Dragon Ball Breaks Down Cell's Real-Life Origins in New Feature
Cell is easily one of the most terrifying villains in Dragon Ball history, with his three forms offering a unique problem for the Z Fighters as he sought to gain his perfect form by absorbing the Androids. In a recent interview, the official website for Dragon Ball took the opportunity to chat with scientists regarding the powers of the creation of Dr. Gero, and how there are creatures in the world that operate on the same level as the biological nightmare that has yet to return in the sequel series of Dragon Ball Super.
Unlike two of the other major antagonists of Dragon Ball Z in Frieza and Majin Buu, Cell has yet to make a comeback in the Shonen franchise, with the heroes not finding a reason to bring the biological nightmare back to life. When Cell first hit the scene in the Shonen series, he was looking to achieve his ultimate form by absorbing other androids, managing to ingest both Androids 17 and 18 during his reign of terror.
Yudai Okuyama broke down how Kleptoplasts are very much like the Dragon Ball Z villain, who are able to absorb other organisms, though they certainly aren't downing androids to reach their perfect forms by any stretch of the imagination:
"No, it's actually quite interesting. The chloroplasts in the sea slugs have a more aggressive origin—they're called "kleptoplasts," and they're a rare kind of organism that steals chloroplasts from other organisms. They're kind of like Cell, don't you think? There are other lifeforms that absorb the abilities of other organisms and make them their own too. For example, there's a species of luminescent fish called Parapriacanthus ransonneti, but they actually get the ability to emit light from a protein in their diet of sea fireflies, or Vargula hilgendorfii. They don't digest it, so it just gets absorbed into their bodies.
Perhaps his creator, Dr. Gero, took inspiration from this kind of natural phenomenon when designing Cell with his ability to absorb people and steal their power."
Cell has yet to return in the main canon of the series, but fans were recently able to see him return in the spin-off series, Super Dragon Ball Heroes, where he actually joined the Z Fighters for a brief moment in the fight against Goku Black.