Cells at Work! (はたらく細胞 Hataraku Saibō) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Akane Shimizu. It features the anthropomorphized cells of a human body, with the two main protagonists being a red blood cell, and a neutrophil she frequently encounters. The manga was serialized in Kodansha's shōnen manga magazine Monthly Shōnen Sirius starting in March 2015. It is licensed in North America by Kodansha USA. An anime television series adaptation by David Production debuted from July 8 to September 29, 2018.[2] A second season is in production.
Plot
The story takes place inside the human body, where trillions of anthropomorphic cells each do their job to keep the body healthy. The series largely focuses on two such cells; a rookie red blood cell, AE3803, who often gets lost during deliveries, and a relentless white blood cell, U-1146, who fights against any germs that invade the body.
Characters
- Erythrocyte / Red Blood Cell (AE3803) (赤血球 Sekkekkyū)
- Voiced by: Kana Hanazawa[3]
- A red blood cell who has just started her job, delivering oxygen, carbon dioxide and different nutrients all over the body. She meets Neutrophil when he saves her from an attacking pneumococcus bacterium. She is clumsy and gets lost often, but is determined to perform to the best of her ability. It is later revealed that she had encountered Neutrophil when they were younger, after he saved her from a bacterium.
- Neutrophil (好中球 Kōchūkyū) / White Blood Cell (U-1146) (白血球 Hakkekkyū)
- Voiced by: Tomoaki Maeno[3]
- A type of white blood cell, whose job is to kill pathogens infecting the body. Despite his ruthless occupation, he's quite soft-spoken and gentle. When he was still in school as a young cell, he saved AE3803 from a bacterium after she got lost in a training exercise.
- Killer T Cell (キラーT細胞 Kirā Tī Saibō)
- Voiced by: Daisuke Ono[3]
- A type of white blood cell that recognizes and kills various foreign matter and unhealthy cells. He is aggressive, pompous and rowdy, brutally taking pleasure in slaughtering pathogens and unhealthy cells. He especially looks down on white blood cells forming relationships with non-white blood cells, like Neutrophil's close friendship with Red Blood Cell. He is the sergeant of the Killer T Cells and is a harsh teacher to his students, the Naive T Cells. He has negative relationships with Helper T Cell and NK Cell, the former being his superior in the Killer T Division. In his youth, he was considered to be weak like the rest of the young T Cells, being only able to survive and complete training through the help of Helper T Cell, which at least made him stronger.
- Macrophage (マクロファージ Makurofāji) / Monocyte (単球 Tankyū)
- Voiced by: Kikuko Inoue[3]
- A type of white blood cell. She and her kind appear as lovely maids in big dresses, armed with a variety of large weapons to fight various invasive pathogens, and are often shown smiling cheerfully even in the middle of combat. While inside blood vessels, she and her kind take on the role of monocytes, and wear hazmat suits over their dresses.
- Platelet (血小板 Kesshōban)
- Voiced by: Maria Naganawa[3]
- A type of cell responsible for reconstructing the body after various injuries. They are depicted as cute children, due to their small cell size, and act as construction and repair crew within the body. One platelet serves as their leader and she is most prominently featured in the show.
- Helper T Cell (ヘルパーT細胞 Herupā Tī Saibō)
- Voiced by: Takahiro Sakurai[4]
- A type of T Cell that determines strategy and courses of action for dealing with foreign invaders. He is the main commander of the Killer T Cells and has an intellectual and smooth disposition, putting him at big odds with the rough and tough Killer T Cell, despite having underwent T Cell training together with him.
- Regulatory T Cell (制御性T細胞 Seigyosei Tī Saibō)
- Voiced by: Saori Hayami[4]
- A type of T Cell that mediates and regulates the correct function and magnitude of immunological responses. She usually acts as Helper T Cell's secretary, though she is capable of fighting when necessary. She went through T Cell training alongside Killer T Cell and Helper T Cell.
- Naive T Cell (ナイーブT細胞 Naību T saibō)
- Voiced by: Mutsumi Tamura
- A rookie T Cell who is too frightened to fight invasive microorganisms, until Dendritic Cell helps him transform into Effector T Cell. He and his kind are the students of Killer T Cell, from whom they receive harsh treatment and austere training.
- Effector T Cell (エフェクターT細胞 Efekutā T saibō)
- Voiced by: Kenji Nomura
- A Naive T Cell transformed into a large, muscular and powerful T Cell. His design and mannerisms are a parody of the various male protagonists from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure.
- Eosinophil (好酸球 Kōsankyū)
- Voiced by: M.A.O[4]
- A type of white blood cell who is acquainted with White Blood Cell since they grew up in the same bone marrow. She feels inferior to the other immune cells because of her inability to fight off bacteria and viruses, but she shows her true worth by killing a parasitic Anisakis when the other cells could not. She handles a bident as her weapon of choice.
- Dendritic Cell (樹状細胞 Jujō Saibō)
- Voiced by: Nobuhiko Okamoto[4]
- Depicted as a messenger dressed in green stationed inside a call center resembling a tree. He can stimulate Naive T Cells and transform them into Effector T Cells. He owns a camera which he always uses to take pictures of events he deems important and stores them in picture albums, some of which are sources of shame and humiliation for the other cells.
- Memory Cell (記憶細胞 Kioku Saibō)
- Voiced by: Yuichi Nakamura[5]
- A paranoid and neurotic cell whose job is to remember past infections and allergies so that the immunity system can be ready for them. However, he is scatterbrained and it is difficult for him to sort out his memories, often panicking and screaming whenever disaster strikes.
- Mast Cell (マスト細胞 Masuto Saibō)
- Voiced by: Ayako Kawasumi[5]
- A cell whose job is to monitor and release histamines in response to allergic and inflammatory reactions. She always follows the instructions in her book no matter the situations and is unpopular due to her lack of consideration of what her actions do to the other cells. Also known as "Fat Cell", she gets irked whenever she is referred to with that name.