MOYASIMON: TALES OF AGRICULTURE, VOLUME 1 (Del Rey Manga): One of the things I like about Manga over American comics (and I’m not saying one is inherently better than the other, I’m just saying one aspect I think is more successful OH MY GOD CALM DOWN) is the range of topics Manga can tackle. Not that American comics are limited; they can, essentially tackle any subject in any way. But for the most part, they don’t. American comics tend to boil down into:

- Superhero comics.

- Memoirs.

- Things that are mash-ups of other things (“Frankensteins vs. Centaurs!”)

And yes, I’m being willfully ignorant, but let’s face facts and realize that this is mostly true. Manga, on the other hand, is used for an insane amount of subjects, from, yes, superhero stories to, yes, memoirs, to even mash-ups (“Godzillas vs. Princesses!”). But a popular manga can also be about tennis. Or food. Or even a board game. Can you even imagine an ongoing series from Marvel that would sell millions of copies, and have hundreds of pages that are literally nothing other than board game strategy? I certainly can’t, and yet, Hikaru No Go is super popular, and extremely interesting to read.

That all brings us to talking about Masayuki Ishikawa’s completely unique Moyasimon: Tales of Argriculture, which is set at an agriculture college, and ostensibly stars a boy who has the power to see microbes with the naked eye. And if I wanted to give it an American spin, I’d say he uses that power to solve mysteries, but that’s barely even true. He occasionally figures things out by seeing what microbes are in the area, but for the most part, the book is concerned with teaching lessons about agriculture, cultivation, and more importantly (hence the microbes) fermentation. In fact, Ishikawa realizes he’s subverting the concept, and in cheeky sidebars of every chapter, apologizes for not getting to any of the plot points he’s set up in any sort of hasty matter.

Part of this, of course, has to do with the serial nature of manga publishing in Asia (it’s mostly distributed in chapter form, in magazines like Shonen Jump) vs. how it’s distributed here (in collected volumes), but it still works as an amusing thru-line in this delightfully charming book.

As the story goes on, and we get to know the main character, his friends, and various teachers, and it becomes less about the initial conceit, the more fun the book gets. In fact, it takes almost the entire volume to get less than a week into the school year, and they only barely show up to class. They’re all far too busy finding out how to make Saki (turns out there’s an entirely disgusting way to do it by spitting rice out of your mouth) to bother with things like actually going to school. It almost falls into the “young boy with amazing powers wants to be the best” genre of manga, except Tadayasu doesn’t seem interested in being the best at anything. With surprisingly relaxed results that lead to a meandering, but informative story structure. Ishikawa has no direction for the story, so it can really go wherever he wants it to. Normally I’d think that was a detriment, but here, it really works.

Plus, Ishikawa’s art is nice and clean, ignoring speed lines in favor of well planned out backgrounds, and distinct characters. And the microbes themselves are adorable.

If you’re looking for a story that’s off the beaten path even for manga (one plot point has a main character eating sea birds from the corpse of a rotting seal, and it is HILARIOUS), then Moyasimon might be the book for you.