Cell Was Way Stronger in 'Dragon Ball Z' Than You Realized

Dragon Ball fans have been debating Cell's true strength (and the true strength of the Super Saiyans) for years, but now there's a concrete answer as to how strong Cell truly was.

Apparently Cell was much stronger than anyone had even thought of.

In the fight with Vegeta and Future Trunks, Cell was easily keeping the two at bay once he achieved his Perfect form. Even with Vegeta and Trunks reaching their stronger versions of the Super Saiyan transformation -- thus becoming Super Vegeta and Super Trunks -- Cell still held strong which led many fans to believe that Cell in his Perfect form was as strong as a "stage 3" Super Saiyan (a form that emphasizes strength over speed). But how strong is Cell exactly?

Still waiting for a translation but it looks like this states that Cell emulates Super Saiyan Grade 3, which makes me believe that "Super Perfect Cell" is sort of his VERSION of "Super Saiyan 2". I suspected this but this seems to be more confirmation. pic.twitter.com/0RKyN39vYP

— Geekdom101 (@EmperorBigD) December 6, 2017

Toriyama's response to this question was that 'Cell was startled when he saw Trunks transform into Grade Three. But the truth is that Cell himself is also capable of this power up! However, he realized that a transformation that relied on power was meaningless. He therefore tried to avoid using it.'

I already translated that years and years ago: https://t.co/DAmlD80cka pic.twitter.com/NlW4kAENYA

— Todd Blankenship (@Herms98) December 6, 2017

Cell was always capable of matching Trunks' power, but just chose not to use it. This is not only a great character feature, as it emphasizes Cell's cockiness throughout the saga (which made it tougher for Toriyama to write towards), but it means that his eventually transformation into Super Perfect Cell implies a power stronger than a Stage 3 Super Saiyan. Almost like he was holding back his version of Super Saiyan 2 power all along.

Dragon Ball Super's "Universal Survival" arc is part of the recent simulcast agreement that sites like Crunchyroll and Funimation have scored. Dragon Ball Super airs on Crunchyroll Saturday evenings at 7:15 p.m. CST. Adult Swim airs the English dub during its Toonami block Saturday evenings at 9:30 p.m, and is now available to stream on FunimationNOW and Amazon Video.

If you want to catch up with the English dub, the first 39 episodes of Dragon Ball Super are now available to stream on FunimationNOW, Crunchyroll's VRV service, and available to purchase on Amazon Video. The 39 episodes span the full range of what has aired in the North America and covers the "Battle of Gods" arc, "Revival of F" arc, and the most recently ended "Universe 6" arc.