Moyasimon: Tales of Agriculture (also spelled Moyashimon) is a still ongoing manga series, adapted to anime in 2007 (with a second season coming up in 2012) and live-action in 2010, which tells the account of Tadayasu Sawaki. The son of a yeast maker and a first-year college student at an agricultural university, Tadayasu has the ability to see, touch and talk with all sorts of micro-organisms and bacteria. These microbes appear to him as bug-sized creatures that come in all sorts of shapes with whom Tadayasu can interact.
Tadayasu Souemon Sawaki - The main protagonist of the series. His middle name is usually omitted.
Kei Yuuki - Tadayasu's childhood friend, the son of a sake brewer who secretly thinks of himself as a girl trapped in a boy's body and is also in love with Tadayasu.
Professor Itsuki - Professor at the university. A mysterious old man with a passion for fermentation of all kinds who knows of Sawaki's ability.
Haruka Hasegawa - Postgraduate student and Itsuki's assistant. A short-tempered, no-nonsense and somewhat sadistic woman from a wealthy, over-protective family.
Hazuki Oikawa - A freshman and a compulsive neat freak who carries disinfectant tissues and antibacterial sprays around with her.
Kaoru Misato - A sophomore with a mustache and beard who wants to use his knowledge of brewing to earn some easy money.
Takuma Kawahama - A short, overweight sophomore and Kaoru's buddy. Seems to have a thing for insects and such.
Aoi Mutou - Itsuki and Hasegawa's assistant; known around campus as "Miss Agriculture", but also know for being a bit of a lush.
The Department of Agriculture building on the school's campus is a near identical replica of the Real Life University of Coimbra in Portugal (up to and including the school flag being the Portuguese flag).
This series provides examples of:
Art Shift: Kawahama and Misato's faces occasionally turn to a high-contrast pride/sarcasm expression reminiscent of the Moon's "face" or the Puchuus from Excel Saga.
Bastard Girlfriend: Hasegawa. In-universe Misato is horrified by Hasegawa's drunken advances.
Admittedly, very few people know you don't open Surströmming in a building, partly because very few people have heard of it outside of the Swedish (who invented the thing), Moyasimon readers, or people who spend too much time reading Cracked.com lists of 'most disturbing foods ever'.
To be fair, that was probably part of the joke when they used it to get out of the restaurant. Doesn't explain the earlier scene in the lab, though.
Dirt Forcefield: Averted, when Aoi Mutou first shows up, she is dirty, not to mention smelly, as she hasn't bathed in two weeks.
Dude Looks Like a Lady: The author apparently had to remind readers in early chapters of the manga that Kei was the son of a sake brewer, not the daughter. May have been foreshadowing for Kei coming out as a transsexual.
Green Aesop: But averted in some instances. On the one hand, the whole show is about ecology. On the other hand, treating fields with chemicals works (agricultural science!) and biofuel-powered tractors don't (it's still just an experimental model, and the coal-powered tractors work just fine).
Groupie Brigade: In the live-action adaptation, the UFO Club is depicted as this for Aoi Mutou.
In the manga, Hazuki and Aoi were also incredibly drunk. Judging by the number of empty glasses in front of each, topped off with a beer stein of shōchū (25% ABV), it's no wonder they hooked up.
Love Potion: Professor Itsuki's "Sexual" chocolate.
Pragmatic Adaptation: The live action series, which starts off the bootlegging sake scene much earlier and Kei appears later on as a student in his crossdressing guise, rather than joining the school with Sawaki at the same time.
The Professor: Itsuki, who goes to great lengths in the pursuit of agricultural science.
School Festival: Very unusual in that everyone is locked in for entire time the festival is on and you have to figure out the rules for this year's event before the rules hit you.
Shown Their Work: If you're willing to accept that the over-enthusiastic Itsuki tends to overstate the importance of microbes from time to time, most of the factual information given on microbes in Moyasimon is generally correct.
As amazing as it sounds, Itsuki's obsession with microbes Transforming The World is itself an example of Showing Its Work.*
Specifically, it'd appear a lot of stuff Itsuki promotes as possibilities for future terraforming is in fact based on the Real Life science of bioremediation
. And yes, Real Life researchers in terraforming ARE looking at bioremediation as a model for making worlds habitable.]]
For that matter, other than some of the "human drama" bits, the depiction of the agricultural university IS rather similar to what goes on in Real Life at agricultural research universities (or ag-research colleges of state universities).
Wall of Text : Itsuki-sensei is prone to delivering these in increasingly small font-sizes. Sometimes everyone else gets squished between the speech bubbles.
coming up in 2012) and live-action in 2010, which tells the account of Tadayasu Sawaki. The son of a yeast maker and a first-year college student at an agricultural university, Tadayasu has the ability to see, touch and talk with all sorts of micro-organisms and bacteria. These microbes appear to him as bug-sized creatures that come in all sorts of shapes with whom Tadayasu can interact.
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