Some hideous percentage of Japanese manga are concerned with the occult: demons, ghosts, exorcism, etc. Unfortunately, few of them are done well. Luckily, GHOST SWEEPER MIKAMI GOKURAKU DAISAKUSEN!! manages to succeed where many others fail.

Background

A comedy-action series set in the modern world, MIKAMI embraces the genre stereotypes and then forges past them. The heroine is Mikami Reiko, a stereotypically tall, gorgeous, and money-hungry ghost-buster. The hero is Yokoshima Tadao, a stereotypically energetic, lecherous, and underpaid assistant in love with his boss (and in lust with anything that looks like a beautiful woman, human or not). Together with O-kinu-chan, a kind and gentle young woman who spends most of the series as a disembodied spirit, they form a formidable ghost-busting team. But beyond the stereotypes and the standard manga beatings of the sex-crazed male by the offended females, there is real warmth between the characters, and the synergy of their partnership is subtle, but clear.
Most MIKAMI plots are short and are resolved within a single issue of Shonen Sunday magazine; however, some of them are considerably longer and more involved. Book 23 is an example of the latter.

Book 23 Overview

Book 23 starts with the conclusion to a continuing story that had placed Mikami and Yokoshima in the past, back to Kyoto in the Heian era (around 1000 C.E.D.). They had been investigating the reason for why the demon world had ordered Mikami's death, and had discovered that Mikami's past-life was as a created demon Mephisto Pheles. Mephisto (also tall, female, and gorgeous) had fallen in love with Takashima (Yokoshima's lecherous past-life). But Takashima was killed, and now, in the opening of Book 23, Mephisto bids farewell to Takashima via Yokoshima (who is temporarily channeling for his past-life). Mikami, meanwhile, watches her past-life's tearful farewell with great disgust and unease. At last, Mikami, Yokoshima, and the divine investigator Hyakume return to modern Japan.
The upshot of the investigation is that the demon Ashtaroth wants the return of a powerful demonic energy source that Mephisto/Mikami had consumed in the past. But the more unusual result is that Mikami -- cold, money-hungry, domineering, arrogant Mikami -- has begun to realize (to her horror) that she is in love with the flaky and sex-starved Yokoshima.
Before the implications can fully sink in, however, Mikami and Yokoshima find themselves desperately trying to save O-kinu-chan. In a previous story, O-kinu-chan the ghost had re-incarnated into her old body, which had been preserved for hundreds of years. Since the re-incarnation process causes memory loss, Mikami and Yokoshima had left her to live a normal student's life in a remote village. Now, however, a large pack of frustrated ghosts are pursuing O-kinu-chan, intent on separating her from her body and taking it for themselves. Apparently, O-kinu-chan's connection to her body is weaker than normal because of her strange personal history.
Though Mikami and Yokoshima manage to find O-kinu-chan (who still doesn't remember them), they realize the horde of pursuing ghosts is too powerful to fight. Mikami manages to acquire the Necromancer's Flute, which theoretically allows one to control ghosts. Although Mikami finds she cannot use the flute, O-kinu-chan remembers her long years as a disembodied spirit herself, and finds that she can sympathize with the ghosts' desire to live in a physical body so much that she can play the flute. The ghosts, under the influence of her playing, disappear and dissipate.
To celebrate her return, all her friends --- ghosts, spirits, monsters, ghost-sweepers, exorcists, and so on --- decide to throw her a party. They are briefly interrupted when a single leftover ghost from the horde arrives to try to take O-kinu-chan's body. Needless to say, the ghost doesn't stand a chance --- but neither does the room in which they'd been celebrating. The gaggle of spirits and ghost-sweepers go off to have drinks elsewhere. Later, Mikami experiences a bit of jealousy as she sees a passed-out O-kinu-chan tenderly carried home by Yokoshima, but she keeps her peace.
Book 23 wraps up with the first half of a series in which Mikami is hired to clear a mansion of spirits --- only to discover that she and her friends have been trapped in a testing ground for a company developing military spirit weapons. The company has produced scores of brainwashed and mind-controlled demons and other entities for future sale to world governments, and Mikami had been lured in to test the products.
The company officers, however, had not been counting on the sly tactics of Mikami and her friends. Among other things, Yokoshima uses his own powers to cause one of the female demons to fall in love with him, and Mikami brainwashes a giant stone golem into becoming her slave. But at last, the company pulls its trump card: a powerful, bird-like demon whose power far outstrips anything else...

Summary

Book 23 is one of the high points of the series. It explores Mikami's past and the relationship between Mikami and Yokoshima, and both characters grow a little bit (if not a lot) from the experience. O-kinu-chan returns in triumph, acquires new skills, and, with her hidden love for Yokoshima, resumes her pivotal role as the third point in a continuing love-triangle. But beyond the plot, the humor that the series is known for continues to shine through. Unfortunately, however, to see that humor, one really must read the books and not rely on a short review like this one.

Ghost Sweeper Mikami Gokuraku Daisakusen!!
Author: Shiina Takashi
Publisher: Sunday (Shogakukan)