"His Name is Cell" (憎悪と破壊の生命体！！奴の名は人造人間セル Zōo to Hakai no Seimeitai!! Yatsu no Na wa Jinzōningen Seru, lit. "A Life Form of Evil and Destruction!! His Name is Artificial Human Cell") is the fourth episode of the Imperfect Cell Saga and the one hundred forty-third overall episode in the uncut Dragon Ball Z series. This episode first aired in Japan on June 10, 1992. Its original American airdate was October 9, 2000.
Summary[]
Cell about to stab Piccolo with his tail
It starts off with the Gingertown beast using the Kamehameha attack on Piccolo, the Super Namekian. Piccolo is shocked but easily avoids it. When wondering what happened, the monster comes from behind, grabs him, and starts sucking his energy with his tail. At the Lookout, Mr. Popo senses Kami's pain and drops a pot feeling sad for his friend. Meanwhile, Gohan and Chi-Chi watch Goku and Chi-Chi says Goku's getting better. Gohan runs down to tell everyone, but they are all staring at the TV, where the military are going to attack the monster. Then, Future Trunks and Krillin are heading out to help Piccolo and wonder what the monster is. Meanwhile, the army opens fire on the beast, who easily destroys the tanks. Piccolo breaks free from the monster's grasp, but his left arm is all shriveled up.
Cell absorbs Piccolo's energy while the military arrive
Meanwhile, Android 16, Android 17, and Android 18 are riding in a truck, and Android 16 says one of the powers he felt earlier was losing energy. Android 17 gets cocky and says that he was right, and no one could be as strong as him. He also says 16's sensors need to be re-calibrated. Then, Piccolo says he gives up and asks for one more thing, to know about this beast and why it is here. The creature agrees and says his name is Cell. He also states he is an Android created by Dr. Gero and comes 24 years from the future. Piccolo asks how because the lab was destroyed. Imperfect Cell replies saying that the computer that created him was under the lab.
Cell attacks the military with a Kiai
He then says that when all these important battles on Earth were going on, Dr. Gero had some micro cell extractors took DNA from Goku, Vegeta, Frieza, King Cold, and Piccolo himself had cells removed. He says he came back to this time when he was made by killing the Future Trunks and taking his ship. He turned himself into larvae and waited for four years until all the power came back. Piccolo asks why he came back here, and Imperfect Cell said it was to absorb Android 17 and Android 18 to become complete. Piccolo says thanks and rips off his arm. A new one replaces it, and he says he was just stalling to heal and is now ready to fight. The battle prepares to continue...
Major Events[]
- Cell reveals who he is and his purpose to Piccolo.
- Piccolo regrows his arm after tricking Cell.
Battles[]
- Piccolo vs. Cell (Imperfect)
- Cell (Imperfect) vs. Army
- Cell (Imperfect) vs. Future Trunks (Flashback)
Appearances[]
Characters[]
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Locations[]
Objects[]
Bruce Faulconer tracks[]
- "Frieza's Revival" - When Dr. Gero's Remote Tracking Device shows up behind Imperfect Cell in Gingertown.
- "Cell and Piccolo Fight" - After the energy in Piccolo's arm is absorbed.
Differences from the manga[]
- The Army attacking Cell is exclusive to the anime.
- Android 16 telling Android 17 and 18 about how one of the fighter's power level is dropping is exclusive to the anime.
- In the anime when Cell is telling his history to Piccolo, we see additional scenes in the past with Dr. Gero and the Future Trunks. In the manga, the same events were described but they were not shown.
Trivia[]
- When Cell describes how Dr. Gero gathered cells from Frieza and King Cold, he mentions Frieza's death at the hands of Future Trunks, and even that Dr. Gero had the opportunity to collect cells from Future Trunks but decided not to. However, Future Trunks was never meant to have come to warn the Dragon Team about the androids in Cell's timeline, and it is really Future Goku who killed Future Frieza and Future King Cold, so no decision regarding Future Trunks' cells should have ever been made in Cell's timeline.
- However, it is likely that Cell confused the events that happened in the main timeline as having also occurred in his timeline as Dr. Gero had stopped recording the Z Fighters battles after the Vegeta Saga, with his robots only programmed to observe battles to retrieve DNA.
- Additionally, it ignores the fact that Future Trunks traveled to the past to give Goku Heart Medicine and warn him of the Androids, only killing Frieza and King Cold by accident when he thought there was a time discrepancy as he was unaware of Instant Transmission.
- Additionally, Dr. Gero had no idea who Future Trunks was when he arrived to help the Z Fighters battle the Androids, nor did he know about the Super Saiyan transformation, which he would have had the battle been recorded or had he observed it.
- Cell mentions Future Trunks' cells not being collected in the manga as well as the anime. Presumably, this indicates that Cell was mistaken in both the anime and manga. One likely explanation for this discrepancy is Akira Toriyama got confused when he was writing the time travel plot, which is a pretty easy mistake to make given that time travel is complex and it should be noted that Toriyama has admitted that he forgot things while writing the manga. Alternatively, Cell's mistake was intentional on Toriyama's part and may have even been a pun on the fact that the logic of Imperfect Cell's explanation was "imperfect". Regardless, the anime was simply following Cell's explanation from the manga.
- In the edited English dub, Cell says that he has taken cells from Nappa and Gohan and does not mention taking cells from King Cold. However, the footage of King Cold's death is still shown in Cell's flashback.
- One of the tanks has the "WT" emblem on backwards, so it reads "TW".
- Nappa is still voiced by Christopher R. Sabat rather than Phil Parsons for the brief scream that he gives out in Cell's flashback in the remastered dub.
- In the French dub, Cell states that Dr. Gero's computer is his father, which makes sense, as it's the co-creator of Cell.
- In the English dub, Cell says that the spy robot resembles a fly; in the original version, he says it resembles a bee.
- In "Seized with Fear", Trunks concludes that whoever took the Time Machine is responsible for the discrepancies in the timeline that he has noticed. However, according to Cell, he did nothing on arrival except burrow into the ground while he matured and had only recently emerged and reacquired his Imperfect form. It is more likely that Trunks inadvertently caused the differences he saw by killing Frieza and King Cold and warning Goku of the coming threat.
Gallery[]
 Cell's eyes glow  Cell fires Eye Lasers  The military assault Cell  Dr. Gero in a flashback  Trunks attacks Cell  Cell kills an alternate-timeline Future Trunks in a flashback   Dr. Gero's tracking device  Piccolo regenerates his arm |
[]
| ← Androids Saga |   |
Perfect Cell Saga→ | |||||||
| Manga | |||||||||
| Dragon Ball Chapters | 358 • 359 • 360 • 361 • 362 • 363 • 364 • 365 • 366 • 367 • 368 • 369 • 370 • 371 • 372 • 373 | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dragon Ball Z Chapters | 164 • 165 • 166 • 167 • 168 • 169 • 170 • 171 • 172 • 173 • 174 • 175 • 176 • 177 • 178 • 179 | ||||||||
| Dragon Ball Volumes | 30 • 31 | ||||||||
| Dragon Ball Z Volumes | 14 • 15 | ||||||||
| Anime | |||||||||
| Episodes | 140 • 141 • 142 • 143 • 144 • 145 • 146 • 147 • 148 • 149 • 150 • 151 • 152 | ||||||||
| Kai Episodes | 68 • 69 • 70 • 71 • 72 • 73 • 74 • 75 | ||||||||