Cells at Work: The best and most original anime of the Summer season!

Ahoy Me Mateys Captain Cats here! I was never good at science and health classes in my youth due to there was so much to remember, and also my teachers sucked and didn’t explain anything right at all. Years later to this summer there was an anime that made it so simple to understand the basics of the human body and made it enjoyable to watch and learn; it has become a surprising hit; even a cancer research doctor praise this series and that series is called Cells at Work.

Hataraku Saibou or Cells at Work in English was created by Akane Shimizu in 2015 as a manga first and published by Kodansha, and as of now it is still running with three spin-off series going on as well which are:

• Bacteria at Work– May 2017 till now*
• Cells that Don’t Work– July of 2017 till now*
• Cells at Work! BLACK– June of 2018 till now*
• * All three are published by Kodansha

The series made its debut on the 7th of July of this year in Japan and shown in the USA through Crunchy Roll. Here is the Official Synopsis from Aniplex USA of the anime series:

This is a story about you. A tale about the inside of your body… According to a new study, the human body consists of approximately 37 trillion cells. These cells are hard at work every day within a world that is your body. From the oxygen-carrying red blood cells to the bacteria-fighting white blood cells, get to know the unsung heroes and the drama that unfolds inside of you! It’s the oddly relatable and interesting story that is the life of cells!- Aniplex USA

The characters in this series are not that you think. They don’t have common names and crazy or odd backstory about said character. Instead, they have names as the same cells inside of one’s body, here a small list of some of the characters and names that are shown in the series:

• Red Blood Cell
• White Blood Cell
• Macrophage
• Killer T Cell
• Platelet
• Helper T Cell
• Regulatory T Cell
• Eosinophil
• Memory Cell

The list goes on and on but you see what I mean with the names of each character. Each character does have their unique look, style, and personality. The environment is also unique as well, they gave the inside of the body a mix of modern and traditional Japanese setting, and you won’t notice it at first but you will, and they are lovely.

Yes, that is the series in a nutshell, and it is fantastic. The animation, the voice actors, music, even the health information that is given to you by the narrator is pure bliss. If you don’t want to take my word for it, then how about a cancer research doctor? According to Anime New Network Dr. Satoru Osuka who works in the molecular neuro-oncology department at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia praised the series episode 7 of Cells at Work titled ‘Cancer Cell.’ he goes on about how accurate the episode is on how the body reacts to cancer in its early stages and is truly grateful. He also thinks that both children and adults can learn from this series and manga saying:

You can’t remember with textbooks about living things, but with this, you can remember. Definitely check out the manga or anime- Dr. Satoru Osuka

Cells at Work has a total of 13 episodes with ten already shown and three left to air. If you want to wait until the series finishes and spend a weekend watching it all, by all means do it I would recommend it!