Moyashimon Returns – 11 (Finale)

What made the original season of Moyashimon a celebrated and beloved anime were its awkward and lively characters and the zany comedy that accompanied the lives of freshmen at a wacky agricultural university outside of Tokyo.  The second season, Moyashimon Returns, was doomed to mediocrity from straying from this effective recipe, instead opting to delve heavily into drama and introduce new characters who never assimilated to the golden standard of this anime.  However, this occurrence of a sequel failing in comparison to the original is not something exclusive to Moyashimon.  In fact, I’d be inclined to say that’s the norm for sequels in anime, a disheartening trend based on a number of critical factors.

Moyashimon Returns – 8

What makes Moyashimon an interesting anime is how it handles its distinguishing device.  The gambit that individualizes Moyashimon from the rest of anime, Sawaki’s ability to see and characterize microbes from the naked eye, does not dominate the anime nor is it essential to any storyline or characterization besides trivial matters and various educational oddities.  Instead, the anime is above its remarkable gimmick, able to manufacture a product beyond floating organisms and their often inconsiderate quips.  That is to say, Moyashimon is an anime that could survive without its imfamous device, without its microbiological brethren, a trait that most anime cannot even fathom to try.

Moyashimon Returns – 7

Is it just me or are the microbes that follow Sawaki around just, like, rude dicks to him or something?

Moyashimon Returns – 6

As with any massive social gathering where its members share some similar attributes, a herd mentality develops.  Such a phenomenon develops because certain actions, behaviors, and ideas cause other, more impressionable members, to be influenced into acting, behaving, or thinking in a certain way.  Provided that Sawaki, Yuuki, and Oikawa are freshmen entering into this bizarre college, their fresh and untainted perspective allows for an examination and critique into herd mentalities among these seemingly psychopathic young adults at a simple agricultural university.

Moyashimon Returns – 5, Dog Days’ (S2) – 5, Jinrui wa Suitai Shimashita – 6

Returning home after a lengthy vacation always means a pile of responsibilities waiting for you, in addition to the even larger pile of anime that needs to be watched.  Because of this, among other oddities and obligations, let’s revisit the episodes from the previous week and see what significant or interesting events ensued.

Moyashimon Returns – 4

The results of intoxication are a diverse variety.  Every person responds to alcoholic beverages differently with the consequences ranging from a jovial drunken ruckus, to an impatient, irrational hot-head, to even a quiet, sedating stupor.  The portrayal of drunkenness in media recognizes these states but goes a step further and casts them through various lenses to illustrate it as either positive, negative, humorous, or however it wants us to interpret this inebriated behavior.  Given the content and characters in Moyashimon Returns, examples of intoxication have been used and reused time and time again for numerous purposes and with extensively different outcomes.  How do these states of drunkenness and their portrayals figure into the grand plan of Moyashimon Returns?

Moyashimon Returns – 3

Moyashimon, an anime illustrating the various events of a group of students in at an agricultural university, has progressed in a fashion parallel to the experiences that many of us receive as undergraduates.  That is, both journeys begin with a comprehensive and unrestricted scope providing ample opportunity for students to sample the extensiveness of college which eventually leads to an eventual focus and dedication to a specific specialization to which the student commits themselves to.  Moyashimon has mirrored this pattern well with the original season detailing a general campus story while the sequel, Moyashimon Returns, has emphasized the students working and learning within Professor Itsuki’s lab.  And not only in terms of content of the anime, too, but this theme of transitioning from breadth to depth can be seen in terms of storytelling and other mechanics of this anime.