Singapore-based anime licensor MUSE Asia has announced on Saturday that they acquire the upcoming Cells at Work! Code Black spinoff anime series.
The company has clarified that the announcement does not mean that the upcoming anime will be streamed on their YouTube channel, but they may announce its broadcast or streaming information closer to its premiere date, which is set for January 2021.
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 seven 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).
Cells at Work! Code Black spinoff anime 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.
The first season of Cells at Work! anime series, which MUSE Asia also acquired, was previously aired by Southeast Asian anime channel ANIMAX Asia on a simulcast basis in June 2018, which eventually been made available through streaming platforms like Netflix.
Cells at Work! Code Black will be MUSE Asia’s first anime acquisition for next year’s Winter season. More titles are expected to be announced in the coming weeks or months.
