and made part of Mikami's crew for a grand total of two chapters, then is inmediately forgotten and unspoken of for the remainder of the series, with only a vague cameo indicating she's still around.
 * Whip It Good:
 * Widget Series: In its own right, this series is random enough to be considered one.
 * Wig, Dress, Accent: How Mikami infiltrates the tournament without Medusa catching on. Although, you'd think someone would have noticed how familiar her alias name--Mika Rei—sounded.
 * Well, Kankuro did...
 * With Friends Like These...: At least, with regard to how Okinu thinks that Mikami and Emi are friends, and their fervent business rivalry is actually fueled by it. No one else seems to share her opinion, though. Least of all Mikami and Emi.
 * Yamato Nadeshiko: Okinu. Kobato would probably be one if she wasn't so goddamn poor...
 * You Already Changed the Past: This seems to be Shiina's preferred understanding of time travel for this series. Spoilered examples from various points in the manga:  One thing to keep in mind, though, is that small changes to the past can occur, but will inevitably be reversed almost at once. So not so much as a single, unchanging, infinite, strand of thread as a single, unchanging, infinite thread with a few knots here and there. Multiple lines at a point, but still the same single chain of causality.
 * You Can't Fight Fate: Dovetails with You Already Changed the Past above, a little. Mikami points out that the reason  is because the universe is actively retaliating for the attempt to sway it from the shape it was trying to take and maintain from the beginning. Her example for how it works is her going back in time and assassinating Hitler. As she points out, the cosmos wouldn't let its shape be altered like that for long; it'd just arrange for the Nazi movement to re-manifest. Amusingly, in her example, the new Nazi archon was John F. Kennedy...
 * You Gotta Have Blue Hair: Okinu embodies this literally. Emi, meanwhile, has dark green hair.
 * You Killed My Father: Why Shiro is pursuing Inukai, even though the inukami elders think exiling Inukai would be both commensurate punishment for him and for harmful-to-nature humanity.
 * You Gotta Have Blue Hair: Okinu embodies this literally. Emi, meanwhile, has dark green hair.
 * You Killed My Father: Why Shiro is pursuing Inukai, even though the inukami elders think exiling Inukai would be both commensurate punishment for him and for harmful-to-nature humanity.