GS Mikami: Gokuraku Daisakusen!!

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the short, this manga is great. from beginning to end its interesting unlike many other manga in the same genre in which my interest wanes as it get further along into it. if you like this style of manga, you can not go wrong with this one.

the long, the story peaks around volume 36-37, and it feels like that is the end of the manga right there. but it goes on for a few more volumes and doesnt attempt to try to peak again, which makes many manga have a fail ending. this one, from beginning to end was an interesting manga, it has ... the i powered up parts, but it always feels like the pacing is perfect. the serious moments are there, and the comedic moments are there, and they are balanced just enough that it never falls one way for to long. and this manga has what it probably the perfect ending, at least for this type of manga. the only reason story is lower than a 10 is because of something i just cant quite put my finger on.

the art, i have to say, fits the manga perfectly. there is only a handful of times i thought that the art could have used some improvement and those are few and far between.

characters, its hard to say they are bad, but its impossible to say they are perfect. okinu is the only character who has noticeable character growth, the main male has some too, more noticeable towards the end, but thats it. however main female, besides 2 instances (you will know them when you come to them) shows nothing.

this manga has the feel that i like of not being serious and it also has the serious moments that are a great distraction from the comedy. the way the characters interact and the growth of one. and the over all presentation make this a must read for me, and i recommend that anyone who enjoys this kind of manga to pick it up, and even if you just like it, even if you are wondering would i, pick this up, you could do alot worse.

Well, this is a rather interesting manga. You put a girl who is really interested in money and wears really sexy outfits with a perverted man who pretty much is her slave and then add a rather quite sweet ghost and you pretty much have this manga. The manga doesn’t really follow a full fledged storyline, but it really doesn’t have to. Just as most I have reviewed before hand, this one acts more along case files then on a wide driven story. Some chapters are rather short when others could have 7 chapters all about one case. It all depends how fast the case ... is dealt with.

The stories don’t play out what you would expect but always seems to end up comical without really meaning to. It’s like people who work for a serious company but they are all jokesters. It just doesn’t have a lot of drama unless you count the many characters that pop up from time to time. You can pretty much know that the characters will get out fine except for maybe their wallets and a couple of scratches so you don’t really worry about that. What you do end up wanting to know is that if they are actually making money out of the job. I can compare this manga to a Sci-fi anime I watched before, Outlaw star. The Ghost Sweeping business is a lot like a starship; both need a lot of money to keep up and running. You can tell this by when Mikami talks about just how much money just one talisman is worth. So basically the main story of the manga is get enough money to get onto the next job and to keep Mikami happy.

The characters are… well strange… The extra characters almost always make life harder for the main characters. We have a crybaby with shikigami that go crazy when she cries, a woman who uses voodoo magic as Mikami’s rival, a crazy alchemist who has lived forever but almost every thing he does blows up in his face, and tons of other various ‘colorful’ characters. They all come and go as they please making it interesting when they actually end up showing up. Unlike Ranma (and thank god its unlike it), these characters are not actually love rivals although the girls normally end up catching the perverted eye of Yokoshima only for him to end up getting harmed by them as they either go through him to get to Mikami or just because of his stupidity. Unlike many characters that would be just fitting the bill of their stereotypes, these characters do slightly grow, and I think the one that grows the most would be Yokoshima. I consider him more the main character to these mangas then Mikami just because he is the one that seems to grow the most. I can’t really say how much he grows because it is really hard to do so and not spoil some of the things happening, but trust me, you will end up seeing it.

The one thing that bothers me though is even when they are trying to be serious; they end up messing it up with some lame joke that is used a little too much such as Yokoshima’s horniness of Mikami’s money greed. It feels like the only things that happen end with these jokes and when you are reading every single story and it ends with that, it sort of bothers me. Even though the main stories are delightful and have a really good creative flow, when they use the same joke as the ending to all the stories, it ends up feeling uneventful. Here is another example of something that annoyed me. During a rather intense battle, one with a rather strong enemy, for some reason as they fought, the enemy ends up slipping on a banana peel that had no reason to be there. Just little things like that, though entertaining, break the feeling that she manga had. There are other times where the characters talk about the author and talk about the series breaking the forth wall.

The style reminds me of Rumiko Takahashi’s work to a point. At least the male looks like a rip off of Ranma slightly in the face. You can tell the personality of each character by how they dress which shows that the author was paying attention to it when he created the manga. You can tell who the pervert is, who the quiet one is, and who the rather sexual and money grubbing one is. The artwork is pretty standard for how old it is in that most panels have just enough detail to tell you what’s going on but the artist didn’t go any farther then that. Comical scenes are very un-detailed with characters comically exaggerated with chibi style faces, characters being sort of squashed, or other such things.

The clothing style of the characters and even the people in the background are very suggestive of the timeframe where it reminds me of old American 1960’s, rocker hair cuts and jumpsuits, small mini skirts with jean jackets, the occasional headband tied around the forehead. It’s slightly surprising that she decided to use that art style when it was done in 1991 but I believe part of that is because of the culture. You see, when Japan tries to imitate America, they end up being a little behind in the times because of how fashion is circulated around the world. We may try to imitate Japan in a way (well, most of us otaku fans) but we are behind in that. This is a good way of seeing it from the Japanese standpoint and I do not fault the author on creating this type of style in the manga no matter now much I sometimes question the fashion sense.

such a cool old-manga! when i read it, my heart can't stop beating!! it's such a simply-complicated plot! haha.. i mean, the content is not too heavy for teenagers, but the storyline is quite various.. it include romance, friendship, old and current culture, little dirty jokes (oh no!); but it fulls of action scene and supranatural! however, i can't talk it any longer; this manga is quite cool for me. ohh; this manga is recommended for you who loves supranatural and action anime. don't worry; the jokes is often appeared!
maybe it's impossible to hope, but i hope someday this manga serial and its anime will ... be continued. i really hope it someday hahahahahaha

You know when you're trying to enjoy a nice meal but a fly keeps buzzing around you and you can't get rid of it? That's what it's like reading this manga. The first chapter alone hit me with a gay predator joke and an unbearable male character that I know will stick around for the rest of the series so I'm going to drop it just because I have better things to do than torture myself with this.

The only good thing I will say is that Mikami's character is cool and the art has a charm to it that only 90s manga could provide. However, ... my enjoyment for the rest of the first chapter was severely brought down by the author's inane decision to include the pervert character bitch as a part of the main cast.

I feel that the manga would be improved significantly if the pervert bitch gets executed by firing squad in the first chapter but that didn't happen so I've lost hope for this manga for ever being good.

Context/Intro:

This manga, which originated well before I was born in the 1990s, was published in Shounen Jump. It comes from a different time period and was intended for different audiences, so we should keep that in mind before diving into it. I had already watched the anime beforehand, so it wasn't all new to me, but it definitely helps in highlighting any differences. This review will be spoiler-free.

TL;DR:

Recommended with some caveats. It's a good supernatural comedy manga with shounen elements and lovable characters.

Plot: (Not Good)

The plot isn't great. Let's dive deeper into why. This is primarily a comedy manga. Yes, it has shounen elements like ... powerful villains and an evil mastermind, but it consistently gravitates towards comedy, even as the plot progresses. Therefore, if you compare the beginning and the end in terms of plot, not much really happens. While there is an overarching plot later in the manga, it is mostly episodic, with storylines rarely taking more than a few chapters before resetting. The plot's weakest aspect is its pacing, which is all over the place. The ending feels fitting for a comedy manga, though some serious aspects are left unanswered, which isn't a deal-breaker.

Characters:(Good)

Mikami, Okinu, and Yokoshima form the main trio. While they are not particularly complex, they are charming, and you start to like them more as the manga progresses. Character evolution is in line with the manga's comedic focus, meaning it's often played for laughs. Yes, all three characters evolve, with Yokoshima showing the most notable growth, but even by the end, their core behavior remains largely unchanged. Despite the focus on comedy, all characters get their serious moments, which leave an impact. The supporting cast is colorful, though not more complex than the main trio, often running the same gags and punchlines, but they are still appreciated. If you love Yokai folklore, you'll definitely appreciate the enemy one-shot characters. The relationships between characters are surprisingly natural, with a tight bond among the main trio and decent interactions with the supporting cast. As for romance, without getting into spoilers, it's childish and not taken beyond jokes. This subverts expectations, leaving something for the characters to find rather than giving the audience clear answers, which is good for mystery but not for the hearts of readers.

Overall, characters are the manga's strong point, and you really want to see what they do next.

Art:(Bad)

It's hard to say the whether style or art itself is any good, and it's not just because of the time it was released. Over time, it does improve, but only slightly. During emotional scenes, you can sometimes distinguish the expressions characters are trying to convey, but only after reading the text, making it inconsistent. Even during comedy scenes, the art isn't great. While you get the gist of it, most of the time you're just skimming through. However, in some important scenes, the art is probably the best in the entire manga, showing the author's effort.

The paneling is not good either; the flow is off and noticeable, but you get used to it. It looks generic, and the art style doesn't help. Backgrounds are not good either; there are no notable backgrounds, and some seem like straight-up photographs drawn over or edited in. The backgrounds probably make the characters and paneling much worse than they are.

Recommendation:

I definitely recommend reading the manga for its comedy and characters. While other aspects are weak, I still continued reading all 390 chapters because the characters really hooked me in.