'Dragon Ball' Creator Reveals Why Writing Cell Was Difficult

Dragon Ball Z's 'Android' saga was a favorite to many fans, namely for Android 17 and 18, and the [...]

By Nick Valdez

Dragon Ball Z's "Android" saga was a favorite to many fans, namely for Android 17 and 18, and the later addition of Cell. But it seems writing Cell was a bit tougher for the creator to write than you'd expect.

In an interview published in Volume 4 of the Dragon Ball Super manga, series creator Akira Toriyama admitted he had a tough time writing Cell because he was a more complicated villain.

When discussing the lengths he and illustrator Toyotaro went through when writing out the events of Super's "Future Trunks" arc and villain Zamasu, he reflecting on the villains he's written for in the past.

When Toyotaro brought up that crafting Zamasu was difficult because of his fastidious personality, Toriyama replied with "If this was back when I was drawing the manga myself then I doubt if I could have done it. I mean, I'm not very good at depicting the characters' psychology on the page."

Even Toriyama, one of the more celebrated manga authors in Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump, admits when he has a flaw. Then when Toyotaro retorted with, "Majin Buu doesn't have that sort of conflict," Toriyama laughed and elaborated on his feelings with Cell, "Frankly, I even found Cell to be a bit of a hassle. With enemies it's easier to just have them be straight-up bad guys so the can just get beaten up."

It is clear by his statements that Toriyama's strengths center on his artwork, panel layout, and fight choreography so that even when the villain is less complicated than you would normally want in a story, he is able to make up for it by providing better moments and sequences revolving around them. Drawing tension from battle and the threat the villain poses, rather than the villain's methodology, is a great angle to take too.

But even as Toriyama argues that writing Cell was difficult, many fans are sure to agree Cell was one of the more notable villains of the Dragon Ball series and could have even served as a final villain if the series had ended after the "Android" arc.

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 11:30 p.m

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