Moyashimon – Reasons to love cute, dancing microbes! Squee!
6 November 2007
After what seemed like the longest time (and quite possibly the worst, the flat out worst, test-taking experience of my life) I finally crawled back to my cave of a room, clicked on those orange stripped traffic cone and went through the entirety of my backlog. I’ve been most depressingly busy, trying to balance NaNoWriMo, anime and bombing tests all at the same time.
I went through about ten episodes (I’m giving up Hero Tales, depresses the hell out of me, but I fell asleep after the opening) , and I’ve got Rental Magica 05 sitting on my desktop and I’m waiting for Gunam 00 05 in avi, but Moyashimon was probably the most interesting. I’m more than ready to jump the bandwagon and praise and laud and love Moyashimon as the next big thing, but I’m not without my reasons. I mean, c’mon! Dancing microbes? Dancing microbes! Dancing microbes?! (The question mark and the exclamation mark, together, denotes how fantastic the idea is.)
Moyashimon, in two words, is freakishly cute. Freakish because what I’m describing are little microbes, floating through the air and talking in high pitched voices, and cute because, well, aren’t they just adorable? They’re like tiny, tiny marshmallows, don’t you just feel their squishy plumpness when Sawaki plucks them out of the air? And speaking of Sawaki, I’ve completely neglected the actual, human characters.
I was under the impression that Moyashimon was about a bunch of bacteria, so much for that idea, the series is translated as “Tales of Agriculture”. Sawaki and Kei are freshmen at an agriculture university, and the school is just as strange as one would expect it to be. My freshman orientation did not involve a depressing missing persons report, I did not witness any large, over-sized radishes on my first day, I did not cross paths with livestock and, apparently, a professional pooper scooper and my professor most certainly did not (and hopefully never will) suck a bird’s innards from its anus. Just so you know, I laughed long and hard at that bird sucking scene, that was worse than seeing a seal fermenting in the ground.
Sawaki and Kei seem inseparable, they come in a pair, like shoes, chopsticks, like night and day, war and peace. You can’t have one without the other and you probably don’t want just one, what good is one chopstick? What good is just peace? (Sarcasm? Yes? Yes? No..?) Sawaki is the son of a yeast factory owner and has the (shocking) ability to see microbes, every single one of them. Kei is the son of a sake brewery owner and has the (shocking) inability to see microbes, every single one of them. And now you understand why they attend an agriculture university, in Tokyo.
Sawaki is played by Daisuke Sakaguchi, the same person as Jacuzzi Splott on Baccano!, and his voice had been nagging me forever, it was so familiar but I just couldn’t remember. And Kei is played by Mitsuki Saiga, Rossiu from Gurren Lagann and I’ll have to admit, I couldn’t tell at all. Shame on me, XD
Everything in Moyashimon seems to come in pairs. Kawahama and Misato are such quirky characters as well, the tall man and the fat man brewing sake in the most ridiculous ways possible. Granted, the whole rice chewing, insect eggs bit was just a little disturbing, a little, I say, a little!
Haruka, along with Prof. Itsuki also make a strange duo. The entire first episode she seemed obsessed with revealing Sawaki as a fraud, only to acquiesce to his powers after he diagnoses her athlete’s foot. The entire second episode, well, she didn’t do anything strange in the second episode and in the third episode, she went bananas after drinking the homemade sake and tried to kill Kawahama and Misato. As for the professor, do I even need to elaborate after the bird innards incident how strange and weird and just how “omgwtf” he is? Funniest moment: when he confesses his admiration to Kawahama and Misato for being such impassioned research students.
I love the characters in Moyashimon, almost as much as I do the floating, squeaking microbes. I’m actually quite amazed because, after three episodes, the animation is still as flawless as it was back in episode one. (It might have something to do with it being only eleven episodes long, but, it’s still pretty damn amazing.) Every line seems to be magically in the right place, every movement fluid and smooth, every facial expression just right. Sawaki and Kei are certainly not bad looking, but they’re not downright, drop dead gorgeous, they’re incredibly normal. Everyone, aside from being eccentric and strange, is just normal.
I’m not quite sure where this is all heading, but there does appear to be an underlying plot revolving around that fermentation cellar they were going to build and obviously, Sawaki’s abilities. Moyashimon has definitely got my attention, something new, shiny and strange in the midst of all the old, dull and familiar (like another eroge spin off, or two). I just can’t believe I left it sitting there for so long.
And yes, I saw that microbe labeled A.Niger with the black ‘dreads’ and the ‘deep voice’.
I took a peek at the Moyashimon manga before, but it wasn’t until I saw those cute little 3D microbes in the Moyashimon OP that I found myself hooked with the series XD
I believe this show will even be better when translated into a jdrama. And we’ll see more cute microbes in its 3D glory!
@usagijen – Omg, I know exactly, exactly what you mean!! I fell in love with those things, they were so wonderful and so cute!! I fell for the opening hook, line and sinker. God, they were just, too, cute. XD!!
I don’t really watch dramas, but I definitely, definitely want to see them in 3D! =D!!
If you want more of a TTGL connection, Misato’s voiced by the same voice actor as Kamina, which is awesome. The same guy also has a role in Bamboo Blade this season. :3
“They’re like tiny, tiny marshmallows, don’t you just feel their squishy plumpness when Sawaki plucks them out of the air?”
This line made me laugh a lot.
And yes, the cute bacteria show is one of the most unexpectedly amazing things I’ve ever seen.
@TheBigN – O_o, are you serious? I totally missed that, omfg. I’m really ashamed of myself now. XD
@Orion – But they are, aren’t they? Those cute lil things floating around. >.
Dammit, this post has finally pushed me over the edge. I’ve heard a number of good things about this show – how it’s refreshingly different (always going to get my attention), great for the relaxed slice of life thing and howe it even throws in some cuteness for good measure (the screencaps of the bugs I’ve seen so far look even cuter than Clannad’s dangos).
Okay, okay, I’m sold. I’ll check this series out. Thanks Xerox. ^_^
*squeaks* OMG!!!!! You are doing Nano???
Someone else is doing Nano! *faints die away* Are you using the same username as here?
I do have to applaud your dedication, though. I’ve already taken temporary leave from THAT and blogging for the rest of the month, and have also taken leave from work to actually write. You, on the other hand, are still blogging and dealing with exams.
*big round of applause*
Sincerely and truly in awe,
Briar
See, Nano has already broken my sense of grammar and/or spelling.
I meant to say “faints DEAD away”.
@Martin – Yay! You’re welcome!
Normally pushing people over the edge carry a highly negative connotation, but in this case it’s looking to be a good thing! =D! The cute microbes had me hooked from the very first second. When that first microbe popped out on to the screen, I died, I died from the cuteness. I love the fact that Moyashimon feels incredibly ordinary. It’s the perfect blend of a slice of life and a slice of not-so-ordinary life. XD
@Briar!!!! – NANO!!!!! YAY!!!! I’ve found another person! I recently realized that my school actually has Nano club, I was in shock and everything else. I think I’m Dontask23 on Nano. I’ve actually written about 0 words….Hehehe…^^;;;;;;;; Every time I get past 1.5k, I end up starting over. It’s not good for me. XD I’ve also just learned how terribly I messed up on a physics test and I’m quite ready to pitch myself off a cliff.
See, I should be in awe of you. You did the smart thing, taking time to focus on one thing at a time. While I decided to multitask and kill myself in the process. XD
In any case, good luck on Nano!!!!! *SQUEEEE* I still can’t believe you’re doing Nano as well. Yay!!! This is so encouraging, I’m actually going to attempt to write my novel now. Yay! XD
Amusingly enough I predicted that the professor would do that 180 degrees thing. He seemed like the type to do so.
While the characters aren’t doing anything wrong so far, I find myself watching the show for the microbes more than anything. Their tinny little voices give me the warm fuzzies in the way that Lucky Star did, and I’m really glad BSS picked up this show to sub.
@Owen – I started watching the show for the microbes, I’m still watching it for the people. I’m starting to like the characters, actually. XD
I haven’t seen Lucky Star, but their tiny voices do make me feel all fuzzy on the inside. Though, they did freak me out for a while. O_o
BSS has a nice place in my heart. GL XD!! Everything possibly related to GL has a place in my heart. Don’t ask, refer to that xkcd comic you sent me.
[…] to Xerox for this week’s Moyashimon equation. It was inspired by her description of the bacteria: […]
I’ve also been letting Moyashimon sit for a while…my backlog of stuff to do is huge and as much as I’d like to get to it, I don’t think I’ll be able to until next year.
LOL. Kei, normal? Take a look at this! Gothic Lolita Kei!
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=biFhJizehnI