Will the Cells At Work! Season 3 anime continue the story of Red Blood Cell AE3803 and her friend the ruthless White Blood Cell U-1146?
Unfortunately, the Cells At Work! manga’s ending released in January 2021, so a direct sequel seems unlikely. But it’s possible there could be Cells At Work! CODE BLACK Season 2 anime. It’s also possible that the many varied spin-offs could be bundled into a third season although some of them are now long enough to become standalone anime.
The second season of the anime series was produced by animation studio David Productions, which is best known for the Fire Force anime and JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. Hopefully, they will announce Fire Force Season 3 and JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Part 6 anime in 2021.
Most of the main staff returned for the second season with the exception of the director. Kenichi Suzuki (Drifters, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure) who helmed the first season, but director Hirofumi Ogura (Black Butler) took over for the second season. So, it’s possible that Cells At Work! Season 3 could have some staff changes.
For the first season, the director and series composition writer Yuuko Kakihara (Persona 4) worked together to create the anime script. Character designer Takahiko Yoshida (Welcome To The NHK) is also the chief animation director. Kenta Mimuro and Keiko Tomaki also created some of the character designs. Re:ZERO and Girls’ Last Tour music composer Kenichiro Suehiro is creating the music for the Cells At Work! anime.
The Cells At Work! Season 3 OP (opening) and ED (ending) theme song music haven’t been announced yet.
The second season’s OP was “Go! Go! Cell Festa” as performed by the Japanese voice actor cast, while the ending (ED) “Fight!!” was performed by ClariS. The first season’s OP was “Mission! Health First,” as performed by Kana Hanazawa, Tomoaki Maeno, Daisuke Ono, and Kikuko Inoue, while the ED was “CheerS” by ClariS.
The first season was 13 episodes while the second was only 8 episodes long. The first season is streaming on Crunchyroll and Netflix, while the second season was streaming on FUNimation (which bought Crunchyroll in December 2020). Crunchyroll was also streaming the Cells At Work! OVA episode that originally aired in December 2018.
A Cells At Work! English dub was released with the Blu-Ray box set in 2019. The Cells At Work! Season 2 English hasn’t been announced yet.
The second season’s finale, Cells At Work! Season 2 Episode 8, released on February 27, 2021.
This article provides everything that is known about Cells At Work! Season 3 (Hataraku Saibou Season 3) and all related news. As such, this article will be updated over time with news, rumors, and analysis. Meanwhile, let’s delve down into what is known for certain.
Cells At Work! manga ending in 2021 with Chapter 30: New Coronavirus Part 2
The story of the Cells At Work! anime is based on the Hataraku Saibou manga series by Akane Shimizu. She won the 27th Sirius New Age Award for best newcomer manga and the Cells At Work! manga is her debut work. The manga series has over 4.5 million copies in print.
Serialized monthly in Monthly Shonen Sirius since 2015, the manga went on a long hiatus in 2018 as the creator shifted her focus to providing oversight for the many spin-offs. The manga returned from hiatus in October 2020 for a limited run of new chapters in Shonen Sirius.
Cells At Work! Chapters 27 and 28 focused on iPS cells whereas Chapters 29 and 30 were about the New Coronavirus. The manga’s official Twitter account wrote, “With gratitude to all the medical professionals fighting on the front lines, we hope that this will help in the proper understanding of the new coronavirus.”
The Hataraku Saibou manga’s ending in Chapter 30 was released on January 26, 2021. The final manga volume, Cells At Work! Volume 6, released in Japan on February 9, 2021.
The official English translation of the Cells At Work! manga is being published internationally by Kodansha Comics. Thankfully, the English release caught up with Volume 5 in April 2019. The English Cells At Work! Volume 6 release date in North America is scheduled for June 22, 2021.
Hataraku Saibou manga compared to the anime
When studio David Production chose to adapt the story, they went the straight-forward path of following the Cells At Work! manga pretty closely. In the Cells At Work! anime, each episode tends to focus on introducing a different element of the human body.
The episodic nature of the story is the same in the manga, with multi-chapter plots being fairly rare. The opening episode was the same story as the first chapter, but otherwise, the anime changed up the ordering of the story significantly.
For the first season, each manga chapter was adapted into a single episode with the exception of Episode 7.
- Cells At Work! Episode 1: Chapter 1 “Pneumococcus”
- Cells At Work! Episode 2: Chapter 4 “Scrape Wound”
- Cells At Work! Episode 3: Chapter 3 “Influenza”
- Cells At Work! Episode 4: Chapter 5 “Food Poisoning”
- Cells At Work! Episode 5: Chapter 2 “Cedar Pollen Allergy”
- Cells At Work! Episode 6: Chapter 7 “Erythroblasts and Myelocytes” and Chapter 8 “Cancer Cells Part 1”
- Cells At Work! Episode 7: Chapter 9 “Cancer Cells Part 2”
- Cells At Work! Episode 8: Chapter 10 “The Circulatory System”
- Cells At Work! Episode 9: Chapter 12 “Thymocytes”
- Cells At Work! Episode 10: Chapter 15 “Staphylococcus aureus”
- Cells At Work! Episode 11: Chapter 6 “Heat Stress”
- Cells At Work! Episode 12: Chapter 17 “Hypovolemic Shock Part 1”
- Cells At Work! Episode 13: Chapter 18 “Hypovolemic Shock Part 2”
The Cells At Work! OVA episode: Common Cold Syndromes that released in December 2018 was based on manga Volume 3: chapter 11.
The second season doubled up the pacing with many episodes adapting two chapters rather than just one.
Note: The following episode guide for Season 2 includes predictions and will be updated over time.
- Cells At Work! Season 2 Episode 1: Chapter 26 “Bump”
- Cells At Work! Season 2 Episode 2: Chapter 13 “Acquired Immunity” & Chapter 19 “Peyer’s Patch”
- Cells At Work! Season 2 Episode 3: Chapter 16 “Dengue Fever” & Chapter 14 “Acne”
- Cells At Work! Season 2 Episode 4: Chapter 20 “H. Pylori” & Chapter 21 “Antigenic Shift”
- Cells At Work! Season 2 Episode 5: Chapter 22 “Cytokines/Cedar Pollen Allergy”
- Cells At Work! Season 2 Episode 6: Chapter 23 “Harmful Bacteria”
- Cells At Work! Season 2 Episode 7: Chapter 24 “Cancer Cells 2 Part 1”
- Cells At Work! Season 2 Episode 8: Chapter 25 “Cancer Cells 2 Part 2”
The return of Cancer Cell was promised in the middle of the first season so it made sense for Cells At Work! Season 2 to end with that fated battle even though it meant the manga chapters were adapted out of order.
Oddly enough, the anime’s second season failed to adapt the newest chapters, which included Chapters 27 and 28, iPS Cells Part 1 and 2, and Chapters 29 and 30, New Coronavirus Part 1 and 2.
Hataraku Saibou Season 3 release date prediction: Prognosis is unlikely
As of the last update, David Production or any company related to the production of the anime has not officially confirmed the Cells At Work! Season 3 release date. Nor has the production of a sequel been announced.
Once the news is officially confirmed this article will be updated with the relevant information. In the meantime, it’s possible to speculate about when, or if, the Hataraku Saibou Season 3 premiere date will occur in the future.
While it could be argued that there are 37.2 trillion reasons for a third season to happen, the main issue is the lack of source material, not popularity, or the Blu-Ray/DVD sales numbers (which were good). As noted previously, it’s predicted that the second season will adapt all of the available manga chapters.
Since the Cells At Work! CODE BLACK spin-off has its own anime series with a different studio, the only way Cells At Work! Season 3 could happen is if chapters from the manga spin-offs are combined. They are many and varied, including Bacteria at Work (12 chapters), Cells That Don’t Work (27 chapters), Platelets at Work (12 chapters), Cells at Work! Baby (15 chapters), Cells at Work! Lady (3 chapters), Cells At Work! Friend (32 chapters), Cells At Work! WHITE (1 chapter released in December 2020).
As you can see, two of the spin-offs are already long enough to become standalone anime seasons. Each of the series spin-offs focuses on different characters and sometimes the story takes place in completely different bodies.
The ending of the second season introduced the concept of good and bad bacteria living in the intestinal tract. But a standalone Bacteria At Work! anime would make sense since it’s now just barely long enough.
Cells At Work! Friend is probably the best way to extend the main anime series since it features side stories set in the original body. At the same time, the newer manga features a fearsome Killer T Cell as its main protagonist so it may be released as a standalone anime title.
So, unless the main manga returns from hiatus in the future, it’s safe to say that the second season is the final season of the main Cells At Work! anime series. Stay tuned!