LogFAQs > #964778775

Thanks to WhiteLens pointing out how Funimation works, I was able to watch Mieruko-chan today!

Along with 'horror' and 'supernatural', MAL lists 'comedy' as one of its genres. I disagree. If there is a joke, it's the same joke over and over. Miko notices a ghost but she can't react or else the ghost will attack her, so she needs to remain calm on the outside while freaking out internally. I guess some might call that funny? There are a few other funny moments, mostly related to her friends, big-eater Hana and exorcist-in-training Yulia. One bit early on involved a groping ghost only Miko could see, and in retrospect that bit of lightheartedness feels very out of place. I wouldn't call this a comedy anime, not at all. It's a horror anime, and I thought it did the horror surprisingly well. A lot of the ghosts were genuinely creepy, both in appearance and in how they acted. What frightened me more than anything, though, was poor Miko's situation.

The poor girl can see ghosts. It also seems like most ghosts can almost sense that she can see them, but they aren't quite sure. So they come closer. They hover near her face, exhaling clouds of what looks like toxic fumes as they probe for reactions. And Miko cannot react. If she so much as waves at a ghost that disguised itself as a human, it will go berserk and attack her. I found quite a few of the scenes genuinely tense. Imagine you're on a crowded train, then a ghost starts walking down the car swinging an axe into people's faces. No one else reacts, of course, but they can't see it. You can see it. And, since you can, will the axe swing harmlessly through your head too? Will it hurt you? You can't get out of the way, because then the ghost will know you see it. So you need to sit there as the ghost moves closer... closer... until you're next. You have no idea what will happen as that phantasmal axe chops down onto your face. And you just need to sit there.

It definitely creeped me out! Miko is stuck in a never-ending real-life horror movie, but she can't flinch at any of the jump scares. She has no actual idea how any of this works. No one can help her. Nothing she tries to ward off the spirits seems to work. There's more than just ghosts out there, too, and not all of the supernatural beings are after her. Some are after her friends.

I went into this hoping to find another Re-kan (and my DVD of that finally arrived, so I'll probably rewatch it soon too). Re-kan was a comedy, one where the ghosts were all friendly and one girl's terror towards them was always treated as a joke. Mieruko-chan isn't a comedy at all, but it does share one nice aspect with Re-kan. Every so often, Re-kan dropped the comedy and had a genuinely touching moment. Mieruko-chan also dropped the horror on a few occasions to have a touching moment with the rare ghosts who weren't insane or evil. I enjoyed those moments a lot too.

I'm not sure many other people would like this, Miko being scared of ghosts happens often enough that one might call it repetitive. I just fell in love with the concept and really enjoyed it the whole way through.