Moyashimon Returns

Moyashimon Returns is the 11 episode slice of life comedy follow up to the 2007 series, Moyashimon.  The second series aired in Japan during the Summer of 2012 and is based off of the manga Moyashimon.

    Moyashimon follows Tadayasu Sawaki and a small cast of misfits enrolled at the Tokyo Agricultural University in a specialized fermentation program under Professor Itsuki.  Tadayasu was encouraged to attend the college and apply under Itsuki by his grandfather, who is friends with the Professor.  Tadayasu has a peculiar ability to see microbes with the naked eye and to some extent interact with them.  To him the microbes look like cartoon shapes and have distinct personalities.  In the second series we see the members of Itsukis group working hard to produce a variety of soy based fermented food products.  As their plans commence a linchpin of the group, Itsuki’s assistant Haruka Hasegawa, disappears.  They must figure out where she disappeared too and how to get her back to make the group complete again.

    I was really happy to see Moyashimon get a second series.  This was a fun and light hearted show.  Unlike the original series, Returns does have an underlying central plot throughout, that of Hasegawa’s sudden disappearance from the school and the search to bring her back.  This plot sits in the background until the second half, with the first half being more focused on the group preparing for the upcoming Harvest Festival.  Also with this series, at least in the first half, we see a greater emphasis on trying to explain the process of making the soy based products the group begins fermenting.  I learned a bit I hadn’t know about how to produce sake and soy sauce, it was quite educational.  Aside from the central plot line though, there really is no difference between this and the original series; it’s just more adventures of this loveable group of misfits.  After the credits of each episode they have small vignettes featuring the microbes.  If memory serves correct they did this with the original series as well.  The microbes are my favorite part of the show so it’s a great bonus.  In the final one they also strongly suggest the idea of a future series as well, which would be more than welcome.

    This is a fun, easy going story with likeable characters.  The animation is nothing worth writing about, some of the character designs are weird and interesting but the heart is in the right place, classic anime comedy at its best.  It’s nice to see there is still a place for something like this in the world.

    As far as I am aware both series’ have never been released on disc in North America, but both are available for streaming on Crunchyroll.