History WebComic / MierukoChan

** Chapter 43 ends with a ghost attacking Miko being [[spoiler:skewered by the tentacles of Michiru with the implication that she currently hides under Miko's hospitable bed]].

* BathtubScene: Miko takes a [[ShowerScene quick shower]] and then a bath to try to relax in chapter 8 & episode 4. But naturally, her bath is ruined when a ghost [[InterruptedBath shows up in the bathroom]]. The sequence is also played for {{Fanservice}} with a lot of MaleGaze on Miko's body, albeit any naughty bits are covered up by a combination of GodivaHair, SceneryCensor, ShouldersUpNudity and ToplessnessFromTheBack.

** Miko's own house is actually technically "haunted" as all sorts of creepy ghosts keep popping in regularly, though they seem to be ghosts simply happening to pass by... There is only one ghost who stays permanently in the house, and it is [[spoiler:Miko's dad]].

* BlackSpeech: Particularly old spirits, like the kimono-clad cannibalistic ghost that trailed Hana and the mountain god and its attendants, speak with indecipherable, archaic-looking characters to reflect their age.

** The entire story relies on the concept of people being able to see ghosts while having to pretend being blind to the supernatural, and the ghosts themselves tend to have a wide panel of creepy eye distortions, ranging from empty eye sockets to bloated and bulging blood-shot fish eyes. [[spoiler:Except for the EldritchAbomination that is Michiru Ichijou who has no eyes at all, and this absence makes it very hard for Miko to deal with it.]]

** One of the fox miko of the Mountain God turns out to be [[spoiler:Romm and Mitsue's mentor's abducted lost soul]] despite looking [[NightmareFace practically identical to the other miko]].

* RuleOfThree: The shrine god (rather cryptically) promises to protect Miko from evil spirits three times. She accidentally uses two before understanding what’s going on. [[spoiler:She intentionally uses her third to destroy the spirit of Toono Zen’s abusive mother.]]

* CastingGag: Creator/AlexisTipton [[Manga/{{Shiki}} voices another high school student that's involved with the supernatural that could harm their family.]]

* GeniusBonus: Several parts of the manga will make much more sense to people who are familiar with Japanese culture, religion or history.
** In chapter 3, why does Miko uses a hand sanitizer against the ghost? Because in Japanese belief, alcohol is one of the items able to banish or exorcize spirits.
** The convenience store ghost of chapter 9 seems to have died of a violent robbery, due to the several bullet holes in its body. Given that it keeps insisting that the tax for the item Miko buys is 3% instead of the current 10%, it might have died during the 90s, when Japan experienced [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_Decades heavy economic recession]] and increasing crime rate.
** The powerful and terrifying female-looking ghost made out of a barrel and chains that haunts the tunnel seems to be a reference to the horrifying murder of Junko Futura in the late 80s.

* SpiritualAntithesis: To ''Manga/ReKan''. Not only do both works have the exact same premise, but Miko, Hana, & Yuria are strongly reminiscent of Hibiki, Makoto, & Narumi.[[note]] ''A dark-haired medium with a hime cut, a space case with a light orange pixie cut, and a blonde, pigtailed tsundere, respectively.''[[/note]] However, ''Re-Kan'' is a bright and cheerful story about a sunny, gentle YamatoNadeshiko who bends over backwards to help the quirky wayward souls who come to her for help, whereas ''Mieurko-Chan'' is about a girl who tries her hardest not to notice the horrifying abominations that might just brutally murder her if she slips up.

** [[spoiler:Chapter 45 reveals that the wheelchair-pushing monstrous spirit from the hospital is yet another psychopomp, come to help a family pass on the afterlife. Chapter 44's spidery "hand collector", who decapitates hand-headed spirits with a giant pair of scissors and collects the heads in a bag, might also be one; it encounters the wheelchair pusher while harvesting its latest bounty and seemingly points it in the direction of the old man it's expecting.]]

* DemonOfHumanOrigin: So far, most of the ghosts and spirits in the world of ''Mieruko-chan'' seem to be the spirits of dead humans. Most of them have clues to who they used to be or how they died in their design, and the most monstrous of them seem to be a type of mutated ghost that cannibalized other spirits. [[spoiler:Even the mysterious "god" of the shine that is presumed to be an EldritchAbomination turns out to be the ghost of a young girl who a long time ago was killed in a HumanSacrifice.]] However, a handful of entities seem just too otherworldly to be human, such as the [[SkullForAHead horse-skulled]] maître d' tending to the line of ghosts in the diner.

* BustContrastDuo: Miko is subdued and constantly stressed out from being a MagneticMedium, and there are several jokes about her ACupAngst compared to her bubbly, extroverted friend Hana with GagBoobs.

* BigEater: One of Hana's defining attributes is her big appetite; she's [[SweetTooth especially fond of sweets]]. It’s implied to be because her powerful aura attracts spirits that feed on it, causing her to constantly be hungry.

* CreepyGood: The "gods" that banish the monster haunting Hana in chapter 11 appear benevolent, but are just as terrifying as the other creatures Miko sees. They also offer Miko a cryptic warning: "Three times." Chapter 27 seems to suggest [[spoiler:they're not as benevolent as they first seem, as they cruelly reject Miko's offering and leave her to be tormented by spirits.]]
** There´s also a ghost in the train that looks slightly less horrible, as it´s at least fully dressed, and wields an ax, really scaring Miko when she sees it attacking everyone but [[spoiler:it turns out the ax cant hurt humans and the ghost was hunting another ghost that had posessed a woman]]. In a later chapter Miko even considers for a moment the idea of asking that ghost for help though she rejects it as she does not even know how could she do that.

* HumanDisguise: All hostile or even neutral ghosts can be more or less humanoid but look clearly inhuman, which means at least Miko can identify them at first glance.. [[spoiler:until she has an encounter with a ghost that has the appearance of a completely normal living child and uses that to find out that she can see him and then attacks her.]]

* MadnessMantra: In chapter 13 Miko encounters a ghost muttering the words "Four... six... three... one..." over and over. [[spoiler:It turns out to be the ghost of an old woman's husband, trying to remind her of the combination to his old safe.]]

* ACupAngst: There are a few jokes about Miko being jealous of her [[BuxomIsBetter bustier friend]] Hana.

* IndirectKiss: In Chapter 46, when the girls are eating donuts together, Michiru requests for Miko give her a part of her donut, especially asking for the piece Miko already bit into and gestures for Miko to hand feed her. Hilariously, Miko had some difficulties feeding Michiru the donut since she can't see Michiru's human mouth under her ghost form, and smudges the donut on Michiru's face. After eating the donut piece, Michiru comments that she loved Miko's "donut". Afterwards, Michiru took a bite of her own donut and then stuff it into Miko's mouth as "payback", much to Miko's confusion.

* AccidentalHero: In chapter 14, Julia sees Miko's clumsy attempts to keep some ghosts away and thinks she's doing it deliberately, to show off.

* AdaptationalEarlyAppearance: Julia Nigurendou and Miko's father appear in the very first episode of the anime adaptation[[note]]which adapts chapter 1 and the first few pages of chapter 2[[/note]], whereas in the manga, they don't show up until later chapters.

** Chapter 32 focuses on Julia, who tags along on one of Shindou Romm's ghost tours in hopes of picking up a few tips about dealing with the supernatural.

* BrokenPedestal: In Chapter 32, Julia starts to think Shidou Romm really is just a phony when he takes his tour group to various places that are completely devoid of spirits. Then he ends up saving her from a ghost she's not powerful enough to see, and it finally sinks in that she might be in over her head.

* EatingLunchAlone: In chapter 17, Miko rather awkwardly discovers that Julia eats lunch by herself... in the girls' bathroom. Hana, oblivious to the tension between the two of them, offers to let Julia eat lunch with Miko and herself.

* FramedForHeroism: In chapter 14, [[spoiler:the spirits from the shrine in chapter 11 show up to save Miko and her friends from a particularly horrifying ghost, but Julia seems to assume that Miko was the one who saved everyone.]]
* FreudianExcuse: Chapter 21 reveals Toono-sensei's mother was [[AbusiveParents an emotionally-abusive]] EducationMama.

** In chapter 18 Miko, Hana, and Julia visit a haunted house set up by a local bakery as a promotional gimmick. Hana is tempted by the promise of free donuts to those who make it all the way through, and Miko relishes the rare chance to not have to hold back from freaking out at scary things. [[spoiler:Until a REAL ghost shows up...]].

* ISeeThemToo: Chapter 12 introduces Julia, a young girl who can also see ghosts and spirits, though not as well as Miko. She declares Miko her rival after learning she (unwittingly) drove her mentor, the "Godmother of Downtown", to quit the fortune-telling business.

* NonverbalMiscommunication: In chapter 14, Miko winks at Julia to indicate they should give up trying to get through the haunted tunnel. Julia thinks that Miko wants her to show what she can do.

** In Chapter 32 Julia takes part in a haunted-site tour organized by Shindou Romm. One of the locations is an allegedly haunted house where a father killed his family and then committed suicide and all who enter fall victim to a curse. It's an obvious shout-out to the ''Film/{{Juon}}'' series, with several participants even pretending to hear a cat or see a pale child and a woman on all fours.

* SpiritualAntithesis: To ''Manga/ReKan''. Not only do both works have the exact same premise, but Miko, Hana, & Yulia are strongly reminiscent of Hibiki, Makoto, & Narumi.[[note]] ''A dark-haired medium with a hime cut, a space case with a light orange pixie cut, and a blonde, pigtailed tsundere, respectively.''[[/note]] However, ''Re-Kan'' is a bright and cheerful story about a sunny, gentle YamatoNadeshiko who bends over backwards to help the quirky wayward souls who come to her for help, whereas ''Mieurko-Chan'' is about a girl who tries her hardest not to notice the horrifying abominations that might just brutally murder her if she slips up.

* BaitAndSwitch: Chapter 9 has Miko go downstairs and see a troll-like ghost haunting her family, who are eating breakfast totally unaware. Miko looks and acts incredibly uncomfortable the entire time, seemingly because there is such a horrifying ghost around her parents. [[spoiler:The end of the chapter reveals it's because her father is ''also'' a ghost who died a year before and seeing him upset her.]]

** In a dark twist of this trope, the world of ghosts and evil spirits seems to rely on the concept of eating and devouring. Several ghosts are seen cannibalizing other spirits to grow into more monstrous and powerful beings, while there are entire waiting lines of ghosts leading to grotesque spirit-devouring creatures.

* DigitalPiracyIsEvil: At least one ghost thinks so, since it spend its time [[ElectromagneticGhosts shorting people's cameras in a cinema]].

** In Chapter 39, [[spoiler:Miko is the only one who can see that the NewTransferStudent is actually a monster.]]

* DemonOfHumanOrigin: So far, most of the ghosts and spirits in the world of ''Mieruko-chan'' seem to be the spirits of dead humans. Most of them have clues to who they used to be or how they died in their design, and the most monstrous of them seem to be a type of mutated ghost that cannibalized other spirits. [[spoiler:Even the mysterious "god" of the shine that is presumed to be an EldritchAbomination turns out to be the ghost of a young girl who a long time ago was killed in a HumanSacrifice.]] However, a handful of entities seem just too otherworldly to be human, such as [[spoiler:the [[SkullForAHead horse-skulled]] maître d' tending to the line of ghosts in the diner]].

* DemonOfHumanOrigin: So far, most of the ghosts and spirits in the world of ''Mieruko-chan'' seem to be the spirits of dead humans. Most of them have clues to who they used to be or how they died in their design, and the most monstrous of them seem to be a type of mutated ghost that cannibalized other spirits. [[spoiler:Even the mysterious "god" of the shine that is presumed to be an EldritchAbomination turns out to be the ghost of a young girl who a long time ago was killed in a HumanSacrifice.]] However, a handful of entities seem just too otherworldly to be human, such as [[spoiler:the [[SkullForAHead animal-skulled]] maître d' tending the line of ghosts in the restaurant]].

* {{Shinigami}}: Several otherwordly entities seem to fill this role, or at least to enforce the rules of death in this world. There are multiple huge beings whose entire purpose is to devour the ghosts of the dead who are ready to leave this earth, and one of those "waiting lines" is overseen by a maître d'-like spirit with an animal skull for a head (and under his tuxedo, enormous tentacles to rip apart ghosts that try to get into a different devouring maw than the one they've apparently been assigned). There is an ax-wielding spirit who roams the subways, hunting down ghosts that hide into the living, and once he catches them he puts them in a bag for some unknown purpose. And in Chapter 43, after nearly avoiding a truck, Miko briefly sees a sickle-wielding man who looks to have been a GrimReaper (and the ironic thing is that he looked much more human than most of the series' ghosts).

* {{Shinigami}}: Several otherwordly entities seem to fill this role, or at least to enforce the rules of death in this world. There are multiple huge humanoid beings whose entire purpose is to devour the ghosts of the dead who are ready to leave this earth, and one of those "waiting lines" is attended by a maître d'-like spirit with an animal skull for a head (and under his tuxedo, enormous tentacles to rip apart ghosts that would try to get into a different devouring maw than the one they've apparently been assigned). There is an ax-wielding spirit who roams the subways, hunting down spirits that hide into human beings (or possess them), and once it catches them it puts them in a bag for some unknown purpose. And in Chapter 43, after nearly avoiding a truck, Miko briefly sees a sickle-wielding man who looks to have been a GrimReaper (and the ironic thing is that he looked even more human than other ghosts).
** [[spoiler:Chapter 45 reveals that the wheelchair-pushing monstrous spirit from the hospital is yet another psychopomp, come to help a family pass on the afterlife. Chapter 44's "hand collector", a spider-bodied spirit who decapitates hand-headed spirits with a giant pair of scissors and collects the heads in a bag, might also be one; it encounters the wheelchair pusher in a hallway while harvesting its latest bounty and seemingly points it in the direction of the old man it's expecting.]]

* {{Shinigami}}: Several otherwordly entities seem to fill this role, or at least to enforce the rules of death in this world. There are multiple huge humanoid beings whose entire purpose is to devour the ghosts of the dead who are ready to leave this earth, and one of those "waiting lines" is attended by a maître d'-like ghost with an animal skull for a head (and under his tuxedo, enormous tentacles to rip apart spirits that would try to get into a different devouring maw than the one they've apparently been assigned). There is a bizarre ax-wielding spirit who roams the subways, hunting down spirits that hide into human beings (or possess them), and once it catches them it puts them in a bag for some unknown purpose. And in Chapter 43, after nearly avoiding a truck, Miko briefly sees a sickle-wielding man who might have been a GrimReaper (and the ironic thing is that he looked even more human than other ghosts).
** [[spoiler:Chapter 45 also adds the wheelchair-pushing monstrous spirit from the hospital, who turns out to be yet another psychopomp, here to help a family pass on the afterlife.]]

''[[spoiler:[[TheStinger Can you see me? You can see me, right?]]]]''

''Three Tropes''