The theater line in early April was a bit deserted, except for the word-of-mouth and box office "My Sister", which was the only one, other films hardly attracted much attention from the audience.
However, the recent release of the Japanese animated film "Working Cell: Cell Wars" may break this situation.
After all, its original animated series was popular throughout the network that year, and the first season of the broadcast exceeded 100 million, becoming a phenomenon-level Japanese comic work, and began to broadcast on six sets of CCTV movie channels starting during the Spring Festival.
The second season was also launched at the beginning of this year, once again out of the loop.
As a popular science animation that introduces human physiological phenomena, "Working Cell" can break through the siege in Japanese comic works, defeat masterpieces such as "Attack on Titan", and become the dark horse of the summer file that year.
01 Innovative settings
The original work of "Working Cell" is a manga of the same name serialized by Akane Shimizu in Kodansha, which anthropomorphizes human cells and presents us with their work and love scenes in the human body.
After being animated, each episode tells the story of a physical problem, from mild illness to terminal illness, and the daily work of 37.2 trillion cells in our body in the form of a unit drama.
In this animation, we can see that the heroine Red Blood Cell is a cute girl who is responsible for transporting nutrients, oxygen and carbon dioxide to the blood vessels.
The male protagonist's white blood cells are a cool guy with cold outside and hot inside, and are responsible for removing bacteria and viruses that enter the body every day.
Killer T cells look domineering and powerful, quite bossy, and specialize in destroying viruses and cancer cells.
Platelets are typical of lolita in Japanese anime, responsible for hemostasis and clotting on a daily basis.
Macrophages look like the sister next door in a maid costume, but the way they work with a large knife is very different from their image.
There are also a variety of other cells with very different personalities.
And the creators also made the human body a world.
"There are also buildings and notes in the world where the cells work, and they feel the ordinary sense of life, and this detail full of realism is also a charm."
For example, the lungs, because they are in charge of the respiratory system, have become a wide hall here.
The heart vein valve is like an airport ticket gate, making the appetite like a "big aquarium".
This innovative setting of anthropomorphizing cells and full of whimsy makes the audience, who do not know enough about cell characteristics and body structure, have a further understanding of their own bodies, and it can be said that they have achieved edutainment while popularizing obscure knowledge.
At the same time, "Working Cell" also added a narration of Asami Noto, and it is no wonder that many viewers shouted after enjoying it, if they had watched this animation earlier, the biological score would have been full.
In addition to the interesting and innovative setting of this animation, the cast of the animation production team is also worth mentioning.
"Working Cell" is produced by David Production and supervised by Kenichi Suzuki, with the character designed by Takahiko Yoshida and the co-ordinator of the soundtrack by Kenichiro Suehiro and MAYUKO.
It should be known that Kenichi Suzuki once directed the famous "The Wonderful Adventure of JoJo", Ryuhiko Yoshida's representative work is "Speeding Otaku"), and the classic Japanese drama "Escape Is Shameful but Useful" is written by Kenichiro Suehiro and MAYUKO.
Not to mention the voice actor lineup, Kaori Hanazawa, Tomoaki Maeno, Kikuko Inoue, and viewers familiar with Japanese manga are certainly familiar with these names.
With such a strong lineup, it is no wonder that "Working Cell" has such a brilliant result.
02 The story is wonderful
"Working Cell" as a blockbuster god, its plot line is not complicated, telling the story of red blood cell newcomers "AE3803" and white blood cell "U1146" accidental encounter, from which the fate is wonderful, and then work together to solve the human body encountered such as colds, food poisoning and other crises.
Like red blood cells, although they are confused, they never forget their original intentions for the sake of faith; white blood cells desperately guard this body from infection. The other cells are too, and the enemy is not sparing no effort at all times.
After encountering cancer cells, he was even more busy running for his life, fighting to the death, and also fell into thinking about whether his efforts were worth it, and he was also sentimental about whether he could shoulder the pressure and responsibility behind the crisis of fighting against the waves, but in the end he would still fight together and go all out. They work hard and stick to their posts, and this pattern and theme undoubtedly make the whole animation much larger than many Japanese manga works.
And it is worth mentioning that when filming the scene of the cells fighting with the bacteria, the main creator is deliberately carrying out the hot-blooded style of The DayMan to the end, and the fighting picture of the two sides of the fight makes the audience feel the blood spurting after watching.
When each cell has mild symptoms such as facial abrasions, allergies, and heat stroke, it is harmless to us humans, but for cells, it is a tough battle.
Each wonderful battle scene is a group portrait scene, the free switching and transition of the moving and static pictures, checking and balancing each other, and the refreshing and bright painting style is also different from other animations, which is the main reason for the success of the series.
Of course, in the end, the values are settled on the other side of life after suffering, which is obviously more empathetic to the audience and thus resonates.
03 Innovate again
In fact, after the launch of "Working Cell" for two seasons, it has also been criticized by many viewers for having a thin story and a stereotyped and single character. Almost every episode is a cute cell to perform their duties, encounter danger to meet the difficult routine, the cells are also in line with the public's expectations of the cute Lolita or heroic handsome guy image.
For these characters, the creators have adopted a heroic approach almost from beginning to end, so it also caused the anime to show fatigue in the second season.
As a result, many authors have created many derivative works, such as "Working Cell", "Working Cell BLACK", "Working Bacteria", "Working Cell LADY", etc., of which the best reputation is "Working Cell BLACK", which was also launched in January this year, and was released with the second season.
Strictly speaking, BLACK is a spin-off fan work of "Working Cell", with the original author Akane Shimizu as the superintendent, Harada Shigemitsu in charge of the script, and Hatsukaya as the manga drawing for his lifetime.
To say what is the difference between BLACK and the two seasons, it can be said that one is a small fresh story of the healing department, and the other is a metaphor for the social reality of the dark department.
The two seasons of "Working Cell" set the story as the body of a girl with a regular schedule, while "Working Cell BLACK" focuses on a man who smokes and drinks, prostitutes and suffers from sexually transmitted diseases and is cynical.
The former cells face common and not very serious diseases such as colds and fevers, while the latter are strenuous diseases such as venereal diseases, alopecia areata, stomach ulcers, etc. The cells have gradually changed from a cheerful personality of positive sunshine to a social animal that works all the time, and the overloaded workload also makes them complain and go to extremes.
From a macroscopic point of view, the physical lesions caused by vices such as smoking, alcoholism, and staying up late are also similar to the situation that each of us faces. From a microscopic point of view, we are also like the cells in the workplace, confined to the restlessness of reality, trapped in the anger and helplessness of the moment.
BLACK is to use the way of anime and manga to present us with a human workplace purgatory and life cultivation field. It's really human.
Therefore, this derivative work is also the creator's intention to remind us to cherish the body through the gloomy tone and the repressive story atmosphere, and also to call on the black-hearted bosses to think more about the sadness of the social animals when pursuing the maximization of benefits.
After watching this work, I still love myself more and live healthily.