MIERUKO-CHAN

DESCRIPTION

CAST

MANGA ComedyMieruko-chan

REVIEWS

• 

  IGOR

  50/100
  While Mieruko-chan Is Fairly Entertaining It Can Get Repetitive and Predictable Real Quick.

  The story for Mieruko-chan starts off repetitive and predictable but around halfway into the anime is when the story picks up and becomes somewhat interesting. The reason the first half was repetitive and predictable is that our protagonist Miko is constantly thrown into the same scenario with different settings each time. Miko will be in the bathroom and a ghost will appear. Miko is at the store and a ghost will appear. Miko will just be living her daily life and a ghost will appear. Every single time a ghost appears Miko does the same thing, she just ignores them. When the same formula is repeated over and over for 12 episodes straight, it gets stale real quick. The same formula sticks around even after the halfway mark but the story gets much more mysterious after Miko meets 3 spirits who are very different from other ghosts/spirits Miko has met before. On top of meeting these mysterious spirits, she also meets a guy who kind of reminded me of Luka Magnotta-you should watch Don't F With Cats if you haven't already seen it- This made the story a little more interesting for me personally, but that doesn't mean the boring formula of Miko encountering ghosts and ignoring them is completely gone, cause it's not gone whatsoever, it's just a little bit more tolerable knowing the fact that there is something bigger going to happen within the story. The way I look at Mieruko-chan is that the first half is an introduction to the characters and the second half is when the story actually begins.

  If you check the genre Mieruko-chan happens to be a comedy anime. Unfortunately, Mieruko-chan's comedy suffers the same problem that Sakamoto Desu Ga? had, and that problem being, the same joke is recycled over and over and over. If someone told you a funny joke for the first time you will probably laugh, but if they repeat that same joke multiple times you will most likely be annoyed and want to tell them to shut the fuck up. That's how I felt watching Meiruko-chan. Seeing Miko meet a ghost and desperately try to ignore that ghost for the first time was kind of funny but seeing her meet ghosts and try to ignore these ghosts for the hundredth time throughout the anime becomes tiresome.

  

  So, how are the characters? I mean they literally had the first half to introduce them to us, how do I feel about them? Personally, I find them to be mediocre at best. There are three characters we see very often, one of them is our protagonist Miko, and the other 2 are Yuria, and Hana. Out of these three, Yuria is the most interesting to me and I will talk more about Yuria after I talk about Miko. Miko lacks development; the only thing that makes her stand out is that she can see big scary ugly ghosts and spirits, other than that she really isn't special in any way. As a viewer, I can see that Miko wants to express herself, Miko wants to just shout and tell these ghosts to leave, but she doesn't. Instead, she bottles all her fear and emotion up inside of her and continues living her life which kind of makes me feel bad for her. Like I said earlier Miko's development is lacking throughout the anime, even after seeing a ghost for the hundredth time she still continues to freeze in place and tries her best to ignore them. For the first 10 episodes of the anime, I kept asking myself At what point will Miko just get over it? At what point will Miko just walk away instead of standing there and being scared for like 2 minutes straight? Thankfully those questions get answered in episode 11 when Miko finally develops and decides to confront a ghost. Unfortunately seeing a character development happen on the 2nd last episode is just disappointing. If this development happened earlier in the first half then the first half wouldn't have to be unnecessarily dragged out and boring.

  Yuria on the other hand can also see ghosts, but she can't see the big creepy ones like Miko. Yuria is the complete opposite of Miko, Yuria wants to exorcise these unwelcomed ghosts, and she also happens to be fearless, kind of. The only thing Yuria fears is Miko, and a lot of the funniest moments in the anime are because of Yuria being scared of Miko and misinterpreting the things Miko says. Unlike Miko and Hana, Yuria has a goal, her goal is to become a strong exorcist who can take down these ghosts. Ultimately because of these reasons Yuria quickly becomes the funniest and most likable character who I can't help but root for. Finally, we have Hana. Hana is probably the most characterless character in this anime, she isn't really interesting and the only thing that she talks about throughout the anime is food. Her whole personality is just eating food. I mean that's kind of relatable right?

  

  In the end, I never really thought Mieruko-chan was a bad anime, I dont think it's good either, it's simply alright. The Mundane story along with run-of-the-mill characters didn't help with making the repetitive and predictable first half of Mieruko-chan any more entertaining. Also, the fan service was obviously unnecessary but that didn't stay around for more than 4 episodes which is great. Although season 1 started off low the anime ended on a pretty high note which gives me hope for season 2.

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• 

  DragonSlayer98

  78/100
  An enjoyable horror-comedy anime, worth watching despite some of its fundamental flaws [Spoiler free].

  __Mieruko-chan Season 1 - Spoiler Free Review__

  When I started watching Mieruko-chan, I did not know what to expect from it - a horror-comedy anime series felt kind of strange to think about. Anyways, I decided to watch it and now that it's completed, I can say that it was a different but enjoyable experience overall.

  So the story is basically about a girl named Miko Yotsuya who, one evening, standing at the bus stop, unlocks the ability of seeing ghosts or spirits around her. And, instead of screaming, she manages to just "ignore" it, suppressing all her emotions! Soon, she starts seeing spirits almost everywhere and tries her best to turn a blind eye to them, in order to save herself and others. But that is easier said than done. The show turns out to be a psychological horror of sort, as the struggle of controlling your fear is one difficult thing to do. It applies some comedy elements to drown out the darker impacts on the audience, and for me, it failed to be a proper comedy as the horror elements outweighed the humor. So, you should not dive into it to find comedy solely; instead it shines in delivering a better experience in other aspects.

  The show is also a slice-of-life, as we get to see the daily school and other activities of Miko, and her best friend Hana - who is an extremely optimistic, always-hungry young girl, who is easily scared. Due to this, Miko decides to not tell anyone about it, so as to help protect her loved ones. A daily life mixed with dealing with supernatural entities is actually interesting to watch, and this show gave us an escape from the usual types of anime we are all used to see. The show turns dramatically more serious at the later half, and we get to see some very interesting developments in the story. One thing which felt a little disappointing was that we never actually got to know how Miko is the way she is now, as it does not give much time in explaining stuff to us. That being said, if we get to see another season where all of this is explored, it will be cool. But considering many good anime don't live to see a second season, this was a let down.

  The supernatural aspect of the story is nothing ground-breaking, at least not in this season. It relies on some previously-known tropes to progress the story, although this did not feel bad. I like simple stories often anyways. I believe the show's strength lies in its suspenseful nature, which managed to keep me watching till the end of this season. One important message this show tries to convey was that: you should not judge a person merely by their features on a surface level, rather we must try to understand them better by trying. The story gets interesting as it moves on, and this is a major selling point of this anime. You can get hooked, but unfortunately you won't get to know the underlying intricacies. But it is worth trying in my opinion.

  The animation was pretty good I must say. Studio Passione, although being somewhat unknown before, managed to do a good job with this one. Not extraordinary, but still good enough, which adds to the show's overall merits.

  Mieruko-chan was not actually scary, at least not for me. But I must say that the spirit/monster designs and voices were well done and they do feel creepy sometimes. The show also relies on some slight Ecchi scenes in its beginning part, and if this is something you want to see, then well enough (always welcome for me though). The major problem this show has is its blending of different genres, which does not always work in its favor. But, if you are looking for something different to watch, I will recommend you to give it a try because despite all of its shortcomings, it is still an enjoyable watch, and I am happy that I gave this one a chance. Definitely keeping my fingers crossed to see another season soon!

  Thank you for reading. Have a good day/night, keep watching anime and be happy!

  Written by: Sekhar08
  December 19, 2021

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• 

  Jaymp12

  65/100
  There is something here if you could get through its junk

  Pros:

  • The ghosts are the best part of the anime
  • The mystery here is interesting
  • Nailed the horror (don't feel good horror than jump scare city)

  Neutral:

  • Characters look weird for me
  • Music is catchy but I think it's cheap (maybe I'm an old man in music tastes I guess)
  • Very slow pacing (but maybe because of the horror maybe)

  Cons:

  • Too much unnecessary fanservice on the first third of the series.
  • MC being tortured is not really my type
  • Julia is underused
  • Sequel-bait ending

  It's neither good nor bad. It has something going on here bogged down by a lot of things.

  The plot is very very slow. It builds up the mystery of the world pretty nicely. They don't tell you right away. The ghosts are spooky but they are so interesting on why they exist and how they operate. If you want for the plot to kick in, you have to watch around the latter half of the anime. Before that, enjoy the first 4 episodes where they put ecchi shots fairly frequently. I don't blame you if you dropped this anime in this part because of the excessive fanservice. Thankfully it was significantly toned down Episode 5 and onwards. For the people that dropped the anime because of it, try again because there is some decent story here. The ending is kinda meh and unsatisfying. Sure, the supposed main antagonist was sorted out in episode 11 and 12, but it has unresolved mysteries in play here with the dreaded "putting more mysteries in the last episode". If you're going to do that, give us assurance that you're making a new season.

  Character wise, they're pretty okay. Miko is the main character which usually show a deadpan face :|. My nitpick here is that her face looks off and weird. She could see ghosts clearly though not Hana's auras. Biggest problem for me is that I hate the main character gets tortured constantly. I got scarred for life after watching the hot trash of post-movie Spongebob and later seasons of FOP. Admittedly, it's handled so much better than those shows. Rounding off the cast is Hana, energetic and a glutton. She can't see but has an aura that could cook ghosts then Yulia? Julia? I don't know which is the correct name. She could see small ghosts though not the big ones and can see auras. She's kinda underused here usually explaining their powers and fearing Miko for a fair amount of her screentime.

  Visually it's okay. Some good, some bad. Ghosts are a highlight and the sore thumb. 90% of the time, they're spooky owing to the decent effects they put around it. The other 10%, it's not that great because of the color choices on some ghosts. Other than that, there's nothing of note here.
  The ones with the gold outline that represents Miko's protection against ghosts can be difficult to see because of the warm background which is always there when they appear

  Music in the anime, it's pretty good. It ramps up the atmosphere of the stuff that happens there. The OP/ED? same though I think it's pretty cheap with it's repetition of words especially the opening. That's just my taste in music. If you like this style of music then good on you,

  This is a pretty good horror anime even though this isn't my cup of tea. The plot is pretty good albeit slow paced and the characters are nice to have. It gets dragged down by a poor first impression (because of fanservice), slow pacing and an unsatisfying ending. Give it a watch if you want some spookies and I hope they get the greenlight on a season 2.

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