Fans of this Underrated Horror Anime Desperately Deserve a Season 2
From the Passione studio responsible for the 2024 Spice and Wolf remake came the 2021 comedy-horror anime known as Mieruko-Chan. Based on Tomoki Izumi’s web manga, Mieruko-Chan‘s story follows Miko Yotsuya as her life becomes a living hell after suddenly gaining the ability to see ghosts. It gets increasingly challenging for Miko to ignore the spirits surrounding her as they grow scarier and more malicious. Fans quickly learn alongside Miko that feigning ignorance will eventually become too dangerous to keep turning a blind eye.
Mieruko-Chan reached its peak by the time the anime it wrapped up its first 12-episode season. From start to finish, Mieruko-Chan Season 1 managed to make fans laugh and startle them in the same episode with some truly terrifying monster designs, all while telling a well-paced story about a girl learning to step out of her comfort zone to be the hero that no one else can. Even if fans never get a Mieruko-Chan Season 2, the original 12-episode anime is a hidden gem anime that deserves more praise.
Mieruko-Chan’s Timeless Plot Carefully Balances Humor & Horror
Miko Yotsuya was just an ordinary girl before a massive, terrifying spirit suddenly greeted her out of the blue on her way home from school. Rather than running away in terror, Miko simply ignores it. However, it wasn’t a success because of any bravery — Miko was frozen in fear and couldn’t think of any other way to survive other than to pray that the ghost simply left her alone. As Miko comes to realize that these ghosts around her are actually very real and not a product of her worn-out mind, feigning ignorance becomes her go-to tactic for survival.
There isn’t a real explanation as to how or why Miko can suddenly see the endless array of ghosts around her — but she can — and she appears to be one of a select few. That makes her life that much harder when these spirits begin to hover around her daily life and even cling to those around her. Embarrassment and social awkwardness become less and less of a concern for her, so long as she is spared from being killed by a ghost. Despite the frustration and the bone-chilling danger she faces every day, the tone of Mieruko-Chan is actually quite lighthearted, putting a fun and comedic spin on the concept of spirit mediums.
Miko isn’t some surprisingly brave soul who’s willing to go toe-to-toe with dead spirits. She’s calm and realistic and simply wants to be left alone. However, that doesn’t mean she’s not absolutely terrified of the horrors she finds creeping about her daily life; that’s what makes the anime’s humor work so well. The audience feels a sense of sympathy for Miko’s predicament, especially viewers who are stricken with the same heart-stopping fear at the prospect of ghostly encounters.
The fact that Miko isn’t stereotypically squeamish or prone to screaming at the slightest fright helps to keep the gimmick alive. Miko’s character, particularly the way she deals with each ghost, creates well-written humor that offsets how genuinely frightening every spirit can be. These ghouls are more than just skeletal figures or people with haunting looks in their eyes. They are actually monsters that look as though they belong to the grotesque menagerie seen in the Lord of Mysteries donghua.
Miko’s Supernatural Superpowers Make Her a True Anime Hero
Despite the amount of terror that Miko experiences day-to-day, her newfound ability to interact with the supernatural is good for more than just giving her a daily dose of horror. While most of the spirits that Miko encounters seek to harm her if they ever realize she is able to see them, there are others that actually serve to warn her of potential danger or protect certain things.
For example, Miko and her friend, Hana Yurikawa, discover a stray kitten that happens to have a ghost attached to it in Mieruko-Chan Episode 2. As the pair spend the afternoon looking for someone suitable to take the cat off their hands, the ghost stays firmly by the kitten’s side. Eventually, a handsome gentleman shows up to eagerly take the kitten out of their hands, but Miko refuses to allow this seemingly harmless stranger to have it. What Miko sees that her friend doesn’t is the horrifying amalgamation of angry, cat-like spirits that cling to the man. Because of the anger and aggression of these spirits, Miko decides that this unnamed gentleman isn’t a safe place for the kitten to go.
Instead, Miko decides to give the kitten to another stranger who is accompanied by the happy spirits of his past pets, who cling to him almost like watchful angels. As Miko watches this man leave the park, affectionately holding the kitten, she knows she made the right choice. While this is framed as a simple, pleasant encounter, it actually serves to foreshadow the good that Miko is able to accomplish thanks to her mysterious new gift.
Mieruko-Chan’s Final Arc Introduces Drama on a Bigger Level Than Ever
One stand-out criticism about the plot of Mieruko-Chan, and Miko herself as a protagonist, was that Miko was a very passive player in her own story. However, she redeems herself in the anime’s dramatic final arc when the spirits start proving too dangerous for her to keep ignoring. After a particularly large and frightening spirit attaches itself to Hana, Miko harnesses the power of a deity to destroy the curse for good. As a result of the supernatural encounter, Miko is rewarded with two fox-like spirits that are sworn to grant her three favors.
This event marks when Miko’s predicament starts getting more serious. Mieruko-Chan‘s protagonist stumbles into danger with malicious ghosts twice more, and after each rescue, the fox spirits that were appointed to her count down to the last and final favor. Miko, worried about the growing perils around her, tries her best to stick to safety and save that last rescue for when it really counts. However, the circumstances around Miko begin to force her to take a more active role in her story.
The final arc of Mieruko-Chan Season 1 involves Miko having to directly face one final incredibly malevolent and spiteful ghost. This spirit has kept Miko’s substitute in a state of depression for years over his childhood trauma. To help him and rectify her own mistakes, Miko confronts the ghost herself to ask it to set Zen free. Knowing the ghost would be angered, Miko simply allows it to move in to attack her so that the fox-spirits would intervene and destroy it. With the burden of the ghost lifted away, the once-afflicted teacher can finally move forward and build a life he feels happy with. Although Miko had to sacrifice her last favor for this to happen, she finally stepped into her power in a full and meaningful way.
