Cell

**Cell** (セル, *Seru*) was a futuristic Android created by Dr. Gero to exact his revenge on Son Gokū. Developed from the cells of some of Earth's greatest heroes and villains, Cell then traveled to the present in order to absorb the Androids No. 17 and No. 18 and obtain completion. In all three of his main metamorphoses, Cell terrorized the Earth and killed a countless number of people in his quest to absorb the Androids. Later, after obtaining completion, he hosted the Cell Game where he ultimately met his fate at the hands of Son Gokū's son, Son Gohan.

## Personality

Cell's personality was designed by Gero, when the latter was in a particularly good mood after completing No. 19. It was meant to be an original personality with influences from the various cells that make him up. The computer altered the weaker aspects of Cell's personality, while adding in traits of the other beings who make him up to create a perfect weapon. Cell uses the pronoun *watashi* (私) to refer to himself, a gender neutral pronoun; he has, however, used *ore* (俺) on separate occasions, such as when he introduced himself to Piccolo.

## Appearance

Cell appeared as a muscular and robust humanoid creature with characteristics akin to an insect. Three-pronged toes make up his feet with black talons, matching the black specks adorning the green carapace plating from his shins up the thighs — matching the style of his four fingered hands up to his shoulders — where an orange ribbed shell covers his pelvic region to his hindquarters. Around the mid-center was orange ribbed flesh that wraps around to be where his three-four meter long tail with green coloring on his top with black specks to a black underside; his end being a beige needle akin to a mosquitoes and a proboscis like a typical insect's mouth. From the upper abdomen was a black-purple chitin in an oval shape presiding around the sternum region, where the rest of his body is covered by green carapace plating up to the neck, his front jugular being a deep black while the rest is speckled light green. His facial structure has a nasal to chin covering that was similar to the pelvic covering, an ovular ribbed orange piece of soft chitin which matches the back of his skull, made of similar substance. However from his almost serpentine shaped eyes, a black-purple encrusted chitin was placed where the forehead would be, branching out into a V shaped crest of deep green carapace plating with black speckles as well.

## Abilities

### Absorption

Despite not having the same devices that Number 19 and Gero use, he can abosorb the DNA, energy and vitality of his victims by stabbing them with his tail, which results in their bodies being drained until nothing of them is left execpt their clothes. He can constantly increase his power level as long as he absorbs more victims. He can also enlarge the tip of his tail to catch and absorb persons of the size of an adult human body.

### Transformations

Cell's body can go through different stage of transformations by absorbing the siblings Number 17 and Number 18 into his system, each form enhancing his speed, strength and power by large amounts.

#### Cell: Second Form

*Main article: Second Form*
This is Cell's first transformation after absorbing Number 17. In this form he gets a boost in speed, strength and power that allows him to surpass opponents like Piccolo, who after fusing with God could match Number 17 power, and Number 16, the strongest android created by Dr. Gero.

#### Developed Form

*Main article: Developed Form*
This is Cell's final transformation after absorbing both Number 17 and Number 18. In this form his speed, strength and power increases to an even higher degree than his previous form and with this power Cell can trump warriors like Vegeta in his *Super Saiyan Second Grade* form, Gokū and Gohan´s *Super Saiyan fourth grade*, warriors whom had spent several months training in the Room of Spirit and Time before the beginning of the Cell Games.

Cell temporally loses this transformation after receiving a straight hit to the stomach by Gohan in his *Super Saiyan 2* form and regurgitating Number 18 from his body.

After his self-destruction and regeneration in the Afterworld, thanks to the Nameccians powers from Piccolo, Cell recovers he developed form once again but, he becomes stronger than before due to the Saiyan´s cells attributes. In this new enhanced stage Cell has enough power that his ki blasts are capable of damaging Gohan in his *Super Saiyan 2* form, whom he previous struggled to fight evenly in terms of power, as well as he claims to have enough power to blow up the entire Solar System.

## Legacy

Cell, much like Freeza before him, would go on to become a yardstick of sorts; when dealing with Dabra, it was noted that the Demon King was similar in strength to the futuristic android, and would have given Gokū or Vegeta trouble seven years ago. His fight with Gohan would also be brought up frequently in the early dealings with Babidi's Forces, as Gohan was noted at multiple points to be weaker than he had been when he fought Cell.

Additionally, Cell's trip to the past would eventually become a boon to the Dragon Team. Years later, after Trunks' Time Machine was destroyed, Bulma would find a spare that she had — the very same Time Machine Cell commandeered from Trunks in the future and used to return to the past.

## Creation and Conception

After Kazuhiko Torishima, Toriyama's former editor during *Dr. Slump* and early *Dragon Ball*, expressed dissatisfaction with first Androids No. 19 and No. 20 and later Androids No. 17 and No. 18 as villains, Toriyama created Cell. The creation was named after the English word for "cell," based on the fact that he's made up of the cells of the Earth's greatest fighters, and he absorbs people, merging with that at a cellular level and transform.

Toriyama has expressed some kind of regret regarding the design of Cell, calling it tedious to draw all the little spots on his body. In addition, he did not initially plan for the character to be able to transform, but gave him this ability after his then-current editor Yū Kondō described Cell as "ugly."

Cell originally evolves from a cicada-like form into his fist adult form, which is still insect-like in appearance. Both his first form and his second adult form have a long tail that ends in a stinger-like appendage and allows it to absorb other organisms. The tail recedes under his wings in his final form, although he then uses it to spawn Cell Junior, minuscule childlike versions of himself.

## Trivia

* While only ever referred to as 'Cell' in all forms, the video games refer to his base, and Second Forms as "Imperfect Cell" and "Semi-Perfect Cell" respectively.
* Cell is the only one of the three iconic villains from *Dragon Ball* 's second half to have not been based on one of Toriyama's editors — Freeza was believed to have been based on Yū Kondō and Majin Bū was based on Fuyuto Takeda. Cell *is*, however, the villain with the most interference from an editor that resulted in his creation.
* In the VIZ English translation, Cell is referred to as an "it", rather than any gender specific pronoun.
* In Gintama, Cell was parodied as a spoof, under the name of **Celo** (セロ, *Cero*) that appears in the 119th episode of Gintama.

## References

1. ↑ *Dragon Ball Full Color: Artificial Humans & Cell Arc Volume #04 (02 May 2014)*
2. ↑ *Dragon Ball* chapter 361, page 5
3. ↑ *Dragon Ball* chapter 416, page 4
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 *Daizenshū 2*
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 *Daizenshū 1*
6. ↑ Dragon Ball Full Color: Artificial Humans & Cell Arc Volume #04