English Dub Season Review: Cells at Work: Code Black

Overview:

The more adult darker version of Cells at Work introduces similar characters as the main series. Only in this, they are wayyyy more jaded with things. Our main characters in this are a red blood cell and white blood cell just like in the main series. The genders are swapped though where RBC is a male and WBC is female. RBC eventually becomes one of the most reliable cells in the body. Things typically go from bad to worse in this body because the person seemingly cares very little for their health. Let’s see how this season worked as a spin-off!

Our Take:

I am probably way more disappointed in this show than its final score will indicate. Cells at Work: Code Black is a solid show and there are way worse shows to spend your time on. It just starts so strong and the last third is really disappointing to me. Character development for one character felt very needed but never came.

The character of RBC however was fantastic. How weird is it that a red blood cell gets better character development than a huge portion of other major characters? Seriously, when it comes to his growth in this show it is handled really well. The main problem is he is pretty much the only character that gets any development. His best friend gets some really good development but then that character is just used as more development for RBC so it feels hollow.

Let’s talk about RBC for a minute cause his journey is really great. He starts off ignorant of the way of the world. Thinking everything will be like the training videos but he gets a rude awakening. From getting beat down he then focuses on getting better and working as hard as he can. Eventually, he even wins the rookie cell award but like any good hero’s journey, he also experiences setbacks. There is a pretty big event that happens that almost destroys all of his motivation. With the help of WBC though he eventually re-finds his purpose in a rare moment of WBC development.

No character can have that good of development without a decent VA performance. Kyle McCarley does the honors of voicing our main red blood cell hero. I used to really hate Kyle, not like personally but it just seemed he always voiced my least favorite characters. Personally, looking back on it now I think shows how good he can be at his job. You do a character so well you make me hate you too? That’s impressive. Kyle’s character had a lot of different emotions to deal with throughout the season and he performed them all really well. This show turned me into a really big fan of his and will be more excited when I see him in future cast announcements.

Allegra Clark voiced the main white blood cell and she did a fine job. Her character was so underutilized that she didn’t really get too many moments to shine. There were a couple of moments that she got to have some emotional moments and she really shined there. Allegra is one of those voice actors that seems to be in just about everything and you don’t notice just cause she is that talented. She can do so many different types of voices, in this she sounds more mature and experienced but she can even pull of the cutesy type of characters. I bring this up because I was really excited to see her on the cast list and just wanted to hear more from her in this series.

The front half of the series was hilarious dealing with more adult issues like having sex, you actually feel bad for the sperm cells as they’re “wasted” because the person was wearing a condom. You saw how excited they were to fulfill their purpose and it was just so sad and funny. Putting things into a funny but also slightly dark perspective like that was this shows strong suit. It just got too serious and did not pull it off well. The pieces were there but it just felt like something was missing. Maybe there was some source material that needed to be skipped for time that would have made it make more sense.

I am going to mention the biggest negative now and there are a tiny bit of spoilers here as it deals with ending so proceed at your own risk. I won’t be discussing details but it could still ruin your enjoyment if you want to be totally blind. So the “ending” is a huge cliffhanger. I put it in quotes because it happens after the credits so you could miss it entirely. RBC ends up in a strange place with his kouhai and it ends there. With the way anime works and no season two guaranteed it was immensely frustrating. I hope it gets a second season just to get some of those questions answered but just ask No Game No Life fans about how long a wait for a second season can be.

I know this review probably seemed super negative but I just want you to have the right expectations. This show was fun and I am glad I watched it but it was also really disappointing. There was a lot of potential and it felt wasted. I loved Cells at Work and thought a show that focused on the more “adult” functions of the body would be gold. The first half was and unfortunately, it just had a weak second half.