bento#29 Moyashimon January 24, 2009

My boyfriend and I watch anime at home regularly. Sometimes it’s new, sometimes it’s old. There was this one anime that came out in Japan two years ago, and I had always wondered about what it was about. Well, I knew what it was about, because the title explained it all, but I wasn’t quiet sure how they did it, and why it was so popular in Japan.

The anime show is called “Moyashimon: Tales of Agriculture.” It’s a story about a first year college student at an agriculture university who has an ability to see and communicate with bacteria and microbes. No ninja or robots. It’s a very average looking anime show with,,, AMAZINGLY CUTE BACTERIA and MICROBES!!!

Bento#29: Moyashimon
Created and eaten on: 12/12/2008

The main character could see bacteria and microbes since he was little, and as he begins his school life in an agriculture university, he encounters many different bacteria and microbes, but the funny thing about this show is that these bacteria and microbes he can see are not only cute, but they’re actually somewhat based off of real bacteria and microbes, but in painfully cute way.

The show introduces different bacteria and microbes in each episode, and explains how and where they’re born and grow. Surprisingly, this show is actually very educational! I think that’s why it became really popular in Japan. Kids’ shows feature the characters teaching about bacteria and microbes.

Anyway, when we started watching the show, we instantly fell in love with the bacteria and microbes. I went to the official website of this show, and drew bunch of bacteria and microbes on my sketch book. My first thought was “This is gonna be soooo easy!!!” After I did the sketch, I decided which food would go into the bento based on the color. It looked like I could use my usual ingredients and just put eyes and mouth on them, so I didn’t prep for the bento the night before.

A HUGE mistake.

I even woke up later than usual in the morning because I didn’t think it’d take that much time. (Have I not learnt the lesson? I guess not.) I had left over potato salad, so I shaped it, put flour on it, and put it into beaten egg, and put panko (Japanese bread crumbs) on it and fried it to make croquettes for “bacillus subtilis natto.” I microwaved lettuce and wrapped it over potato salad to make “clostridium botulinum.” I cut and sliced the stem of broccoli and microwaved it for “penicillium chrysogenum.” Then I started working on the rice balls.

I made two plain rice balls for “lactobacillus yogurt,” and one square one wrapped with seaweed for “cladosporium trichoides.”

And I dyed a bit of rice with curry powder (see “how to dye rice naturally”) for the main microbe character in the show, “aspergillus oryzae” (a.k.a. Oryzae). After I made them, I put lettuce in a bento box, and started putting the food in it. I then started making the pieces on the head (hair?) of some characters, but I quickly found out that this wasn’t as easy as it looked. I tried to make Oryzaes, sandwiching two pieces of cheese with uncooked pasta in between. It didn’t work… Cheese kept falling down. After I struggled with it for awhile, I gave up.

I ended up using fake sausage on uncooked pasta, and put cheese on it. Cheese didn’t stick on the fake sausage either. (And I totally didn’t notice some cheese had fallen off when my boyfriend took pictures…) I spent a lot more time on the Oryzae’s hair than I expected, so I had to rush other stuff. Meaning I did a very half-assed job, cutting kamaboko (fish cake) and put seaweed on the hair for “lactobacillus yogurt“, and cut fake sausage and stuck it on uncooked pasta and put seaweed on it for the hair for “cladosporium trichoides.”

I was going to put fried pasta on the croquette (natto) for its hair, but there was no way I could do it. I just didn’t have time. I’m sure there’s a bacteria/microbe that looks like it, so I’m not going to kill myself over it.

I quickly made bunch of eyes with seaweed using a hole puncher, and cut kamaboko for mouths, and put them on each food. I was going to make some characters with cherry tomatoes and boiled quail eggs, but I was running out of time, so I just threw them in and put seaweed eyes and kamaboko mouth on them.

Overall, this could’ve been a LOT better…

Seriously.

I don’t know how I managed to mess this up.
They’re still cute, but not as accurate as I wanted it to be.

Everything looks pretty inconsistent. T_T

I’m not going to put a link here, but check out their opening song for the show on youtube with the keywords “moyashimon” and “OP.” (The opening is shot in live action style but the actual show is anime.) Unfortunately, the anime series didn’t really go anywhere story-wise, but to be fair there are only 11 episodes. We still loved the bacteria and microbes whenever they showed up, and watched the opening and ending songs for every episode!

The manga for Moyashimon is still going on in Japan, and seems a lot more interesting. It will be published in the U.S. by Del Rey Manga in the future, so check it out if you’re interested in an educational yet not so serious manga about painfully cute microbe/bacteria!

Aspergillus oryzae: (yellow rice ball in the center)
– rice fried with curry powder, fish cake, seaweed (see “how to dye rice naturally”)
– cheese on fake sausage skewered with pasta for its hair (?)

Bacillus subtilis natto: (three croquettes on the left)
– potato croquette, seaweed, kamaboko

Lactobacillus yogurt: (two plain rice balls with top-knot)
– rice, seaweed
– rice, fish cake, seaweed for its hair (?)

Cladosporium trichoides: (square-ish rice ball on the right top corner)
– rice wrapped with seaweed, seaweed, kamaboko
– fake sausage, seaweed for its hair (?)

Penicillium chrysogenum: (in the middle at the bottom)
– broccoli stem, seaweed, kamaboko

Clostridium botulinum: (on the right)
– Potato salad wrapped with lettuce, seaweed, kamaboko

Other food:
– cherry tomato, seaweed, kamaboko
– quail egg, seaweed

For more pictures of my bento, visit Bento! set and Bento details! set on my flickr page.