It has been announced that the film " Cells at Work" (directed by Hideki Takeuchi , to be released in 2024), starring Mei Nagano and Takeru Satoh and featuring characters made from personified human cells, will be broadcast on Friday Road Show (Nippon TV, Fridays at 9pm) on January 30th. This will be the first time it will be broadcast on terrestrial television. A special video that gives a glimpse behind the scenes of the VFX has also been released.
The film is a live-action adaptation of Akane Shimizu's popular manga (Kodansha), which has sold over 10 million copies in total, and includes the spin-off "Cells at Work at Work! BLACK" (written by Shigemitsu Harada, Issei Hatsuya, and Akane Shimizu), starring Nagano and Sato. Set inside the human body, the film depicts the daily activities of personified cells. Nagano plays a red blood cell that struggles to deliver oxygen to each organ in the body, while Sato plays a white blood cell (neutrophil) that eliminates foreign substances such as bacteria and viruses that enter the body.
Other cast members include Mana Ashida, Sadao Abe, Koji Yamamoto, Riisa Naka, Wakana Matsumoto, My Capyu, Shota Sometani, Kyoko Rihito Itagaki , Ryo Kato, Seishiro Kato, Ainosuke Kataoka, Masaru Ozawa, Shinya Niiro , and Fukase from Kataoka Ainosuke NO OWARI. Released on December 13, 2024, it topped the charts for four consecutive weeks. It was the highest grossing Japanese film of all time, drawing an audience of 4.73 million and grossing over 6.3 billion yen.
The accompanying special video shows Shirogumi's VFX production process for the internal scenes of a healthy high school student, Niko (played by Ashida). The video shows how the world of energetic cells was created using VFX technology, and also gives a glimpse behind the scenes of the white blood cell action scenes, one of the highlights of the film.
