YMMV / Cells at Work!

• Ass Pull: During Cancer Cell's reappearance, Ordinary Cell returning the last Lactobacillus to the gut somehow stops Cancer Cell from drawing on the power of the bacteria he's using to fight, allowing White Blood Cell to defeat him.
• Awesome Music:
  • The first ending theme: "CheerS".
  • "March of the Platelets".
  • "Sensei Anone" sung by Platelet Leader and Macrophage.
  • The OP is no slouch either. It even has an English version! Then the English cover got a full version, something all but unheard of with English anime covers.
• Base-Breaking Character: The decision to portray Cancer Cell as a sympathetic Tragic Villain rather than a straight-up force of evil to be defeated leaves viewers divided. Some like the complexity behind Cancer Cell in how he's not a generic villain like most of the other nasties the Immune System deals with and that it does fit in that he's just a normal cell that was born wrong. Others feel this isn't accurate as Cancer Cells are genuinely doing harm by violating the laws of the body and shouldn't be depicted as a circumstantial victim, and then there's those who have suffered because of cancer and don't wish to feel any sympathy towards a representation of it.
• Cry for the Devil: Mostly applied to Cancer Cell (you're gonna be noticing a pattern here). Despite being terrible for the body when left to its own devices, some viewers can't help but feel for his plea to be treated like any other cell.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • The Platelets are secondary characters in a story that revolves around Red Blood Cell and White Blood Cell, and yet they were popular candidates for this during serialization thanks to their adorable Cub Scout-like attitudes. Their appearances in the anime brought an influx of fans. Their Leader in particular was loved enough to star on covers with the main cast, eventually getting one all to herself and her fellow workers. Special mention goes to the focus chapter dedicated to them, their job, and their mistress, Megakaryocyte. The anime sought to bolster their popularity even further, especially Leader-chan who is voiced by Maria Naganawa who is very popular with the contemporary generation for voicing Token Mini-Moe characters (the same goes for Xanthe Huynh for the English version). The Platelet leader got her own Nendoroid designed and in production when the anime was only 5 episodes into airing and Good Smile Company even said it was by popular demand!
  • Macrophage is side character who became immensely popular both for being a badass Action Girl with a cleaver, as well as a motherly teacher who looks after the Erythroblasts (young Red Blood Cells).
  • Eosinophil is only one member of the Immune System, a friend of U-1146, but she has a lot of fans for being a shy moe girl who turned out to be a Hidden Badass.
  • Cancer Cell is by far the most fondly remembered Villain of the Week; both for being a Knight of Cerebus who changed the lighthearted tone to a dark one, as well as being a very complex Tragic Villain with a sympathetic backstory behind his villainy, as opposed to the more card-carrying villainous pathogens that usually appear.
  • For some reason, U-1146's neutrophil partners (U-4989, U-2048 and U-2626) are very loved in the Japanese fandom, getting their share amount of fanarts.
• Epileptic Trees:
  • By far the most popular fan theory is that AE3803's Idiot Hair being crescent-shaped is an indicator of her being a sickle cell, citing her clumsiness and tendency to get lost as examples of sickle cells halting oxygen production. This has been debunked by various real life doctors and medical students who state sickle cell is a genetic disease so it's near impossible to get a single sickle cell in a body unless it was a spontaneous mutation, along with the fact the condition causes red blood cells to get stuck rather than getting lost. AE3803 has no problems passing through tight alleys, which are this series's equivalent to the capillaries.
  • There's also the theory that AE3803 was supposed to become a White Blood Cell, but was raised as a Red Blood Cell due to her hair color. Her near-constant presence during germ attacks and her Idiot Hair acting up during the first Cancer arc (much like a Neutrophil's own sensor) despite being far away from the action are used as examples. Further credence is lent to this theory in the manga due to how some of the Hematopoetic Stem Cells remarked that they were two Eosinophils short when AE3803 was being sorted for differentiation.
• Evil Is Cool: Cancer Cell has garnered a lot of fans for being a Knight of Cerebus with particularly Creepy Awesome Lovecraftian Superpowers.
• Fan Nickname:
  • 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. (Akane is a female Japanese name that means deep red, while Shiro simply means white.)
• Fandom Heresy: Drawing or viewing Rule 34 art of the platelets is very much frowned upon, and may be literally illegal depending on your local laws.
• Fanfic Fuel: How would AIDS or a similarly horrific illness be like on the cellular level? Nano Machines? Bio-engineered bacteria, good or bad? Acute Radiation Poisoning? A body with a genetic illness? Or an organ transplant? What about genetic therapy (which involves "helpful" viri injecting cells with foreign DNA in order to teach them not to freak out when they encounter allergens)? What of fictional illnesses, such as G.U.I.L.T., the T-virus, or one of the rapidly mutating global exterminator plagues of Plague Inc.? Or a "Fantastic Voyage" Plot? If the beefier leukocytes of CODE BLACK represent someone with a stronger immune system, would a fast clotter have stronger or more numerous platelets? How do the cells handle long term events like pregnancy? How about a Plague Master who can produce pathogens inside their own body? And what happens when a body simply dies of natural causes? All that and more is ripe for the picking in fanfiction, if it hasn't been picked up by one of the spinoffs already.
• Fanon Discontinuity: The ending upset a lot of fans to the point that most like to believe it never happened. After Cancer Cell's second defeat, the manga went on a three-year hiatus, coming back in 2021 only to anticlimactically end after a couple of Ripped from the Headlines chapters about the COVID-19 Pandemic. Any discussion of the ending of the series will usually revolve around how confusingly abrupt it was, and how it seemed to show that author Akane Shimizu was more interested in merchandising the series' many spinoffs instead of continuing work on her own manga and giving it a more satisfying conclusion.
• Foe Yay Shipping: U-1146 and Cancer Cell, in both of the Cancer arcs. While most cells wouldn't treat cancer cells like him as anything other than mutated monsters, U-1146 still recognizes them as living, breathing people, who just happen to go against protocol and jeopardize the body. It's that kind of outlook that actually endeared him to Cancer Cell, and the latter certainly treats him with more respect/affection than any other cell.
• Fountain of Memes: The Platelets became among the most memed characters of the anime community in 2018.
• Friendly Fandoms: With Osmosis Jones thanks to its similar premise.
• Genius Bonus:
  • Red Blood Cell's numerical designation, AE3803, is a hexadecimal color for a shade of red. Specifically, the brownish-red of a deoxygenated Erythrocyte.
  • In certain back angles, on the back of Red Blood Cell's hat, it's appropriately shaped like an actual red blood cell.
  • All of the bacteria and pathogen designs possess physical features that correspond with their real life appearance. For instance Staphylococcus aureus is yellow in color and possesses 'grape' like appendages around her torso, while Pseudomonas possesses tentacles which signify the flagella they have in real life.
  • Bacteria are made of cytoplasm, while red blood cells have hemoglobin. Depicting them as the cells'/bacterial 'blood' actually makes sense.
  • Influenza viruses are depicted as small red balls with sticks protruding, which is exactly how they look in real life. Unlike most of the other infectious entities, viruses are not strictly considered 'alive' by scientists, which makes sense of the fact that they aren't depicted as being sapient.
  • Dendritic Cell has a post in a tree. In real life, the actual cell looks tree-like with their shape.
  • Enucleation of erythroblasts and graduating them to erythrocytes is depicted as a pom-pom on their hat being removed, signifying the removal of the red blood cell nucleus. This is fitting considering their hats are shaped like real life Red Blood Cells.
  • Viewing from the top view, when Macrophage uses a Spin Attack, there's a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment where she looks like the actual cell.
  • Eosinophil wears pink clothing while Basophil wears blue, just as how real-life eosinophils and basophils respectively stain pink and blue under the microscope.
  • Cancer Cell's Lovecraftian Superpowers where he spawns multiple arms that reach out may seem like a case of Artistic License – Biology, but it actually makes sense considering how alike it is to the real life process of angiogenesis, where cancerous tumors cause new vessels to form and branch out where they then siphon surrounding nutrients into itself.
• Harsher in Hindsight: U-1146's involvement during the Cancer Arc becomes this after his English voice actor, Billy Kametz, announced his colon cancer diagnosis and subsequent hiatus to undergo treatment in April 2022. He eventually lost the fight on June 9, 2022.
• Jerkass Woobie: Cancer Cell. He was born wrong, through no fault of his own, and from the moment of his birth lived in fear and confusion of why he was being hunted down by the cells who were supposed to be his friends, and throws a Suicidal Cosmic Temper Tantrum as a result. When he realizes that he was a freak supposed to die, he goes into a rage and decides to take down the entire body with him. But it's not hard to feel sorry for him given the sympathetic light he's depicted in. Even White Blood Cell takes pity on him and lets him say his final words before killing him.
• Just Here for Godzilla: A lot of people have learned of this show thanks to the Platelets and Cancer Cell.
• LGBT Fanbase: The Killer T Cell Squad Leader has earned a discernible gay male following thanks to the combination of his hunky design and personality.
• Magnificent Bastard: Cancer Cell is a malfunctioning cell attempting to survive. After watching his friend get killed by Killer T Cells, Cancer Cell became wrathful, devoting his existence to destroying the body and pushing the white blood cells down to his level. Disguising himself as an ordinary cell, Cancer Cell uses one of his clones to stage an attack and gets saved by Neutrophil; Killer T Cell; and NK Cell. He then lures them to his lair to kill them with his clones. Returning to life when his genetic information is leaked, Cancer Cell manipulates Regulatory T Cell into believing him to be a functioning cell, using her to protect himself from attacks. He then invades the intestines and siphons off the toxic fumes of the harmful bacteria. Reasoning that a better world would ensure that cells of all kinds would be able to live together in harmony, Cancer Cell notes that even if it fails, he would be putting everyone out of their misery. Despite his omnicidal designs, Cancer Cell displays an unwavering respect for Neutrophil, taking both of his defeats with stride.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • The Platelets have a Fountain of Memes associated with them:
    • "Anone anone!" ^Explanation The anime version of the Platelet Leader's first scene dialed up the cuteness to the point it's regarded as her fanon Catchphrase. Viewers considered it so much of a Most Wonderful Sound that they could watch a 10-hour remix of the Leader saying just that over and over again. This appears to have become an Ascended Meme as any appearances outside the main series featuring Platelet-chan, such as the ”Sensei anone” song or the chibi shorts, have her using this phrase very regularly
    • Jokes about the Platelets abound, mostly memes warning "stop lewding the Platelets or they won't make your bleeding stop".
    • Poke the loli^note due to Red Blood Cell's fondness for poking Platelet Leader's cheek, jokes were made that even though lewding the Platelets was off the table, poking them was considered acceptable
    • "Protecc the Platelets"^note as per norm with loli jokes, fans declare the Platelets need to be protected rather than lewded, with White Blood Cell being a primary example with him carrying them around during the heatstroke
    • "It's sad they only live for 8-9 days"^note a common response to seeing the Platelets when they're being all happy and cute, by citing their lifespan in the real life
    • For a while, fans took to Wikipedia and constantly vandalized the page on "platelets", replacing the images with pictures of the Platelet Leader and calling them "lolis".
  • The real Cells at Work. ^Explanation All sorts of jokes were made about the Cells and their real-life counterparts, ranging from biology textbooks being the "real" manga, to microscopic videos marked as the live-action adaptation, to photos of actual cells being embarrasing/lewd in-universe or Dendritic Cell's Porn Stash.
  • Korean Twitter fans have taken to reversing the colors and personalities of the cast. Of them all, "Black Blood Cell" U-1146 stands out, being a more emotional and aggressive counterpart to his Neutrophil self.
  • Then there's the inevitable jokes about the sexual side of the body, like that time of the month being when blood cells start mysteriously disappearing, egg and sperm cells having Me and My Dick style romance while the host bodies are getting nasty, or sperm cells looking like the cast of Free! (a bunch of hot, shirtless guys in a swim team). ^note  Though ultimately averted in Cells at Work! CODE BLACK where sperm cells are depicted as little children in hoodies, piloting sperm cell-shaped mini-submarines. Cells At Work L Ady would also avert the "disappearing RBCs during menstruation", showcasing only one Red Blood Cell transporting the Endometrial Cells out, who chose to leave once the uterine lining is destroyed by menstruation and deciding they are of no further use to the body.
  • Shipping AE-3803 and U-1146 will have fans unanimously end up saying the phrase "Great, now I'm shipping my own cells!"^note Which can also bring up shipping countries i.e Hetalia: Axis Powers with the line
  • Pink blood cells. ^ExplanationRed+white=pink, so despite cellular reproduction not working that way there's been some jokes about such cells being the result of the fandom's OTP.
  • A certain Cell being depicted as working in an office, just for the pun factor.
  • Given that famous meme figure Stefan Karl a.k.a Robbie Rotten passed away from cancer shortly before the release of the Cancer episode, a common response against those who sympathized with Cancer Cell was "But he shanked my man Robbie!"
  • "I want to keep my body healthy now." ^ExplanationWhenever the body is suffering other bodily issues, such as a fever, fans will often say that they want to keep their own body healthy so their cells won't suffer, especially the platelets
  • The anime lied to me! ^ExplanationPeople will jokingly post a failed biology test, especially about the platelets, based on what the cell is and not how they function.
  • "Blood cuck" ^ExplanationThe anime has been used to promote blood donation◊, to which some fans have jokingly responded that they want to keep their adorable blood cells and platelets for themselves instead of sharing them with another person.
  • "Osmosis Jones: The Anime" ^ExplanationThis is a common joke between the two Friendly Fandoms due to both having a very similar premise.
• Misaimed Fandom: A decent portion of both fans and regular anime viewers have come to hold the belief that the series making Cancer Cell a Tragic Villain is an attempt at creating a sympathetic villain based on one of the most deadly afflictions known to man, resulting in a Base-Breaking Character where some find this in poor taste and others genuinely believe that he deserves a little sympathy for his tragic life circumstances. However, both sides miss the subtle points that show how, while Cancer Cell is a Tragic Villain, he has a blatant case of Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse, making it clear that no matter how badly the world treated him, throwing a Suicidal Cosmic Temper Tantrum shows he doesn't actually care about the injustice dealt with him in relation to cells overall, just how it affected him personally, so he'd rather have every cell in the body, including innocent cells who never meant harm to him, die with him just to soothe his bruised ego—and this is illustrated in his second appearance, where he goes full-on Omnicidal Maniac. In simpler words, they completely forgot this is, first of all, an Edutainment Show about the human body, which means all sources of disease — which certainly includes Cancer Cell — are not intended to be treated sympathetically.
• Moe:
  • The Platelets. A group of small children in overly large T-shirts earnestly working despite their size? Gosh darn adorable, and pretty much all of the body and blood cells that we get to see think so too. The anime also gives them voices that verge on Most Wonderful Sound.
  • Red Blood Cell herself, with viewers being endeared by her klutziness and her hilarious freak outs.
  • The Erythroblasts (young red blood cells) and Myelocytes (young white blood cells) are tiny and innocent. This is especially the case with little AE-3803 and U-1146. The former even wears a meido uniform prior to graduation, which is typical for all Erythroblasts.
  • The Lactic Acid Bacteria, due to their puppy/kitty like behavior to Ordinary Cell and their Pokémon Speak of "Nyuu!" making them extremely adorable.
• Narm Charm: Let's see... A narrator talking like it's a children's book, anthropomorphic personifications of cells tackling the various functions of the body, some very cheesy dialog here and there. Who would ever think that an Edutainment anime that looks like it's aimed for kids would be one of the more popular anime of Summer 2018? Somehow, this show pulls it off.
• Older Than They Think: The series isn't actually the first time that cancer cells have been given a humanizing performance - that would go to an animation called It's Payback Time. The two big differences are that 1. the audience doesn't know the cells are cancer cells until the very end, and 2. the cancer cells' death are portrayed as a triumphant moment for mankind.
• One-Scene Wonder: Because Cancer Cell is so incredibly popular for his Tragic Villain status and complex characterization that makes him one of the most memorable antagonists in the series, many are surprised when watching the show to find out that he doesn't last any longer than any other Monster of the Week.
• One True Pairing: Red Blood Cell/White Blood Cell. The fandom unanimously ships these two together, especially after Episode 8 where White Blood Cell spent the whole episode tailing Red and making sure she didn't come to harm, while being so proud of her when she navigates the whole circulation system by herself.
• Periphery Demographic: The anime presents itself as an edutainment show aimed for children, yet has attracted the attention of adults, especially Doctors and Biology majors for its accurate representation of the immune system. It has reached the point where biology teachers in China have assigned it as homework to their students.
• Portmanteau Couple Name: Red Blood Cell/White Blood Cell is referred to as Erythrophil or ShiroAka. The latter is derived from their Fan Nicknames, "Akane" and "Shiro", which are what they're usually called in fanfiction portraying them as humans.
• Replacement Scrappy: Ordinary Cell for Red Blood Cell in the later half of the manga. While she is a boundless optimist who's never without a smile, he spends most of his time onscreen whining about stuff like White Blood Cell doing his job. Additionally, due to his lack of powers, he constantly finds himself needing to be bailed out of bad situations, and his arc about returning the Lactobacilli to their proper homes takes up a good half of the screentime of the second anime season despite its tenuous connection to the rest of the story.
• Ships That Pass in the Night:
  • A surprisingly high amount of fanart ships some of the named Red Blood Cells with members of WBCsquad (AA5100/Senpai-RBC x U-4989 is the most common pair), despite them barely interacting together. It also seems to be more of a Ship Mates thing, as they tend to be compliments to U-1146/AE3803 fics.
  • Pairing Macrophage and Dendritic Cell together is also quite common, despite their lack of actual moments together. However, as members of the mononuclear phagocyte system (MPC), macrophages and dendritic cells do share a close biological classification—and this probably serves as the basis for the ship, regardless of the relevant characters' actual on-screen interactions. The anime does add a couple of additional scenes showing the pair having tea together.
• Shocking Moments:
  • Cancer Cell revealing himself and unleashing his Lovecraftian Superpower of Combat Tentacles is one of the biggest shockers in the series.
  • The body suffering from hypovolemic shock is not a moment to sneeze at either, being one of the most harrowing moments the whole cast had to face and only narrowly averted in the end.
• Spiritual Successor:
  • Being a series based around humanized versions of blood cells, viruses, and the general inner workings of the human body, it's, in some ways, a Moe-fied Osmosis Jones (or for non-Americans, Il Était Une Fois... la Vie due to its Edutainment status).
  • In a lot of ways, Cells at Work is like an edutainment spin-off of Psycho-Pass. Like the citizens of Psycho-Pass, the cells are all assigned professions from the moment they are born in order to contribute to the society, that society being the human body. The Immune System is a microscopic version of the Public Safety Bureau who hunt targets deemed a threat to either detain or execute before they can cause too much damage.
• Sweet Dreams Fuel:
  • Despite depicting the chaotic (and often disgusting) happenings that take place inside the human body each and every day, the series somehow manages to avoid any of the gross out factors that normally comes with this sort of concept and instead oozes heartwarming charm from every angle. With its clever symbolism and design choices, varied but unanimously-lovable cast of characters, and lighthearted tone that rarely wanes despite the constant conflict, it's very hard to not smile and feel happy for your own body's hard work when tuned in. This is one of the reasons why Cancer Cell is such an effective Knight of Cerebus.
  • Special mentions go to the Platelets who provide "Awww" moments in virtually every scene they are in, from how hard they work, playing with each other or the older cells, or having trouble reaching places due to their short height.
• Ugly Cute: Cedar Allergens are little more than blobs with faces but there's something endearing about them, especially with the anime's jiggly animation. It helps that unlike the other monsters, they're actually completely harmless and the conflict of the episode revolves around the immune system's completely disproportionate response to them.
• Unintentionally Sympathetic: The biggest reason why Cancer Cell has such a large Misaimed Fandom that spawned a Broken Base over making cancer a Tragic Villain is how the author accidentally leaned a bit too hard into the "tragic" part, as while he may be an irredeemable monster with a case of Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse to represent how cancer can only be cured by killing it, since once a cell becomes cancerous it can never be fixed, the tragic wording of his dialogue, dramatic framing of each time he dies, and emotional acting of his actor in the anime, make it seem like he has an understandable and appreciable point.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: To some, Regulatory T Cell can be seen as this during the Return of the Cancer Cell Arc. While it's stated that her allying with the revived Cancer Cell is because that she's incapable of recognizing cells born within the body as a threat, the way she's depicted during her tenure as The Dragon, namely stomping on a downed Killer T and delivering a "Reason You Suck" Speech to him doesn't help in making her appear entirely innocent, which isn't helped by the fact that she's telling them to not attack other cells, while attacking them and displaying no issue with the Cancer Cell trying to outright kill them. Plus, it can come off as rather baffling that, regardless of her inability to register threats born from the body, she doesn't recognize that Cancer Cell is the Big Bad even after all his talk of wanting to kill the body and attempting to kill her fellow cells.
• Viewer Gender Confusion:
  • In the anime, Naive T Cell has a feminine-sounding voice that might cause him to be mistaken for a short-haired girl. (The fact that he is actually voiced by a female voice actress in both the Japanese and English dubs probably doesn't help.)
  • There are both male and female platelets, but due to their unisex clothes and having high-pitched and childish voices, some viewers have mistaken them for being all girls. The most prominent male platelet is the one distinguished by having his hat backwards. This is so bad that even official material can get confused, particularly with Backwards Cap-kun, where the subs for Season 2 Episode 1 call him a girl, and the Cells at Work: Platelets! spinoff outright turns its version of him into a girl.
• What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?: On one hand, the Edutainment factor and the adorable characters intended to appeal to children. On the other hand, gory violence, a few genuinely disturbing antagonists, and depressing existential horror in the Cancer Cell arc.
• Woolseyism: During B-Cell and Mast Cell's Volleying Insults, the Japanese version has Mast Cell yelling out that the B in his name stands for "Baka", to which the subs and English version adjust to the rough equivalent of "bonehead".

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