'Cells at Work!' Is Brilliant!

Cells at Work! re-imagines the human body as a megalopolis wherein cells are depicted as persons devotedly working on their respective jobs.  Red Blood Cells (Erythrocytes) are deliverymen.  White Blood Cells (Neutrophils) are bloodthirsty grunts who will stab, slash, or tear apart pathogen invaders without a second thought.  Platelets are cute children working as a repair and construction crew.  Macrophages, Killer T Cells, Helper T Cells, Regulatory T Cells, Naive T Cells, Effector T Cells, Eosinophils, Dendritic Cells, Memory Cells, Mast Cells, B Cells, Basophils, and NK Cells are also shown performing personified depictions of their functions.

The show has a multitude of characters, but the two main protagonists are Red Blood Cell (AE3803) – a rookie who usually gets lost while on her delivery routes – and White Blood Cell (U-1146) – who looks a bit like Death Note’s L, and is as vicious as the rest of his kind when it comes to fighting germs, but is gentle and friendly to other cells, especially to Red Blood Cell.  Save for one (which is a flashback story focusing on the T Cells), they are part of all the storylines of the 13-episode debut season.

The summer 2018 anime season started with Cells at Work! as my most favorite among all new series, and it ended with it still my  most favorite.  It’s truly a brilliant show – not necessarily because it’s the first one to have ever thought of anthropomorphizing the microscopic world inside the human body, as the concept has been seen already in other cartoons in the past, like Osmosis Jones and Once Upon a Time… Life (a.k.a. Micro Patrol) – but because it’s probably the best one to have done this.

It can be easily observed that there’s a great amount of creativity and cleverness involved in how the show translates real-life biological characteristics into tasks, personalities, designs, sets, technology, and other details of this world and its characters.  And the plotlines it reinterprets from actual cases the body undergoes are incredibly thrilling, humorous, and even poignant.  Heck, in one episode, it even manages to make its audience feel sympathy for cancer cells – I kid you not!

Furthermore, by listening to or reading analyses of it from those with medical backgrounds, the more one is blown away by the genius of its writing and production.

Simply speaking, Cells at Work! is a wonderful, worthwhile anime show.  And a season two needs to happen ASAP!

Postscript:

By the way, I learned that the manga has a spin-off called Cells at Work! BLACK, which deals with more mature and darker themes, like unsafe sex, drinking alcohol, smoking, and stress.  Surely, Cells at Work! BLACK deserves to get an anime adaptation as well.