Cells at Work!

Last December saw the release of Cells at Work!, the film version of Akane Shimizu's massively popular edutainment manga, in Japanese theatres. It debuted stateside on Netflix this past weekend, and I must say the wait was mostly worth it. Let's see if I can explain why.

On the surface level, this follows highschooler Niko Urushizaki (Mana Ashida) and her father Shigeru (Sadao Abe). Niko tries to keep her messy father healthy, while she pines for her upperclassman Shin Takeda (Seishiro Kato). But she's suddenly diagnosed with leukemia just as things look up for her ...

Meanwhile, the real action goes on inside her body. The trillions of cells navigating her circulatory system are represented by color-coded people running around a Disneyland-esque city. The Red Blood Cells are couriers, the White Blood Cells are soldiers, the Killer T Cells are essentially SWAT, the Helper T Cells are mission control, etc. A Red Blood Cell, designated AE3803 (Mei Nagano), has a terrible sense of direction, but she also has an ally in a White Blood Cell, designated U-1146 (Takeru Satoh). He mostly bails her out from attacks by several villainous maladies, but they must work together if Niko is to survive Leukemia (Satoshi Fukase).

What kind of visual metaphors can we expect here? U-1146 and his fellow cells fight over-the-top battles with the maladies, who are depicted as freaky and colorful supervillains. One bacterium, Pneumococcus (Ainosuke Kataoka), is expelled by an exploding sneeze rocket! Niko getting flustered results in a sudden dance number! The influenza virus is represented by a zombie apocalypse. We also see inside Shigeru, which is a dystopian society of junk and squalor. At one point, Shigeru is afflicted with the trots, which results in one of the tensest and grossest action scenes you'll ever see. This is still a visually appealing science class, thanks to some excellent production values and the kindly Macrophage's (Wakana Matsumoto) handy exposition. 

One of the best things that director Hideki Takeuchi and writer Yuichi Tokunaga did was to create Niko's storyline. The manga, as well as its countless spin-offs, only concerned itself with the inner world of a nameless body. Every malady was just as monster of the week, and if Niko existed, we wouldn't know it. All of these episodic lessons, both from the manga and its first spin-off Code Black, flow nicely in this new vessel. When Niko comes down with leukemia, not only will you feel badly for her, but for the cells trying to fight it off. Shigeru's laziness maybe funny, but he proves himself a spectacular dad when Niko needs it most. Takeda, meanwhile, is decently likable, but that's good enough. 

How about we meet some of these cells at work. Amongst the trillions, we have two likable co-leads with AE3803 and U-1146. Both of them have great personalities, which makes it fun to watch them interact, and it's quite compelling when they step up during the leukemia apocalypse. Meanwhile, the leader of the Killer T Cells (Koji Yamamoto) is not only a blowhard, but he's a good guy. An NK Cell (Riisa Naka), represented as a lone wolf monster hunter, might be the coolest character in the film. She has competition with the Macrophage, who proves quite handy with a cleaver. Another Red Blood Cell, designated AA2153 (Rihito Itagaki), is the protagonist of Shigeru's body, and is just as likable as our main heroine. The Platelets, represented by a bunch of little kids, are the film's biggest one-scene wonders.

This now brings me to Leukemia himself. In his villain origin story, he was just a youngling White Blood Cell until the big guys judged him defective. Then, he turned older and bad. It's quite a sympathetic backstory, but the film doesn't dwell on sympathy for him, even if his defeat is practically a mercy killing. He's even sympathetic when he embraces his villainy during his final battle with U-1146. This has been a point-of-contention in the manga for years, and I kind of understand why here. He, as well as the other cellular actors, do such a great job personifying their characters that it makes the ending a bittersweet pill to swallow. Let's just say it involves lots of chemotherapy. 

Still, a bittersweet pill is better than a dour tablespoon. Cells at Work! runs the gamut from goofy, to charming and emotional, which makes it a memorable Netflix experience. Who knows if it's entirely medically accurate, but it's absolutely edutaining, which makes it a good springboard to check its notes. I definitely recommend this movie to anyone and everyone curious. It's an absolute crowd-pleaser, as long as you don't let the ending bother you too much. See it soon to see what I mean.

As for me, I got to prepare for a few other reviews, which might even include another live-action anime film. Wait for it.