Mieruko-chan – 05

「ワタシも見える」 (Watashi mo Mieru)
“I See Them, Too”

On this Halloween episode of Mieruko-chan, we are formally introduced to Yulia, the girl with multi-colored hair who follows Miko as she’s plagued by supernatural creeps. But while Miko tries to avoid as many as she can on her daily commute, Yulia yearns to become an apprentice to someone who can help her become a powerful exorcist who can eliminate the nastier spirits that have haunted her since she was a kid.

PLEASE BE MY THIRD EYE

It was interesting to learn about Yulia considering how it adds to the lore for there to be other clairvoyants who can see the dead. But even with the enthusiasm and pep that she has for finding the means to be able to exorcise ghosts, she is constantly set back by the ignorance that others have for those who can see spirits.

She spends most of her time trying to find someone who can reach common ground with her after having spent so long being bullied and ostracized for the possibility of lying about having such extraordinary powers. With her ability being strong enough to make out ghosts, she’s lived a childhood of fear and isolation as she has to deal with nobody believing her or taking her seriously for being able to see the dead.

At the same time, the one person she does stumble across that can see the dead can see them in such intricate detail that she’s never known what it feels like to see the truly harrowing ghouls. On paper, it would have been perfect for Yulia to reach out to Miko considering how they can at least find this in common with one another.

But because Yulia is unable to see massive ghouls face-to-face, Miko sees Yulia’s efforts as her messing around with a world she barely knows. Because Miko already knows that they’re worlds apart as far as what they can see, she drew a line in the sand for Yulia where she won’t learn the full extent of what Miko can see until she decides to tell her. On top of this, Miko set the precedence for a rivalry to pose itself when Yulia starts to take offense to Miko’s deflection, and when she is conditioned to fear Miko after getting choked out by The Badger’s Serpent Clutch.

DANGIT GHOST GRANDPA

Aside from this, we get another segment where Miko uses context clues from ghosts to help out those in the world of the living. It was pretty cute to see how the story ended up unfolding considering how they make you think the worst of both the old woman and the ghost that appear near her until Miko comes to realize the numbers the ghost is uttering bear significance to the woman.

It was a relatively wholesome episode not just for the lack of unnecessary T&A, but also for how Miko’s ghost encounter in the second half could also show that not all of the ghoulish-looking ghosts are looking to throttle or attack other humans. While the ghost grandfather was still a fearsome specter, his purpose around both Miko and his living wife was to allow someone to give her the hint that he left a gift for his wife in a secured safe.

It might not have been as much of a tear-jerker as the earlier pet segment, but it helps to know and understand that there will be times where even the scarier ghosts that surround Miko have kinder, nobler intentions than the giant mammoth monsters she’ll often come across.