Horror is having something of a mini-boom this season, with the micro-genre of horror comedy even getting a bit of a moment.  Probably the most hyped among those is Mieruko-chan, an adaptation of a somewhat popular web manga.  Passione steps outside the Higurashi box but stays well inside its comfort zone here, both visually and tonally.  All in all I’d say this premiere showed some promise, but it was definitely a bit of a mixed bag.

In the first place, the balance here definitely tilted towards horror over comedy – though it was more creepy than anything.  There weren’t many laughs in the first episode but then, it wasn’t trying for many.  Unfortunately the creepiness factor extends to the fanservice, which – while not the most egregious you’ll ever see – had an especially crass quality to it, I thought.  Fanservice itself isn’t a problem for me, but it’s a question of context.  This isn’t an ecchi series and the gratuitous boob and butt shots and the comically tight clothing contributed nothing to the plot or atmosphere – not even in terms of attempts at humor.  It was the narrative equivalent of upskirting, basically.

I would hope that tones down as we move forward, as there was actually a lot here I liked.  Premise-wise it’s the story of a girl named Miko (Amamiya Sora can be quite good in the right role) who has a problem – she sees terrifying apparitions no one else around her (except one person, I suspect) can see.  Mieruko lives with her parents and younger brother, and goes to an all-girls school where her best friend is a genki chowhound of a girl named Hana.  I get the contrast between Hana and the deadpan Mieruko, but she has the potential to be a pretty annoying presence if not handled with care.

The essence of it is, none of the people close to Mieruko seem to know anything is up with her.  And the gag, if you will, is that she pretends not to be able to see these grisly spirits, presumably under the assumption that if she ignores them they’ll eventually go away.  Which they do – so far, though some of them are rather deliberate about it.  It’s all she can do to hold her poker face, as some of these encounters are genuinely terrifying (that photo thing for example).  Salt doesn’t do the trick, and it seems as if Buddhist amulets are next in line.

I think there are the seeds of an interesting premise here.  And I really liked the execution in this episode – the spirit encounters were nicely executed and genuinely creepy.  I could see this going any number of different ways both in terms of tone and plot – it’s possibly notable that none of these apparitions actually tried to do any harm (though that’s subject to change).  I worry about that best friend character, and the fanservice even more, but I quite liked Mieruko and the way her life was presented.  We’re down for another episode or two here at least, with some hope that it could be more.