Moyasimon is very popular in Japan with the comics selling out on release. The creator, Masayuki Ishikawa, was inspired to create it from a trip to an agricultural college where he visited the sake brewing room. The professor told him that when the sake was ready it 'spoke to him' - that gave Masayuki the idea.
"Moyasimon: Tales of Agriculture, known in Japan as Moyashimon (もやしもん?), is a manga series created by Masayuki Ishikawa. It has been serialized in Kodansha's seinen magazine Evening since August 2004. It won the 2008 Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize for Grand Prize and the 2008 Kodansha Manga Award for general manga.The series follows Tadayasu Sawaki, a first-year college student at an agricultural university, who has a unique ability to see and communicate with bacteria and other micro-organisms." From Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moyasimon:_Tales_of_Agriculture
They go up to 11, all on youtube...
More...Moyasimon Vol. 1: Tales of Agriculture - http://www.readaboutcomics.com/2009/12/11/moyasimon-vol-1/ and some Bento Moyasimon: http://www.annathered.com/2009/01/24/bento29-moyashimon/ - Figurines http://en.gigazine.net/index.php?%2Fnews%2Fcomments%2F20100726_wf2010_s_moyas... - Is being made into a real-life film http://asianmediawiki.com/Moyashimon