Mieruko-chan

Episode 7

This middling episode of Mieruko-chan delivers familiar spooks but lacks the spark that has occasionally elevated the series from its ghoulish and gag-based roots. There's still plenty to like about “business as usual,” of course, when the show's fundamentals are solid. Our three main heroines hang out together in earnest for the first time, and their developing relationship triangle makes for some amusing interactions. Naturally, for a story predicated on deceiving the undead, plenty of misunderstandings arise as well. But they don't quite add up high enough to reach the series' usual bar.

The main comedic thrust lies again in Yulia's gross misinterpretations of Miko's words and deeds. She reads too much into the mundane, while, ironically, being totally oblivious of the worst otherworldly threats. The other core irony is that she is right about Miko being on a completely different level from her when it comes to her connection to the other side; she's just dead wrong about how. Yulia, like so many of us, has been raised on too much manga and anime. She's primed for magic circles and flashy exorcisms, when Mieruko-chan's premise is so much simpler—and more unsettling in its simplicity.

Miko's sole defense is playing dumb, which creates an element of tension in every haunting. She's only ever one slip-up from bearing the full brunt of a ghost's attention. There's an elegance to that, stemming from some of the classic tenets of horror stories. Monsters are scary when we don't know much about them, and they're even scarier when we can't fight them. Like prior episodes, Mieruko-chan provides no context for this week's supernatural star, the oil drum hermit crab man, relying instead on its character design and animation to convey the scale of its threat. I continue to appreciate the writing's restraint in this regard. It's not trying to turn Miko into an action hero who can dispel a souped-up specter with a thought. To the extent that a premise like this can be realistic, the show approaches her like she's a normal teenage girl doing her best in spite of the circumstances. It's a grounded ghost anime.

The tradeoff of this mundane approach, however, is that it's more prone to dull stretches. Without pyrotechnics and melodrama on the grand scale of Yulia's imagined psychokinetic struggles, Mieruko-chan is reliant on other avenues of innovation in order to keep itself fresh. Prior episodes have done so by making subtler gestures towards the big picture, or by exploring moments of genuine catharsis facilitated by Miko's “curse.” I've enjoyed both these approaches a lot, especially for the ways they've helped Mieruko-chan feel like more than a gag series. We don't really get any of that thoughtfulness this week, though. Yulia's contributions are more of the same, the creatures' appearance and actions don't deviate from what we've seen already, and even the deux ex machina is a retread of last week's climax. It's Mieruko-chan on cruise control.

That said, I still like Mieruko-chan, so I can't say that I hate getting more of the same. And hey, the main cast is finally all together! Hana's excited about her newfound and unwitting knack for spirit photography, Yulia's active imagination and suspicions backfire on her in amusing ways, and Miko remains a relatably anxious tightrope walker one misstep away from losing her shit. It's nice, too, that even though she somehow keeps misinterpreting Miko's kindness as death threats, Yulia has found a place where she feels like she belongs. The episode could have done a much better job evoking some actual emotion out of this development—it's tacked onto the end with all the care of a lopsided Christmas wreath—but it's nice all the same.

I also like the setting of this week's spooky exposé. Back when I visited Kyoto in 2019, I took a bus up a mountain similar to the expedition that Miko and her friends go on this week. My trip was neither to a tunnel nor supernaturally motivated—I just wanted to visit the supposed resting site of Shuten Douji's head, because I'm an insufferably big fan of the character in Fate/Grand Order. However, my destination, the Kubizuka Daimyojin shrine, was supposedly haunted. Despite my hardened skepticism, I can't deny that I felt a few tantalizing chills up my spine both on the path towards it and at the shrine itself. Rust and overgrowth decorated the scant few abandoned buildings on the way, and Dead Leaves blanketed the mound meant to cover the demon's severed head, as described on an adjacent stone inscription outlined in part in blood red. It was creepy, and it was fun! Those memories remain some of my strongest from that vacation, which is a good example of the way fear simultaneously repels and attracts us.

Mieruko-chan is built around the paradoxical pull of the paranormal. A haunting is a frightening prospect, but it's also a confirmation that there's something more to this world than our own comparatively drab lives. Miko's horrific experiences go hand-in-hand with those that connect her to her father, to strangers in need of help, and to the divine. The shrine spirits are most likely counting down how many more times they can pull out the big guns for her, and Miko is understandably humbled and flabbergasted by their appearance. These are neat moods that I hope to see the series explore further down the line—alongside even more grotesquely delectable pastries from Mrs. D's, of course.

Rating:

Mieruko-chan is currently streaming on Funimation.

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