One of the greatest things about the Cells at Work! universe is that everyone has a job to do and they are very happy doing it. Which is why Hatarakanai Saibou! (that literally translates to ‘Cells that don’t work!’) is so interesting. Instead of focusing on any group of working cells, the main characters are a group of erythroblasts (immature red blood cells) that despite being adults refuse to enucleate and become full working red blood cells and remain living in their nursery.

Written and drawn by Moe Sugimoto, this manga expands a bit on the creation of cells, and also makes them a bit more human. They have no dangerous encounters with bacteria so it would be perfect for a series of small short chapters in the summer season.

Another nice slice of life spin-off where the focus is a single cell rather than a whole system, Friend follows a Killer T cell (unfortunately not the leader Killer T cell we got to know in the main series) who wants nothing more than to be friends with the cell of the other system. But as he also needs to keep his very intimidating reputation, his attempts usually end with him terrorizing every cell he tries to befriend.

Published in the shoujo magazine Bessatsu Friend, Hataraku Saibou friend is written by Kanna Kurono, and illustrated by Mio Izumi. As the story tackles the complex theme of not judging books by their cover and social anxiety, it would be an interesting addition to any anime season.

Let’s be honest here: Everyone loves the Platelets. They’re incredibly cute, very hardworking, and steal the show every time they appear. This goes double for their leader, known by the fans as Platelet-chan, and who gets the spotlight on the ending of the original anime. Hataraku Keshoban-chan! Translates to Platelets at work! and focuses precisely on the Platelet team we all know and love. And while that would be too sweet for a 20-minute episode series, it would work in short 5-minute web-episodes to cheer us up during a long workday.

The body in Hataraku Saibou has some pretty nasty scares during the series, including one bad case of cancer cells developing in the body. But even so, it’s healthy enough that their immune system can fight every threat in time, and when things look dire, there’s always medical assistance. BLACK shows us how important that is, as the body in this series is in a terrible shape thanks to high cholesterol, alcoholism, and malnutrition. Because of this, the immune system is constantly overrun by different viruses, and the red cells have a hard time fulfilling their duties trying their best to keep their body alive.

A horror take on the original story, Hataraku Saibou Black would be an amazing anime to watch in the Fall season and a good reminder that we need to take good care of our bodies every day.