Dragon Ball Chapter 420 Discussion

Ah, the Cell arc. Everyone's favourite arc.

Growing up, I became a huge fan of Dragon Ball and I used to re-read the volumes constantly. Most of my volumes have very damaged spines and it's fun to see which ones are more well-read than others. It's easy to spot my old favourites. And well, these most recent ones are in pretty good condition. Meaning I didn't actually read them that much.

When I think of Dragon Ball, my mind mostly wanders to the first 3-4 arcs. Those earlier arcs are charming and have really fun and likeable characters. The world feels exciting and often goofy. I love the sense of adventure and exploring the world that Toriyama creates. The art in those early arcs is great as well. Things take a turn for more serious storytelling later on, and the Piccolo fight and Vegeta fight is where the fighting of Dragon Ball reaches it peak. Dragon Ball got a problem with having too many characters, and having a small crew to Namek really solves that, and that first part of the Namek arc excels both in story with higher stakes and strong character-work.

And then comes the Cell arc (or Android arc or whatever people call it). I don't like it as much as most people do, in fact I think it's one of the weaker arcs of the series.

My first big criticism is the art. Not really sure when it started happening but it's such a big downgrade. I just don't like the way Toriyama draws some characters at this point. Goku looks weird, especially after he wakes up from his big sleep. It's all in the eyes. Gohan gets the same eyes for the most part, and I'm not a fan. Everyone is also drawn with a lot straigher lines which I don't like from their previous roundness. C18 and C17. There's very few moments where there's any interesting background and most of the time it's just white. There's some cool new character designs (Trunks, first form Cell), but not much else sticks out in a positive way.

Second criticism, it's all so depressive and dour. I'm all for this tone in manga, but it's just not what I go to Dragon Ball or Toriyama for. I like some aspects of it though, like the horror-parts with Cell first appearing. And there's a weird calm before the storm-feeling right before the Cell games that I enjoy. And the whole part with Trunks appearing from a destroyed future is interesting and unique to this arc.

Thirdly, this is the arc where it's the most noticeable Toriyama is making it up as he goes. Trunks warns of C19 and C20. They are defeated. Twist, C20 is Dr Gero! Trunks retcons his story so he always warned of C18 and C17. Twist, the new cyborgs aren't that bad! Oh new twist, there's another big villain, Cell! The story changes too often and it feels a bit jarring. Looking back at the arc, the early cyborgs feel so disconnected from everything that comes later. Almost as if it's a separe arc, which many people count it as, but then what is that arc? None of the other parts can stand on their own legs as arcs if they are separated.

Fourth, the villains, or some of them. Dr Gero is pretty interesting but he’s in the story for such a short time. C17 and C18 are great but they don’t do much and are overshadowed quickly by Cell. Vegeta is arguably one of the villains of the arc, mainly making everything worse for everyone. But more on him later. The big villain is Cell, and I don’t like him. I like his first appearance as a scary inhuman monster. But as soon as he opens his mouth, that all goes away. He starts by explaining his whole plan to Piccolo and all of that mystery is completely gone. His two other forms are a big downgrade in design as well. Overall, the idea with transformations and Cell’s final form in particular just feels like Toriyama trying to recapture Freezer. But what is Cell’s goal? Be strong. Defeat other strong people. I get that it comes from his programming and the saiyan genes but it’s boring as motivation. And he’s just super boring, just standring around waiting for the Cell games to start. He doesn’t have much of an personality, no fun quirks (which is a big part of the arc lacking the tone that I like in Dragon Ball). I also don’t like Cell’s powers. The healing and regeneration doesn’t make sense and is just boring as it makes him over powered. And I still don’t get what happens with him in the end. A villain with weird and inconsistent powers would have worked better when Dragon Ball was more of a comical fantasy, but it doesn’t work now with the tone of this arc.

Fifth, “is everyone blind AND stupid?”. Not sure if it’s intentional but I feel that most characters just act dumb and sometimes out of character. First of all, the whole arc can be blamed on the heroes not doing anything to stop Dr Gero or learn anything about him before the cyborgs appear. They only wish people back that Cell killed, so some of those people are forever gone. Goku’s plan to let Gohan fight without telling him anything is stupid and mean. Vegeta feels like a big stupid brute, which is completely different from him being one of the smartest characters before. The whole saiyan pride thing just goes too far.

And once again, why does everyone accept Vegeta?? So Vegeta has been laying low for a while, going to barbeques and whatnot, so they all think he’s fine. Our heroes are so used to villains having turned good, they just think he’s done that as well. But he hasn’t? Not until the very last fight does Vegeta do anything that resembles him turning into a better person. So why do they all accept when he does terrible things like punching Trunks, letting Cell consume C18 and kill a random truck driver? Not sure if this is a criticism of Vegeta’s character or everyone elses.

So who are we supposed to connect with? Who’s actually doing the right things and being a good person? Gohan usually is (and was great at that role in the early Namek arc), but he hardly does anything this arc up until the very last fight. That fight he loses everything that makes him likeable. So who’s the best person in this arc? There’s really only two. Trunks - he’s a good guy and he wants to save the world. That’s a good goal. He’s also polite. That’s a good trait. I like him. The other one is Kuririn, who thankfully continues to be somewhat relevant even if he can’t compare power-wise. Kuririn make all the right decisions. He sees the humanity in the cyborgs and doesn’t kill innocent people. He’s also displays some real kindness in accepting that C18 might not like him and just wants what’s best for her. I hate everyone for doubting his judgment. Yamcha is going on barbeques with his killer so he should just shut up. Kuririn’s wish is the most selfless of any of the wishes in the series. He also shows some weird psychic abilities to sense Trunks hidden power, but can’t do that with Gohan. He should have been the one person that should have guessed Goku’s plan. He should know Gohan a lot from Namek.

Maybe I’m nitpicking, but there’s so many things I don’t like. There’s a lot of uniqueness to the arc which makes it stronger than the Piccolo arc, but I probably like it less than any of the others. But I do really like all of Dragon Ball, this arc included, which is probably easier to tell when reading my thoughts on individual chapters.

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Great point! Agree with this fully. There's no clear distinction of what super saiyan 2 is at this point. It's just more super, more power. Did Goku plan for Gohan to actually do a second transformation? Was that part of his stupid plan? It really comes from nowhere.