As the body grows in the third volume of Yasuhiro Fukuda’s Cells at Work! Baby, so to do the cells that inhabit it. With that new growth comes new challenges, and new threats.
This volume contains chapters sixteen through to twenty.
THE STRUGGLES ARE REAL
A lot has happened since the baby’s left the womb, but things are only just starting to ramp up! Where does this oxygen delivery go? What’s that mysterious white liquid pouring into the stomach? Oh no, a bacteria invasion again?! Wait, how come the IgG antibodies from the mother aren’t working?! But they were just fine before! Everything is a confusing learning process for these young cells, from patching up diaper rash wounds to digesting breast milk. But they gotta pick things up fast if they want to protect the baby’s body. It’s yet another hard day’s work for the little ones!
This volume starts with a visit to the kidney, and a look at how the cells in a baby’s body deal with the waste that is created. Everyone is pretty new to their jobs here, so of course things don’t run particularly smoothly – which results in a few more incidents that are covered in the following chapters of this particular manga.
Of course Red Blood Cell manages to get directly involved with every last one of these incidents, much to the chagrin of the cell known as “F”. And of course White Blood Cell isn’t far behind, either.
Something that all the cells have to learn to do pretty quickly is get used to doing their jobs without any assistance from the outside. Things they relied on before to help them out become less than viable. That also happens to be at the very instance a new, never-seen-before threat rears its head. The cells – white blood cells and killer T cells in particular – pretty much have a trial by fire on their hands.
Plenty of other cells are experiencing growth, whereas Red Blood Cell feels like she isn’t achieving anything. However, it seems that other cells are able to recognise her hard work, even if she doesn’t see it herself. When it comes down to it, though, Red Blood Cell can certainly be counted upon during emergency situations.
Decent volume of Cells at Work! Baby here. Lots of growing going on.
Rory Muses 