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Cells at Work! Code Black TV Anime's 1st Video Narrated by Kenjiro Tsuda

The official Twitter account for Shigemitsu Harada and Issei Hatsuyoshiya's Cells at Work! Code Black (Hataraku Saibō Black) spinoff manga began streaming a promotional video for the manga's anime adaptation on Thursday. The video features Kenjiro Tsuda's narration as the cells in an unhealthy body struggle to fight illness.

Junya Enoki is playing Red Blood Cell (Erythrocite), Yōko Hikasa is playing White Blood Cell (Neutrophil), and Kenjiro Tsuda is narrating the anime.

Hideyo Yamamoto (Strike the Blood, Magical Girl Spec-Ops Asuka) is directing the series at LIDEN FILMS. Hayashi Mori (The Snack World, Layton Mystery Tanteisha: Katori no Nazotoki File) is handling the script and series composition. Eiji Abiko (Last Hope, Baby Blue) is designing the characters, and Yūgo Kanno (Psycho-Pass, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond Is Unbreakable) is composing the music.

The anime will premiere in January 2021.

Kodansha Comics licensed the manga, and it describes the story:

In this new spinoff of the hit manga, 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!

Harada and Hatsuyoshi launched the manga in Morning and the Weekly D Morning digital manga magazine in June 2018. Kodansha will publish the manga's sixth compiled book volume on April 23. Kodansha Comics published the third volume in English on January 21.

The Cells at Work! Code Black anime has a separate staff and cast from Cells at Work!! (with two exclamation points), the previously announced second anime season of Akane Shimizu's Cells at Work! manga. The second Cells at Work! anime season is also debuting in January 2021.

A theatrical anime based on a story from volume 5 of the original manga will premiere in theaters in Japan on September 5. Aniplex stated that the anime will screen in theaters before it airs on TV as part of the second season. The theatrical anime's full title is: Tokubetsu Jōei-ban "Hataraku Saibō!!" Saikyō no Teki, Futatabi. Karada no Naka wa "Chō" Ōsawagi! (Special Screening Edition: "Cells at Work!!" The Return of the Strongest Enemy. A Huge Uproar Inside the Body's "Bowels!").

The first television anime adaptation of the original manga premiered in July 2018 and aired for 13 episodes. Aniplex of America streamed the series on Crunchyroll, and Funimation added the show in February. The company released the anime on Blu-ray Disc with an English dub last August. A new anime special aired in December 2018, and Crunchyroll is streaming the special.

Sources: Cells at Work! Code Black manga's Twitter account, Comic Natalie