English Dub Review: Mieruko-chan “The Girl Who Sees, Mieruko-chan”

Overview (Spoilers Below):
After incurring spiritual debt, Miko seeks out her benefactor to show gratitude. Life seems to return to normal for Miko—whatever normal means for her.

Our Take:
This episode brings this weirdly spiritual horror-comedy series to an end, and I have to admit that it’s been one heck of a journey. The storyline in the season finale serves at least two purposes. One of them is delivering an epilogue that follows the destruction of Zen’s mother’s ghost. After saving Zen from his old burdens, Miko decides to give the stray kitten to him. Later on, Miko attempts to show the shrine maidens gratitude and continues to wonder how and why she’s suddenly able to see ghosts.
The episode also serves as a tease of what’s to come if the writers decide to move forward with a second season. For starters, we see that Zen has assumedly found the person responsible for attacking the cats and attacked him with a taser, leaving the man’s fate unknown. Then, Mitsue receives a picture of Miko and Hana at the shrine from an unknown sender. Based on her reaction, it may not be a good sign for the girls and us viewers.
The season finale has a lot to work with regarding these two purposes. It wants to deliver a satisfying closure to the arc yet leave some room for the series to explore specific elements further if possible. Thankfully, it managed to pull it off just fine. While there is such a thing as “less is more” in its teases, the writers did a decent job making me question some of the supporting characters’ true motives, especially the shrine spirits. More importantly, they deliver a fulfilling conclusion to Miko’s first part of her journey as she grows more accepting of her unknown ability. Although, she’s still not fond of them appearing in front of her.
As usual, the horror elements work just as effectively as the character moments, mainly Miko. The primary example of this is when Miko attempts to thank the shrine spirit for helping her but wound up angering it by accident. Thankfully, that sequence was only a part of Miko’s nightmare. Whether it succeeded in providing scares or not, it’s hard to ignore the direction that’s provided into its use of tension and Kana Utatane’s musical score.
Overall, “The Girl Who Sees, Mieruko-chan” concludes the show’s first season with a ghostly bang. Not only does it offer a solid closure to Miko’s first chapter of her journey, but it also provides questions that we’re eager to see get answered in its potential second season. I guess it’ll have to depend on how well the first season does for everyone else. I think it should get a sophomore season because I had a good time watching the comical yet terrifying events unfold. I’ll explain my thoughts further in my season review, but until then, I’ll just say that it’s something that you shouldn’t ignore.