Cells at Work! – Page 2

Rise of the Medication – ‘Cells At Work!’ Episode 5 Review

Rise of the Medication – An Anime QandA Review of ‘Cells At Work!’ Episode 5

What’s the show? Cells At Work!, Episode 5.

So… still having difficulty writing reviews for this show? Haha… how did you guess?

Well, you’ve been staring at the blank page for like half an hour without typing anything. Ordinarily by now you’d have the review written, edited and ready to post! Don’t be ridiculous, I don’t edit these reviews…

Ain’t that the truth. So uh… Cells At Work should we talk about that now? Yep! It sure was a Cells At Work episode—not sure what else to say about it other than that…

Geez, do I have to do everything myself, I’m going to milk out a review even if it kills me… Please don’t imply ‘milking’ me…

Stop! So who’s the ‘antagonist’ of the episode? Cedar Pollen—which—in turn causes an allergic reaction in the ‘body’. Afterwards histamine’s are activated which basically turns the whole place into a disaster area as various fluids are released. Then something new for this series as ‘medication’ is introduced for the first time in the series, which comes in the form of a strong steroid.

Oh and how are steroid’s personified in this show? Buff dude or sexy anime girl? Not the former and sadly not the latter, but rather coldly as a Terminator-esque robot that proceeds to decimate everything in the body not just the Cedar Pollen but the good cells too. Suffice to say this show has a bit of a pessimistic stance on medication, which I guess makes sense since medicine is taking the jobs of those hardworking cells but it will be interesting to see whether future ailments are treated with medicine and if the medicine is shown as being so ruthless and sinister.

Steroids are out to wreck your shit (apparently).

Fair enough, so probably pointless of me to ask but good episode? Of course, didn’t expect anything less though. I quite liked ‘Mast Cell’, she was introduced in an earlier episode but she got a bit more characterisation here and I appreciated the whole ‘not knowing what exactly to do, but just following the manual’ approach to doing a job—even if it caused a lot of chaos in the long-run. Unavoidable chaos as it turns out as the body can only react in one-specific way when bombarded with allergy causing pollen, but still it was a lot of fun. And that’s all I can really say, it’s a lot of fun! Also need more Platelets please.

Or “baka” but I guess I’m not the translator being paid to translate right? Right?!

Previous Cells At Work Reviews:

Who Knew Blood Cells Could Be So Attractive? – Episode 1 Review
Made In Abrasion – Episode 2 Review
World War Sneeze – Episode 3 Review
Codzilla – Episode 4 Review

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Codzilla – ‘Cells At Work!’ Episode 4 Review

Codzilla – An Anime QandA Review of ‘Cells At Work!’ Episode 4

What’s the show? Cells At Work!, Episode 4.

Last week you had a bit of trouble talking about this show at all, didn’t you? I did, but not because of any perceived problems with the episode, quite the opposite in fact—this show is just so good at doing what it does and doing it flawlessly that I kind of didn’t know what to talk about!

Did you have the same problem this week? I guess we’ll find out soon!

There’s something visually pleasing about seeing medical status’ in such a clinical fashion.

So what’s this episode about? Well if episode 2 was akin to a ‘disaster’ movie and episode 3 was like a ‘zombie’ movie then episode 4 is straight up a big ‘monster’ movie comparable to the likes of Godzilla, albeit on a much such smaller scale—and I don’t just mean because it takes place inside the human body!

Fair enough. We’re also introduced to a cute new waifu in the form of Eosinophil, a blonde-haired pig-tailed type of white-blood cell who turns out was a childhood friend to our main White Blood Cell U-1146. And did I sense a tiny little bit of jealousy from Red Blood Cell AE3803 upon learning this connection?

Wait, these blood cells have childhood friends now? How does that even work? Shh~, don’t question it just go with it.

Right… so who’s the ‘monster’ that you spoke of earlier? Well the main ‘antagonist’ of this particular episode is food poisoning, but the monster comes in the form of a parasitic organism called Anisakis that comes from eating contaminated raw seafood and did I mention I watched this episode while eating sushi for lunc? Suffice to say I’m going to be extra careful with the quality of my seafood dare I risk something terrifying like that tearing away at my stomach walls!

Eek! True enough, and I know you’ll want me to ask, but any platelet action? Please don’t refer to it as ‘action’ but no, just a few brief glimpses of the cute little things being evacuated and watching over the unfurling battle—entirely in still shots too… which makes me curious, does anybody else think these two brief shots were inserted to pander to the salivating masses who ~crave~ more platelets? Like seriously, I think there would be a full-blown internet riot if the platelets didn’t feature in an episode!

Platelet buddy system! Also, omg they wear different footwear, so adorable!

So anything else to add? There’s also some total edge-lord cell by the name of Basophil who speaks cryptically about the whole ‘situation’ throughout the episode and was good for a couple of laughs. But I mean it’s the same “problem” as last week—and it’s a good problem to have—this show just doesn’t really do anything wrong so I don’t know what else to do other than praise it as I have been. It’s fun, action-packed with flawless world-building (well it is based on the most complex setting there is—the human body) and the characters are just too charming for words—what else is there to say!

Previous Cells At Work Reviews:

Who Knew Blood Cells Could Be So Attractive? – Episode 1 Review
Made In Abrasion – Episode 2 Review
World War Sneeze – Episode 3 Review

If you liked my post and want to support my content, please consider supporting my Patreon page, or donating by buying me a coffee on Ko-fi!

World War Sneeze – ‘Cells At Work!’ Episode 3 Review

World War Sneeze – An Anime QandA Review of ‘Cells At Work!’ Episode 3

What’s the show? Cells At Work!, Episode 3.

You said last week you were having trouble talking about the show because it’s just so consistently good? Is that still an issue with this episode? Yup! It may have been a mistake to review this show week-to-week. Not that there aren’t a lot of things going on in this episode, but it’s just not the kind of show that lends itself to discussion very well. It’s very much a show that’s so competent and confident in its execution that reviewing it feels kind of pointless.

It’s putting you out of a job, huh? Hardly—I just don’t think any kind of review I could give would be that interesting that’s all.

So like most of your reviews then? Tch!

So what happens in the episode anyway, can’t very well leave this blank… The human body gets influenza, it’s visually expressed as a zombie invasion—meanwhile a naïve T-cell is caught up in the middle of it all and has to get the confidence to help his T-cell brethren in the fight against the infected horde. It’s all very well animated and cleverly introduces new concepts like Macrophage (who is kinda hot—but that’s an issue for my physiatrist to deal with) and also a lengthier introduction to Dendritic Cell who’s a particularly cool customer.

Right, anything else you wanted to add? Not enough Platelet’s in this episode! We get a brief moment of two of them cleaning up some leaves in Dendritic’s tree house but that’s not enough! We demand more Platelet’s! More Platelet’s! More Platelet’s!

Who’s this “we” you speak of? The Internet of course! The Internet has gone Platelet crazy and can you blame them?! They’re just about the cutest thing in the world!

As if I wasn’t going to include the Platelet’s tiny appearance!

Right, maybe it’s a good thing these reviews aren’t too long… between ogling Red Blood Cell’s and your unhealthy obsession with Platelet’s your liable to be committed! I don’t care! All I want is for the next episode to have more Cute Cells Doing Cute Things!

Previous Cells At Work Reviews:

Who Knew Blood Cells Could Be So Attractive? – Episode 1 Review
Made In Abrasion – Episode 2 Review

If you liked my post and want to support my content, please consider supporting my Patreon page, or donating by buying me a coffee on Ko-fi!

Made In Abrasion – ‘Cells At Work!’ Episode 2 Review

Made In Abrasion – An Anime QandA Review of ‘Cells At Work!’ Episode 2

What’s the show? Cells At Work!, Episode 2.

And what happens in the second episode? More of the same as the first episode really—and for some people that won’t be enough but for others it will be exactly what they wanted!

And I’m guessing you fall into the former camp? Actually I’m in two minds about this—I mean for the point of writing a review, having an overarching storyline to talk about what be beneficial! But as it stands I’m left scratching my head at a loss with what to really write about!

I could have just filled this review of pictures of Platelete’s because they’re TOO DAMN CUTE!

Sounds like you picked a bad show to talk about week-to-week? Maybe. But (some) people did say they wanted shorter reviews from be so maybe this’ll be a way of minimising the size of my reviews!

You could always try, so what happened in the episode anyway? Well best girl Red Blood Cell AE3803 is on her way to deliver nutrients through a blood vessel close to the skin’s surface when an abrasion occurs, which in the anime comes in the form of a massive Made in Abyss style world hole—it’s a suitably epic and action packed series of scenes, exceedingly well animated and surprisingly tense considering we’re just watching anthropomorphised cells in peril. Then as to be expected when someone gets an abrasion a bunch of germs come flooding in to add more action and danger to the scene!

And now I’m terrified to ever get an abrasion again!

Who will save Red Blood Cell AE3803 oh and the countless million other cells… but let’s not worry about them, we’ve got a look out for the Red Blood Cell you want to bang, right? Not going to let me live that down, are you?

Nope.Well, handsome white Blood Cell U-1146 comes to the rescue of course! After some hard fought and extremely bloody (no pun intended) fights, the adorable little Platetes arrive on the scene and with their clotting abilities seal up the gaping hole and stop the germs from coming in!

Killing germs has never been so bad ass. Imagine if ads for hand soap had this kind of detail!

I’m again surprised that something that sounds as ‘childish’ as this can make for a compelling anime. I know, it’s hard to make this show sound ‘cool’ but it really is, added to that it’s vibrant and exciting and dynamic, it’s truly a pleasure to watch—which again adds to the difficulty in reviewing it. It just does everything so well that there’s almost nothing to talk about other than heaping upon praise and adulation. Though I must say I do sense a spark of a relationship between AE3803 and U-1146—more on her end than his however.

Do you think that’s more you just ‘shipping’ them together, or do you think something might eventuate? I don’t know, while the show could probably sustain itself in its episodic format for quite some time—addressing a bodily issue or illness with each instalment, I hope their relationship becomes a sort of connective tissue throughout and they do get closer—though that makes me wonder, can a Red Blood Cell and White Blood Cell have children together?

That’s awfully ‘heteronormative’ of you! Tch! I wish I never taught you that word…

Previous Cells At Work Reviews:

Who Knew Blood Cells Could Be So Attractive? – Episode 1 Review

If you liked my post and want to support my content, please consider supporting my Patreon page, or donating by buying me a coffee on Ko-fi!

Who Knew Blood Cells Could Be So Attractive? – ‘Cells At Work!’ Episode 1 Review

Who Knew Blood Cells Could Be So Attractive? – An Anime QandA Review of ‘Cells At Work!’ Episode 1

What’s the show? Cells At Work!, Episode 1.

And what’s the show about? Anthropomorphising the cells in your body so they look like attractive anime characters and thus creating a brand new fetish.

…huh? I mean that’s what anime does doesn’t it? It turns things that are otherwise innocent or innocuous or even inanimate and makes you want to bang them!

*sigh* and who in Cells at Work do you want to bang? (I can’t believe I’m even asking this, what has become of my life…) Red Blood Cell AE3803, she’s so spunky and adorable and ditzy, I love her!

Thank goodness you’re here just in time, because you took my breath away!

Right, I think that’s just you… in fact I think you need to get more sleep… I’m fine, I’m fine!

Uh-huh… so can we talk about the actual show and not what two dimensional girl you want to beat off to? Sure, I guess that’s something we could do. It’s Red Blood Cell’s first day at work when the area she’s in is attacked by a group of Pneumococcus germs, thankfully the white blood cells are there to protect everyone and Red Blood Cell finds her life saved by a particularly handsome and brooding White Blood Cell by the name of U-1446. And what transpires from three is a sort of action-oriented slice of life comedy as Red Blood Cell gets lost on her way to delivering some Co2 to the lungs while White Blood Cell rags along to help and try and find the rogue germ that’s escaped!

Kinda sounds like a kids show… Just based off the concept alone I was worried it would be too, and while it is very high-spirited and positive it’s also surprisingly violent—not to mention it’s still very Japanese, which is absolutely a good thing!

So you like the show then too? Yeah, I really really dig it, I can say with some measure of certainty that most will probably find something to enjoy about the show, it’s just plain fun and already I can tell that this is going to be the kind of show where I’ll want hundreds of episodes of adventures with these characters!

And not just because you want to fuck them… hey, come on now… no need to be crude about it!

Anything else you wanted to add? Oh! The Platelets are the cutest damn thing since… uh… what’s a cute thing from an anime that everyone agrees is cute?

It’s the internet, no one agrees on anything… ugh, true. Umm, they’re the cutest thing since the soot creatures from Spirited Away, and these Platelets have no right to be so damn cute! Because basically they’re just little kids and I usually find kids in anime annoying but here… omg… so kawaii!

I think I preferred it when you were acting like a perv… so final recommendation for the first episode of Cells at Work? There’s a real sense of energy and infectious joy to everything about this show, and the world they’ve made… while loosely based on the human body—feels more like this idealised but still very Japanese city. Unlike Chio’s School Road, which I personally prefer, I think this is a better made, more coherent and cohesive show—at the very least it has rules about the inner-workings of the world which is bound to be more palatable to those who crave logic in their anime. Also unlike Chio’s School Road—which I said will be divisive for most, Cells at Work has a broader appeal and I can easily recommend it to anyone, even if you’re initially unconvinced by the somewhat childish premise.

He’s kind of handsome… I mean for a white guy.

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