Dragon Ball Z Cell Saga: Episodes 140-194

The Cell Saga is the third major arc of Dragon Ball Z: fifty-five episodes broadcast on Fuji TV between May 20, 1992 and July 21, 1993, adapted from chapters 358 to 420 of the manga. It follows the rise of a monster engineered to be the perfect warrior, and it ends with the series handing the torch from father to son, as Gohan surpasses Goku and becomes the first Super Saiyan 2.

How the saga is split

Here we count it from episode 140, where it picks up right where the Androids Saga leaves off: Androids 16, 17 and 18 are still hunting for Goku, and Piccolo is about to fuse with Kami, which happens in episode 141. Toei's official split, as reported by Italian Wikipedia, starts the Cell arc at episode 148 instead. Funimation's American release splits it into three blocks, one for each stage of the villain: the Imperfect Cell Saga (episodes 140-152), the Perfect Cell Saga (153-165) and the Cell Games Saga (166-194). In Dragon Ball Kai the same story takes up episodes 68 to 98.

Imperfect Cell: a monster from another future

It all starts with a photograph: a time machine identical to Trunks', only older and covered in moss, sitting in the woods. Trunks and Gohan find an empty eggshell inside and, nearby, the discarded skin of a creature that looks like a giant cicada.

The culprit is Cell, the bio-android that Dr. Gero's computer kept building long after its creator's death, splicing together the cells of the strongest fighters, Goku, Vegeta, Piccolo, Frieza and King Cold among them. He comes from a different future than Trunks: there he killed the young man, stole his time machine and travelled back to grow underground and bide his time. To reach his perfect form he must absorb Android 17 and Android 18; until then, he feeds on human life energy, draining whole towns through the stinger on his tail.

This is the closest Dragon Ball ever gets to horror. In the emptied streets of Gingertown, the fused Piccolo, now a Super Namekian, has him on the ropes, but Cell blinds him with the Solar Flare and escapes. Later Piccolo fights Android 17 to a standstill, until the monster shows up, cuts him down and, in episode 152, swallows Android 17 despite Android 16's resistance and transforms.

The Hyperbolic Time Chamber

The heroes answer with a place that becomes essential for the rest of the series: the Hyperbolic Time Chamber inside Kami's Lookout, called the Room of Spirit and Time in Japanese. One day outside equals a year inside, gravity is ten times Earth's, the air is thin and the temperature swings from scorching heat to freezing cold (something the anime plays up). According to Goku, only two people can go in at a time.

Vegeta and Trunks go first and walk out in episode 154 looking and fighting like different men. Then it is the turn of Goku and Gohan. Here the saga shows its smartest idea: Vegeta and Trunks look for a level beyond Super Saiyan by piling on muscle, while Goku realizes that path slows you down and does the opposite, staying transformed day and night until the form feels natural. We cover it in our guide to Super Saiyan transformations. It is inside the Chamber, in episode 160, that Gohan first turns Super Saiyan.

Perfect Cell: Vegeta's pride

Fresh out of the Chamber, Vegeta toys with Semi-Perfect Cell. Then he makes the worst mistake of his career: Cell goads him, saying a true warrior would want to face an opponent at full strength, and the prince's pride lets the monster reach Android 18. Krillin holds a remote that could shut her down, but cannot bring himself to use it because he has fallen for her. Trunks steps in, too late: in episode 160, Perfect Cell is born.

Vegeta is swatted aside despite his Final Flash, and Trunks discovers that his bulked-up form, stronger than Cell on paper, is too slow to land a hit. Amused, Cell wants more than an easy win: in ten days he will hold a tournament where anyone can challenge him. If nobody beats him, he will destroy the Earth.

The Cell Games

The final stretch is the most famous. Cell announces the Cell Games on live television, builds a ring in the wilderness and waits. Goku uses the time to rest and to give Earth a new guardian, bringing Dende from New Namek to restore the Dragon Balls. The first to step into the ring is Mr. Satan, the World Martial Arts Tournament champion, who gets flicked into a cliff.

Goku fights, then shocks everyone by giving up: he is not the strongest, he says, and sends his eleven-year-old son into the ring. Gohan does not want to fight, so Cell spawns seven Cell Juniors to torment his friends. It is the death of Android 16, whose head Cell crushes after his last plea to protect the nature he loved, that unlocks the boy's hidden power in episode 184. Hair spikier than ever and an aura crackling with electricity, Gohan becomes a Super Saiyan 2, although the name will only arrive in the Majin Buu arc.

The ending is a string of twists: a beaten Cell tries to self-destruct, Goku teleports him to King Kai's planet and dies; Cell regenerates from his core, kills Trunks and is finally wiped out by Gohan's Kamehameha, backed by his father's voice from the afterlife. Goku chooses to stay dead, Mr. Satan takes the credit in front of the cameras, and a revived Trunks goes home to destroy the androids and the Cell of his own timeline.

Main characters in this saga

Episodes

No.	Funimation title	First aired (Japan)	Notes
140	Seized with Fear	May 20, 1992	the second time machine
141	The Reunion	May 27, 1992	Piccolo fuses with Kami
142	Borrowed Powers	June 3, 1992
143	His Name is Cell	June 10, 1992	Cell reveals his origins; partly filler
144	Piccolo's Folly	June 17, 1992	partly filler
145	Laboratory Basement	June 24, 1992
146	Our Hero Awakes	July 1, 1992	Goku wakes up; partly filler
147	Time Chamber	July 8, 1992	Vegeta and Trunks enter the Chamber
148	The Monster is Coming	July 15, 1992	Piccolo vs. Android 17
149	He's Here	July 22, 1992
150	Up to Piccolo	July 29, 1992
151	Silent Warrior	August 5, 1992	Android 16 steps in
152	Say Goodbye, 17	August 12, 1992	Cell absorbs Android 17
153	Sacrifice	August 19, 1992	Tien holds Cell back
154	Saiyans Emerge	August 26, 1992	Vegeta and Trunks leave the Chamber
155	Super Vegeta	September 2, 1992
156	Bow to the Prince	September 9, 1992	Super Vegeta
157	Hour of Temptation	September 16, 1992
158	Krillin's Decision	September 23, 1992
159	The Last Defense	September 30, 1992
160	Cell is Complete	October 14, 1992	Perfect Cell; Gohan turns Super Saiyan
161	Vegeta Must Pay	October 21, 1992
162	Trunks Ascends	October 28, 1992
163	Saving Throw	November 4, 1992	Trunks' bulked-up form
164	Ghosts from Tomorrow	November 11, 1992	mostly filler
165	The Cell Games	November 18, 1992	Cell announces his tournament
166	What is the Tournament?	November 25, 1992
167	The Doomsday Broadcast	December 2, 1992	the live TV announcement
168	Meet Me in the Ring	December 9, 1992	Goku and Gohan leave the Chamber
169	No Worries Here	December 16, 1992
170	A Girl Named Lime	January 13, 1993	filler
171	Memories of Gohan	January 20, 1993	filler
172	A New Guardian	January 27, 1993
173	Dende's Dragon	February 3, 1993	Dende becomes Kami
174	The Puzzle of General Tao	February 10, 1993	mostly filler
175	The Games Begin	February 17, 1993	the Cell Games begin
176	Losers Fight First	March 3, 1993	Mr. Satan vs. Cell; partly filler
177	Goku vs. Cell	March 10, 1993	Goku vs. Cell
178	Cell's Bag of Tricks	March 17, 1993
179	No More Rules	March 31, 1993
180	The Fight is Over	April 7, 1993	Goku gives up
181	Faith in a Boy	April 14, 1993	Gohan steps up
182	Gohan's Plea	April 21, 1993
183	Android Explosion	April 28, 1993	the Cell Juniors
184	Cell Juniors Attack!	May 5, 1993	Android 16 dies; Gohan goes Super Saiyan 2
185	Awakening	May 12, 1993
186	The Unstoppable Gohan	May 19, 1993
187	Cell's Break Down	May 26, 1993
188	A Hero's Farewell	June 2, 1993	Goku's sacrifice
189	Cell Returns!	June 16, 1993	Cell returns
190	The Horror Won't End	June 23, 1993
191	Save the World	June 30, 1993	the father-son Kamehameha
192	Goku's Decision	July 7, 1993
193	One More Wish	July 14, 1993
194	Free the Future	July 21, 1993	Trunks' future

Titles are from Funimation's dub. The episode pages also give the literal translation of each Japanese title.

Filler and differences from the manga

Compared to the Frieza Saga, the anime had more of a cushion on the manga here, so there is less padding. The only fully original episodes are 170, in which Gohan helps a girl named Lime against a crook selling places in an anti-Cell shelter, and 171, Gohan's eleventh birthday party with memories of his baby days. Also largely invented are 164, which shows Trunks' future alongside the adult Gohan before the dedicated TV special existed, and 174, where Goku runs into Mercenary Tao while gathering the Dragon Balls.

Other additions are scattered through the episodes: the army shelling Cell (143), a football team wiped out on the road (144), Krillin facing the monster at Basil Airport so two kids can escape (146). During the Cell Games the anime has Mr. Satan's students Caroni and Pirozhki fight before their master, gives Cell extra techniques against Goku and stretches the battle with the Cell Juniors.

Our take

The Cell Saga is the most ambitious stretch of Dragon Ball Z, and perhaps the most divisive. Toriyama mixes science fiction, horror and tournament: alternate timelines (an idea Super would revisit with Goku Black), a villain who changes his look and personality three times, and a return to the tournament format the series was born from.

Its heart lies elsewhere, though: for the first time, Goku steps aside. His decision to give up and send Gohan into the ring is one of the most debated moments in the series, generous and reckless at once, and the anguish of Gohan, who hates fighting but is the only one who can win, gives those episodes a weight that pure power struggles never had. His transformation after Android 16's death remains one of the anime's most powerful scenes, and the final Kamehameha, with Piccolo and the others throwing themselves in to buy a single moment, is a fitting seal on nearly a decade of stories.

The flaws are well known: the middle section with Vegeta and Trunks spins its wheels for several episodes, and the second half of the Cell Games is as stretched out as Namek's "five minutes." But the saga has a real ending, with Goku staying in the afterlife and a son ready to take his place. That the series later went back to Goku takes nothing away from the strength of that conclusion.

Up next: the Other World Tournament Saga, episodes 195-199 →