Existentialism and Death Education in Anime: A Micro and Macro Analysis of Cells at Work!

Irene Iwasaki

doi:10.21900/j.jams.v2.806

Authors

Irene Iwasaki Alexander College

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21900/j.jams.v2.806

Keywords:

Educational anime, Existentialism, Pandemic, Terror management, Cells at Work!

Abstract

As the 2020 global pandemic has demonstrated with new force, we continue to struggle with managing primal, existential fear, even during the ongoing struggle to understand and combat a deadly infectious disease. As this paper reveals, multimedia popular culture texts can provide us with tools, knowledge, and avenues to help us better express, empathize, and educate one another during trying times. In particular, this paper aims to form part of a larger discussion on how we can better face the task of looking at death during a moment of human history where doom may seem ubiquitous. Although it is not possible to separate ourselves from our dependence on information that links us as individuals to the outside world, we can engage with media that provides knowledge in a more palatable or entertaining way and in so doing, support the development of better coping skills for apprehension about an unknown tomorrow. This paper analyzes the 2018 Cells at Work! as an example of anime that is both educational and entertaining, and discusses its implications for terror management and the promotion of well-being.

References

Aihara, Hiroyuki. Characterizing Japan. Tokyo: Kodansha, 2007. Quoted in Debra J. Oochi, "Wobbly Aesthetics, Performance, and Message: Comparing Japanese Kyara with Their Anthropomorphic Forebears." Asian Ethnology 71, no. 1 (2012): 109-32. https://asianethnology.org/downloads/ae/pdf/a1741.pdf.

Ancuta, Katarzyna. “Asian Gothic.” In Twenty-First-Century Gothic: An Edinburgh Companion, edited by Maisha Wester and Xavier Aldana Reyes, 249-262. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2019. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3366/edinburgh/9781474440929.003.0018

Bengtsson, Stefan. “Death.” In Dark Pedagogy: Education, Horror and the Anthropocene, edited by Jonas Andreasen Lysgaard and Martin Hauberg-Lund-Laugesen, 63-83. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-19933-3_4. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-19933-3_4

Cells at Work! Directed by Kenichi Suzuki. Aniplex/Kodansha, Season 1,

Episodes 1-13, Netflix, 2018. https://www.netflix.com/ca/title/81028791.

Collins, Hannah. “Watching This Anime Genuinely Makes You Smarter.” CBR.com,

August 25, 2018. https://www.cbr.com/cells-at-work-anime-makes-you-smarter/.

Fan, Ryan. “Why Is Anime So Universally Appealing?” Medium.com, November 10,

https://ryanfan.medium.com/why-is-anime-so-universally-appealing-e6417527de8c.

Fobian, Peter. “I Asked a Med Student What He Thought About Cells at Work!”

Crunchyroll.com, Feb 2, 2018.

https://www.crunchyroll.com/anime-feature/2018/08/02-1/i-asked-a-med-student-what-he-thought-about-cells-at-work.

Gibbs, Jay. “Why Cells at Work Works.” Comicsverse.com, August 14, 2018.

https://comicsverse.com/why-cells-at-work-works/.

Greenberg, Jeff and Sheldon Solomon. “Coronavirus Reminds You of Death and

Amplifies Your Core Values, Both Bad and Good.” The Conversation, May 21, 2020. https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-reminds-you-of-death-and-amplifies-your-core- values-both-bad-and-good-137588.

Haury, Corissa. “Cells at Work! is a Surprisingly Educational and Amusing Anime.” Ms. En Scene, July 31, 2018.

http://msenscene.com/2018/07/31/cells-at-work-is-a-surprisingly-educational-and-amusi ng-anime/.

Helmsing, Mark and Cathryn van Kessel. “Critical Corpse Studies: Engaging with Corporeality and Mortality in Curriculum.” Taboo: Journal of Culture and Education 19, no. 3 (2020): 140-164. https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/taboo/vol19/iss3/10.

Interpret. “Anime Interest has been Surging Over the Last Year.” Interpret:

Digital Entertainment, April 28, 2021.

https://interpret.la/anime-interest-has-been-surging-over-the- last-year/.

May, Todd. Death: The Art of Living. Montreal: McGill University Press, 2009. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/UPO9781844654307

Mikama, Kaori. “Demon Slayer: A Cultural Phenomenon for Pandemic Times.” Nippon.com, February 4, 2021.

https://www.nippon.com/en/in-depth/d00667/.

Milcinski, Maja. “Impermanence and Death in Sino-Japanese Philosophical Context.” Paideia: Philosophy in Asia, August 1998. https://www.bu.edu/wcp/Papers/Asia/AsiaMilc.htm. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5840/wcp20-paideia199824419

Motamayor, Rafael. “Cells At Work! Will Teach You About Biology, With Gratuitous Violence and an Overload of Cuteness.” Slashfilm.com, March 3, 2020. https://www.slashfilm.com/cells-at-work/.

Occhi, Debra J. "Wobbly Aesthetics, Performance, and Message: Comparing Japanese Kyara with Their Anthropomorphic Forebears." Asian Ethnology 71, no. 1 (2012): 109-32. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41551385.

Phillips, Maya. “The Upbeat Anime Cells at Work! is a Cure for Coronavirus Blues.”

Polygon.com, April 9, 2020. https://www.polygon.com/2020/4/9/21215007/cells-at-work-best-anime-to-watch-netflix-crunchyroll-coronavirus.

Ruble, Julie and Kim Lysne. “The Animated Classroom: Using Japanese Anime to

Engage and Motivate Students.” The English Journal 100, no 1 (2010): 37-46. www.jstor.org/stable/20787689.

Samoylova, Elena. “The Mortal Code into the Multimedia Anime Phenomenon.”

International Multidisciplinary Scientific Conference on Social Sciences & Arts SGEM, September 2014, 851–55. DOI: 10.5593/sgemsocial2014/B31/S11.111. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5593/sgemsocial2014/B31/S11.111

Solomon, Sheldon, Jeff Greenberg, and Tom Pyszczynski. The Worm at the Core:

On the Role of Death in Life. New York: Random House, 2015.

Steele, Howard. “Covid-19, Fear and the Future: An Attachment Perspective.” Clinical Neuropsychiatry 17, no. 2 (April 2020): 97–99. DOI:10.36131/CN20200213.

Takarajimasha. “Interview with Akane Shimizu.” Konomanga.jp, November 26, 2016. https://konomanga.jp/interview/83755-2.

Tsuneoka, Chieko. “The World is Watching More Anime.” The Wall Street Journal, November 14, 2020.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-world-is-watching-more-animeand-streaming-services- are-buying-11605365629.

Vail, Kenneth E., Jacob Juhl, Jamie Arndt, Matthew Vess, Clay Routledge, and Bastiaan

T. Rutjens. “When Death Is Good for Life: Considering the Positive Trajectories of Terror Management.” Personality and Social Psychology Review 16, no. 4 (November 2012): 303–29. DOI: 10.1177/1088868312440046. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1088868312440046

Valdez, Nick. “Scientists Praise Cells at Work! for its Entertaining Accuracy.”

Comicbook.com, August 26, 2018. https://comicbook.com/anime/news/cells-at-work-cancer-episode-accuracy-praised-anime/.

van Kessel, Cathryn, Kent den Heyer, and Jeff Schimel. “Terror Management Theory and the Educational Situation.” Journal of Curriculum Studies 52, no. 3 (2020): 428–442.

DOI:10.1080/00220272.2019.1659416. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00220272.2019.1659416

Viri, Beatrice. “Iyashikei: Let Anime's ‘Healing’ Genre Soothe Your Pandemic Stress.”

CBR.com, November 25, 2020. https://www.cbr.com/iyashikei-anime-healing-genre-soothe-pandemic-stress/.

Wallin, Jason J. “Putrid Deadagogies.” In Problematizing Public Pedagogy, edited by Jake Burdick, Jennifer A. Sandlin, and Michael P. O'Malley, 40-51. New York: Routledge, 2013.

Yao, Tony. “Processing Meaningful Death in Anime/Manga.” Manga Therapy, February

, 2021. https://www.mangatherapy.com/