The 143rd episode of Dragon Ball Z, first broadcast in Japan on June 10, 1992 and titled His Name is Cell in Funimation's dub, is all about introductions. The Gingertown monster finally tells Piccolo its name, Cell, and where it came from: an artificial being grown by Dr. Gero's computer from the cells of the strongest fighters, sent from the future with one goal, to absorb Androids 17 and 18 and become perfect. Its full Japanese title opens by calling him "a life form of hatred and destruction."
Summary
Piccolo barely dodges the Kamehameha, but the monster is on him at once, wrapping around him, sinking its tail into his left arm and draining him. On the Lookout, Mr. Popo feels his old friend's pain and drops a vase. At Kame House, Chi-Chi notices Goku is getting better, but when Gohan runs downstairs to tell the others he finds them glued to the TV: the army is about to attack the creature. The tanks open fire and the monster wipes them out effortlessly. In the chaos Piccolo breaks free, but his arm has been left shriveled.
In the Androids' van, Android 16 notes that one of the two energies is fading, and Android 17 takes the chance to gloat. Meanwhile Piccolo, acting as if he has given up, asks at least to know who he is facing, and the monster agrees to explain.
His name is Cell, and he is one of Dr. Gero's creations, or rather his computer's. Gero shelved the project because it would take too long, but the machine, hidden in an underground lab, kept working on its own. For years, tiny spy robots collected cells from Goku, Vegeta, Piccolo, Frieza and King Cold during their battles. In his own future, Cell killed Trunks and stole his time machine; to make the trip he reverted to an egg, then spent four years underground growing. Now he is hunting Androids 17 and 18, because absorbing them will give him his perfect form.
Piccolo thanks him, tears off the ruined arm and regenerates a new one. All those questions were just a way to buy time. The fight resumes.
Our take
This is an exposition episode, and Toriyama hands his villain a hefty load of it. The idea behind it is excellent, though: Dr. Gero's legacy outlives him, and the saga's deadliest foe is literally built out of every hero and villain seen so far. The notion of a "perfect" form reached by absorbing the Androids also gives the arc a clear engine, a race against time to stop Cell from growing.
The anime fills the half hour in two ways. It adds the army assault, absent from the manga and watched live on TV from Kame House, and it turns Cell's story into images: in the manga he simply describes the future, while here we see Dr. Gero at work and Trunks being killed. It also invents the brief scene of Android 16 reading the energies.
Cell's account is itself rather imperfect: he mentions Frieza dying at Trunks' hands, something that never should have happened in the timeline he comes from. It is a small inconsistency from the manga that the anime faithfully reproduces. The most satisfying touch, though, is Piccolo feigning surrender to get the whole story, a trick worthy of the old Kami now living inside him.
Trivia
- It adapts chapter 363. Written by Katsuyuki Sumisawa and directed by Mitsuo Hashimoto, with animation supervision by Tadayoshi Yamamuro, it drew a 19.5% share.
- In the edited English dub, Cell claims to have cells from Nappa and Gohan and leaves out King Cold, even though King Cold's death still appears in the flashback.
- One of the tanks has its "WT" emblem drawn backwards, so it reads "TW."
Did you know? In the original Japanese, Cell compares the spy robot to a bee. The English dub turned it into a fly.