Characters from the webcomic series Mieruko-chan. Beware of unmarked spoilers.

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Main Characters

Miko Yotsuya

Voiced by: Atsumi Tanezaki (Kadokawa PV), Sora Amamiya (anime) (JP), Alexis Tipton (EN), Itzel Mendoza (LA)

The Protagonist of the story. A normal high school girl with the unwanted ability to see ghosts.

A-Cup Angst: While there's no indications that she's necessarily flat, there are times when she gets annoyed with Hana's bust size.
- When Hana is playing around with a stethoscope in the nurse's office, she finds that she can't get a good read on her own heartbeat and wonders if she'd have an easier time with Miko's, much to the latter's chagrin.
- In the same chapter, Miko is trying to get some perverted ghost away from Hana and is close to letting it latch onto her instead to spare her friend. At that movement though, the busty School Nurse enters, and the ghost almost immediately latches onto her. While Miko and Hana are thus able to leave safely, Miko can't help but feel as if she lost.
Beautiful Dreamer: Played for horror in the scene where Michiru sneaks into Miko's bedroom at night and closely stares at her sleeping face.
Becoming the Mask: A humorous version. Miko is implied to become Anaconda Anaguma fan for real after watching a video of his wrestling match to throw off the ghost stalking her in the cafe, enough to attend his meet-and-greet later.
Big Sister Instinct: When Kyousuke unknowingly plucked a mysterious snowman, Miko panicked as the snowman's ghost got quite close in freezing her younger brother to death. She immediately destroyed the snowman with a can of hot red bean before picking him up and sprinting all the way back to her house whilst being chased by the ghost.
Blessed with Suck: Miko's ability to perceive spirits is so powerful that it outdoes even actual veteran exorcists in their ability to see. This ability is also so strong that it actively hinders Miko's ability to function in daily life. Not only is she constantly stressed from seeing ghosts everywhere, the ghosts' activites impede Miko in various ways. They will rant and talk on their own even if nobody can hear, which can cause Miko to be unable to listen to what actual people are saying, and while they are incorporeal, they appear solid in her eyes, resulting in many situations where they block Miko's eyesight. The consequences of not having a clear line of sight speak for themselves; this has run the full gamut, from being as inconvenient as not letting her watch a movie with Hana to being as dangerous as causing her to run out into the street and nearly get hit by a truck. The "blessing" sucks so much it might as well be a disability.
Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: Miko has black hair and is friends with the redheaded Hana and the blonde Yuria.
Bring My Brown Pants: In Chapter 15, following a terrifying encounter with a ghost on the subway that swung an axe at every living passenger, she asks Kyousuke to make a stop for some new underwear, with the obvious implication that she soiled herself in fear.
Butt-Monkey: The things that she needs to endure from seeing terrifying ghosts is... astounding.
The Champion: Ensuring Hana's safety from the ghosts is her top priority and she willingly goes to extreme lengths to stop any that might harm her, whether it's solving the matter of the ghost of Zen's mother, stopping the river ghost when Hana was sick, or even confronting the "god" of the mountain shrine they had visited.
Closet Key: To Michiru. She used to be rather uninterested in people, but her increasingly creepy obsession with Miko is making her discover new... feelings.
Cowardly Lion: As much as she is genuinely terrified of the ghosts around her and absolutely hates having to pretend she doesn't see them, there will come times when she puts her foot down and willingly confronts them, such as deliberately provoking the ghost of Zen's mother to make her finally leave him, stopping a ghost that was trying to get an ill Hana, and confronting the "god" of the mountain shrine to prevent Hana from getting hurt as Miko's accidental debt to it.
Cursed with Awesome: Miko's ability to see ghosts has brought her almost nothing but stress and misery. However, there's some benefits that come with it, like being able to see her ghost father and pass messages from the dead to their living loved ones. She also uses her ability to try and protect her friend Hana from the spirits drawn to Hana's aura.
Deadpan Snarker: Mostly around Hana and her ginormous appetite.
Deal with the Devil: As Romm explains to her in Chapter 34, her prayer at the shrine to keep Hana safe and help her with her ghost problem caused her to unwittingly enter a contract with the resident god, where it and its pair of kimono-wearing ghosts will save her from hostile ghosts thrice for an unspecified price. Because of how vague her requests were as well as mistakenly making two wishes instead of just one, they had a hard time carrying out the requests and getting their due, causing them to go after her cosigner, Hana, which understandably horrifies her.
Even the Girls Want Her: There's Michiru's behavior towards her for starters, and when Miko drops by Kyousuke's school to pick him up, two of Kyousuke's friends, one of whom is a girl, get flustered around her because of how pretty she is.
I Just Want to Be Normal: Nothing would make Miko happier than stop seeing scary ghosts.
I See Dead People: She sees ghosts everywhere, much to her displeasure. Since they're Invisible to Normals, she struggles not to react to them, so she won't attract the attention of the ghosts or look insane in front of people.
Leg Focus: A lot of focus tends to be put on Miko's legs, especially her thighs, in the anime.
Light Feminine and Dark Feminine: Miko is the serious-minded and deadpan Dark Feminine to Hana's bubbly and outgoing Light Feminine.
Lost Food Grievance: A year before the start of the story, Miko got into a fight with her father because he ate her pudding. According to her brother, Miko was so angry that she looked like a demon back then.
Magnetic Medium: Miko seems to have a knack for meeting ghosts that only she can see wherever she goes. Considering how ghosts are everywhere in this setting, this might be inevitable, but they still make an annoying habit out of getting uncomfortably close to her.
Meaningful Name: "Yotsuya" contains the kanji for "four", symbolizing her connection to ghosts. It's also the name of a popular Japanese ghost story.
- Her given name is also the word for shrine maidens, the female religious attendants that are often depicted as having powers of exorcism in fiction.
Mistaken for Badass: Yuria thinks Miko is a part of a ghost hunting duo with Hana, even though in actuality Miko is trying her darnedest to stay away from them. Yuria's mental evaluation of Miko's supposed greatness as an exorcist only gets wilder as the series progresses, from believing Miko can set up barriers and make simple gestures to exorcise ghosts to getting so badass she can get rid of them just by glaring at them.
Mistaken for Gay: Hana thinks Miko may have a crush on her because Miko acts a bit odd when they're alone and sometimes gets apparently overprotective of Hana. In reality, Miko is trying to keep Hana away from the ghosts around them.
Ms. Fanservice: Miko has a Shower and Bathtub Scene that the anime uses to show off her naked body (albeit covered with Scenery Censor, Godiva Hair and other camera tricks).
Nerves of Steel: She can maintain a perfect poker face even when faced with some nightmare inducingly scary ghosts. Mostly out of necessity, since she fears the ghosts might go after her should she acknowledge them, which is proven right on multiple occasions.
Nervous Tics: While she's able to keep a straight face during her ghost encounters, a sure sign that she's scared is her gripping the hem of her skirt. This works as a clever visual cue for viewers if the author makes an "invisible" chapter where ghosts are not drawn, since it clues the viewer into the fact that something terrifying is in the room.
Nightmare Fetishist: Downplayed but she does think that some smaller ghosts are cute even though they are often just as grotesque looking.
Non-Action Protagonist: Miko is completely defenseless in front of ghosts and has no means to fight them. All she can do to protect herself is ignoring them so they don't notice her ability to see them. She has to rely on spirits willing to protect her and experienced exorcists like Romm to be safe from the particularly dangerous ghosts that she can't ignore.
Not So Stoic: While she maintains a straight face when a supernatural entity attempts to make contact with her, she's shown to enter a brief panic the moment they're gone, usually having Tears of Fear in her face.
Oblivious to Love: From her perspective, Michiru looks a scary monster that she must keep happy to prevent others from getting hurt by Michiru's tentacles. She has no idea that her actions towards Michiru are causing the latter to turn into a Stalker with a Crush for her.
Ordinary High-School Student: Miko was a perfectly normal high school girl until one day she suddenly started seeing abominable ghosts all around her. From then on, she constantly struggles to keep living her life like normal despite the scary things only she sees.
Pinball Protagonist: For most of the series, Miko tries to live normally without any intention to get involved with the ghosts she keeps seeing around her. She only actively tries to do something about the ghosts if they jeopardize her friend Hana's safety.
Properly Paranoid: She tries her hardest to pretend that she can't see ghosts due to fearing they'll attack her if she reacts to or acknowledges them, which is proven right in every single occasion that she does so.
Right for the Wrong Reasons: When she and Hina meet Zen Touno when trying to find someone to adopt a stray cat, she assumes that he's a cat killer based on the evil-looking cat spirits surrounding him and instead gives the cat to the guy with the Face of a Thug surrounded by more benevolent cat spirits. She's right that the cat would have been in danger, but more so because of the ghost of Zen's mother who killed every cat he came to own after her death.
Selective Obliviousness: Miko tries to get involved with ghosts and the paranormal as little as possible, so she deliberately doesn't try to question the motives of their presence. Even though she sees her dad's ghost every day, the fact that he must have some Unfinished Business doesn't even cross her mind until Yuria points it out to her.
Stalker without a Crush: She tails haunted humans like Zen and Michiru to keep an eye on the ghosts attached to them. This leads to a massive misunderstanding after Michiru notices that Miko has been secretly taking pictures of her (to show them to the exorcist Romm) and she ends up convinced that Miko returns her obsessive love.
The Stoic: While she's capable of giving small smiles every now and then, her main expression by default, when she's not being reduced to tears or a quivering mess after a spooky encounter that is, is a borderline non-expressive poker face, mostly as a means to protect herself by pretending she doesn't see the ghastly ghouls she sees in front of her. As the anime shows, she's apparently been rather subdued with her expressions even before she started seeing ghosts one day so it's likely she's just a reserved girl in general.
Strong Family Resemblance: Miko looks almost identical to her mother. The main difference between them is that her mother has a Motherly Side Plait.
Sugar-and-Ice Personality: Miko is a nice and kindhearted girl, but almost superhumanly composed and controlled to be able to keep a poker face 90% of the time even in front of horrifying ghosts. She's only seen smiling around her family and friends.
Supernatural Gold Eyes: She's the only character with yellow eyes and has an unusually potent ability to see ghosts.
Tears of Fear: As much as she tries to stay calm in presence of ghosts, most of the time, she can't hold back the tears from the utter terror she feels.
Warning Mistaken for Threat: Miko puts Yuria in a sleeper hold in the gym's storage room to stop her from drawing the attention of a dangerous ghost that she can't see. Afterwards, Miko only tells Yuria that it's best to ignore the ghosts and don't talk about them. Yuria ends up misunderstanding it as Miko threatening her into keeping quiet about her secret and gets terrified whenever she thinks Miko is going to shut her up again.

Hana Yurikawa

Voiced by: Ayasa Itō (Kadokawa PV), Kaede Hondo (anime) (JP), Sarah Wiedenheft (EN), Azul Valadez (LA)

Miko's classmate and best friend.

All-Loving Heroine: Hana is very kind, loving and compassionate, always trying to get along with everyone and make her friends happy. She even befriends a Yandere who was about to stab her.
Best Friend: For Miko, Hana is her most important friend and they do almost everything together.
Big Eater: In the majority of her scenes, she's either eating or talking about eating. This is also shown to be how she maintains her ginormous aura.
Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: Hana has light orange hair while her friends Miko and Yuria have black and blonde hair respectively.
Boob-Based Gag: Her huge bust size is a major source of humor. For example, Hana jokes about never getting fat because all the calories go to her boobs.
Bunnies for Cuteness: She's obsessed with the Lambda Rabbit brand, to the point her bedroom is decorated with nothing but Lambda Rabbit merch.
Cast from Calories: The main weakness of her protective aura is that it requires a large amount of energy to maintain and draws directly from her life force, which is why she's always hungry. This is exacerbated when she's in the presence of more powerful ghosts that don't get instantly destroyed by her aura, causing her to expend more energy than normal and nearly pass out from hunger.
Childhood Friends: Hana has been Miko's best friend since elementary school.
Cooldown Hug: When Michiru is about to stab her with a pen, Hana gives her a hug and thanks her for caring about Miko. This succeeds to calm Michiru down and subside her Yandere impulses.
The Cutie: She's a sweet, innocent bubbly girl.
A Day in the Limelight: Chapter 10 focuses on her.
Early-Installment Weirdness: During the first time we meet Hana she is possessed by a "handsy" ghost that clings to her body, before moving on to a much "fuller" woman. Later chapters would establish that Hana's massive aura was dangerous to even high level spirits and capable of fully exorcising any low level spirit that got too close.
First-Name Basis: To everyone. She's also subject to this as everyone simply calls her Hana.
Girls Love Stuffed Animals: She keeps many Lambda Rabbit plushies in her bedroom.
Going Commando: Hana is so airheaded that she actually forgets to put on her panties when changing from her PE uniform.
Growling Gut: Her stomach grumbles whenever she gets very hungry and if it's too bad, she nearly collapses from hunger. Miko later discovers through Yuria that the real cause is that Hana's aura is fueled by the food she eats and it weakens when she's near ghosts.
The Heart: Hana always keeps the spirits up for Miko and her other friends. She can win almost anyone over with her sweet and caring nature.
Hyperactive Metabolism: Hana's aura gets drained when she's in close proximity to powerful ghosts. She unwittingly restores her aura by eating food.
Invisible to Normals: Her massive amount of life energy puts her as more of an anomaly to other people with supernatural sight than Miko. In fact, Miko can't see Hana's aura and needs Yuria's help to know when Hana's aura is fading.
Jokers Love Junk Food: Hana is a bubbly airhead who loves all sorts of junk food and sweets, especially donuts.
Life Energy: Hana has enough of this to roast smaller ghosts. It can harm bigger spirits as well if they get too close to her at "full" power.
Light Feminine and Dark Feminine: Hana is the bubbly and outgoing Light Feminine to Miko's more serious-minded and deadpan Dark Feminine.
Mistaken for Badass: Yuria thinks Hana is a part of a ghost hunting duo with Miko, even though Hana can't see ghosts and is scared of them regardless.
Never Gets Fat: Hana is as thin as Miko even though she eats ten times more than her friend.
Nice Girl: She's kind and friendly towards everyone, even complete strangers.
The Not-Love Interest: Hana is Miko's Best Friend and the few times Miko tries to actively do something about the ghosts is when Hana's wellbeing is at risk.
Oblivious to Hatred: She thinks of Michiru as a friend, unaware that the latter really hates her Big Eater habits. More importantly, Michiru wants to steal the spot of Miko's best friend from Hana.
Protectorate: Unwittingly is this to Miko, as she goes extreme lengths to stop any ghosts that might harm her, whether it's solving the matter of the ghost of Zen's mother, stopping the river ghost when Hana was sick, or even confronting the "god" of the mountain shrine they had visited.
Pseudo-Romantic Friendship: Hana and Miko have been best friends for most of their lives. They're so close that Hana often jokes about Miko having a crush on her, although both know she isn't serious. They also feed each other and have sleepovers so often that Miko keeps Hana's pajamas at her house. Their friendship is so intimate that Michiru sees Hana as the biggest threat to her wish of becoming the closest person to Miko.
Purely Aesthetic Glasses: She wears glasses when she studies. She doesn't really need them, but puts them on so "her blood sugar doesn't escape".
Selfie Fiend: Hana loves taking selfies everywhere she goes.
Stepford Smiler: Downplayed. Hana is a genuinely cheerful and happy girl, but chapter 53 reveals that at least some of Hana's personality is an act she puts on because she can tell that Miko has changed since her dad died, but since Miko won't say anything and Hana doesn't want to push the issue she instead tries to be as cheery around Miko as possible.
Tareme Eyes: In contrast with her best friend Miko, Hana's eyes are round and droopy. It fits her cheerful, bubbly personality.
Tastes Like Friendship:
- Hana became friends with Miko because the latter gave her bread at lunch back in elementary school.
- She also starts to really bond with Michiru when the latter feeds bread to Hana, who is running low on energy after her aura gives a power boost to Michiru's ghost tentacles.
Trademark Favorite Food: While she eats all kinds of sweets, she favors donuts most of all.
Unwitting Muggle Friend: Hana is completely unaware of the existence of ghosts and is best friends with the ghost-seeing Miko, who has to deal with all the ghosts they encounter without Hana's knowledge. She can sometimes tell Miko is worried about something, but Miko doesn't tell Hana about the ghosts to not scare her.
Weirdness Magnet: Spirits are drawn to Hana's aura as they seek to steal her energy for themselves. Several times, Miko has to protect Hana from the spirits haunting her.
Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: She's scared of ghosts. Ironically, she doesn't know there's ghosts everywhere she and Miko go, as only Miko can see them and keeps quiet about it.

Yuria Nigurendou

Voiced by: Ayane Sakura (JP), Lindsay Sheppard (EN), María José Moreno (LA)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/julia_nigurendou.png

A schoolmate of Miko and Hana who also can see ghosts, to a certain extent. A self-proclaimed rival to Miko.

Adaptation Dye-Job: She's blonde in both the manga and anime, but the anime gives pink highlights to her pigtails.
Adaptational Early Appearance: Yuria shows up briefly in the first episode of the anime adaptation, chapters before her official debut in the manga.
Aura Vision: She is able to see Hana's enormous Life Energy, which Miko is unable to do and is the focus in chapter 31 due to Miko needing to keep it active to weaken a ghost, which Yuria is unable to see.
Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: Yuria is blonde while her friends Miko and Hana are black-haired and redheaded respectively.
Butt-Monkey: She often accidentally provokes ghosts that she can't see and Miko needs to knock her out to shut her up. She also passes out from sleeper holds and Marshmallow Hell courtesy of Hana and Miko.
Chuunibyou: She has shades of this. She does have powers to see spirits, but she definitely plays it up in her head to make it more dramatic since she isn't aware that she can only see the weakest variety of spirits.
Eating Lunch Alone: Miko accidentally runs into her eating alone in the school restroom. She later eats with Miko and Hana more often.
Entertainingly Wrong: Her Running Gag is that due to not being able to see the bigger ghosts, Yuria gets the wrong idea of what's happening. For example, Miko has to knock her out to not alarm a ghost that she can see it, but Yuria thinks Miko was using violence to silence her after she discovered Miko's ability to see ghosts. Later, misunderstandings lead Yuria to think Miko and Hana are a badass exorcist duo when none of them has the ability to fight ghosts.
Friendless Background: Due to her powers she had a hard time making friends because she either scared people or they thought she was faking to get attention.
Girlish Pigtails: She has two pigtails, suiting her role as the series' Token Mini-Moe.
I See Dead People: Yuria has a similar ability with Miko, although she can only see smaller ghosts.
I See Them, Too: She says this to Miko almost word-per-word.
Loner-Turned-Friend: Yuria could never make friends because no one believed in her ability to see ghosts. That's why she's very happy to be accepted as a friend by Miko and Hana.
The Napoleon: She's notably shorter than most characters her age, and definitely have some attitude problem.
Older Than She Looks: Despite her short stature and childlike build, Yuria is the same age as Miko and Hana. Lampshaded when Mitsue and Kyousuke mistake her for an elementary school student, only for Yuria to angrily tell them she's in high school.
One Dialogue, Two Conversations: Practically every dialog between Yuria and Miko is this. It started with Miko engaging in double-talk to keep a nearby ghost from noticing them and kinda snowballed from there.
Proper Tights with a Skirt: She wears black tights under her skirt.
Secret-Keeper: She's the only one of Miko's friends who knows she can see ghosts, as Yuria can see some of them too. She keeps Miko's secret, although mainly out of fear after a misunderstanding made Yuria think Miko will hurt her if she tells anyone about them seeing ghosts.
Signature Headgear: She ties her pigtails up with mushroom-themed hair accessories.
Spell My Name With An S: Her first name often gets romanized as Julia or Yulia.
Token Mini-Moe: Yuria is very childlike when compared to the other main girls Miko and Hana who do look like teenage girls.
Tsundere: She desperately wants to be friends with Miko, but also sees her as her rival.
Tsurime Eyes: Her eyes are slanted upwards to reflect her somewhat abrasive character.
Underestimating Badassery: Since she can only see smaller or weaker spirits, she ends up thinking that all spirits are as weak and harmless as those.
Unknown Rival: She thinks of Miko as a rival after a series of misunderstandings make her think Miko is a powerful exorcist and Yuria gets desperate to prove that she can exorcise ghosts too. Meanwhile, Miko is ignorant to Yuria's one-sided rivalry and is merely trying to ignore the ghosts around her.
Wrong Genre Savvy: Yuria is under the misconception that she's in a supernatural action manga and she's The Rival to Miko who she mistakes for a protagonist with overpowered exorcism powers. She's really in a Horror Comedy and Miko's only power is seeing ghosts more dangerous than those Yuria can see, not having any ability to fight them, but Yuria's limited supernatural sight makes her misunderstand the situations she's in all the time.

Miko's Family

Kyousuke Yotsuya

Voiced by: Yumiri Hanamori (JP), Suzie Yeung (EN), Atzin Padgett (LA)

Miko's little brother.

Accidental Pervert: Played With. Because of a amusing misunderstanding, he thinks Miko has a bastard boyfriend and wants to check if her body has any hickies or bruises, he deliberately walks on her bathing to check, but gets embarrassed when he happens to walk in just as she's climbing out of the water.
Big Brother Instinct: Inverted, since he's the little brother. He's very protective of his older sister and was worried when he thought Miko was in an abusive relationship.
Entertainingly Wrong: While he notices his older sister started to behave oddly, he has no idea that the real cause is her becoming able to see ghosts. After talking about it with his classmates, Kyousuke thinks Miko's strange behavior is due to her getting a boyfriend. When following Miko at a library, he thinks she was looking at a book about kisses when she was actually looking at one about ghosts, furthering the misunderstanding.
Family Eye Resemblance: Kyousuke has narrow eyes with long eyelashes, just like his older sister.
Fun T-Shirt: Kyousuke is always seen in a t-shirt with an animal on it, captioned with its name in Romaji.
Incest Subtext: He gets very flustered when his sister lets him join her in the bath. Also, an attendant at the clothing's store thinks Kyousuke acts like Miko's boyfriend.
Mistaken for Superpowered: Because he's Miko's younger brother, Yuria thinks Kyousuke can see ghosts too, but he's completely normal.
My Sister Is Off-Limits: He gets cagey at the thought that his sister might be in a relationship. When one of his friends at school tells him that "his sister's hot", Kyousuke tells him to put his eyes elsewhere.

Touko Yotsuya

Voiced by: Hitomi Nabatame (JP), Elizabeth Maxwell (EN), Karina Altamirano (LA)

The mother of Miko and Kyousuke.

Good Parents: She's a good mother to her children.
Motherly Side Plait: Touko wears her hair in a loose ponytail over her right shoulder. Ironically, she isn't the dead one of Miko's parents.

Mamoru Yotsuya

Voiced by: Kosuke Toriumi (JP), Michael Sorich (EN), Beto Castillo (LA)

The father of Miko and Kyousuke.

Dead All Along: Mamoru looks normal compared to the other ghosts, making the audience believe he's still alive until The Reveal that he's dead when Miko gives her pudding as an offering to his butsudan.
Disappeared Dad: Mamoru died at some point before the start of the series, but he still hangs out with his family as a ghost in their house.
Friendly Ghost: Unlike most ghosts in the series, Mamoru is very amicable and simply hangs out at his house to watch over his family.
Good Parents: He speaks to his children like the kind father he is despite his son not being able to see him and his daughter having to pretend to not see him.
Heroic Bystander: In chapter 51, he saves Miko's life when he warns her to not open the door, since she was about to get tricked by a ghost that was mimicking You's voice right after the latter left with Michiru.
Opaque Lenses: His glasses don't let us see his eyes.
Papa Wolf: When a malevolent spirit tries to follow Miko and Kyousuke home, Mamoru actively blocks its path, and (with a little help from the Living Room Spirit) is able to intimidate it into backing down.

Exorcists

Mitsue Takeda

Voiced by: Yukihiro Nozuyama (Kadokawa PV), Ikuko Tani (anime) (JP), Wendy Powell (EN), Isabel Martiñón (LA)

An old fortune-teller known as the Godmother of Downtown.

Big Damn Heroes: She saves Miko from the spirits that surround her in the forest.
The Bus Came Back: She left town after being unable to help Miko to live with her son, but reappears in chapter 24 to help Miko once more.
The Confidant: She's the only person that Miko can really discuss her ghost troubles with.
Cool Old Lady: Although she was first shown as a scammer, she has genuine powers and tries to help Miko with her situation.
Eye Motifs: Her robe's hood is lined with eye patterns.
I Was Quite a Looker: She was shown as a very beautiful young woman in the chapter 34 flashback.
Jack of All Stats: As far as Psychic power goes, she can do a lot. She can sense ghosts, auras, and enchant items. She also appears to be rather mediocre at all of them. For example, she can't see ghosts as well as Miko and her enchanted items seem to be weaker than Romm's.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Inwardly admits that she only cares about getting money, though she also sympathizes with Miko's plight and tries to help her as best as she can. The ghost of one of her former neighbors even calls her a good person in Chapter 24.
Know When to Fold 'Em: Quit the fortune-teller business after her strongest charm is broken by the ghost following Miko.
Miniature Senior Citizen: She is a pretty short woman who stands around a head shorter than Miko.
Not-So-Phony Psychic: She looks, acts, and even thinks like a typical scammer even though she possesses genuine powers.

Shindou Romm

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/img_20201102_073819.jpg

A man who calls himself the Enigma Syndrome who noticed Miko's situation.

Anti-Hero: His motivation is good, but his method is shady. He had mentioned three plans to enter the Shrine which required Hana's aura to break through its barrier. Plan A is to convince Miko to bring Hana along. Plan B is to use stones to absorb some of Hana's aura so that her personal presence is not needed. Shindou remarks that he is very pleased than Plan C was not needed. Whatever it was, it could not have been good.
Big Good: Being an active ghost hunter who arguably has the strongest psychic abilities among the cast, and has by far the most success of excising hostile spirits. This is best highlighted in the Anthology comic when Romm tends a make an appearance every time a particularly dangerous ghost needs to be taken care of.
Broke Your Arm Punching Out Cthulhu: It's heavily implied that him defeating the Fox God has put some sort of curse on him, as afterwards he's shown largely holed up in his own home with a massive amount of magical defenses and wards set up to keep something out.
Brutal Honesty: He bluntly tells Miko that his charms won't do much against the Fox God while asking her to keep its attention anyway.
Catchphrase: "[This item] is brimming with power!"
Chronic Hero Syndrome: Surprisingly, Romm took Towako's teachings to help people, both the living and the dead, to heart. The reason why he has such a great interest with the mountain shrine is because he once heard a girl asking for help, implied to be the spirit of a sacrifice victim who later became the Fox God.
Creepy Good: Miko's first impression of Romm is him acting like a creep and a lot of his behavior makes him suspicious. He's ultimately a good guy with heroic intentions, although his methods can be crafty.
Creepy Shadowed Undereyes: He has distinct undereye shadows, making him look a bit creepier than other living characters.
Exhausted Eye Bags: He has some noticeable bags under his eyes, which are implied to come from the horror he experiences due to being able to see spirits like Miko.
Good All Along: He takes several actions to help Miko like sending Mitsue the picture of Miko and Hana at the shrine, which allowed Mitsue to save Miko, and giving Miko one of his exorcist stones. However, whether he's a good guy is still questionable for a while. He becomes more suspicious after it's implied he's willing to use his tour group as guinea pigs to test his items on a very dangerous spirit. Mitsue also didn't trust him since she knew he had an ulterior motive for helping Miko get rid of the Shrine God. At the end of the Shrine arc, it's revealed Romm's ultimate goal was freeing the ghost of the girl that was sacrificed long ago and was left trapped inside the shrine for centuries, waiting for someone to help her.
Hiding Behind Your Bangs: His right eye is obscured by his hair and he's very shady most of the time, causing Miko and Mitsue to question how much they can trust him.
Jerkass Has a Point: Mitsue is pissed that Romm brought Miko along, as she's concerned he may use her for selfish reasons. Romm argues that Mitsue's insistence on dealing with the shrine gods on her own while leaving Miko in the dark completely, considering they may come to "collect their debt" at any moment, is not very reassuring.
More Powered Protégé: He was Mitsue's disciple when he was younger, but Romm's stronger ability to see spirits made Mitsue feel very unfit to be his mentor.
Nerves of Steel: He has the same degree of paranormal vision as Miko and has had a lifetime to learn how to keep a cool head in the presence of terrifying ghosts.
Not-So-Phony Psychic: He performs exorcisms and posts videos of them on Youtube, but most of his audience can't see the ghosts so they think he is a fraud, which isn't helped by him to keep telling them to subscribe and buy his overpriced exorcism gear. But a few people like Yuria and Miko can see the ghosts he's exorcising and know he's the real deal.
Oh, Crap!: While investigating Michiru's Spooky Photographs, Romm senses something has gone terribly wrong when his metronome stops moving, the candles go out, and the rocks and flower he was using in his ritual suddenly rot away. He barely has time to prepare a defensive barrier before the spirit targetting him destroys the room and tries to kill him.
Perma-Stubble: He has a small amount of facial hair on his chin. It helps to add to his sleazy appearance.
Pet the Dog: He lets Miko keep one of his power stones since he feels she truly needs it and sends Mitsue a picture of the shrine.
Post-Modern Magik: Use this liberally compared to everyone else. For example, he uses a smartphone and heavy metal music to repel ghosts. Other than that he's also shown to use the more mundane aspect of this trope, such as using the internet to promote his psychic business.
Punny Name: His name translates as "Boy Wonder Rom", but it's pronounced the same as his moniker "Syndrome".
Shameless Self-Promoter: In his online videos, he keeps telling people to subscribe and buy his exorcism gear.
Signature Headgear: He wears an iconic top hat with buttons sewn on it.

Oka Towako

Mitsue's mentor and Shindou's mother figure. A spiritualist who starred in her own occult television show, Towako parleyed some of that income into supporting her orphanage which catered to children with spiritual powers.

Ass Kicking Pose: Does the same pose after a successful exorcism as part of her television show with her right palm held up and her left hand in a fist with two fingers pointing to the right. This is how Mitsue and Shindou recognize her after she has been transformed into a servant of the Fox God.
Big Damn Heroes: Intervenes when Mitsue and Shindou fall afoul of the Fox God.
Cool Old Lady: Was a caring parental figure, active exorcist and media personality deep into old age.
Eye Motifs: As part of her television costume. Mitsue presumably has the same patterns on her clothing as a tribute to Towako.
Go Out with a Smile: After the Fox God is defeated and the soul is the sacrificed girl is freed, Towako's soul passes on with a smile.
Heroic Sacrifice: Grabs the Fox God's bell meant for Shindou.
Mama Bear: Goes out in full regalia to confront the Fox God who was trying to seize Shindou.
Mentor Occupational Hazard: Presumably dies to protect Shindou from the Fox God.
Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: Forcing her to attack Mitsue and Shindou caused her to turn on the Fox God and attack her fellows.
Not-So-Phony Psychic: Her television show was mostly Towako going around exorcising ghosts. While she admitted that some of those televised cases were actually fake, she did indeed perform exorcisms for many people in need. Her being a media personality might have influenced Shindou into doing his own webstreaming channel.
Orphanage of Love: Used to run one where both Mitsue and Shindou were raised. It specifically cared for children with spiritual powers since others could not perceive the ghosts these children were reacting to.
Parental Substitute: A mother figure to Shindou and to a lesser extent Mitsue.
Posthumous Character: Died when Shindou was still a kid, though her spirit still lingers around as one of the servants of the Fox God.
Reforged into a Minion: In the current day, she is one of the two servants of the Fox God.
Tragic Keepsake: Her robe which is in Mitsue's keeping.

School

Zen Touno

Voiced by: Yuichi Nakamura (JP), Yuka Terasaki (JP, child), David Matranga (EN), Kira Buckland (EN, child), Roberto Gutiérrez (LA)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/touno_zen.png

A man who has dead cats following him. He later returns as a teacher at Miko's school.

Accidental Misnaming: He has trouble memorizing the names of his students. At one point, he just avoids calling them by name altogether.
Anti-Hero: It's eventually revealed that he's NOT a cat killer as you'd initially believe from his initial appearance, and it was actually his abusive mother and that he's actually a selfless and heroic person who got hit by a car to save a kitten. However, it's also shown that he made an evil man disappear because he liked to kill cats for fun.
The Atoner: He feels guilty about his pet cat being killed by his mother. His friend thinks Zen saves stray cats to atone for it, but would like he can take care of a cat out of love someday.
Bad People Abuse Animals: He's heavily implied to be a regular cat killer. Actually subverted though, he's a genuine cat lover.
Brutal Honesty: He tells Miko to her face that he thinks she's weird. After he hears Miko speak about freedom to his evil ghost mother, Zen takes it as her suggesting him to be more honest. He follows her "advice" by rejecting his neighbor's leftover stew as he finally admits he always throws it away anyway since he finds eating other people's food to be disgusting.
Childhood Friends: His Only Friend is a vet who he has known since elementary school.
Dull Eyes of Unhappiness: His regular expression is a dull look with shineless eyes.
Good All Along: Despite being set up as a cat killer, it's revealed that he's actually innocent, as it's his dead mother whose been the source of the dead cats, while someone else was doing the dirty work. Still, it's heavily implied that he tortured a real cat killer to death.
Good Is Not Nice: Despite Zen ultimately being innocent of the string of cat killings and becoming much more sociable after his mother's spirit is banished, he abducts the actual cat killer and makes him disappear.
Kindhearted Cat Lover: Doubly Subverted. It initially seems like Zen is a nice guy willing to adopt a stray cat. However, Miko sees dark, corpse-like spirits around him that heavily imply he kills cats. It is later revealed that Zen genuinely does love cats to the extent of getting hit by a car to save one.
Lost Pet Grievance: When he was a boy, his mother killed the stray cat that he had taken in as a pet. Zen was so traumatized that he couldn't bring himself to adopt another pet even after his mother died, but he still tries to help stray cats and get them adopted by someone else. Once Miko gets his mother's ghost exorcized, she convinces Zen to adopt a cat.
Odd Friendship: In the extra chapters, he ends up forming a bond with Gozuka, the man who got the cat he was denied previously, over their love of cats.
Pay Evil unto Evil: He eventually finds the cat killer who was hunting the cats in his neighborhood. Zen tases the culprit and makes him disappear mysteriously.
Reasonable Authority Figure: When Michiru's sister demands Michiru to be transferred to another class to separate her from Miko, Zen listens to Michiru's wish to stay in Miko's class and decides to not force her to change classes against her will.
Red Eyes, Take Warning: Subverted. His red eyes are definitely meant to make him seem like a menace, but he's actually not dangerous at all. Except to zoosadists.
Red Herring: The cat ghosts haunting him make Miko sure that Zen is the cat killer running around the town. Zen was actually innocent and was in fact trying to find the real cat killer. The cat ghosts were in fact cats that he failed to save from the cat killer and they followed him because they sympathized with his pain caused by his mother's ghost.
Sheep in Sheep's Clothing: When he's first introduced, Hana thinks Zen looks more trustworthy than the guy with Face of a Thug, but the cat ghosts haunting him make Miko think otherwise. Turns out Zen never hurt any cats and would even risk his life to save a kitten from being run over. It was his abusive mother that was responsible for the cat spirits. Afterwards, Miko has to admit that she judged Zen wrong.
Spell My Name With An S: His family name is sometimes spelled as "Toono".
Sugar-and-Ice Personality: He acts cold and uncaring towards his students, but there's more to him than Miko thought at first. He's a Kindhearted Cat Lover at heart and is willing to risk his life to protect a stray kitten.
Taking the Bullet: He gets hit by a car to save a stray kitten. Fortunately, he only comes out with a few injuries.

Michiru Ichijou

Voiced by: Saori Hayami (Kadokawa PV)

^{Click here to see the spirit attached to her}

A magazine model who transfers into Miko's class. Despite being human, Miko can only see her as a monster with an octopus for a head. Miko is able to tell her emotions and thoughts through the movements of her tentacles, which sparks Michiru's interest in getting close to Miko.

Abhorrent Admirer: Michiru is all but outright stated to be madly in love with Miko, or at the very least wants to be close with her. Although most people see Michiru as a pretty girl, all Miko can see is a terrifying tentacle monster whose odd mannerisms only makes her scarier towards Miko. She starts losing the abhorrent part after Hana breaks through to her and she joins the group, as the tentacles retract into her body, allowing Miko to properly see her for the first time, whereupon she's struck by Michiru's beauty.
All of the Other Reindeer: Throughout her childhood, other kids avoided her and shunned her because her weird behavior made her creepy to others.
Ambiguously Gay: She has shown no attachments to anyone with the exception of her pet caterpillar and Miko, for whom she has nurtured a powerful obsession in a frighteningly short time. It's up to interpretation whether her feelings for Miko come from romantic attraction or desperation for a true friend who doesn't care about her good looks or modeling job.
Because You Were Nice to Me: Although many of her classmates treat her kindly, she believes they are only interested in her because of her looks and popularity, but then quickly develops an obsessive attachment to Miko because, from her perspective, Miko is the only classmate who can tell when she's upset and tries her best to make her feel comfortable rather than admired. What Michiru doesn't know is that Miko sees her as a horrifying monster whose tentacles will move to stab whoever makes her upset.
Beneath the Mask: She tries to look calm and keep her emotions bottled up, but Miko can see whenever she's angry or upset by looking at her octopus spirit's tentacles. The most noteworthy example is when Michiru is in the presence of her Control Freak older sister; her human face looks unbothered, but Miko sees the octopus spirit going into a mad rage.
Berserk Button: It tends to be hard for anyone who isn't Miko to tell, since Michiru appears extremely unemotive on the surface, but there are a lot of seemingly small things that will cause her to get very upset, which Miko can tell due to her octopus spirit's tentacles acting like they're about to stab someone. Most of which are generally linked to her loneliness and isolation.
- Touching her hair. She's subtly uncomfortable with her classmates crowding and fawning over her to begin with, but when one of them reaches for her hair her spirit tentacles immediately become hostile. This appears to stem from the fact that her sister, You, treats brushing her hair as a one-sided bonding activity, causing Michiru to associate it with You's smothering tendencies, and a violation of her control over her life and body.
- Her sister, You, serves as one in general. You's constant attempts to control her life and isolate her from socializing has caused Michiru to build up a lot of resentment toward her sister, and her spirit violently ripples with eyes and spikes when You appears.
- Anything that looks like it might take Miko away from her. She's starts out mostly annoyed and somewhat hostile toward Hana for interjecting into moments where she feels connected to Miko, such as when Hana mentions that she thinks her Lambda Rabbit keychain is cuter than the Meme-chan keychain that Michiru and Miko like, but the realization that Hana actually already has the sort of extremely close relationship with Miko that she herself wants provokes a violent response from her spirit similar to their reaction to You. She loses this after befriending Hana as well, however.
Big Little Sister: She is much taller than her older sister.
Clingy Jealous Girl: Michiru is very possessive of Miko and doesn't take kindly to anybody who would steal Miko's attention away from her. In particular, she doesn't like Hana due to her status as Miko's Best Friend. She grows out of it when Hana's kindness wins her over and she starts caring for Hana as much as she does for Miko.
Combat Tentacles: Whenever someone makes her upset, her octopus spirit's tentacles get on the offensive and return to normal when she relaxes. The tentacles can also stab and absorb ghosts that get close to her, although she doesn't appear to have conscious control over it.
Consulting Mister Puppet: She doesn't confide her true feelings to anyone, not even her own sister, except for her pet caterpillar.
Covert Pervert: She appears to be a calm and elegant model, but when she thinks no one is looking, she bites and sucks on the pencil Miko used for art class while thinking of Miko.
Creepy Good: Michiru acts like a creepy Stalker with a Crush towards Miko, and it doesn't help the spirit possessing her makes her look like a terrifying mass of tentacles with legs in Miko's eyes. Despite her eeriness, Michiru is a good and caring girl at heart; she's just obsessive and possessive towards Miko because she believes only Miko can truly understand her. Once Hana gets Michiru to open up to her, Michiru dials down her bizarre behavior and the tentacles become mostly hidden, allowing Miko to see Michiru as the beautiful girl she is.
Cthulhumanoid: From Miko's perspective, she looks like a girl with a large tentacled and eyeless thing for a head, even in photographs. After she feels fully accepted by Miko's friend group, her face becomes visible and the tentacles only show in the lower half of her body.
Curb-Stomp Battle: Most spirits that pose any threat to Michiru end up being torn apart by her ghost tentacles in seconds. In one notable case, an enormous ghost attempts to rip apart a tentacle clinging to Miko while Michiru is busy talking in another room, it's efforts are treated as so non threatening that the tentacles don't even bother reacting until Michiru walks out into the hallway, whereupon the ghost is immediately shredded.
Curb Stomp Cushion: During Michiru's confrontation with Hana a monstrously large spirit related to the similarly enormous one that tried to rip her tentacles from Miko attacks her in revenge. This time, possibly due to the tentacles being distracted with preparing to attack Hana (as they coil into a spear like limb surrounding the hand that Michiru is holding a pencil in), the giant actually manages to cause some damage by successfully ripping some tentacles away. However, Michiru's octopus spirit barely acknowledges the assault due to being so focused on Hana and after being supercharged by Hana's aura it swells to such enormous proportions that its spiky tentacles literally take up the entire room, crushing the attacking spirit instantly.
Diving Save: When Miko almost gets run over by a truck, Michiru jumps in and pulls Miko back to save her, although it also results in an accidental head bump for Miko.
Dramatically Missing the Point: She keeps a caterpillar as a pet, but doesn't seem to understand that a caterpillar eventually turns into a cocoon and then a butterfly. Whenever "Pii-chan" becomes a cocoon, Michiru freaks out and makes a mess out of her room looking for the caterpillar, only calming down when You "finds" it for her, with Michiru not knowing it's a Replacement Goldfish.
Emotionless Girl: Michiru does have emotions, but she bears either a completely neutral expression or a placid smile at nearly all times, rarely ever emoting at all and usually being fairly understated when she does. This trait simultaneously gives her a sort of ethereal air to her beauty when seen from afar, that attracts her many surface admirers, yet also makes her appear eerie and off putting when interacted with up close, which has isolated her from friendship. It seems Michiru has always been this way even as a young child, not visibly reacting even as she's shunned and rejected.
Empathy Pet: This is effectively how the octopus-like spirit latched on to her head functions in Miko Vision. Its tentacles will writhe and poise themselves to "stab" someone if she gets upset with them, they will reach out for things she wants, like a caterpillar-shaped pastry since she likes caterpillars, and they will gently wrap themselves around Miko while walking together since Michiru likes her.
Even the Girls Want Her: Her female classmates swoon over her beauty.
Extreme Doormat: Around her sister You, Michiru is extremely passive and obedient. She can't bring herself to protest against any of You's actions, no matter how much these make her uncomfortable.
First-Name Basis: After one day of knowing her, she begins addressing Miko solely by her given name while addressing everyone else by their last names like is proper. This being set in Japan, the fact she calls Miko by her given name would be interpreted as a sign of closeness if Miko had given her consent, but as she hasn't, it just further highlights her creepiness by disrespecting Miko's boundaries in the pursuit of her obsession. Surprisingly, nobody calls her out on it.
Friendless Background: For most of her life, Michiru couldn't make friends because her strange behavior caused other kids to think she was creepy. Her sister You limited her social interaction as much as she could, thinking that she was protecting her from being hurt, but it only made Michiru feel lonely and suffocated.
Friend to Bugs: She has a pet caterpillar and is very fond of it.
Good All Along:
- At first, it's heavily suggested that Michiru has a history eventually becoming violent towards others, even stabbing another student with a pen to drive them away from the target of her affection. However, it's revealed that she's never deliberately hurt anyone in the past and the aforementioned student was the target of her affection. Michiru had gotten obsessed with trying to find the girl's favorite missing pen in an attempt to win her over and accidentally cut the girl's palm when she tried to pull Michiru away from rooting around other students' desks.
- Michiru's octopus like spirit is very ominous in appearance but turns out to be an entirely benign Nature Spirit that's trying to protect her.
Guardian Entity: Her ghost tentacles only move offensively when Michiru is in danger, as they freely lash out and consume any ghost that wanders close to her.
Head-Turning Beauty: She immediately attracts the admiration of her classmates because of her Statuesque Stunner appeal.
Huge Schoolgirl: She's at least a head taller than the other girls of her class and towers over the tiny Yuria.
Hyper-Awareness: Michiru seems to possess a preternatural awareness of when anyone is spying on her.
- She immediately recognizes that Yuria is peeking out behind her from a bathroom stall, even calling out Yuria by name before turning to actually look at her.
- She somehow notices that somebody (Miko) has just taken a picture of her from the sidelines even in the middle of a focused activity like shooting a basketball, and is secretly aware of every subtle picture Miko takes of her afterward.
I Just Want to Have Friends: All Michiru wants is to have friends, but she always ended up driving people away with her creepy and obsessive behavior. It didn't help that her sister You tried to "protect" her by isolating her from her peers. She's very happy to hang out with Miko and her other friends because she finally feels like part of a group.
I Love You Because I Can't Control You: She becomes obsessed with Miko because she's the only one who has no interest in her modeling job nor her beauty (since Miko can't even see her human face). She's only happy about Miko lying about seeing her as beautiful because it makes Michiru believe her love for Miko is mutual.
Indifferent Beauty: At school, she ignores the many girls fawning over her beauty and focuses all her attention on Miko, the only one who treats her as a normal person because she can only see Michiru as a monster with an octopus for a head.
Know When to Fold 'Em: When Michiru formally visits Miko's home, the octopus spirit attempts to attack the ghost of Miko's father with one of its tentacles, only for it to be effortlessly stopped by the ghost that haunts Miko's kitchen. Both it and the octopus spirit have a stare down until the octopus spirit backs off.
Loner-Turned-Friend: Michiru couldn't make any friends while growing up, both because her peers always ended up becoming scared of her creepy personality and her sister deliberately blocked her attempts at socializing. When she transfers to Miko's class, Michiru quickly becomes a member of Miko's group of friends.
Loon with a Heart of Gold: Michiru is stoic to the point of appearing emotionless and her stalkerish habits, such as her habit of breaking into the houses of the people she likes at night, make it look like she isn't right in the head. However, she's actually a very kind and caring person at heart. She starts heading towards becoming a Yandere when she obsesses over her new friend Miko, but Hana manages to win Michiru over enough for Michiru to officially become a member of Miko's friend group.
Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: The nature of Michiru's relationship with the supernatural is unclear. Romm posits that she's just a normal girl overlaid with a spirit possessing her, but there are aspects of Michuru herself that seem strange.
- She somehow manages to break into Miko's room at night, bypassing locked doors and windows without being seen or heard by anyone, as if she simply appeared over Miko's bed suddenly.
- She seemingly possesses a near unnatural Hyper-Awareness of others spying on her, immediately knowing that Yuria is watching her off to the side in a bathroom stall, or that Miko has just taken a picture of her mid basketball shot.
Mistaken for Undead: Miko sees Michiru as a human with a creepy octopus-like head. She at first thinks Michiru is another of the weird ghosts haunting her so she tries to walk through her, only to find out Michiru has a physical body and everyone else sees her as a cute girl.
My God, What Have I Done?: Played for Laughs. She saves Miko from a truck by pulling her back, but accidentally causes Miko to hit her head against the street. While Miko is unharmed, Hana tells her to get checked in case of a skull injury. Michiru freaks out so much that she calls for an ambulance.
Mystical White Hair: She has pure white hair and a tentacled Nature Spirit has bonded itself to her, giving her the power to absorb and exorcise powerful ghosts.
New Transfer Student: After a major arc, she joins the cast as the transfer student of Miko's class.
Nobody Touches the Hair: Miko sees the intensely negative reaction of Michiru's head spirit's tentacles when a classmate tries to touch her hair. Michiru is happy that Miko apparently noticed and stopped the classmate for her sake.
No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: From her perspective, she does nothing but try to help the people she likes, and they always end up hating her for it. With her knowing that she did something to drive them away, but not able to understand where she went wrong.
No Sense of Personal Space: As she grows obsessed with Miko, Michiru wants to be as close to her as she can. While she herself doesn't invade Miko's personal space beyond socially accepted boundaries, physically at least, her octopus spirit's tentacles tend to touch and wrap themselves around Miko on multiple occasions, much to Miko's discomfort. It gets worse when a misunderstanding causes Michiru to mistakenly believe that her feelings for Miko are mutual, resulting in Michiru holding Miko's hand as the octopus' tentacles aggressively grab Miko and one of them shoves itself into Miko's mouth.
No Social Skills: From a young age, Michiru hasn't been able to understand social cues and personal boundaries, resulting in her weird and stalkerish behavior. Whenever she tried to help someone, she just ended up freaking them out as she didn't understand why they would get upset with her for picking up another kid's hat from the sewer and breaking into someone else's house at night to keep them company.
Akari said she was scared to sleep alone. That's why I went to visit her.
Oral Fixation: She makes a disturbing habit of chewing on the pencil Miko used at art class.
The Pen Is Mightier: She once stabbed a classmate with a pen, although it was just an accident. Later on, she tries to do the same with a pencil to Hana, but Hana calms her down before she can attack her.
Perverted Sniffing: When Miko spills a drink on her and lets her borrow her clothes, the first thing Michiru does is sniffing them for Miko's smell.
Pinocchio Nose: Her eyes dart away whenever she lies to someone. Ironically, Miko actually can't see this obvious tell since Michiru's spirit covers her entire head.
Psycho Lesbian: She takes an almost immediate liking to Miko which quickly becomes a scary obsession. Thankfully, she grows out of the psycho part after Hana talks sense into her.
Removed from the Picture: After she sees how close Miko and Hana are, Michiru steals one of Miko and Hana's childhood photos, and crushes Hana's face with her thumb out of spite.
The Shadow Knows: She looks like a normal girl to people without paranormal vision, but the tentacles of her head octopus spirit do appear in her shadow.
Stage Name: She's known as Chiruru when working as a model.
Stalker with a Crush: She quickly turns into a very obsessive stalker for Miko. She learns where Miko lives from the teacher's student list, breaks into Miko's house at night and creepily watches her as she sleeps.
Statuesque Stunner: Her tall stature is one of her many attractive features.
Sugar-and-Ice Personality: She's generally aloof and apathetic because a lot of people are only interested in her fame and beauty. Since Miko seems to treat her like a real friend, Michiru quickly develops a very passionate affection for Miko and can show a surprisingly playful side when feeding Miko a donut to get an Indirect Kiss with her.
Symbiotic Possession: Romm figures out that Michiru is actually being possessed by a spirit that reacts to Michiru's emotions and that it's Miko's ridiculously strong ability to perceive spirits that causes Miko to be unable to perceive the girl that the spirit has bonded to. Turns out the first caterpillar Michiru adopted was a Nature Spirit, or kodama, and it bonded itself to her after she saved it from a crow, becoming a Guardian Entity to protect Michiru from evil spirits. The real reason why the spirit covered her entire head was that Michiru couldn't bring herself to fully open up to other people until Miko, Hana and Yuria fully accept her for who she is and become her first true friends.
Tall Is Intimidating: The tall Michiru towers over the shortie Yuria, who gets easily intimidated by Michiru's height.
Transfer Student Uniforms: She wears a black Sailor Fuku instead of the uniform of Miko's high school, making her stand out as the New Transfer Student.
Transparent Closet: It doesn't take long for Yuria to notice Michiru's big crush on Miko after seeing how clingy the former acts around the latter.
Unknown Rival: She feels jealous of Hana's long-term friendship with Miko and soon starts seeing Hana as her rival for Miko's affection, not that either Miko or Hana notice because they don't even know about Michiru's obsessive infatuation. When she confronts Hana about her jealousy, Hana comforts Michiru and still accepts her as a friend, leading Michiru to start warming up to Hana.
Violently Protective Girlfriend: While she's Miko's stalker rather than girlfriend, Michiru is very protective of Miko. She saves Miko from getting hit by a truck and then makes sure to memorize the license plate number of the vehicle. Michiru even goes so far as to call an ambulance over a relative minor injury Miko received. Interestingly enough, Michiru's protectiveness seems to extend to her ghost form, as her tentacles have a tendency to "feed" on any ghost that gets too close to Miko.
What Is This Feeling?: She visibly trembles with excitement whenever she starts to daydream about Miko, and in at least one scene wonders to herself about what she feels for Miko, quoting the trope almost word for word.
White Hair, Black Heart: Subverted. She has white hair and she's a creepy stalker with dangerous Yandere tendencies. However, Michiru isn't actually a bad person, just lonely and socially maladjusted. She starts to get better as she grows closer to Miko's group.
Yandere: Subverted. After she sees Miko is much closer to Hana than her, Michiru decides she must get Hana out of the picture to have Miko to herself. In the end, however, Hana's kindhearted and compassionate nature wins Michiru over, causing her to realize she doesn't have to fight for Miko's attention, and she becomes good friends with Hana.

Spirits

Living Room Spirit

A horse-like spirit that always hangs around Miko's ghost father at the Yotsuya household.

Benevolent Abomination: It looks terrifyingly monstruous like most spirits in the setting, but its actions don't portray it as malicious. It mainly behaves as a companion and protector for Miko's ghost father.
Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Despite its halfway terrifying yet goofy looking appearance, the Living Room Spirit appears to be absurdly powerful, as it is capable of fighting back against and even intimidating Michiru's tentacles when previously, the tentacles had no issue curbstomping every other ghost it had encountered.
Guardian Entity: It's implied to be some sort of guardian for Miko's father, as seen when it stops Michiru's ghost tentacles from absorbing him.
Mix-and-Match Critters: It has a large horse-like body with humanoid face and arms.
Slasher Smile: Its facial expression is locked in a scary grin that goes from ear to ear.
Tombstone Teeth: It sports a Slasher Smile replete with huge square teeth.

Gozuka's Ghost Cats

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/nekomata_mieruko_chan.png

A pair of cat ghosts who were Gozuka's beloved pets when alive.

Adorable Abomination: Unlike the vast majority of ghosts seen in the series, they're positively adorable and barely look any different from their living counterparts.
Bakeneko and Nekomata: After their deaths, Gozuka's cats became nekomata, as evidenced by both having two tails, and apparently became guardian spirits who watch over him alongside his late wife.
Parrot Pet Position: They're often sitting on Gozuka's shoulders.

Gozuka's Wife

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mrs_gozuka.png

Gozuka's late wife. Unbeknownst to him, her spirit is still at their apartment to watch over him.

Cute Ghost Girl: She's one of the few humanoid ghosts to not have any grotesque elements to her at all. Instead, she's still as pretty as when she was alive.
Delicate and Sickly: According to Gozuka, she was very frail and sickly in life, so she spent all her time in the hospital.
Eyes Always Shut: She keeps her eyes closed at all times.
Friendly Ghost: Similar to Miko's father, she's one of the very few ghosts who isn't creepy or malicious. She still hangs around in the world of the living to lovingly watch over her husband and make sure he's living happily even after her death.
The Lost Lenore: Gozuka loved her deeply and still does after her death.
No Name Given: Her name isn't given.
Perpetual Smiler: According to Gozuka, she was always smiling despite her sickly condition. Even after her death, she's still smiling.
Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: Her husband has a Face of a Thug that easily scares off people, while she's a beauty both in life and death.

Fox God (SPOILER)

The Fox God

Voiced by: Masashi Yamane (JP)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/shrine_god.png

^{Click here to see its true form}

A massive spirit that lives in the mountain in a protected shrine. It saves Miko from a hostile ghost by devouring it.

Animalistic Abomination: It looks like a giant kitsune-like creature with a Lamprey Mouth and horns. Its true form is even worse, a human-fox thing with a permanent rictus grin and jingle bells for eyes.
Deal with the Devil: Miko's innocent prayer at the shrine results in her making one with it on accident.
Deity of Human Origin: As Mitsue puts it, it is only known as a god by the locals, but it is in no way divine and is extremely dangerous. It ultimately turns out to be a shrine maiden who was ritually sacrificed to be transformed into a god.
Deus ex Machina: Shows up out of nowhere to devour a spirit that was terrorizing Miko and Hana. It then continues to send its shrine maidens to protect her from any spirits that try to harm her. It is later revealed that Miko unknowingly made a deal with it.
Eldritch Abomination: Far and away the most unearthly spirit in the series, residing in a shrine on a mountain invisible to those who couldn't see ghosts, assisted by a pair of shrine maiden ghosts, and as Miko finds out, it answers prayers at a high price. Mitsue says that though it's called a god in local folklore, no one actually has a clue what this thing even is.
Exotic Eye Designs: Has jingle bells for eyes.
God of Good: Helps Miko by protecting her from spirits, killing the one that Miko and Hana had brought to its shrine and then sending its shrine maiden ghosts to destroy any ghosts that attack her to her up to three times. Turns out to be a subversion, as Miko actually made a deal with it unintentionally, where it would protect her from hostile ghosts thrice before she has to pay up. The only words when it asks for its repayment that Miko can make out are "sacrifice of flesh and blood".
Multi-Armed and Dangerous: Has rows and rows of humanlike arms holding innumerable bells in its true form. For extra creepiness factor it also possesses at least one arm inside its mouth.
One-Winged Angel: After it tries to devour Miko, the god sheds its skin to reveal a true form that looks so horrific that the usually deadpan Miko drops to her knees in absolute terror.
Soul Jar: Its human self's skull, sealed inside its shrine. Once Miko accidentally destroys it, it promptly reverts from a fox monster back into a shrine maiden and starts to move on.
Tears of Joy: She cries when she's finally allowed to pass on from the world of the living, no longer bound to the shrine.
Villainous Rescue: It kills off the river-dwelling ghost that had been trying to kill Hana, as she was the payment for Miko's unwitting Deal with the Devil.
Was Once a Man: Originally a shrine maiden who was strongly implied to be the subject of a Human Sacrifice ritual.

Zen's Mother (SPOILERS)

Zen's Mother

Voiced by: Mai Nakahara (JP), Morgan Garrett (EN)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/toono_mother_ghost.jpg

^{Click here to see her when she was alive}

Zen's emotionally abusive mother, who now haunts him as a monstrous ghost.

Abusive Parents: She was emotionally abusive towards Zen, didn't let him have a life outside of schoolwork, and killed the stray cat he secretly took in as a pet.
Bad People Abuse Animals: She killed a cat Zen brought in one time when he was young, to punish him for keeping secrets from her and doing something that wasn't studying. Her ghost still haunts him, and keeps the dead cats he regrets being unable to save bound to him.
Berserk Button: She hated it when Zen didn't share information with her, telling him he was just like his unfaithful father for it.
Control Freak: Zen could not have anything independently of her, to the point she'd yell at children passing by her house to stay away if she thought they were his friends. She still has this attitude as a ghost, bellowing at her son's students not to look at him.
Education Mama: She forced Zen to study all day and never let him spend any time with other kids. When he got 98 out of 100 on a test, all she did was berate him for not getting a perfect score.
Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: As a living human, she had dark hair and her skin was extremely pale, bordering on gray. This made her look creepy even before she became a ghost.
Family Eye Resemblance: Zen got his dull, lifeless red eyes from her.
Ghastly Ghost: After dying, she became a horrifying spider-like ghost that continues haunting her son, roaring furiously at anyone who merely looks at him.
Gonk: Downplayed. Her face is thin and elongated, she has dark iris with no pupils and a set of Tombstone Teeth. While she's not exaggeratedly hideous, her looks take a turn for the creepy and unnatural compared to other character designs in the series. It's even worse in the manga, where she's drawn in the same uncomfortably detailed style as the ghosts while she's still alive.
Hate Sink: She's a controlling, emotionally incestuous abuser who made her son's childhood miserable and killed the only pet he ever had. Then she keeps haunting him as a terrifying ghost until Miko makes some shrine spirits forcibly exorcise her.
Incest Subtext: The odd specificty of the scorn she heaps upon her young son, calling him a promise-breaking malicious liar who betrays the trust of the woman who loves him more than anyone else in the world, certainly suggests she sees Zen as an emotional proxy for her cheating ex-husband.
My Beloved Smother: Even in death, she's a deranged Control Freak out to maliciously maintain a vise-grip on her son's life.
Spider People: As a ghost, she has spider legs and a spider-like mouth.
Unnamed Parent: We never get to hear her name.
Walking Spoiler: Her backstory with Zen reveals he isn't the cat killer Miko thought him to be.

Old Man Spirit (SPOILERS)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ojisan_mieruko.png

A spirit resembling an older man that seems to appear in many photos that Miko has taken.

Appearance Is in the Eye of the Beholder: Miko sees it as a creepy middle-aged man, while Romm implies he sees something completely different and more disturbing.
Brown Note Being: Romm cannot look at even a picture of it without it attacking him. He saw it once by mistake, and doesn't think he'll survive a second visit from it.
Grim Reaper: Whatever it really is, its human-ish form is holding a sickle whenever Miko sees it.
He Was Right There All Along: It can be seen in the background of many manga panels just standing in the crowd.
Humanoid Abomination: Miko sees it as a fairly humanoid spirit, but it's really a terrifying being that causes even Romm to feel fear.
Nothing Is Scarier: While Miko only perceives the spirit as a regular middle-aged man, Romm sees it at something completely different and won't even tell Miko how it appears to him, only warning her to stay away from it at all costs.

Others

Gozuka

Voiced by: Atsushi Imaruoka (JP), Brent Mukai (EN), Dafnis Fernández (LA)

A man who comes to adopt a kitten Miko and Hana found. Even though he looks scary, Miko lets him keep the cat because she can see two ghost cats who love him.

Bald Head of Toughness: Subverted. He's a bald guy with a Face of a Thug, causing people to think he could kill somebody. The truth is he's a Kindhearted Cat Lover who would never hurt a fly.
Face of a Thug: He looks like a scary Yakuza, making people think he's going to hurt them. Miko, who can see the cat spirits next to him, knows he's just a good man who loves cats.
Kindhearted Cat Lover: He had two pet cats who still hang around him as ghosts because he was that good to them. He treats his new cat Nyansuke very well too.
The Mourning After: He still loves his late wife and offers her flowers in the anniversary of their wedding.
No Full Name Given: An extra chapter names him Gozuka, but it's unknown whether that's his given name or surname.
Odd Friendship: He forms an unexpected friendship with Zen thanks to their cats getting along.
Rugged Scar: Subverted. The scars in his face make him look like a dangerous thug. However, they're actually a result of his cats scratching him.
Tragic Keepsake: He still has a four-leaf clover that his late wife gave him for good luck.

You Ichijou

Michiru's controlling older sister and manager.

Bathtub Bonding: At home, she takes baths with Michiru and does nothing but talk about her while they're in the bathtub. You seems to see it as bonding activity between sisters, but Michiru clearly isn't comfortable with it.
Clingy Jealous Girl: Subverted. At first, it's made look like You wants Michiru all to herself and doesn't approve of her forming personal relationships outside of her. Turns out the real reason is that You is well aware of Michiru's obsessive behavior towards her friends and she's trying to limit Michiru's social interaction because her sister might end up hurting people, as it has happened before.
Control Freak: She tries to control everything her sister does, from what she eats to the people she hangs out with. She even works as her manager because it gives her an excuse to control her sister's activities and schedule.
Freudian Excuse: Her parents died when she and Michiru were still young, and Michiru's problematic behavior made the job of raising her even harder for You. She ended up developing very controlling behaviors towards her sister in an attempt of keeping her safe from people, and other people safe from her as well.
Good All Along: Initially, You appears to be controlling and possessive towards her younger sister, trying to intervene in her attempts to become closer to Miko and spend time with new friends. Turns out You isn't doing this out of malice or a desire to monopolize her sister, but because she knows Michiru can get violent when she finds a person of her interest, and she doesn't want Michiru or other people to come out hurt because of it. Also, at first it's implied You hides Michiru's pet caterpillar to bully her, but she's actually been replacing the caterpillar for years because Michiru freaks out whenever her caterpillars turn into a cocoon.
Incest Subtext: At home, she doesn't leave Michiru alone for one second, even taking baths with her, until Michiru goes to bed and Michiru seems to be all she ever talks about. For extra creepy effect, the walls of their apartment are covered with photos of her with Michiru as if it was a Stalker Shrine.
Intimate Hair Brushing: Subverted. She likes brushing Michiru's hair and Michiru lets her do it to keep her happy, but this happens after it's been established that Michiru hates it when people touch her hair. Therefore, the scene actually serves to show how You either doesn't know or care about Michiru's personal boundaries.
It Runs in the Family: She shares Michiru's creepy obsessive behavior and total lack of respect for personal boundaries.
Kindhearted Cat Lover: She loves cats, leading her to start bonding with Zen.
My Beloved Smother: She's Michiru's older sister instead of her mother, but fits perfectly otherwise. She's extremely controlling and clingy towards Michiru, often suffocating her with overbearing attention. When Michiru tries to have a sleepover with Miko, You runs through a storm to pick up her sister and take her home, as she would worry too much if she let Michiru stay the night at a stranger's house. Given Michiru's somewhat deranged behavior towards Miko, You's concerns and wish to keep Michiru under her watch 24/7 become a bit more understandable.
No Sense of Personal Space: When she's alone with Michiru, she just can't keep her hands off her sister. Michiru puts up with it, but the spirit bonded to her shows You's behavior upsets her a lot.
Not Quite the Right Thing: Ever since Michiru was a child, she displayed odd behavior that made people find her weird and creepy. Wanting to protect her sister from being hurt, You tried to do everything to keep Michiru socially isolated and forbade her from making friends. Unfortunately, this only resulted in Michiru getting overly attached to the few friends she could make, causing her to quickly show obsessive and possessive behavior that turned her into a danger to the people who she thinks will steal her friends away.
Parents as People: You truly cares about Michiru, but she had to take up the responsibility of raising a young child when she was just a teenager herself. Michiru's peculiar behavior also made it especially hard for You to handle her. Despite her best intentions, You has caused a lot of stress for Michiru by trying to isolate her from her peers, as she couldn't think of other ways to protect her sister from becoming a social outcast due to other kids finding her weird and creepy. Whenever Michiru tried to help someone and it backfired because of her eerie behavior, You only told her that she was a good girl instead of trying to explain to her why it's wrong to break into other people's houses at night. When Michiru starts exhibiting possessive behavior towards Miko, You tries to get Michiru out of the school, being terrified that Michiru could end up hurting Miko's other friends and become hated as a result. After she sees Michiru has finally found friends who accept her for who she is, You stops acting overprotective and allows Michiru to socialize more.
Promotion to Parent: She has acted as Michiru's guardian and caretaker ever since the death of their parents.

Characters / Mieruko-chan

Main Characters

Miko Yotsuya

Voiced by: Atsumi Tanezaki (Kadokawa PV), Sora Amamiya (anime) (JP), Alexis Tipton (EN), Itzel Mendoza (LA)

Hana Yurikawa

Voiced by: Ayasa Itō (Kadokawa PV), Kaede Hondo (anime) (JP), Sarah Wiedenheft (EN), Azul Valadez (LA)

Yuria Nigurendou

Voiced by: Ayane Sakura (JP), Lindsay Sheppard (EN), María José Moreno (LA)

Miko's Family

Kyousuke Yotsuya

Voiced by: Yumiri Hanamori (JP), Suzie Yeung (EN), Atzin Padgett (LA)

Touko Yotsuya

Voiced by: Hitomi Nabatame (JP), Elizabeth Maxwell (EN), Karina Altamirano (LA)

Mamoru Yotsuya

Voiced by: Kosuke Toriumi (JP), Michael Sorich (EN), Beto Castillo (LA)

Exorcists

Mitsue Takeda

Voiced by: Yukihiro Nozuyama (Kadokawa PV), Ikuko Tani (anime) (JP), Wendy Powell (EN), Isabel Martiñón (LA)

Shindou Romm

Oka Towako

School

Zen Touno

Voiced by: Yuichi Nakamura (JP), Yuka Terasaki (JP, child), David Matranga (EN), Kira Buckland (EN, child), Roberto Gutiérrez (LA)

Michiru Ichijou

Voiced by: Saori Hayami (Kadokawa PV)

Spirits

Living Room Spirit

Gozuka's Ghost Cats

Gozuka's Wife

The Fox God

Voiced by: Masashi Yamane (JP)

Zen's Mother

Voiced by: Mai Nakahara (JP), Morgan Garrett (EN)

Others

Gozuka

Voiced by: Atsushi Imaruoka (JP), Brent Mukai (EN), Dafnis Fernández (LA)

You Ichijou

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Characters / Mieruko-chan

Edit Locked

Main Characters

Miko Yotsuya

Voiced by: Atsumi Tanezaki (Kadokawa PV), Sora Amamiya (anime) (JP), Alexis Tipton (EN), Itzel Mendoza (LA)

Hana Yurikawa

Voiced by: Ayasa Itō (Kadokawa PV), Kaede Hondo (anime) (JP), Sarah Wiedenheft (EN), Azul Valadez (LA)

Yuria Nigurendou

Voiced by: Ayane Sakura (JP), Lindsay Sheppard (EN), María José Moreno (LA)

Miko's Family

Kyousuke Yotsuya

Voiced by: Yumiri Hanamori (JP), Suzie Yeung (EN), Atzin Padgett (LA)

Touko Yotsuya

Voiced by: Hitomi Nabatame (JP), Elizabeth Maxwell (EN), Karina Altamirano (LA)

Mamoru Yotsuya

Voiced by: Kosuke Toriumi (JP), Michael Sorich (EN), Beto Castillo (LA)

Exorcists

Mitsue Takeda

Voiced by: Yukihiro Nozuyama (Kadokawa PV), Ikuko Tani (anime) (JP), Wendy Powell (EN), Isabel Martiñón (LA)

Shindou Romm

Oka Towako

School

Zen Touno

Voiced by: Yuichi Nakamura (JP), Yuka Terasaki (JP, child), David Matranga (EN), Kira Buckland (EN, child), Roberto Gutiérrez (LA)

Michiru Ichijou

Voiced by: Saori Hayami (Kadokawa PV)

Spirits

Living Room Spirit

Gozuka's Ghost Cats

Gozuka's Wife

The Fox God

Voiced by: Masashi Yamane (JP)

Zen's Mother

Voiced by: Mai Nakahara (JP), Morgan Garrett (EN)

Others

Gozuka

Voiced by: Atsushi Imaruoka (JP), Brent Mukai (EN), Dafnis Fernández (LA)

You Ichijou

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