
Shonen Sunday Briefs (continued)
GHOST SWEEPER MIKAMI GOKURAKU DAISAKUSEN!!
by Shiina Takashi

Overview: Mikami Reiko is a money-hungry, gorgeous female ghost
buster, aided by her sex-starved and underpaid male assistant
Yokoshima Tadao, as well as kind and gentle female ex-ghost O-kinu.
This issue: Another Yokoshima-finds-a-beautiful-monster episode. This
time, Mikami takes up a task even her mother has refused: to capture a
magical nine-tailed fox, of the type that once devastated China and
India before coming to Japan. Yokoshima and O-kinu take pity on the
young fox, however, and secretly bring it home. O-kinu fails to live
up to the image of a Miyazaki heroine by failing to tame the fox. The
fox, however, does have a stereotypical fondness for fried tofu, and
(not surprisingly for this series) turns into a cute, foxy young
girl....
MAJOR
by Mitsuda Takuya

Overview: Honda Goro, from his early years in grade school, has been
striving to become a profession baseball player like his father. Now,
in high school, he is facing new challenges.
This issue: Still at the punishing, isolated training
ground for Kaidou High's baseball team, the young recruits are suffering
mightily. They are sent up a steep hill, forbidden from letting their
hands or knees touch the ground. No freshman has ever been able to
conquer this hill, but Honda does. The trainer carries this news back
to the school's baseball overlord, who tells him to crush Honda and
says, "I will create the geniuses." In other words, geniuses are
supposed to be created by him; all others are not allowed. Honda, as
a "nail that sticks out," must be hammered down....
KARAKURI CIRCUS
by Fujita Kazuhiro

Overview: Masaru is a grade school boy who is the heir to a vast
fortune. Shirogane, a French woman who controls a powerful puppet, is
his bodyguard.
This issue: Narumi is in search of the murderous automata that have
kidnapped a group of children in France. As he makes his way into an
old mansion, he recalls his earlier days, when he trained in China.
His teacher taught him not only how to fight, but to identify the
"wind that blows inside the heart," the unrest and unease of powerful
people who don't know what to do: an unrest that only Narumi can find
the cure for. As he fights, Narumi remembers that it was only
Masaru's smile that stopped the wind of unease. But Narumi, as an
amnesiac, also thinks he failed to protect Masaru somehow. This time,
facing the automaton Flavio, who has chained to himself the kidnapped
children, Narumi resolves to successfully protect the innocent.
However, he winds up getting saved by the elderly women puppeteers of
the Shirogane....
DANDOH!!
by Sakata Nobuhiro and Banjou Daichi

Overview: Dandoh is an earnest young boy who has found a calling in
golf. With his friend Yuka and Kouhei, he uses sincerity and
determination as his guides for becoming a pro-golfer.
This issue: Dandoh has been struggling at the Asian Match
Play in Thailand, especially since his caddy seems to know absolutely nothing
about golf. But the young caddy seems to have come around, and gives
Dandoh a vital suggestion for using a hard-packed path behind the
trees. With this information, Dandoh wins the next hole and starts to
make up for lost points. The caddy, seeing Dandoh's happy smile,
begins to warm to the job.
KAGEGUMI
by Akashi Kazutaka

Overview: The Kagegumi is nominally an evil-fighting junior high
group, largely comprised of somewhat strange and perverted kids.
Comedy series.
This issue: Muttsuri finds a note that the others have been kidnapped,
and is instructed to bring furikake (rice topping), an Othello board,
a carrot, and ketchup to free them. Along the way, he winds up
somehow losing or giving away all but the ketchup (the carrot, for
example, goes to a random rampaging horse). He finds out, though,
that all had been a test of his personal growth. The other 3 members
are transferring out of their junior high. 
Shonen Sunday ©1999 Shogakugan
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