No matter how much you've prepared for it, starting any new job — let alone your first job — can be a nerve-wracking experience. This especially goes for professions where the work is dangerous and disgusting on a good day, and any mission can potentially be your last.
This is the situation in which Band Cell, a white blood cell that hasn't fully matured into a Neutrophil, finds himself. On his first day on the job, he's assigned to a team of mature Neutrophils to train and get acclimated to the job. The good news is that they're all very skilled at their job of killing bacteria. The bad news is that they're not necessarily the most skilled trainers, and they spend as much time messing with Band Cell (and each other) as they do training him.
Cells at Work! White Brigade is a Spin-Off of Cells at Work! illustrated by Tetsuji Kanie and supervised by the author and illustrator of the original manga, Akane Shimizu. Of the many Cells spinoffs, this is the only one that shares a primary character with the original series — namely, U-1146, the White Blood Cell.
Other spinoffs of Cells at Work! include Cells NOT at Work!, Cells at Work! CODE BLACK, Cells at Work and Friends!, Cells at Work: Bacteria!, Cells at Work: Baby!, Cells at Work! Lady, and Cells at Work: Platelets!.
Tropes present in this work include:
- Anthropomorphized Anatomy: Every entry in the series humanizes various cells of the human body and how they function. White Brigade is no exception.
- Blood Knight: The mature White Blood Cells are all fairly laid-back until they sense invading bacteria, after which they charge into battle — sometimes even forgetting to make sure Band Cell can keep up with them.
- Cast Full of Pretty Boys: The main cast is staffed by U-1146 and his all-male Neutrophil squad, and the male Band Cell who is training to become a mature Neutrophil.
- Denser and Wackier: A somewhat downplayed example, as some of U-1146's fellow Neutrophils had some silly moments in the original Cells at Work!, White Brigade expands on that idea... and some of these stone-cold killers are utter Cloudcuckoolanders in their down time.
- First Day from Hell: Band Cell's very first day on the job includes getting separated from the other WBCs and nearly getting killed by a large bacterium. While this is fairly normal for his line of work, he'd barely been able to get acquainted with his coworkers before bedlam broke out.
- New Meat: Band Cell is an immature Neutrophil fresh out of training, and is understandably anxious and uncomfortable on his first day on the job. While he does get in over his head at at times, he also manages to avoid becoming The Load.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: Having worked together since they were myelocytes — the WBC equivalent of childhood — the mature Neutrophils frequently snipe at each other as long-time coworkers often do.
