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Cell (Japanese: セル, Hepburn: Seru) is a fictional character and a major villain in the Dragon Ball Z manga and anime created by Akira Toriyama. He makes his debut in chapter #361 The Mysterious Monster, Finally Appears!! (謎の怪物、ついに出現!!, Nazo no Kaibutsu, Tsui ni Shutsugen!!), first published in Weekly Shōnen Jump on 16 February 1992. Cell is an evil artificial life form created using cell samples from several major characters in the series. He travels back in time so he can become the perfect being. In order to reach this goal, he must absorb Androids 17 and 18.

In his "Imperfect" form, Cell walks fully upright on two legs (unlike his "larval" form). His facial features have not yet fully complete and he still retains an orifice-like mouth rather than normal human-like features seen in later forms. The two sections of his head go off in a V-shape. Cell has orange color parts near his abdominal area, the back of his head, and even near the area where gentials would be found. He has two wings which are both green with black spots.He has three fingers in the manga, but five fingers and three toes (just as similar as Frieza and King Cold) in the anime. He has a tail like Frieza and King Cold, but also has a stinger on the end of it. He has black sections as well near his abdominal area, in the middle between the two sections on his head, and even the black part of the opposite side of his tail. He even has visible veins in both of his arms, legs, and even some in the joints in his upper body. His eyes are pink (blue in the manga colored pages) with thin reptilian slits.

In his "Semi-Perfect" form, Cell's wings disappear, and he becomes much more humanoid, he also becomes quite a bit more muscular. While the nose is not yet fully formed, he now has an actual mouth. The two sections of his head now go straight into the air. In this form, he is taller. His tail is longer and slightly thicker than before, and comes from his back, as well as becoming orange and black. His voice is deeper than his first form. The back of his head and the black section on his forehead are now formed together as a ball in between the two sections on his head. His lips are now the color pink, and the black sections above his lips look like a mustache (but it's part of his skin). He now has light blue eyes in this form (a result of absorbing Android 17). He even has boot-like feet in this form and metal-like plates all around both of his ankles. He has the same shape of ears as Frieza's, except that his have an orange line that goes down to the chin and to both sides of the ears. His wings retreat completely into his back. In his self-destruction form, Semi-Perfect Cell bloats himself, his belly greatly expanding in size. He also claimed that his bloated appearance was unstable, and that a single touch may set him off when dissuading Gohan from trying to stop him.

In his "Perfect" form, Cell becomes much more humanoid and more intelligent, complete with both a fully-formed nose and mouth. His tail is retracted and now used to create Cell Jr's. He is also smaller than in his previous form. His wings have grown back and now are shaded black. His body is colored light-green with black spots and has black plates located on his shoulders and chest, and the plates on his ankles as well as the previously orange section near his groin are now shaded black. His skin is now pale all in his face, neck and hands, he now has purple lines in both sides of his cheeks, similar to Frieza in his first three forms, and the orange line across his ears and chin is now changed into a yellow color. His eyes are now pink, and his blue veins are now purple. In this form,he is seen doing lots of special attacks done by most of the Z fighters.

In his "Super Cell " form,he is more powerful than ever. His body doesn't change only his power and speed,in this forn he kills Future Trunks but Super saiyan 2 Gohan, with the help from his father, kills him with a final Son and father Kamehameha.

Cell is an artificial life form (referred to as a "Bio-Android") created by Doctor Gero's supercomputer from the cell sample of the universe's strongest warriors, possessing the genetic information of Goku, Vegeta, Piccolo, Frieza, King Cold and Tien Shinhan in an underground complex beneath Gero's secret laboratory. Cell is designed to evolve into the "perfect" being by absorbing two Androids, #17 and #18. The Cell that appears as the primary antagonist of his titular arc is from the future, awakening after his development is complete to find that the Androids have been destroyed by Trunks. After he kills Trunks, Cell uses his time machine while regressing into an egg to travel back four years, to before the androids appeared, arriving in the present timeline. After hatching and metamorphosing from his larval, cicada-like form into his insect-like Imperfect form, Cell kills off thousands of people and absorbs them to increase his power in preparation to absorb the Androids. After he has managed to absorb the energy of entire cities of people, Cell finds Android #17 during his fight with Piccolo. Cell then breaks Piccolo's neck before Android #16 holds the mechanized villain off. However, he is able to find an opening to absorb #17 and evolves into Semi-Perfect Cell. Cell quickly dispatches #16, but he is unable to absorb #18 thanks to the intervention of Tenshinhan, who holds him back at the cost of his own life force before being rescued by Goku, along with a surviving Piccolo.

Cell tries to find Android #18, destroying islands to intimidate her into showing herself, but before he can destroy the island that #18 is hiding on, Vegeta appears and overwhelms him with newfound power. At the brink of defeat, Cell talks Vegeta into letting him absorb #18 so he can give him a better fight, and upon doing so, he assumes his final form, which is much more human like. In this form, Cell easily defeats Krillin, Vegeta, and Trunks, but spares all of them so that they can come to his own fighting tournament, the Cell Games (セルゲーム, Seru Gēmu) to find a worthy opponent to face him, intending to destroy Earth when he wins and wanting to enjoy the fear he causes in others.

A week later, in the first round of the Cell Games, he quickly defeats Mr. Satan before moving onto Goku, who quits upon realizing Cell is stronger than him.[14] Goku then nominates his son, Gohan, as Cell's next opponent, to everyone's surprise. Though Gohan puts up a good fight and proves himself his father's superior, Cell easily takes the upper hand due to his pacifistic nature. Wanting to avoid killing Cell if he can help it, Gohan warns Cell that if he is pushed too far, he will lose control of his anger and kill him, which only drives Cell to torment him further, excited to see this power. He spawns Cell Juniors (セルジュニア, Seru Junia), miniature versions of himself who begin to fight the heroes, causing Gohan's rage to slowly swell. It is only when Cell mercilessly kills #16 after he had encouraged Gohan to fight that Gohan snaps, transforming into a Super Saiyan 2. Gohan effortlessly, violently kills all the Cell Juniors, and then proceeds to effortlessly overpower Cell, aiming to prolong his suffering, dealing so much damage that Cell regurgitates Android #18 and reverts to his previous form. In desperation, Cell tries to self-destruct and destroy the Earth, but Goku sacrifices himself to ensure that Cell detonates elsewhere.

However, Cell is able to survive thanks to his unique physiology, which allows him to regenerate from a special nucleus in his head and grow more powerful whenever he has almost been killed, returning to his Perfect form even stronger than before. He easily kills Trunks, and when Vegeta attacks him in retaliation, he easily swats him aside. Before he can kill him, Gohan takes the blast in his place, which breaks his arm. With victory in his grasp, Cell decides to destroy the planet with one last Kamehameha, claiming he has the power to destroy the entire Solar System. Assisted by his father in spirit, Gohan retaliates with his own Kamehameha, ultimately overpowering Cell with Vegeta's help, destroying his cell nucleus and killing him once and for all. Mr. Satan, however, takes credit for the victory and becomes a hero.

Upon being resurrected by the Dragon Balls and returning to the future, Trunks destroys Androids #17 and #18, though realizes from his time travel that Cell is likely to emerge soon. Three years later, Trunks is confronted by the Cell of his timeline, who plans to kill Trunks and use his time machine in the same way his alternate self had. Future Cell realized Trunks traveled back already and learned of him in the past but thinks Trunks is no match for him. However, Trunks showcases his newfound power and easily kills him, finally bringing peace to the future.

In filler episodes of the anime, Cell makes numerous cameo appearances, usually as comic relief. Cell tries absorbing two siblings, but is prevented from doing so by Krillin, giving chase to the three and nearly killing Krillin before he notices Piccolo and Tien Shinhan on the way and escapes. In his posthumous appearances, he is shown causing trouble in Hell along with Frieza, King Cold, and the Ginyu Force. He is defeated by Goku and Pikkon and sent to prison, and is later seen watching Goku's battle with Majin Buu on a crystal ball, openly wondering why Goku quit against him and then went on to fight Buu, whom he acknowledges to be a stronger opponent than himself.

He possesses most of the Z fighter's abilities, including the Kamehameha and Final Flash technique.

Cell is among the most powerful antagonists of the original manga. Possessing the genetic material of the some of the world's strongest fighters, he is a master martial artist with superhuman strength, endurance, and speed. He can fly, create energy beams and forcefields using his ki, a form of energy derived from his own life force, and with his stinging tail, he can absorb others, either stabbing them with the tail to dissolve them[54] or engulfing them within it to consume them. It is by absorbing others that he increases his own power.