Cell (Dragon Ball)

Cell
Dragon Ball character
Cell's three forms as seen in the anime; Imperfect (left), Semi-Perfect (right) and Perfect (middle).
First appearance	Dragon Ball chapter #361: "The Mysterious Monster, Finally Appears!!" (1992)
Created by	Akira Toriyama
Voiced by	Japanese Norio Wakamoto English Dameon Clarke (Funimation) Dale Wilson (Ocean) Travis Willingham (video games)
Profile
Species	Artificial life form
Relatives	Doctor Gero (creator) Cell Juniors (offspring)

Cell (Japanese: セル, Hepburn: Seru^?) is a fictional character in the Dragon Ball manga series 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 March 2, 1992. Cell is an evil artificial life form, created using cells from several of the main characters in the series, that travels back in time so he can become the perfect being. In order to reach this goal, he must absorb Androids #17 and #18.

After Kazuhiko Torishima, Toriyama's former editor during Dr. Slump and early Dragon Ball, expressed dissatisfaction with first Androids #19 and #20 and later Androids #17 and #18 as villains, Toriyama created Cell. Toriyama has expressed some kind of regret regarding the design of Cell, calling it tedious to draw all the little spots on his body. In addition, he did not initially plan for the character to be able to transform, but gave him this ability after his then-current editor Yū Kondō described Cell as "ugly." Toriyama intended for Cell's second form to last longer than it did; Kondō found the form to be silly and urged him to hasten the first appearance of the next transformation.