How to Keep a Mummy

ミイラの飼い方 (Miira no Kaikata)

6.1(1)

OtakuDen

7.5(58,430)

MAL Score

Ranked #2345

Popularity #1801

Slice of Life
Supernatural
Mythology
Pets
School

Episodes: 12
Duration: 24 min per ep
Aired: Jan 12, 2018 to Mar 30, 2018
Status: Finished Airing

Synopsis

High schooler Sora Kashiwagi has learned to be cautious about the strange souvenirs his globe-trotting father mails home. So when a massive package arrives from Egypt, he braces for another disaster—only to find Mii-kun, a tiny, adorable mummy. Despite Sora’s initial hesitation, it quickly becomes clear that Mii-kun is gentle, fragile, and eager for affection.

As their everyday routine takes shape, Sora and his new companion cross paths with others who keep unusual pets of their own. Between small mishaps and quiet moments of care, Sora grows more devoted to looking after Mii-kun and the responsibilities that come with it.

Otaku Consensus

How to Keep a Mummy succeeds as precision-engineered comfort anime: Kaori’s gentle direction, 8bit’s soft creature-forward presentation, and Hitomi Mieno’s low-friction series composition turn supernatural pet care into repeatable iyashikei pleasure. Critics and viewers consistently praise its cute comedy and likable ensemble, while the most common complaint is real: the opening stretch is so relaxed that some found the series only fully engaging in its final episodes.

Why You Should Watch

Watch How to Keep a Mummy if you want supernatural healing without heavy lore, romance pressure, or the emotional bruising that often comes with yokai stories. It scratches a gentler version of the Natsume’s Book of Friends itch: strange beings are treated less as mysteries to solve than as companions who need patience, routine, and emotional intelligence. The appeal is in tiny acts of care, school-life downtime, and creature comedy that never tries to become an action show. Viewers who like pet anime, soft ensemble dynamics, and “after work” decompression shows will get the most from it. Its 12-episode length also makes it unusually easy to recommend as a palate cleanser between denser seasonal titles.

Key Characters

S
Sora Kashiwagi
Sora works because he treats the supernatural less like a spectacle and more like a responsibility, giving the series a surprisingly practical emotional center.
M
Mii-kun
Mii-kun became the show’s signature draw through creature acting: fragile body language, pet-like timing, and comedy built around how much expression can fit into a tiny mummy design.

What Makes It Stand Out

1
The series is one of 8bit’s softer-looking 2018 productions, with Takahiro Kishida’s character designs and Kei Ichikura’s art direction supporting the rounded, low-stress visual identity that reviewers singled out as pleasant.
2
AniList’s 96% Iyashikei tag accurately reflects the show’s structure: the supernatural elements are used for care routines, domestic comedy, and emotional decompression rather than battles or horror.
3
The music is credited to both MAYUKO and Kenichirou Suehiro, giving the series a dedicated comfort-show soundscape instead of treating its slice-of-life scenes as silence between jokes.
4
Its ensemble gradually broadens the pet-fantasy angle beyond a single creature, a choice reflected in AniList tags such as Youkai, Animals, and Dragons rather than a single-monster gimmick.
5
The pacing is deliberately back-loaded: several viewer writeups note the early episodes as slow, while the final stretch is where the show becomes more engaging.

Fun Facts & Trivia

Fun fact 1: The anime aired as a single-cour winter 2018 TV series from January 12 to March 30, totaling 12 episodes.
Fun fact 2: Kakeru Utsugi is credited as the original creator, while Kaori directed the anime and Hitomi Mieno handled series composition.
Fun fact 3: The script team includes Masahiro Yokotani and Megumi Shimizu, two credited writers working under Mieno’s overall series structure.
Fun fact 4: One 2018 review specifically positioned the show as taking components that make Natsume compelling and lightening them into a gentler, more comedic form.
Fun fact 5: On AniList, the show’s community profile is unusually concentrated: Iyashikei sits at 96%, Male Protagonist at 83%, School at 79%, and Youkai at 77%, showing that viewers read it primarily as healing supernatural slice of life.