Moyashimon

In the fall of 2007 an odd little 11 episode series named Moyashimon: Tales of Agriculture aired in Japan that was based on the manga of the same name.

    Moyashimon follows the adventures of Tadayasu Sawaki and his childhood friend Kei Yuki as they begin their collegiate careers at an agricultural university. Tadayasu comes from a family of sake brewers and Yukis’ family provides mold for the brewery. Tadayasu has only gone to the university on the suggestion of his grandfather who is friends with one of the professors there, Keizo Itsuki. Professor Itsuki is interested in Tadayasu’s unique ability to see micro organisms with the naked eye and to some extent interact with them. There are just a few problems; Tadayasu hates his ability as he finds it only causing him problems and the way he see’s micro organisms is completely different that anyone else does. Instead of being the typical odd cellular mass as seen through a microscope, he sees them as colorful, cartoon caricatures with personalities and odd quirks. Immediately he is subject to a series of rigorous tests to determine his abilities by Itsuki and his skeptical/sadistic assistant, Haruka Hasegawa. After finally proving what he sees to them he notices a large cloud of spoiled spores approaching. They track the source of the contamination to two undergraduate students named Kaoru Misato and Takuma Kawahama who have been trying to illegally brew sake to make quick cash. Instead of reporting them to the school administrators they are forced into servitude in Itsuki’s lab. This misfit group of academics is joined by another freshman, Hazuki Oikawa and the only other veteran member of the lab, Aoi Muto, as Tadayasu explores where he wants to go with his life and Kei decides how honest he wants to be with himself.

    This is an odd, quirky and light hearted comedy that I was happy to view. The art is simplistic but humorous. The characters are interesting and have definitive personalities. There really is no overall plot or conclusion for the series. It is mostly episodic with a vague sense of time passing. It just ends and that is it, which is unfortunate because it was a fun series. While the microbes are the quirky selling point of the show they are actually an added bonus because the story does not really focus on them. It isn’t The Adventures in Microbe Hunters or anything, so you’re not going to find episode plots where the members of the bacterial lab must fight an insidious and unknown spore that is killing students at the university. You don’t see Tadayasu training day and night to strengthen his body and mind so he can better commune and combat the various organisms only he can directly deal with. It’s actually a quirky fun slice of life story about college students and their problems with an odd sideline supernatural comedic element added to it.

    Even though the subject matter isn’t the same, fans of Genshiken will enjoy the antics and easy going story. You can also find something to enjoy with this series if you have enjoyed such shows as Honey and Clover, Azumanga Daioh or Ichigo Mashimaro. The anime is not being released in America that I know of but the manga is set to be. There is no word on additional episodes/seasons either…unfortunately.

UPDATE: A second TV series, Moyashimon Returns, aired in Japan in 2012.  Both series are available streaming through Crunchroll.