Allowing other authors to play in a given world is a dicey proposition. Not only are you asking for their take on an established story, but you're doing so with the understanding that their vision of it may not be exactly what original series fans are looking for. In the best-case scenario, you get something like the Sasaki and Miyano Official Comic Anthology, which for the most part nails the feel of the parent series and has art that is largely faithful to Shō Harusono's. While the Mieruko-chan Official Comic Anthology is by no means bad, it also doesn't achieve those heights, with most of the stories contained within its covers feeling a bit more like fanfiction than anything else.

Of course, there's nothing wrong with fanfiction, and in a few cases, the unique takes work very well. Chief among them is Michiru Noroi's Fright of the Fitting Room. Noroi's brand of horror can be otherwise seen in their proprietary anthology The Horrors of Noroi Michiru, published in English by Star Fruit Books, and frankly after reading their contribution here, picking that book up feels like a good idea. Noroi's story does a decent job of sticking with the basic premise of Mieruko-chan, sending the reluctant ghost seer into a fitting room in a clothing store. From that point on, the story takes off in a phantasmagoric direction, pitting Miko against an uncommonly clingy dress while also trading in some stock horror imagery. Noroi's accompanying comment says that they admire the way that the original manga blends horror subgenres, and that comes across clearly in their work. It doesn't necessarily look like the original manga, nor does it entirely feel like it, but it's a very well-realized horror short story all on its own.

Similarly, the piece by Yakan Nabeya, One Who Knows the Girl Who Sees, takes the basic theme and format of the original and twists it ever so slightly. In this tale, the perspective belongs to the ghost rather than any of the human girls, and it explores the idea that maybe the monstrosity enjoys watching Miko. Despite his gruesome appearance, the ghoul just really wants Miko to be okay and supports her in her attempts to not acknowledge the supernatural beings around her. There's a sense that it may have been inspired by Miko's father or the feline ghosts (who also get their own story by Goumoto, whose work has appeared in English in the Syrup yuri anthology series) because although it lacks the bittersweetness of those pieces, it implies that just because they look scary doesn't mean that all of the ghosts are. Nabeya also deserves credit for drawing a particularly good monster; his creepy blush is nothing short of delightful.

On the weaker side are the works that seem to either have missed that the series deviates from its fanservice roots or that are simply too short to contribute much. To be clear, flash fiction-length short stories really can have an impact; it's just that pieces like Yoshiyuki Nabei's Seeing Things is Rough don't have the space to make much of an impression. Aki Mizuki's Bath Buddies is probably the weakest story in the collection, however, not because of its length – it's one of the longer stories – but because it lives and dies on how much you love Hana's oversized (and badly drawn) breasts. If that's what you're looking for in a Mieruko-chan story, you'll likely feel differently, but it otherwise simply feels like an excuse to draw Yuria, Miko, and Hana stripping down.

Thematically, two separate stories focus on Yuria and Rom, which is interesting (and they both run the same way), and quite a few use the naked little male ghosts as their base. Of these, Shikiji Sorakura's Little Old Man Day is the most fun. It features Miko, Hana, and Yuria all visiting a new bakery café Hana's had her eye on, only for two of the three to realize that the place is filled with weird little old guys. The story nicely blends mild horror with goofy humor and some appetizing desserts, making it a highlight of the volume. Imari Arita's Forgot Something also use the little old men as a lighter element in their story as they play with Miko's perception of the ghosts she sees. Hana appears in nearly all of the pieces in the book, and, interestingly, no one artist seems able to agree on how to draw her hair; in a few cases, if Miko or Yuria didn't say her name, it'd be tricky to figure out who she was.

The Mieruko-chan Official Comic Anthology is much more of a mixed bag than anything else. When the stories are on, they're on, and the variety in the art styles is also a definite draw. But not all of the contributions seem to fully grasp the original series (or do and don't care, which is their right), and that makes this more of a book for completionists or superfans than for the casual Mieruko-chan reader.