Doctor develops anime game to motivate cancer-battling children
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Isamu Saeki, a pediatric surgeon at Hiroshima University Hospital (Shinya Maeda)
Isamu Saeki admits that he didn’t know what “Cells at Work!” was about until his second daughter, who was a kindergartener at the time, talked about someone named Macrophage.
The maid-like character is from the popular anime series featuring Red Blood Cell, White Blood Cell and other anthropomorphized cells of a human body that fight viruses and cancer cells.
Child cancer patients have to endure grueling anticancer drug treatments that often require prolonged hospitalization.
Inspired by the anime, Saeki, 48, a pediatric surgeon at Hiroshima University Hospital, proceeded with his project to teach children how cancers work and how to treat them, offering them hope for beating the disease.
Four years after he came up with the concept, Saeki completed a virtual reality (VR) game featuring characters from the anime series in the spring.
He gained the support of a publisher of the original manga series, while seven voice actors of the animated adaptation also joined the cause.
Children play the role of the protagonist to learn about their “allies” in their bodies and fight cancer.
The game has been introduced at 30 hospitals across the country as a software that helps child patients increase their willingness to receive treatment.
As a youngster, Saeki was inspired by a gentle pediatrician in his neighborhood to become a doctor who would speak kind words of encouragement to children.
His mother told him to study hard.
But as an avid video game player, the young Saeki hid under his blanket and stealthily played games at night.
He indulged himself in playing games when he was living on his own as a college student.
When he entered a competition, he decided to stop his own winning streak on purpose after he learned that the winner would advance to a national championship shown live on TV, which would reveal his obsession to the world.
His mother, who agreed with great reluctance to let him play video games as long as he studied, passed away from breast cancer 13 years ago.
“I think she had thought I was done with video games a long time ago,” Saeki said. “I wonder what she would tell me if she saw the VR game.”
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