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Mieruko-Chan is a horror comedy, that isn't interested in having high enough stakes to be horror, nor is it light-hearted enough to be a comedy.

Before we begin, I only watched the first 7 episodes before writing this review. It wasn't interesting enough to continue.

Horror:

Mieruko tries its hardest with its horror elements. Its ghost designs, sound design, framing of the scene, and ability to create tension is all pretty good. Too bad all of that is completely meaningless in this particular series since it is established right away that the ghosts are harmless, and can be defeated by literally doing nothing and not ... acknowledging them. Heck, even if you do acknowledge them, they still do nothing. For whatever reason this show goes through great pains to show the main character Miko freaking out about this complete non-threat, and I haven't a clue why they bother.

For much of the series Miko is worried about her best friend Hana being haunted, but I have no idea why. She refuses to tell anyone about the ghosts but tries to subtly guide Hana around the ghosts. It is established early on however, that literally nothing happens if you just walk straight through the ghosts. Miko is worried about acknowledging the ghosts who sometimes ask if she can see them, but honestly, the worst-case scenario, is just them annoying her by following her around if she did acknowledge them. No horror to be found anywhere here.

Comedy:

You may be thinking that this show sacrificed its Horror for the sake of its comedy. But nope it didn't do that at all. Whenever something that may be construed as a joke happens, the sound design is either going all out for eery horror, or suspense. The show is fully taking its horror elements seriously, forgetting that there is no in-universe reason to do so.

Pretty much all potential for comedy when it comes to the characters interactions with the ghosts is dodged, with world class levels of agility. Strangely Miko somehow manages to under-react to the ghosts just enough for there not to be any over-the-top overeaction-based humor, but at the same time also overreacts to them just enough that it isn't dead-pan comedy either. Again they just play it straight and take it seriously. None- of the other characters are seeing what she is seeing so maybe the comedy comes from that? Nope, Miko is terrified by that fact and wants to protect her friends. Somehow forgetting that the only thing to protect them from is the ghosts being ugly and annoying, the two things they are literally immune to as people who can't see what she is seeing anyways. Well maybe they use that contradiction to create comedy you ask? Nope. Maybe the ghosts themselves do wacky things to get her attention. Nope to that too. They just ask. The most bland way they could ever attempt to get here attention is the only thing they try.

Honestly, the volume of jokes in this show is pretty low all around to the point where I only call it a comedy, since that is the only way its own premise and stakes make any sense, and other people also call it a comedy.

Impressively, instead of sacrificing horror for comedy, or vice-versa, this show somehow pulled off the rather impressive feat of sacrificing both elements to each-other, so that neither could shine.

Plot:

Basically, nothing to see here. Miko sees ghost. Miko takes the complete non-threat fully seriously, but does nothing. Eventually, the ghost gets as bored as the audience and leaves. That's about 90% of the show. Some of the ghosts are dead people related to those they are haunting. That Idea could be used to craft some interesting plots, but the show can't be bothered to do that 90% of the time.

The pacing doesn't help. This show will, straight up spend 5 minutes on standing around waiting for nothing to happen. Then another 15 minutes, on the main character doing nothing, next to a ghost also doing nothing, before mercifully deciding to end the episode and do the same next week. Sometimes the ghosts eat each other, but this literally doesn't matter at all, since it just turns them into a bigger pile of ghosts that also do nothing.

Characters:

Miko is a passive protagonist whose goal is to do nothing. The antagonists are passive creatures who also do nothing. Her best friend Hana has nothing to do with the plot and just fills time in the episodes. Yuria is the only main cast member who is interested at all in actually doing anything (she wants to train to become a medium/exorcist), but is constantly foiled in the attempt. I guess I feel bad for Yuria since she is the only one trying to make the show interesting, but not nearly bad enough to think that the characters save this show.

Worldbuilding:

Very little world-building, mostly because the main character has no real interest in learning about anything.

Presentation:

This show actually has good presentation, but it is all in service of absolutely nothing.

In Conclusion:

Mieruko-Chan manages to avoid the potential whiplash from switching between horror and comedy by just committing to being bland and doing neither. An interesting strategy.

4/10

The only reason it gets as high as 4 is because I find it bland rather than outright bad at everything it is trying to do. But I was close to giving it a 3.