Mieruko-chan

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This manga is honestly one of the best mangas I've ever read. The story revolves around a girl named Miko who is able to see terrifying and disgusting monsters that no one else can see. Although this story seems generic, it really isn't. Instead of the MC fighting the monsters and becoming some op hero, Miko puts on a poker face and attempts to ignore them. The story develops and gets very intense, it's not just a collection of standalone chapters. The story gets more fleshed out and introduces very interesting characters that leaves you on the edge of your seat wondering what kind of ... development will come next. The art is beautiful, the characters are very funny and lovable, and the manga as a whole is fantastic and absolutely worth the read.

Volumes 1-4 review: 3.5/5
Some of the fanservice early on rubbed me the wrong way, and it's so far hard to tell where this story is going (if anywhere). So far it's mostly a slice of life, while some things imply some sort of overarching plot going on.
The concept however is fucking great. This teen girl can see all sorts of dangerous(?) and powerful spirits, which no one can, and she's absolutely terrified, but she tries to pretend everything's fine in hopes that the spirits will not harm her. Occasionally she gets to help others out in matters of lost family members and there's some heart-warming ... moments but mostly this poor girl is just suffering and trying to find help.

Hi there MAL, Welcome to my 2nd review.
This time around we have Mieruko-chan, n before we dive into this I think I should talk a little bit about my relationship with horror. supernatural, thriller titles.

######## I HAVE A BAD RELATIONSHIP WITH HORROR TITLES ########

A younger me was having big troubles falling a sleep after watching The Mummy 99's movie at a neighbors house. Throughout the movie I was actually fine, but when I went to bed the image of the Mummy kept on popping up in my head over n over. I even remember trying to block it with memories of Disney's Tarzan since I ... also had watched it earlier that day or sometime that week, but The Mummy won that fight cause the memory was recent. It was so bad that I went to get a Bible n hugged the verses out of it. It ended up eventually working n that was the last time I remember ever being scared of a horror movie. Which is odd, cause I watched it with ease, however I had trouble getting some sleep. Maybe is a delayed reaction, or things are just different from person to person.

So 12 or 13y old me was ish scared n then it did a whole 180. It became a Bliss. Even when I watched movies on cable with my elder brother who's actually 7y older than me, sometimes u would find him leaving the room whenever some ish is about to go down cause grabbing a pillow to cover his face was not enough.
Don't get it twisted. That's someone who can lay u down easily cause dude got serious hands, but somehow he couldn't stand horror movies. While me on the other hand, the softy one, was just there laughing while watching the movie n even harder from his reaction. Something I never quite understood.
LAUGHTER
Since I somehow had become Immune to fear or something, whenever I watched a horror title I would look for that. I mean, I can't even get scared so I might as well have fun laughing about how the characters reacted, the execution of said "scary scenes" n how some of the characters got done in.
So big titles like The Conjuring, Annabelle, Halloween, Elm Street, - u name it- became comedy shows rather than horror.
Because of this I started saying that

######## I HAVE A BAD RELATIONSHIP WITH HORROR TITLES ########

Sorry for boring u with my long life story, is done. Now we return to Mieruko-chan.

STORY
The series follows Yotuya Miko, a school girl who has the ability of seeing ghosts. Kinda like Ichigo, but these r more like Zombie looking, nightmare hunting, gruesome type of ghosts. She decides to ignore them as she tries to maintain a normal social life. As the story progresses she considers trying to help those ghosts, but this is something that might come around later on in the series. Cause while 37 chapters into the series, we have yet to get explanation to why she sees ghosts and see her helping them as well. Is something that sort of just happened.
In conclusion, the plot is basically a school girl that see ghosts in different daily life scenarios.

ART
Strongest feat in the series. The character designs are actually pretty basic n one can say that is quite close to the Nagatoro series. Just some digitally drawn characters with not that many details on their features. However, the art really excels with the ghost.
There are some really good to decent looking monsters. The author uses a good level of shading n crazy mixes of body parts to give it a eerie n creepy feeling.
Has some really cool double spreads with a neatly looking demon ghost on the background.

CHARACTER
Yotsuya Miko the series MC. A very calm, sort of serious who seems very collected n unbothered. Her name is Miko n if I'm not mistaken is a name or term given to a shaman woman. Usually a character's name, design, coloring, likes n such are used as little hints to what that said character might become.

Yotsuya Kyousuke her younger brother. A really nice n polite kid who's a fan of horror shows. Seems like he really loves his elder sister n cares for her. Basically the best younger brother u could ask for. Cannot see ghosts.
They do have parents but nothing much is known about them. They just pop up now n then on some panels.

Yurikawa Hana the mc best and only friend. Well so far. A school girl with a strong appetite. She's quite cheery n airhead at times, is there to support the MC n is mostly used as punching bag for jokes n help the MC get through the day. Cannot see ghosts.

Takeda "The Godmother" Mitsue a coon fortune teller who actually has some real powers. In reality is a vey nice n kindhearted lady, who just happened to be making some cash with minor schemes due to circumstances.

Niguredou Yuria a school girl from the next class. Has a tsundere vibe n can also see ghosts, although not on the same level as the MC. Has a one-sided rivalry with the MC n later on joins the party.

Toono Zen a good looking n suspicious guy. Just the type of character u need for this series.

Shindou Romm a magician fortune teller?? Dunno, just call him the guy of the occult. A very suspicious looking with some very suspicious approaches n actions.

ENJOYMENT
I got into the series from Instagram. I saw a panel posted by a manga based IG account n since I liked what I saw I decided to save it to later look it up. Shotout to those pages btw since they're out here doing the good work of putting people onto new series.
When the anime aired I recognized the title n decided to watch epi1. Disliked what I saw there. Had unnecessary things n I was like "the manga is probably better", so I went on to read it. OMFG
After the 1st volume of the series I was already so over it n concluded that the epi1 actually did try to make the series more interesting and likeable despite the unnecessary service in it.

I have read titles like Hideout, Jisatsu Circle, Happiness, Ibitsu, Shikabane Hime, Mushihime, Uzumaki, Tomie n many other titles under Itou Junji pencil.
From the panel I saved on my IG I expected something along those series mentioned above, cause the art sort of depicted that. But after seeing ep1 n reading Vol1 I noticed that it was not the aim of the series.
The main tags/genres defining the series are Comedy, Horror, Supernatural, n although not added here on MAL Shounen n Slice of Life/School Life.
Usually when we have a Slice of Life series, they are mostly either Romance, Drama, or Comedy driven n at times a mix of all those elements. Since there's no Drama nor Romance, Mieruko was supposed to be a COMEDY Slice of Life with Supernatural themes in it, just like Dandadan a series I have yet to read but I've seen panels online n been reading nice things about it (quite familiar ain't it??).

I know that we each have our own likes n dislikes, but when u have a good amount of people saying things like "This is soooooo GOOOD" n similar things along the line. Despite our individual likes n dislikes, at best ur impression after reading/watching that GOOD series should at least never be LOWER than Average. Just a personal opinion which I think is somewhat valuable or acceptable. Cause our tastes can't be that discrete.

This series failed big time on the comedy department. Maybe I don't get the authors sense of humor or something, but man this was a nightmare. One single chapter of Gintama has way more comedy n better executed jokes than the entire 37 chapters of this series. Quite unfair cause Sorachi Hideaki is a comedy genius, but is possibly the only series I've read that embodies the same themes. I mean, overall Gintama is a carnival, but if we focus on the Comedy, Slice of Life n supernatural arcs so that would be the closest comparison I have to this.

I was so done right after Vol1, but with so many positive comments on the series I started reconsidering. Thinking that I might have made a mistake n missed out on something, I went out to ask if this series gets better in later chaps. Someone on twitter actually said that I'll like it since I liked Itou Junji works, so I went back on it. After all 11chap is not that many to conclude that something is BAD. OMFG

37 chapters deep n nothing much changed. The series threw in some messed up back stories n that's it.
My main problem with this series is the COMEDY. Only a few chapters made me let out a giggle, but it was like a single circumstance/panel out of an entire chapter. Those were the chapters with Yuria the tsundere girl. She's a bit delusional so her reactions to the things happening were a bit funny, unlike the super dry, emotionless reactions from the MC. Someone u follow through the ENTIRETY of the story.

I saw comments online saying that the MC reactions were so cute. Man WTF?!!
Nothing wrong with that tho, but I don't get into series to see who's cute n who's not. Yes I do notice it, cause I mean is right there. Is like me looking at a dress n saying "this dress has flowers on it", I see n notice the flowers but I don't make it the core of the dress. There are more things to focus on n look into.
The suspense or thrill the author throws into the series could've been handled way better. At least for me, cause it felt flat-out boring. Not a single moment while reading this I felt like "oh ish, what might happen??" "what is that person planning??".
I wasn't expecting being left on the edge when I go into this, n I don't think is me cause I remember feeling a bit anxious about what will come next when reading Uzumaki, Tomie, Remima n such. Well, more like curious cause it was entertaining to follow the story.
My Gintama comparison was super unfair, cause after writing this much I believe that some of Itou Junji works r much closer to this series. Like, after putting some thought into it, Itou Junji works writes comedy stories with some crazy twisted looking things in them. Is kinda like Jojo cause you'll find all sorts of weird things you can only find in there. Things that leave u thinking "who even thinks about this??". Maybe I'm super wrong for laughing or finding it comedic but Is not spooky to me, so I dunno.

My final thoughts on this is that is BAD n it could actually be way better. The author has some serious skills n original concepts when coming up with the monster ghosts.
The Spider monster or the one in the barrel was one of the coolest and original drawings I've seen. I loved every single moment of it. The one from Benny's restaurant looked really good, the fox looking twins were cool as well. He has the skiils n creativity to pull off gorgeous panels, he simply needs to polish the writing.
So this series is NOT FOR ME.

Don't get offended, pressed, hurt or get any ill feelings after reading this. I honestly believe that I have the right to say something about it cause I dedicated time into reading it when I shouldn't. Might have not been the best choice of words or something, but I just wrote it based of what I'm feeling n for what it is.
This is a review fresh off reading all 37 chapters released so far.