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Live-Action Cells at Work! Film's Clips Contrast Healthy, Unhealthy Bodies

The staff for the live-action film of Akane Shimizu's Cells at Work! (Hataraku Saibō) manga unveiled two new videos for the film on Thursday. The first clip below shows the healthy high schooler Niko, as her red blood cells deliver oxygen, her white blood cells and killer T cells protect her from bacteria and disease, and her body pumps adrenaline, endorphins, and dopamine while she's with her crush. The second video shows her unhealthy father Shigeru when his red blood cells struggle to deliver oxygen in his alcohol-laced smoker's body, and when he struggles to control his bowels.

The previously announced cast includes:

• Mei Nagano as Red Blood Cell
• Takeru Satō as White Blood Cell
• Sadao Abe as unhealthy father Shigeru Urushizaki
• Mana Ashida as healthy daughter Niko Urushizaki
• Kōji Yamamoto as Killer T Cell
• Riisa Naka as NK Cell
• Wakana Matsumoto as Macrophage
• Maika Pugh as Platelet
• Shōta Sometani as Helper T Cell
• Rihito Itagaki as Red Blood Cell
• Ryō Katō as Senior Red Blood Cell
• Seishirō Katō as Shin Takeda
• Kyōko Fukada as Hepatocyte
• Ainosuke Kataoka as Pneumonia Coccus
• Shinya Niiro as Streptococcus pyogenes
• Maju Ozawa as Staphylococcus aureus
• SEKAI NO OWARI member Fukase as ?????
• Takashi Tsukamoto as Teacher Neutrophil
• Wataru Ichinose as the captain of the external anal sphincter
• Japanese DJ and rapper DJ KOO as Neuron

Hideki Takeuchi (live-action Nodame Cantabile, Thermae Romae, Fly Me to Saitama) is directing the film, with a script by Yūichi Tokunaga (live-action Kaguya-sama: Love is War, Liar x Liar, Princess Jellyfish). Warner Bros. Japan is distributing the film. Official HiGE DANdism is performing the theme song "50%."

Shimizu launched the original Cells at Work! manga in the March 2015 issue of Kodansha's Monthly Shonen Sirius magazine, and ended it in January 2021. Kodansha USA Publishing is releasing the manga in English.

The first television anime of the original manga premiered in July 2018. The second season premiered in January 2021, alongside the anime of the Cells at Work! Code Black spinoff manga.

Kodansha USA Publishing is also releasing the following spinoff manga in English: Cells at Work: Bacteria!, Cells at Work!: Neo Bacteria!, Cells at Work! White Brigade, Cells at Work! Baby, Cells NOT at Work!, Cells at Work! Code Black, Cells at Work and Friends!, and Cells at Work: Platelets!.

The latest Cells at Work! spinoff manga to end is Kae Hashimoto's Hataraku Saibō Illegal (Cells at Work! Illegal), which ended in July 2023. The manga focused on a body that takes illegal substances and is subjected to physical violence. Akari Otokawa and Shigemitsu Harada's Hataraku Saibō Lady (Cells at Work! Lady) spinoff manga ended in September 2022. The manga focused on adult women's physiology, such as menstruation, pregnancy, and childbirth. Harada also writes the separate Cells at Work! spinoff manga Cells at Work! Code Black, which ended in January 2021. Yū Maeda's Hataraku Saibō Muscle (Cells at Work! Muscle) spinoff manga launched on Kodansha's Morning two manga website in February 2023. Choco Aozora and Meku Kaire's Hataraku Saibō Neko (Cells at Work! Cat) and Koma Warita and Ryō Kuji's Hataraku Saibō Okusuri (Cells at Work! Medicine) both recently launched in Kodansha's Monthly Shonen Sirius magazine in May 2023.

Source: Press release