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WARNING! |
The Onbusuman Arc is the eighth story arc of the Dandadan manga series and the eighth story arc of the Kintama Hunt Saga.
Following Momo and Okarun's decision to form a club with their friends as a way to meet up at school and locate the latter's second missing kintama, the two end up having a mysterious teacher named Sanjome as their advisor whose presence causes confusion for most. Amid the club's creation, Okarun is approached by Class Rep Rin Sawaki who reveals to him that she had previously found his missing kintama and had it handed over to the police as lost property. Before he could focus on retrieving it back, Okarun, Momo, and Seiko help Rin to get rid of a yokai that has been haunting her called an Onbusuman.
Synopsis[]
The Deputy Head Teacher & The Class Rep[]
With his kintama reclaimed, Okarun has it put back in his crotch by the Turbo Granny but disapproved of her, Momo, Seiko, Jiji, and Bamora treating the process as a game of football, with Seiko disappointed with her lose against the Turbo Granny and Momo berating Jiji for his poor performance.
Sanjome, the mysterious, yet acknowledged, deputy head teacher and recently appointed advisor of the History and Culture Research Club.
Elsewhere, a man is shown coming out of the Gates of Hell and proceeding to travel to the high school where he is acknowledged in the staff room as Sanjome the deputy head teacher, albeit with doubt from a few staff members who have a hard time remembering him. During this time at school, Momo, Okarun, Kinta, and Bamora (who has learned how to speak Japanese based off Okarun and the Turbo Granny's speech patterns) meet together and decide on forming a History and Culture Research Club as way to assemble and discuss the whereabouts of Okarun's second kintama without causing suspicion on school grounds. Needing a club advisor, Momo and Okarun are introduced to Sanjome who agrees to fill in for the position. Having a hard time remembering him, Momo asks him what class he taught and how long he has been at the school. Sanjome evades the questions by telling her that he is delighted with her curiosity of him and states his goal to investigate the great unknowns the world has to offer by working with a group. With their club advisor obtained, Sanjome takes the group to the school's storage room that will serve as their clubroom once they have cleared it out.
While walking with Okarun, Momo voices how strange it is that despite never seeing Sanjome around school she is somehow familiar with his name. Her curiosity then fades away after noticing a couple kissing nearby, causing her to become flustered and wanting to turn Okarun's head away to prevent him from looking as well. After this results in them both making close eye contact and feeling self-conscious, Momo tries to force Okarun in having him talk about the note she left without going into context but storms off angry after failing to get through to him. As he starts to feel bad about himself, Okarun is met by his class representative, Rin Sawaki, who asks him if he is a vampire, revealing that she saw his Turbo Granny form while he was carrying out the stuff out of the storage room and another time in class.
After telling him that her awareness started after coming across a golden ball, Rin is urged by Okarun to tell him if she has it with her and ends up thinking out loud of what Okarun will do to her as a vampire, which the latter denies. Rin tells Okarun that she had taken it to a police box as lost property and is informed that it is a lump of spiritual energy, which she chooses to believe, explaining that her discovery of the kintama and her awareness of his Turbo Granny has led her to feeling weighed down by a mysterious force, thinking that there might be some kind of connection but was afraid to confront him about it. Hearing this, Okarun reassures her that she should feel free to ask him about anything.
The Onbusuman appears.
After the two arrive at the police box, Okarun and Rin are informed by the front desk officer that the kintama has already been claimed and that he can't reveal who it was due to it being private information. Okarun and Rin leave finding it suspicious how someone managed to collect the kintama, figuring that they would need to show proof that the item is theirs, and think that it could be possible that the officer is lying and the kintama may still be there. After Okarun suggests asking Momo for help by having her check to see if the aura of the kintama is still there, a large yokai appears behind Rin to have her fall to the ground. Okarun realizes that the yokai is what Rin was referring to earlier by a heavy force weighing her down and tries to get it off her by attacking in his Turbo Granny form. However, this proves to be ineffective as the yokai turns out to be intangible.
Okarun carries an injured Rin to the Ayase house for help. There, Seiko concludes that the yokai bound to Rin is an Onbusuman, the spirit of a child who climbs onto people's backs to crush them under its growing weight unless they provide it with love to rest in peace, and asks the girl to talk about her childhood to know the yokai's origin. Rin goes all the way back to elementary school where a girl named Mai Kawabanga encouraged her to work towards becoming an idol with her and her friends after hearing her amazing singing voice. Though she was in compliance to practice with Mai for an upcoming audition, Rin declined later on to attend, telling Mai and her friends that she had her responsibilities at home looking after her bedridden grandmother while her mother was out working. Mai then discontinued her friendship with Rin, feeling betrayed after she was met with scorn by the latter in the process of her defending her mother. Later, Rin received a call from Mai's Mother about Mai needing her for support in the audition and agreed to join her, as her grandmother urged her to live her life and not worry about her well-being. However, this led to Mai and her mother getting into a car accident on their way to pick Rin up, leaving Rin with regret up till now.
Operation Onbusuman[]
The Onbusuman operation commences.
With the story concluded, Seiko determines that the Onbusuman is the spirit of Mai and that the only way to dispel it from Rin is to arrive at the audition venue. Knowing that the Onbusuman is liable to show itself if in a place with lots of spirits, Seiko takes Momo, Okarun, and Rin over to the school where various spirits are said to dwell. To first get to the site of Mai's accident, in an attempt to have Mai remember when she was alive, and then to the audition venue, Seiko hire dashi carriers to transport them, along with the Hayashi for protection against the multiple school spirits trailing them on the route. After the Onbusuman appears, Seiko gives the command to head out before the awakened school spirits, who have animated the school building, are given a chance to capture them.
While the Hayashi are in charge of erecting a barrier with their music to deflect attacks from the animated school building, Momo and Seiko become task with protecting the float from the multiple spirits in the form of Ninomiya Kinjiro statues who attack by throwing explosive logs. The safety of the dashi is then jeopardized after the Hayashi's vocalist is knocked out cold from being hit by flying debris, resulting in the barrier being unformed. Needing a substitute, Rin is ordered by Seiko to fill in using her singing voice. However, the young girl unfortunately states that she can no longer sing because of her guilt over Mai's death and falls to her knees feeling ill. With the barrier down, Momo is forced to use her psychokinesis to keep the wheels connected to the dashi, after it takes damage from the Ninomiya Kinjiro statues' explosive logs, and keep the animated school building from crushing them. Meanwhile, Okarun is left as the only dashi carrier after the others had reached their limit and tries staving off the Ninomiya Kinjiro statues from coming near the dashi.
Mai's spirit released of its Onbusuman form.
Just as Momo loses strength keeping the animated school building from crushing them, Rin manages to sing again to restore the barrier, having been encouraged by Seiko to turn her bottled up emotions into a song. However, her song is interrupted by the Onbusuman's reappearance, with its size growing larger preventing Rin from standing. However, after the group manages to reach the site of Mai's accident, the Onbusuman's memories return and is released of its regret as it reverts back to being Mai's spirit. Mai then gets the chance to apologize to Rin for badmouthing her in the past, as the girl realized at the audition venue that she was living a rough life, and rekindles her friendship with Rin after she accepts her apology. With help Mai to have the dashi reach the audition venue before it falls apart, the two girls sing a duet that has the barrier become powerful to destroy the animated school building.
After finally reaching the audition venue, Rin watches from a distance as Mai's spirit begins to fade away. Before she leaves, Rin tells her that she had much fun singing and dancing with her in the past and that she truly wanted to become an idol with her. Mai replies back admitting that she was envious of her change in personality from being nervous to dignified when she sings and only wanted to become an idol to live up to her mother's expectations, which she thought made her the real traitor. However, Mai becomes reassured by Rin that she was wrong about herself, being told that her kind and cheerful attitude and determination to meet expectations was what made her cool and an idol to everyone around her. After Mai's spirit departs feeling touched by Rin's words, Seiko places her hand on Rin's shoulder as the young girl cries remembering having fun with Mai and her friends.
Story Impact[]
- The second game ritual to reattach Okarun's ball is played, although he's still missing one.
- Count Saint-Germain appears on Earth by walking through the Gates of Hell, presumably a warping device. He then uses his brainwashing powers so he can enter Kami High and claim that he's the head deputy teacher with the alias Sanjome. He will use his high position to become the History and Culture Research Club's faculty supervisor.
- Takeshi Murakami and Mika Adachi are also introduced, though they will only have a major role during the Kozuka Knives Arc.
- Sanjome informs Momo and Okarun that he's very passionate in investigating all the world's mysteries and thought that if he collaborated with those who also shared his objective, it would be easier and quicker to complete it.
- The kids decide to estabilish the History and Culture Research Club, based on occultism so they could focus on finding Okarun's last missing nut. They clean up a shed that will act as their clubroom, although it has yet to be used.
- Momo is now basically head over heels for Okarun and she's mad that he's not mentioning her love letter that she wrote during the Kur Invasion. She also makes up scenarios in her head where he confesses to her, but she's too stubborn to make the first step.
- While cleaning the shed, Okarun uses his powers and is spotted by Rin Sawaki. This arc serves as her proper introduction and development, revealing that she has fantasies surrounding vampires and believed that Okarun was one. Okarun discovers that other than Aira, Rin was actually the other person who found his kintama and she deposited it in the Kamigoe Police Box, though they discover that it has already been retrieved. Okarun will visit it again with Momo at the start of the Danmara Arc and find out that the ball was taken by Unji Zuma, guided by Sanjome.
- Rin has a tendency of narrating her fantasies out loud by mistake.
- Masamichi Vega debuts in the police box, but he will have a major role only after this arc.
- It's revealed that Rin is haunted by an onbusuman, called "old man crying" back in the days, which is a spirit of a child who died in infancy. They climb onto peoples' back in search of love and if it's given to him, they can depart to the afterlife in peace. If not, the spirit's loathing will continue and become larger and larger until they crush the human they haunt by their sheer weight.
- Rin narrates her past friendship with Mai Kawabanga, who died in a car accident with her mother and is now the onbusuman haunting Rin. Her complicated home life is also shown because of her dead father Tadamichi, her overworked mother and her ill grandmother. She never had many friends.
- Her skill for singing is displayed and Mai wanted to combine it with her dancing skill to become an idol duo. Her singing will become the base of her future power.
- The Hayashi are hired again by Seiko, along with Float Pullers to pull a festival cart, which apparently belongs to the Rokken Sect, revealed back in the Cursed House Arc.
- The Hayashi can make a spiritual mesh out of music that repels spirits, although smaller ones can fit through.
- Two more of the Seven School Mysteries appear, being the Shining School Building which is the school itself being animated by spirits, and the statues of Ninomiya Kinjiro.
- Mai detaches from Rin and takes human form, singing together and removing her regrets. She departs, but because she still wishes for Rin to become an idol, she turns into a guardian spirit instead and watches over Rin. In the future, she will grant her gravitational powers and act as her microphone.
Characters Introduced[]
| Characters | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mika Adachi | Takeshi Murakami | Masamichi Vega | Mai Kawabanga | Rin's Grandmother |
| Rin's Mother | Tadamichi | Mai's Mother | Shining School Building | |
Battles & Events[]
| Event | ||
|---|---|---|
| Onbusuman Operation |  | |
Chapters[]
| # | Title | SJ+ Release Date |
|---|---|---|
| 121 | Who's This Person? | September 19, 2023 |
| 122 | Let's Form a Club | September 26, 2023 |
| 123 | The Class Rep's Secret | October 3, 2023 |
| 124 | Ombusman | October 10, 2023 |
| 125 | Let's Do an Exorcism | October 17, 2023 |
| 126 | It's a Parade Float. It's a Festival. It's Ninomiya | October 24, 2023 |
| 127 | Float Performance Face-Off | October 31, 2023 |
| 128 | Let's Be Idols | November 7, 2023 |