Moyasimon: Tales of Agriculture, known in Japan as , is a Japanese manga series by Masayuki Ishikawa. It was serialized in Kodansha's manga magazine Evening from July 2004 to June 2013 and moved to the magazine Monthly Morning Two, where it concluded in January 2014. The series follows Tadayasu Sawaki, a first-year college student at an agricultural university, who has a unique ability to see and communicate with microorganisms. Del Rey Manga licensed the manga, but only released two volumes in English in North America. An 11-episode anime television series adaptation, animated by Shirogumi and Telecom Animation Film, aired between October and December 2007 on Fuji TV's Noitamina programming block. An 11-episode live action adaptation was aired on Noitamina between July and September 2010. An 11-episode animated second season titled Moyasimon Returns aired from July to September 2012. A sequel manga series began serialization in Kodansha's Monthly Afternoon magazine in November 2024.
The manga, anime, and live action series have all been generally well-received by reviewers, with praise received for the artwork and sustaining the viewer's interest through clear presentation of a difficult topic. It won the 2008 Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize for Grand Prize and the 2008 Kodansha Manga Award for general manga.
Plot Moyasimon 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 microorganisms. Additionally, these organisms look very different to him, and much larger than what can be seen 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 grandfather. 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.
Characters
Tadayasu Souemon Sawaki is the main protagonist of Moyasimon and attends an agricultural university in Tokyo as a freshman. His middle name is the 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 . He is able to see and communicate with microorganisms. Sawaki is shown to have feelings for Haruka in the live action version.
Kei is Sawaki's childhood friend and is also a freshman. His parents run a sake brewery (making them customers for the mold starter from Sawaki's parents). Kei disappears from the story soon after he and Sawaki enter college. He comes back cross-dressed in black Gothic Lolita clothing, and reveals he has stronger feelings for Sawaki than initially let on.
Keizō Itsuki is a professor at the university and an acquaintance of Sawaki's family, who know of his ability. His age is a mystery, but there are reports of his works back to World War II.
Haruka Hasegawa is a postgraduate student. She wears a lab coat over revealing clothing. She is a violent, somewhat sadistic woman from a wealthy, over-protective family. Her family arranged a marriage for her, against her will. However, she does not have to marry him until she is finished with her studies at the university. This is the main reason why she decided to stay there until she receives her doctorate. Hasegawa 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. Haruka is shown to have feelings for Misato in the manga. Haruka is shown to have feelings for Sawaki in the live action version.
Hazuki Oikawa is a freshman at the same agricultural university. She is a compulsive neat freak and always carries disinfectant tissues and antibacterial spray with her.
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. He shares a run-down, dirty dorm room with his best friend, Kawahama. Misato is shown to have feelings for Haruka in the manga.
Takuma Kawahama is a short, overweight sophomore and Misato's best friend. He is a returnee from Mexico, which amounts to his knowledge of insects and pulque.
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, which she joined to escape reality.
Aya is a third-year economics student at the university. She also works as a bartender at a local pub.
Yū is the keeper of Okinawa proving ground of the agricultural university. She is a look-alike to Kei, except she has dark skin.
Marie is a French girl Sawaki meets in France. She is born in an old family Burgundy Domaine specializing in wine brewery and speaks fluent Japanese. She wears white Lolita clothing and is the second look-alike to Kei. She is knowledgeable about wine brewery but has some disagreements with her father, who is in charge of the winery business.
Hana comes to meet Kei at the Hiyoshi Liquor Shop to sell beer she brews in her farm. She is short, wears glasses, and looks very young.
Microorganisms
A variety of acetic acid bacteria.
Also known as "soot fungus."
Used in the production of awamori.
A. oryzae is the main character of the microorganism side. Traditionally known in Japan as and used to saccharify the starches in rice to make sake and shōchū.
Used to make miso.
Used in the production of shōchū.
Seen on hongeohoe by Tadayasu.
Used to make natto.
A caterpillar fungus prized in Traditional Chinese medicine.
Lactobacillus homohiochi, Lactobacillus fructivorans the "bad guy" of the series. A fructivoran which makes sake go bad.
Used to make Western yogurt.
Found in fermented vegetables like kimchi and Japanese pickles.
Used to make sauerkraut and other fermented vegetables.
Used to make Japanese yogurt. Speaks in a very formal accent.
A common green mold used to produce antibiotics (most notably, penicillin)
Also seen on hongeohoe by Tadayasu.
Creates alcohol out of sugars. Hangs around Kei in the anime.
The cause of Hasegawa's athlete's foot.
Development In early 2004, the editor-in-chief of Kodansha's Evening magazine at the time, Kazuya Kajiwara, gave Masayuki Ishikawa the opportunity to draw a manga that would appear in that year's 16th issue sold on July 27, 2004. Kajiwara told Ishikawa to draw a storyboard for five chapters, and only after Kajiwara approved the storyboard would Ishikawa be allowed to draw the manuscript for the first chapter. Following this, Ishikawa worked on several proposals for a story about an agricultural university with his supervising editor and submitted them to Kajiwara, but he rejected every one. As the deadline approached, Ishikawa asked his editor what was wrong with his proposals, to which his editor casually suggested that one of the characters could have the ability to see microorganisms with the naked eye. After submitting this idea to Kajiwara, he immediately approved it.
In 2004, Ishikawa was living in Sakai not far from Osaka Prefecture University, so to better understand microorganisms, Ishikawa spent long days from morning until evening reading technical books on microorganisms in the university's library. During this time, Ishikawa always had lunch at the university's dining hall where he would hear students and faculty talking about various topics. This led him to solidify the story's concept about college life using microorganisms as a motif and self-reliance as a theme. The series was originally titled , but this was changed in the second chapter to and then simply Moyasimon with chapter three; the subtitle Tales of Agriculture was added with chapter eight.
Even after serialization began, Kajiwara continued to suggest ideas for future chapters, such as adding the police to one chapter, or including a mysterious microorganism that could threaten humanity. However, Ishikawa did not feel any of these proposals were interesting, and instead decided to work with his editor to get ranked No. 1 among the series serialized in Evening without any other outside help. Shortly thereafter, while Kajiwara went on a short vacation to Germany, Ishikawa and his editor worked feverishly on the next chapter, which ultimately led Moyasimon to achieve a No. 1 ranking for the first time in its history. When writing Moyasimon, Ishikawa aimed to take difficult to understand information from technical books and present it in a way that was easier for readers to grasp. Themes and motifs Ishikawa developed led him to learn more about additional topics to better flesh out the initial idea. When deciding on certain fashion for the characters, Ishikawa wanted clothing that would not degrade with age as new fashion trends were introduced, which is one of the reasons for Haruka Hasegawa's distinctive bondage-esque fashion.
Media Manga
Written and illustrated by Masayuki Ishikawa, Moyasimon was serialized in Kodansha's manga magazine Evening from July 27, 2004, in the 16th issue of that year, to April 23, 2013, in the 10th issue of that year. Following this, it moved to Kodansha's Monthly Morning Two magazine and ran in that magazine from the August 2013 issue sold on June 22, 2013, to the March 2014 issue sold on January 22, 2014. The individual chapters were collected and published in 13 volumes by Kodansha from May 2005 to March 2014. Limited editions were also released for volumes 3 through 13.
The manga was licensed in North America by Del Rey Manga, but they only released the first two volumes in November 2009 and June 2010. Further English volumes were discontinued after Kodansha USA took over the manga published by Del Rey Manga. The manga is also published by Glénat Manga in France, GP Publishing and later RW Edizioni in Italy, and Sharp Point Press in Taiwan.
In the December 2024 issue of Kodansha's manga magazine Monthly Afternoon released on October 25, 2024, it was announced that Ishikawa would launch a new sequel series in the next month's issue, accompanied by a one-shot story featuring Sawaki and Kei Yūki before they entered university. Titled , it began serialization on November 25, 2024. As of October 23, 2025, one volume has been released.
Anime
An 11-episode anime adaptation aired on Fuji TV's Noitamina block between October 12 and December 21, 2007. The series was produced by Shirogumi and Telecom Animation Film with Yuichiro Yano as series director. Natsuko Takahashi served as screenwriter with Junichi Takaoka as character designer and Naoki Satō as sound director. The opening theme is by Sarasa Ifu and the ending theme is "Rocket" by Polysics. The opening theme video was directed by noted film director Takashi Yamazaki. Crunchyroll streamed the first season of the anime. At the Tokyo International Film Festival, it was explained that over 100 types of bacteria appear in the anime and that a combination of CG animation and live-action shots were used in the animation opening sequence. The anime's original soundtrack was released on November 28, 2007. ASMIK released the anime over 4 DVDs between December 21, 2007, and March 19, 2008. ASMIK also released a DVD box on May 26, 2010, and a Blu-ray box on October 26, 2011. The ninth volume of the manga was released with a CG anime DVD on July 6, 2010, which contained a six-minute short film about the microorganisms.