Yumi’s Cells Handles Break-up Better Than Most Manga

[Spoilers!]

Yumi’s Cells can just be a goofy series and still be better than a lot of comics but the creator, Dong-Gun Lee, really goes above and beyond my expectations.

The art has improved over the seasons, the story is still going strong over 200 chapters later. I’m almost insulted it isn’t printed in a magazine. It’s so much fun, so consistently good, I’m at a loss for words. Now, I can add one more thing to love about Yumi’s Cells, it handled a break-up very well.

Let’s me just say, I thought I had Yumi’s Cells all figured out. It’s a slice-of-life comedy. How hard can it be to predict? I knew her crush on Wook wouldn’t go anywhere because we never saw inside his head. And, I knew she’d end up in a relationship with the fun guy Woong. The guy screamed personality! And, I knew, I knew for a FACT the rest of the series would focus on developing their relationship until finally, they’re married. Sure, we’d get the usual pitfall and misunderstanding, but in the end, they’ll be together.

WRONG!

Yumi and Woong broke up, FOR REAL!

Yumi felt underappreciated and Woong’s pride wouldn’t let him stay.
“Okay, a misunderstanding. They’ll be back together in a couple months.”
A guy from Yumi’s job, Babi, got a crush on her.
“Okay, a little tension when Woong’s ready to apologize.”
Yumi becomes attracted to Babi and the two start dating.
“Okay, more tension.”
Yumi and Babi are in a relationship.
“Okay…this will be awkward but Woong can—”
Woong finally puts his pride in the trash and is ready to apologize.
“Oh…it’s too late. Yumi and Babi are legit? Wow!

I’m amazed this happened. Mostly, because even now, despite Woong’s pride I feel he and Yumi are the better couple, and if by some weird twist they get back together I’d be fine with it. But, everything is pointing to Babi being the endgame partner for Yumi. Her parents have met Babi and we’re finally, finally, getting some backstory on the guy. He’s getting fleshed out!

At this point, unless Babi straight up cheats on Yumi, I doubt they’ll break up. This was a ballsy move on the creator’s part and I applaud it. Even though it’s doubtful I’ll ever like Babi more than Woong and Yumi’s “battle” against Sia pretty much confirmed her and Woong should be together forever in my mind, I applaud it. It was handled so well, from misunderstanding to the final nail in the relationship’s coffin. Bravo, Yumi’s Cell. May you have an animated series and many annoying YouTube reaction videos in your future!