Common Name: Miira no Kaikata
Alternative Names: How to Keep a Mummy
Score: 6/10, 4/5
Length: 12 Episodes
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Slice of Life, Supernatural, School Life
Summary: Since his father regularly travels the world to find weird or unusual things, Kashiwagi Sora has gotten more than used to the supernatural world. Ever since he was a kid, he's taken it upon himself to care for monsters who are in need and protected them from poachers. Still, when it comes to the things his dad sends home, he's learned to expect the worst. Thankfully, his recent present from Egypt has turned out to be just the sort of thing Sora needed in his life. Mii-kun, an adorable little mummy with a tendency to act like a dog, serves as both a companion and a helpless pet that Sora can care happily for. Not soon after Mii-kun arrives in Sora's life, though, a menagerie of other young monsters begin to make themselves known to Sora and his color group of school friends.
Review: It's no great secret that I really like cute things. My love for all things adorable is pretty much the only reason I put up with all the shit that is born from the moeblob subgenre. Despite my love for such things, though, a tragic fact of most cute shows is that there's rarely anything beyond the surface layer. What you see is what you get is the rule of thumb with this genre and, unfortunately, Miira no Kaikata is one of those shows that suffers from this very issue. The premise is the show and, while it is adorable, there really isn't all that much to talk about. So, since this show seems content to be judged as is, the only real metric for determining whether its good or not is how much this show jives with the viewers' likes and dislikes. If what I am about to describe appeals to you, by all means, give it a shot. If what I go into in this review bores you, then worry not, you're not really missing out on any big title of the season.
To be blunt, though, if the story the story of sad boy, mummy, and friends
doesn't interest you, then you have no love in your heart.
For the most part, the story of Miira no Kaikata is just a lesson on how opening oneself to others can be good for a person that is told over and over until the show's over. While enjoyable, the story is pretty much the same from start to finish, but with new characters added every other message to stretch out what is already a paper-thin premise. At the start, we are introduced to Kashiwagi Sora, a young boy who suffers from some understandable abandonment issues. After all, his father is always off traveling the world, his caretaker aunt is a shut-in writer and eternally busy model, and he doesn't seem to have any mother to speak of. Sure he has a few friends and a dog to care for, but that doesn't replace the natural desire to be with one's family. So, as a means of solving that specific problem, the tiny, adorable mummy named Mii-kun enters the series as a child figure that Sora feels obligated to care for. In return for his boundless parental care, Mii-kun helps care for Sora in turn as he tries to ineffectually help around the house and be generally amusing. As the series goes on, Mii-kun helps Sora slowly overcome his abandonment issues as it is slowly made clear that, while Mii-kun might have a home somewhere else, he would rather stay with Sora.
If we're going to be honest, though, it doesn't matter whether or not Mii-kun has another home.
The moment that helpless, little mummy is out of Sora's sight, he's done for.
Once that main duo is established, the repetition begins as we are introduced to Sora's childhood friend, Kamiya Tazuki. Where Sora is bubbly and a bit fake, what with the whole hiding his feelings to make other people feel better, Tazuki is a dour tsundere character who suffers from a similar kind of personal issue as Sora. Due to past events that are never entirely gone into, Tazuki suffers from an inability to properly express himself and a tendency to keep himself at a distance from those who would like to be his friend. So, to solve those issues, in comes the character of Conny, a tiny and mischievous oni who loves Tazuki just as much as he loves annoying Takuzi. Considering how oni are naturally inclined to cause grief and mischief, that means he really loves Tazuki who is, like Sora is to Mii-kun, a kind of scolding parental figure to this analogous child character.
Just in case you were curious, the oni and the mummy become fast friends, because of course they do.
To keep the pattern going, we are introduced to the token female of the show, Motegi Asa. While I don't recall Motegi having any big, underlying issues that define her character, it can be said that she's a bit abnormal in her own right. Cute and bubbly like Sora is with Mii-kun, Motegi is the can-do-no-wrong angel character of the series that also seems to possess superhuman strength for reasons that are never explained. But that's not what gains her access to the supernatural child/pet friend group that consists of just Sora and Tazuki. Instead, her issue and admittance into the fold only appear when a tiny dragon decides to take up residence in her home in spite of her fear/hatred of all things reptilian. Quite literally dragging Sora into her home to solve this issue, it is revealed that the dragon, later named Isao, is both fond of Motegi, in spite of her throwing furniture at him mere moments ago, and cute enough for Motegi to accept in spite of her fears. Just like that, the problem is solved and we are given another human-monster duo to join the show's collection of characters.
Christ, this show might be saccharine enough to give someone diabetes.
Last but not least, we meet the bad boy who isn't actually bad--just really, really tired--Tachiaki Daichi. Afflicted with some kind of curse that won't let him get a good night's sleep, Daichi's problem is that his sleep deprivation has made him irritable and violent to everyone around him, particularly when he's just coming out of a waking nightmare. To make his issue all the worse, his violent behavior has led not only to him being labeled a delinquent at his school but caused him to be effectively disowned by his family. So, like with Motegi, it's Sora to the rescue as he tries to understand and help the sad and lonely Daichi. In a weird twist of events, it's implied that Daichi has been having bad dreams because he's been starving a Baku that has inexplicably latched onto Daichi. So, after Sora breaks the barrier that drove the Baku away, Daichi's problem is instantly resolved, revealing that he's actually a friendly and carefree personality. As an added bonus, we get one more monstrous addition to the cast in the form of the tapir-looking Baku named Mukumuku (a pun on the sound it makes when it eats Daichi's bad dreams).
No offence to the rest of the show's adorable plush-like cast, but I'd kill for a Mukumuku plushy.
With that last addition to the show, the show is officially halfway over, leaving plenty of room for the cast to goof around and joke about how fun/difficult it is to be a monster parent. From this point on, the show takes on a kind of "problem of the day" formula where the stresses of "parenting" have caused something to go horribly wrong. In one instance, Conny runs away from home because Tazuki never wanted to care for some monster in the first place. In another instance, Mii-kun gets lost in the woods after he accidentally gets locked out of the monster daycare Sora found for all the monsters while he and his friends are at school. In these segments, we are greeted with one of two different kinds of payoffs. Either we get to meet a ton of new and interesting monster friends, showcasing just how much we don't know about our magical world, or we get some further growth and development from the cast that makes them more willing and able to care for their allegorical children. Then, like most anime, the show ends it all on a big dramatic bang that highlights just how important it is to keep and trust your friends and how much these cute little monsters mean to them.
If you think I'm exaggerating this child metaphor, it's all but stated that these
monsters have roughly the intelligence of an elementary schooler.
Simplicity is the key to this show which is simultaneously the boon and bane of its existence. On the one hand, the show's cute, straightforward premise and plot make it easy to digest and the perfect show to veg out to at the end of the day. On the other hand, the show's big plot points are so simple that they can be seen from a mile away and require little effort to resolve outside of the characters talking things out. There's no real meat to grab onto with this title. The best it ever really has to offer is equivalent to a fluffy, saccharine dessert that is enjoyable but far from filling--kinda like a chocolate moose. Unfortunately, that kind of lack of substance is pretty much the standard of this show in all it's aspects. The characters are engaging but not all that fleshed out. The plot is barely there. Conflict is always straightforward and is usually resolved in the same episode it's introduced. The art is fairly basic and is far from being considered novel or particularly engaging. The music is barely there but fits the childish theme of the show. In the end, I'd be inclined to call this show underwhelming, but I'm not sure it's trying to whelm me in the first place. It's just kind of a cute and fluffy show that seems to be intent on offering a momentary distraction in one's day. So, like I said before, if this sounds like it might interest you, give it a shot. If you don't care, then no worries; you're not missing out on much.