Dragon Ball Super Illustrator Shares Mysterious Sketch of Cell

Dragon Ball Super fans have a lot of opinions on where the series should be headed next, after the Dragon Ball Super anime’s hiatus is done. One of the biggest points of consensus within the fandom has been that Cell needs to make a return in the next Dragon Ball Super installment (or whatever it is called), as he’s pretty much the only Dragon Ball Z villain the newer series hasn’t revisited in some way. We’ve already pointed out how Dragon Ball Super has already laid the groundwork for Cell’s return – and now, after a new sketch from series mangaka, Toyotaro, fans are wondering if we could be seeing the first hint of Cell’s Dragon Ball Super return!

Check out this sketch of what looks to be Imperfect Cell by Toyotaro, and we’ll breakdown what the attached caption is referencing, and why it could be a major tease of where Dragon Ball Super is headed!

The caption reads, “What Happened to Belmond!” which is a reference to the recent reveal that Universe 11’s God of Destruction, Belmond, used to be a member of the Pride Troopers, who fought alongside Jiren’s master. Jiren’s master (and all his students except Jiren) were slaughtered by a mysterious evildoer – the same one who also slaughtered Jiren’s family when he was a boy. That evildoer’s identity has been one of the bigger mysteries of Dragon Ball Super‘s final Tournament of Power arc; trace amounts of backstory tells us that Belmond and Jiren’s master had a falling out when Belmond left Pride Troopers, and that Belmond never got to reconcile with his old friend before the evildoer slaughtered him. Toyotaro seems to be suggesting that that same evildoer (or a different one?) could have been the cause of Belmond leaving the Pride Troopers to seek the greater power of a God of Destruction.

In that context, the sketch above now has Dragon Ball fans freaking out. First and foremost is the debate over whether or not this is actually Cell. The face and eyes definitely look like something that could be a new version of Cell – especially if its a version of Cell that has absorbed a much different assortment of fighters than the one we met in Dragon Ball Z. The fact that this sketch shows something like a Cell face with what looks to be Goku’s hair: that kind of connection would have massive (and ominous) implications for a new Dragon Ball Super Cell story – especially if it connections back to Jiren and his origin story.

If this isn’t Cell, then hopefully Toyotaro is teasing an exciting new villain we’ll soon meet (whether it’s Jiren’s infamous foe or not). Toyotaro and Akira Toriyama have already introduced an awesome new villain (Moro) in the current manga storyline, so if the next one continues that trend, we’d be more than good with it.

…But at the same time, Dragon Ball Super needs to bring back Cell, soon, so hopefully that’s what this is.

Dragon Ball Super currently airs its English dub on Adult Swim during the Toonami programming block on Saturday evenings, and is also available to stream on Funimation and Amazon Video. The Japanese-language release of the series is complete, and available to stream on FunimationNOW and Crunchyroll. The manga has chapters that can currently be read for free thanks to Viz Media, and Dragon Ball Super’s big movie, Dragon Ball Super: Broly, is now available on Blu-ray and DVD.

Photo Credit: “DBZ Imperfect Cell” by Rahul