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Cells at Work (2018, David Production)

Anime Reviews

Cells at Work (2018, David Production)

はたらく細胞
Hataraku Saibou

Miss

What if the cells in the human body were personified? That's very much the main plot of this show; a kind of slice-of-life for those cells.

It kicks off with a Red Blood Cell getting lost while trying to deliver oxygen to the lungs which gives you a nice tour and intro to all the other cells working away. Unfortunately for them, the human body is under attack by Pneumococus bacteria.

Been meaning to watch this show for a while because of the hype. Most people being a fan of the of cute little kid-like "platelets" although the Red Blood Cell 3803 with no sense of direction and the clueless White Blood Cell (Neutrophils)  1146 are also a pretty popular couple. Strange kind of romance when you have names like that.

Every episode features a scenario where the human body has been compromised such as a cold and then we see how our cells battle it out with the antigens.

Other than the comical characters it's actually kind of dull because the jokes are shallow and won't keep you amused long. It becomes like a kid's action hero show where the evil doer gets defeated by the hero complete with cheezy evil laugh. Once you have all the proper biological names thrown into the dialogue it gets even less entertaining as you try to wrap your head around what it all means with brief explanations.

It has Furigana so you can tell it's aimed at a younger audience who are still learning to read more complex Kanji, Chinese characters. There's a lot of blood too as the White Blood Cells battle it out mercilessly disembering the antigens attempting to infiltrate the body. Not as bad as the likes of demon fighting shows like Kimetsu though which kids actually watch too somehow when it has so much gore.

Despite the kiddy-ish jokes, I think it's put a decent amount of effort to personify all the different cell types in the body.

The human body's modelled with urban scenery by Atelier Platz which looks well... habitable. Neat and clean but not creative enough to leave an impression. Macrophage ladies ends up being a bit of fan service with your boing emphasis while they enjoy running around slaughtering antigens in a dress. On the other hand it has a nice soundtrack.

It's a cute show even if the jokes can become a bit bland although you're unlikely to remember all the small bits of cell trivia it throws at you.

Most show's OPs don't change and in this case the animation doesn't but in episode 9, the vocals change a bit.

Unfortunately I never made it to the end of season 1 before dropping the show. The kid's comedy just wasn't for me as much as I wanted to learn more about cells.

Cells at Work

 

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