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