Moyashimon Character List
Tadayasu Souemon Sawaki
AKA: Tada. This is the main character of the series. He starts out as a first-year student at Tokyo NouDai (literally, Ag. U., an agricultural university). His family runs a yeast-growing company and his father wants him to take over the business, while his grandfather wants him to follow his own path. "Souemon" is a "trade name", given to one working in a particular craft. His primary skill is the ability to see microbes, however it is possible for him to lose this power if he gets a strong enough shock. In volume 10, it's revealed that he feels pressured into taking over the family business, and he resents his older brother, Tadatsugu, for running away to the U.S. instead of taking responsibility as the first-born.
Kei Yuuki
Kei is Tada's best friend from back when they were going to school in their rural town. His family runs a sake brewery. One of the workers hung himself after the sake was spoiled by bad yeast, so Kei has a hatred for that kind of thing. He's also hated being called feminine-looking, but after coming to NouDai, he's found himself. He starts working at the Kikuji sake store, dressing up as a goth-loli, and taking over the shop to rennovate it as he sees fit.
(Kei at work at the Hiyoshi sake shop.)
University Members
Keizo Itsuki
Keizo is the professor researching yeast manufacturing at Todai. He has a wide-ranging set of acquaintances, including Tada's grandfather, and Haruka's father (although this last one is not on a good footing). He also has a wide-ranging set of interests, from disgusting foods from around the world, to wine, beer and black powder production. His lab staff currently consists of Haruka, Tada, Misato, Oikawa and Kawahama. We're never told his exact age, but he did serve in the Japanese Army during WWII.
(Keizo after botox treatments.)
Haruka Hasegawa
(Pictured with Prof. Keizo above, right.) Post-graduate student working for Keizo. She's fiercely-loyal to him, and dislikes the idea that he'll let anyone else join her team. She's highly intelligent, but has a nasty sadist streak and prefers to wear leather and chain outfits. She's avoided leaving school because once she does she has to marry Ryouta, the man that her father has arranged for her. In volume 5, her father makes the decision for her, and she's whisked to France for the wedding.
(Haruka, age 14.)
Hazuki Oikawa
Hazuki also starts out the story as a first-year student, initially appearing as a delivery girl bringing a dead manta ray to Prof. Keizo to eat. She hangs around the research group, and especially around Tada, although she never formally participates in the research. She's also the only one of the group who doesn't know about Tada's powers. She always carries disinfectant whereever she goes, and states that she prefers dating older men. In volume 5, she starts realizing that she likes cosplay, especially dressing up as a bunny girl. In volume 11, she becomes the new Miss NouDai, taking the title away from Aoi Mutou.
Kaoru Misato
Kaoru starts out as a second-year student, and is first seen with Kawahama trying to run an illegal sake still in one of the abandoned school buildings. He constantly tries to find ways to use his knowledge of microbes to make money, but not very well. Eventually, he and Kawahama start trying to take on part-time jobs, first at Hasegawa's hotel restaurant, and then at a dive shop in Okinawa. His primary talent in the research group is as muscle for carrying heavy luggage. He speaks in a Kansai (Osaka) dialect.
Takuma Kawahama
(Also pictured with Misato above.) Kaoru's best friend, and fellow 2nd-year. The shorter, fatter of the two, Takuma is Mexican-Japanese, and partial to anything to do with worms. His main skill is being able to devise elaborate plans, most of which work quite well when needed to. As a child, his swimming skills earned him the nickname "the Yellow Dugong of the Caribe" (he's also featured on the cover of volume 3.) In vol. 9 he mentions that he has a younger brother, Carlos. The two of them grew up as children drinking pulque (a precursor to tequila) thinking it was water. In volume 11, he drives from New Orleans to Mexico with two of his younger brothers to visit the rest of the family.
Aoi Mutou
Aoi is the second of Prof. Keizo's assistants, but she's been out travelling the globe collecting weird foods for him for so long that Haruka had forgotten that she'd existed. Mutou likes sake a little too much, and tends to be a bit too naive for her own good. She was the captain of the school's UFO club until deciding to spend more time at the lab, having joined the club along with a boyfriend who later dumped her. She's the one tasked to open tins of food with high potentials of exploding. (She's also featured on the cover of volume 2.) Up until volume 11, she's known as "Miss NouDai" for her beauty, but her antics cause her to be dethroned.
Aya Hiroka
Aya starts out as a third-year economics major, who is also on the cheerleading squad and works part-time at a bar near campus. She's friends with Aoi Mutou, and occasionally lends her clothes when Mutou gets sprayed by spoiled food. (She's also featured on the cover of volume 4.)
Madoka Nishino
During the Miss NouDai pageant in volume 11, Prof. Keizo backs a darkhorse contestant, named Nishino. She's a quiet, sullen high school senior working part-time on campus. All we know about her at first is that she dislikes beauty pageants, and absolutely hates anything to do with Japanese sake. Turns out that her family runs a sake factory that was ruined by corporate brewing practices. Volume 12 is dedicated to telling her backstory. She may graduate high school this year and enter NouDai soon after. She initially says that she wants to marry Tada, and insists on calling him "darling".
The Ex-Self-Government Resistance
In volume 2, we learn that the school has an annual Spring Festival, where the rules change each year. During this specific festival, the school gates are locked and no one can leave until they find the key to the main gate. During the three days of the festival, masked students, called the "Self-Government" attack the participants to break the balloons they're required to wear on their heads. Two of Mistato's classmates lose early on the first day, and then band together to create a resistance force to help Misato and Tada win the event. They reappear later as the "ex-resistance", trying to meet Hasegawa to ask her for a date, but are never given names. Collectively, they're known as the "make inu", or whipped dogs.
The UFO Club
Initially, they're just a bunch of geeks that want to contact aliens, with Aoi Mutou as their club captain. When she leaves to spend more time at the lab, they turn into more of a Mutou fan worship club. They make the mistake of forming a crop circle in one of Keizo's test fields, causing the research team to fake Mutou's being abducted by aliens and the club building being bombed. At the end, the UFO club is barred from the campus for being too dangerous. Only the fanclub leader is identified by name - Aoi-kun, second from the right above. They do still have their uses, as in volume 8 when Mutou asks them to help with the Autumn Beer Fest.
(The Club, suffering from a combination of bird and swine flus.)
The School's Hazmat Team
NouDai U. has a lot of research going on at all times, and occasionally some of it needs to be suppressed. That's when the hazmat team springs into action. At one point, Haruka Hasegawa is shown to be a member of the team.
Off Campus
Hiyoshi Kikuji
Hiyoshi is the owner of a sake shop either right on campus, or just outside it. In the back is a secret tasting room that Prof. Keizo occasionally visits. Hiyoshi is always surrounded by a hurricane of microbes when he goes outside, but they roost in the rafters of the tasting room when inside. He's identified as "a lover of microbes". He takes in Kei as his "granddaughter" when Kei suddenly finds his true self as a goth-loli. Afterwards, he gives Kei permission to remodel the shop as he sees fit.
Tomoharu Kikuji
Hiyoshi's Grandson. Doesn't get a first name until vol. 8. Works the sake shop as a clerk and delivery boy. Occasionally works the bar of the tasting room. Identifies goth-loli Kei as his younger sister. Tries to protect the shop when Kei starts "remodeling" it with a sledgehammer. In vol. 7, gets sent by Kei to visit sake breweries around Japan to find recommendations to sell at the Tokyo shop.
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