cute

How To Keep a Mummy Series Review: So Much Cuteness In One Little Package

Posted on May 14, 2018May 20, 2018 by Karandi

There’s a mini-mummy, a back-pack sized dragon, a tiny oni and a whole bunch of other pint sized monsters all in one adorable anime package. What more could you want?

Review:

When Sora received a coffin from his father who was travelling through Egypt, he suspects the worst and apparently with good reason. His recounts of previous gifts certainly lead one to presume that nothing good can come out of the coffin. Don’t even ask why it is clearly an English style coffin rather than an Egyptian sarcophagus or how the mummy eventually breaks out given he never demonstrates that kind of feat of strength ever again; these are questions that should be asked of a show asking you to take it seriously rather than one that seems to excel at being cute for cute’s sake. For this story, it is all about how adorable the cast are on screen and the main goal of most episodes is to put the cast into cuteness inducing moments for the audience to tilt their heads and go ‘aww’ to.

If that sounds like I’m being condescending, I’m not. I actually really had a great time with this anime given just the opening theme could start me smiling and any episode that Mii-Kun (the titular mummy in question) barked was enough to leave me grinning for the remainder of the day. There’s just something so soothing and cute about a barking miniature mummy and to be honest I don’t think I’m ever going to get over that. I think I need a gif on an endless loop of that just for days that go badly and then I can simply cheer myself by watching it over and over again.

What works even better are Sora and Mii as a team. Sora by himself would be a pretty bland protagonist, but when coupled with Mii the two are a duo that would be hard to beat. The success of any episode in this series for me depended on the screen time these two characters were given. The other characters work, but all have diminishing returns in terms of cuteness and particularly the oni-child really don’t replace Mii as an adequate focus – or at least they don’t give me quite the same bliss out on over-cuteness.

Still, cute really can’t be enough to carry a series. This anime manages to find enough interesting situations to stick the cast in a back-drops for their cute antics that you don’t actually get overly bored (though I suspect that binge watching this could become a bit of a problem). Still, the characters visit each other’s houses, the school, a temple and finally a mountain with a range of activities and interactions to sell each of the characters.

Basically, there isn’t a lot of rewatch value in this and there isn’t a lot of depth, but if you are seeking the cute and fuzzy feels, this anime will succeed admirably.

Episode Reviews:

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Karandi James

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How To Keep a Mummy Episode 12: Cheesy and Yet Pulls It Off

Posted on April 1, 2018March 30, 2018 by Karandi

This anime continued to play to its strengths all the way through and while it also pulled a family/friends beat all kind of ending it did it with the kind of earnestness that allows you to smile and just accept that is the kind of show you were watching. To be honest, it is the kind of anime that just makes you want to indulge it as it pulls out the super cute card over and over again.

It is also the kind of show that makes you casually dismiss that the villain this episode is probably going to be killed off screen which could be sort of horrific but we’ll distract both the protagonists and the audience with adorableness so they don’t let that throw away line sink in. It might disrupt the cute bubble this anime has built.

Still, it was a pretty good final episode. This series has been pretty even in its delivery from start to finish so if you wanted a show about a cute mummy, here it is and I’ll give a series review soon.

Previous Reviews:

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Karandi James

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How To Keep a Mummy Episode 11: Part of Me Wants To Say About Time

Posted on March 25, 2018March 23, 2018 by Karandi

How to Keep a Mummy has been a super cute anime but with the promise of curses and problems with monsters raised in the first episode and then very seldom thought about since, it is nice to see the show bring that back in for the penultimate episode. Sora and friends inadvertently trespass at a solstice festival without invitations leading to a moment of genuine tension in the usually sickly sweet show and later we meet a collector before setting up the cliff-hanger that will drive us into the final episode.

However, if you are watching this show for the cute mummy, you will definitely get your fill this episode as the anime pulls out all the stops in delivering Mii and his most adorable, including barks, helpful hugs, and genuinely being a life-saver. Also squishy.

But if you also want some tension between Sora and Kamiya, this episode gives us a watered down drama between the close friends fuelled by misunderstandings and lack of communication. Really it is the best we could expect from this show at this point and it is truly pleasant watching even if it isn’t exactly deep.

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Karandi James

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How To Keep a Mummy Episode 10: A Return To Adorable Formula

Posted on March 18, 2018March 16, 2018 by Karandi

After last week’s average but not particularly bad episode of this anime, How To Keep A Mummy strikes back with an incredibly adorable return to the formula that made the first episodes of this season so irresistible.

And in saying that, what I mean is they introduce a new player into the group who at first seems kind of scary but turns out to be a big softie. This one is a statue of Anubis that speaks and can turn its head but is otherwise unable to really move and as it hasn’t shown an inclination for curses is so far pretty harmless and mostly helpless.

And this time the attempt to inject a tiny bit of drama into the episode worked beautifully with the title character being the one in the spotlight (right where his cute-self should be). That said, if I thought a barking mummy was adorable, the whole crew of creatures suddenly imitating someone with the hiccups is off-the-charts in terms of how cute things can be. A fairly solid episode from a show that really only has one draw and managed to get it just right this week.

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Karandi James

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How To Keep a Mummy Episode 9: The Oni-Child Crosses The Line

Posted on March 11, 2018March 9, 2018 by Karandi

Review:

Anime has a lot of heart breaking moments that really capture the spirit of what it is to be human, to be alone, and to suffer loss. How To Keep A Mummy doesn’t quite manage to land this lofty emotional goal but still delivers something that is cute in its very gentle and obvious dealing with emotional baggage.

With Conny in trouble again for stealing pudding (gasp), Kamiyagives him a talking to but of course with his rough and direct way of speaking goes too far. In the morning Conny is gone and after a night of being missing the rest of the gang decide to look for him but Kamiya stubbornly refuses claiming it isn’t his responsibility. A facade which lasts for all of about three seconds.

Part of me wishes they’d at least pretended at this whole conflict thing for a little bit longer, but the reunion was pretty adorable. Still, essentially we’re back to business as usual as we roll into another episode.

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Karandi James

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How To Keep a Mummy Episode 8: It’s Monster Day Care and It Is Soooo Cute!

Posted on March 4, 2018March 2, 2018 by Karandi

Review:

I will admit, my interest in the story this week was a bit hit and miss. The kids realise Connie has been wandering during the day and decide that the monster children need supervision while they are at school and so they turn to a local shrine god to babysit. It is as cute as you would expect but it kind of doesn’t amount to all that much more.

Still, Mii-Kun manages to get outside of the shrine and runs into another Oni-Child who thinks Mii is lost and leads him away from the shrine. After a series of misunderstandings, Mii gets back, safe and sound. And that’s really all there is to it.

If you are watching this show for the cute, this episode really hits you hard with the adorable. If you were hoping for something more, there’s not a lot to be found.

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For those who want to see the adorable Brendan Fraser take on a less cute Mummy. Though I suspect there’s a decent YouTube mashup in their. Brendan Fraser vs Mii-Kun.

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Karandi James

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How To Keep a Mummy Episode 7: Barking Mummies and Dream Eating Baku

Posted on February 25, 2018February 23, 2018 by Karandi

Review:

Last week I commented that the growing cast were so cute together. This week adds what I believe to be the final little creature, throws the dog in and actually gives us a photo op moment. Kind of perfect.

I love it when a show knows exactly what its selling point is and doesn’t try to pretend it is something it isn’t. This show is cute and they deliver cute. They deliver it pretty well in most episodes, and they know when a particular moment of cute is worth revisiting (another round of barking Mii nearly did me in from cuteness overload).

This episode brings Daichi into the mix. He’s in the same grade as Sora and we have seen him around the school before, but this episode looks at how he is isolated due to his violent sleepwalking and horrible nightmares. Of course, Sora being Sora decides to get involved and eventually we have the four humans and the four monsters all playing nice at the end. It isn’t particularly deep, but it doesn’t really need to be. This episode was just great fun.

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Karandi James

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How To Keep a Mummy Episode 6: A Little Knowledge Can Be Adorable

Posted on February 18, 2018February 17, 2018 by Karandi

Review:

Conny, Isao and Mii-Kun together are making a truly cute team. As much as I didn’t like Conny’s introductory episode, he adds an interesting dynamic to the trio and of course presents several moments of conflit for a show that might otherwise get a little bit sleepy and dull.

But as much as the pets are bonding, the kids are also forming quite the friendship. And with future play-dates between the cuties, it will be fun to see how these three continue to get along.

This episode mostly focuses on the idea that Isao is a little bit more advanced in being able to take care of itself than either Mii-Kun or Conny. This leads to some cute jealousy as well as the other two trying to catch up by writing adorable notes and trying to do things by themselves. As usual, there isn’t much in the way of plot and other than chasing down a screaming plant and retrieving it from the river, not a lot happens, but that isn’t really a problem when they manage to keep you entertained by staring at the cute characters on the screen.

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Karandi James

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How To Keep a Mummy Episode 5: Dragon + Mummy = Too Cute

Posted on February 11, 2018February 9, 2018 by Karandi

Review:

Okay, so the child-oni turned out to be a bust last week but the addition of a back-pack sized dragon gave this show a nice boost back into being the single most adorable thing ever. Not to mention, despite introducing new cast members, Mii-Kun managed a decent amount of screen time in this episode and we finally see Sora considering his loneliness and history a little bit more seriously.

Add in that Motegi is a fun supporting cast member in her own right and I’m glad she got a bit more of a role this time round rather than just being an obstacle for hiding Mii-Kun’s existence. Her reaction to lizards and then the dragon were also pretty amusing even if they were completely overblown even by this anime’s standards.

However, this show wouldn’t be itself if it didn’t bring the two together in the end. I would like to know more about Tazuki’s deal with the dragon (though we know he did get scarred previously the details were a bit limited).

All and all, this was a nice recovery for the show and we’re back to blissfully cuteness.

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Karandi James

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School Babysitters Episode 4: It’s Moments Like These…

Posted on February 1, 2018January 29, 2018 by Karandi

Review:

With a plethora of ‘cute’ this season, School Babysitters is something of an interesting find. While it certainly is going for the whole cute aesthetic with the overly chibi styled toddlers (who for some reason aren’t growing despite the older characters moving into a new school year) this show is kind of differentiating itself in more ways than just having a primarily male cast rather than the usual cute girls in middle-school.

It distinguished itself back in episode 1 when after overloading the viewer with sugary sweet moments it hit us hard with the emotional fall-out of Ryuichi and Kotaro dealing with the recent loss of their parents in a way that actually felt like real human drama rather than a cheap appear to our tear ducts. And after a couple of reasonably generic type episodes, we find ourselves with episode 4 where they finally address what Ryuichi is missing out on because of his commitment to the babysitting club (which wasn’t exactly his choice even if he doesn’t resent doing it).

It’s a nice moment, not overly dragged out, and serves the purpose of making our usually nice and happy protagonist feel like a very human character. These small moments cropping up every now and then in amongst the excessively sweet rest of the show make it just that little bit more interesting than if the show just engaged cute mode from start to finish.

I do want to come back to Kotaro and Ryuichi’s relationship later (probably in a feature) and the dream Ryuichi had while suffering a fever (what is it with cute shows and fever’s this week). Whichever way, this show is definitely staying on my watch list which given it is a slice of life/high school thing featuring toddlers in lead roles greatly surprises me and makes me wonder if I would have kept watching this in a stronger season. Yet, I don’t think I’m watching this from lack of options. I actually think I am enjoying this simple story because of how they handle those moments of real human drama.

Thanks for reading.

Karandi James

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