Hataraku Saibou S2

Okay, kids. Do you still remember all those different types of cells in your body, their function and how they work? No? NO???!!! WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU HAVE GIVEN IT ALL BACK TO THE TEACHER???!!! Weren’t you paying attention???!!! Oh right. Me too. Guilty as charged. In one ear, out the other as soon as the series ended. Sighs. I suppose that is why we need another season to drill it all into our brains. Uh huh. So it is no surprise about Hataraku Saibou S2 since it was announced quite a while ago. And even so, we didn’t even bother to brush up our biology just for this second season. Sighs… I guess I know which class I’m going to fail again…

Episode 1
AE 3803 still clumsy and getting lost often but NT 4201 doesn’t loath her like before. AE 3803 then meets some of WBC friends of U-1146. They wonder where that guy is and they think he must be sipping tea somewhere. Unknown to them, he is mercilessly killing a germ that snuck in! Violent. I’m sure this lost Platelet (nicknamed Backward Cap for easier reference) must be traumatized seeing this. U-1146 helps her up since she is lost as she explains she was doing extra training herself and wanted to be strong like her friends. That is why she is carrying extra coagulation equipment. But she still has low self-confidence that she might be a hindrance to others when faced with the real deal. U-1146 gives some advice to go back and see how others train. When they get back to the main line and meet up with AE 3803, suddenly a rip occurs. U-1146 thought it is some attack but as his WBC pal points out there are no exterior wounds. Because all the cells are floating in zero-like gravity, this is internal bleeding caused by a lump-like protrusion. This is a job for Platelets to use their fibrin nets to form blood clots. Backward Cap is doing fine with the rest but then a problem arises. The hole is too big for their equipment to clot so they have to assemble and form a big blood clot, something that Backward Cap is bad at doing. With the Platelets failing, Megakaryocyte (the largest cell in the bone marrow that produces platelets) comes to chide them for being inefficient. This causes all of them to be paralyzed in fear. However she will reward the best platelet with a gold medal. Instantly all of them get motivated to clot the blood. With some dramatic slip ups here and there, in the end the clotting is successful. Megakaryocyte is in a dilemma on who the give the medal too since everyone did their part well and also made mistakes. Oh well, everybody gets a medal then! You get a medal! She gets a medal! Everybody gets a medal!!! A job well done. Next time they’ll do even better.

Episode 2
Memory Cell has this weird premonition of meteors falling, weird zombie cells show up and chaos all around. He fears it might be the end of the world. When all immune cells are summoned to a place where a virus is spotted, to his horror it is that same zombie cell! With all the WBCs jumping into the fray, it gets messy since the zombie cells are multiplying like crazy. Memory Cell is paralyzed in fear thinking his premonition has come true. He tries to use this ability to come up with an antigen but B Cell knocks him with a book to see if there are such viruses. That is when he remembers clearly. The vision isn’t of the future. It is the past! In short, it was vaccination to build up the immune system. With that, B Cell is able to blast away all those viruses with the acquired immunity. Memory Cell thought B Cell is going to praise him for figuring it out. But he points they have such virus in the database already. All the cells beat up Memory Cell for the trouble he caused. U-1146 takes AE 3803 to the small intestine. So she’s never been here? Is this some sort of tour? No wonder Killer T Cell isn’t impressed and chides him for being complacent. Suddenly the place is under attack by a bacteria. Even more so the bacteria takes a cell hostage. The bacteria then lists his demands if they want the hostage released. Basically, he wants the WBCs to serve them as they live a luxurious celebrity life! WTF, U-1146 agrees?! Even the bacteria is shocked. The bacteria even has the WBCs do silly stuffs for them. Ultimately the bacteria didn’t play fair and continue to hold the hostage. Then it’s like the WBCs do some poor acting to lead the bacteria to some easily infiltrated area. They pop out in some bar run by M Cell. Before they could do anything all the other immune cells pop up to own them. This place turns out to be Peyer’s Patch, a place near the small intestine filled with lymphatic nodules that play a crucial role in the small intestine’s immune system. Basically, a trap bacterial and viral antigens. Killer T Cell apologizes to U-1146 for what he said earlier and hopes he doesn’t mellow out too much. U-1146 then realizes he kept AE 3803 waiting and rushes back. Yeah, he’s gone too long to get her tea.

Episode 3
Mast Cell once again floods the system with histamine. This has some cells march into her office and accuse her of overreacting. The last straw is when they call her a hysteria cell. She blows her top and starts throwing things! Later it seems a mosquito causes some havoc by sucking some of the RBCs. While AE 3803 is somewhat spared, a Langerhans Cell spot a weird looking mask and wears it. Instantly he becomes mind controlled by the dengue virus as all his kind become infected and run rampage throughout the system. Because Langerhans Cells are to warn the body’s immune system of foreign threats, how can they do their job when they are the threat?! Yeah. Hence the cells are pleading for help but no WBCs or Macrophages to the rescue. Mast Cell is left wondering if she should flood the histamines. She won’t, fearing that backlash again. Not too sure if Basophil was doing his own monologue about destiny so Mast Cell just screw it and flood the entire area. This allows WBCs and Macrophages to jump in and kill all the infected cells. In the aftermath, the cells apologize to Mast Cell since her histamines allowed WBCs and Macrophages to come to their rescue. But Mast Cell remains prideful and thinks she did nothing wrong the whole time. In a hair pore area, an acne germ slave drives hair cells to serve him sebum. Thanks to U-1146 coming to their rescue, he manages to kill the germ but his fellow comrades show up. A young hair cell wanted to help out but U-1146 protects him and they fall into the abyss. Later as he regrets his actions, U-1146 wonders why there were no help. You see, other WBCs did come but they all died and ended up in this huge mountain of pus! U-1146 vows to do something about this. So he returns to fight the acne germ boss. If he is so slow, why this other WBCs lose their lives? You see, by replenishing himself with sebum, he can also heal himself! While U-1146 has a hard time fighting him, the young hair cell rally the rest to do something about this. Hence they crank up the sebum and the acne germ boss starts to feel scared seeing he had too much sebum and might drown. Too bad for him, U-1146 cuts him down but on the down side, he gets drowned by the sebum. As normalcy return to this place, the hair cells lament this WBC’s bravery. But then he pops up from the vent! Hooray! U-1146 returns and AE 3803 wonders if he changed job because he is wearing a hair cell hood. The young hair cell gave it to him as a token of gratitude.

Episode 4
An ordinary cell witnesses the same usual routine. Cells get infected, immune cells jump in to slaughter them all. Rinse and repeat. Yeah, he wishes something exciting would happen in his boring life. Then he stumbles into several cute little germs drowning?! Too cute to kill or ignore! He eventually saves them and brings them back to his place. But by that time U-1146 has detected some germs and kicks down his door! The gig is up as our cell boy confessed what happened. Since U-1146 can’t risk germs harming the body, he’ll take them away. Oh man, look at those teary puppy dog eyes when they’re taken away! U-1146 attends to an emergency in the intestine where some bacteria is causing gastronomical havoc. Cell boy witnesses how the WBCs put their lives on the line for this body and this makes him think himself as useless. When the bacteria unleashes some gastric juice to flood the place, one of the little cuties get submerged. Before any tears could roll, suddenly this cutie turns Super Saiyan and beats up the bacteria! Then there are many of his similar pals coming into the fray too. It is revealed these cute germs are actually friendly bacteria known as lactic acid bacteria (LAB). Now that U-1146 has seen with his own eyes, he can’t deem such bacteria as bad. He is going to patrol the rest of the intestine to see if there are other germs. Opportunity for cell boy to go with him and return these cuties to their rightful place. In the small intestine, there are too many purines to be dissolved and this might cause some uric acid build up. One of the LAB then gobbles them up. His similar pals also pop up to eat the tons of purines in no time. Continuing their journey, one of the cuties drop into the sewer and gets flushed away. Cell boy is sad and wants U-1146 to alert the others. Sadly, he is told he can’t do that because neutrophils don’t have antigens. This makes cell boy sad because what kind of a f*cked up system when immune cells can’t tell they aren’t the bad guys?! Woah, getting too emotional here. NK Cell is here to tell him the truth that it is their job.

Episode 5
She tells him off that without them, you cells are dead. She reminds him that her job is to kill any kind of cell at her discretion so watch your mouth. It seems she is also looking for something. The lost LAB is found by Dendritic and is well taken care after. As cell boy and U-1146 continue their search, a warning has been put out that the body has been infected by some influenza and to prepare. As the immune cells fight off the infected zombie cells, it seems none of their attacks do any harm. Memory Cell realizes they look a bit different and because of this mutated strain, it’s the end of the world!!! Wow. So dramatic. Oh wait. Even NK Cell is starting to feel depressed she can’t kill those cells?! Damn, we’re in serious trouble! This is when Dendritic drops her an embarrassing photo dressed up as a maid. This makes NK Cell go berserk. Dendritic then unleashes lots of other embarrassing photos of other cells to hype them up and make them go crazy. Apparently these are cytokines, active proteins secreted by other cells to boost them. Oh sh*t! NK Cell’s sword turning into a lightsabre and cutting through the zombies?! With all the immune cells boosted up, I hope they don’t destroy the place with their overkill. In the aftermath, Dendritic reveals this lost LAB was the one who activated him and in turn helped to activate others. With this little guy rejoining his herd, looks like there is 1 LAB left to return. Cell boy apologizes to U-1146 for mouthing off and thanks him for helping out. U-1146 remains humble and apologizes for not being able to be of help in the first place. Later U-1146 confronts NK Cell about what she is looking. First, she hints about the need to not hesitate and kill. Since all cells they kill are stored in the antibody data, as long as that data exists, cells can replicate. She further hints a familiar cell has already stolen that data and has already acquired a physical form, hiding somewhere inside this body. Remember Cancer Cell? Yup, this guy’s back! It’s time for revenge…

Episode 6
The gang is now at the large intestine area. There seems to be a museum here as the Platelets take a tour and get to see all the good and harmful bacteria exhibits. Oh, all the Platelets want to piggy ride on AE 3803? We also see Killer T Cell turning into Memory T Cell as preparation to attack the same enemy that reappears. He thinks he got promoted and says his lengthy goodbye to his squad. After cell boy learns they are looking for Cancer Cell, U-1146 tells him this is where they part ways. Hence, cell boy makes his way to the intestines but sees Goblet Cell and Intestinal Epithelial Cell trying to hold back the overwhelming numbers of harmful bacteria trying to invade the intestine with the intestinal barrier. Unfortunately with too many of them, they have to make a run for it as the bacteria invade. At the same time, toxic fumes due to harmful bacteria is starting to seep into the museum. That’s your cue to evacuate. The immune cell trio come face to face with Cancer Cell and he obviously wants revenge on them. This time he has got multiple arms to take care of them and the trio can’t get even close to him. Is this the end for them? Will Cancer Cell finally have his revenge?

Episode 7
NK Cell tries to mock Cancer Cell that he came back just to be beaten again. But Cancer Cell knows it is different this time. Yup, he can create lots of dolls under his command. This means he can send as many enemies for them to fight and not tire out. When Memory T Cell tries to directly punch Cancer Cell, shockingly Regulatory T Cell stops him. Because she views Cancer Cell as part of them, she refuses to let him kill. After all, it is her role to prevent them from triggering anomalous immune responses. U-1146 takes a blow meant for Memory T Cell. Although not fatal, Cancer Cell walls him up and wants to talk while watching Regulatory T handle the rest. Cancer Cell talks about the irony and cruel life cycle of cells to kill and die. Trillions of cells dying just for this body to go on living. He thinks of creating a world where cells don’t have to kill or be killed. And that is by sacrificing this body. Even if that means killing all cells, his logic dictates that is the true freedom all cells will have then. He is going to turn this body into that utopia by releasing all the toxic gases. OMG! Cancer Cell sprouting angelic wings?! Is he the angel of death now?! With Memory T Cell still trying to punch his way through, NK Cell and Regulatory T mock him that unless he uses other strategy, he can’t get past this stage. Not that Memory T Cell cares. He’ll do what he has always been doing. Meanwhile, cell boy and the LAB stumble into harmful bacteria. They start tormenting cell boy just for kicks. Cell boy has no choice but to force LAB to escape, even if it means being mean. A tearful LAB swims away while the bad bacteria continues their tormenting fun.

Episode 8
Time for plot convenience because here are the WBCs to the rescue. The bad bacteria think they have the numbers but with the LAB cuties returning in huge numbers as well as neutral bacteria shifting allegiance, the bad ones are routed. Cancer Cell continues to beat up Memory T Cell and NK Cell. WTF, Regulatory T allows Cancer Cell to beat up others but not vice versa? Cancer Cell relishes spreading his cancer cells that will ultimately destroy the body. However, Memory T Cell claims he has a trump card up his sleeve. It’s some perforin chemical that Killer T Cells excrete but of course they have to exaggerate it with some flashback how he tried honing this legendary punch. Yeah, everyone laughed at him when he tried to pull off this failure. Because now he is able to do this Super Saiyan punch! To Cancer Cell’s shock, Regulatory T avoids it and lets him take the hit. Regulatory T now deems Cancer Cell not as their own but this doesn’t hinder the latter as he continues to unleash his dolls and attack. When their latest attacks hit him, Cancer Cell starts losing his power and can’t maintain his strength. Because of the change in the intestinal environment, the toxins from harmful bacteria has dwindled. Weakened, this allows U-1146 to deal the lethal blow. Cancer Cell admits his defeat but is happy to have been killed by a friend rather than someone he hates. Things return to normal with the intestinal barriers given extra boost with the LABs strengthening it. U-1146 credits cell boy for trying to reunite the LABs to their friends and this helped in improving the intestinal strength. Then this weird trippy aquatic trip for them in the intestinal flora! See all the good, bad and neutral bacteria live here! With normalcy returning, time for cell boy to return to his home. Only, he was away from home so long that no food were delivered to his place. Oh dear. A starving cell… Can AE 3803 deliver oxygen to him without getting lost or being clumsy? Oh well. It’s the usual as always. And Memory T Cell trying to show off his perforin to Naïve T Cells. Nothing much happens… Just don’t embarrass yourself…

Cell-ebrate To Health & Life!
Oh… Uhm… That’s it?! This season’s ‘lessons’ feel a bit short or do they not have any more material to cover? Because it’s just odd (although it is even) that this second season has only 8 episodes. Uh huh. 8 FREAKING EPISODES ONLY?! Wow. I do sound like I want to learn more about the cells and human body, don’t I? But don’t despair even if this second season is over. Fans and viewers alike should very well know at this point that there has been another spinoff season running concurrently with this one, Hataraku Saibou Black. So double the fun, right? Well… If you’re feeling how all the cells here are interacting and living so happily like some heavenly utopia, Hataraku Saibou Black tells us otherwise. Cells interacting and living in a languished state like some hellish dystopia. Yeah… Otherwise, count your blessings for this one.

Also, I recently read that the second half of this season actually covered for the movie that came out back in September 2020. I didn’t even know it existed! So my guess is that those who watched the movie might get the short end of the stick since they literally repeat this part for the second season. I could be wrong since I didn’t watch the movie so I can’t compare. But from what I read, it is basically almost the same. With that, so it’s like this season has actually much fewer new episodes, huh? Are you people serious in wanting to teach us about cells and the human body? Anyway, considering how they defeat cancer for the second time, I’m saying that this is one helluva a lucky body. But that might be premature for me to say that because it could be that our cells have been working so hard to prevent the development of cancer cells for thousands of times without us knowing. Do we need any more reason why we should be grateful to our cells?! But only a matter of time before it becomes a losing battle… Okay, okay. I don’t want to ruin all the happy-happy feel good mood at this point. All hail the cells!

As far as this season is concerned, it brings as much fun and edutainment like last season. The irony that I can’t remember all those fun lessons back in the first season but I can tell the sequel is as good as its predecessor. Oh, how should I put this? The mind might have forgotten but the body still remembers. Yeah, I think it’s like that. So mock me for all you want for having a lousy brain (maybe I don’t have a lot of brain cells to begin with) and I’m too lazy to go back to rewatch the first season because of the lame excuse that it feels like going back to school again. Even though it’s just anime.

So it is great to learn something new this season and it is just amazing how there are so many things going on in our bodies. The complication all unravelled thanks to the advancement of medical science. Science! Of course anime being anime, it is mainly for edutainment purposes since it is a fun and refreshing way to teach others about cells and the body. I mean, how else are you going to teach such boring and ‘vulgar’ stuffs to normal people? Sure, everything is so colourful, refinely exaggerated for entertainment purposes. Cells anthropomorphized as humans and WBCs bleeding red blood. WBC BLEEDING. RED. BLOOD. I’m sure the real doctors have something to say about the representation of the cells and bacteria and how they function, but it still beats observing the real deal under a compound microscope. Yeah, like watching paint dry, if you ask me. And I believe ordinary people aren’t so dumb to be in shock when they see real RBCs don’t look like cutie AE 3803. Anime. The destroyer and crusher of real life representation by ramping everything up to a kawaii and cute level.

Is it me or do I feel that many of the cells that were introduced in the first season didn’t really make an impact here? Not to mention that Eosinophil and Basophil were on par with the main characters back then since their cameos were already so limited. This season, it feels like they almost never existed at all. Even their few seconds of appearances feel forgettable. Well, perhaps this season’s issues don’t really require their roles. Yeah, I have to admit I had to check back my old blog just to refer their names for this because I couldn’t remember them :’(. Others like Macrophage and Helper T Commander were also barely there. Mast Cell and Dendritic had their short role to shine while NK Cell made her mark late in this season. All in all, it’s good to know that they’re all the same cells we know since the last season. Which is a bit unrealistic assuming the longevity of cells in our body so they should’ve been replaced with newer ones by now!

I feel that U-1146 has the most spotlight here since as a WBC, he is running all over the place to kill invading bacteria with his trusty knife. It feels like he is the toughest WBC among all WBCs, the way I see him kill enemies and survive from attacks after attacks. Either he is one tough cookie or just a very lucky WBC. The running joke of bumping into AE 3803 is not played out as often (also, the shorter number of episodes this season to boot) and this reduces AE 3803 to a side character. She is still the same RBC that keeps getting lost. I wonder how many cells died just because she didn’t deliver her oxygen in time. Oh wait. She always will. Eventually. So don’t worry if any cell turned cancer because of her late delivery. Other than that, there is nothing more a RBC like her can do because sometimes it gets tiring if she always stumbles into some trap but escapes in time. Uh huh. Another luckiest cell in the body for living that long and avoiding death by the skin of her teeth always. On a side note, it is unfortunate that her junior, NT 4201 is also as forgettable. I assumed she would get more of the spotlight here but she’s just another nameless RBC at this point to me. Yeah, had to refer back to my previous blog just to recall her identification number-cum-name.

On a trivial note, I noticed that this season does not spam all the texts on the screen. At least for the version that I am watching. This is good since the subtitles will not clutter all over the screen, turning the scene into one messy sprawling alphabet text soup. Haha… I know since the first episode I saw had those boxes but left untranslated. Then I suppose they realize English speaking weeabos might not be able to read it at all so they removed it entirely so we can have a clearer view to look. Yeah…

New casts joining this season include Saori Hayami as Regulatory T Cell, Yuko Kaida as Megakaryocyte and Yuusuke Kobayashi as cell boy (Subaru in Re: Zero Kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu). And WTF?! The 4 LAB each had their own seiyuu?! Rie Takahashi, Yurika Kubo, Natsumi Fujiwara and Yuuri Yoshida. But they all just cutely went “Nyuu!~ Nyuu!~”. Kawaii. Can’t tell the difference anyway. This season’s opener by the same whole bunch of cells is as lively as the previous season. Go! Go! Saibou Fiesta perhaps lives up to its name since it still sounds like a song that intends to make this show for little children to watch. Claris who did the ending theme for the first season also reprise their role this season. This time with Fight, it’s another upbeat piece but it somewhat reminds me like a Christmas song because of those bell sound effects in the background music accompaniment.

Overall, the second season is still an enjoyable watch especially if you love the first season. It retains the same overall fun and edutainment feel like the first one although I have this feeling that this season is shorter and lacking some other non-life threatening health and body issues (say, conjunctivitis, diarrhoea and headaches) only because they might make another season of it. But I don’t even need to wait for that to happen because the sad truth is I will have already forgotten all that has been taught in the first and second season by that time. Uh oh. What the heck is the Peyer’s Patch again? Or cytokines? I need more brain cells, that’s for sure. Oh sh*t. Don’t tell me I’ve got Alzheimer!!!

Thank goodness that isn’t as tough to spell (and pronounce) as pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis. Yes people. That’s a valid English word for a lung disease!!! F*ck this sh*t, my brain cells have already died when I finish spelling out this word!!!