Forgive the lateness of this post – it’s been an incredibly busy couple of weeks.  I’m actually typing this in the (Economy Plus – ULTRA!) cabin of a Boeing 787 “Dreamliner” on the way to Kansai International.  I’m not just doing it for KIX – stay tuned for further updates on that subject in the days to come.  As for Miira no Kaikata, it continues to be the easiest show to enjoy this season – in the sense that it gives the most while extracting the smallest toll in return.  The cast of characters entered around Sora has been steadily growing, and it gains another new member this week – a sort of compatriot for Mii-Fun in Anubis.  He arrives courtesy of another mystery box from Sora’s father, which Sora wisely approaches with extreme caution.

I was thinking that this might actually be the Anubis, the Egyptian God of embalming and the dead, but as it turns out it’s actually a tsukumogami (so, as it turns out, is Jizou at the Shrine daycare).  This is an interesting element of Shinto mythology – one wonders if a tsukumogami like this actually believes it’s the character it represents.  Anubis (he prefers “Aayan”) certainly speaks in the manner of a God, albeit a somewhat goofy one.

Sora’s circle of friends has grown into a full-on menagerie at this point, and Anubis certainly fits right in.  He has his own portfolio of quirks, such as his penchant for nicknames and love for chewing things (masticular massage).  He and Mii-kun hit it off famously right  away (though to be fair, Mii likes pretty much everybody), and Anubis’ teeth tell him that Mii-kun isn’t actually a mummy (I don’t think that counts as a revelation, per se).  Being that Anubis as a statue is unable to walk on his own (though he can turn his head for some reason) Sora sets him up with a dolly as his chariot and Pochi as his horse.

Things get agreeably antic when the rest of the gang stops by.  Tazuki’s whole reverie about Sora’s immunity to embarrassment is adorable – Soraino really is a sweetheart, but that much was already obvious.  But Sora show’s he’s not actually immune when he gets hiccups – which is interesting in itself.  Are hiccups considered a particularly embarrassing affliction in Japan?  If so I hadn’t hear that – nor had I heard the old saw that if you hiccup a hundred times, you’ll die.

Unfortunately when the chibis hear this they aren’t aware that it’s just a legend, and Mii-kun (unsurprisingly) panics especially hard.  I’ve always found Tazuki’s trick (drinking water out of the wrong side of the glass) to be the most effective, but Soraino is too embarrassed to do that in front of the others.  Mii takes matters into his own hands, deciding to scare the hiccups out of Sora – which proves quite effective, though perhaps more so than he intended.  Tazuki still doesn’t realise his wish to see what lies at the center of a Mii-kun, but there does seem to be some sort of bright light that causes him (and only him) to black out for a moment.

There are a couple of other possibly noteworthy developments here, starting with the reveal that Pochi is actually 50 years old – and not only that, will live to be “hundreds” of years old.  I guess I makes sense that this household’s dog wouldn’t be normal, since nothing else there is.  I’m also not convinced that the sand Mii-kun loves to dig in is simple sand – it came from Sora’s dad after all, and he’s the source of most of the abnormal stuff in this house…