Kuin and Murakami face their greatest foe yet in Yokai Buster Murakami chapter 21: the King of Yokai himself, Sanmoto Gorozaemon. Even so, Murakami makes short work of the legendary figure in a traditional style that provides a fine finale for the series as a whole.
No one really expected much of Yokai Buster Murakami. Penned by the artist who previously brought out such hits as Protect Me! Shugomaru and Koisuru One Piece (sarcasm implied), it seemed destined for the dustbin of history as populated by so many other short-lived Jump gag manga. As a result, I went into the series with pretty much no hope that it’d be any good, but came away pleasantly surprised for two main reasons: narrative escalation and strong continuity.
First of all, when it comes to narrative escalation, no chapter demonstrates this better than Yokai Buster Murakami chapter 21. While Kuin and Murakami started out fighting low level yokai such as kappa and tengu, here they are fighting the most powerful yokai of them all! Of course, it wasn’t as if they skipped straight to the final boss either: the story led the two main characters properly through the hierarchy of yokai, including such major figures as Hakutaku and Shuten Doji.
This feeds into Yokai Buster Murakami’s second major strength: continuity. Instead of focusing on episodic stories each week, Daiki Ihara ensured that each chapter had a tangible effect on the status quo, mainly by adding each monster of the week to the series’ cast of recurring side characters. Consequently, the world feels much more tangible and lived in, much like how Shun Numa crafts an engaging Chinjuku in Super Psychic Policeman Chojo.
In any case, continuity doesn’t actually play a big part in Yokai Buster Murakami chapter 21. Aside from all of the events that led up to Kuin and Murakami meeting Sanmoto Gorozaemon, of course, none of the supporting characters play much of a role in defeating him. Rather, it’s all about Murakami’s own quick wit and uncanny ability to see into the hearts of these supernatural creatures that takes Sanmoto down: more specifically, the fact that the King of Yokai secretly enjoys spending time with humans. This is essentially the formula that the series has used since chapter 1, so it’s a classic - if typical - conclusion.
Humor is an incredibly subjective thing, so whether this resolution fulfilled its intended purpose of being funny or not will vary for each reader. Indeed, all any of us can do is state our own personal opinion: mine is that while Yokai Buster Murakami may seem like another throwaway comedy manga, it could end up holding up very well in hindsight as each story followed on from each other and pushed the concept forward every week.
That, my friends, is the real magic.
You can read Yokai Buster Murakami chapter 21 for free via VIZ Media’s Shonen Jump.
