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EP. REVIEW: Mieruko-chan


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jenthehen



Joined: 23 Dec 2008
Posts: 835
Location: Cincinnati, Ohio
PostPosted: Tue Oct 26, 2021 9:55 pm Reply with quote
Animegomaniac wrote:
It crossed the line for me when Miko washed her brother's back while completely nude. She's done; She showered, she bathed. Unless she plans on getting in with him, she should be toweling off at that point.


Really? I feel like this is where it took an unexpected turn for the innocent. I was expecting a whole trite "AHHHH Embarrassed" scene, but instead, it was like "Oh yeah, duh, they're close siblings, they've probably bathed together since they were little" and so it was no big deal (the brother was even like "Why do I feel weird / embarrassed" - but it was only because he was thinking about his sister in the context of possibly having a boyfriend). The washing his back scene didn't feel sexy or fan-servicey at all (and obviously this show can do super leering camera angles and detailed fanservice!) ... I don't feel it was for no reason. In her experience, staying put and continuing what you're doing while ignoring the ghosts is what makes them give up and go / fade away for good, so I believe that's what she was trying to do to ensure that particular bathroom ghost didn't return. But she was too scared to stay and do it on her own, so she was super thankful her brother showed up. It felt more sweet than lurid, tbh.
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Velorien



Joined: 28 Oct 2021
Posts: 97
PostPosted: Thu Oct 28, 2021 7:03 am Reply with quote
The thing this episode drove home to me is that we're watching a comedy about a girl steadily being driven towards a nervous breakdown as she is tormented by horrors day and night with no escape and nobody to turn to. Seriously, if you watch the OP, and turn off the jaunty tune and just read the lyrics, what you're left with is an increasingly desperate cry for help.

The more I think about it, the more I feel like I'm not watching a horror comedy so much as horror, presented as comedy.
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Florete



Joined: 21 Jan 2018
Posts: 363
PostPosted: Sat Oct 30, 2021 6:39 pm Reply with quote
BonusStage wrote:
Florete wrote:
Review: *Has literally one sentence warning about the existence of some fanservice.*
Comments: "And I took that personally."


To be fair that sentence was also used as the byline for the front page which I have to imagine was intentional.

Probably.

The truly odd thing to me is that basically anywhere else I go on the internet I never see this kind of aggressive defense of fanservice. Even in sub reddits for gacha games that have so much fanservice it's considered the norm, whenever someone mentions being put off by fanservice they tend to get support and agreement, and any disagreement is pretty tame. Yet on ANN, where I would sooner expect even greater disapproval of fanservice, I instead see people getting triggered by the reviewers just casually warning about the existence of it.

Also, I don't know why this nonsense of "fanservice is common in horror" is being treated as a valid defense. I thought tropes and clichés were supposed to be criticized, not blindly accepted.
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Gina Szanboti



Joined: 03 Aug 2008
Posts: 11306
PostPosted: Sat Oct 30, 2021 7:10 pm Reply with quote
Florete wrote:
Also, I don't know why this nonsense of "fanservice is common in horror" is being treated as a valid defense. I thought tropes and clichés were supposed to be criticized, not blindly accepted.

Tropes aren't inherently bad, they're just tools, and they're common because they frequently work very well. They can also not work very well. It all depends on how they're deployed and to what end.

Certain genre tropes tend not to get criticized because people expect and want to see them in that genre. Like how Grindhouse used all the classic splatter tropes in inventive ways.
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Yttrbio
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Joined: 09 Jun 2011
Posts: 3649
PostPosted: Sat Oct 30, 2021 7:12 pm Reply with quote
Florete wrote:
The truly odd thing to me is that basically anywhere else I go on the internet I never see this kind of aggressive defense of fanservice. Even in sub reddits for gacha games that have so much fanservice it's considered the norm, whenever someone mentions being put off by fanservice they tend to get support and agreement, and any disagreement is pretty tame. Yet on ANN, where I would sooner expect even greater disapproval of fanservice, I instead see people getting triggered by the reviewers just casually warning about the existence of it.

Also, I don't know why this nonsense of "fanservice is common in horror" is being treated as a valid defense. I thought tropes and clichés were supposed to be criticized, not blindly accepted.

You're still talking about it. People are allowed to like tropes and cliches, and are not required to criticize them, regardless of your understanding of what's "supposed" to happen.

This form of horror is inherently tropey. Some shows are designed to disassemble your mind, but this isn't one of them. Instead, this is all camp, and part of that particular type of horror is a close cooperation with the audience who is very much in on the joke. It's not meant to actually introduce unpleasantness into the viewer's life (though that kind of horror does exist), it's a way of getting the audience's heart racing in a consensual, non-mean-spirited way. It's the same basic idea of a roller coaster, and roller coasters are all about predictable unpredictability. Everyone knows no one actually crashes into a wall (usually) or goes flying off into the night, so scares making it seem like you will are exciting, not cruel.

Mieruko is actually one level above that, in that we're watching her watch a horror movie, except it's actually real for her. So all the tropes and cliches and predictable surprises are actually happening to her. It's what distinguishes the bathroom scene from the weird camera angles, because since we're not actually the target of the tropes, the camera angles that don't actually involve her don't quite fit.
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FunkyDude88



Joined: 01 Oct 2021
Posts: 108
PostPosted: Sun Oct 31, 2021 1:35 am Reply with quote
Florete wrote:
The truly odd thing to me is that basically anywhere else I go on the internet I never see this kind of aggressive defense of fanservice. Even in sub reddits for gacha games that have so much fanservice it's considered the norm, whenever someone mentions being put off by fanservice they tend to get support and agreement, and any disagreement is pretty tame. Yet on ANN, where I would sooner expect even greater disapproval of fanservice, I instead see people getting triggered by the reviewers just casually warning about the existence of it.


People defend fanservice all over from what I've seen. Subreddits in general are usually echo-chambers. The general consensus gets upvoted to the top and unpopular opinions get downvoted or outright deleted. Over on r/anime the episode 4 Mieruko-chan topic is filled with people drooling over the bath screen and other lewd comments of the episode. Sorting by controversial reveals the most downvoted comment of the episode is a complaint about the fanservice. There's not a lot of replies to it defending it, but when you can downvote comments into the void it's not really worth arguing with those posts. But the fact it's sitting at such a low score compared to the positive comments in the hundreds or thousands of upvote range then a lot of people did click the downvote button on it. Reddit's comment system is designed to appeal to the silent majority so arguing on there is kind of pointless.
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minamikaze



Joined: 20 Jan 2008
Posts: 213
PostPosted: Sun Oct 31, 2021 1:39 am Reply with quote
Florete wrote:
The truly odd thing to me is that basically anywhere else I go on the internet I never see this kind of aggressive defense of fanservice. Even in sub reddits for gacha games that have so much fanservice it's considered the norm, whenever someone mentions being put off by fanservice they tend to get support and agreement, and any disagreement is pretty tame. Yet on ANN, where I would sooner expect even greater disapproval of fanservice, I instead see people getting triggered by the reviewers just casually warning about the existence of it.

Also, I don't know why this nonsense of "fanservice is common in horror" is being treated as a valid defense. I thought tropes and clichés were supposed to be criticized, not blindly accepted.


I have absolutely no problem with a review warning people who do not care for it, about the presence of fanservice in a show. I think it is completely appropriate.

For example, I for one, cannot watch gory scenes. Watching one can literally bring me to the verge of vomiting. When a review lets me know that a movie is gory, it allows me to avoid what would be a really unpleasant experience.

My previous post was in response to the review comment that the bathroom scene was "out-of-place fanservice". That is quite different from warning people about the presence of fanservice, it is saying that it does not belong at all. Interestingly enough, the rest of the paragraph essentially goes on to say how effective the scene was. Yet it was deemed "out-of-place".

It is one thing to warn people who don't like fanservice, about its presence in a show, however it quite another to subsequently complain repeatedly about its presence in reviews of that show.

For example, my personal worst case scenario would be having to write a review of a splatter horror movie. Aside from the fact, it is unlikely that I could actually watch one in its entirety, if I were to write a review, it would be really pointless for me to complain repeatedly about all the blood and gore that appears in the scenes of the movie, no matter how much it disgusted me personally.

Horror is a broad and varied genre. There are horror movies/shows that don't have any gory scenes and/or fanservice, and others that have one or the other or both. There are horror movies/shows that are serious, those that are ironic and other that are intentionally humorous (as well as plenty that are unintentionally hilarious).

People expecting Mieruko-chan to be serious horror, will probably be disappointed, that is not what it is.

I have no problem at all with people who say that they don't like fanservice in anime: everyone has their own personal preferences and even visceral dislikes. It would make absolutely no sense for me to say they should like something that they do not. However, someone saying that fanservice should not exist at all in anime is very different, and I do not agree with that opinion.
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Florete



Joined: 21 Jan 2018
Posts: 363
PostPosted: Wed Nov 03, 2021 12:43 pm Reply with quote
minamikaze wrote:
My previous post was in response to the review comment that the bathroom scene was "out-of-place fanservice". That is quite different from warning people about the presence of fanservice, it is saying that it does not belong at all. Interestingly enough, the rest of the paragraph essentially goes on to say how effective the scene was. Yet it was deemed "out-of-place".

I actually do agree with this. I think the bath scene was more-or-less fine, but I can understand why certain aspects of it might be off-putting for some.


Last edited by Florete on Tue Nov 09, 2021 3:18 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Errinundra
Moderator


Joined: 14 Jun 2008
Posts: 6516
Location: Melbourne, Oz
PostPosted: Wed Nov 03, 2021 9:47 pm Reply with quote
Post removed. Talk about the anime, not about your fellow fans' upbringing.
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Gina Szanboti



Joined: 03 Aug 2008
Posts: 11306
PostPosted: Thu Nov 04, 2021 3:53 am Reply with quote
Quote:
I had been expecting Miko to jump at the opportunity to share her secret with a friend who both understood and experienced the exact same phenomenon. However, Miko still believes it's better to close herself off, to protect both herself and Yulia.

Well, at first she never had a chance to open up to her without giving up the game to the ghoul hanging about listening. And she's right, because Yulia can't really "watch her back" while they talk. So it would be dangerous to have that conversation, since you never know what's eavesdropping on it.
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TarsTarkas



Joined: 20 Dec 2007
Posts: 5821
Location: Virginia, United States
PostPosted: Mon Nov 08, 2021 3:31 am Reply with quote
Guess the question of the day is what happens after the spoiler[third time].

Good episode, and nice character designs for the new spoiler[?good spirits?].
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Spike Terra
Subscriber



Joined: 21 Mar 2016
Posts: 358
Location: Maryland
PostPosted: Tue Nov 09, 2021 3:11 pm Reply with quote
That fight was fantastic, and now I really want to see more Eldritch Kami. I think the more this series progresses, the more I appreciate the lore. This might be one of the best urban fantasies, I have seen in years. Next to like JJK and Kemono Jihen.
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Florete



Joined: 21 Jan 2018
Posts: 363
PostPosted: Tue Nov 09, 2021 3:17 pm Reply with quote
At the same time I'm laughing at the show, I'm also thinking, "Gosh, what kind of effect must it have on a person to just be living in constant terror?" She can't catch a break anywhere, anytime.
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Sinsekihokimchiansu



Joined: 02 Aug 2021
Posts: 159
PostPosted: Tue Nov 09, 2021 3:25 pm Reply with quote
Okay I know this anime has ecchi, comedy and some creepy ghost but a decent action (between ghost and some divine being I'm guessing) !? That is unexpected Very Happy
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Catseyetiger



Joined: 20 Oct 2009
Posts: 779
PostPosted: Wed Nov 10, 2021 4:25 am Reply with quote
Funny, moderators have issues on this site. Same with reviewers of the anime. It’s sad really. That is just how it is.
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