Funny Cells at Work Manga Page
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Seriously, if we had read this in middle school I might actually remember the biology we were supposed to learn.
White Blood Cells are truly heroic.
My favorite chapter was the legend of the Cedar Pollen apocalypse.
Gripping narrative! Likeable characters! So cute! Educational!
Seriously, if we had read this in middle school I might actually remember the biology we were supposed to learn.
White Blood Cells are truly heroic.
My favorite chapter was the legend of the Cedar Pollen apocalypse.
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Granted, to get the jokes one needs a tolerable familiarity with both manga and anime, and some grip on biology, but hey, no problem here. Or anywhere, since the work teaches you the biology as it goes, accurately as far as I can tell. Who would have thought that the tropes of action manga and anime and a tour of the function of the anthropomorphized immune system would mesh so well? Akane Shimizu, apparently.
Neutrophil 1146 is my new hero, heh. Although the gnom
I've been laughing like a loon...Granted, to get the jokes one needs a tolerable familiarity with both manga and anime, and some grip on biology, but hey, no problem here. Or anywhere, since the work teaches you the biology as it goes, accurately as far as I can tell. Who would have thought that the tropes of action manga and anime and a tour of the function of the anthropomorphized immune system would mesh so well? Akane Shimizu, apparently.
Neutrophil 1146 is my new hero, heh. Although the gnomic ninja Basophil may have character development ahead, too. Dear lord, we've even had the angsty backstory about the young cells growing up in the bone marrow. The cosplay opportunities for science geeks must be ravishing.
I recently binge-watched the first seven episodes of the anime, all Crunchyroll has up so far, then backtracked to my library to discover that yes, they had an e-version of the manga for lending. It inspired me to blunder through and figure out how to get non-Kindle manga to appear on my tablet, my preferred reading mode for manga (and everything else) these days, so yay.
Gonzo inventiveness. I'm not giving it five stars only because I suspect depth of characterization is not what lies ahead, but it is highly recommended.
Ta, L. Still giggling.
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Thanks, Stewart, for recommending. Completely unique.
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The setting here is our body, which is portrayed as a huge building with different departments. The cells take on a humanoid form. Bacteria and viruses are depicted as monsters. There's lots of fighting.
There's also lots of information on how the body's immune system works, which cells are doing which job and how they work together.
This first volume has a monster of the week character, as we see our cells battling a sneaky Pneumococcus, the invasion of Cedar Poll
A manga that teaches you biology.The setting here is our body, which is portrayed as a huge building with different departments. The cells take on a humanoid form. Bacteria and viruses are depicted as monsters. There's lots of fighting.
There's also lots of information on how the body's immune system works, which cells are doing which job and how they work together.
This first volume has a monster of the week character, as we see our cells battling a sneaky Pneumococcus, the invasion of Cedar Pollen allergens, Influenza zombies, and invading bacteria from a scrape wound respectively.
There's also a tiny bit of overarching narrative, as we follow a Red Blood Cell who's new on the job and is repeatedly helped out by a White Blood Cell.
The self-contained stories with reappearing characters (cells) lead to a certain repetitiveness in terms of information. But it is actually helpful in this particular case. The intention of it certainly being to consolidate knowledge.
There's also quite a bit of violence, which only makes sense, if you consider how our immune system works. But it makes it harder to recommend for young kids. I'm not quite sure what's the appropriate age group for this and would suggest that interested parents first read it themselves.
The respective stories were entertaining enough, but also felt a little scattered, which is additionally emphasized by some very busy artwork. The ending of the first chapter particularly, though, made me laugh. And I think the Platelets are some of the cutest characters I have ever seen.
For future volumes I hope that the relationship between Red Blood Cell and White Blood Cell will be further developed. I don't know how much character development can be expected here, since this is just not the primary purpose. But I think it wouldn't hurt.
This one here was more like a three star read for me. But it gets an extra star for being educational in a creative and fun way. Maybe I wouldn't have slept through most of biology classes if we had used something like this in school.
Extra star for the charge of the Platelet Brigade. ~heart melting~
Not sure what their jobs are? No worries, "Cells at Work!" explains it to you in the most digestible way. This is by far the most educational manga I have ever read, and also simplistically imaginative and adorable. I wonder what else they can do in terms of forming an overarching narrative since they seem like pretty isolated story arcs. I am highly entertained by this series off the bat so I'll be checking out the next few volumes. Even if it's just for the Platelets - they are just too cute!
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More reviews (and no fluff) on the blog http://surrealtalvi.wordpress.com/
Cells at Work is an imaginative way to learn about how the body's blood system works. Although educational, it is also fun - plenty of adventures and even a potential love interest between our hard working red blood cell protagonist and the mysterious but powerful white blood cell agent who protects her. As can be seen from the cover, all the cells looks like people but the bad guys (infections, bacteria, germs, virus More reviews (and no fluff) on the blog http://surrealtalvi.wordpress.com/
Cells at Work is an imaginative way to learn about how the body's blood system works. Although educational, it is also fun - plenty of adventures and even a potential love interest between our hard working red blood cell protagonist and the mysterious but powerful white blood cell agent who protects her. As can be seen from the cover, all the cells looks like people but the bad guys (infections, bacteria, germs, viruses) all look like monsters.The story here is that our red blood cell works in a 'vein' factory, moving packages (oxygen). Her work is something she loves but the factory sometimes gets invaded by monsters. White blood cell armed security guards arrive and dispatch the invaders in a very bloody (ironic) and messy way. There are asides that describe the actual/real parts of the circulatory system/invaders and how they work. Those asides give just enough information to be informative but not so much that it is burdensome to read them.
A good example of the stories in this book (which admittedly in this first volume feel very 'monster of the week') is the first chapter: a pneumococcus bacteria invades and wreaks destruction on our poor red blood cells and heroine. White blood cells arrive and promptly take out the monster but not completely - he is able to hide part of himself to wait for another opportunity to invade. Along the way we learn about neutrophil, red blood cell and its job, venous valve, macrophage, lymph duct, cell capsule, pneumococcus bacteria, receptor, dendrite cell, platelet, blood clot, T helper cell, killer T cell, lymphocyte, lungs, capillary, alveolus, wandering cell, encapsulated bacteria, sneezing. And that's just the first chapter! Most chapters are fairly long in length to create a whole story arc.
How creative is this? The mangaka/author has created an extraordinary way to present biology. E.g., when the bad bacteria attacks our red blood cell, a white blood cell breaks through the ceiling and attacks him, exclaiming that white blood cells can pass between veins. The pneumococcus can use its own cell wall to protect itself - so in this case, the monster creates a shield matrix that our white blood cell has to penetrate in order to attack. There is even an encapsulation machine in the factory to capture the bad bacteria, put it in a rocket, and then eject it from the body with a sneeze!
This type of story could have been really boring or childish but owing to this being a manga, it's surprisingly mature and never talks down to the reader. It is quite violent by American standards, yes - but when you think about it, what the human body does to protect itself is quite violent to those invaders (and the invaders are violent to the body's cells and organs). The story is quite fun with an intriguing mixture of both shounen (boys) and shoujo (girls) manga sensibilities.
As entertainment, the fights between all the different germs/bacteria/viruses and the body's systems keep readers interested. But the real value here is the creativity in explaining the human body and how it works. And well, the platelets are just so darn cute! This is genius work here anthropomorphosizing the human body's circulatory system and won several awards in Japan. Highly recommended as the perfect manga for adults to give kids. Reviewed from an advance reader copy provided by the publisher.
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A unique and terrifyingly accurate depiction on what actually happens during your body's never-ending fight against outside antigens and diseases and injuries. (Yes, you really do have teeny tiny people running around your veins and stuff! .... Nah I'm just kidding. But really.)
As a molecular biology and virology student, I really, really wish I had something as engaging as this to read while studying for my classes during college! It obviously won't help anyone pass their exa
🎇🎇🎇--5/5 stars--🎇🎇🎇A unique and terrifyingly accurate depiction on what actually happens during your body's never-ending fight against outside antigens and diseases and injuries. (Yes, you really do have teeny tiny people running around your veins and stuff! .... Nah I'm just kidding. But really.)
As a molecular biology and virology student, I really, really wish I had something as engaging as this to read while studying for my classes during college! It obviously won't help anyone pass their exams, but it would have made me that much more interested in the subjects. Lately, it seems it's becoming increasingly difficult for any educational material to be riveting (and make students actually care about it other than for a grade), but this manga manages to take a pretty meaty and mundane subject--immunology--and turn it into something that's charming and stimulating.
As the manga has yet to be finished, I'll definitely be following along as the chapters come out! I definitely recommend this to any current and/or up-and-coming biology students, and just to those who want a little more knowledge in the field!
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"Target. Cells. Confirmed. Proceed. With. Removal"
Follow the daily lives of cells as they battle influenza, hay fever and other threats to the human body
What a perfectly executed and clever premise. As someone who has never really been interested in science, I was slightly hesitant to try this as I feared it would just be one long biology lecture. However, I'm happy to say that I thoroughly enjoyed this. Sure, someone who has good knowledge of human anatomy and the way the body w
80% | B+ | Great"Target. Cells. Confirmed. Proceed. With. Removal"
Follow the daily lives of cells as they battle influenza, hay fever and other threats to the human body
What a perfectly executed and clever premise. As someone who has never really been interested in science, I was slightly hesitant to try this as I feared it would just be one long biology lecture. However, I'm happy to say that I thoroughly enjoyed this. Sure, someone who has good knowledge of human anatomy and the way the body works will probably get a lot more out of this than me, but it's presented here in such a charming way that it's impossible not to get swept up in the world that Shimizu has created. Red and White, despite being polar opposites, bounce off each other really well, and the supporting cast are also very memorable. A must-read for those who are fans of manga and biology, and a good time in general for those who aren't as well versed in those areas.
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I'm actually gonna start being healthy... can't let those cute cells down with my laziness. The fact that this teaches me more about
Cells at Work is an imaginative, and unique way to learn how our body's blood system works. Although educational, it's fun and filled with plenty of adventures. It depicts what actually happens during our body's never-ending fight against outside antigens, diseases, and injuries. I felt the story was spot on! It's scientifically accurate, and extremely fun to read!I'm actually gonna start being healthy... can't let those cute cells down with my laziness. The fact that this teaches me more about biology and science more than school does is alarming!
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Glad I finally gave this a shot after having it on my radar for a while.
Also, this thing taught me more about cells than school did.
In this story, we follow each of the types of cells but most closely the red blood cell and the white blood cell. They both go through many adventures while ridding the body of alien objects.
I thought the story was spot on! It's fast paced, scientifically accurate, and so fun to read! Each new segment of the story is full of action and the poor Red and White blood cells don't get a break. But that is l
What a great read!! Not only is it a compelling story, it's good for learning about the body.In this story, we follow each of the types of cells but most closely the red blood cell and the white blood cell. They both go through many adventures while ridding the body of alien objects.
I thought the story was spot on! It's fast paced, scientifically accurate, and so fun to read! Each new segment of the story is full of action and the poor Red and White blood cells don't get a break. But that is literally life for you.
The characters... Omg.... They were created stunningly. They are such a fun interpretation of different cell types!
- Red Blood Cell, specifically the MC. She is such an airhead (😉) but she's the best. I've heard her described as a UPS or a mail deliverer, which is pretty accurate.
- White Blood Cell, the other MC. He's epic. Like... Woah. He's brave and daring. But he also knows when to step back and he's such a dork under the kinda scary atmosphere. His overall outfit is fabulous.
(- the ship between these two is pretty real)
The art style is SO well done!! It reminds me of Deathnote's art style. The line art is similar, near identical, and the shading is similar but much softer. There's a few scenes where the shading was similar to JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, which was super intriguing. Overall, very very good job!
Super impressive manga! Would recommend to anyone interested in biology, anime/manga, or adventure. (Does have some gore, so be warned)
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This is exactly like that, except gleefully throwing a bunch of manga tropes at the premise.
Now googling this, it turns out it was a French-Japanese-Swiss-Italian co-production, so maybe the author was familiar with it? In either case, this comic is signif
If you are Hungarian and about my age, you have probably grown up watching the French cartoon "Il était une fois... la vie", which teaches you about various health conditions by showing the adventures of anthropomorphized cells inside the body.This is exactly like that, except gleefully throwing a bunch of manga tropes at the premise.
Now googling this, it turns out it was a French-Japanese-Swiss-Italian co-production, so maybe the author was familiar with it? In either case, this comic is significantly more violent and bloody. White blood cells are just brutal!
I was afraid the women characters would end up being oversexualized, but there were no panty shots and the like. People were busy fighting giant bloody battles. The characters were quite stereotyped, but I definitely got the impression this was done on purpose and with great abandon.
This volume was quite short (the book is a bit padded with advertisements with other series) but a fun ride regardless, I already reserved the next two volumes at the library.
Source of the book: Lawrence Public Library
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This is a bizarre idea - and that's good. The story teaches you the functions of the parts of the immune system, as well as how the immune response works, by having our hero and heroine fight off an attack of pollen, some bacteria, influenza, and deal with a scrape. This book is highly inventive - showing the white blood cell character being 'stuck' to the floor be
Red blood cell and white blood cell do their daily work as well as get involved with a bacterial attack on the body they are part of.This is a bizarre idea - and that's good. The story teaches you the functions of the parts of the immune system, as well as how the immune response works, by having our hero and heroine fight off an attack of pollen, some bacteria, influenza, and deal with a scrape. This book is highly inventive - showing the white blood cell character being 'stuck' to the floor because he has to become a part of the fibrin net that forms a scab was great. I think I would have loved this when I was young, but now - I probably won't read another in the series.
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This is my second time reading this volume, it is both educational and cute. The first time I did not like it as much because of the narration. The second time around I enjoyed it much more, because I was looking up alot more of the terms on my phone. This volume contains four chapters which each tells a seperate and complete story. Many cell types such as white blood cell, red blood cell, different types of T cells, Macrophage, Dendritic cell, platelets, Mast cell, Memory cell and Introduction:
This is my second time reading this volume, it is both educational and cute. The first time I did not like it as much because of the narration. The second time around I enjoyed it much more, because I was looking up alot more of the terms on my phone. This volume contains four chapters which each tells a seperate and complete story. Many cell types such as white blood cell, red blood cell, different types of T cells, Macrophage, Dendritic cell, platelets, Mast cell, Memory cell and B cell all get introduced in this volume.
Minor spoilers ahead:
Chapter 1: Pneumococcus
In this chapter Red blood cell meets white blood cell for the first time and she encounters her first bacterium, Pneumococcus. The T cells make their first appearances here all three of them Killer, Helper and Regulatory. Macrophage too.
The chapter ends with red and white blood cells talking about how many thier of thier respective cell types are in human bodies. And the unlikelihood of encountering each other again. Which is funny becuase most of the series is them bumping into each other it also fourth wall braking.
Chapter 2: Cedar Pollen Allergy
In this chapter ceder pollen enters the body and Memory cell, Mast cell and B cell make thier first appearances. The issue is this chapter is the pollen cuases B cell and Mast cell to over produce both antibodies and histamine. Then the body takes a immune suppressor, Which causes alot of havoc.
Chapter 3: Influenza
The T cell play a major role in this chapter, especially Naive and Killer. We get to kill Microphage do some killing which was awesome. Dendritic cell makes a first appearances, when talking to Naive.
In this Chapter Naive has yet get to encounter a antigen so he is scared. After meeting with Dendritic cell he becomes an effector T cell. Then the Influenza mutates into type A.
Chapter 4: Scrape Wound
In this chapter platelet get to play an important part in the story. It begins with red blood cell being near the surface of the skin then the body gets a sprape. Then many types of bacteria flood in. White blood cells has to fight many bacteria on his own till help arrives. Which are the over white blood cells and the Platlets. The white blood cells are fighting a losing battle till the platelets close the wound with fibrin. Then the white blood cells can fight without worrying about being sucked outside the body.
Conclusion:
Being more familiar with the terminology makes the much story more enjoyable. Even as a biochemistry student I had not heard a few of the terms. The character are really cute and funny. If you want to learn more about cell biology in a fun and creative way I highly recommend this manga.
But when Lois McMaster Bujold did a short review about Cells at Work she made it sound like it might be fun (plus, she's closer to my age than teens are!)
I did enjoy reading this graphic novel. It does have action, a budding "romance," etc., but a
As a librarian, I've tried to learn to embrace and appreciate graphic novels, with little success. And though I grew up loving superhero comic books, especially DC, graphic novels don't seem to be as enjoyable. (Yes, my aging may have affected that...)But when Lois McMaster Bujold did a short review about Cells at Work she made it sound like it might be fun (plus, she's closer to my age than teens are!)
I did enjoy reading this graphic novel. It does have action, a budding "romance," etc., but along the way readers actually learn more about our bodies' cells and what the various kinds do. There's humor in the way the author relates standard storytelling to bodily functions and disease. I was chuckling frequently.
This one I did enjoy more than the other graphic novels I have read. It's a fun amalgam of styles. And a quick read. (I will mention that it is published in traditional manga-fashion, so the book is read from back to front, with the panels reading what many would consider "backwards". This takes some adaption, but this book is pretty forgiving to those who get confused. The story is still easy to understand.)
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Even with that, I would totally recommend this to someone looking for a fun read. There are a lot of really funny points in here and the fact that it makes biology entertaining is a major positive point, particularly from someone like me who hated the class in school and did not retain any in 3.5 stars because it's funny and educational, but it (unfortunately) suffers from being read after watching the anime. I'm missing the energy and the action that made a lot of the scenes particularly funny.
Even with that, I would totally recommend this to someone looking for a fun read. There are a lot of really funny points in here and the fact that it makes biology entertaining is a major positive point, particularly from someone like me who hated the class in school and did not retain any information about the body. This manga managed to get my mind to remember which cell is which and how basic things in the body work. It's fun and educational! ...more
Also the anime adaptation is adorable too.
Name (in native language): 清水茜 SHIMIZU Akane
Name (in native language): 清水茜 ...more
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