I got this manga at Barnes and Noble. It's about anthropomorphized blood-cells as they go about their daily chores, and it's both entertaining and educational.

Each of the many different blood-components is represented by unique characters - with a helpful chart on the title page, a good thing as there are sooo very many of them. While the two on the cover - cute little girl red blood cell and pale, stoic-looking white blood cell - seem to be the main characters, everything from macrophages to mast cells to helper T-cells are included.

Much of the story does hinge around the attempts of newbie red-blood-cell to deliver her load of oxygen, with many perils along the way - from some humorous ones involving her getting lost to more frightening ones involving invading organisms. The scenes in which the white blood cells battle bacteria are pretty darned gruesome!

The dramatic scenes are a setup for extensive explanations as to how the various parts of the body work, whether it has to do with potentially-lethal bacteria or mildly-inconvenient allergens, and all of it is turned into Very Serious Business - with some quirky humor around the edges. (The bit with the alarmed memory-cell reacting to the presence of an allergen made me laugh, as it's rendered as if it was a fantasy-world seer reacting to the omens of a long-dreaded prophecy. "It's just like the legend says...!")

At one point, the various blood components are in mid-battle against an invader when a weird robotic entity turns up, blasting nearly everything in range - it's a steroid, which the human host took for allergies, but which has its own side effects (and which can screw up the body's natural defenses).

The "influenza" arc shows a terrified "naive T cell" (one that has not yet encountered an antigen) seeing its first zombie-like virus-infected cells, which the white blood cell destroys in very gruesome fashion. This leads to a whole new set of characters, lots of variants of T-cells with specialized functions in battling viruses - a very informative and lively chapter.

Farther on there's a chapter on a "scrape wound", showing how the blood components deal with wounds - including a terrifying panel of blood-spattered white cell commandos madly hunting for any invading bacteria. Makes a simple cut or scrape seem like high drama - which, I suppose, it is at a cellular level! (Given the high drama and the macho, warrior-like white blood cells, I was tickled when the platelets turned out to be drawn as a bunch of very cute little children...)

All in all, a very entertaining and educational series! [Update: see the delightful YouTube channel Dr. Hope's Sick Notes; a UK doctor comments on medical aspects of pop culture, including a series based on the "Cells at Work" anime!]

A more in-depth book about blood is Five Quarts by Bill Hayes. And another entertaining manga in which cells feature prominently is Moyasimon, though it focuses on bacteria and yeasts outside the body rather than those inside.

I'm putting this book in the manga/graphic novel bookbox, which will be on its way to its next stop soon. Enjoy!

Taken from the manga box.

This was an entertaining, light-hearted look at human blood cells and their jobs. I could see this being helpful to a biology-studying student, allowing them to imagine the cellular interactions in a new way. It also is a pretty fun read, with the body's immune system responding to creatively designed threats. I did wish some of that creativity had rubbed off on the character designs, which I mostly found rather bland. There were some characters and ways scenes were drawn that were so reminiscent of other series that I think they must have been in homage.

Added to the Magical Beasties box

This book was in my Box Full of Magical, Mystical Stories and Dangerous Beasties bookbox. This looks appropriate for me, at this moment. I’ve been dealing with some chronic health issues and I was just looking into Red blood cells, white blood cells and the immune system. Looks like I can learn and be entertained at the same time. 🤓

Didn't know that there was so much going on in bodies. Action packed manga! I will never be the same as I think about WBC, RBC, T-Cells ect... and those cute little Platelets hard at work, keeping me safe. This would be a great book for youth studying such a topic. A fun way to look at the immune system.

Putting this in Erishkigal's Science Fiction Bookbox. Happy Travels!

Keeping this as part of erishkigal’s Science Fiction Bookbox.  Can’t wait to read it!