Say Hello to Bookila! (Weekly Shonen Champion)

Toroko Neoki is possibly the most arrogant woman in Japan. The ditzy “star” of Touzai Television Productions, Toroko is a bit of a mystery. She shows up late for work, is disinterested in following any kind of direction, doesn’t read the script and more or less just does whatever she wants… and yet, despite the absolute chaos on set, she still features prominently in almost every production that Touzai TV produces. Despite calls by the writers and other production staff for her to be fired, the station manager, Mr. Nikomi, simply refuses – saying that there’s a very important reason they keep Toroko on the air. But he refuses to divulge the secret.

This, of course, piques the interest of entertainment reporter Rockurou “Rock” Makube, who decides to get to the bottom of the mystery. Despite his questioning, Mr. Nikomi, refuses to divulge any answers – and a one-on-one interview with the extremely dense and befuddling Toroko only deepens the mystery. However, he is left with one clue – seek out Bookila in Studio 13.

When Toroko goes off script and ends up promoting the product of a competitor, the station loses yet another sponsor to her incompetence, however the Director of the station still declines to fire her for fear that the haunting of the station will get worse. Seeing this, Rock decides to track down a former guest star, sumo wrestler Seki Nakanishiki. After interviewing the sumo, he hears about his hair raising experience at the Touzai TV studio and realizes that Toroko is “immune” to the strange happenings at Studio 13. When he confronts her, she says she’ll only tell him if she takes him for a ride in his car and drives fast.

Despite nearly dying on the highway, Rock does as she requests and, in return, she finally introduces him to her “secret friend”, Bookila. However, Bookila seems jealous of Rock‘s relationship with Toroko, and things… go badly.

After getting off to a bad start, Toroko and Rock sneak into Studio 13 in the middle of the night to apologize to Bookila. As things settle down, Rock begins to question Bookila about his origins – but one fart from Bookila sends Rock and Toroko running for fear of getting knocked out by the gas. Later, some gangsters pay a visit to Rock‘s apartment and rough him up – secretly at the request of Mr. Nikomi who is trying to throw the reporter off the scent. However, dealing with gangsters can be a double-edged sword, and the Yakuza boss decides to kidnap Touzai’s star and hold her for ransom instead. Rock enlists Bookila’s aid and together they save Toroko.

The haunting’s at Touzai’s Studio 13 continue – this time a strange pillow keeps attacking the TV host. Although Mr. Nikomi is furious and tries to have a stage hand remove the pillow, Toroko, oblivious to hauntings, decides to take the pillow home to use as stuffing for her dolls. As luck would have it though, the pillow is in fact a demon from the same dimension as Bookila. He implores Bookila to return home – even though he ran away to escape a group of bullies at his school. Of course, soon enough one of the demon bullies shows up and tries to have his way with the young demon. However, Bookila learns that if you stand up to bullies, their bark is usually worse than their bight, and he uses his powers to defeat his tormentor.

The board of directors of Touzai TV Productions has had enough. Since Toroko’s presence now seems to make the hauntings worse instead of better, she’s summarily fired from her acting job and told to leave the station. Upset with Bookila for causing the situation, she tells him she never wants to see him again. Finding Toroko crying alone on a park bench, Rock takes the young girl home – only to discover Bookila doesn’t seem to be able to take “no” for an answer. Momentarily subduing Bookila with a hair dryer, Rock takes a small tissue sample over to Tsukuba University for analysis. To his complete surprise, the researcher tells Rock that Bookila is composed of slime mold.

Upset, Bookila runs rampant throughout the lab, but Rock uses an industrial scale dryer to capture the demon. However things take a turn when the researcher decides he needs to keep Bookila as a specimen despite Rock‘s protestations. In a twist thought, Toroko shows off her acting jobs, disguises herself as a cleaning lady, and rescues Bookila from the research lab.

A strange lady from Hong Kong, named Chang Mifan, barges into Toroko’s apartment and informs her that she has something for Toroko. Much to her surprise though, when Toroko opens the suitcase left behind, she finds a mummified monkey’s paw inside. In horror, she tosses the hideous thing out the window – only to find it back in her room in no time. Without knowing what to do, she calls on Rock to help. However, despite throwing it into the ocean, he has no more luck than she did in removing it.  When he tells Toroko that a monkey’s paw can grant it’s keeper wishes she impulsively wishes for her job back – and immediately receives a call from the TV Station Director asking her to return. Of course, the wishes come at a price and Rock turns to Bookila for help to remove the monkey’s paw before it becomes permanently attached to Toroko. Although Bookila puts up a valiant effort, he’s no match for the paw’s magic – however, he cleverly goes to retrieve the one thing that can command the monkey’s paw… the monkey’s head! Upon being reunited, the Monkey’s head takes control over the paw and leaves. Of course, Toroko soon finds out that her wish went with it, as a call to the studio confirms she’s still fired.

Given her unemployed status, Toroko can no longer afford her apartment. However, when Rock discovers she’s moving into a large house in the suburbs rent-free, he’s immediately suspicious and accompanies her to her new home. Upon arriving at the house, they find it fully furnished, including a beautiful grand piano – courtesy of a former occupant, a concert pianist who disappeared under mysterious circumstances. Of course Rock‘s reporter instincts get the better of him and after talking to the local postman, he discovers the house has a history of being haunted.

Meanwhile, Toroko and Bookila find out the hard way that the piano itself is haunted when it transforms into a demon and tries to devour her whole. Although the demon is stronger than Bookila, his quick thinking rescues Toroko. Still putting the pieces together, Rock talks to the man who sold the piano in the first place, and discovers that they specialize in embedding demons into instruments for musicians who wish to make “deals with the devil” to ensure their success. Hearing this, Rock rushes back to the house and finds the piano transformed into a giant demon. Although everything looks lost, the demon suddenly collapses. That’s when the pair discover that, once again, Bookila has saved the day by cutting the demon’s piano wires.

After a young boy dies from pneumonia after losing his 100 yen coin during a rainstorm and being unable to take the subway home, an evil money spirit takes control of it. Of course, the coin soon finds Toroko. When the money spirit tells Toroko he will supply her with as much money as she wants – albeit all in 100 yen coins – the now unemployed actress leaps at the chance. The catch? The money spirit wants a piggy back ride from Toroko wherever she goes. Although things go well at first, Toroko soon discovers that the money spirit grows larger and heavier with each expense. Soon she is crawling on all fours, struggling to support the “monkey on her back.” Even Bookila’s magic is no match for the powerful spirit, but Toroko herself stumbles across its weakness – charity. When Toroko pledges a billion yen to some kids collecting for charity, it’s too much for the spirit to handle and it explodes… leaving behind a single 100 yen coin, which Toroko wisely donates to the charity.

Rock drops in on Toroko and finds her on her way to shoot a commercial, so he offers to give her a ride. On the way she tells him that the filming location is somewhere off the coast, on the Island of the Lost. According to the locals, the island used to an anti-aircraft base during WWII, but is now completely deserted. Suspecting something’s up, Rock decides to accompany Toroko on the ferry ride over to the island. When they arrive, as expected, the island is completely abandoned – with no film crew in sight. With no food or water, Rock uses his lighter to at least start a fire… just in time for it to start pouring rain. Meanwhile, back at the Touzai Television Studio, Bookila is approached by a spiritual medium who has determined that Bookila is not a legitimate Japanese spirit and orders him to leave in 3 days or Toroko will die from a curse.

Although Bookila searches everywhere, he cannot find Toroko, so he decides to secretly follow the spiritual medium in the hopes that he’ll lead him to her. As luck would have it, the spiritual medium flies a small private plane (with Bookila secretly in tow) over to the island. There he commands the spirits of the fallen soldiers to attack Rock and Toroko. However, after Bookila finds an old munitions cache on the island, the ghostly soldiers cannons, the plane, and indeed most of the island itself is destroyed. Luckily, Rock, Toroko and Bookila all escape on a homemade raft.