Title: Mieruko-chan Vol. 11
Author: Tomoki Izumi
Publisher: Yen Press
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 194
Genre: Sci-Fi, Supernatural, Horror
Publication Date: September 23, 2025
The Story
We begin things with the gang talking about the upcoming Lambun Festival and how they would all like to go. Michiru is now sporting a different look in Miko’s eyes as she now has horns and random tentacles popping out of her, but at least Miko can see her face now. On the way back, Miko is on the bus, and we get a bit of a foreshadowing plot device as a dark man is sitting all the way in the back, then he disappears.
Suddenly, we shift gears to a man named Seto. He seems to be a well-respected member of a company who is going around and offering assistance to just about anyone who needs it. In fact, a little sparrow has taken a liking to him to the point where it’s eating out of his hand and never leaving a perch atop his shoulder. A mysterious man in a mask is roaming the halls when, all of a sudden, one of the shadow men from the bus Miko was riding grabs the masked man and throws him into an elevator. There, Seto confronts this man, who is revealed to be Rom. Apparently, these two have a connection, and Seto knows about the barrier around “that shrine” being broken. Apparently, Rom reached out to Seto to talk to him, and Seto knows about Miko!
Meanwhile, Miko has to pick up her little brother Kyousuke from school. On the way back, Kyousuke finds a “weird snowman” on the ground, which triggers a nearby spirit. After rescuing him, we shift gears to the Lambun festival. Here, we get the usual antics with avoiding spirits, but Yuria ends up running to someone from her who used to make fun of her for seeing ghosts. Scared of being bullied again, she runs away, but Aya follows her to a dead end, where she tries to clear the air with her. Yuria realizes that the source of a bum leg is a spirit, so she tries to perform an exorcism.
After the Lambun Festival, they go out to karaoke… There, Miko ends up running into Seto, who wants to have a little chat!
The Characters
The biggest development here was in the introduction of Seto. Seto claims to be on humanity’s side, and there was a reason that Rom reached out and contacted him. It was interesting to learn that the barrier around the shrine was broken, but if you recall, we all know how and why that happened. Still, Seto feels that there is a “rat” (aka spirit) that has infiltrated the place where he works, and this reveals that he has the power to destroy spirits! It seems as if he has two different personalities. When dealing with people, he’s kind-hearted, gentle, and always willing to lend a hand, but as soon as he’s confronted with a spirit, he’s cold and merciless! He was even a bit rough with Rom, but that’s because he was annoyed that Rom showed up at his job and not at the agreed-upon meeting place. He’s a pretty interesting character, and I wonder what his interest in Miko is.
Next, we got Aya Mikumo, the old classmate from Yuria’s elementary school days. Back then, Yuria told everyone that she could see ghosts, but it scared a lot of the students, so they kind of turned on her, Aya being one of them. Aya used to call her creepy and make her feel unwanted, so it was only natural that when they reunited at the Lambun Festival, things were pretty tense. Yuria didn’t want anything to do with Aya, but all Aya wanted was a chance to apologize. Once things got smoothed over between them, Yuria helped her with her leg by exorcising the spirit that was causing the damage. You could tell that a bond was reforming between them, so I’m sure that this isn’t the last we’re going to see of Aya or Yuria’s backstory.
Final Thoughts
This kind of felt like a filler volume as we shift from the Michiru arc to the Seto arc, but it’s not all filler, as we did get a nice introduction to Seto, which set up our next major story arc. Plus, we got a little bit of backstory and development on Yuria as a character, and possibly a new character added to the cast, although I’m not sure how much more of Aya we will be seeing going forward.
Outside of that, it was typical fare with Miko seeing spirits and trying her best to avoid them while trying (and failing) to act natural. The whole thing with her brother Kyousuke was a bit passable, but I had no idea how Michiru couldn’t suspect anything when Miko was avoiding our old friend, the axe reaper spirit on the train. I’m surprised that they didn’t mention that this was the second time we’ve seen this spirit before, but it’s nice to see a bit of continuity. Miko used everything from lies about poisonous spiders to having to pee really badly to protect everyone and Michiru as they tried to exit the train. The excuses were super far-fetched, but that was part of the charm and comedy of everything!
Overall, this was a pretty decent volume of Mieruko-chan. The Seto stuff was the most interesting aspect of it, while the rest was the typical dark comedy that one would come to expect from this series. It had a nice balance, but outside of Aya, the Lambun Festival just felt a bit on the flat side. Even with the whole avoiding spirits thing, it was just more of the same. This was something I had mentioned several reviews back… about how the running gag would eventually become stale. Well, we’re at that point now, as there is only so much Tomoki Izumi can do to make the spirit gag fresh. This just makes it obvious that arcs like Aya and Seto are needed to keep things interesting. That’s a pretty good sign that your running gag has overstayed its welcome, but it is a core part of the series, so it’s not going away.
At least we will open up Volume 12 with our new arc, and we’ll find out what Seto wants with Miko!
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