DVD ANIME #8 - GHOST SWEEPER MIKAMI
The nice thing about writing these things every so often and not everyone on the board being an anime fan is that I can take a month or 2 to get out 1 review It's not like the DVDVR which everyone on the Message Board reads and is actually compiled by the best crack staff of wrestling writers on the net
(Why the best? Sure there are people who report the news and there are those that give plain old analysis but the DVDVR is always entertaining, not exactly something some other wrestling reviews can claim). Enough of my overblown ass kissing, all the Playaz know I respect them and thank them for letting me post these little ditties on the message board. On with the anime!! This week we bring that gem from the early 90's, Shina Takashi's GHOST SWEEPER MIKAMI!!

GS Mikami is one of those wacky occult comedies that when you watch it you just have to sit back and enjoy the ride. With the over population of Tokyo those in the spirit world have nowhere left to go and end up haunting the innocents of office and residential buildings. Thus a new profession crops up across Japan... GHOST Sweeping!! For a fee, a professional Ghost Sweeper will come and either exorcize the ghost or trap it. Reiko Mikami is a Ghost Sweeper, but more importantly she is a businesswoman and if you can't pay the price of her services don't come a knockin' on her door. She can smell money a mile away and she her best to horde it!! She is aided in her quest for cash by Tadao Yokoshima, a young man who works for the pitiful sum of 250 yen/hour but struggles on "In the spirit of rugged adventure" (i.e. he is a horn dog and it don't hurt that Mikami wears tight clothes and has huge knockers... well it does hurt actually because he tends to ogle Mikami every chance he gets). Together they get help from the kind, yet bright as an eclipse, ghost Okinu in their quest to appease those who should have departed this earth.

Misadventures occur at every turn whether trapping a ghost at a hot spring or trying to help the ghosts of 2 dead bank robbers pull off their last big score. Add to this Yokoshima's constant hunger (you'd be hungry to if you were making 250 an hour, the boy can't even get a decent meal!!), Okinu's clueless ness and Yokoshima's horniness and you've got slapstick and mystical fun for the whole gang. GS Mikami is a hoot and loads of fun. The series ran a total of 52 weekly episodes and the manga only recently ended a
year ago.

Things pick up in later stories especially when they introduce Mikami's rival Ghost Sweepers like Emi, who is Mikami's match in greed, Meiko (a sheltered spoiled girl who happens to be a great ghost sweeper) and Emi's love interest Peet the half-vampire. There are so many characters and so much to go over that the only thing I can say is... GET THIS SHOW!! It was one of those great-lost classics of the 90's because more high profile shows always got the limelight.

Mikami is packed with tons of physical comedy, crude sex humor and over the top physical abuse (heaped on pervert boy Yokoshima) that it is a must get.... oh wait... that problem... barely anyone has subbed this show (12 episodes at most have been done). A CRIME!! No one is even trying to pick this bad mama-jamma up for US release!! AAAARRRGGGHHH!! How many crap shows like "Jungle De Ikou!" and "Adventures of Kotetsu" do I have to go through to find one gem like Mikami? Do we need overhyped morbid crap like "X" the movie that isn't nearly as good as its source material when there are good
fun shows we can watch like Shina Takahashi's light hearted tale of exorcism and greed? HOW MUCH ANIME PORN IS OUT THERE WHEN WE COULD JUST BE WATCHING MIKAMI?

*AHEM* Anyway, Mikami was also at the center of some controversy back in 1996 as Pioneer made a knock off series "Yugen Kaisha" (Phantom Quest Corps). The animation quality was better than Mikami but the characters and execution were the same and resulted in Takahashi filing a lawsuit against
Pioneer and AIC. Just goes to show you that when you screw Mikami out of her cash she'll get her revenge in the end!! Ghost Sweeper Mikami Rating - **** on the fun factor *** for the animation.
The show is solid and worth watching just for the fun of it.