Moyashimon Returns
もやしもん リターンズ
In the second season the story continues exactly where it left off previously. Professor Itsuki's Fermentation Cellar and laboratory is ready for operation and with Sawaki Tadayasu's unique gift to see and communicate with microbes to help, Itsuki's motley group of students begin to process different fermented products like soy sauce and sake. (Source: ANN)
Synopsis
In the second season the story continues exactly where it left off previously. Professor Itsuki's Fermentation Cellar and laboratory is ready for operation and with Sawaki Tadayasu's unique gift to see and communicate with microbes to help, Itsuki's motley group of students begin to process different fermented products like soy sauce and sake. (Source: ANN)
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Reviews(4)
OdysseusUlysses
September 16, 2012
As a big fan of the original I was naturally very excited too hear they where making a sequel and I had high hopes that this series would be just as good as the last “how could they possibly screw it up” I asked myself . Well the anime industry seems eager to screw up everything they touch these days so the answer to that question came rather unwelcomingly in the form of Moyashimon Returns, a series that as flawed as a plane with a hole in the side and as hollow as a bamboo shoot. The only redeeming quality of this series is thatit rotten corpse like body can feed the many bacteria and fungi that the show goes to such pain to educate us about. So what went so horribly wrong you ask well before that heres a quick recap of what this show about. The first series of Moyashimon took place at an agricultural university and centred around a first year student named Sawaki Tadayasu, after arriving he is taken under the wing of the eccentric professor Itsuki Keizo after he discovers Sawaki has a special gift: that he can see all kinds of microbes, Not only that, but they dont look scientifically accurate but instead like cute chibi creatures with smart mouths. Throw in two degenerate but likeable losers, a cross dressing best friend, a dominatrix like girl and some good writing and you have Moyashimon, a simple and weird yet highly enjoyable anw ime that while not very successful and gathered something of a cult status. So many years later with the studios all out of new ideas they decided to give it another season, this of course having nothing to do with the massive success of Arakawa Hiromu`s (Full metal alchemist) new manga Gin no saji (silver spoon) which is also set in an agricultural university, yep their completely unrelated, just a coincidence... So anyway what went so terribly wrong with this sequel you ask, well to understand that you have to know a little of what was so good about the original. The first series was no masterpiece, it was no emotional roller-coaster that took you to far of worlds but what it was, was a quirky, fun imaginative series that was highly original in climate of rip offs and carbon copies. The story knew exactly what it was, a weird and humorous tale of a bunch of losers and rejects learning about microbes from a man who may or may not be insane and all the wacky hijinks that this in-tales. The characters where likeable and given just enough depth to make them relatable and for us to care about them but never so much that it ruined the comedy or messes with the tone of what is a pretty silly series. Then this series came along and right of the bat I knew something was wrong, for some reason they started this like it was just another episode of the first season, despite the fact that the original aired 5 years ago, they just jumped right in without taking any time to set up what the hells going on or whose who, if your new to this or haven’t seen the original in a while then your fucked plain and simple. Then as the first few episodes go by the problems start to emerge, they somehow thought it would be a good idea to remove the humour from this series and replace it with, well nothing, and then have some stupid sub plot about the professor having a secret room and have one of the female characters try to find it because she doesn’t like it when people keep things from her, for some reason, even though shes keeping things from other people all the while the main character does nothing except utter awkward dialogue but it okay because the story goes nowhere and is devoid of any humour or life, oh wait thats bad. Everything about this series feel rushed and like it was trying to appeal to mainstream audiences by removing all the quirkiness that made the first series so good. Also for some reason Sawaki the main character is ignored for much of this series, I mean I know he wasn’t the strongest main character in the first season but at least the story followed him, as it should hes the main, but in this it follows everyone but him giving him and in turn the story this bland feeling that seems to emulate from the whole series. Then the dumbest thing ever happens one of the characters Hasegawa is forced to go to Paris by her rich father to wed a child-hood friend against her will, so the guys gather up some money and try to rescue her from her forced marriage. Do I even need to explain whats wrong with this, how did we get from a weird and fun series about microbes to serious drama and running trough france trying to stop a woman from getting married, a women who constantly complains about being a “bird in a cage” while she drives in a limousine through the French country side, yeah life’s really been a bitch to you, watch you dont hit any peasants on your way out, bitch. Its amazing that they didnt realise that you cant have serious drama mixed with a comedy about a guy who can see microbes , okay writers, those dont mix, they just fuck with the tone and make things awkward, right got it, moving on. So next the even more dumbest thing ever happens they introduce a character called marie who`s father owns a winery, everything about this character is pointless, badly written and just distracts from the story. For some reason it goes to great lengths to tell us about her problems which despite like 3 episodes or something mentioning it I still don’t quite know what the hell she was moaning about, something about her father or wine or who gives a fuck, literally why did they think this would be interesting to people who enjoyed the first season or anyone for that matter. Half this series is wasted in a pointless sub plots and mindbogglingly strange decisions with the story and the other half is just unfunny, rushed and poorly written, damn even the editing was jarring and getting on my nerves did this series do anything right except, with the microbes of course they still fun. I mean how much more could you possible fuck up the second series than this one did, all the jokes what little there are suck, the characters are flat with the life and uniqueness from the first season sucked out of each, the story is a confused mess that skids all over the place and feels nothing like the light hearted, creative series that I so enjoyed, the main characters does nothing while boring side characters that we dont give a shit about whine and complain about stuff we also don’t give a shit about. It a mess plain and simple, with no redeeming qualities whatsoever, fans of the original stay away, everyone else just ignore this and watch the original.
