Before reading this manga I never would have thought that horror and comedy could actually successfully mix. The closest thing to it might be the movie Cabin in the Woods, but even that doesn't manage to be genuinely scary enough to really be called horror. However, Mieruko-chan is somehow both genuinely funny and genuinely scary, and actually uses each genre to highlight the other.

I'll start with the horror, and the thing that stands out the most to me is how grotesque and terrifying the monster designs are. I'd say the worst of the spirits in this manga beat out even the worst apostles of Berserk or the worst devils in Chainsaw Man in terms of their sheer ability to creep me out. The author is also a master at using panels transitions as jump scares, with perfectly lighthearted scenes commonly leading into double page spreads of disfigured demons. Now this isn't to say that Mieruko is Junji Ito levels of horrifying, but it's most definitely scarier than I expected.

On the other side of the spectrum, the comedy in this manga consistently lands for me. I'm particularly fond of comedy where characters act as though strange events are perfectly normal, and this series hits the nail on the head with that. Seeing the MC's friend smiling happily next to a demon holding a butcher's knife, or another medium being confident in their abilities but failing to notice spirits devouring each other right next to them manages to make me laugh every time. Just FYI though the beginning has some kind of awkward fanservice, but it mostly stops after the first couple of chapters.

TL;DR - Mieruko-chan somehow blends horror and comedy in a way that each genre makes the other better. I've never seen another series quite like this before, manga or otherwise, and I'd 100% recommend this to both fans of horror and to anyone who's looking for something new and unique.