Akane Shimizu’s long-running cellular comedy is opening yet another front in the human body. The November issue of Kodansha‘s Shonen Sirius revealed on Friday that a new spinoff titled Hataraku Saibu014d Dental (Cells at Work! Dental) will debut in the magazine’s following issue on October 26.
The series comes from Koma Warita and Kawede Sakaki, and as the title suggests, it relocates the franchise’s anthropomorphized cells to the inside of the mouth u2014 a region the announcement teases as harboring secrets of its own.
A Franchise Built on Spinoffs
Akane Shimizu began the original Hataraku Saibu014d in the March 2015 issue of Monthly Shonen Sirius, casting red blood cells, white blood cells, platelets and assorted immune responders as workers in the sprawling corporate machinery of the human body. The manga ended in January 2021, but the concept proved endlessly extensible, and Kodansha has kept commissioning new takes on the premise from other creators ever since.
The most recent of those to wrap up was Cells at Work! Cat by Choko Aozora and Meku Kaire, which finished on March 26. Its fifth and final collected volume shipped on May 8. Choko Aozora and Meku Kaire had launched that title in Monthly Shonen Sirius in May 2023. Kodansha USA Publishing licensed the cat-focused entry and released its first English volume on September 22.
What’s Already Available in English
Kodansha USA picked up the core series back in 2016 and continues to publish it u2014 you can find the first volume on Kodansha USA’s site. The publisher has also brought over a remarkable number of offshoots, including:
- Cells at Work: Bacteria!
- Cells at Work!: Neo Bacteria!
- Cells at Work! White Brigade
- Cells at Work! Baby
- Cells NOT at Work!
- Cells at Work! Code Black
- Cells at Work and Friends!
- Cells at Work: Platelets!
- Cells at Work! Lady
- Cells at Work! Picture Books
That lineup covers everything from microbial perspectives to workplace-stress satire to children’s illustrated editions, which makes a dental-themed entry feel like a natural, if overdue, addition. Oral health is a subject with plenty of built-in antagonists u2014 plaque, cavity-causing bacteria, gum inflammation u2014 and the franchise’s formula of turning biological processes into office drama and combat has always thrived on that kind of raw material.
Why It Keeps Working
Part of the appeal of these spinoffs is how neatly the central conceit scales. Each new title picks a body system, a demographic or a lifestyle and rebuilds the cast around it, so newcomers can start almost anywhere. Code Black famously reframed the formula as grim workplace realism inside an unhealthy adult body, while Baby and the picture books pushed in the opposite, gentler direction. A dental setting sits somewhere in between: familiar enough for readers to recognize the stakes, and specific enough to introduce a fresh roster of characters.
No English licensing plans for Cells at Work! Dental have been announced yet, though Kodansha USA’s track record with the franchise suggests an eventual release is plausible. For now, the debut chapter arrives in Shonen Sirius on October 26.
For more on what else is launching and returning this season, see our fall-to-winter anime trailer and cast roundup, or read up on Manchuria Opium Squad’s October 5 return.
Featured image: © 2026 Kodansha USA Publishing., Akane Shimizu
Source: Anime News Network