Highlights

  • Perfect Cell could make a powerful comeback in Dragon Ball, offering fans exciting story developments and new threats.
  • However, bringing back Cell may not make sense, as he served his purpose in Gohan's arc and doesn't stack up against current characters.
  • Fans may want Cell to return, but the series respects his initial story arc and likely won't reintroduce him in the future.

Dragon Ball introduced Perfect Cell, and for many good reasons, he was interesting and liked by the audience even after his defeat. His charismatic personality and confidence can lead people to fall for the way he speaks, and his characteristics also reflect some of Goku's, which makes him closer to Goku than most other people think. After his defeat at the hands of Gohan, Cell makes no real return until the Red Ribbon Army decides to take the blueprints they had already, and enhance that into Cell Max. However, even then, Dragon Ball made it clear that Perfect Cell was never coming back.

But what if Cell did come back? More importantly, should he really be given the chance to make a comeback in the story at all? Would it make sense, and what benefits would there be to reintroducing Perfect Cell back into the story?

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Why Bring Back Perfect Cell?

The Benefits

Dragon Ball - Cell

Many fans on the internet might be willing to debate that Perfect Cell is an interesting villain compared to Freeza, as well as a potentially stronger threat and villain than Freeza, considering his transformations and potential. Perfect Cell is a strong biomechanical android, the collection of the DNA of the strongest fighters at the time, and ultimately a worthy foe that not even Goku had a clear chance of defeating him flat-out. It makes sense that bringing him back from his days in the Cell Saga into the current run of Dragon Ball would not only give a lot of fans what they want, but provide interesting story developments and threats considering how Cell is. These range specifically from the idea that Cell is, at his core, a battle-maniac, and wants to entertain himself as well as prove his perfection to the world and himself.

There are benefits to bringing back Perfect Cell, depending on what they do with the character as well as what Cell chooses to do. An entire movie based on his return, and perhaps a new form could be done to show his power as well as what he's been doing since the days in hell. Of course, he could make a comeback in the manga as well, if someone either wishes him back with the right set of Dragon Balls, or decides to bring him as a last ditch effort against some greater threat due to his skill set. These details work in the long run, and admittedly, the fans have been wanting Cell to make a comeback ever since Freeza got that luxury with his own movie. In fact, fans had come up with fan-transformations for Cell at the time. However, there are sadly multiple reasons why Cell doesn't make a comeback even today, and why he probably shouldn't make a comeback at the end of the day.

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Why Not Bring Back Perfection?

The Reasons Not to Do So

Dragon Ball - Perfect Cell Smirk

To get the obvious reasons out of the way, Cell is not strong enough to keep up with the rest of the characters if he gets brought back into the story. On top of that, his character is not just a reflection of Goku, Vegeta, and other warriors; Cell also represented the obstacle and breakthrough that Gohan needed to finish his arc and become a Super Saiyan 2 at the time of the Cell Arc. There isn't much reason to bring back Cell as a character, let alone to bring him into the Tournament Of Power if they had made a comeback then. There is also the issue that nobody really has any in-universe want or desire to bring back a villain that not only threatened three timelines, but had several opportunities to destroy the planet and even other planets that he didn't take out of boredom and want of entertainment.

Even so, fans could have very different feelings towards the idea of Cell making a comeback. After all, Freeza currently has the potential to be the strongest villain in Universe 7 thanks to his new form; Goku and Vegeta have achieved their strongest forms for now, and Perfect Cell is severely low on the totem-pole now if he were to be brought back. The Perfect being has run its course as a character, and Dragon Ball as a series knows this, respects this, and sticks to it. Unfortunately, Cell may not ever make a comeback, and he probably shouldn't to begin with.

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Dragon Ball

Dragon Ball is a franchise by Akira Toriyama which follows the adventures of Goku, a powerful warrior who protects the earth with his group of friends. A recent title from the series is Dragon Ball: The Breakers, an action style game where 7 players have to survive being hunted by the Raider.