Manga Review: Mieruko-chan Chapter 15

Mieruko-chan Chapter 15

Yen Press

Mangaka: Tomoki Izumi

Mieruko-chan follows high-schooler Miko through her daily life as she comes to terms with her new inexplicable ability to see horrific ghosts and other spectral entities around her. Because no one else can see the beings, Miko has come to the conclusion that the best way to endure these horrors is to boldly and plainly ignore them. While there are threads of an overarching story within Mieruko-chan, for the most part, each chapter is simply another moment in Miko’s life dealing with a new daily abomination much to her dismay (and to the comedic enjoyment of readers).

In this chapter, Miko and her younger brother Kyousuke are out shopping for a dress for their mother. What starts off as a normal shopping trip quickly turns dark for Miko as she encounters a ghost in the dressing room with her. After that, we get another scene in a train car that has a particularly funny punch at the end.

Mieruko-chan is a simple story with a simple premise, but all the joy comes from each situation and how Miko navigates through it. While on the outside she remains calm and collected, the reader gets to see her inner dialogue where all the panic and turmoil of the situation are raging at full blast. Not only that, but Tomoki Izumi’s art perfectly illustrates (heh) just how terrifying the ghouls are which both lets you perfectly understand Miko’s fears while also adding to the hilarity of each situation.

As I said before, Izumi’s art is perfect for this story. When drawing regular characters, the artwork is clean and the character models are cute but human. However, when drawing the ghosts the art becomes grotesque and rough. Even the speech bubbles for the ghosts are inverted in color to distinguish them as horrific.

Mieruko-chan continues to be a manga I look forward to reading each time we get a new chapter. It’s got plenty of laughs but also a surprisingly interesting story that readers will want to stick with.

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