Per wiki policy, Spoilers Off applies here and all spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned.
And this is just the first ghost she sees.
Mieruko-Chan is about a girl who is forced to see horrifying ghosts and it does not skimp out on the scary ghosts.
Manga
- In general, several of the ghosts obviously had violent deaths, it is clearly shown on their undead forms. It's pretty disheartening to see.
- The tormented ghosts cats in Chapter 4 are victims of a serial killer. Two have their heads almost separated from their bodies. One has two knives sticking out of its back. They trail blood when they walk away, yowling mournfully.
- The ghost of a woman in Chapter 5 appears to have died from suicide by drowning, judging from how she's trailing water when she walks. It's likely that she committed suicide because of her boyfriend's philandering.
- The "Itchy" ghost in the alley in Chapter 6 is a construction worker who accidentally hanged himself with chain. He's "itchy" because he couldn't scratch himself out of his chain noose.
- Chapter 9's convenient store ghost has several holes on her throat, likely from a violent robbery. Given that she keeps insisting that tax for the item Miko buys is 3% instead of the current 10%, she most likely died during the '90s, when Japan experienced heavy economic recession
and increasing crime rate. Later in the chapter, Miko sees a ghost with its limbs sticking out of different garbage bags. - Chapter 14 ends with Miko seeing a woman with her limbs twisted, tied in chain and crammed inside a steel barrel. If you're familiar with Junko Furuta, then this ghost is especially horrifying.
- The store clerk ghost in Chapter 15 has her head caved, her neck twisted, and her left leg bruised and full of cuts.
- Chapter 16 has a traffic accident ghost; her body is stabbed with large glass shards and she's seen hugging the lamp post she crashed against, endlessly sobbing out "Help me..."
- Chapter 1 starts with Miko discovering she can see ghosts by seeing the ghost (shown in the page image) at a bus stop. The ghost even asks if she can see him before walking off. Believing it was a one-time occurrence, she soon sees another one◊ whilst brushing her teeth. She tries putting a bowl of salt near her bed in an attempt to ward off the ghosts. She briefly believes she's in the clear only to discover another ghost underneath her blanket◊. The series establishes from the beginning it's not messing around with the scares.
- Chapter 2 continues showing Miko being tormented by spirits after briefly believing her troubles were over. Notably, the chapter ends with Miko retrieving Hana's phone from her locker while the ghastly head of a spirit stares at her from inside. Miko believes she'll be fine as long as she ignores it. And then, we're treated to this lovely image◊.
- Chapter 10 has Hana being following by a grotesque spirit that feeds on smaller spirits. Every ghost the creature eats causes it to grow more grotesque. After Hana visits a haunted building filled with spirits, Miko gets to see the end result◊ of all of the eating and it borders on Eldritch Abomination. All Miko can say in response to it is "WHY?" The last panel gives us the wholesome image of the creature devouring the ghosts in the building◊.
- All hostile or even neutral ghosts are clearly inhuman with a dark aura... until Chapter 20, where Miko waves her hand at a completely normal child who had waved his hand at her first. It turns out that it´s an extremely aggressive ghost in disguise that attacks her inmediately as it knows now that she can see it. Miko is saved by the shrine maidens that time, but the fact that a ghost can look like ordinary people means anyone Miko sees could be another ghost trying to deceive her again.
- Chapter 23 establishes that Miko's new teacher, Zen, wouldn't harm a cat (contrary to what happened in Chapter 4). The end of the chapter, however, suggests that people aren't off the table for him if they harm cats.
- Chapter 36. After swallowing Miko whole in the previous chapter, the Fox God finally deigns itself to talk directly to Miko again and revealing its true form. As it turns out, this◊ is how it really looks. If that isn't enough, it decides to hand over a bell to Miko... with an arm that appears out of its mouth◊.
- In Chapter 39, Miko sees a new ghost at her school and tries to ignore it and keep walking but it turns out not only the ghost is solid but everyone else can see it... or at least her human form, believing she is just a New Transfer Student. In later chapters Miko finds out she is actually a human, though completely covered by a spirit that reacts menacingly to a lot of ordinary things, which means Miko has to stop her classmates from doing them lest the spirit attacks them in retaliation.
- Chapter 54 concludes with Romm talking Miko's photos as he asks her to open one without letting him see it.. only to immediately cover his eyes with his hand as the photo notably has a male, odd-looking spirit that's appeared repeatedly in the background throughout the series. When Miko wonders what's wrong with it, Romm's response is that he'll probably die if he sees the spirit again, and upon hearing that it just looks like an "unassuming middle-aged guy":Romm: ... Unassuming middle-aged guy? Is that how it looks to you?
- The following chapter has him point out that spirits can look like different things to different perceivers, but ultimately makes it clear that Miko should never acknowledge this spirit, because it seems to be certain death if she did. Then you realize that this "man" has been getting closer and closer to Miko with each appearance it makes.
Anime
- The original manga kicked things off with Miko's encounter with the bus stop ghost only two pages in, whereas the first episode of the anime takes its time with dramatic tension and nerve-wracking build-up before we even see said ghost, including:
- The beginning teases with what appears to be a genuine ghost attack on some poor woman running for dear life, a scene that's rather reminiscent of The Ring. It's eventually revealed to be a scene from an in-universe horror movie, but it's still rather terrifying.
- Every now and then, Miko seems to notice something that isn't really there, slowly setting up her connection with the afterlife with some devious paranoia.
- When Miko returns to her now completely abandoned and darkened school to retrieve a keychain she dropped, there's a brief shadow that flies behind her in a blink-and-you-miss-it moment. It's especially frightening as there's no scare chord that comes with it, it's just pure silence, making you question if you actually did see something or not.
- Even before that, when she arrives at her classroom she stop just before going in and if you look very closely you see what she sees: a black figure just standing there completely motionless close to her desk.
- The encounter at the bus stop doesn't happen right away like in the manga. As Miko laments over not bringing an umbrella whilst taking shelter from the rain, she receives a text from Hana checking in on her. She sends her a photo of herself to show how soaked she got, only for "Hana" to repeatedly send the photo back to her. An error message sounds off on loop, and the photos come through faster and faster until it starts blurring, creating a malformed image of Miko that looks like she's possessed. This is enough to freak her out so much that she drops her phone. And when she goes to pick it back up? The photos are gone, replaced with the real Hana's reply to the original photo. And then...
- The actual encounter with the ghost plays out much like in the manga, only now we get the whole thing in motion, with a couple of shots played straight from Miko's perspective, making you feel very uncomfortable as the ghost invades her personal space and no doubt our own too.
