Youkai Buster MurakamiYokai Buster Murakami Edit What would you like to edit? SynopsisBackgroundAlternative TitlesPictureChapters/VolumesPublishing DatesRelationsTypeExternal Links   6o1b66

Let me begin by saying that this manga is a mixed bag. Either you like it or you don't. Very 50/50 in that scenario. I for once enjoyed it very much. A parody of exorcist mangas at a time when Jump is overflowing with them. Definitely a unique approach from the author.

Now let me lay out the basic structure of the chapters. 
--> Wild Yokai appeared
--> MC used Roast
--> It was super effective!
--> Wild Yokai was caught!
That's it! The premise is that simple. The comedy has a somewhat contemporary approach, and you often see lengthy roast battles. And even though I agree that some readers may ... find it rather repetitive later on in the story, or you could argue that the comedy is very dialogue-heavy and entirely relies on roasts as a comedic device, I still find it to be very funny, and that's the only reason I read a gag manga. Also, the plot has been shifting throughout the narrative for the better, so it is a bit of an overstatement if I say that every chapter is them deprecating a helpless Yokai. Another thing I like about the comedy is that it takes a topic and stretches it to create a never-ending conversation full of roasts till the end of the chapter without feeling dull at any given moment

Since this manga has very little slapstick humor, as the comedy relies so primarily on dialogues, therefore the art doesn't really add much to the hilarity. For that reason, I was never really bothered to judge it. However, it's decent if I had to say anything about it.

Characters, and by themselves, they are nothing exceptional. The comedy they bring forth onto the scene determines their value. In a world where yokai exist, Murakami is portrayed as one who views everything logically, whereas Kuin is the sidekick who you frequently find exclaiming at Murakami's absurd statements, although both of these characters are given equal importance. Later on, other characters are introduced, including Mary as the yandere, Tenko as the typical shy girl in love, and numerous others that feature as this manga continues to grace us with its witty humour.

All in all, I definitely liked this manga and would recommend it if you want to read some funny roast battles.

Another Jump series that got axed. It's extremely obvious why this one did, and it's the simple fact that it fails as a gag manga by outright not being funny.

It's okay for a gag manga to not be 24/7 hilarious, or even to have the occasional serious moments in it, but this is not a funny series in any capacity, and it's definitely trying to be funny and failing. The main characters aren't very likeable since they're so one-note and boring, and too many additional characters are rapidly thrown in with little thought to how they actually contribute to the manga. For example, very ... early on, the main character captures three different yokai. Two of these are almost immediately forgotten and the third only occasionally gets referenced by being a pest and then immediately becoming unimportant again. This is kind of how most characters are handled, with them just popping up to have some dialogue, not really do anything to be funny or contribute, and then just disappear again until they need to have another line. But having loose characters that don't really do much isn't instantly a failure, if it weren't for the fact that the two main characters aren't any more interesting.

The oddly large cast (for a barely over 20 chapter manga) isn't helped by the honestly weak art style. It's not the worst ever, but a lot of the time it just feels serviceable at best and at worst it looks amateurish. The character designs themselves are nothing to write home about, and on occasion the characters will even insult other characters' appearances by calling them stereotypical or otherwise, meaning the creator knew they weren't really anything special. Fantastic.

Anyway, enough whining about the characters being boring and inconsequential, because there's something worse: It's just not good at all. Like I said, the humor is awful and every joke drags itself out for way too long. It gets a bit better about this towards the latter duration of the manga, but it's honestly too little, too late. Every joke is just one of two formats: Either one of the girls is weird towards one of the main characters, or one of the main characters defeats a yokai by basically telling it that it's a loser and it sucks. I actually like the idea of beating a yokai simply by being way too rational, but this is handled in the most boring and overly drawn out way possible. You see how long this review is of me complaining? Picture that length but some random guy telling a yokai that it's dumb for numerous s. It's more likely to make you just tab out to something else.

tl;dr: It's boring and isn't funny, which is kind of...you know, not good for a comedy manga to fail at! It's the forgettable kind of bad that I'll probably not even I read by next week, too. Just don't bother.