Mieruko-chan

Episode 11

Screw the ghosts, did you see that twist coming? In its penultimate episode, Mieruko-chan finally hits the climax of this season's longest-running arc, reining everything in with a character study of Miko's notorious cat-stalking substitute teacher, Zen Toono. While it ends with fireworks, the body of the episode is quieter and more melancholy than Mieruko-chan's usual comedy-softened mode. And it uses this tone wonderfully to draw out both our sympathies and Miko's latent heroism.

Obviously, our main development is the proof of Zen's innocence, and I knew I should have trusted my instincts last week when that dang cold open laid the horror tropes on so thickly. Even an actual serial animal abuser wouldn't have so many creepy signifiers congregate around them at once. Like Miko, I saw what I expected to see and didn't question anything further. Rather than rue my gullibility, however, I'll chalk this up as a testament to Mieruko-chan's consistently strong presentation. A lesser anime would have had me rolling my eyes at the reintroduction of Zen, but Mieruko-chan possessed both the vision and the creative chops to string me along with its misdirection.

Horror is no stranger to this episode either, which manages to be the season's most upsetting installment, while also relying the least on Miko's sixth sense. There's some irony there, but the show is no stranger to that kind of subversion. Mieruko-chan takes many of the same presentation techniques it uses for Miko's specters and applies them to Zen's abusive mother, whose monstrous visage makes the identity of Zen's present ghastly tormenter all too obvious. She's not a manifestation of Zen's internal darkness; she's the weight dragging his heart down into that cold and dark place.

Thematically, too, this revelation lines up with Miko's personal journey so far. Her power is sight, but seeing is not the only metric we should use when it comes to foisting our judgments onto other people. In fact, the series has consistently stressed how little information Miko knows about the spirit world. Just because she can see certain parts better than most people doesn't mean she understands the big picture any better than a non-esper. The same applies more broadly to all of us, whether or not we can see tiny nude old men scampering under our couches. We all have our own areas of expertise, but relying on them too much can reinforce our biases and blind us to other perspectives. Miko has the humility to admit she judged Zen too quickly. While that lesson gets hammered into our morality from childhood onwards, its triteness is tempered by how difficult it is to adhere to.

I like that the show takes Miko's snap judgment one step further and draws a lot of parallels between her and Zen. It's kind of deliciously ironic that Zen thought she was the one going around hurting cats, and for many of the same reasons she thought it was him. They're both odd, gloomy people who keep a lot bottled up, and their attempts to shirk outside attention inevitably draw them to the center of it. But they both also have good hearts and good friends. This makes Miko's decision to help Zen much more emotionally affecting, because she's extending hand to a kindred spirit. She is, in essence, making the decision to help herself at the same time by definitively confronting her own fears.

Along those lines, the cliffhanger confrontation is both about Miko exorcising his mother's spirit and Zen confronting the truth of his own trauma. He is both literally and figuratively haunted by her, so only doing one or the other isn't going to help him. Miko seems to have done her part (or rather, those shrine guardians did it for her), but it means nothing if Zen can't accept his own blamelessness for his the abuse he and his cat suffered. While the scars might always be there, his mother can't hurt him anymore. He has to recognize that he deserves to enjoy the unparalleled warmth and softness of his own adorable kitty cat once more.

Perhaps it's needless to say at this point, but I'm a big fan of how this arc has unfolded. Mieruko-chan could certainly pivot to straightforward horror if it wanted to, but this comparatively compassionate direction is definitely more consistent with the anime so far. I don't necessarily expect the future of Mieruko-chan to resemble this either, as much as I wouldn't mind a less horny variation of the Monogatari series with Miko as its resident trauma exorcist. Mieruko-chan has always seemed content to do its own thing. But I think this arc has proven to be a smart and affecting note for this season to end on. Now we just have to see if it can stick the landing next week, or if it'll fall flat on its butt buns.

Rating:

Mieruko-chan is currently streaming on Funimation.

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