First Impressions / Hataraku Saibou

“Food Poisoning”


「食中毒」 (Shokuchoudoku)

Eosophil tries her best! But sadly her best is evidently not enough. When it comes to fighting the vibro bacteria, everyone else just laughs at her for being useless, which was admittedly true. I really enjoyed her stoic characterisation, where she’d lower her head and grit her teeth at being made fun of, but staunchly carried on with her task at hand. Ultimately, she is rewarded for her effort and seeing her overwhelmed by happy feelings was a satisfying payoff (Smile protecc???). That said, although her plight was endearing in animated form, I gave the real life logistics some consideration. I’ve always enjoyed steak the most when it’s on the raw side – bleu or rare. However, as sacrilegious as it might be for an anime fan, the same cannot be said for fish. Okay, sushi can be pretty tasty. But other than that, I loathe the texture and taste of raw fish. How to describe it from my perspective? Bleck. Rubbery and bland. I cannot begin to comprehend how people can view it as such a refined delicacy.

Worse still, you risk exposing your body to some unwelcome guests. Where health is concerned, namely the risk of ingesting parasites, this episode manages to justify my apprehensions about eating raw fish. Even though I’m aware of the precautionary measures that are taken to kill off the bacteria and parasites in sushi-grade stuff, such as flash freezing, it feels like this episode reaffirms my personal scepticism towards raw fish. I might sympathise with Eosophil’s constant failings, and it sucks that I’m not giving her a chance to prove her worth. But no, I would rather not to be infected by parasites. So I’m totally fine if my Eosophil continues remaining useless and gets laughed at by the other cells in my body. Tis but a small price to pay.

But this episode made me realise there’s something worse than a parasite that lurks within our bodies. Basophils…? Ew! Get this chuuni edgelord out of my body! Haha, just kidding. Loved every moment of it! Sugita did an excellent job and I look forwards to seeing his character make future appearances, complete with the deep voice and mysterious mannerisms.

To conclude, it’s quite hard to seriously analyse Hataraku Saibou. There’s no inherent depth about whimsical comedy, and I lack the biological expertise to really dig into its educational wormhole. Nevertheless, I intend on seeing through this series and hope that we can all have a blast along the way. Anyway, that’s about everything I wanted to say, so thanks for reading my post. Until the pollen invasion happens, see you next week!

Preview

18 Comments

      1. I mean they do have more than enough material for 2 cur. I got a sense that they’re reorganized things around to end this season with the first 2 parter episodes.

        Even though most of the chapters are somewhat independent of each other, in volume 5 of the manga, we actually got one continuous story arc that features helpful bacteria that went through a lot of different places. If they’re ever going to adapt that, that’s one good long section they can adapt.

        BigFire
        Reply

      2. Currently there are 25 chapters compiled into 5 published volumes.
        Presumably there should be enough content for a S2, provided they still follow the 1 chapter per episode rate.

        zztop
        Reply

    2. Exactly the same thing that I thought when I saw him the first time. Although, I would’ve liked that they did something with him other than just make him talk and release histamine. I keep wondering when they are going to start releasing chemokines and cytokines. I guess touching Th1 and Th2 responses is too complicated for an anime.

      Lol, you can get many parasites from raw meat too, not just fish.

      Asoch_3
      Reply

  3. Rubbery? Is your sushi restaurant one that replaces their fish with actual plastic? Anyways, you might as well just stick with California rolls.
    Can’t wait for the next episode.

    WellBattle6
    Reply

    1. Episode 5 is actually the 2nd chapter in the manga. I don’t know why they delay it this far down the line, as it introduced Mast, B and Memory B Cells. We briefly saw B cells in episode 3 and 4, and Mast in 4. These 3 will be the main focus for Cedar Pollens Allergy episode.

      BigFire
      Reply

    2. The only type of sushi that might be at all “rubbery” is squid or maybe clam. Any type of fish should be meltingly tender.

      As for safety, Zaiden, even if you did like sushi, don’t eat it at the UK’s big chains, they are just staffed by people who don’t care about food hygiene – I’ve seen it with my own eyes and walked out more than once.

      Angelus
      Reply

    3. Maybe rubbery is an exaggeration, but I couldn’t quite think of another word to accurately describe how I find the texture of sushi/sashimi. Actually, I’ve had sushi/sashimi in some fantastic establishments in Japan (courtesy of recommendations from Cherrie and Enzo), so I think I can only say I’m not big on raw fish.

      Zaiden
      Reply

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