How to keep a mummy

Episode 3

A family can be: a homemaker high schooler, his aunt with multiple personalities, his adventurer dad, his childhood best friend, a dog, and a mummy. In episode three of How to keep a mummy, “It's Scary When Someone You Care About Gets Sick,” weirdness is only a matter of perspective. Surrounded by an expanding cast of family members, Sora and Mii-kun both realize how mysterious each other's way of life can be as they struggle to care for one another. While Mii-kun's antics remained front and center, the episode's exploration of this strange family gave the tiny mummy's world a little more depth. Now it's more apparent how an anime about watching cute mythical creatures cuddle and squeak could manage to fill 12 half-hour episodes.

“You're like family to me,” Tazuki tells Sora after he recovers from his cold, and it occurs to me that almost everyone we've met in How to keep a mummy is related to one another. Sora may not have a mom and his dad may not be around, but he and Mii-kun have quite the support system. When they get sick, everyone does their part, even Pochi the dog! This episode also establishes Kaede, Sora's aunt whom we've only seen by the glow of her computer screen until now—in fact, we didn't even know she was his aunt! Kaede is only now getting her official introduction, but she proves to fit right in with a completely unperturbed reaction to meeting Mii-kun—and a bizarrely enthusiastic reaction to obtaining a coffin. I still have some questions about Kaede though. She's a glasses model and somebody who has a lot of urgent deadlines for work? Could it be that she doesn't only model for a glasses store but runs the entire business by herself?

But Kaede isn't the focus today; it's Sora and Mii-kun. First, Sora gets sick and because this is anime, his case of the common cold is so dramatic that he feverishly collapses. At first he refuses to let anyone near him, but when Mii-kun shrivels up from crying out of loneliness, (shriveling mystery solved!) Sora allows his tiny son to stay by his side. Mii-kun is confused by Sora's out-of-character behavior, but he remembers Kaede putting a soaked cloth on his forehead. It was so adorable to see Mii-kun scale the towering desk, plop into the water, shake off like a puppy, and flop down on Sora's forehead. It's clear that Mii-kun has no idea why this is the cure for Sora's illness, but since he knows it makes Sora feel better, he repeats the process all night. It's not only Mii-kun's wimpiness and minuscule stature that make him so precious, but the way he adores Sora and does everything in his pathetic amount of power to show how much he cares.

Unfortunately, Mii-kun catches Sora's cold. (Much like the question of what's underneath Mii-kun's bandages, this is one of those plot developments I'm not even going to speculate on.) Mii-kun begs to go outdoors, tosses off his darling little hat and scarf, and buries himself in the ground like a dead thing. I mean, he is technically a mummy, and mummies are dead by design. But Sora takes this hard—such a “treatment” is as foreign to him as Sora's self-isolation and cool washcloths were to Mii-kun. By the way, I did some research, and it turns out that not only did the ancient Egyptians mummify their pets and other small creatures, but some of these mummies are stuffed with feathers and dirt. Could that be why Mii-kun so easily cleans up after being down in the dirt all day? Did he just absorb it? Now that we solved the mystery of why he shrivels up, I'm more willing to entertain the idea that How to keep a mummy will resolve more mysteries about Mii-kun's more peculiar habits.

Speaking of mysteries, who is that dark shadow behind Tazuki at lunchtime? The final screen before the credits gives it away. Mii-kun is precious, but I'm sure the addition of an equally tiny ogre friend is going to double the cuteness quotient.

Rating: B

How to keep a mummy is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Lauren writes about geek careers at Otaku Journalist.