The villains in Dragon Ball are not exactly the prettiest. Frieza has an oversized head with horns, Boo is a pink ball, and Cell looks like a spotted insect. Akira Toriyama probably had to change their design multiple times to get it approved by the publishing company that released the manga. One of the villains was even considered so ugly that Toriyama had to revise his abilities.
Which villain are we talking about? Cell is a creature from the future, who threatened humanity across several timelines. His goal was to absorb C17 and C18, who are not full cyborgs. This would allow him to reach his full strength.
Cell behaves like an insect: He goes through several stages from the larval stage, in which his body undergoes metamorphosis. These include:
- The imperfect Cell
- The semi-perfect Cell
- The perfect Cell
What was the problem with Cell? The imperfect Cell is the first stage where the villain can already become a significant threat. However, Yu Kondo, an editor at the publisher who released the Dragon Ball manga, did not like his appearance at all. Therefore, Akira Toriyama, the creator of Dragon Ball, had to get creative.
Cell appears in a very special form in the movie Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero:
Cell receives his strongest ability solely because of his appearance
What did Toriyama come up with? The mangaka, who unfortunately has passed away, originally did not intend for Cell to be able to transform. He wanted the villain to stay in his stage as “imperfect Cell.” But the editor found Cell’s appearance so ugly that Toriyama had to come up with something. He had already proven his creativity with other villains.
He gave Cell the ability to absorb other living beings. To emphasize his newly gained powers, Toriyama gave him a different appearance with each new stage. This way, the “ugly Cell” could evolve into a prettier variant that looks more like a human.
What is so strong about this ability? Cell has something like a stinger at the end of his tail, with which he can pierce his opponents. The villain then drains the powers of the victim, strengthening himself in the process. With C17, he even expands the end to absorb his entire body in one go.
Absorbing strong opponents is essential for Cell to reach full strength. It is, therefore, his most important ability to defeat even stronger opponents that he might not be able to absorb directly.
Toriyama not only had to adapt to other requirements in this case. Toei Animation, the production team behind the Dragon Ball anime, wanted to cut out Super Saiyan 3 from the series: Vegeta is never seen as Super Saiyan 3 in Dragon Ball Z – There is an official reason
