Possibilities of the afterlife in Mieruko-Chan

[feotakahari]

Going through the different ways ghosts have left or been destroyed:

Peacefully dissolved when their goals are complete. This seems to be the “best” ending for ghosts.

Sent off by a psychopomp in one of multiple ways. This can look grotesque, but the spirits that are swallowed whole wait patiently for it, and some of them completed their goals first. My speculation is this is just an alternate way of sending them where they’re going. Maybe for ghosts that choose to go, but have lingering attachments that make it hard to leave. I’m not sure why some psychopomps are different, though, and there’s the matter of the multiple lines, which I’ll come back to later.

Exorcised and involuntarily vanished. It’s unclear whether these ghosts are gone, or whether they just go where the dissolved spirits go.

Devoured by a stronger spirit. Devoured spirits are probably deader than dead, since they strengthen and mutate their attacker, and they don’t return when the attacker is destroyed. But this would make the nature spirit a lot more sinister than it currently seems to be, since it’s indiscriminate about devouring other spirits. (And it seems to be sharing their energy with Michuru, with her comment about not needing to eat much.)

Destroyed but not devoured by another spirit. These hunters seem to be connected to the psychopomps, and they target spirits that threaten or parasitize humans. This is probably equivalent to exorcism.

The most interesting questions come out of the chapter with multiple lines of spirits waiting to be swallowed by different psychopomps. One tries to go to a different psychopomp than it was in line for, and is dismembered for it. In some way, the lines matter enough to be punished for violating the rules, yet other spirits still accept their chosen psychopomp and go without a fight. And if there’s a sorting process or a variety of destinations, then why don’t we see any sorting for spirits that leave by other methods? (Worst-case, devoured or exorcised spirits are permanently gone and there’s nothing left to sort.)

Bonus question: were the psychopomps ever human? Is this their afterlife?

Bonus question: why does the psychopomp that maintains order in the lines look like Bifrons as portrayed in Shin Megami Tensei? Bifrons is associated with necromancy and using magic on dead bodies, but he’s not a psychopomp.