Yumi's Cells

Season 1

Yumi (Kim Go-eun) is an ordinary woman whose Love Cell has fallen into a coma following the shock of a failed relationship. When she meets Goo Woong (Ahn Bo-hyun), a game developer, his simple and honest personality wakes up Yumi's Love Cell.

Season 2

After parting with Goo Woong, Yumi starts a new relationship with her co-worker Babi (Jinyoung). In the meantime, she rekindles her dream of becoming a writer.

Season 3

Yumi, now in her mid-30s, has become a renowned romance novelist, but she feels a sense of emptiness. The arrival of Shin Soon-rok (Kim Jae-won) plunges her life into a new mix of joy and despair.^[16]

Main

• Kim Go-eun as Kim Yumi, an ordinary office worker.^[17]
• Ahn Bo-hyun as Goo Woong, a game developer and Yumi's second boyfriend and Sae-yi's love interest.^[18]
  • Jun Ho-young as teen Goo Woong
• Park Jin-young as Yoo Babi, Yumi's co-worker and boyfriend.^[19]
• Kim Jae-won as Shin Soon-rok, employee of a publishing company in charge of Yumi's works and her boyfriend.^[20]
• Choi Daniel as Kim Joo-ho, the lead writer at Julie Publishing.^[21]

Yumi's cells

• Love Cell (voice: Ahn Soi)

Yumi's prime cell that represents the people. It's the driving force behind Yumi's actions. Other cells wear blue, but it wears pink.

• Emotional Cell (voice: Park Ji-yoon)

Emotional cell, responsible for emotion. It has a nocturnal temperament, so at night, it flutters blue leaves and gets wet with sensitivity.

• Rational Cell (voice: Shim Kyu-hyuk)

The opposite cell responsible for ideal thinking. When working or having an important conversation, this is Yumi's busiest cell from the moment she wakes up to the moment she goes to sleep.

• Hungry Cell (voice: Lee Jang-won)

Cell responsible for appetite and cravings. When this cell wakes up, Yumi's appetite explodes.

• Naughty Cell (voice: Ahn Young-mi)

Clumsy sexuality cell that promotes racy thoughts. It spits out obscene words from time to time, most of which are muted.

• Detective Cell (voice: Jeong Jae-heon)

Detective cell that analyzes and predicts people and situations around it.

• Fashion Cell (voice: Kim Yeon-woo)

• Hysterious (voice: Um Sang-hyun)

• Anxiety Cell (voice: Sa Moon-yeong)

• Inner Feeling Cell (voice: Sa Moon-yeong)
• Rampage Cell (voice: Jeong Jae-heon)
• Fussy Cell (voice: Sa Moon-yeong)
• Lullaby Cell (voice: Jeong Jae-heon)
• Cheapskate Cell (voice: Ahn Soi)
• Reaction Doll No.1 (voice: Ahn Soi)
• Stomach Cell (voice: Shim Kyu-hyuk)
• Tongue Cells (voice: Yoo Se-yoon)^[22]

Woong's cells

• Rational Cell (voice: Um Sang-hyun)
• Humor Cell (voice: Jeong Jae-heon)

Babi's cells

• Tongue Cells (voice: Kang Yu-mi)

Supporting

• Park Ji-hyun as Seo Sae-yi, Goo Woong's colleague. She dreams of becoming the best game art director.^[23]
• Lee Yu-bi as Ruby, Yumi's co-worker who prides herself on mastering various dating techniques.^[24]
• Joo Jong-hyuk as Louis

A game developer workaholic. Goo Woong, Seo Sae-yi, and he were college classmates, who have set up and run an online game company.^[25]

• Jeong Soon-won as Chief Nam Joo-hyuk.^[26]
• Kim Cha-yoon as Lee Bonnie, an employee of Daehan Noodles' marketing department.^[27]
• Mi-ram as Yida, Yumi's only friend and her co-worker.^[28]

• Cho Hye-jung as Baek Na-hee^[29]

Yumi's assistant writer.

• Park Se-in as PD Jang, Yumi's PD.^[30]

Others

Season 1–2

• Yoon Yoo-sun as Yumi's mother
• Sung Ji-ru as Yumi's father
• Kwon Seung-woo as Kang Han-byeol, Assistant Manager of Daehan Noodles' marketing department
• Kim Mi-soo as Ja-young, Babi's ex-girlfriend

Season 1

• Park Bo-eun as Information desk employee (ep. 8)
• Jung Soo-ji as Si Leon (ep. 7–8)
• Kim Hye-in as Hong Na-ri (ep. 7–8)
• Jo Mo-se as wedding guest (ep. 13)
• Kang Chan-yang as grocery store cashier (ep. 11)

Special appearances

Season 1

• Choi Min-ho as Chae U-gi, Yumi's co-worker and unreciprocated crush.^[31]
• Ahn Young-mi as Nung-cheol (Voice)^[32]
• Lee Sang-yi as Ji Wu-gi, Yumi's ex-boyfriend.^[33]

Season 2

• Shin Ye-eun as Yoo Da-eun, part-time worker at Jeju branch of Daehan Noodles.^[34]
• Pyo Ji-hoon as Control Z, an illustrator who works with Yumi.^[35]
• Jeon Seok-ho as Ahn Dae-young, editor-in-chief of Julie's Literature History.^[36]

Casting

On December 31, 2020, it was reported that webtoon Yumi's Cells published on Naver by Lee Dong-gun from 2015 to 2020 with 3.2 billion accumulated views was being made into a television series and Kim Go-eun was confirmed as the female lead.^[37][38] On March 10, 2021, media reported that Ahn Bo-hyun had received an offer for the part of Yu-mi's first boyfriend, Goo Woong,^[39] which was confirmed on April 27 with the final line-up, which also included Lee Yu-bi, Park Ji-hyun and Choi Min-ho.^[40][41]

On July 22, 2021, Jinyoung joined the cast,^[42] appearing from episode 8 onwards as Yoo Babi;^[43] in the second season the character was promoted to male lead.^[44] The second season also features special appearances by Shin Ye-eun,^[34] P.O,^[35] and Jeon Seok-ho.^[36]

The production of the third season was announced on March 31, 2025.^[45][46] Kim Jae-won joined the cast as Shin Soon-rok;^[20] new characters played by Choi Daniel and Cho Hye-jung were also introduced.^[47][48]

Filming and adaptation

The first two seasons started production simultaneously.^[40] Filming began in April 2021^[49] and ended the following December.^[44] While the first season wanted to faithfully adapt the webtoon, with the second one the director and the writers took a different approach, given the polarization of opinions on Babi by the readers of the original work.^[50][51] As Babi flirts with another woman while he is dating Yumi, Jinyoung commented that one of his sisters had asked him if he was really sure about accepting the part and that, with the help of the director and Kim Go-eun, he had tried to show Babi's infinite love for Yumi to try to make people hate him less.^[51][52] Since the third season had not yet been confirmed at the time of filming and wanting to highlight Lee Dong-gun's creativity, the scenes of Yumi's third boyfriend, Shin Soon-rok, were therefore adapted for Babi.^[50]

Filming of the third season took place from June to October 2025.^[53][54]

Animation

Yumi's Cells was produced using a new format which combined live-action and 3D animation. It was the first time such a format was used to produce a TV series while using the Unreal Engine as its source.^[55] The 3D animation was produced by Locus Corporation (also known as Sidus Animation Studios), the producer of Red Shoes and the Seven Dwarfs.^[56][57]

Season 1

Season 2

Critical reception

Yumi's Cells has been praised for its refreshing and humorous depiction of the daily life of an ordinary office worker.^[78] The first season was praised for its casting, the actors' performances, the faithful adaptation of the webtoon, and the use of 3D animation to depict the cells, although some critics stated that the relatively new attempt to integrate live action and animation could be a barrier for those who were not already fans of the original work.^{[79][80][81][82]} This latter reason was cited as the likely cause of the ratings, which were considered disappointing for its quality.^[80]

After the release of the first two episodes of the second season, TVING recorded the highest number of paying subscribers of any of its original dramas, quadrupling the number of subscribers since the premiere of the previous season.^[83] Yumi's Cells 2 was praised for its greater maturity and evolution in the actors' performances,^[84] and was ranked 7th in the best series of 2022 by Cine21, who praised it for not losing its momentum and for realistically weaving together character growth and romance.^[85] Indiatoday applauded the chemistry between Kim Go-eun and Jinyoung, but felt that Babi's character had been poorly handled, especially in the second half.^[86]

The release of the second season on June 10 saw the number of TVING's paid subscribers increasing by more than 60% from the first to the second week,^[87] and the series took first place among all the platform original contents for five weeks in a row.^[88]

Viewership

Yumi's Cells : South Korea viewers per episode (thousands)

More information Season, Episode number ...

Season		Episode number														Average
		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14
	1	521	616	538	823	654	753	658	714	832	783	528	739	617	769	681
	2	320	343	N/A	N/A	272	255	299	N/A	269	N/A	270	291	267	247	N/A
	3	554	388	589	445	588	522	TBD	TBD	–						TBD

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Source: Audience measurement performed nationwide by Nielsen Korea.^[89][90][91]

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