while millions of people read Cells at Work! (d)Hataraku Saibou) And they learned about red and white blood cells that work non-stop to keep the body alive, its author, Akane Shimizu, was fighting a completely different battle, and completely silent. on June 15, 2026, through its official account in x, , Shimizu She revealed that during the years of manga serialization she was diagnosed with depression, trichotillomania and post-traumatic stress disorder. The fandom didn’t know. The industry didn’t say it either. She kept it for years.
What Akane Shimizu revealed
In his own words, published in X on June 15: ‘During the serialization of Cells at Work!, Multiple difficult situations accumulated at the same time. I received a diagnosis of depression and trichotillomania, and later of post-traumatic stress disorder.’
But the diagnoses were not the only thing he went through in silence. Shimizu also revealed that in that period he suffered economic damage and sexual abuse by people in his close environment, and that when he sought support in his family, he faced revictimization, that is, instead of receiving support, the family response aggravated the damage. As a consequence of all this, he lost contact with his younger sister, the same person who gave him the original impulse to write Cells at Work! First of all.
‘What I experienced then is still a big wound to this day’, wrote. ‘I plan to share it little by little, to the extent that I can do it.’ç
About Akane Shimizu
Akane Shimizu debuted in the manga with Hataraku Saibou (d)Cells at Work!), which won the 27th Shōnen Sirius New Face Award Grand Prix in 2014 with the short story Saibou no Hanashi (The story of a cell). Complete serialization began in 2015 and completed in 2021. Currently, it continues to work on Yellow Flame, his most recent project, published with a new publishing house.
