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

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How To Keep a Mummy gives you 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? Well maybe a slightly more developed plot and characters but sometimes being kawaii might just be enough.

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.

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How To Keep a Mummy knows how to play its audience.

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.

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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. When Mii and Sora aren’t front and centre, well it can still be fun but the appeal of the anime definitely wanes.



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. How To Keep a Mummy may have been stronger without some of the other characters, but I think it is more that none of the supporting monsters ever got as much effort put into their cuteness.

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Still, cute really can’t be enough to carry a series, or at least not after the initial sweetness wears off.

How To Keep a Mummy 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.

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

Images from: How To Keep a Mummy. Dir. Kaori. 8Bit. 2018


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Karandi James


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

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How To Keep a Mummy 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.

How To Keep a Mummy Gets Cute

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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.



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Still, it was a pretty good final episode. How To Keep a Mummy 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.

Images from: How To Keep a Mummy. Dir. Kaori. 8Bit. 2018


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Karandi James


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

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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.

How To keep a Mummy tries to escalate tension before the final episode.

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However, if you are watching How To Keep a Mummy 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.



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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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Images from: How To Keep a Mummy. Dir. Kaori. 8Bit. 2018


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Karandi James


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

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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.

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How To Keep a Mummy, at its best when being cute.

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.



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And this time the attempt to inject a tiny bit of drama into this episode of How to Keep a Mummy 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.

Images from: How To Keep a Mummy. Dir. Kaori. 8Bit. 2018


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Karandi James


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

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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.

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How To Keep a Mummy tried.

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.

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Part of me wishes How To Keep a Mummy had 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.

Images from: How To Keep a Mummy. Dir. Kaori. 8Bit. 2018


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

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I will admit, my interest in the story of How To Keep a Mummy 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.

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Let’s Be Honest, We’re Not Watching How To Keep a Mummy For The Plot

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.


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If you are watching How To Keep a Mummy 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.

Images from: How To Keep a Mummy. Dir. Kaori. 8Bit. 2018


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Karandi James


How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom Episode 21 – Marriage For Political/Monetary Gain

How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom Episode 21 Review

How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom visually was very unimpressive this week largely because the entire episode was characters standing around talking in the throne room or talking through a mirror together. The only scene that really broke this up was when Souma told a story about two gods running opposing nations and then the animation was minimal and definitely more storybook style rather than impressive to match the framing device of it being a story.

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All things considered, you’d be forgiven for just kind of tuning out as this episode more or less re-established the arrangements more or less decided last week, confirmed everyone was on the same page, and then had Souma chat it out with Maria from the Empire so that she didn’t get the wrong idea and decide he’d broke the Humankind Declaration for which he isn’t even a signatory.

About the only real takeaway from episode 21 of how a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom is that Souma has finally accepted he is king, not an interim, and he’s not going to take his reforms slowly anymore.

How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom Episode 21

How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom has more talking heads than anything else.

One thing I mentioned in my review of the previous episode was that Juna would have cause for complaint if Souma agreed to marry Roroa while she was still on hold. And yet, her only comment this week was that she wouldn’t go against any decision Souma made.



That isn’t good. That isn’t helpful. Souma doesn’t need a harem of ‘yes girls’ surrounding him telling him how brilliant he is. He needs decent, solid advisors who have their eye on the safety and security of the kingdom.

In that respect, Roroa outclassed Liscia, Juna and Aisha this week as she’s the only character with a future plan at all that involves doing anything other than just nodding as Souma talks and standing beside him looking like a window decoration rather than a character. Honestly, Souma should call them on this because for a Realist Hero who wanted to surround himself with the brightest and best and those with talent, he seems to now be surrounded by a bunch who can barely contribute a nod to the conversation. This is hardly a riveting supporting cast.

How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom Episode 21

Honestly I have little else to say about this episode. It was a lot of talking and things are all agreed between the main players. I guess we now just wait and see who the new problem is and all things considered it seems like the church state is going to be the new antagonist. It will be interesting to see if they manage to do this well or not.

Also, I’m not convinced the entire population of Amidonia is fine with being annexed into their traditional enemy’s kingdom. Sure, those in Van who have been under Elfrieden rule would mostly be fine with it and others would see it as an improvement over their circumstances with Julius in the lead. But a Realist Hero would be aware that there must be pockets of discontent. But that issue and what they will do about it isn’t really addressed this week.

How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom Episode 21

I can’t say this second season of How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom is disappointing because realistically it is pretty much exactly like season one. There’s some interesting ideas but the actual episodes are bogged down in static conversations and the characterisation isn’t great. It would have been nice to see this anime improve on season one but at the very least it has been about the same quality and hasn’t gotten worse.

Images from: How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom 2nd Season. Dir. T. Watanabe. J. C. Staff. 2022


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Karandi James


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

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Last week I commented that the growing cast of How to Keep a Mummy 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.

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How To Keep a Mummy embraces its cuteness.

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).



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This episode of How To Keep a Mummy 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.

Images from: How To Keep a Mummy. Dir. Kaori. 8Bit. 2018


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How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom Episode 20 – Incompetence Finds Its Victim This Week

How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom Episode 20 Review

How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom bounces viewers back to the war in Amidonia (or the fall-out from the war) after rapidly wrapping up the whole mad-scientist plot. I mean, we start still in the lab and dealing with the whole dragon bone theft issue but after seeing a weird curiosity, that mostly just made me think of mecha godzilla, Realist Hero more or less dumps that line of plot progress and instead we see the mess Julius has wrought since claiming back Amidonia.

How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom Episode 20

You wouldn’t think one incompetent leader could get into so much trouble so quickly but between destroying infrastructure improvements built by Elfrieden, cracking down on individuality on things such as the colour of houses, and then brutally putting down a rebellion after people had starved to death, Julius couldn’t really have done a worse job. It’s unfortunate that his father had alienated or fired anyone competent in his government leaving Julius with opportunists and morons to advise him.

Not like he would have listened to good advice anyway.

Realist Hero has already clearly established that Julius, much like his father, as a strong belief that he is in the right and that he can bully or beat down anyone who disagrees with his view of how the world should be and how he should rule. Unlike his father, Julius has neither the force of personality or the standing army to pull this one off.

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How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom seems to be expanding Kingdom into Empire.

Seeing Julius brought down might have been amusing if Realist Hero didn’t actually have real consequences in place. While seeing someone do a poor job and pay the price for it, having to flee his own country, could be satisfying, in the meantime the people of Amidonia are starving and in fear for their lives. Not only is their own army putting down those who dare complain, the country was being invaded from the south.



What I did wonder was why Julius didn’t get the Empire to help him again? Or why didn’t Souma ask the Empire whether they supported Elfrieden annexing the neighbouring kingdom (at their request, of course)? As much as it seems a logical conclusion, if the Empire doesn’t support it then they’ll just end up where they were before.

Then again, all these invasions and talks of refugees flooding across the border struck a little too close to home this week and events in the real world are significantly more dramatic than anything this anime is managing to coble together in a fictional setting.

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Though, throughout all of this, Souma and Hakuya both note that while Julius’ failure was within predictions, the speed and coordination of all the failings seemed a little contrived. It was nice to see at the end that clearly there was a helping hand within Amidonia pushing events in this direction. Otherwise it really would have felt like things just too easily fell Souma’s way in Realist Hero.

And of course that brings us to the end of the episode where Souma inadvertently acquires yet another candidate for his harem. Politically it makes sense. That said, if Souma agrees to that proposal before tidying things up with Juna I suspect there’s going to be a fall out somewhere along the lines.

How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom Episode 20

Anyway, I could continue to point out Julius’ failings but I think that point has been well and truly established already in Realist Hero. It was interesting that when deciding what to do, Souma went through the advantages and disadvantages of expanding and taking control of Amidonia. I loved that he mentioned they would lose the reparation payments they had just secured. It actually does make it feel more realistic when that kind of materialism is definitely considered as a factor even in the midst of a humanitarian crisis.

I guess we’ll see in the next episode how all of this plays out.

Images from: How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom 2nd Season. Dir. T. Watanabe. J. C. Staff. 2022


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Karandi James