Hataraku Saibou

Inside the human body, roughly 37.2 trillion cells work energetically 24 hours a day and 365 days a year. Fresh out of training, the cheerful and somewhat airheaded Sekkekkyuu AE3803 is ready to take on the ever-so-important task of transporting oxygen. As usual, Hakkekkyuu U-1146 is hard at work patrolling and eliminating foreign bacteria seeking to make the body their new lair. Elsewhere, little platelets are lining up for a new construction project.

Dealing with wounds and allergies, getting lost on the way to the lungs, and bickering with similar cell types, the daily lives of cells are always hectic as they work together to keep the body healthy!

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Hakkekkyuu U-1146 Main

Maeno, Tomoaki Japanese

Sekkekkyuu AE3803 Main

Hanazawa, Kana Japanese

Kesshouban Supporting

Naganawa, Maria Japanese

Macrophage Supporting

Inoue, Kikuko Japanese

Killer T Saibou Supporting

Ono, Daisuke Japanese

Jujou Saibou Supporting

Okamoto, Nobuhiko Japanese

Gan Saibou Supporting

Ishida, Akira Japanese

Kousankyuu Supporting

Ichimichi, Mao Japanese

NK Saibou Supporting

Yukinari, Toa Japanese

B Saibou Supporting

Chiba, Shouya Japanese

Takahashi, Yuuma Producer

Itou, Youhei Producer

Kasama, Nobutaka Producer

Suzuki, Kenichi Director, Script

Reviews

May 9, 2025

JustMonika-

Recommended

I watched all the episodes of this, wanted more, and then finished the manga, wanted more, and then finished all the manga spin-offs I could find. And I'm not even a medical student.

I even watched the live action movie when it came out, and that was one of the best live actions in my opinion, even though the movie incorporated a bunch of extra stuff in there.

The plot manages to be deep at times and made me so into the story I had to step back and remember that I could NOT be crying over some cells dying, nor finding a red blood cell ... and white blood cell to be so cute together. But that's how invested I was.

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

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Apr 20, 2025

Capacocha

Mixed Feelings

It’s not every day where one has the energy to watch something educational. Cells at Work is far from the documentary type of educational, since documentaries are rarely defined by cuteness. Personifying nonliving things is nothing new, but to do it cells is a new concept. Now I can’t test attest to how accurate the more obscure stuff is, for example, the different types of germs, so at most it serves as a decent rabbit hole to go down. Most of Cells at Work is marked by a generic plot structure and characters meant to tell rather than show.

The story is a basic sequence of ... events involving blood cells maintaining a human body. It’s geared more towards the educational side of things rather than entertainment. Because of this, a lot of the series can be a bit boring depending on one’s investment in the educational aspect of the series. It’s a series whose main goal is conveying information, which can be noted by the summaries of each event crammed into a corner of the screen. Each episode has a similar structure involving the normal functions of the body being disrupted. The series focuses on a new red blood cell whose main quirk is her struggle to deliver certain elements around the body. She’s at the mercy of the elements, ranging from simple germs to a hemorrhagic shock. If only there was someone or something to save her! Introducing the white blood cell, whose main job is to save the red blood cells from the bodily foreigners. There are other groups of teams involved in taking a more defensive approach, which notably includes the platelets. Way to make them cute, but, the lack of child labor laws is really concerning. It’s also pretty repetitive for an episodic series, with the exception of the last two episodes, which is why they were the best part solely because it was a bit of a change-up. It’s a basic story depicting a damsel in distress, and not much else.

Technically there are trillions of characters all working together, but a story only needs so many characters in order to stay coherent. Though, this would be like claiming a story has millions of characters because the main character happens to live in a big city. Comparatively to a city however, each character has their own role to fulfill as a member of society. The characters are, though cute, pretty bland when it comes to their personality traits. This is mostly due to their personality traits tying into how each of the episodes play out. The red blood cell’s main personality trait is her clumsiness, because she can’t just seem to find her way. The white blood cell is mostly defined by his tough exterior and his ability to save red blood cells, and not much else. There are other characters as well, but they mostly exist as pawns for their occupation, like the main characters. The characters’ traits can be seen as a clear repetition of the story, since their characterization only really exists to move the lack of a story along.

The art made the rather generic plot structure more watchable. The best part of the art are the character designs, both the cells and those who attempt to invade the body. A lot of the cells’ designs are simple, but it works in their favor. Notably, the red blood cells wear a hat shaped like a puffy disc (it took way to long for me to realize that they actually looked like red blood cells). The story likes to play around with the hats a bit, it would be cool to think that sickle cells would be marked by a different cap somehow. The germs’ character designs are diverse and can host a range of traits, such as a slow, sluggish germ or a metallic, stringy germ. The characters expressions are also especially cute, which are expressive indeed but not over the top in any way. Besides that, the sound department is decent. A lot of the voice acting is composed of shouting, which can be annoying after a while when the red blood cell makes a mistake. The opening and ending songs help tie into the cuteness factor in the series.

The target audience for this series seems hard to gauge. It’s either something a middle school science teacher would slow their class or a binge-worthy series for someone who is perhaps really into biology. I’m neither, so the series was an all around okay way to kill time. It’s meant to be educational, so a lot of the “less important” information gets displayed in a corner when it can’t fit into the twenty minute episodes. It’s supposed to be a bit of a comedic take on the subject, which is odd because I don’t think I’ve laughed once. Rather, it’s the art that captivated my interest since a lot of the plot isn’t appealing and seemingly notable in the first place.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Feb 7, 2019

OmegaCTH

Not Recommended

Funny

This show first attracted me because I thought it looked novel, and it was. For the first four episodes. After that I was really bored with this show. I couldn't sit through the show as the story repeated over and over with no effective change. The stories follow a certain format. Red Blood Cell finds either a germ, white blood cell, or a friend red blood cell and then they act afraid as the immune system fight the germs or that episode. The show failed to make me care about any of the characters. The art doesn't look back but it can be really ... lazy at times such as in the ED and is some walking animations.

Reviewer’s Rating: 2

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