Cells at Work!! Season 2

Episodes 7-8

Disclaimer: The views and opinions in these reviews are observations made by the reviewer(s) and should in no way be construed as medical advice! If you have a question, please contact your general practitioner for information!

The fight against invading bacteria in the gut and the Immunity Trio's face-off against the Cancer Cell continues in what I'll forever refer to as the "Yogurt Arc." NK, Memory T, and White Blood Cell have more difficulty than usual thanks to Regulatory T Cell. RT Cell has appeared in previous episodes, but she's usually relegated to 'office work' with Helper T Cell. These final episodes show that she's equally capable of combat...against the other immune cells.

Visually, it seems ridiculous that any cell could look at Cancer Cell and think "Yeah, this is normal;" in fact, I think the plot structure would benefit from some kind of physical representation as to why RT Cell can't 'see' what Cancer Cell is. Regardless, RT prevents Memory T from being able to effectively attack the Cancer Cell because she sees it as part of the host's body, and her job is to prevent immune cells from attacking and killing healthy cells within the body. Think back to Cells at Work! Code Black where the Killer T Cells went nuts and caused havoc in the scalp; that's a perfect example of when a Regulatory T Cell should have stepped in. Now I'm interested to know why that didn't happen. Anyway, Regulatory T Cell's interference is unfortunately part of the reason cancer cells can grow in the human body undetected until other problems arise and why medical procedures to treat cancer are so extreme.

Meanwhile, in the gut, all those lactic bacteria storm in and make short work of the invading bacteria. The opportunistic bacteria switch sides in favor of the good guys so they can go on freeloading in the gut. I'll be honest, the knowledge that my guts are basically a biosphere for bacteria to just hang out with little to no real symbiotic relationship pisses me off. If you're going to enjoy all the delicious food I eat, couldn't you at least, I don't know, give me a superpower or something? Anyway, with the bad bacteria wiped out, the environment in the gut starts to resolve and is no longer a hazard to the little platelets.

The only remaining issue is Cancer Cell, and he's gone full Sephiroth in his quest for body domination. His evil plot is to initiate death in the name of cellular freedom, allowing cells to exist without the confines of their respective roles. Of course the entire body would breakdown, but he sees the sacrifice as liberating. Things are looking in his favor until Memory T Cell gets his power-up-inducing flashback and releases perforin. RT Cell (hilariously) dodges and the protein-powered punch damages Cancer Cell enough to allow RT Cell to finally notice he's not a healthy cell. The intestinal toxin clean-up strips him of his power, allowing White Blood Cell to deliver the killing blow.

All in all, this was actually a pretty satisfying finale battle with some semi-decent action segments for what has otherwise been a questionable production. I never got fully on board with david production's cel-shading approach here, and some of the episodes were less engaging than the previous season. The factoids were a little more "Biology Basics" and spending approximately half of an already very short season focusing on lactic bacteria was pretty disappointing. The return of Cancer Cell was a good send-off but combining it with the journey through the gut felt forced; I'd rather have seen something related to carcinogens.

Overall I'd say the series is an adequate follow-up to the first season but it lacked the memorable gags and diversity that kept me hooked back then.

Rating:

Cells at Work! is currently streaming on Funimation.