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Cells at Work! Code Black Anime Reveals More Cast, Opening Song Artist, January 9 Debut in 2nd Video

The official website for the anime of Shigemitsu Harada and Issei Hatsuyoshiya's Cells at Work! Code Black (Hataraku Saibō Black) spinoff manga announced the anime's additional cast members, opening song artist, and January 9 premiere. It also presented the second promtional video and a new key visual:

The newly announced cast members are:

• Hekiru Shiina as Macrophage
• Sarah Emi Bridcutt as Liver Cell
• Daisuke Hirakawa as Brain Cell (Command)

In addition to performing the opening theme song "Hashire! with Yamasaki Seiya (Kyuso Nekokami)" (Run!), the rock band POLYSICS is performing the ending theme song "Ue o Mukaite Hakobō with Sekkekkyū/Hakkekkyū" (Look Up and Carry on with Red/White Blood Cells" with lead cast members Junya Enoki and Yōko Hikasa.

The anime will premiere on the Tokyo MX, Tochigi TV, YTV, and BS11 channels on January 9 at 24:00 (effectively, January 10 at midnight). It will then run on MBS, TV Aichi, Hokkaido Broadcasting Co., Ltd., and RKB Mainichi Broadcasting. The anime will air right after the second season of the main Cells at Work!! anime for the "Cells at Work! Hour."

Hideyo Yamamoto (Strike the Blood, Magical Girl Spec-Ops Asuka) is directing the series at Liden Films. Hayashi Mori (The Snack World, Layton Mystery Tanteisha: Katori no Nazotoki File) is supervising and writing the series scripts. Eiji Abiko (Last Hope, Baby Blue) is designing the characters, and Yūgo Kanno (Psycho-Pass, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond Is Unbreakable) is composing the music.

Junya Enoki is playing Red Blood Cell (AA2153), Yōko Hikasa is playing White Blood Cell (1196), and Kenjiro Tsuda is narrating the anime. The other cast members include:

• Kenn as Red Blood Cell (AC1677)
• Lynn as White Bood Cell (8787)
• Yumi Uchiyama as White Bood Cell (1212)
• Takashi Narumi as Gastric Chief Cell
• Yurika Kubo as Platelet

Kodansha Comics licensed the manga, and it describes the story:

In this new spinoff of the hit manga, a newbie Red Blood Cell is one of 37 trillion working to keep this body running. But something's wrong! Stress hormones keep yelling at him to go faster. The blood vessels are crusted over with cholesterol. Ulcers, fatty liver, trouble (ahem) downstairs... It's hard for a cell to keep working when every day is a CODE BLACK!

The manga and anime Cells at Work! showed you what happens when a young, healthy body gets in trouble... but what if the body wasn't so young, and was never very healthy? This new take stars a fresh-faced Red Blood Cell and his friend, the buxom White Blood Cell, as they struggle to keep themselves and their world together through alcoholism, smoking, erectile dysfunction, athlete's foot, gout... it's literal body horror! Whoever this guy is, he's lucky his cells can't go on strike!

Harada and Hatsuyoshi launched the manga in Morning and the Weekly D Morning digital manga magazine in June 2018. Kodansha published the manga's sixth compiled book volume on April 23. Kodansha Comics published the sixth volume in English on October 27.

The Cells at Work! Code Black anime has a separate staff and cast from Cells at Work!! (with two exclamation points), the previously announced second anime season of Akane Shimizu's Cells at Work! manga.

A theatrical anime based on a story from volume 5 of the original manga premiered in theaters in Japan on September 5. Aniplex stated that the anime will screen in theaters before it airs on TV as part of the second season. The theatrical anime's full title is: Tokubetsu Jōei-ban "Hataraku Saibō!!" Saikyō no Teki, Futatabi. Karada no Naka wa "Chō" Ōsawagi! (Special Screening Edition: "Cells at Work!!" The Return of the Strongest Enemy. A Huge Uproar Inside the Body's "Bowels!").

The first television anime of the original manga premiered in July 2018 and aired for 13 episodes. Aniplex of America streamed the series on Crunchyroll, and Funimation added the show in February. The company released the anime on Blu-ray Disc with an English dub in August 2019. A new anime special aired in December 2018, and Crunchyroll is streaming the special.

Sources: Cells at Work! Code Black anime's official website