 | | ▪ | RELEASED BY: | | DEL REY | | | ▪ | AUTHOR / ART: | | MASAYUKI ISHIKAWA | | | ▪ | FORMAT: | | JAPANESE / B&W | | | ▪ | PAGES: | | 240 | | | ▪ | RATING: | | T | | | ▪ | RELEASE DATE: | | 11/24/2009 | | | ▪ | REVIEW DATE: | | 12/19/2009 | | | ▪ | REVIEWED BY: | | SCOTT CAMPBELL |
Masayuki Ishikawa’s Moyasimon manga – whose stories feature cute depictions of everyday bacteria – took Japan by storm in 2005, leading to an anime adaptation, a flood of Moyasimon-inspired products (including sake), and a museum exhibit. Del Rey Manga is bringing the phenomenon to the US with the publication of this first volume, so that we here can too enjoy this fantastic new story! In Moyasimon, Tadayasu is a new, fresh-faced university student hiding a bizarre secret: He can see germs with the naked eye. Between the machinations of an eccentric professor determined to unlock the power of the microbial world and the doomed agricultural experiments of his fellow students, will Tadayasu ever find the cool college atmosphere he so desires? One of the best things about this new series is the oddly entertaining facts about the little microbes that pop up everywhere Tadayasu looks. From A. oryzae (a microbe used to create sake, soy sauce, and other Japanese food products) to P. chrysogenum (a source of penicillin), the details about each microbe are all scientifically accurate, making Moyasimon a humorously unique (and educational!) manga. No one can shake a stick at learning while having fun, and Moyasimon is just like that. But don’t let this review make you think that information and a few laughs are the only good things about this series. It must be said that the art is beyond good – it’s highly detailed, but still has a great sense of fun to it. Everything about it is drawn well – from the characters to the backgrounds, everything looks great. Great art doesn’t make a manga, but it certainly makes up at least half of what makes one worth reading. Moyasimon also uses a lot of humor in its art, and the visual gags are always good for a laugh. You’ll the love the mix of professionalism and goofy gags within the art – the artist is talented enough to do both and mix them into the same story. This book is wonderfully varied in what it has to bring to the table, and readers should find it fantastic for a multitude of reasons. It’s really no surprise that this manga has spawned an anime – it’s obvious even from reading just the first volume that this manga was made for greatness! As for the extras in the back, there are the usual translation notes that are much appreciated. There is so much good information in there about the quirky little differences in Japanese culture so that the reader can better understand what they are reading in this manga. There are also some fun little joke comics at the back that deal with different things. There’s one that is especially funny that has the microbes be their own little collectable trading card game like Magic: The Gathering. It’s odd, but funny. All in all this is an eye-catching new series that is quite clever and very unique – it’s worth watching out for.
IN SUMMARY:
Moyasimon is wholly odd as it is wholly entertaining. It has really good art and writing, and a premise that is unique and new. All of these good things add up to a great book – lets hope the series continues in this fashion! |
