Cells At Work

Number of Episodes: 13

What Wikipedia says:  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.

What KoanMan says: Are you looking to learn a bit about the blood and immune system? Do you want to bond with characters like life-long friends? Cells at Work may be the educational anime for you.

There is a lot of information portrayed in an easy to digest way, with more heavy detail given in freeze panes that you can pause and ponder as you go. A little artistic licence is applied to achieve a good story (dendrites and nutrients, and the landscape in general), although if you know what I’m talking about then I need say no more as you already know, and if you don’t know, then it really matters not - do some study :). Never-the-less, KoanMan particularly enjoyed the portrayal of Naive cells becoming activated with awesome, though very specific, powers, and Red Blood Cell's introduction of her apprentice to White Blood Cell. Golden moments.

The characters at first seem a little bland at first, though go on to create an unexpected bond, and before long KoanMan found a growing concern for the main protagonists, particularly Red Blood Cell.

So How Does it End? (Spoiler free):  Life never ends. Or does it?

How About the Music? Akane Shimizu’s manga has been well adapted into anime by director/writer Kenichi Suzuki and writer Yuko Kakihara. Kenichirō Suehiro's music fits the scenes moment by moment quite well, and although the opening and closing music is average, the music is not why you watch this anime.

Overall Grade: Overall, a good watch. KoanMan give this a solid B.

Addendum by tTPO: Cells at Work is medicine seen through the lens of manga / anime. To be honest it is hard for tTPO (and KoanMan for that matter) to be entirely objective about this series since we both have medical training and can appreciate how cleverly and, by and large, accurately the physiology and pathophysiology have been presented. (For a medical doctor's thoughts on this see here.) This just adds to the appreciation and entertainment value of this otherwise well done series. Who would have thought that a growing relationship between two blood cells would be so riveting? Grade B+.

PS: Despite the educational value this may not be one for the kids. The amount of blood and violence in the immune response to infection is considerable.