Moyashimon Related Family Members
Grandpa Sawaki
Tada's grandfather. We're not told his full name. Grandpa is a friend of Prof. Keizo. Used to run the family's yeast-growing business and occasionally sends packages of rice malt to Tada at school.
Mr. Hasegawa
This is Haruka's father. He is the owner of one of the most plush hotels in Tokyo. He's extremely arrogant and quick to fire anyone that offends him. He arranged to have his daughter marry Ryouta (pictured above, right) several years ago after she left the university. He completely dismisses Keizo's research because it's foiling his plans for the marriage. It's not completely revealed yet, but he's probably separated from Haruka's mother because she's the one that let Haruka go to NouDai. He does occasionally visit Hiyoshi's secret sake tasting parties as a club member.
Ryouta
Pictured above right with Mr. Hasegawa. No last name given. Ryouta is a brown-noser that constantly sucks up to Mr. Hasegawa. In volume 5, he comments that he'd been working as a travelling businessman and had to go economy class. With the wedding coming up, he's overwhelmed at travelling first class. He and Haruka have known each other for years, but she's got no interest in him at all, and he doesn't plan to let her continue her research after the marriage. In volume 6, the two of them travel to France for a pre-arranged wedding, but Ryouta comes down with a stomach virus, then admits that he really doesn't want to get married to Haruka, either. They part amicably, but not really as friends.
Mr. Nishino
Madoka Nishino's father. In volume 12, we learn that the Nishino sake factory had been famous for decades, but was undermined by modern corporate practices. Nishino had dumped all the sake into the drains when Madoka was younger, but he's now working on bringing out a new product ("New Madoka") and probably selling it to a major distributor to be marketed as someone else's brand. Madoka tears down her father's existing vat of "New Madoka" and the two of them promise to create a new future for themselves.
Others
This is kind of a catch-all category for incidental characters that may show up occasionally.
Part-timer
The part-timer is a student working at the same bar as Aya. He's a lackluster bartender, but he does well when handling unruly customers.
Kyouko Tanaka
A J-pop singer that performs at the first Harvest Festival (see below). Also featured on the cover of vol. 5)
Prof. Mikami
One of the two "fighting professors" that have had a long-running feud in the ring, during the Harvest Festival. He's been in the hospital for a while, and uses a robot to stand in for him.
Asst. Prof. Tachibana
The second, younger "fighting professor". Always loses. Is shown near the end of volume five teaching a class that Hazuki and Tada are enrolled in.
Nagamine-kun
One of the older students on campus. He's the one that made the contaminated food back in volume 1 that sent Tada to the hospital, and who's not good at washing his hands after using the toilet. He shows up again in volume 8 to try to promote a meat festival event.
Katherine Kosaka
Kosaka shows up in volume 9 as a research student working under Tachibana. Her initial task is to study the general consensus regarding the Japanese government's mandate for self-sufficiency for fruits and vegetables. Is very serious about her work, but easily manipulated by Mutou into harassing Hasegawa (then regrets her actions immediately afterwards). In volume 11, her first name is revealed, plus the fact that she absolutely hates it. Her parents dote on her excessively and refuse to call her by anything but "Katherine".
Nakayama
(First name not given.) In volume 11, the university holds its Miss NouDai contest, and Nakayama is one of the 5 contestants selected to attempt to dethrone Mutou. She's a student in the husbandries division, tending to the livestock on campus. She's acknowledged as the "Princess of Husbandries", and excuses herself from the pagent in order to help deliver a calf during a particularly difficult birth.
Okinawa
NouDai has a campus in Okinawa (referred to as Ryukyu in the manga, the original name of the kingdom before Japan annexed it). Keizo's research team visits this campus in volume 2.
Yuu Kaneshiro
Yuu works at Keizo's proving grounds, and is a skilled deep sea diver. We're not told her age, but she's apparently still a university student, with plans to see the world some day. She looks like Kei Yuuki, but with darker, tanned skin.
Grandfather Kaneshiro
We're never given his first name. He's Yuu's grandfather, and a friend of Keizo's going back at least 40 years. He may be retired. He and Keizo had submerged a crock of awamori (Okinawan sake) in the sea next to a shipwreck 40 years ago, in order to use the 5-times aging process induced by seawater. Keizo returns to Okinawa to recover the sake, but Kawahama thwarts him to allow the sake to reach a full 200-year age threshold. The two old men agree to give the sake to the students to drink later.
France
In volume 5, Mr. Hasegawa arranges for Haruka and Ryouta to be whisked by jet, travelling first-class, to go to Paris. Haruka is told that she's just being forced to accompany her arranged-marriage fiance on a holiday. What she doesn't know is that there's supposed to be a wedding for them at the end of the trip. The research lab group raises enough money for Tada, Misato and Kawahama to follow her and try to bring her back right away. During this trip, the team visits a small vineyard in the Bourgogne region, run by Marie and her familiy.
Marie
A young woman that likes dressing up in a white goth-loli outfit. She's got an independent spirit and wants to travel the world. She likes wine, but she hates the idea of being tied down to the vineyard. Her mother runs a small boutique in town and is rarely seen. Not sure if her last name is ever given.
Nico
Marie's father is a hard-working man, but he dislikes drinking wine, preferring grape juice, which is why the family's buisness is doing so badly now. He tried working in town as a salaryman, but gave up after a while.
Grandfather
Marie's grandfather. Rarely speaks. Mainly just a strong old man with a steely resolve and a love of the land he lives on.
Pierre
Marie's older brother. He left to live in Paris, but does make an appearance at the end of volume 6 to help the family pick grapes.
Kanou Farm
In volume 8, a woman visits the university in order to try to sell her microbrew beer to the Hiyoshi sake store, thus starting off a new story arc specifically focusing on locally-made beers. The one person that represents Kanou is Hana.
Hana Kanou
Hana Kanou, primary operator of Kanou Farm. While she apparently lives in the same house as her parents and grandparents, Hana is really the only one of the family that shows up in the story (there's a glimpse of her grandmother) and she runs the farm and the brewery by herself. If she does need help for some reason, she'll call on family or neighbors. She's 148 cm tall, and 27 years old.
New Orleans
In volume 10, the NouDai research crew race to New York in order to rescue Marie, who wasn't really in trouble after all. However, on learning that Kawahama is in the U.S., his brothers decide to drive up from Mexico to meet him. Haruka plays "facilitator" by flying the New York contingent down to New Orleans, where the rest of the story plays out (the crew also takes a side trip to Kentucky to visit the Maker's Mark plant. Technically, the following characters should be in the "Other" section, but I like New Orleans, so I'm making a grouping just for these guys.
Tadatasugu Sawaki
Tadayasu's older brother. His name was chosen by his father to indicate his choice as the successor to the Sawaki Moyashi shop, however, he saw himself as "Tadatsu", or "just another person" in his father's eyes and decided to bolt from Japan to the U.S. After nearly running out of money, he settled down in New Orleans and found enough part time work to barely manage to afford his own apartment. His motto is "follow your bliss".
Carlos Kawahama
Carlos is the more handsome, and the youngest, of Takuma's two younger brothers. Little is known about his personal life, other than that he still lives in Mexico. (Pictured here on the right.)
Jose Kawahama
Jose is the bigger, stronger of Takuma's two brothers. Nothing else is known about him, either. (Pictured above on the left.)
Events
NouDai has periodic events that kind of set it apart from other schools. Many of the students, once they're been suckered into one in their first year, plan to be off-campus when the same event rolls around the next time.
Spring Festival
The rules change every year, and part of the challenge is to figure out what they are as the event progresses. In volume 1, the gates are all locked so no one can leave until they find the key to the main gate, which is being guarded by members of the "self-government". The Self-Government is made up of third-year students in disguise, with instructions to attack the participants when they are in the shade, or at night. They can not attack outside of the shade, or within building structures. Everyone has balloons on top of their heads, and if the balloon is broken, they can not buy food from any of the stalls - they can only eat what they find for free. Aya is one of the members of the Self-Government who attempts to attack Keizo's research team, but is disqualified by the no-buildings rule (which hadn't been announced before that). Self-Government forces can be disqualified, or defeated for bounty rewards. The main gate key is hidden in the balloon on the biggest gaurd in front of the main gate (which turns out to be a malfunctioning robot run by the robotics club), and is discovered by Tada. Prof. Keizo takes the oportunity to run an officially sactioned aphrodesiacs shop; the full set costs 10,000 festival dollars, which is the value of the prize for obtaining the main gate key. During the event, some of Kawahama's and Misato's classmates get defeated early on and form a resistance movement which aids Misato and friends to get the event to end after dragging on for 3 days. 2 of the resistance members get nicknamed "make inu" (whipped dogs), and try to meet Haruka Hasegawa some time later.
Harvest Festival
Every Fall, the campus opens its doors to the general public. For the first day, housewives swarm the place to get free, fresh produce, and there's a pop concert. At night there's a full-contact fight between two professors, and Aya is the ring bunny. On the second day, the students try to raise money selling handmade products. For the second night, there's an anonymous auction where people try to unload weird stuff for cash. This year, Kyouko Tanaka is the featured performer, and Misato and Kawahama trick her into using some mouthwash that they then sell in the auction.
Meat Festival and Oktoberfest
NouDai (Ag. U.) has a reputation for having lots of fesitvals, and Nagamine decides to try starting up a new one, which he uninspiringly calls the "meat festival". During the course of volume 8 of the manga, (as mentioned above in the character entry for Kanou Farms) Aoi Mutou decides to try adding an "Oktoberfest" theme for the refreshment booths, featuring local Japanese microbrews. The Oktoberfest portion includes a parade of the various beer makers (Aya takes the liberty of contacting the big 4 commercial makers to attend as well) at 10 AM, followed by sales of the beer at the refreshment stands. The event is popular enough to justify making it a stand-alone event the following year. (Unfortunately, it would be held at the beginning of November, which is when the new wines come out in France, preventing Marie from attending; the new sakes come out in Japan, barring Kei; and there's also a big awamori day in Okinawa, which Yuu Kaneshiro would rather visit.)
Miss NouDai Contest
From the beginning of the series, Aoi Mutou has been the reigning Miss NouDai, particularly chosen for her beauty. However, starting around volume 6, she's shown to be a little too attracted to alcohol. By volume 11, she's taken to sleeping under the bushes, holding a large bottle of sake (given that she'd been roughing it across Russia and China, looking for rare foods for Keizo, it's understandable that she'd be comfortable sleeping under the stars). The university council decides that she's giving the school a bad name, and they announce a new contest during the winter break. Each student gets 1 ballot to write in the name of their nominee. The five women given the most ballots are then the contestants to compete against Mutou in the recall. Kaoru Misato tries to make a quick buck by getting his friends to back, and bet on, Kei Yuuki in full goth-loli get-up. Prof. Keizo backs high school senior Nishino for unexplained reasons. And Nakayama, Kosaka and Hazuki Oikawa just simply receive lots of qualifying votes. Mutou, as reigning champion, announces that one eliminatng round will be the swimsuit contest, causing Misato to force Hasegawa to take Kei's place. The entire pageant then falls apart as Hasegawa unmasks herself; Mutou passes out drunk; Kosaka gets embarrassed when her parents show up and insist on called her "Katherine"; Nakayama is called away to make an emergency delivery of a baby calf; and Nishino causes a riot by refusing to take her jacket off. Oikawa then wins by default.
The Microbes
The microbes are the shining supporting cast of this manga, but there's just too many of them to identify here. However, the most important one is the Aspergillus Oryzae, which is used in the production of sake. It has the ability to band together to form a much bigger conglomerate which can then attack Tada en-masse to get his attention.
(Aspergillus: The real thing; Ishikawa's rendition (bottom left) and Microbiologist Okada's suggested version.)
(Most of the Microbes all in one place.)
(Prof. Keizo's reseach team, as microbes.)
Devil microbe. This one is featured in the children's picture book on dental hygiene.
Why flying may not be good for you.
Hazuki and Tada visit the miso paste as it's being turned into soy sauce.
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