Moyashimon
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| Moyashimon: Tales of Agriculture | |
|---|---|
 Moyashimon logo. |
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| もやしもん (Moyashimon) |
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| Genre | Comedy, Educational |
| Manga | |
| Author | Masayuki Ishikawa |
| Publisher |  Kodansha |
| Demographic | Seinen |
| Magazine | Evening |
| Original run | August 2004 – ongoing |
| Volumes | 6 |
| TV anime | |
| Director | Yūichirō Yano |
| Writer | Natsuko Takahashi |
| Studio | Shirogumi, Telecom Animation Film |
| Network | Fuji TV (noitamina) |
| Original run | October 12, 2007 – December 21, 2007 |
| Episodes | 11 |
Moyashimon: Tales of Agriculture (もやしもん Moyashimon?) is a Japanese manga series created by Masayuki Ishikawa. It has been serialized in Kodansha's seinen magazine Evening since August 2004. It won the 2008 Kodansha Manga Award for general manga.[1] An anime television series adaptation, animated by Shirogumi and Telecom Animation Film, aired between October 12, 2007 and December 21, 2007 on Fuji TV's noitamina programming block containing eleven episodes. The series follows Tadayasu Sawaki, a first-year college student at an agricultural university, who has a unique ability to see and communicate with bacteria and other micro-organisms.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
Moyashimon follows the life of Tadayasu Sawaki, a first-year college student at an agricultural university, who has the unique ability to see and communicate with micro-organisms and bacteria. Additionally, these organisms look much different to him, and much larger, than what can be see under a microscope by normal people. This ability has brought him a bit of fame as when he entered the university, Tadayasu discovered that one of the professors there, Keizō Itsuki, already knew about his gift via Tadayasu's father. Professor Itsuki's coworker Haruka Hasegawa has trouble believing what Tadayasu claims at first, but later comes to accept it. Tadayasu enters the university with his good friend Kei Yūki whose family runs a sake brewery. The Department of Agriculture building on the school's campus is a near identical replica of the real life University of Coimbra in Portugal. The flag at the top of the clock tower also has the same color scheme as the Portuguese flag.
[edit] Characters
- Tadayasu Souemon Sawaki (沢木 惣右衛門 直保 Sawaki Souemon Tadayasu?)
- Voiced by: Daisuke Sakaguchi
- Tadayasu Souemon Sawaki is the main protagonist of Moyashimon and attends an agricultural university in Tokyo as a freshman. His middle name is the yagō of his family home; it is usually omitted, and he is called "Tadayasu Sawaki". He is a childhood friend of Kei Yūki and his parents run a supplier of yeast starters (種麹屋 tane-kōji-ya?). He is able to see and communicate with bacteria and other micro-organisms.
- Kei Yūki (結城 蛍 Yūki Kei?)
- Voiced by: Mitsuki Saiga
- Kei is a childhood friend of Sawaki and a freshmen like him. His parents run a sake brewery. It is revealed near the end of the series, after a brief disappearance by Kei from the main plot, that Kei is gender dysphoric, and that he has stronger feelings for Sawaki than initially let on.
- Keizō Itsuki (樹 慶蔵 Itsuki Keizō?)
- Voiced by: Tomomichi Nishimura
- Keizō Itsuki is a professor at the university and an acquaintance of Sawaki's family who knows of his ability. His age is a mystery, but there are reports of his works back to World War II.
- Haruka Hasegawa (長谷川 遥 Hasegawa Haruka?)
- Voiced by: Sayaka Ohara
- Haruka Hasegawa is a postgraduate student. She wears a lab coat over skimpy, bondage-style clothing. She is a violent, somewhat sadistic woman from a wealthy, over-protective family. She is not very good at communicating with people, and her harsh personality is used to mask this handicap. She has known Itsuki since she was in middle school.
- Hazuki Oikawa (及川 葉月 Oikawa Hazuki?)
- Voiced by: Akemi Kanda
- Hazuki Oikawa is a freshman at the same agricultural university like Sawaki and Kei. She is a compulsive neat freak and always carries disinfectant tissues and antibacterial spray with her.
- Kaoru Misato (美里 薫 Misato Kaoru?)
- Voiced by: Katsuyuki Konishi
- Kaoru Misato is a sophomore who tries to use his knowledge of bacteria to earn easy money, who becomes friends with Sawaki. He speaks in the Kansai dialect.
- Takuma Kawahama (川浜 拓馬 Kawahama Takuma?)
- Voiced by: Noriaki Sugiyama
- Takuma Kawahama is a short, overweight sophomore and Kaoru's best friend.
- Aoi Mutō (武藤 葵 Mutō Aoi?)
- Voiced by: Mamiko Noto
- Possessing the unofficial title of "Miss Agriculture" due to her beauty, Mutō is also an assistant to Itsuki and Hasegawa. She is also president of the UFO club.
[edit] Micro-organisms
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[edit] Media
[edit] Manga
- See also: List of Moyashimon chapters
Moyashimon began as a manga series written and illustrated by Masayuki Ishikawa which started serialization in Kodansha's seinen magazine Evening in August 2004. It began serialization as Tales of an Agricultural University (農大物語 Nōdai Monogatari?), but was changed in the second chapter to Moyashimon: Tales of an Agricultural University (農大物語もやしもん Nōdai Monogatari Moyashimon?), then simply Moyashimon, before gaining the English subtitle Tales of Agriculture. As of February 22, 2008, six bound volumes have been published. It was written on the first volume's obi strip that the volume was printed on 100% recycled paper, and the ink was derived from soybeans. Volume one contained chapters one through eleven, and volume two contained chapters twelve through twenty-three. Starting with volume three, which contained chapters twenty-four through thirty-seven, two versions of the volumes started to be printed with each release. Volume three had a regular edition, and a customized edition which not only had different cover art, but also slightly different contents. The fourth volume, which contained chapters thirty-eight through forty-eight, was sold in regular and limited editions, the latter of which came with six mobile phone charms of the bacteria. The fifth volume, which contained chapters forty-nine through sixty, was sold in regular and customized editions, the latter of which also came with phone charms. The sixth volume was sold in a regular edition and a limited edition which comes with a 40 cm (15.75") long figure of A. oryzae. Each volume also contains omake material.
[edit] Anime
An anime adaptation aired between October 11, 2007 and December 20, 2007, containing eleven episodes. The series was animated by Shirogumi and Telecom Animation Film, and produced by Asmik Ace Entertainment, Kodansha, Shirogumi, SKY Perfect Well Think, Sony Music Entertainment, Dentsu and Fuji TV. Two pieces of theme music are used for the series; one opening theme and one ending theme. The opening theme is "Curriculum" (カリキュラム Kurikyuramu?) by Sarasa Ifu, and the ending theme is "Rocket" by Polysics. The opening theme was directed by noted film director Takashi Yamazaki. The anime's original soundtrack was released on November 28, 2007.
[edit] Episodes
| # | Title | Original air date |
|---|---|---|
| 01 | "Epic Agricultural Microbes Story" "Nōdai Kin Monogatari" (農大菌物語) |
October 12, 2007 |
| It is the first day of Tadayasu and Kei's university life. Tadayasu shows off his ability to Professor Itsuki and Haruka. The talent show is cut short when Tadayasu spots fructivorans in the air. | ||
| 02 | "Three Hundred Million Yen Agriculture Student" "Sanoku En no Nōdaisei" (三億円の農大生) |
October 19, 2007 |
| Tadayasu and Kei follow the fructivorans and find a spilled tank of spoiled sake. They meet the perpetrators, Kaoru and Takuma, who invite them to their dorm room. | ||
| 03 | "Let's Brew with Microbes!" "Kin de Kamosuzo" (菌でかもすぞ) |
October 26, 2007 |
| Hazuki Oikawa is introduced. She comes to Kaoru and Takuma's dorm room and kills the bacteria they were planning to cultivate. Everyone is summoned back to the lab where Professor Itsuki and Haruka show them how to make sake for educational purposes. | ||
| 04 | "Everywhere is Microbe Celebration" "Achikochi Kin Matsuri" (あちこち菌祭り) |
November 2, 2007 |
| The first years are invited on a tour around the campus and a picnic. Tadayasu spots harmful bacteria in the food and saves everyone from E. coli food poisoning. | ||
| 05 | "Bizarre! Microbe Monster" "Kaiki! Kin Obake" (怪奇! 菌オバケ) |
November 9, 2007 |
| Tadayasu becomes disgusted when he sees a man covered in microbes. Professor Itsuki asks everyone to buy liquor at Hiyoshi Liquor Store near the school. Tadayasu discovers the owner is the microbe monster who brews delicious sake. | ||
| 06 | "Enchanting! Miss Agriculture!" "Nōsatsu! Misu Nōdai" (悩殺! ミス農大) |
November 16, 2007 |
| Aoi Mutō returns from a long trip bringing fermented meat. She also brings vibrio parahaemolyticus, El Tor, shigella dysenteriae, salmonella enterica, and plesiomonas shigelloides. After getting disinfected, Aoi brings Tadayasu to the UFO club room where all the members are sick and unintentionally breeding new forms of influenza with pigs and chickens. | ||
| 07 | "Raise the Curtains! The Spring Agricultural Festival" "Kaimaku! Nōdai Harusai" (開幕! 農大春祭) |
November 23, 2007 |
| The spring agricultural festival has started, and that means that during this time, the campus is closed and students have to exchange real money for school money, but when the festival ends the school money is worthless and cannot be exchanged back for real money. There are also many special rules related to the event that students have to find out on their own. | ||
| 08 | "The Epic Agricultural Front Gate Capture Game" "Nōdai Seimon Kōryakusen" (農大正門攻略戦) |
November 30, 2007 |
| It is the third day of the spring agricultural festival, and the students are forming a resistance in order to end the festival. At 4:00 PM, the students charge towards the front gate to engage in a battle, and during this time, Kaoru, Takuma, and Tadayasu work together to take down the robot in front of the gate and effectively end the festival. In return, they get 100,000 school yen which they use to get Professor Itsuki's aphrodisiac, they try to get one of the girls to take one but Haruka foils their plan by using all of them on herself, seemingly immune to their effects. Oikawa and Mutō get some from the professor themselves and sleep with each other as a result. | ||
| 09 | "Fitting for Soft Skin" "Yawahada ni Toritsuke" (柔肌にとりつけ) |
December 7, 2007 |
| Professor Itsuki holds a celebration for Kaoru and Takuma getting part-time jobs, and during this party introduces everyone to the foul-smelling surströmming. Later, Haruka is summoned to a private dinner with her father and fiancé, but gets Kaoru and Takuma, who had actually been working at the restaurant before getting fired by Haruka minutes before, to think of something to get her out of the dinner. They call Tadayasu who brings a can of surströmming; once the can is opened, Kaoru and Takuma take Haruka out in the confusion and go to a bar. | ||
| 10 | "Gothic Lolita Kiss" "Gosurori Kissu" (ゴスロリキッス) |
December 14, 2007 |
| After not seeing Kei for a while, Tadayasu discovers that he is working at Hiyoshi's liquor store, and on top of that is cross-dressing as a Gothic Lolita. Unexpectedly, Kei kisses Tadayasu, and afterwards Tadayasu discovers that he cannot see microbes anymore. This has happened before, but Haruka finds out and confronts him about the loss of his ability. | ||
| 11 | "Dazzling Microbe Future" "Kagayaku Kin Mirai" (輝く菌未来) |
December 21, 2007 |
| Haruka thinks that without his ability to see microbes, there is not much reason for him to be at the university anymore, though Kaoru and Takuma stick up for him. Tadayasu seeks advice from Kei, and in the process finds out that despite Kei getting mad in the past for being called feminine, he decided that deep down he was not being entirely honest with himself about his gender identity. Haruka reconciles with Tadayasu later, and at that time Tadayasu regains the ability to see microbes once more. | ||
[edit] References
- ^ 32nd Annual Kodansha Manga Awards Announced. Anime News Network (2008-05-13). Retrieved on 2008-05-14.
[edit] External links
- Moyashimon official website (Japanese)
- Telecom Animation Film's official Moyashimon website (Japanese)
- Moyashimon (anime) at Anime News Network's Encyclopedia
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