Wednesday, June 11, 2025

Review: Cells at Work (Vol. 1) by Akane Shimizu

Title: Cells at Work: Vol. 1

Series: Cells at Work #1

Author: Akane Shimizu

Genre: YA, manga, science, action

Publication date: November 2016

Published by: Kodansha Comics

Source: Borrowed from library

Add it on Goodreads

Buy it: Amazon | B&N | Thrift Books

Synopsis: A BLOOD-PUMPING JOB

Strep throat! Hay fever! Influenza! The world is a dangerous place for a red blood cell just trying to get her deliveries finished. Fortunately, she's not alone... she's got a whole human body's worth of cells ready to help out! The mysterious white blood cell, the buff and brash killer T cell, the nerdy neuron, even the cute little platelets—everyone's got to come together if they want to keep you healthy!

My rating: ★★★★★

It has been a minute since I last read a manga, but I was very excited to read this one because I loved the anime when I watched it a couple years back. And the manga was just as good!


I really enjoyed the creativity of this series! The portrayal of viruses and bacteria as monsters, with white blood cells patrolling the body and eliminating said monsters as the other cells go about their jobs, is brilliant! It’s very engaging and educational.


In this volume, we learn about pneumococcal bacteria, allergies, the flu, and scrape wounds. It’s not boring, I swear! But then, I like science, so... Lol.


Like I said, this was very engaging and a big part of that is because of how action-packed it is! I love a book with action, and the action in this book was great! One of the main characters in this series is White Blood Cell 1146, and he is amazing!


He is an absolute badass! The way he is so bloodthirsty (all the WBCs are if we’re honest lol) is so funny to me. Especially because he is actually really sweet and caring.


I also loved his relationship with another main character, Red Blood Cell 3803. Their friendship is so wholesome! But I also enjoyed the sexual tension between them... something that I might be reading too much into because there’s no romance in this series, really. But damn if I don’t ship them!


(And upon my search for all of these gifs and pictures, I have found that the internet agrees with me and also ships them, so there! 😆)

This is just a great start to a new series overall. The characters are great, the stories are fun and engaging, it’s cute but also action-packed, and, of course, the illustrations are amazing!



Have you read this book? If so, what did you think about it? If not, what do you think? Does it sound like something you might want to read? Leave me a link to your review or comment below! 😊

2 comments:

  1. This sounds really interesting! And it says YA, so I"ll have to put it on my list to maybe get for my library. Thanks for bringing it to my attention!
    https://lisalovesliterature.bookblog.io/2025/06/04/bookish-travel-2-may-2025/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes!! It's a good one! I loved this series!

      Delete