Trivia / Cells at Work!

• Accidentally Correct Writing: The platelet leader refers to both AE3803 and White Blood Cell as 'oneechan' and 'oniisan', respectively. While it literally means 'big sister' and 'big brother', these words are often used in real life to refer to slightly older people who you know but aren't related to you. However, Dr. Hope explained on his review of the episode that this is entirely correct, as platelets, white blood cells and red blood cells are all created in the bone marrow, and they all stem from the same cells, that act as base cells that can grow into anything.
• Acting for Two: in the English dub:

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  • Erica Mendez voices both Regulatory Cell and Myelocyte U-1146.
  • D.C. Douglas voices both Basophil and Secretion Gland Captain.
  • Armen Taylor voices both Cellar Allergen and Vibrio Parahaemolyticus.
  • Laura Stahl voices both Naive T Cell and young Cancer Cell.
• All-Star Cast:
  • And how! The two leads feature well-known veterans Kana Hanazawa and Tomoaki Maeno. Meanwhile, the supporting cast features Daisuke Ono, Kikuko Inoue, Takahiro Sakurai, Saori Hayami, M.A.O., Nobuhiko Okamoto, Yuuichi Nakamura, Ayako Kawasumi, Aya Endo, Hiroyuki Yoshino, Mamiko Noto, Mai Nakahara, Tomokazu Sugita, Satoshi Hino, Akira Ishida, Rikiya Koyama, Kosuke Toriumi, Toa Yukinari and Yui Ishikawa.
    • Even the newer and younger voice actors, Maria Naganawa and Shoya Chiba, are relatively popular and up-and-coming with modern audiences.
  • The English Dub dials it Up to Eleven with a mix of well-known and newer voice actors like Cherami Leigh, Billy Kametz, Robbie Daymond, Laura Post, Xanthe Huynh, Griffin Burns, Morgan Berry, Ray Chase, Erica Mendez, Erik Kimerer, D.C. Douglas, Kira Buckland, Jeannie Tirado, Lucien Dodge, Sean Chiplock, Christian La Monte, Armen Taylor, David Vincent, Maureen Price, Xander Mobus, Bryce Papenbrook, Ben Diskin, Cristina Vee, Landon McDonald, Bill Rodgers, Joe Zieja, Laura Stahl, Khoi Dao, and Karen Strassman.

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• Bad Export for You: The Netflix release got hit pretty hard with this. The main issue being that the text boxes that explain bits of world building go untranslated, meaning that a lot of viewers can potential end up getting lost because an important detail is never fully explained to them. The only bit of text that's translated is names and text on signs.
• Completely Different Title: Called Les Brigades immunitaires (The Immune Brigades) in French.
• Crossdressing Voices:
  • U-1146, Killer T Cell Squad Leader and Helper T Cell are voiced by voice actresses when they were a myelocyte (in case of the former) and thymocytes (in the case of the latter two).
  • Naive T Cell is voiced by a female before activating into an Effector T Cell.
• Directed by Cast Member: U-2048's Voice Actor, Christian La Monte, is the voice director of the English dub.
• Fan Nickname:

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  • Red Blood Cell often gets nicknamed "Red" for convenience.
  • "Osmosis JoJo" for the activated Effector T Cell because of the Art Shift to make him look more badass.
  • "Kaneki Kancer" for Cancer Cell due to his heavy resemblance to Ken Kaneki.
  • U-1146 and his friends (4989, 2626, and 2048; occasionally 2001) are collectively called "WBCsquad".
  • "Platelet Hanamaru" for Platelet Leader because of her uncanny resemblance to a younger-looking Hanamaru from Love Live! Sunshine!!.
  • When Red Blood Cell and White Blood Cell are portrayed as humans in fanfiction, their names are usually "Akane" and "Shiro" or variations thereof.
• The Merch: Giant Microbes has made tie-in plushies of their famous larger-than-life cells, complete with little hats and such.
• Newbie Boom: The very idea of a manga/anime series about biology gaining the attention of anime and manga fans who have life sciences or medicine backgrounds speaks volumes on how well this series is working.
• No Export for You: Out of the current spinoffs, Cells at Work! Lady does not have an English translation announced.
• Out of Order: Understatement. While Episode 1 of the anime starts off by adapting Chapter 1 of the manga, Episode 2 was made from Chapter 4, followed by Episode 3 being adapted from Chapter 3. Episode 4 was made from Chapter 5, while Episode 5 goes back and covers Chapter 2. That's followed by Episode 6 pulling double-duty by covering Chapters 7 and 8 in one go. Following that, Episode 7 does chapter 9. Then, Episode 8 does Chapter 10, and that's followed by Episode 9 doing Chapter 12, and Episode 10 handling Chapter 15. Episode 11 goes all the way back to Chapter 6. The series caps off with Episodes 12 and 13, which adapt Chapters 17 and 18, respectively, and then ends its run with the OVA made from Chapter 11.
• Relationship Voice Actor: With so many prolific and famous voice actors, it was expected:
  • In original Japanese:
    • Kana Hanazawa and Tomoaki Maeno previously voiced the leads in Kobato..
    • Kazuyuki Okitsu, Ayako Kawasumi, Tomokazu Sugita, Kenji Nomura, Daisuke Ono, Takahiro Sakurai, Mamiko Noto, Yuuichi Nakamura, Kosuke Toriumi, and Nobuhiko Okamoto are Jonathan, Erina, Joseph, Santana, Jotaro, Rohan, Yukako, Bruno, Mista, and Ghiaccio, respectively. Coincidentally, both JoJo's Bizarre Adventure and Cells at Work! are animated by David Production.
      • Mai Nakahara voices Kyoka in the Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan OVA.
      • Maria Naganawa makes a cameo voice appearance in the anime version of Vento Aureo as the girl whose toy phone is used by Doppio when he receives a call from the boss while on an airplane.
      • Sakurai also voiced Bruno in the PS2 Vento Aureo game.
      • In All-Star Battle and Eyes of Heaven, Nakamura is Anasui, Hiroyuki Yoshino is Vanilla Ice (ASB only), Akira Ishida is Doppio, Saori Hayami is Daiya (EoH only), and Rikiya Koyama is Kira.
    • Hanazawa, Sakurai, Sugita, and Ono are Yuko Tani, Metphies, Martin Lazaari, and Eliott Leland in the Godzilla anime trilogy.
    • Ono, Nakamura, Naganawa, and Mutsumi Tamura are Fafnir, Takiya, Kanna, and Kobayashi from Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid.
    • Ono, Nakamura, Kawasumi, Nakahara and Okamoto are Maeno, Nozaki, Miyako, Kashima and Mikorin from Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun.
    • Nakamura, Nakahara, Noto, and Kikuko Inoue are Tomoya, Nagisa, Kotomi, and Sanae from CLANNAD.
    • Hanazawa, Ono, Noto, Ishida, and Inoue are Beatrix, Albireo, Nodoka, Fate, and Shizuna in Negima! Magister Negi Magi
    • Nakamura, Nakahara, Noto, Sakurai, Ishida, Inoue, Hanazawa, Endo, Okitsu and Toriumi are Gray, Juvia, Mavis, Sting, Zeref, Minerva, Zera, Eclair, God Serena, and Acnologia from Fairy Tail.
    • Hanazawa, Ono, Inoue, Sakurai, Sugita, Nakamura, Satoshi Hino and Ishida are Kougyoku, Sinbad, Myers, Jafar, Drakon, Kouen, Koumei and Yunan from Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic.
    • Maeno, Noto, Sakurai and Nakamura are Koiwai, Moriko, Sakurai and Kanbe from Recovery of an MMO Junkie
    • Maeno, Hanazawa, Nakamura, Noto and Ishida are Leon, Queenie, Sieg, Fiona and Lon from Juushinki Pandora
    • Sugita, Nakamura, Hayami, Nomura, Ishida and Toa Yukinari are Ragna, Hazama, Mai, Tager, Amane and Bullet from BlazBlue
    • Endo, Yoshino, Toriumi and Ryota Takeuchi are Karin, Ed, Nash and Abigail from Street Fighter V
    • Maeno, Nakahara and Yukinari are Kyo, Nakoruru and Love Heart from The King of Fighters
    • Sakurai, Yukinari, Nakamura, Koyama and Yoshino are Griffith, Casca, Silat, Mozgus and Egg of the Perfect World from Berserk
    • Hanazawa, Okamoto and Ono are Shiemi, Rin and Arthur from Blue Exorcist
    • Hanazawa, Maeno, Nakamura, Okamoto, Sugita and Sakurai are Kitora, Kizaki, Jin, Arashiyama, Kageura and Gieve from World Trigger
    • Hanazawa, Okamoto, Ono and Sakurai are Nana, Takeru, Heath and Tomoe from Prince of Stride
    • Hanazawa and Koyama are Jiemei and Tora from Ushio and Tora
    • Maeno, Okamoto, Hayami, Nakamura, Ono, Yoshino, Sakurai and Endo are Kureto, Yoichi, Shinoa, Guren, Norito, Seishiro, Ferid and Mahiru from Seraph of the End
    • Hanazawa, Hayami, Sakurai, Yoshino, Sugita and Tamura are Mayuka, Hina, Bizon, Jarl, Conrad and Lasha from Buddy Complex
    • Hanazawa and Okitsu are Hana and Andre from Prison School
    • Hayami and Okitsu are Koyuki and Nachi from Fuuka
    • Nakamura and Okitsu are Basara and Leohart from The Testament of Sister New Devil
  • While in the English dub:
    • Red Blood Cell, White Blood Cell, Killer T Cell, Macrophage, Platelet, Basophil, Secretion Gland Captain, U-4989, U-1110, and Helper T Cell also as a Thymocyte are Makoto Niijima, Takuto Maruki, Goro Akechi, Kasumi Yoshizawa, Haru Okumara, Suguru Kamoshida, Yuuki Mishima, Joker, the Subway Announcer, and Ann Takamaki.
    • White Blood Cell, Basophil, Secretion Gland Captain, Senpai Red Blood Cell, Naive T cell, U-2626, Ordinary Cell, Pneumococcus, Regulatory T Cell, Memory B Cell, Effector T Cell, Bacillus Cereus, Commander T Cell, U-4989 Cedar allergen and Vibrio parahaemolyticus (Armen Taylor), Dendritic Cell and B Cell are Josuke Higashikata, Yoshikage Kira, Reimi Sugimoto, Hayato, Toshikazu Hazamada, Caesar Zeppeli, young Joseph Joestar, young Polnareff, ZZ tops and series narrator, Avdol, Oingo, Rubber soul, Bruno Bucciarati, Mista, Nero, Doppio, and Secco.
    • Red Blood Cell, her senpai, Commander T Cell, Basophil and Secretion Gland Captain are A2, 2B, Eve, and Pod 042.
    • Naive T Cell, White Blood Cell, eosinophil, Senpai Blood Cell, commander T Cell, the Platelet Leader, Basophil and Secretion Gland Captain, Memory B Cell, Dendritic Cell, and Staphylococcus Aureus are Iruma, Alice, Clara, Ameri, Sabnock, Kurori, Kalego, Henri, Robin, and Amaryllis
    • Regulatory T Cell, Pneumococcus, White Blood Cell, Dendritic Cell, U-2626, and the Platelet Leader are Retsuko, Haida, Anai, Tadano, Ookami, Miggy and Hakumi
    • Kohai Red Blood Cell, Bacillus Cereus, Red Blood Cell, Killer T Cell, Pneumococcus, U-2626, White Blood Cell, Regulatory T Cell, Neutrophil 2048 (Christian La Monte), Neutrophil 2001 (Zachary Rice), Cedar allergen and Vibrio parahaemolyticus (Armen Taylor), the Platelet Leader, Macrophage, Dendritic Cell and the narrator are female Byleth, Claude, Rhea, Hubert, Lorenz & Caspar, Felix, Ferdinand von Aegir, Bernadetta, Ignatz, Raphael, Miklan, Marianne, Catherine, Cyril and Anna.
    • B Cell, Regulatory T Cell, and Staphylococcus Aureus are Alibaba, Aladdin, and Morgiana
    • We have half of muse with the Platelet Leader, Staphylococcus Aureus, Senpai Blood Cell, Regulatory T Cell, and Macrophage as Hanayo, Kotori, Umi, Nico, and Nozomi.
    • We have also one-eight of Aqours with Kohai Red Blood Cell and NK Cell as Riko and Yoshiko a.k.a. Yohane.
    • U-4989, Red Blood Cell, Ordinary Cell, Staphylococcus Aureus, White Blood Cell, Dendritic Cell are Shin, Noi, Fujita, Ebisu, Ritsu, and Kasukabe.
• Sleeper Hit: Who'd have thought a largely episodic Edutainment series about the inner workings of the human body could garner such a huge fanbase and spawn its own franchise?
• What Could Have Been: A pilot chapter was released with the official guide book and there are many key differences from the finalized manga. For example:
  • AE 3803's prototype design could be mistaken for a feminine guy with her unkempt hair, messy uniform and lack of her iconic cap.◊
  • For U-1146's prototype design, both his eyes are visible, wears a messier uniform◊ and has a mellower personality. His prototype name is UC-16609-1116 or U-1116 for short.
  • Killer-T sports a similar uniform to the Neutrophils, unbuttoned with the words "Kill" on his shirt.
  • Nephron Cell^note cells that produce urine appears as someone who governs the Renal Corpuscle.
  • Cancer Cell appears as the antagonist. Unlike the final manga, he doesn't have any sense of self and acts in a zombie-like matter.
  • Most notably, U-1116's lifespan is only 20 days and will reincarnate when he dies or reaches his lifespan^note  He did reincarnate as U-1117 in the same chapter, and it's implied he still remembers her while Red Blood Cells live up to 120 days. It's kinda understandable why the last detail was left out in the final version, as the story would be more complicated or would be a short series otherwise.
• The Wiki Rule: it has one here: Cells at Work! Wiki.

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