Maid-chan is always interested in unusual animes you humans think up to entertain yourselves. And today she will review one of those.
In Hataraku Saibou – working cells – the protagonists are not humans defending their planet, even if that may look so at first glance. Instead this are the cells of a human body, defending their normal life from outworldish invaders like staphylococcus aureus or the common cold virus.
Yes, this anime is about what goes on in your body! And the main hero of our show is…
Tadaaa! The red blood cell, or Erythrocyte, number AE3803.
Erythrocyte is new in her job, nervous and has the orientation skill of a drunken lemming on a merry-go-round.
Still she is always trying hard to do her job, transporting O2 and CO2 through the body. On this job she often runs into bacteria or even viruses that try to steal what she is carrying and then want to kill her.
Maid-chan thinks staphylococcus aureus is cute
Life as a red blood cell surely is not easy! But luckily for all the erythrocytes out there, they are not alone. They don’t need to die helplessly. The human body has a whole army of cells that are purely there to fight the hideous invaders!
Let’s start with this guy, Neutrophil U-1146, a white blood cell. He might look scary, but inside he is a real softy!
Don’t ask Maid-chan why blood cells and bacteria can shed buckets of blood from a tiny wound
White blood cells of this type, as you should know as a human yourself, are the police of the body, the first line of defense. They make about 2/3 of all white blood cells.
The Neutrophil U-1146 takes an unusual like to the lemming-like Erythrocyte. He not only saves her several times, but also shows her the way around the blood system. He even stealthily follows her around the heart cycle, hoping that for once she will not lose her way.
Isn’t he a nice guy?
Or perhaps only a stalker.
If there is a bacteria attack, the Killer T Cells help the Neutrophils in dealing with the attack. In the anime they are depicted as army goons, completely with boot camps, and in this guy’s case with an extremely bad temper.
There are other cells that work together to defeat attackers. There are memory cells and B cells (wielding a water gun in the anime) and others that participate directly or indirectly in the fight.
Each have their own specialty, but when it comes to pure brutal-ness or tea time, no one beats Macrophage onee-san! They may smile, they may wear a cute dress, but in a fight those ladies mean real business. Better don’t try to sell them bad tea!
what happens in the next 5 seconds is nsfw
But of course the white blood cells are not the only ones working in the defense. It is said the Romans won their wars by marching (albeit having the world’s best trained heavy infantry surely helped). In medieval times, wars were won by building castles.
In the human body there are thrombocytes, or platelets. These cells are very small and depicted in the anime as kindergarden children. Despite that, they are doing the heavy construction work, repairing wounds that the body may have.
Platelets reporting to work!
Aren’t they cute? Maid-chan would be envious if she wasn’t even cuter herself! If you can’t resist hugging them, please do so where you can’t clog up the capillary, and don’t get trapped in the fibrin they use to close wounds!
Talking of wounds: Not only bacteria can sneak into the body there, but also viruses. Viruses are bad because they can infect normal cells. If that happens, the white blood cells suddenly have an army of zombie cells to deal with!
Always make sure to wash your hands if they are dirty and don’t finger around in wounds!
Conclusion
If you want an unusual topic for an anime, Cells at Work surely has it! And frankly, after watching this, Maid-chan has more respect for you water bags. Being a human is really hard work, especially for your cells, so be thankful to them, okay?
Unfortunately, while the topic is done really good with the funny anthropomorphisms, not everything is well in the body.
First of all is the animation quality. While the “persons” are done quite well, the background lacks diversity, and not only because of the scenario. Some scenes are re-used up to a point it makes you motion sick. If that is because of money restrictions, it is strange that there are several quite famous voice actors involved.
There is also no overarching story, which feels like a real waste of the scenario. The only piece connecting the episodes is a certain someone getting lost and attacked.
But even saying that many bad things, Maid-chan assures you that you will have a lot of fun watching this series. And if you aren’t too lazy, you may even learn a thing or two about your own body! Amazing, isn’t it?
It is hard even for Maid-chan to rate this one. The reuse of scenes is utterly disappointing. On the other hand, the scenario is as fresh as a cut from a knife that is still falling. Fun, cuteness and action are on a well-balanced pressure level. But the re-watch potential is likely very small.
All in all Maid-chan can only give a barely 7/10 points reaching judgment on the totally objective Maid-chan scale, but with a strong recommendation to watch it as least once. It may save your life after all, and that cannot be said about many anime!
And as a thanks for reading so far, Maid-chan is going to show you a tremendous cosplay of a cancer cell!
