Cells at Work

Well, that was a trip.

Cells at Work adapts the manga of Akane Shimizu, which takes the functions of the body's cells to make characters of them, the story following the daily life of a red blood cell and her frequent encounters with a white blood cell that defends the body from attack.

As I've mentioned in reviews of other adaptations of the work, (it's also an anime), this setup will be familiar to others of my vintage who grew up watching the French cartoon, Once Upon a Time... Life. Of course this more recent version is stylistically more complex and certainly more dynamic, but the central premise remains the same.

Immediately we're introduced to a new concept for the series; getting to know the host. In previous works, the human body never has a story of its own, but here we're introduced to schoolgirl Niko Urushizaki, who lives with her father who has a rather unhealthy lifestyle. With her mother dead, the two have to rely on each other to get by. It's a smart move too, because the goings on of our world lend context to what's happening inside Niko's body, such as the Mardi gras musical number that erupts when she gets excited interacting with her school crush. 

As she's a child, her innards are presented as a Disney styled landscape, complete with a castle that represents the Red Bone Marrow where red blood cells are born. Here we meet our red blood cell protagonist as a child, attacked by an invading Streptococcus Pyogenes, a tentacle covered spikey drama-queen that looks very much like a Sentai villain (get used to this). It's dispatched by a serious young white blood cell and the paths of the two will cross again repeatedly as they grow older.

I might be a bit critical of the costumes, but the platelet children are adorable!

The idyllic imagery is expanded upon by the other cells in the body, with the platelets all being played by young children acting like a youth group being the most adorable. It looks very fake, with CGI dotted all over the place, but it represents the idea of a fresh young body well enough.

By contrast, when we see the insides of Niko's father, it's a rundown landscape that looks like a battered Japanese village, all dilapidated traditional houses and dirty streets. I like this element of design, it makes it clear where we are at all times and highlights the effects that unhealthy living can have on our insides.

In true Casualty style, the father is set up to be the health crisis, but it's Niko that takes a turn for the worst as she develops Leukemia, necessitating a blood transfusion from Dad and chemotherapy to make way for a bone marrow transplant, all of which is played out like a disaster movie inside Niko's body, the once idyllic setting looking devastated as the illness takes hold in the form of shambling zombie-style cancer sells attacking all the healthy ones.

On paper it all makes sense and you have to admire the ambition. In practice, it's a tonally uneven and odd looking film that flits between impressive choreography, ropey CGI, cosplay-looking costumes and unintentional hilarity. Now I admit I first watched this dubbed, and whether intentional or not, the white blood cell seems to be doing its best albino Keanu Reeves as Neo impression, which made me smile.

White Cell (Takeru Satoh). He knows Kung Fu. Woah.

The cancer cells wearing white hoodies with bandaged faces and black jeans makes cancer look like a fan film rather than a cinematic threat however and this cheap aspect of the film's production really dogs the theatrical outing from start to finish. All the costumes feel a bit cheap and this is no doubt due to budget and the need for high contrast colours, but when you see the insane levels of knife-wielding violence that erupt when the white blood cells get to business, it feels like somebody going stab-happy in Lazy Town. It just feels wrong.

Where the film works very well is in the second half, as the decay sets in and the threat becomes overwhelming. The tone evens out and the violence suits the surroundings, which also enhances the drama. Director Hideki Takeuchi seems at his best when dealing with drama and urgency amidst the ruins of Niko's body, and that's conveyed very well in the film's third act. Making one particular infected white blood cell the central villain was also a smart move, as it gives the film an antagonist around which the chaos can revolve and through which we can see a more personal level of threat for our two main blood cells. 

I find it hard to recommend the film wholeheartedly, as it initially looks like a cheap pantomime, complete with Saturday morning villains and cheap-looking sets. The unreality of the setting makes it all feel a bit frivolous and off-putting, though by the latter stages of the film you realise it's essentially to make the devastation that much more effective. It's just a bit hard to get upset at the destruction of what looks like the set of ITV's Fun House. 

Narratively the film works well enough, mixing the internal and external drama in a way that drives the story forward and explains the cause and effect of what we're seeing on screen. The earnest portrayal of the red blood cell seems cheesy at first, but more hard-hitting by the end of the film where you see her character-arc conclude. There were parts of the film I liked very much, others I found a bit puerile (somebody please smack Niko's man-child father for the love of God...) but as an adaptation of the manga? I think fans will enjoy it.