The official Twitter account of upcoming anime series Cells at Work! Code Black revealed on Thursday new promotional video and key visual.
The promotional video is narrated by Kenjiro Tsuda, who previously portrayed lead character “Nino” in the drama anime ACCA: 13-Territory Inspection Dept. and antagonist character “Joker” in the sci-fi action anime Fire Force. He will also serve as the narrator for the upcoming anime.
The upcoming anime is scheduled to premiere in Japan on January 2021.
【TVアニメ化決定！】
「はたらく細胞BLACK」2021年1月ＴＶアニメ化決定！ブラックな職場で奮闘する細胞たちの物語。
はたらく人たちに勇気を贈る、大人の”はたらく細胞”開幕！働け。命ある限り——。
■公式サイトhttps://t.co/bQB0e8GvbP
■YouTubehttps://t.co/OibPaprIr0#細胞BLACK pic.twitter.com/EjhXRaPK6R
— 『はたらく細胞BLACK』【公式】 (@cellsatworkbla1) April 16, 2020
Cells at Work! Code Black is an upcoming anime adaptation of the manga series, written by Shigemitsu Harada and illustrated by Issei Hatsuyoshi, which is a spinoff based on the popular Cells at Work! manga by Akane Shimizu.
The spinoff manga is being published in Kodansha’s Morning magazine since June 2018, which currently has five volumes.
Kodansha Comics USA, which releases the manga series in English, described the story:
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!
Cells at Work! Code Black anime will be directed by Hideyo Yamamoto, who previously worked on the Strike the Blood anime series, while Saki live-action movie’s screenplay writer Hayashi Mori will work on series composition.
Yugo Kanno, who handled musical arrangement for Psycho-Pass, will also handle the same role on the upcoming series.
Eiji Abiko, who worked on the third season of Osomatsu-san, will handle character designs, which will be produced by anime studio LIDEN FILMS.
The Japanese voice cast are lead by Junya Enoki (“Angelo”, Arte) as the Red Blood Cell (Erythrocite), and Yoko Hikasa (“Kou Yagami”, New Game!) as the White Blood Cell (Neutrophilic).
The upcoming anime series will have a darker themed storyline from the main Cells at Work! series, which is also set to have its second season premiering in January 2021.
