Mieruko-chan

Mieruko-chan is one of the most unique shows I've seen so far. The protagonist, Miko, can see ghosts, and does her best to ignore them. This premise creates an anime that is mostly devoid of any action, though it certainly manages to have its suspenseful scenes. Instead, the show is mostly slice-of-life, featuring Miko, her best friend Hana, and her not-really-rival Yulia going through their lives.

What I appreciate the most about Mieruko-chan is Miko's deadpan inner monologue. Alexis Tipton as her English voice actress fits the role perfectly; this alone made Mieruko-chan one of the favourite shows I watched in the last few years.

It's not all grand, though. The plot can become a tad repetitive, considering that Miko had no idea what's going on and no way of actually dealing with the ghosts except for ignoring them. Likewise, the characters other than Miko could certainly use a hefty dose of character development.

Nevertheless, the production value is great, the more or less conservative use of fan service doesn't detract from the atmosphere (unlike the wide majority of anime), and the premise is interesting.

I hope the second season will stick to the strengths of the first one while still managing to escalate the events a fair bit.

I went into this show completely blind, not knowing anything about it - I just knew it was a horror-comedy. I thought it was gonna be a meh show with a lot of surface-level stuff. But boy was I wrong. This show was so good. I loved it! I enjoyed it way more than I thought I was going to. What I admire and love most about it was how it was able to surprise me throughout the whole runtime. There were moments that completely caught me off guard. Moments where I found myself crying, where I found myself laughing way too hard at something, and moments where I was genuinely creeped out and unsettled. This show has an unexpectedly clever way of evoking emotions and it's all done in the way they execute everything. It's in the way they use the music, how they build up a scene or how they create the right atmosphere. They know how to hit their marks and they do it really well. The beautiful balance between the creepy unsettling moments, the funny comedic ones and the heartwarming sentimental ones is what makes this show stand out so much and why it's so good.

The animations are great and the art style is fantastic. Especially the character designs for the ghosts - they're some of the best I've seen. They're genuinely creepy and unsettling. The way they're conceptualized makes it so that they're very distinguishable from one another. It's crazy how much character they give the ghosts - to the point where you get a sense of their backstory or how they might've died. It's interesting to try and figure out what each one might represent and why they exist. The voice design for the ghosts were scary good, it almost penetrates the soul with how creepy they sound. The soundtrack was another stand out aspect of the show that surprised me as well. The music plays a big role in evoking the emotions. It's the way in which the music is implemented at the perfect time - it ends up elevating and complimenting each scene beautifully. It's honestly pretty God-tier. I loved the way they experimented with different synthesizer noises and audio effects to create a unique-sounding soundtrack. It can be very creepy and ominous while being ethereal at the same time. It can also be quite beautiful whenever the piano, violin or flute kicks in.

It's got good story progression and it never feels like it drags or gets boring. It's a feel-good show. Slice of life done right and comedy done cleverly. It handles it's themes with both a maturity and frivolity. And it's got some really creative ideas that end up feeling pretty fresh and original. The characters are great. They end up becoming very well fleshed out. Miko's dead pan personality and humor are great. Hana is the dense and oblivious airhead that provides comic relief. Yulia is the cute, delusional and manipulate girl that shakes things up. While Zen and The Godmother end up becoming really interesting characters. I think Yulia's my favorite, mainly because she's the most interesting and complex one out of all of them. I loved watching the relationship and dynamic between Miko, Hana and Yulia. Whenever they're all together, it's always an entertaining time. The haunted house scene was hilarious. This show has self-aware humor and it's really refreshing to see that.

Do be warned though: the first 2 episodes, especially the 1st one, is riddled with fan service. It's basically fan service bait. It's very much in your face and it's not subtle about it. It gets to the point where it becomes comedic because it's like every couple of minutes they feel the need to have to show a skirt or groin shot. It ends up feeling pretty ridiculous and campy. Thankfully though, the show starts to pick up after the 2nd episode. It starts to focus more on building the story, the world and the characters and less on the fan service. It actually starts to get quite interesting. The shrine scene is when it has this unexpected shift and it opens up a world of potential for the show. The whole visual conceptualization behind it was so good. I was not expecting all the incredible animations. They outdid themselves.

My only gripe with the show has to do with some of the characters and the lack of development within them. Hana for example, is a character that desperately needs some sort of development or transformation. Some of the characteristics to her personality end up becoming pretty annoying and stale after a while. So I'm hoping that in Season 2 she goes through some sort of change that makes her character more interesting. Miko's character can become kind of frustrating as well in the way she deals with the ghosts. But thankfully by the end of the show, there's at least some development in her character.

The show has a lot of potential. So much potential that it could end up being a slice of life shonen hybrid. They've introduced everything nicely, now all they have to do is go ham with the 2nd season. Give this show a chance, you won't regret it!

I'm generally a casual and will wait for the English dub but to see what the memes were about I gave the sub a go and ended up watched it all. First 5 or so episode is just a girl seeing ghost and ignoring them, over and over again. Yet it's made well enough to keep watching, the design of the ghosts is fantastic. Slowly little bits are added until around episode 9 or 10 when it starts looking like it has a story arc. Interested to see where it goes in season 2.

It is an interesting premise, but I don't know if it's meant to be a comedy or actually scary, because most of the time it feels like I'm supposed to laugh at what is happening.

The first half of the show feels like the same joke over and over and over and, it does become tiring after a while. And how overly sexual everything is in the first episode is so funny. Luckily the show picks up halfway through and becomes way more entertaining.

I will say I really enjoyed the main characters friendship with the bimbo character and a little pigtail grill character.

The main characters composed demeanor beside the bimbo, brings the best forward.

The character design looks good and horrifying ghost even more. Animation is not bad. The production is just all around really good.

It's just a little entertaining show. It's good enough to watch.

We interrupt this program to bring you...Miko the Scaredy Cat Girl, starring Miko, the Scaredy Cat Girl! Cursed with the ability to see ghosts, she tries to ignore them while living her normal life with her best friend Hana, and her rival, Yulia! But creepy spirits fester her town. It's up to Miko to ignore them all!

Mieruko-chan is a horror-comedy anime featuring Miko Yotsuya, a young teenage girl who goes about her daily activities, except she kind of has a tiny problem. That is if seeing horrifying ghosts amounts to being a small problem. For whatever reason, Miko is able to see ghosts, yet ignores them. But, in truth, Miko is scared silly due to her predicament, but if she wants to avoid the consequences of her acknowledging the ghosts, she has to suck it up.

For the first few episodes, we do get a formula: Miko sees a scary ghost; sometimes scary ghosts would go after her friend Hana so she tries to pretend to not see the ghost. As more characters are introduced into the anime, we get more of the basic ingredients for the plot of the show. With this episodic flow, the show can get predictable as a result of the premise.

But, starting from episode 6, there comes a drastic change in the formula of the show which can potentially build towards big lore drops. For instance, we have yet to hear an explanation of how Miko was cursed with seeing ghosts, and what prominence this has over professional mediums. In short, the first few episodes do fall short because of the predictability, but episode 6 onwards does have the potential to improve on the world-building.

What also works for the show is that, while it is a horror-comedy, it is also surprisingly emotional and heartwarming. Believe me, I watched the show not expecting to be hit with the feels train. These moments are not contrived and feel genuinely earned and heartfelt my favorite one being the ending showing what happened with the scarred man and his pet cat.

The animation. It isn't necessarily visually eye-opening, but it befits the tone of the show. Of course, there are elements of it like fanservice often coming from lingering shots of Miko's legs or Hana's chest, but it does it in a balanced way where it is not distracting.

While the normal world is more or less bland/mundane, what makes it are the designs of the ghosts. The ghosts are truly terrifying and potentially mind-shattering to look like. They move in inhuman actions much like reanimated corpses; they are shrouded in darkness, and sometimes they even emit insidious fumes. Looking at the manga, it looks like they took a book out of the Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark movie by translating the illustrations over to the big screen. It should come as no wonder why Miko tries to ignore them at all costs.

As for the characters: Miko. Poor, poor, poor Miko. She does not deserve to suffer like this and sometimes, I am often compelled to give her a pat on the back and tell her that everything's okay. Yet at the same time, it is amusing to see her being scared. Just really cute whenever she is. Yet despite her fears, there are moments where she has to swallow her fears and put her foot down if it comes to possible danger Hana might face, or helping the ghosts in some way.

Hana. She is really the best friend that anyone would want. She is very loving and compassionate, and she has your back. With her, her immediate characteristic is that she is always hungry and she scarfs down several sweets frequently despite never gaining weight from them. Starting around the halfway mark of the anime, she is getting targeted by spirits as it turns out because of the excessive aura she projects. To think about it, imagine ghosts dropping tiny ghosts on a barbie and you'd get why ghosts single Hana out.

Our tritagonist is Yulia. She already appeared in earlier episodes and for the most part quietly observed Miko. As it would turn out, much like Miko, Yulia can see ghosts...but she is unable to see the larger and more potentially dangerous variants.

Yulia is a complicated character for me. I like her Gothic aesthetic and character design, and it is intriguing to have someone else being able to see ghosts except with one key difference. At the same time, Yulia can also be annoying and self-absorbed with believing that she is the big cheese when it comes to her medium abilities despite not being able to exorcise ghosts herself.

When she starts to suspect Miko as also having "the gift," she becomes the "rival" of Miko and completely misinterprets her actions as her trying to show off her skills when it is painfully obvious that she had her all wrong. This came to be after she locks Miko in the ballroom which led to the most memorable part of the episode where Miko chokeholds Yulia in order to protect her. While she is egotistical, it is explained briefly via flashback that she was bullied for her claims over clairvoyance. So it makes sense that she would want to believe that she was not alone. Hopefully, Miko will come around to clear up these misunderstandings.

For other characters, we have the Godmother of Downtown who is a fortune-teller with actual psychic abilities despite having the looks and attitude of a scammer but is willing to help Miko. Miko's parents appear and they are depicted as being your typical good parents to their children. But Miko's Dad's role in the story is such a huge twist, it makes you reevaluate what you had witnessed.

And then there's Miko's little brother Kyousuke who, for all intended purposes, is more or less the man of the house. He is introduced as being suspicious of the oddities happening with his sister and wants to protect her. He is a good boi.

With that, I'd say that Mieruko-chan is worth looking into. While it starts off formulaic, it shifts into high gear due to the one decision that Miko makes that could lead to more reveals down the line. Even then, I would also recommend it largely because of the designs of the ghosts.