Human health and physiology is much more complicated and interesting than many people realize. Most general health education focuses on a "generic" human body (in most cases, a healthy young adult) as a baseline, or fixates exclusively on the illness du jour at the expense of viewing the body holistically. As a result, there's a lot of weird and interesting things about the human body that tend to be glossed over or ignored outright if they don't fit into one of the above two categories.
Take babies, for instance. Most of us simply aren't aware of all the interesting things that happen within an infant's body literally within moments of being born, or how perilous the birth process is even under ideal circumstances. Cells at Work: Baby! attempts to address this issue, as it seeks to provide readers with information on infant health in the guise of a comedy manga.
Baby! is a 2019 manga written and illustrated by Yasuhiro Fukuda based on an original concept by Cells at Work! creator Akane Shimizu. Much like the numerous other Cells at Work! spinoffs, this series tells the story of human body cells portrayed as human beings as they go about the daily work of keeping their host human alive. In this case, however, the cells are all basically toddlers who've been dropped into the working world, and must now quickly adapt to life outside the womb's supportive care.
The manga runs in the seinen anthology Morning and has been licensed by Kodansha Comics for American release, starting its English-language run in July 2020. The manga is now complete at 4 volumes.
Other Spin-Offs of Cells at Work! include Cells NOT at Work!, Cells at Work: Bacteria!, Cells at Work! CODE BLACK, Cells at Work and Friends!, Cells at Work: Platelets!, Cells at Work! Lady and Cells At Work! White Brigade.
Cells at Work: Baby! contains examples of the following tropes:
- Artistic License – Biology:
- In the real world (and other Cells at Work! spinoffs), the "child" equivalent of a red blood cell would be an erythroblast, which the RBCs in Baby! clearly aren't. However, they are portrayed as children to show that, like the cells of real-life newborns, they haven't entirely grown into their roles and are somewhat inefficient in their jobs.
- While most of the other cells are drawn as children or preteens, the Platelets are drawn as toddlers, pacifiers and all. Despite this, out of all the baby's cells they differ the least from their counterparts in other series — their behavior is largely the same, and they're still quite competent at their jobs. They are weirdly large, however, with most being only a bit shorter than the regular cells.
- Becoming the Boast: Killer T-Cell makes his first appearance as a braggart and a bully...yet he is lost and scared when the baby's first actual virus attack occurs. Although it takes a while — and a few saves by White Blood Cell —he eventually does get it together and defeats the virus in badass fashion. While the experience doesn't completely end his Small Name, Big Ego ways, he's less of a bully and more mindful of his place among his fellow cells.
- BFG: Immunoglobulin G (IgG), an antibody the baby obtains from the mother, is portrayed as a massive mounted artillery that effortlessly tears through an entire group of dangerous S. aureus bacteria. It's so big, it looks more like a vehicle than a weapon at first.
- Deus ex Machina: Many chapters are at least partly resolved by actions from the baby's unseen caregiver. In most cases, the caregiver simply helps the cells do their job by providing basic care. However, the caregiver sometimes saves the day completely, as in "Choking", when the baby (and all their cells) would have suffocated to death were it not for a last-minute save. The use of the deus ex machina trope is justified, however, as newborns are largely helpless and cannot fend for themselves and must be actively cared for to survive.
- Edutainment: While Baby! has a similar narrative as the main series, its intent is to give new parents advice on early child health.
- Expy:
- The main Red Blood Cell in Baby! looks and acts like the main series' AE3803, and have the same role of being the "everymen" that tours the body.
- Subverted hard by White Blood Cell, who despite looking almost exactly like a chibi U-1146 from the parent series, is actually a total scaredy-cat compared to his Blood Knight forbear. He's still quite strong and comes through when it counts, however.
- Friendly Sniper: Memory B Cell kills pathogens with a sniper rifle and is good at his job, but he is still a kid and displays a lot of emotions.
- "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: When the Intestinal Epithelial Cells are infected with Norovirus and start attacking the cells, Red Blood Cell screams at them to snap out of it. It actually works, as they stop and are able to remove the virus with the help of Immunoglobulin A (IgA).
- Innocent Inaccurate: In the first chapter, Red Blood Cell claims to know the cause behind the sudden earthquakes: they're under attack by a giant robot! She's wrong; of course — the earthquakes are uterine contractions — but her reasoning is both funny and the kind of thing a young child would plausibly come up with.
- Language Barrier: A variation. The main Platelet in Baby! cannot or does not speak, which leads to several misunderstandings by Red Blood Cell, who believes she is lost.
- Lighter and Softer: While not as quite as tame and fluffy as Friends! or Platelets!, Baby! is lighter than its parent series and infinitely less dark and depressing than the other seinen Cells at Work! spinoff.
- Nightmare Fetishist: Memory T Cell enjoys dissecting pathogens to learn about them. She creeps everyone out.
- No Antagonist: While some chapters do have antagonists in the form of bacteria or viruses, a large percentage have none at all. In these chapters, the conflict generally stems from external events more akin to forces of nature than anything else.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: The spunky, impulsive Red Blood Cell and her level-headed, sober-minded co-worker F-niichan fill these roles throughout the early chapters.
- Same Content, Different Rating: Despite being essentially a chibified version of the original series, Baby! is bumped up from shonen to seinen. The justification being the series intends to provide advice on neonatal health.
- Small Name, Big Ego: Prior to his first battle, Killer T-Cell is entirely too convinced of his own importance as an immune cell, even though he hasn't yet done anything to earn it. Afterwards, he maintains this quality to some extent, though his antics become more comedic than callous.
- Super-Deformed: As the baby's cells are still quite young, they're drawn in chibi style with large heads and extremely large eyes. This is in direct contrast with the "adult" characters, who are much more realistically proportioned as manga characters go.
- Villains Want Mercy: After the Immunoglobulin G disables the Staphylococcus aureus, they beg the White Blood Cells for mercy, and receive none.
- The Voiceless: Platelet either can't or won't speak. This trait seems unique to her — her fellow Platelets are shown speaking — but no reason has been given as of Volume 2.
