Moyasimon: Tales of Agriculture Volume 1 by Ishikawa Masayuki

Moyasimon: Tales of Agriculture has one of those bizarre high concept set-ups that I was intrigued with when I had only read the description of the manga. Tadayasu goes off to agricultural college in college, bringing with him a unique ability. He can see bacteria with his naked eye. His childhood friend Kei joins him at school and the freshman duo quickly find themselves thrown into unusual situations when they meet the eccentric professor Itsuki, and his bondage gear wearing grad student Haruka. Tadayasu’s ability may be worth millions of dollars to the person who can harness it but his adventures mainly center around the opening day activities at school and coping with the grossness of dorm rooms. Professor Itsuki engages in fermentation experiments as he is determined to create the most nutrient rich and unpalatable food possible. Some upperclassmen run into Tadayasu when a sake experiment runs awry, and they soon have plans to use his unique abilities themselves.

The art in this manga is serviceable, with a slightly static feel. Haruka always seems to have the same expression on her face. Where Masayuki’s art excels is in the design and depiction of all the microscopic creatures that Tadayasu sees. They are quite perky little things who are always yelling about what they’re doing, screaming “Whee!”, or indulging in traditional playground games. I was reminded a bit of Larry Marder’s Beanworld and all the microbes provide a much needed element of whimsy when Itsuki starts droning about his latest experiments which always seem to involve burying animals for weeks, digging them up, and eating them.

Moyasimon is firmly in the same entertaining but didactic genre as Oishinbo, but while I was happy to read the first volume I’m not quite sure if my interest in the series will extend to collecting the rest of it. This is the type of manga that I’d be thrilled to check out of the library, but I don’t think I’d need to keep it around the house to reread because there are only so many times I want to read about particular varieties of microbes. While the paragraphs of exposition about yeast might be a bit much, Masayuki also adds in some genuinely gross scenes and there is plenty of humor in the interactions between the college students, especially with the introduction of a germophobic co-ed whose attitude towards bacteria contrasts dramatically with Tadayasu’s. Overall, this would be a great manga to hand to the science geek in your life.

Thanks to Kate for sending this volume my way in one of her giveaways.