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Manga / Mokke

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Shizuru & Mizuki

High-school student Shizuru and her little sister Mizuki have special gifts: Shizuru can see ghosts and Mizuki can be haunted by them. They were placed with their grandparents in the countryside of Japan, since their grandfather knows all about the spiritual beings the girls have to deal with. The two girls are very close and try to help each other whenever they can, which is very necessary given the weirdness that befalls them.

Mokke has a very easy-going pace and a Slice of Life feel to it. The spirits that the two girls encounter are generally based on Japanese folk tales and usually not malignant, although often very obnoxious and persistent. The confrontations with those spirits can often get very intense, especially for poor Mizuki, since she has to bear the brunt of their hauntings.

The manga is often compared to Mushishi and Natsume's Book of Friends, series about supernatural beings that can only be seen and affected by certain persons. Mokke is much more character-driven though and the spirits often function as means to teach the two sisters lessons about life, although even that is kept very low profile in favor of the more day-to-day experiences of the characters.

An anime adaptation was made in 2007 by Madhouse and Tezuka Productions.


Tropes:

  • An Aesop: Adversity is not a reason to continue striving for your goals. Yes, even if that adversity is being possessed by some supernatural entity.
  • Cheerful Child: Mizuki, who remains mostly a cheerful attitude even after being possessed by the most terrible of ghosts.
  • Coming of Age Story: Mizuki and Shizuru are young girls who grow up in a world filled with ghosts.
  • Ghibli Hills: The series mostly takes place in rural Japan, with many shots of its beautiful scenery.
  • Invisible to Normals: Shizuru is the only one who can see the ghosts. Poor Mizuki has to undergo them.
  • Iyashikei: Ghosts aside, most of the stories deal with ordinary people in ordinary places, often with Shizuru and Mizuki taking a walk through the pastoral countryside.
  • Lying on a Hillside: Shizuru and Mizuki like to do this a lot to talk about the events that just transpired.
  • Magnetic Medium: Partially subverted, in that Mizuki gets what Shizuru sees.
  • Mentor Archetype: The grandfather, who helps the sisters in their ghost encounters through his vast knowledge of the supernatural.
  • Mistaken for Pedophile: A frightening old woman feels Mizuki up while she is on a field trip, and says something really creepy. She was actually removing the thing that was possessing her. She still isn't anyone, or anything, you would really want to get to know.
  • Mind-Control Eyes: Sometimes happening to Mizuki when she is possessed.
  • Petal Power: Some spirits attack Mizuki with cherry blossoms.
  • Ridiculously Cute Critter: The Izuna and the weasels are very cute for ghosts.
  • Scenery Porn: There are numerous shots of the beautiful Japanese countryside this show takes place at.
  • Slice of Life: When there are no ghosts around. Even when there are, provided they're peaceful enough. See e.g. episode 11.
  • Spirit Advisor: Some ghosts present themselves as such, for better or for worse.
  • Spirit World: There is a separate world inhabited by ghosts, and its when this world overlaps with the actual one that it causes the sisters the most trouble.
  • Status Quo Is God: Mizuki always loses whatever is possessing or attracted to her by the end of the episode. Even in the cases when it's something friendly or fortunate.
  • Teru-Teru Bōzu: Hung up by Mizuki at one point in order to ward off rain.
  • Transfer Student Uniforms: Saho wears her old uniform when she transfers to Shizuru's school.
  • Weirdness Magnet: Mizuki, who always finds ways to get obsessed by yet another ghost, only for Shizuru and her grandfather to help her out.

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