Cells at Work! Code Black – Stress is a Killer

Production

Visually, Code Black is on par with the original Cells at Work. Which is to say, it’s o.k. I wouldn’t call this a stunning anime and I doubt anyone will immediately point to Cells at Work when describing how beautifully animated shows can be, but it’s never turned me off either. Everything about the production was competent.

As far as design choices go, that’s more likely a matter of taste. I’m not crazy about the colours in the series but then again, it’s not like they had free range. The cells are coloured according to their functions and the insides of animals are rarely full of rainbows.

Story & Characters

As I mentioned in my opening paragraph, to me Cells at Work came off as geared towards younger children. Maybe it’s just because my brain has made an association between the greater concept of edutainment and Sesame Street or maybe there really was something in the production itself that had a PG vibe. In any case, I personally never thought that was a bad thing.

Whether I’m right or not, Code Black gave me the impression that it was forcibly trying to age itself up. The entire show has a metaphor of toxic work culture running through it that is not likely to properly register unless you’ve had at least one sh*tty part-time job at some point. There’s also a more overt sexualization of most “female” characters in the show. I don’t know if female is the right word, they’re all non-sexual cells. Let’s say female-looking. The white blood cells have a fanservice design, with a lot of emphasis on large chests with completely exposed cleavage, both the liver and kidney cells are illustrated as beautiful women in the pleasure industry, the liver cells being hostesses and the kidney cells being soapland ladies. There’s even an episode dedicated to erections. I liked that episode.

If for some reason, those elements weren’t enough to clearly signal that Cells at Work! Code Black isn’t for little kids anymore, the show is also a huge bummer. This time around, we’re following the body of an extremely unhealthy guy who has no intention of taking care of himself. In the span of the series, he goes through so many pretty bad health issues that I started wondering at episode 3 how he was still standing. And they don’t really pull punches in representing how bad lifestyle choices affect your body. In this case, drastically.

In fact, they are a bit too heavy-handed for my taste. Now, I enjoyed the show but not entirely on its own merits. If I’m to be objective, Cells at Work! Code Black was often melodramatic, the lessons it was teaching came off as preachy and the main character (gender-flipped red blood cell) is a complete Gary Stu. There’s little character evolution, with dramatic set pieces taking the place of real growth and even an after-credits end stinger that undoes all the build-up of the series.

But I did like it… I will say that I think the actual explanations of how the body works were better in Code Black than in the original Cells at Work. Actually, it was a very good course in human biology all around. Also, the toxic workplace analogy brought something interesting to the mix. It’s rather broken as far as analogies go since most people can leave toxic workplace environments. It may be very difficult and maybe the financial aspects make it not a viable option, but it is in the realm of the possible. Once differentiated, cells can really only do one thing. And the show does insist on that point. As such, the dynamics towards their job sort of change. It’s not just their job, it’s literally their existence. This breaks the metaphor a bit but I still thought there was potential there.

And although I hated the preaching. I rolled my eyes a few times through the series. I can’t deny that a lot of it was true and hit home. As much as I hate to admit it, I did think to myself, I should make an effort to be a bit healthier. Considering my lifestyle and diet, that sadly means drinking less but hey, why not? It will make drinking nights more special! I’m a sap, so it probably won’t have the same effect on most people, but you know, even if it only has that effect on one other person, I think that’s pretty cool.

You might like this anime if:

You really need someone to shame you into taking better care of yourself. You like white boobies?

I save all my screencaps on my Pinterest and you can find more there if you are interested. But I still like to show you a few in the post. If you’re like me, screencaps are something that really helps you decide to watch an anime or not.