Mieruko-chan – 10

「見るな」 (Miru na)
“Don’t Look”

This week’s Mieruko-chan is without a doubt the show in its peak form as Miko has to counterbalance avoiding the ire of haunted ghouls and the attention of her new cat-killing teacher Zen. Her tense encounters with the supernatural are made even worse when she comes to realize she might not be protected from scarier spirits for much longer.

EVERYDAY ZEN

Most of the episodes have had some excellent tension built in, but I was at my most anxious watching through this one because of how high the stakes have gotten up to this point. Each moment of tension is amplified tenfold with Miko having to avoid cracking in front of cat-killer Zen, who may just be one slip-up away from seeing Miko as a threat to his cat-murdering lifestyle.

The scene where he calls on Miko to read has to be one of my favorite moments in the show. Never has Miko’s attempt to avoid the supernatural been so harrowing as she tries to avoid the attention of dangerous spirits, ranging from deceased cats to an increasingly agitated ghoul fixated on Zen.

As if this wasn’t bad enough, both Miko and Zen have a general understanding that she prevented him from murdering a cat earlier in the show. With that in mind, she also has to avoid anything that would draw suspicion to her being scared of what she knows about his murder hobby. While the abandoned hospital, cursed tunnel, and ax man scenes come close to matching its intensity, I was at the edge of my seat the entire time as I was deeply worried that this might be the moment she slips up and breaks her cover in front of a sociopathic murderer and the malicious spirits he attracts

THE THIRD TIME’S THE CHARM

As if it couldn’t get any worse, Miko was only able to comprehend the nature of the holy spirits that have been helping her by the time she used up two of her three lifelines. And because she’s been gunning it alone, she’ll have to manage saving her last line of defense for a moment she’ll really need it. The only question is, what if that moment comes far too early? If she comes across just your standard garden variety giant ghoul and it’s used, then she’ll have no chance at being able to protect herself while she’s avoiding Zen.

Miko will have to learn to communicate, given that she’s also only started to make sense of the abilities that others have. Ideally, she could muster up the courage or seek out an opportunity to swap information with Yulia, given that they both could see some of the ghouls that surround Zen, but excel in different ways. With Miko’s ability to see larger ghosts and Yulia’s ability to see spiritual energy, it would help for them to gather together as a means of understanding what they should do next.

Similarly, they now both have a general idea that Hana has amassed a large amount of spiritual energy, granting her the ability to exorcise spirits through her aura. It was funny to see that Hana’s hunger might be attributed to the presence of haunted spirits, and that her hunger pangs have likely intensified because of the vengeful ghosts that surround Zen. At some point, I’d hope that she ends up becoming somewhat aware of the abilities so that she isn’t left stranded and ignorant of her potential.