Dragon Ball Super Drops a Clever Cell Cameo in New Arc

Dragon Ball Super is back with a new chapter, and of course, all eyes are on the big release. After all, the manga brought a new arc center stage this year, and Trunks is heading up the whole thing with Goten. But this week, well – chapter 89 felt it was time to distract fans by introducing a special nod to Cell.

As you can see in the full release, Dragon Ball makes the connection early on in chapter 89. At just a page or two in, the manga finds Trunks at his mom’s laptop as he tries to decode the data on the disc he nabbed from a recent raid. The hush-hush ambush left our heroes rattled as they were faced with undead fighters, so Trunks is all too happy when Bulma’s tech cracks through the data disc.

However, our heroes doesn’t find any data about the organization or its plans on the disc. The only thing included is a diagram, and it showcases Cell’s second coming.

As you can see above, the panel in question shows an anatomical scan of Cell Max from Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero, but he is different here. In fact, this scan looks like it shows Larval Cell in its purest from. The cicada-like creature looks downright terrifying, and the data shown here is way above Trunks’ ability. Bulma could have cracked the code if given the chance, but the disc loads a virus before anyone can pick apart Cell’s blueprints.

Of course, fans were surprised to see Cell in this shot, but it isn’t all that shocking. This new Dragon Ball arc is a prequel to the new Dragon Ball Super movie. The film follows Gohan and Piccolo as the pair face Cell Max, a spruced edition of the fighter created by the risen Red Ribbon Army. Now, Dragon Ball’s manga has given us a look at how the soldier came to light. And given what we see in these blueprints, it seems the army began with Cell as his base before they began adding enhancements down the line.

What do you make of this little nod to Cell? Share your thoughts with us in the comments section below or hit me up on Twitter @MeganPetersCB.