Throughout Dragon Ball, Son Goku had to face a variety of opponents. One of them was a severe challenge for both Son Goku and his illustrators.
Which opponent are we talking about? The illustrators had their problems with Cell. He is a foe from the future who wants to eradicate humanity. To do this, he absorbs the strongest fighters to gain their powers.
Cell often changes his appearance and ultimately becomes Perfect Cell, whom Son Goku and his friends must face. But no matter what form he takes, his characteristic spots remain at every evolutionary stage. And those were a significant torment for the illustrators.
Fortunately, only the beginning of Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero was hand-drawn:
Animator refuses his job on Dragon Ball
What is so difficult about him? In the current film Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero, whose strange name arose from the forgetfulness of the mangaka, there are some hand-drawn scenes at the beginning. The three legendary Dragon Ball editors Kazuhiko Torishima, Yu Kondo, and Fuyuto Takeda revealed that animator Naohiro Shintani even lost his desire to draw towards the end and said (via X):
I don’t want to do this anymore.
The editor responsible at the time even wondered if this work was really done for the anime series every time. After all, there is even less time to finish drawings for the series than for movies.
Akira Toriyama, the mangaka of Dragon Ball, also had his difficulties with Cell. He even regrets having drawn spots on the opponent (via Kazenshuu):
Ah, Cell was pretty difficult, I think. He somehow came about without me having anything in mind beforehand. Personally, I think it was a mistake to give him spots. I added them because the illustration seemed to be lacking without them, so I went through each time with a marker and added dots. That was exhausting.
For animator Nakatsuru, it was particularly painful to add other details such as shadows or similar on top of the spots. Thus, animating Cell became a real torment for him.
Fortunately, CGI technology is now available, which is why Cell was only computer-animated for the rest of the movie Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero. This relieved the illustrators of a lot of work. During the interview, the editors also revealed another secret: Finally, we know when Dragon Ball Z was supposed to officially end – and who Son Goku’s true heir is.
