Aniplex has released the anime adaption of Akane Shimizu’s manga series “Cells at Work”. Production by David Production, the anime series depicts the inner workings of the human body in the style of a shounen with the White & Red Blood Cells taking center stage in an action packed and hilarious take on biology.

Cells at Work is a 2018 shounen anime series, it is produced by David Production and licensed by Aniplex of America. It is currently available for streaming on Crunchyroll, Hulu, and Aniplex+ in English subs.

Editor’s Note: This review contains near complete to complete spoilers for Cells at Work Episode 1 “Pneumococcus”.

Aniplex provides an exaggerated look at human biology with Cells at Work.

If you grew up watching & loving the 2001 film Osmosis Jones and it’s subsequent spinoff, or just so happen to love the subject of Biology then chances are the premise of Cells at Work alone is enough to draw you in. The plot focuses on the human body and as the title indicates, the cells within the body doing their job to combat germs. Of course with this being a shounen anime/manga things are visually in an over-exaggerated manner, but provides some fun entertainment with the combat and comedy.

While the premise has been done a few times in the past, Cells at Work stands out with it’s action sequences and jokes.

THE GOOD: Episode one starts off with a bit of a lesson in human science, though this array of education is provided throughout nearly the entire run of the episode, we are introduced to the leads of the series early on in the White Blood Cell and Red Blood Cell named U-1446 & AE3803, respectively. The Red Blood Cell is used mostly for comedic relief, but it ends up working pretty well. One of my favorite scenes is the Red Cell looking for her destination and throughout her confusion, she accidentally comes across a germ who escaped an elimination attempt by the White Cell and his group. Upon opening the door to the room the two encounter each other in she basically “nopes” and closes the door immediately afterwards opting to ignore the situation only for the enemy germ to attack her anyways. I’m not the biggest fan comedic anime, but this is the type of hilarity that even makes a comedy stoic like me laugh.

Pneumococcus attacks!

You can definitely tell that David Productions added their flair to this series. When watching a lot of the action scenes I was getting total Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure vibes, which I had recently become a fan of. It’s very fast paced and high quality favorable to the aforementioned. I’m also liking that the Red and White Blood Cells’ relationship is getting established early, this will provide a lot of time for it to properly blossom throughout season one’s run.

It won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, but most will come to appreciate Cells at Work’s efforts.

THE BAD: It may not be for everyone, especially people who don’t want education preached at them.

An already “worth it” comedy shounen.

OVERALL THOUGHTS: It definitely feels like Cells at Work will go one of two ways for people; either it’ll sink it’s hooks into you upon your inital viewing, or it’ll take a couple of episodes to charm you in to the end of the season. I most certainly fall in with the former as I was quite impressed with what I saw from episode one. If the remainder of the season can maintain such quality then we may have our anime of the season in Cells at Work. Otaku Dome gives Cells at Work “Pneumococcus” a 100 out of 100.