Anime fans are already excited about the upcoming Cells At Work!! Season 2 release date, but now it’s been announced that a Cells At Work! Code Black Anime is also coming out in 2021. Is this Hataraku Saibo Black anime the rough equivalent to Cells At Work! Season 3?
Not quite, since the Hataraku Saibo Black anime is a standalone story, which literally expands into a new body. But based on the way the Manga series was created with many spin-offs, it’s possible Cells At Work! Season 3 could still be made since some of the side stories are based in the original human body.
What is not clear yet is whether the Cells At Work! Code Black anime will be adapted as part of Cells At Work!! Season 2 or whether Code Black will be considered a separate anime season with its own standalone title. If it’s the latter case, then both Cells At Work! anime will be released in the same time frame.
While that plan may seem odd at first glance, it makes sense based on the manga’s story. The Cells At Work!! Season 2 anime will continue the story of Red Blood Cell AE3803 and White Blood Cell U-1146, while the story of the Cells At Work! Code Black anime is literally set in a completely different body so there is no overlap between the characters or their story arcs.
Assuming that the Cells At Work! Code Black anime is a separate production, it’s currently unknown which animation studio will produce the anime. Nor has the main staff and director been announced.
What is known for certain is that Cells At Work!! (Season 2 is denoted by two exclamation points) is being produced by animation studio David Production, which is also working on the upcoming 2021 Spriggan anime, Fire Force Season 2, and Strike Witches Season 3: Road to Berlin. It’s predicted that the JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Part 6 anime release date will be set for late 2021 based on coronavirus pandemic delays and the scheduling of the studio.
Director Kenichi Suzuki (Drifters, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure) helmed the first season, but director Hirofumi Ogura (Black Butler) will take over for Cells At Work!! Season 2. For the first season, the director and series composition writer Yuuko Kakihara (Persona 4) worked together to create the anime script.
Character designer Takahiko Yoshida (Welcome To The NHK) is also the chief animation director. Kenta Mimuro and Keiko Tomaki also created some of the character designs. Re:ZERO and Girls’ Last Tour music composer Kenichiro Suehiro is creating the music for the Cells At Work!! Season 2 anime.
The Cells At Work! Code Black cast has not yet been announced, but it should be different from Cells At Work!! Season 2, which has a returning cast.
The Cells At Work! Code Black opening (OP) theme song music and ending (ED) have not yet been announced.
In the past, Aniplex of America produced a Cells At Work! English dub, which was released with the Blu-Ray box set in 2019. The Cells At Work !! Season 2 dub and Cells At Work! Code Black English dub have not yet been announced.
This article provides everything that is known about Cells At Work! Code Black (Hataraku Saibou Black) and all related news. As such, this article will be updated over time with news, rumors, and analysis. Meanwhile, let’s delve down into what is known for certain.
Cells At Work! Code Black anime takes a dark dive into the human body
The story of the main Cells At Work! anime is based on the Hataraku Saibou manga series by Akane Shimizu. The official English translation of the Cells At Work! manga by Kodansha Comics is caught up with the Japanese volumes.
All in all, there were 30 chapters of the original manga series, which ended in December 2018. The first season of the anime series and the 2018 OVA episode adapted 15 chapters altogether.
That leaves Chapters 13, 14, 16, and 19 through 25, which is only enough source material for Cells At Work!! Season 2 to be a single-cour anime season.
A “cour” is a three-month unit of TV broadcasting based on the physical weather seasons. Most anime seasons feature 12 or 13 episodes per cour.
That’s another reason why the Cells At Work! Code Black anime is likely to be a standalone anime season. The main manga has ended so it only provides enough chapters for a single season, so Black could be considered a Cells At Work! sequel, of sorts.
Launched in June 2018 by Shigemitsu Harada, Code Black is already up to 36 chapters in 6 volumes. The official English translation is up to Volume 4 and Volume 5 is scheduled for May 19, 2020, while Volume 6 is coming out on August 18, 2020.
Arguably, if the Cells At Work! Code Black anime is only a single cour anime then there are already is enough manga content for Cells At Work! Code Black Season 2.
Not only are the characters completely different, but the subject matter is more intense. The manga tells the story of cells living inside a human body suffering from an unhealthy lifestyle since he drinks and eats too much, has insufficient physical activity, and has high stress.
Code Black’s story features stories related to diabetes, smoking, alcohol, STDs, and even erection problems. If anything, it’s a wonder this body is still alive after all the medical problems it suffers!
Could the other Cells At Work! manga spin-offs be used to create Cells At Work! Season 3?
Both the main anime and the Code Black anime series have plenty of chapters to adapt. But it’s possible the main story could be supplemented with chapters from the shorter manga spin-offs in order to create an actual Cells At Work! Season 3.
Cells At Work! Friend is probably the best way to extend the main anime series since it features side stories set in the original body. As of March 2020, it was up to Volume 3 so it has enough content to extend the main series considerably.
Similarly, Cells That Don’t Work! (Hatarakanai Saibo) manga by Moe Sugimoto shows what happens when immature red blood cells just wanna be NEETs. It’s up to Volume 3 as of December 2019.
Writer Yuuko Kakihara and artist Yasu teamed up to create yet another spin-off called Platelets At Work (Hataraku Kesshoban-chan). As might be guessed, the new manga will focus on the adorable platelets, but it’s only one volume as of January 2020.
There is also the Cells At Work! Baby manga which features the main anime characters as chibi versions of themselves. Then there is the Cells At Work! Lady manga which is geared toward adult women.
The Bacteria At Work! (Hataraku Saikin) manga by Haruyuki Kichida is a story about good bacteria and bad bacteria waging war in the intestines. Similar to Code Black, a Bacteria At Work! anime would work as a standalone anime season since it’s already up to 6 manga volumes as of December 2019.
Cells At Work! Code Black release date
As of the last update, David Production or any company related to the production of the anime has only officially confirmed that the Cells At Work! Code Black release date is scheduled for January 2021, the winter 2021 anime season. The exact Hataraku Saibo Black release date has not yet been confirmed.
Once the Cells At Work! Black release date is officially confirmed, this article will be updated with the relevant information. Stay tuned!
