Hurray,
I have a new fanfiction!
If
you have visited my blog in the past, you probably know that sometimes, on very
rare occasions and when I experience emotional turmoil, I write fanfiction.
All
my fics are on AO3:
https://archiveofourown.org/users/Antinael/pseuds/Antinael/works
I
just finished a fanfiction for a relatively small fandom: for the Cells at Work
/ Hataraku Saibou anime. The fanfiction is called “Forgive, Not Forget”.
Cells
at Work, Japanese Hataraku Saibou, is a two season anime (first season ran in
2018 and second season in 2021) in which the characters are anthropomorphic
personifications of the cells of our body (red blood cells, white blood cells,
normal cells, fucked up cells etc.)
If
you saw the 2001 movie “Osmosis Jones”, you get the idea, they are very
similar, only Cells at Work takes a bit more dramatic turn.
I
won’t get into much detail, just want to write a few words about “Forgive, Not
Forget”. To be clear, one of the main characters of the fanfic is the fucked up
cell.
One
of the themes I tackle is rehabilitation. In real life, some people do horrible
things and are sent to jail, for good reason! But if some of them can and are
willing to change their ways, shouldn’t society give them a chance? Ok, so
someone did a horrible thing and goes to jail. Later, it is proven that they
are both able and willing to integrate in society and work for the wellbeing of
society. Not only this, but the benefit their work brings to society exceeds
the costs society spends for their rehabilitation. Under these circumstances,
shouldn’t society give them a chance?
Another
theme I tackle, yet only briefly, is the influence of childhood, upbringing and
trauma on the future adult. Let’s assume that two identical humans are raised
in totally different environments: one traumatizing, the other encouraging, understanding
and full of love. Will they not be very different from each other, even if they
are genetically identical?
This
anime, especially the problematic character starring in it, gave me all sorts
of troubling thoughts, just when my life was in a somewhat balanced phase. For
example, if someone does something really bad, everyone is happy they are sent
behind bars. But few of us ask themselves: what if how society treated the
defendants pushed the latter to do what they did? What if we, even though we
hate to admit it, contributed to what the defendants became? Sad thought to
have.
If you like Cells at
Work / Hataraku Saibou and don’t have anything against controversial
problematic characters, you might like “Forgive, Not Forget”!