Okay, seriously, Cells at Work was supposed to be this light-hearted educational kind of show. I didn’t expect this level of dramatic tension! Here, Red Blood Cell faces her despair with a calm, matter of fact bravery. Capture from the Crunchyroll stream.
When I first started watching Cells at Work, I figured it would be a fun little show, and for the most part, it was! Sure, there was life and death moments that were emotionally powerful (especially the cancer episode — that hit kind close to home!). But by and large, it was a frothy comedy that was just fun to watch.
And then came episode 13.
The body in which our heroes live and work suffered from some kind of severe head trauma that involved a lot of bleeding. A huge number of red blood cells disappeared through the wound. Our hero Red Blood Cell (Sekkekkyuu AE3803) was determined to continue delivering oxygen to the other cells, especially since there were so few red blood cells remaining.
The body went into shock; the extremities, deprived of blood flow and the warmth and oxygen that came with it, began to cool down and the tissue started to die. The show did a great job representing that with snow — even room temperature would be an arctic blast to human red blood cells! Overworked, freezing, and exhausted, what did Red Blood Cell do?
She pushed on.
Uh, Red Blood Cell, you’re going to be okay, right? Right?!? Capture from the Crunchyroll stream.
In spite of her junior Red Blood Cell explaining that they’ve lost more than 30% of their blood volume so death was inevitable. Despite her junior’s pleas that they just lay down and rest before the end. Despite her own chill and exhaustion.
She pushed on.
No huge theatrics. Only a little speech explaining that she knew the other cells were counting on her to do her job. One little Red Blood Cell trying to make up for the severe loss of blood, one oxygen delivery at a time.
I think Red Blood Cell more than earned this Most Impressive Show of Bravery in the Face of Despair (Cellular Level Category), don’t you?
Oh definitely. She’s pretty great.
It was great to see her get it together when it mattered most. I’ve known people like that — almost useless in normal conditions, but put them in the middle of a catastrophe, and they become solid leaders!