Characters / Dragon Ball Z Abridged - Cell

Dragon Ball Z Abridged Character Index
Main Characters (Son Goku | Vegeta) | Supporting Characters | Villains (Galactic Freeza Army, Cell) | Minor Characters | Movies and Specials

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"Well, I am pretty disturbing! Remember when I drank that guy? That was fuckin' weird."

"I HAVE SO MANY QUESTIONS!"

"Like a soon-to-be-broken man once said: 'You're either perfect, or you're not me.'"

Voiced by: Curtis "Takahata101" Arnott

Doctor Gero's final trump card, a bio-mechanical insectoid monster created from the genetic material of the Z Fighters and their enemies.

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Present Cell

A-B

• Abusive Parents: Cell doesn't lift a finger to help save the Cell Jrs. from their rather violent deaths at the hands of an enraged Gohan. When one of them actually does beg for his help, Cell merely scoffs and tells him he's "no helicopter papa" as he nonchalantly watches them die.
  "I ain't no helicopter papa, sink or swim, bitch!"
• Actor Allusion:
  • Cell names all of his children much like Nappa named the Saibamen, with both of them naming the final one after Vegeta. Both of them are voiced by Takahata101.
  • In addition, he names each of the Cell Jrs. after almost every actor that voiced Cell in various Dragon Ball media.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: Attempted. Cell in canon never really cared for 16, dismissing him as an older and inferior model that gets in his way one too many times and earns his irritation. Abridged Cell attempts to get on 16's good side a couple of times when he becomes Perfect, actually expressing frustration when his attempts fall flat. That said, this seems to be a bit of Faux Affably Evil on his part, as the second he realizes 16's bomb is no longer implemented, he destroys him with hesitation while "lamenting" how they couldn't reconcile their differences. And then, of course, he still caves his head in while he's talking with Gohan.
• Adaptational Badass:
  • In canon, Cell admits that he would have been obliterated by Vegeta's Final Flash if he took it head on, and explains that he sidestepped the beam to narrowly avoid dying. In abridged however, he seemingly has no time to do this, yet still manages to survive despite taking the blast head on.
  • In canon as well, Cell explicitly is described to have only the genetic information of the most powerful people known at the time to make up his body (Goku, Vegeta, Piccolo, Freeza and King Cold), but in Abridged, the point is made to instead have him be made up of practically every competent fighter in the main cast instead, which ends up enhancing the diversity of his skill range tenfold and makes him far more practically minded (at least initially) than he is in canon where he suffers from Suicidal Overconfidence occasionally.
• Adaptational Dumbass: In the original, when Cell decides to blow up numerous islands to draw out Android 18, 16 states that Cell knows she's powerful enough to survive the blast, and thus, give away her current location, 18's concern being that 16 wouldn't be able to survive in his damaged state. Here, Cell explicitly acknowledges the possibility that he destroyed 18 already, and goes on to try to destroy the last island anyway, not having any contingency in mind for the idea that he permanently prevented himself from reaching his Perfect Form, and Vegeta and Trunks interrupting him from doing so by a couple of seconds might've actually helped him in the long run.
• Adaptational Intelligence: This Cell is a lot wittier and sharper with his tongue, able to break his enemies without even landing a single punch. This best demonstrated during his encounter with Mr. Satan, where he quickly shreds the wrestler's giant ego, whereas canon Cell just chose to stay quiet and ignore him. Abridged Cell also doesn't tell Piccolo he needs to absorb Androids 17 and 18 to become Perfect, thus giving the good guys a chance to stop him.
• Adaptational Jerkass: He is way more cruel, vicious, and sadistic than he was in the original series. While he commits all of the same crimes he did before, Abridged Cell takes far more pleasure in his killings and dragging the torment out for his victims; also picking up noticeable sexist and stalkerish tendencies that the original largely lacked. His sanity takes a few hits as well; while in the original, he is shocked and refuses to believe Goku when it looks like the latter might try an Earth-Shattering Kaboom to finish him off, this version is positively ecstatic that Goku would go so far and gleefully revels in how they'll all die together.
• Adaptational Nice Guy: While he's still a villain with a long list of heinous crimes, he's a lot more sincere at times and is completely genuine in these moments of hospitality, being openly friendly to Goku and Yamcha. And while both versions plan to Kill All Humans, he simply intends to destroy the planet, as opposed to canon Cell who would have personally murdered every person on Earth. He's also a lot more dignified in his final death, singing My Way to himself as he's obliterated, while his canon counterpart spent his last moments howling against his fate and insisting that he was too perfect to die.
• Adaptational Superpower Change: Downplayed. In the anime, his version of the multiform technique was far superior to Tien's, with each clone being as powerful as Cell was individually. Here, it still divides his power by the amount of clones made, and he only uses it for fun.
• Adaptational Wimp: A minor but notable removal is that he doesn't power up further when facing Gohan. This actually reinforces why he was so mad that Goku just gave up. He legitimately gave everything he had in that fight.
• Adding Insult to Injury:
  • When beating the snot out of Vegeta, he pushes the Goku button right before breaking his spine, just for kicks.
  • Cell does this to Trunks as well, mocking his inexperience in combat, his failure to save Gohan in his timeline, letting him know that it's his fault that Cell has come to the past, and finally adding that he killed his (Cell's) version of Trunks to do it.
• Affably Evil: Switches between this and Faux Affably Evil, which makes him all the more unpredictable and terrifying.
  • In his best moments he is still an Endearingly Dorky Genki Guy. When Android 16 flat-out says they're not friends, Cell cries out "I'm trying!" in frustration, implying that his chummy attitude towards the android is completely genuine. However, this might very well be an example of Faux Affably Evil instead, as Cell shows no hesitation in destroying or later killing 16 during the Cell Games, even mocking him by stating the android didn't have a soul.
  • Also when Semi-Perfect Cell is interrupted by people on the islands he's hovering over while he is trying to get Android 18 to come out of hiding. He is quite civil towards them as they are trying to give him relationship advice before losing his patience and blowing up every island except the one Android 18's on.
  • Cell seems to have a legitimate fondness for Goku, demonstrated by the fact that Goku is the only one he regards with any respect and believes to be an actual threat. They later have a civil and even lighthearted conversation when Goku goes to visit Cell with Cell even commenting that he's "going to miss him when he's dead".
  • In the Cell Vs. specials, Cell's pretty chipper and typically allows his opponents to leave the ring when they realize they're outclassed. The exceptions are Kenshiro, Deadpool and Light Yagami, on account that they can actually hurt him, and Ken and Ryu, because they actually try to fight him. He even thanks Saitama for waiting until the actual tournament date instead of trying to fight ahead of time.
  • He's also sincerely friendly to Yamcha, who is the resident chew toy. This ends up being subverted as Cell reveals later on he views Yamcha as half time entertainment, along with believing that he doesn't deserve to asskicking that the Cell Jr. is giving him (though still finds it funny) making this a case of Faux Affably Evil mixed with Condescending Compassion.
  • When he first meets Dodoria in HFIL, he immediately figures out her correct pronouns, confidently compliments her beauty as a woman, and is genuinely very charming toward her.
    Dodoria: (flirtatiously) Well, ain't you a tall glass of St. Patrick's Day beer.
    Cell: (with a big smile) And ain't you a queen doing your thing!
    Dodoria: (proudly) Damn right!
  • Also, just before his fight with the Ginyu Force in HFIL, Cell interrupts his own threat to sincerely ask them what their preferred pronouns are so he doesn't misgender them during their fight.
• All Your Powers Combined:
  • He has the powers of the galaxy's strongest fighters. Including Krillin, but not Yamcha.
  • Also applies psychologically, where different parts of the personalities of everybody he's made up of come together. The end result is roughly Goku's childishness, Gohan's anger issues, Vegeta's sociopathic ego, Freeza's sadism, Piccolo and Tien's deadpan commentary, Krillin and Roshi's love of Double Entendre.
  • There's a very telling moment in Episode 59 when he switches from using "Goku" to "Kakarot" while demanding Goku indulge him.
• Ambiguously Bi: His hunt for Android Eighteen had plenty of jealous Stalker with a Crush vibes... but his interactions with Piccolo in Episode 43 and Goku in Episodes 55-59 were filled with plenty of innuendos that bordered on flirting.
• And Then What?: Briefly goes through a silent version of this when he's about to kill Trunks and the Saiyan mentions that no one would remember him when Goku defeats him. While he wasn't that concerned about the idea of Goku beating him, he did noticeably pause and think that really no one outside the Z-Fighters really knows about him due to killing and absorbing pretty much everyone that encountered him. Thus, he's inspired to spare Trunk's life and create the Cell Games, all while televising it to show the world who he is.
  • He also wonders to himself what he'll do after he's won the Cell Games and destroyed Earth. As an immortal being he'd have nothing much to do once he's accomplished his goal and then gone on to conquer the galaxy. He considers taking up craft-brewing as a hobby.
• Angrish: When being blasted by Tien's Shin Kikoho.
  Semi-Perfect Cell: Stop it! STOP IIIIT! ANGRYYYYY!
• Appropriated Appellation: Perfect Cell from Vegeta. Perfecter Cell from Yamcha, though he's less pleased with that name.
• Arch-Enemy: While he playfully mocks everybody else, he considers Goku and Tien to be this on both opposite ends of this trope respectively.
  • He views his bout with Goku like it's a sexual attraction, borderline flirting with him. He considers Goku to be a Worthy Opponent that completes his existence, not unlike how The Joker views his relationship with Batman, and actually appreciates his simplicity. He's legitimately pissed off when Goku forfeits their match and has his son fight in his place.
  • By contrast, he utterly despises Tien for blasting him with the Kikoho over and over. He wished to fight Tien when Goku was selecting a new combatant, and the fatal blast he hit Trunks with in Episode 60 was actually meant for Tien. Even after death, he reveals in HFIL ep. 7 that his greatest regret was not choking the life out of Tien. Retroactively episode 10 of HFIL implies as well that Cell realized he could teleport if only to try and immediately kill Tien upon surviving his self-destruct, but hit Trunks instead due to his power boost messing up his ability to differentiate who's who by power levels alone.
  • Then in Episode 60, it's shown the one he really hates is Gohan, due to the boy representing everything he despises: pacifism (which he considers cowardice), kindness, and a dislike of fighting. When Cell finally manages to spark a rage in Gohan and push him to fight, Gohan thrashes Cell so badly that the Android goes into a blind fury, even leading him to spit out 18. This is the last straw and Cell thoroughly hates Gohan for taking away his perfection and tries to blow up the world to take away everything that was dear to the boy.
• Armor-Piercing Question: Right before he starts fighting Trunks in Episode 53, Cell asks Trunks one of these.
  Cell: Does Gohan know, by the way?
  Trunks: Does he know what?
  Cell: That you let him die.
  • Throws another one to Freeza in HFIL while needling him about not being completely honest about how he died.
    Cell: You know, while we’re on the subject, what planet did you die on again? I don’t remember. Was it Namek, or Earth?
• Ascended Meme: Cell was a Memetic Molester in the original series, and as such Cell is depicted here as acting like a rapist. Sometimes it's Played for Laughs, and sometimes it really isn't.
• The Atoner: Accused of being this by Freeza, noting that he's actually putting in effort (however futile Freeza may think it is) to leave HFIL by graduating in Episode 9.
• Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!:
  • After assimilating Android 17, he doesn't immediately go after Android 18 because he wants to admire his new lips. He then starts making motorboat noises for fun. He was hell-bent on reaching perfection in the previous episode.
  • Happens again after he attains perfection and is talking about how proud he is of Vegeta.
    Perfect Cell: And for that, I tip my... Huh, what is that on my head? Would you call it a crown? Sixteen, would you call this a crown?
    16: I hate you.
    Cell: We'll call it a crown!
• Ax-Crazy: He absorbed an entire city of people, one of the reasons for which was because he loves the rush he gets when he watches people disappear. It's especially noticeable later on when he's about to kill Super Saiyan 2 Gohan in their final Beam-O-War, which he likely would have won if not for Vegeta's intervention.
  Perfect Cell: What's this, brat? Your second wind, or your dying gasp? Either way, it doesn't matter! Behold the power of TWO HANDS! (adds his other hand and releases more energy into his Kamehameha, now taking the lead and causing SSJ2 Gohan to skid back a few feet) Take solace, Gohan... though you have fought alone, you will not die alone! (furiously screaming at him) That is my last gift to you! A PERFECT DEATH!
• Bad Liar: Cell has some bad tells in his Semi-Perfect form.
  Vegeta: Were you about to drink me?
  Cell: N-no! [tail twitches frantically up and down, as if to say "yes"] ...yes.
• Badass Normal: Even with everyone's ki in HFIL sealed away Cell still has 150 years of martial arts experience from the strongest warriors the galaxy has to offer^note Also Vegeta, meaning he's still ridiculously capable fighter and likey the strongest resident of HFIL, which he masterfully demonstrates when he takes on the Ginyu Force all at once and wins without taking a scratch.
• Be Careful What You Wish For:
  • After gaining his Perfect form, he demands that Vegeta hit him as hard as he can. While the damage proved inconsequential, Cell clearly wasn't expecting Vegeta's attack to actually be strong enough to kill him.
  • He also spends the first part of his fight against Gohan trying to make him "snap" hard enough to actually be a threat to him, at least before his disgust with Gohan's pacifism takes over. He gets his wish when he steps on Android 16's head, killing him for good, and his shocked expression as Gohan turns Super Saiyan 2 shows he really had no idea what he was asking for. He tries to hide it under bravado and even some legitimate desire for finally getting that challenge, right up until Gohan starts beating him into the ground.
  • Played for Laughs in HFIL. When the news reporter asks Cell if Super Kami Guru came back into the story, his response was "I wish". Come the first episode of HFIL, Guru does come back into the main story and designates Cell as "Other New Nail"^note "New Nail" is designated to Raditz, something he's clearly not crazy about.
    Perfect Cell: Kill me.
    Raditz: Way past that, buddy.
    Super Kami Guru: You got bottom bunk!
• Berserk Button:
  • Implying he isn't a threat sets him off, if Cell vs. Deadpool is anything to go off of, and shown in special detail when SSJ2 Gohan states "he's bored" fighting him, which causes Cell to throw away any semblance of trying to calm down, buffing up, and trying to smash him into paste.
    Perfect Cell: So, you're one of those "X-Mans"?
    Deadpool: Oh, no! No, no, no, no, no! I mean, sure, I help them out from time to time, but that's like, when the world's in danger.
    Perfect Cell: [beat] Zero to pissed in a moment, my goodness, you have talent.
    ...
    Perfect Cell: [thinking] Alright Cell, we saw what losing your cool got you. So tone down the Freeza and chill the hell—
    Gohan: Done getting your shit together up there? Because I'm starting to get bored.
    Perfect Cell: WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY TO ME, YOU HAPLESS LITTLE SHIT?!
    Gohan: I said I'm bored. You're boring me.
  • Episode 59 provides another. If you can actually provide him with a decent challenge, he'll be overjoyed. But if you suddenly decide to stop fighting, he will snap.
    Perfect Cell: Every word you spoke has made me violently angry!
  • His biggest of all, however, is doing anything that threatens his "perfection." He tells Trunks he killed his Trunks specifically because he destroyed the Androids of their time and denied him his transformation then, throws a tantrum when Vegeta starts overpowering his Semi-Perfect form demanding to become perfect, and when SS2 Gohan hits him hard enough to barf up 18 and turn him back to Semi-Perfect, he decides the only logical answer to this insult is to take everything away from Gohan and blow up the planet.
  • Ironically the same silliness that makes him immune to Goku's antics gives him an even bigger berserk button in the form of "boring" characters. The mere existence of Tien and Gohan, who are logical and less zany characters, seems to piss him off. And when both those characters actually start to triumph against him, his rage is nearly uncontrollable.
  • In HFIL, it's implied that calling him a robot without free will is a trigger for him, as he goes from arrogant and snarky to threatening Freeza with violence when the evil overlord does this.
    • Additionally, his parentage is a bit of a touchy subject for him. When Freeza mocks Cell for not having a father, Cell grows chillingly silent not even bothering to answer him back.
  • Failing to call him "Mister" if he demands that you do so.
• Beware the Silly Ones: Genki Guy he may be, but he's also a monster that gleefully slaughtered tens of thousands and knows the combined techniques of the protagonists, Freeza and King Cold.
  Perfect Cell; Trunks... you couldn't fathom the number of dead men behind me.
• Beyond the Impossible:
  • Even Bulma can feel his power level at his Perfect form.
  • In one of the Cell Vs. shorts, he No Sells the Raging Demon^note Though to be fair, even he doesn't understand what had happened, much less how he did it.
  • On the receiving end when Kenshiro causes him to explode with his special technique, twice! Fortunately for Cell, it's nothing he can't regenerate from. Unfortunately for him, it still hurts like hell.
  • Once again on the receiving end, when Deadpool is able to sever his arms and head using his carbonadium swords.
• Big Bad: Of the Android/Cell Saga.
• Birds of a Feather: With Zarbon, with both of them being Mr. Fanservice. When they meet each other in hell, the two proceed to beam and pose at one another.
• Bishōnen Line: Like in the original show, Cell's three forms are the current page image.
• Bizarre Alien Biology:
  • The structure on his pelvis that resembles his imperfect-form's beak mouth is apparently capable of speech—which it does in imperfect-form's voice even when his body had taken the next form. He mockingly attributes this ability to Vegeta's DNA after Vegeta describes it as "talking out of [his] ass." Slightly less strange is that he also apparently has more than one heart as Light Yagami learns to his eternal regret when he uses the Death Note to give Cell a heart attack, which only causes him minor discomfort.
  • Amusingly, KaiserNeko explained this was based on Weekly Tube Show's videos where Cell did the exact same thing.
• Blood Knight: Considering he has Saiyan DNA, it's no surprise that he adores a proper fight. Once he becomes perfect, Cell's core motivation is to find a proper fight that tests his abilities, and he believes that only Goku can offer this. He starts to develop an almost sexual desire to fight Goku, and his subsequent fight with Goku is riddled with joyous cries of happiness and satisfaction. When Goku gives up, Cell's response is pure rage and he reacts like an angry, jilted lover to Goku cutting short the only good fight he's ever had.
  • Though when Gohan reminds him of what happens when the kid snaps, this immediately rekindles Cell's excitement — after all, he would personally be aware that Gohan has a history of being able to punch well above his weight when he snaps, and considering Gohan is roughly on Goku's level at this point...
    Cell: Magnificent! One last stand against me! A climactic showdown! GIMME WHAT YOUR DADDY COULDN'T, BEFORE I SEND YA HOME TO HIM!
  • But he does have his limits. He enjoys a challenge and fighting opponents who can actually threaten him. Fighting against an overwhelmingly stronger opponent with little to no chance of victory, however, is something he gets no enjoyment from, as seen from Vegeta wiping the floor with his Semi-Perfect form and Super Saiyan 2 Gohan utterly humiliating him. It only takes three hits in the second example for him to drop the sportsmanship and try to blow up the planet.
• Boisterous Weakling: When he's in his Imperfect Cell and even Semi-Perfect Cell forms to an extent, he isn't as mighty as he would like the Z-Fighters to think and constantly resorts to trickery and flat out cowardice to get what he wants. Trunks' fight with Future Cell in the Epilogue makes it very clear that had he not gotten the drop on the alternate Future Trunks, he might not have succeeded in returning to the past.
• Bookends: When he gets truly introduced he's singing and when he finally dies he goes out singing.
• Break the Haughty:
  • Holy mother of Kami does he tear down Vegeta's pride after achieving perfection.
    Perfect Cell: "Because, Prince, like a soon-to-be-broken man once said: "You're either perfect, or you're not me."
  • In the Cell Vs. episodes, Cell's on the receiving end when Kenshiro does this both figuratively and literally.
  • Receives another one at the hands of Super Saiyan 2 Gohan, who effortlessly wipes the floor with Cell. He tries to cover it up with his bravado, but Gohan telling Cell he's boring him, and then kicking him so hard he vomits up Eighteen and loses his Perfect Form as a result send him over the edge.
• Breakout Character: One of the most popular character in the series, extensively featured in specials like the Cell Vs. series. He's also the main character in the spin-off HFIL.
• Break Them by Talking:
  • He tried to do this to Android 18 in Episode 48 using Android 17's voice but fails horribly because he doesn't know either of them well enough to properly trick her.
  • His strategy for defeating Trunks is partially this. After letting Trunks wail on him for a bit he gets bored, stops toying with him and starts effortlessly dodging Trunks' attacks. He doesn't actually hit Trunks much though, what actually swings it in his favour is the remorseless taunting and humiliation he inflicts on Trunks until his spirit is broken.
    Perfect Cell: I don't know what's more broken. Your father's body or your spirit.
    Trunks: Oh, just get it over with and kill me already.
    Perfect Cell: And spirit it is!
• Brick Joke:
  • In a bit of a Call-Back, Cell's dialogue (and mannerisms) mirror Vegeta in this scene with Piccolo...
    Piccolo: Before that — do you want to see something cool?
    Cell: Now I know you're playing me... and I do!
  • Later, he throws a temper tantrum over how much he wants to become perfect that is very much like Vegeta's own over his desire to become a Super Saiyan.
  • This is then turned back on Vegeta when Cell convinces him to let him absorb Android 18.
• Brought Down to Badass: In HFIL, Cell, like every other villain, can't access his incredible ki. On the other hand, between his genetics and his inherited fighting experience, all four Ginyus attacking him at once can't land even a single hit on him while he wipes the floor with them. The only one to so much as touch him was Guldo with his time stop abilities, and that only resulted in him being used as a bludgeon.
• But Not Too Challenging: Just like in canon, Cell holds the Cell Games to get a good fight from Goku only to get agitated when Goku forfeits in the middle of the fight. He also doesn’t take well to Goku sending out Gohan believing him to not be much of a fight, though he becomes interested in the power Gohan states. When Gohan refuses to let that power out, he becomes pissed again that he decides to just kill everyone which gets Gohan to go all out. This get Cell ecstatic until he sees just how much Gohan overpowers him to the point of dragging the fight to torture him, which gets Cell to have a fit of his own.

C-D

• Came Back Strong: Having survived his self-destruction thanks to his inherited Saiyan, Namekian and Freeza Race DNA, he returns to Earth in his perfect form and even stronger, and kills Future Trunks with his first attack.
• Card-Carrying Villain: Many instances. In Episode 53, he responds to Trunks' claim that 'Behind all that insufferable smarm is a dead man!' with 'Trunks, you couldn't fathom the amount of dead men behind me'.
• Character Catchphrase:
  • "Hello."
  • "To be fair..."
  • "SHIT!/OH, SHIT!"
• Character Filibuster: In Chapter 56, he tells the story of his origins to a journalist. The entire story beginning with Bulma and Goku's first meeting.
• The Chew Toy: Considering he has Krillin and Vegeta's DNA inside of him, it's not surprising. The majority of the fights that Cell has been a part of has involved him getting beaten up or embarrassed by his opponent in some form.
  Cell: [to Android 16] N-now I know what you're thinking! "Should I rip off his tail?" And the answer might surprise— [16 rips his tail off. Cue Screams Like a Little Girl.]
• Cloudcuckoolander:
  • There's no reason that he should be as... odd as he is in addition to being pants-wettingly terrifying. Once he reaches his Perfect form, the first thing he does is lampshade it... through a song. Considering he's 10% Goku, it makes Perfect sense.
    Perfect Cell: E is for eccentric, just listen to my song!
  • Shown in full display especially when he has no idea what to call his crest on his head and calls it a crown.
  • While this applies to all his forms, it's most pronounced with Imperfect Cell who starts beeping in response to being honked at, takes over a radio station, and manages to make himself angry during a hypothetical conversation with Nickel Town.
• Cluster Bleep-Bomb: With a long bleep and several rapid-fire bleeps intercut with a few rapid "No"s when Gohan punches him so hard he's about to regurgitate Android 18.
• Comically Invincible Hero: Well, Comically Invincible Villain in the case with Perfect Cell. There are various shorts that show him owning various crossover characters from various franchises, except for Kenshiro and Saitama.
• Constantly Curious:
  • He has lots of questions about his abilities, mostly because he doesn't entirely know what — among other things — Namek biology is capable of.
    Semi-Perfect Cell: [after seeing Piccolo recover from what should've been a killing blow] How durable is he?! ...how durable am I? Questions for later.
  • And after learning that Goku can teleport:
    Semi-Perfect Cell: WHAT?! HOW?! WHY?! I HAVE SO MANY QUESTIONS!
• Combat Sadomasochist: When Gohan tries discouraging Cell from fighting by saying that backing him into a corner will send him into an Unstoppable Rage, Cell replies "Well threaten me with a good time".
  Cell: At first you had my curiosity... now you have my erection.
  Gohan: You mean, your attent—?
  Cell: You all know what I'm about!
  • Also during his fight with Android 16 in his imperfect form, when Android 16 punches him, he wipes his face off and asks "You got another one in ya?"
  • Like his Blood Knight tendencies, however, this also has limits - he loves throwing down in a good fight, but he hates being on the recieving end of a Curb-Stomp Battle, as shown by how his attitude goes from being eager and smug to terrified and losing his shit the moment Gohan starts kicking his ass.
• Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: He differs in many ways from this series version of Freeza. While Freeza is calm and collected, even when dealing with extreme stress, it's obvious from the first moment Cell opens his mouth that he's unstable and dangerously insane. Where Freeza prefers a pragmatic, utilitarian approach to subjugating the Namekians and dealing with his problems, Cell has a flair for showmanship, demonstrated with his hijacking of a radio station and his construction of the Cell Games. Where Freeza never changed in personality from form to form, each of Cell's different appearances have different personalities: Imperfect Cell has an unhinged Serial Killer vibe, Semi-Perfect Cell is a Stalker with a Crush towards 18, and Perfect Cell is a Smug Snake through and through. Lastly, while Freeza absolutely hates Goku and is driven to a screaming rage by the end of the fight with him, Cell seems to have some kind of affection for the Saiyan.
• Cowardice Callout: He comments that Gohan's Suicidal Pacifism makes him "a coward patting himself on the back".
• Creepy Monotone: During his darker moments he loves adopting this.
• Curb-Stomp Battle:
  • In the series proper, he hands these out like candy whenever he powers up.
    • When facing 17 and Piccolo after absorbing thousands of humans, the fight mostly consists of him laying a brutal beatdown on them. Piccolo only hits him twice, once when he caught him off guard, and once when Cell let himself get hit.
    • After absorbing 17, 16 punches him in the face. Cell is only annoyed and then blasts off a chunk of 16's head. He proceeds to later dish another one of these to 16, Krillen and 18 when he goes to absorb her. However his fights with Vegeta and Trunks have him on the receiving end.
    • After absorbing 18, he just tells Vegeta to hit him as hard as he can. Vegeta kicking Cell in the head does nothing, and Cell kicks through several mountains for not doing as he requested. After recovering from the Final Flash, Cell quickly beats Vegeta unconscious.
  • The entire Cell Vs. series is this as everyone who steps up to fight Cell is either beaten or forced to retreat, realizing how out of their league they are! The ones who avert this are Kenshiro, who puts Cell through his Hokuto Hyakuretsu Ken attack and causes him to explode twice, Deadpool, who regenerates from all of Cell's attacks, cuts off Cell's arms, and then gets called away by the X-Men, and Saitama, who's ready to fight Cell and anyone else who shows up on the day of the Cell Games but has to cancel his entry because there's a sale at his supermarket the day of the Games and he can't afford to miss it, telling Cell he'll fight him the next day.
    Cell: I feel like I'm not the only one being blueballed right now.
  • Super Saiyan 2 Gohan gives Cell the most comprehensive ass-kicking he's ever received. Cell can't even process what's happening to him at first.
  • This is parodied in Kai Abridged, where his entire fight with Krillin, Vegeta, and Trunks is just him slapping each of them once. Then later on, Gohan does the same to him.
• Deadpan Snarker: He has his own personality but considering that he takes some DNA from other well known Deadpan Snarkers this is to be expected.
  Piccolo: So I take it you're the one who exterminated this entire city, then?
  Cell: Oh, no, no, that was another guy. His name was "Shit Sherlock". First name "No".
• Defeat Means Friendship: Defied. When Cell asked Android 16 if they were cool after he had beaten him up and absorbed 17 and 18, Android 16 replied " You ate my family". Of course, Cell dismissively said "Don't lose your head, they were my family too".
• De-power: After being kicked in the chest hard enough by Super Saiyan 2 Gohan, Cell vomits up Android 18. Since he no longer has her, he immediately reverts to his weaker Semi-Perfect form. Subverted in the end however when Goku pulls his Heroic Sacrifice to avert Cell's attempt to kill everyone by self-destructing when Cell shows back up unharmed in his Perfect Form and immediately kills Trunks.
• Didn't Think This Through: During the Cell Vs. videos, when various anime and video game heroes arrive to fight him, and later during the actual Cell games, when Hercule shows up, Cell admits that he never considered the possiblity that his little "announcement" would cause anyone other than the Z Fighters to come after him.
  • In Deadpool vs. Cell, he likewise admits he never considered the possibility of someone sending an assassin after him.
• Dirty Coward: It's easy to miss, but Abridged Cell spends most of his screentime either running away from fights or pulling every sneak attack he can think of. At first you'd think this is pragmatism, but Cell goes out of his way to go after those weaker than he is. When faced with an actual fair fight he always finds a way to back out, or has a huge meltdown. Even in his final form, he only has the Cell games because he thinks he can win, and when his power no longer eclipses the heroes he would rather Rage Quit than lose.
• Dissonant Serenity: In his first appearance he's finished devouring a city and is dragging around one of his soon-to-be victims while happily singing "Mr. Sandman" to himself. And he introduces his perfect form with a cheery musical number about killing everyone on Earth.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: He mixes in so much rape imagery into how he talks about absorbing people that it's hard to believe he's not doing so on purpose. His fight with Goku is also filled with so many innuendos that it's almost certainly deliberate, and his reaction to Goku bowing out is akin to being interrupted in the middle of sex.
  Cell: But... we're not finished! I'm not finished!
• Double Entendre: Oh dear god. He milks this trope dry.^*Heh.
• The Dreaded: Even Mr. Popo seems afraid of him. Granted, he was high on a gallon of LSD at the time. In fact, he's this to such an extent that his very existence has traumatized practically everyone in the cast into either hallucinating or having nightmares about him. Including Gohan, who hadn't even met him yet.
• Dying Moment of Awesome: Subverted and Invoked. When Goku looks like he's about to obliterate Earth along with him, Cell doesn't even try to dodge, because he thinks that everyone dying in a cataclysmic explosion is the best possible way for their fight to end. When Goku Instant Transmissions below him and blows him up, and Cell regenerates, he sounds quite disappointed that Goku didn't kill everyone like he'd hoped.
  • His actual death can be considered one too. As he's being vaporized by Gohan's last Kamehameha, Cell mentally sings a rendition of Frank Sinatra's "My Way" while he reviews his short time on Earth and decides that he's done enough, and dies content, complete with a DRAMATIC FINISH as his remains are shot into the stratosphere.

E-F

• Early-Bird Cameo: Is seen in his Perfect form in one of Bardock's visions of the future in Bardock: Father of Goku.
• Eats Babies: He spits out a pacifier in the middle of a conversation.
  Cell: Oh, that is just embarrassing. It's not even the right hole.
• Endearingly Dorky:
  • Imperfect Cell has quite a bit of this. Yes, for a Sadist, he gives off this vibe though in a creepy manner.
  • Even more in his Semi-Perfect form, where he's quite taken with suddenly having lips.
  • And once he reaches his Perfect form, the very first thing he does is introduce himself by way of a musical number.
  • While trying to make a Cell Games arena, he grows angrier when it's not perfect the way he wants it.
    Perfect Cell: How did all these squares make a circle!? I just— No. No. It's fine. It's fine. It doesn't bother me. It doesn't bother me... it bothers me! It bothers me a lot! And that one's still green!
  • When he realizes that Yami Yugi is challenging him to a children's card game for the Cell Games, he almost immediately tries to learn the rules and play Duel Monsters for real.
• Enemy Mine: Averted. Even Cell's desire to kill Goku isn't enough to get Android 16 to like him. And it was never a genuine attempt in the first place.
• Entitled to Have You: His attitude towards Androids 17 and 18, 18 in particular. Leads to some random civilians getting the wrong idea and thinking they're in a difficult relationship. And he hates it when people try and get in his way of having them.
  Perfect Cell: But you [Trunks] made one fatal mistake. You took away what was mine.
• Erotic Asphyxiation: In HFIL Episode 1 he discovers while being strangled by Freeza that he enjoys it.
  Cell: *choking* Y-You've awakened something, I think.
• Establishing Character Moment: The very first scene in Episode 43, which shows off his horrifying, yet zany personality.
  Piccolo: What the hell is going on here?
  Cell: [giggles menacingly] Let's answer your question with another question.
  Piccolo: Yeah? And what's tha—
  Cell: WANNA SEE ME DRINK THIS GUY?! [CRUNCH]
• Even the Guys Want Him: In his Perfect Form, at least. Then again, he is part Goku.
  Goku: Wow, okay, he's pretty strong... and also really handsome. Like, why did none of you warn me he would be so handsome?
  Piccolo: But is he STRONGER than you?!
  Goku: If he's as strong as he is handsome, then ohoo-boy!! I wouldn't cheat on Chi-Chi or anything, but-
  Gohan: Daaad-
  Goku: So handsome.
• Even Evil Has Standards:
  • He, of all people, calls Goku eating sick Yardrats disgusting. When Goku points out the hypocrisy, Cell acknowledges it. Then Cell points out that unlike Goku, he's a monster. Of course he eats people.
  • Even though he sends the Cell Jr.s to murder Gohan's friends and family just to try and force him to finally go all out, he finds himself disgusted at the fact that even with the odds so grim Gohan still can't bring himself to get angry enough, calling him a coward and mocking him for lacking the Heroic Resolve that's keeping the others fighting against impossible odds.
    Cell: That right there... that is why I despise you. You know what they all have in common? The Saiyans might be fools, the humans might be weak, and the Namekian might not belong... but they're still out there fighting. Not just for their lives, but for this dung hill of a world. See? Even Krillin's doing his best! [...] But none of them, boy—not a one—shares that trait with you so vile, it drives me to retch! You, Gohan... are a coward.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Subverted. He actually acknowledges and arguably respects the Z Warriors (sans Gohan) for their will to fight despite the odds, is comparatively incensed by Gohan's unwillingness to fight and writes his pacifism off as cowardice (something 16 agrees with), and his genuine reaction to Gohan Taking the Bullet for Vegeta is based on the fact that Vegeta has done nothing to justify it up until then.
• Evil Counterpart: While he has portions of every major character inside his body, he's mostly this to Goku, Trunks, and Vegeta. See Foil for more info.
• Evil Laugh: What he does in his first scene.
• Evil Sounds Deep: In his Semi-Perfect form.
• Evil Sounds Raspy: In his Imperfect Form. His Evil Laugh is distorted and rough.
• Eviler than Thou:
  • The world reacts to complete panic to his announcement of the Cell Games, with previous world threats like King Piccolo and the Saiyans being called a "toddler's rampage" in comparison.
  • In addition, he both terrifies and disgusts both the Androids. This is not just because he wants to absorb them, but because they genuinely find him that creepy with his constant stream of sinister, suggestive lines directed at them. He even creeps out a drug overdosed Mr. Popo.
  • To Dr. Gero as well. Android 17 telling him that he already killed Gero doesn’t steer Cell from his quest for perfection. Cell is in it for Cell. Plus, he proves to be a lot more effective than Gero in fighting the heroes. And intimidating them. And actually achieving his goals in general.
• Expy: He gets a lot of his personality from abridged Alucard, incidentally also voiced by Takahata101, as evident in Episode 44 where he screams out "Bitch, I do what I want!" in a similar manner to "Bitch, I eat people!". A far less subtle shout out comes from Episode 47 "Because, bitch, I drink people.". It's to the point where his Perfect Form's voice is pretty much Alucard's. Though then again, Abridged Alucard's voice resembled canon Perfect Cell to begin with.
• Face Death with Dignity: Surprisingly, instead of howling out against his fate like his canon counterpart, Cell, ever the showman, instead chooses to go out by singing My Way. This is subverted with the version from Trunks' future timeline, who only manages to get the first line out before he runs out of footage and gets unceremoniously vaporized.
• Fatal Flaw: For his Perfect Form: hubris, quite possibly coming from his Saiyan genes. At first he goads Vegeta into hitting him with everything he got, like Vegeta taunted him during his Semi-Perfect form, and it very nearly gets him prematurely atomized by an unexpectedly powerful Final Flash. His Blood Knight tendencies mostly come from Goku's and causes him to seek greater challenges and Gohan's speech about his inner suppressed rage makes the Vegeta in him come out. After torturing Gohan physically and mentally to his breaking point he gets thoroughly beaten with little chance to fight back, not unlike the beating he dealt to Vegeta. Once he returns after his first apparent defeat he gets so caught up in his beam struggle that he arrogantly forgets about the only other person on the planet that could harm him which gives Gohan the opening he needed to finish Cell once and for all.
• Fate Worse than Death: He gets sent to HFIL and has to endure German ogres Mez and Goz along with the twerking Ginyu Force.
• Faux Affably Evil:
  • This is Perfect Cell's defining personality trait. While Freeza carried an air of civility and politeness, this was largely because he considered himself too untouchable to take anything seriously. Perfect Cell, on the other hand, simply gets a kick out of acting in a jovial, friendly manner while he kills and destroys.
    Perfect Cell: Oh, Prince, I am proud. Not of [nearly killing Krillin] though, but of you. It takes a big man, not necessarily a tall one, to do what you did — sticking to your guns and just throwing everyone's lives away.
  • He's very welcoming and friendly towards a news reporter during an interview before the Cell Games, even giving the skinny on the entire plot of Dragon Ball up to that point. He only kills the reporter because he forgot to call him Mister Perfect Cell.
  • In general, in his Perfect form, Cell is very nice and friendly to everyone he meets... right up until the moment he learns that they can actually threaten him. At that point, any hint of friendliness vanishes, replaced by horrified fear (in the case of Vegeta's Final Flash or Goku's Kamehameha), pure rage (Kenshiro blowing him up), or cold but instant annihilation (in the case of Light Yagami).
  • Whenever he meets Tenshinhan, whom he has develop an actual grudge against, he completely drops any pretense of his usual smug joviality and treats him with cold fury.
• The Fighting Narcissist: Similar to his canon counterpart, he refers to his body as a "beautiful temple" and is obsessed with attaining perfection through consuming other lifeforms. Notably, his reason for self-destructing seems to have more to do with him being royally pissed about Super Saiyan 2 Gohan reverting him to his Semi-Perfect form than him deeming the fight unwinnable. He's a lot more at peace with his second loss to Gohan seemingly because he got to die in his Perfect form that time.
• Final Boss: Because TeamFourStar had no plans to adapt the Buu saga, Cell is the final challenge. Subverted with Buu Bits as Kid Buu is once again made the actual Final Boss.
• Foe Romance Subtext: He appears to have a legitimate crush on Goku, possessing an obsessive desire to fight Goku that is comparable to sexual pleasure. Likewise, Goku has made repeated remarks on how handsome Cell is.
  Cell: So, you gonna to take a swing? Or are you just going to stand there, staring into my eyes?
  Goku: Hmm, what was that? I was busy staring into your eyes.
  Cell: Oh, you beautiful Saiyan bastard, just punch me already!
• Foil:
  • He is one to Freeza, along with Contrasting Sequel Antagonist. While Freeza was a comedic villain with some chilling moments, Cell is a chilling villain with some comedic moments. It can even be noted in the way they're introduced. Freeza says something comedic, then does something awful- Cell does something awful and horrifying, then does something comedic. Freeza introduces his transformation gimmick with a quick dark twist on a family musical number, Cell's final transformation is capped off with an original musical number. This also extends to their reactions to Goku. Freeza shows nothing but disdain and frustration with Goku's idiocy. Cell enjoys Goku's presence and openly states he loves him for his simplicity. Cell appears to even lust for Goku's presence and has a sexual desire to fight the Saiyan. And whereas Freeza goes down anti-climatically, first by being blasted attempting to shoot Goku In the Back after begging for energy and second being cut to pieces and incinerated by Future Trunks, Cell goes out with a literal bang and facing it with grace.
  • Also with Goku. Their personalities are very similar with being rather childish, being Blood Knights and the fact that they have weird ways of thinking. Whereas Goku is a Manchild which goes being innocent, Cell is a Psychopathic Man Child that loves inflicting pain to others. Considering he is 10% him, it makes sense. Further parallels can be seen by how Goku is an Idiot Hero who struggles to grasp even the simplest of concepts, while Cell is a Genius Bruiser who uses uncommon technical words in his speech.
  • He is also this with Vegeta. They both threw tantrums in attempt to gain a transformation and are rather Smug Supers when they did accomplished gaining two. The difference is that Vegeta does it to show off his new powers whereas Cell appears to be more reserved. Cell also appears to use Vegeta's phrases more often than Goku's. When Goku quits against his match with Cell, both Cell and Vegeta are equally pissed and actually Speak in Unison while scolding Goku, much to their frustrations. Cell even calls him Kakarot.
  Cell/Vegeta: OH, GREAT! Now I'm agreeing with Vegeta/Cell! (To Goku) Look at what you made me do!
  • Also one to Trunks. Both are childish time-travelers that came to the past to change the timeline to benefit themselves. The big difference is that Trunks wanted to save everyone and grow close to his father. Cell cares nothing about Gero—in a departure from the original series—and is only out to get back what he sees as his: Androids 17 and 18.
  • And finally, he's one to Piccolo. As the Namekian himself pointed out, they both gain huge power boosts from absorbing people. Cell has also inherited Piccolo's regeneration, Piccolo's strategic smarts, and even calls out "NERD!" to Gohan at one point.
• Friendly Enemy: While his moments of civility are usually insincere, he seems to (at first) genuinely like Android 16, losing his temper after one rejection too many. He and Goku also get along swimmingly once he reaches his Perfect form, with Cell outright admitting he enjoys their interactions. He and Saitama actually bond a bit during their short, first over watching Genos get stomped and saying the exact same thing, and then with Saitama actually following the rules set in the tournament to wait plus feeling disappointed when Saitama had to leave in order to get to the Sunday sale at his supermarket.
• From a Single Cell: His canon counterpart is the Trope Namer. He can regenerate from any injury so long as the tiny cluster of cells that forms his core remains intact.

G-J

• The Gadfly: Definitely in mean spirit and definitely knowing what he's saying, but he's still this - he deliberately pushes Berserk Button after Berserk Button when fighting his opponents, all to get them infuriated before he exposes them to just how utterly helpless they are against him.
• Genetic Memory: Besides knowing all of their techniques, Cell possesses enough of the memories of each of his genetic donors that he can provide a lengthy synopsis of Dragon Ball and most of Dragon Ball Z to a dumbstruck reporter.
• Genki Guy: Is very hyperactive (see Mood-Swinger below) and immature, cutting out of battle to gush at cool moves and tricks and being childishly casual (complete with slang). In general, he often acts like an juvenile teenager - that is, when he's not acting like a rapist.
• Genius Bruiser: Especially prevalent in his Perfect form, where he has a tendency to use very long technical words in conversation.
• A God Am I: In his speech on TV announcing the Cell Games:
  Perfect Cell: Also, feel free to pray to your god. But, spoilers: I won't be listening.
  • However, he later says (in the Cell Vs Death Note episode) that he thought it was tacky.
• Good Thing You Can Heal: Though he notes it still hurts like hell.
• Graceful Loser: Downplayed. In the second episode of HFIL, he doesn't seem to harbor any sour feelings about his defeat at the hands of Gohan, making a point to say "The kid was jacked", though at the same time calling it kind of gross.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: While he is generally Affably Evil in his Perfect form, he can abruptly go from friendly and jovial to lethally angry at the drop of a hat if the right buttons are pushed. Insinuating that he isn't a threat, rejecting his offers of friendship, ruining his fun by refusing to fight, and not calling him "Mister Perfect Cell" are all things that draw his violent ire.
• Hazy-Feel Turn: Invoked. He's not good by any stretch of the imagination and hardly regrets what he did in his lifetime, but he starts making a legitimate effort to be a better person after Episode 3 of HFIL (if only because he knows that he'll be stuck in hell forever if he doesn't get with the program and graduate).
• Heh Heh, You Said "X": When Vegeta threatens him with how he's going to enjoy "wearing down the knuckles on these gloves", Cell starts giggling due to the underlying sexual implications.
• Hero Killer:
  • Just like in the original canon, he effortlessly kills Future Trunks in his timeline to steal his time machine.
  • When he self-destructs, he manages to take out Goku, King Kai, Bubbles, and Gregory.
  • Upon returning to the arena after self-destructing, the first thing he does is blast a hole through Trunks.
    • Although by his own admission, in the latter case he was aiming for Tenshinhan, which also would have applied.
• Horrifying the Horror:
  • Just how good is his Knight of Cerebus potential? Popo seems to fear him... or at least, when he's high on LSD.
  • He ends up on the receiving end of this after Kenshiro makes him explode, twice. He really doesn't seem to appreciate the experience, though he's more pissed at than afraid of Kenshiro afterwards.
  • After it becomes obscenely obvious that SS2 Gohan outclasses him by leagues, his initial desire for battle fades as he starts to fear him.
• Horror Hunger: He was asleep for years, and is understandably hungry when he wakes. Having Saiyan biology means he has an appetite similar to theirs, but he has none of the qualms about liquefying and drinking people. By the time his hunger is sated, he's eaten several cities worth of people.
• Hot Guys Are Bastards: As Goku repeatedly seems to bring up, Perfect Cell is really handsome.
• Hypocrite: After Gohan reverts him to Semi-Perfect Cell by hitting him hard enough to make him barf up #18, He compares Gohan to a Middle-Schooler throwing a tantrum. By his own admission, Cell is 6 and he reacts to losing his perfection by throwing an enormous tantrum and trying to self-destruct to destroy the Earth. Even more than that, he makes a big speech about how everyone is fighting while Gohan refuses to and calls him a coward. This is pretty rich coming from a guy who spends the entire arc running away or having a breakdown whenever he faces someone tougher than him, and who regularly targets people who can't fight back.
  • Not too long earlier, he had another moment of hypocrisy. During his fight with Trunks he mocked Trunks using the Super Saiyan Third Grade transformation due to its power output being hampered by its incredible decrease in speed. Cut to his rage breaking over Gohan telling him he's boring him and transforming into his Power Weighted form in his fury, which is the exact same thing.
  • When Yami Yugi says that he was "taking [his] Millenium Puzzle and teenage boy's body and leaving," Cell says that it is cheating to have someone else help him during the game despite later using the Cell Juniors to fight the other Z Fighters.
• Hypocritical Humor: In Episode 60 after a failed attempt at Rage Quitting by blowing up Earth, he realizes that it's the Freeza in him talking and tries to calm down. And then Gohan says "I'm bored. You're boring me." — the exact same taunt Goku used against Freeza — which drives Cell into a blind rage.
  • Doubling this is the fact that in his rage, Cell assumes an over-muscled and incredibly inefficient fighting form^*dubbed "Power-Weighted" by the video games, when just a few episodes ago he mocked Trunks for doing the exact same thing.
  • In an understated example, when Piccolo points out that Goku never took the time to actually ask Gohan if he enjoyed fighting before sending him in to fight Cell, Goku looks to the other for support. Everybody sides with Piccolo, including Cell, who shouts out "Nobody's perfect."
• Implied Death Threat: A huge fan, given he likes to be a little more on the understated side compared with Freeza. Just see the quote under his Perfect form's picture.
  Perfect Cell: (having just regrown his arm after surviving Vegeta's Final Flash) You know, this might sound a little bit weird, but I think I liked the old arm better. *starts rotating/stretching it and smirking at Vegeta* Oh well, that just means I'll just have to break it in.
• In Love with Your Carnage:
  • He gets a thrill out of watching people disappear as he sucks them dry with his tail (the way he says it borders on sexual, for added creepiness)
  • Goku seems to be the only guy he actually likes, much less respects, chiefly for his fighting ability. He actually gets overjoyed when he thinks Goku's about to Kamehameha the entire planet to oblivion just to take out Cell.
    Perfect Cell: [laughing] I see! Yes, Goku! You're absolutely right! This is the only way it could end! These fools, this tournament, this planet! They mean nothing to men like you and I!!
  • When Gohan goes SS2 and slaughters the Cell Jr.s, Cell can only watch in awe and some measure of sexual desire as he mentally sings about how beautiful it all is...but is then promptly subverted when Gohan starts kicking his ass and his admiration gives way to anger and fear.
• Insistent Terminology:
  • Makes a point of correcting Piccolo for calling 17 and 18 androids instead of cyborgs. This comes back to bite him when he assumes that Android 16 is a cyborg as well, but unfortunately for Cell, 16 is an actual android.
    Cell: Gah, what are you made of, pure metal?
    Android 16: Affirmative. I am ANDROID 16.
  • He murders a reporter for not calling him Mister Perfect Cell.
• Interplay of Sex and Violence: Post-perfection, his dialogue with Goku was written as such. It can be interpreted as either wanting to kill or love Goku, and both are valid interpretations. Whenever he speaks to Goku, he seems to substitute the word sex with "fight" (not to mention he begged Goku to punch him the same way someone can beg their partner to kiss them).
  • He lampshades this in Episode 60 after saying "at first you had my curiosity, but now you have my erection". Gohan attempts to correct him, but he replies "you know what I'm about."
• I Regret Nothing: Emphasizes in his final musical number that he could not be happier with how he lived his short life.
• Ironic Echo:
  • When Vegeta was curbstomping Semi-Perfect Cell, he kept making Street Fighter references. After Cell becomes Perfect and turns the tables, he dishes some out himself.
    Perfect Cell: KO, I win!
  • When Gohan goes Super Saiyan 2 and starts brutally curbstomping Perfect Cell, he states he's no longer scared of killing because "there's no point in being afraid of the inevitable." When Cell comes back stronger than ever, cripples Gohan, and starts charging up his final Kamehameha, he mocks Gohan for being scared because...
    Super Perfect Cell: It's like you told me: There's no point in being afraid of the inevitable.
• I Shall Taunt You: Loves doing this once he reaches his Perfect form.
• Jerkass: Cell is not nice. Regardless of form, he delights in the pain and suffering of others.
• Just Toying with Them: States as much during his fight Trunks. Cells spells out the form Trunks was using would never hit him, and then demonstrates by dancing around Trunks' attacks with no difficulty.

K-N

• Kick the Dog: Constantly. Most notable is when he stomps on #16's head and casually remarks "he never had a soul".
• Knight of Cerebus: Despite being an Abridged Series, Cell is still downright creepy, in accordance with the season being Darker and Edgier. While at times Cell has a Laughably Evil personality, for the most he is played seriously and his scenes often mirror the canon.
  Perfect Cell: Wow! Behind all that angst and ridiculous hair there's actually a real fighter!
  Trunks: And behind that insufferable smarm there's a dead man!
  Perfect Cell: Trunks... you couldn't fathom the amount of dead men behind me.
• Lack of Empathy: He tries to chat with Android 16 despite the fact that he killed his family and blew part of his head, simply thinking that they are cool now because both want to kill Goku. He later kills 16 and states that the android never had a soul.
• Large Ham: Cell is hammy in all of his forms but the confidence boost he gets as Perfect Cell brings this over the top.
• Laughably Evil: Is this about half the time; as mentioned above in the Genki Guy entry, Cell often acts like a young teen, with all the wit and sass that you'd expect. Naturally, Beware the Silly Ones is in full effect.
• The Law of Diminishing Defensive Effort: As Cell transforms and becomes more powerful, he tends to show it by just ignoring the attacks of foes who previously threatened him, starting with Piccolo. His Perfect form demonstrates just how tough he's become by completely ignoring Krillin's Destructo Disc. Vegeta, while unable to really hurt Perfect Cell with his normal attacks, does cause Cell to actually react defensively in a few cases, and his Final Flash actually startles Cell with how powerful it is and tears off half of his torso. Trunks, while too slow to actually hit him, still forces Cell to dodge his attacks. The only opponents he fights to any normal degree are Goku and Gohan, with the former fighting him to a standstill and the latter actually defeating him.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall:
  • He looks at his outstretched arms curiously and notes that he "feels different" before his battle with Ryu and Ken. Said episode is done in a completely different animation style ala The Gmod Idiot Box.
  • After the Cell vs. Saitama and Genos video ends with no fight, Cell remarks that he feels like he's not the only one who got blue-balled.
• Locked Out of the Loop: Despite his knowledge of the Z-Fighters in his Bad Future, he is unaware of their actual capabilities or their source of power. It's best shown when Goku went to save Piccolo and Tenshinhan, the former managing to survive a Neck Snap and a hole in his stomach, seeing Goku teleport, and Vegeta just wrecking him. Later in HFIL, he's baffled at the idea of someone having magic, despite it being not uncommon in this universe (and something wielded by one of his genetic donors). To sum things up:
  Semi-Perfect Cell: What!? How!? Why!? I have so many questions!!
• Manipulative Bastard: Vegeta is not the hardest person in the world to manipulate, but Cell still does so easily in his semi-perfect form.
• Medium Awareness:
  • In the "Cell vs." shorts, Cell seems aware of an Art Shift during the first CGI video.
  • When he faces off against Deadpool, he is able to Break the Fourth Wall by telling Deadpool "I HOPE YOUR SEQUEL BOMBS!"
• Meta Guy: An unusual case of the villain being this. Cell is well aware of the tropes of Dragon Ball Z - human characters that Can't Catch Up, Vegeta getting bodied by a stronger villain that Goku has to defeat, and the main characters buying time for Goku. He often uses this as a way to get under the skin of his opponents.
• Mix-and-Match Man: As in the original series, Cell was made from a mix of genes including Goku, Vegeta, Piccolo, and Freeza. Interestingly enough, this version of Cell has also inherited personality traits from his genetic donors, most prominently Piccolo and Vegeta. In point of fact, he's replicated Vegeta falling for Piccolo's ego prodding twice, replacing Vegeta in the equation the first time and Piccolo the second time. Upon reaching his perfect form, his attitude is mostly Freeza with Goku added in for laughs.
  Reporter: Can you tell the audience where you are and who you came from? I-I mean...
  Perfect Cell: No, actually an apt choice of words.
• Mood-Swinger:
  • Can go from a calm voiced master of swagger to a full on slasher psychopath in 0.1 seconds — see Suddenly Shouting.
  • It's implied that he inherited personality traits as well as powers from those who contributed DNA to his creation, and his mood swings occur when they clash.
• Mr. Fanservice: Well, Goku seems to think so!
  Goku: Yeah, he's really strong... also really handsome! Like, why did none of you warn me he would be so handsome?!
• My Friends... and Zoidberg: He was legitimately indignant of Goku's declaration that Gohan, out of all the Z warriors, would be fighting in his place, claiming that he wasn't "even on the list" (Even Yamcha was on the list! As halftime entertainment, granted). Then in episode 60, we find out why: Cell is utterly disgusted by the boy's pacifism in the face of danger in contrast to his friends and family's Heroic Resolve.
• My Greatest Failure: In HFIL, he admits that his greatest regret in life was not choking Tien to death.
• Never Heard That One Before: Similar to Freeza he has had so many victims that they often repeat.
  Cell: Oh, 'I'm a monster!' Haven't heard that one screamed at me today.
  
  Cell: It's funny, it's just... you're the first who's ever asked 'who?' or 'what?' Usually they just ask...'why.'
• The Nicknamer: In his Perfect form he tends to refer to others with his own nicknames. He calls Vegeta "my dear prince", and calls Trunks "boy scout".
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Delivers a downright brutal one to 17 and Piccolo, which is by and large played completely seriously.
• Noodle Incident: He's heavily implied to know about the circumstances of Future Gohan's death and Trunks' guilt about failing him... somehow.
• No Name Given: Unlike in the source material where Dr. Gero actually named him Cell from the start of his creation, here when Piccolo is asking for his name, he admits that he actually doesn't have a name, but he reconsiders it and names himself "Cell". Though, Piccolo (the guy named after a woodwind instrument) thinks that's lame.
• No-Sell: Unlike how Goku's idiocy caused Vegeta and Freeza to get progressively more unhinged, he's not phased by it at all. Though he does get pretty annoyed with the parade of weirdos who try to fight him before the tournament even starts.
  • In his Semi-Perfect form, he does this to any attack that isn't from Vegeta or Trunks. Tien's Kikoho didn't actually hurt him, but it repeatedly did knock him back and really pissed him off.
  • In his Perfect form, Krillin hitting with his Desctructo Disk right on the neck, the same attack which left a scratch on Nappa's face and cut off Freeza's tail, does nothing to him.
• No Social Skills: Heavily implied, which may explain his less-than-subtle speech patterns. He frequently makes sexual innuendoes without a problem with saying them in front of people and his attempt at drawing out Android 18 involved him saying things like "We can be perfect [together]!" And when people got the wrong idea, Cell unsuccessfully tries to tell them it's not what they think.
• Not Me This Time: In the Legendary Super Saiyan Abridged movie, Goku immediately thinks that Cell destroyed the South Galaxy when he's told about it by King Kai. Cell is only surprised that a South Galaxy even exists (or rather, existed), with the implication that now he'll start looking for other galaxies after destroying Earth now that Goku told him about them.
  Goku: Forget you heard that.
  Cell: No.
• Not So Above It All: In episode 53, he says he's gonna "bring Goku to Perfect University".
  Goku: Wouldn't that make it P.U.?
  Cell: And we love that you got that.
• Not So Invincible After All:
  • Cell smugly lets Kenshiro do his Hokuto Shinken on him, thinking he was just tickling him. Cell proceeds to mock his technique only for his upper body to explode. Cell regenerates but it's the first time that something has actually managed to hurt and legitimately piss him off. When Kenshiro asks if he can eat Cell's severed arm, an infuriated Cell lets him have it as a last meal, because after that, Kenshiro's a dead man. Kenshiro reminds Cell that he's the dead man... and Cell explodes again.
  • Light Yagami gives Cell a heart attack with the Death Note, but is thwarted because Cell has multiple hearts. Having learned from Kenshiro however, Cell wastes no time in killing Light.
• Not Worth Killing: He decides against killing Trunks because Trunks gave him a good idea for some fun and it wouldn't accomplish anything. Yet.

O-R

• Oh, Crap!:
  • When Semi-Perfect he greatly underestimates Tien's Shin Kikoho.
    Tien: Shin! Ki-ko-ho!
    Cell: Aw. That's adora— SHIT!
  • And he does it again when Vegeta's Final Flash as gets closer.
    Vegeta: Final! Flash!
    Cell: Oh, how cute. He named it— OH SHIT!
  • He gets a third one when Goku Instant Transmissions in front of him while charging a Kamehameha, instead of destroying the Earth like he hoped.
    Cell: Oh... crapBASKEEEEETS!!! [gets his top half blown off]
  • After regurgitating Android 18, Cell realizes that he's about to revert to Semi-Perfect form and unleashes a Cluster F-Bomb.
  • And finally, during his last battle with Gohan he lets out an "Oh shit!" when Vegeta attacks him, then a much louder one when he realizes that Gohan's Kamehameha is going to best his.
  • In HFIL Episode 1, he tries to blast Goz and Mez, only to find that he is unable to. His response right afterward is a deflated "Ohhhh, noooooo."
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: The usually calm, laid-back, bemused Perfect Cell who thinks of Goku as a Worthy Opponent to satisfy his sexual desire to fight, goes full out Vegeta-style rage when Goku attempts to quit the Cell Games, evidently marked by him calling Goku "Kakarot". So much that he says nearly the same thing as Vegeta does at the same time and hates it.
  • Cell practically never shuts up, and can out-trash talk just about everyone in the series, delivering bad-ass boasts that he then proceeds to back up and soul-destroying speeches to his opponents in just about every fight he gets into. But when his killing of Android 16 causes Gohan to finally snap and go Super Saiyan 2, Cell is rendered completely speechless.
• Omnicidal Maniac: Much like his canon counterpart, he has no goal beyond terrorizing people and causing destruction. He states after winning the Cell Games he intends to go on to ravage the rest of the galaxy. When Goku appears to be ready to destroy the Earth to kill him, Cell embracing the notion of dying along with Goku if the entire planet is destroyed.
• Once Done, Never Forgotten: Tien managed to give Cell a hard time in his pursuit of Android 18, while in his Semi-Perfect form. It didn't do any real damage, but it left Cell "super-nettled" enough to hold a grudge during his Perfect form and for the rest of the series. He begrudgingly greets him, was really eager to face him when Goku gives up their fight, and the beam shot that killed Trunks was actually intended for Tien.
• Ow, My Body Part!: Yells out "ow my Ass-butt" and "ow my beak mouth" during his first fight with Piccolo.
• The Perfectionist: If even a single tile of his arena for the Cell Games is off, he'll scrap the whole thing and try again somewhere else, rather than replace the bad tile.
• Pet the Dog: Deconstructed; it ultimately makes him even worse. While he's capable being civil and friendly to others, it doesn't give him any reservations about killing them afterwards at all.
  • Finds the idea of East City having a panda sanctuary cute.
  • In a deranged way, Cell's attempt at bonding with Android 16 by saying how fun it would be to kill Goku.
  • At first he was disappointed that Yami Yugi was talking about battling him in a card game instead of martial arts after he got excited by his Badass Boast, but he quickly agrees to play and asks how they play. He later admits that the "children's card game" was kinda fun.
  • Cell is uncharacteristically nice to Yamcha of all people when he finally meets him during the Cell Games. And speaking of which, he actually defends him when Yamcha thought he had a ring out, and Tien snarking at him ^note although it should be pointed out that with that last one, he might have only defended Yamcha simply because the person insulting him was Tien.
    Cell: Yamcha, for the love of God, don't thank him.
  • When he sees Damien (one of his Cell Juniors) kicking the shit out of Yamcha, he thinks the man honestly doesn't deserve it (but it is funny).
  • Strangely overlaps with Kick the Dog in Episode 60 Part 1 during his "The Reason You Suck" Speech to Gohan. Cell points out that despite the flaws each of the Z Warriors have, he at least respects them for their Heroic Resolve, even Krillin and Yamcha.
  • On his first day in HFIL, Cell pretty much loathes everyone, but was surprisingly courtial to Dodoria and Zarbon. He actually strikes an Odd Friendship with Raditz.
  • Despite being at odds with the Ginyu Force in HFIL (due to the frog in Captain Ginyu's body) after hearing how they were willing to accept their new teammate back into their team even after learning it wasn't actually Ginyu, he lets Frog Ginyu go back to them unprompted (albeit at the cost of ruining the moment since Ginyu's body was swallowed by Guru). He even apologizes for his role in the situation first.
• Phrase Catcher: He's so creepy that he always receives a "Stop it!" after delivering a deliberate Double Entendre.
• Polite Villains, Rude Heroes: Or "Polite Villains, Rude Token Evil Teammate." When Cell first meets Vegeta, despite his frustration being unable to find 18, he's actually polite to Vegeta. Vegeta, on the other hand, calls him ugly over and over.
• Politically Correct Villain: Becomes this in his Affably Evil Perfect Form, showing casual acknowledgment of non-binary people while announcing the Cell Games, and immediately respecting the non-traditionally feminine Dodoria when in HFIL.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: Cell comments that Android 18 is "practically asking to be absorbed" based on how she is dressed and generally makes rape innuendo when talking about absorbing his victims, and mocks Piccolo's (apparent) disability after he absorbs his arm. He also jokes about all the men, women and children he's murdered, and makes short jokes about both Vegeta and Krillin to their faces (Cell himself being quite tall).
• Pride: Once he attains perfection, it becomes very clear that pride is a major character trait. He's part Vegeta and part Freeza after all.
  Perfect Cell: Oh, Prince, I am proud. Not of that though, but of you. It takes a big man — not necessarily a tall one — to do what you did; sticking to your guns and just throwing everyone's lives away!
  
  Perfect Cell: Huh, what is that on my head? Would you call it a crown? Sixteen, would you call this a crown? We'll call it a crown!
  
  Perfect Cell: You're either perfect, or you're not me.
• Product Placement: In-universe. He's offered a sponsorship deal for the Cell Games by He-Tap, even though he makes it perfectly clear to them that if he's not defeated that the Earth is going to be destroyed. As the He-Tap execs point out over the phone, it's a win-win for them either way.
• Psychopathic Manchild: Much like Freeza, he's a genocidal sadist with the temperament and mannerisms of a teenager, which makes sense given his Imperfect Form is more or less analogous to adolescence/late childhood.
• Rape as Comedy: Pretty much everything he says to or about the androids is a barely disguised rape innuendo, which is only funny until it isn't.
• Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: Everyone who understands the ultra-thin sexual metaphors he goes with finds him extremely disturbing on a level surpassing any other villain.
• Rage Quit: After getting the tar (and Android 18) kicked out of him by Super Saiyan 2 Gohan, and losing his Perfect Form, Cell is so incandescent with rage that he decides to simply self-destruct and blow up the Earth rather than allow himself to be beaten.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: He is ruthlessly good at giving these after achieving his Perfect form. He more or less breaks both Vegeta and Trunks by talking before he even lays a hand on either of them. Since he's made of the DNA of the galaxy's greatest fighters, he's able to exploit their weaknesses both physically and psychologically.
  • This also comes around towards Gohan, where he calls Gohan out for being a "coward". Except this time, instead of trying to break him, he seems rather annoyed by Gohan.
    Gohan: Please! I take back what I said about my hidden power! This is my dad's fight, not mine! So I'm begging you! Just reign them in, give my dad a senzu bean and—!
    Cell: And there it is! That right there! That is why I despise you! You know what they [The Z-Fighters] all have in common? The Saiyans might be fools, the humans might be weak and the Namekian might not belong, but they're still out there fighting. Not just for their lives, but for this dung hill of a world. See? Even Krillin's doing his best! [...] But none of them, boy, not. A. One. Shares that trait with you, it's so vile, it drives me to retch. You, Gohan, are a coward.
  • He becomes absolutely savage towards Freeza just to let him know who Trunks was.
    Freeza: Whoever killed me couldn't be any more embarrassing than Goku's tween offspring.
    Cell: Ah, there's always Vegeta's teen offspring.
    Freeza: Well, yes, I do suppose that would be... (Stunned Silence)...(growls) No...
    Cell: Who do you think that time traveler was? I'm sure everyone would love to hear how you were split in two by Vegeta's overgrown sperm.
    Freeza: Y-y-you're lying!
    Cell: Freeza, I literally never lied.
    Freeza: They won't believe you!
    Cell: Why not? You do. Sure maybe they won't at first, but today you lost that match. Their loyalty is already waning. Sooner or later, doubt will set in. And everything you have here in this miserable literal hellhole will crumble away, and all you'll be left here is two German ogres, and a whole afterlife of shame.
• Related in the Adaptation: A very slight one when it comes to his genetic makeup. In the original manga, Cell was explicitly made by the cells of Goku, Piccolo, Vegeta, Freeza and King Cold. The original anime mainly mentions those five most of the time, and the only reference of another character's cell being integrated into him was Tenshinhan in a filler scene. In the Abridged version, Cell has, in addition to the five above, also the cells of Tenshinhan, Krillin, Gohan and Chiaotzu (since Yamcha is the only Z-Fighter to be explicitly omitted).
• Retired Monster: Spending time in HFIL severely mellows him out, and he eventually accepts that his only way out is to earn his redemption through good deeds. This sets him in opposition to Freeza, who earnestly believes that Evil Feels Good and refuses to change for anybody.
• Rules Lawyer: He pulls this on Yami Yugi, telling Yugi that the cards that he uses in his duel are banned from competitive play, citing real life Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game tournament ban lists. When Yami Yugi objects that they're not in a tournament, Cell points out that they are. The Cell Games are supposed to be a martial arts tournament but Cell thinks that's close enough.invoked

S-U

• Sadist:
  • He states it himself well enough
    Cell: There's nothing more satisfying than the rush I get from watching a person disappear.
  • Even more blatantly than Gero, Cell makes nasty comments that compare his absorption with rape.
  • He's not above inflicting copious amounts of mental damage either, as shown once he reaches Perfect form.
• Self-Recovery Surprise: He can regrow limbs that are torn out or blasted away and this is a nasty surprise for the people trying to stop him more than once. HFIL reveals he shocked himself with his own regenerative capabilities after his apparent suicide attack since not even he knew he'd survive it.
• Sense Freak: A minor case, but after reaching his Semi-Perfect form, he spends several seconds motorboating because he enjoys having lips. During The Stinger he's gone right back to doing it now that there's no-one around to stop him.
• Serial Rapist: Not literally, but his behavior as a serial killer of humans, combined with his horrific choices of words bring this to mind as much as, if not more than, a serial killer.
• Sinister Whistling: Played for Laughs in Kai Abridged. Piccolo is walking around a Ghost City with no trace of inhabitants safe their clothing, courtesy of Cell. Cell whistles the tune of "All Star" by Smash Mouth upon his introduction.
• Sitcom Arch-Nemesis:
  • Tenshinhan is this for Cell. After getting hit repeatedly by Tenshinhan's supercharged Kikoho attack, Cell drops any and all pretense of his usual joviality and mocking smugness in their later interactions, instead responding to him with undisguised disdain and hatred. Tenshinhan, meanwhile, clearly enjoys reminding Cell of the fact that he of all people managed to get one over him whenever he gets the chance, much to Cell's chagrin. When he comes back from self-destruction and kills Future Trunks, he admits he was actually aiming for Tenshinhan but missed because Z-Fighters are all so weak compared to him now and he couldn't pick him out in the dust cloud. One example is during the Cell Games when he asks who he will fight after Goku.
  Perfect Cell: Oh, could it be Tenshinhan? Please tell me it's Tenshinhan.
  • Freeza is also this for him in HFIL, with the both of them constantly volleying insults at one another.
• Sliding Scale of Silliness vs. Seriousness: Like Goku (since he's made of 10.87% of the guy), he zig-zags between this. While he's silly in personality, his actions are played for seriousness. Once he attains his Perfect form and beats the tar out of Vegeta, he tells the latter to "wait for Goku" in the most serious tone.
• Smug Super:
  • Cell grows more smug with each transformation. He's got a bit of Vegeta and Freeza in him, so it makes sense.
  • After attaining his Perfect Form, one of the first things he does to Vegeta is goad him into using his full power, just to show how ineffective it is. And then he does the exact same thing once Trunks bulks up. He lets himself be attacked and then effortlessly evades Trunks's slow attacks just to show him how stupid and amateurish he is for sacrificing speed for pure power. The very first thing he does is break into a Villain Song about how perfect he is and how doomed everyone else is.
• The Sociopath: He may be funny and immature, but he is still a heartless monster that killed over six-hundred thousand people in a week.
• Sophisticated as Hell: As Cell goes through his forms, he becomes more sophisticated, but the sexual overtones only become marginally less overt. Once he's Perfect Cell, he'll wax poetic about his battle one moment, and talk about his erection the next.
• Sore Loser: Just like in the original, he completely loses it when Gohan proves to be far stronger than him.
• Soundtrack Dissonance: Seems to love invoking this whenever possible, either through radio, or just plain singing to himself.
• Spare Body Parts: According to the Light Yagami short, he has at least two hearts.
• Stalker with a Crush: Several of his interactions with Android 18 make him seem very much like this. Given he also refers to her as his "beeeeaUT-iful sister" this takes on a deeper level of creepiness. When looking for her in Episode 49 he starts shouting about "how they could be perfect together". The people living on the islands nearby naturally take it the wrong way. And when Krillin tries to help her escape, he acts like an abusive and jilted lover who's caught his girl running out on him.
  • Even more blatantly obvious with Goku, who he clearly thinks is the only person on the planet who actually matters besides himself, which Cell himself attributes to Goku's pure simplistic love of fighting for its own sake. Cell organises an entire tournament for the sole purpose of fighting him, and he enjoys it so much that when he thinks Goku is going to blow up the entire world to kill him, he's delighted because he believes there is no point in Cell, Goku or anyone else being alive if either of them dies anyway. The Buu Bits shorts implies that this love for Goku ultimately comes from the DNA of Vegeta, suggesting this is how Vegeta would treat Goku if he didn't feel so inferior to him.
• Strange Minds Think Alike: Cell is the only villain so far shown to not only NOT be irritated by Goku's stupidity and literal thinking but he can even anticipate everything that Goku is going to say.
• Suddenly Shouting:
  • In the cold open for Episode 43:
  Cell: Let's answer your question... with another question. WANNA SEE ME DRINK THIS GUY?!
  • He has another moment in Episode 60 when Gohan calls him boring:
  Cell: WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY TO ME, YOU HAPLESS LITTLE SHIT!?
• Suicidal Cosmic Temper Tantrum: Cell's sanity was slipping pretty badly when Gohan got the upper hand at first. After he kicks him in the stomach hard enough to puke out Android 18 and revert him to his Semi-Perfect form, all bets are off. He responds to this by threatening to take the whole world with him to the grave with an Earth-Shattering Kaboom.
• Terms of Endangerment: Refers to Piccolo as "friend" in the most unnerving way possible. It gets even worse when he meets his "siblings." When he turns perfect, he constantly calls Vegeta "prince". He also calls Trunks "boy scout".
• There Are Two Kinds of People in the World: Steals the line from Vegeta.
  Perfect Cell: You're either perfect, or you're not me.
• This Is Gonna Suck: When he tries to absorb Android 16 and realizes that, unlike 17 and 18, his name isn't a Non-Indicative Name, his response is rather low-key.
  Cell: Oh... Errors have been made.
• Token Human: Downplayed. Cell is very clearly not human (even if he does have human DNA from Tien, Krillin, and Gohan), but he is the sole Earthling in HFIL among a cast of aliens and demons. This leads to him getting frusterated with his fellow MCM's habit of tacking "Space" onto the beginning of every concept.
• Too Clever by Half: Like in the original Cell has extensive knowledge of all of the Z fighter’s abilities, meaning he is rarely caught off guard. Unlike the original, he also uses his extensive knowledge of their personalities to not only manipulate them but also destroy them with words. However, a bit of these come back to bit him at various points, and ultimately lead to his demise. For example he doesn’t think Tien is capable of hurting him because of the massive gap between their power levels. He’s right but he’s able stop Cell dead in his tracks long enough for Android 18 to slip away. And while he is able to flawlessly manipulate Vegeta into letting him absorb 18, he also assumes Vegeta won’t help anyone else for any reason. After he kills Trunks, he finds out he’s sorely mistaken when Vegeta distracts him long enough for Gohan to vaporize him.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: Played with. As Imperfect Cell, he only killed people for sustenance. Once he absorbs Android 17 and later on Android 18 his reasons for killing people become increasingly petty. That said, Imperfect Cell said that he would kill everyone on Earth after gaining his Perfect Form, and that he gets no greater rush than making another person disappear.
• Totally Radical: When trying to convince Android 18 to let him absorb her, he makes a projection of Android 17 that talks like this. She isn't at all convinced by it.
  Cell: Okay to be fair, I just met you.
• Tranquil Fury: During the start of the Cell Games, Cell keeps up his Affably Evil facade, happily greeting the Z-Fighters but then drops the pleasantries when he notices Tien is also there.
  Cell: I see you brought the whole gang along to witness our battle: Piccolo, Trunks....Tien Shinhan.
  Tien: Kiko-how you doing?
  Cell: Perfect.
• Troll: When the bus driver keeps honking his horn at Cell, Cell simply starts saying "beep" in time to it. And when Tien shows up to fight him, he mockingly asks if Krillin was too busy. (Which is literally true.) Once he reaches his Perfect form, this trait becomes amplified monumentally. He effortlessly toys with both Vegeta and Trunks and insults them just for shits and giggles.
  • After the premiere of Episode 60 Part 2, Kaiser revealed an unused joke where Cell quietly admits to Gohan that he made one of the Cell Juniors weaker and sent it after Yamcha, just so he could fuck with Vegeta's head ("Look, he can see Yamcha holding his own out there. Now he's wondering if Yamcha is as strong as him, and it is pissing him off!")
• Underestimating Badassery: Besides his canonical underestimation of the heroes, he also doesn't think too highly of Kenshiro, until the latter busts out the Hyaku Retsu Ken and makes Cell explode.
• Ultimate Lifeform: Certainly considers himself as such after achieving perfection.
• Unskilled, but Strong: Vegeta points out he rushed to increase his strength by absorbing people instead of training, meaning he barely knows how to fight. Averted in his Perfect form, however, either because he gained combat knowledge upon transforming or because Vegeta was just mocking him earlier.
• Unwanted Assistance: His reaction to the aforementioned people living on the islands, who decide to give him relationship advice. He ends up killing them all after one suggested he has "performance issues."

V-Y

• Verbal Tic: Perfect Cell tends to leave the "r" off of words that end in it, i.e. "powah," "fathah," "forevah."
• Villainous Breakdown:
  • The first time, it happens because he can't comprehend how Vegeta got stronger than his Semi-Perfect form, and ends up throwing a tantrum identical to the one said Saiyan threw before his first transformation.
  • Has one when Kenshiro manages to actually hurt him a lot. He goes from a Smug Snake to seething with rage.
    Perfect Cell: AGH! CHRIST! DID ANYONE EVER TELL YOU YOU'RE ALREADY AN ASSHOLE?!
    • The Kenshiro fight sours Cell so much that it seems to alter his attitude for the rest of the Cell Vs. specials. When going up against Yusuke and Kuwabara, Yami Yugi, Ken and Ryu, and Sonic and Knuckles, Cell is amused by the prospect of people challenging him early, and he almost never loses his cool due to the severe power gap between him and everyone else (the closest exception up until then being when he was thrown off by Ryu losing himself to the Dark Hadou). But after Kenshiro makes a fool of him, Cell grows far more impatient with the future challengers and is less open to playing around with them. He's very quick to threaten Light Yagami with death when the latter enters the ring, quickly becomes irritated with Ash Ketchum thinking that he's a Pokémon, and is full-out annoyed by Deapool's fourth-wall breaking schtick. It doesn't help that, by this point, Cell starts lampshading that all of these fighters straight-up ignore that he set an actual date for them to challenge him. It's to the point where he's actually relieved that Saitama just planned on waiting for the tournament to start, as it made him the first person to follow the rules Cell set.
  • Once Gohan starts humiliating and torturing Cell, his composure slowly erodes until Gohan calls him boring, making him snap in rage. After he is kicked so hard that he vomits up 18, he completely loses his shit and lets out a Cluster F-Bomb in rage as he reverts to his Semi-Perfect form. Then he decides to blow himself and the world up because Gohan took away his perfection.
  • He even gets one in Kai Abridged Episode 3.5, fed up with the fact that all of his cool stuff got passed over.
  Perfect Cell: NO! Enough of that! Now, listen up — ya'll been skipping my best shit since I got here, rate me fourth best under (mocking) King Piccolo. (normal) I'm Perfect Cell, motherf#$%ers! So, Dende on F&#$ing Earth, ya better recognize the crackle of my raw, SEXUAL energy, and line your 1990s asses up so I can--!
• Villainous Friendship: He develops a bit of this with Raditz as the two of them are stuck together in HFIL. Cell does still take advantage of Raditz's Butt-Monkey status, but among everyone there Raditz seems to be the one he tolerates the most.
• Villain Has a Point: Piccolo calls out Cell's idea for a name is unimaginative. Cell responds that Piccolo is named after a musical instrument.
  • Rightly points out how 17 is making a mistake trying to stay and fight him instead of running away.
  • Definitely a dick move (and a mistake) dismiss Tien as just human, but in the end he was right. The human characters Can't Catch Up, and only a Super Saiyan is able to kill Cell.
  • His "The Reason You Suck" Speech to Gohan. Cell rightfully calls him out for stubbornly clinging on to his Suicidal Pacifism even as his father and friends were fighting for their lives.
• Villains Never Lie: "To be fair, I haven't lied since I got here". However, he only lied once when he tried to absorb Vegeta when the latter grabs his tail, nervously claiming he wasn't trying to, but his tail wiggles yes and he immediately confesses. After that, he doesn't lie at all.
  • Reinforced in HFIL, where he declares that he's never lied.
• Villain Protagonist: In the Cell Vs. specials, said specials being about various characters wanting a piece of him during the ten days before the Cell Games start.
  • And now also in HFIL, which is about him being sent to the titular location: a suburban cul-de-sac in Hell built to house and rehabilitate "morally-compromised malefactors".
• Villain Song:
  • His debut episode ends with him coming out of the shadows while singing a creepy and slowed version of "Mr. Sandman" by the Chordettes.
  • Perfect Cell gets one called P is for P.E.R.F.E.C.T.
  • In episode 60 part 2, he sings it again in a Creepy Monotone when he comes back. In the same episode, he sings a cover of Suddenly after he falls in love with Gohan beating the shit out of his kids.
  • In episode 60 part 3, he sings a cover of My Way as he dies.
• Vitriolic Best Buds:
  • Seems to think he and Android 16 are best friends now, since he became perfect and "ate" their family in the process. Android 16 makes it clear that they are not friends.
    Perfect Cell: I'M TRYING, 16!
  • This is much like Goku seems to think that Vegeta is his "best buddy" after their fight. Makes sense as Cell is 10% of Goku, as Android 16 ironically noted himself. Subverted later on, where he outright destroys and kills 16 without hesitation, even mocking him after his death.
• Vocal Evolution: Just like in the source material, his voice changes as he transforms. Upon reaching his Semi-Perfect form, he begins to sound like a huskier Alucard. The beak-structure on his pelvis, however, continues to use his imperfect form's voice. His Perfect form is Alucard, for all intents and purposes.
• We Can Rule Together: Not exactly rule but when Android 16 tries killing Cell for a) Cell is too dangerous to be left alive and b) If he can't kill Goku then nobody can, Cell suggests that he and Android 16 could just gang up on him.
  Cell: We could split him! In half! Together!
• "Well Done, Son" Guy:
  • Cell seems to want to become perfect as much for his "father" Dr. Gero as himself. Cell always mentioning Gero when talking of his perfection and doing so without disdain in his voice like the other androids use.
  • Ironically, this is also Cell's favourite Berserk Button to torment Trunks with.
• The Worf Barrage: As Semi-Perfect Cell, he uses Vegeta's Galick Gun against him to no effect.
• Worthy Opponent:
  • As Cell gets stronger, the only person he actually shows any interest in legitimately fighting is Goku. He's quite dismissive when fighting^note and mocking, and humiliating, the Prince in his perfect form. He genuinely gets angry when Goku gives up during their fight.
  • The only other Z Fighter he shows any degree of respect for is Tienshinhan, though in Cell's case, it's equally composed of hatred, since Tien was the only one who actually managed to slow him down at any point with his Kikohu spam. Everyone else he fought he's managed to humiliate or just outright defeat in combat, but Tien managed to get away with it, leaving Cell rather... nettled.
  • He does show a bit of respect for Trunks as well, going so far as to let him get in a few hits on him and even praising his willingness to fight, though not his intelligence and experience. However, while he respects Trunks' spirit, he still tears him down just as brutally as he tore apart Vegeta, mockingly ripping into Trunks' amateurish lack of understanding of how mass and raw power doesn't equal fighting ability, as well as his need to prove himself to his father. Even so, it's more respect than Vegeta ever got.
  • The only fighter in the Cell Vs. shorts that he shows any degree of respect for is Saitama, even expressing disappointment that the latter decided to skip the tournament to get groceries, commenting that he wasn't the only one who felt "blue-balled" by what just happened.
  • In the end, despite being ultimately overwhelmed and destroyed by him, he seems to come to view Gohan as one, specifically after his returning from his self-destruction and Gohan engaging in a final Beam-O-War with him despite the odds being against him with his broken arm. Cell seems almost delighted at him showing the Heroic Resolve of the other Z-Fighters, yells he'll grant Gohan the "perfect death," and in his final thoughts before destruction accepts his own death with grace. In HFIL, he's even surprisingly humble about the loss and doesn't seem all that bothered.
• Would Hurt a Child: Cell has no qualms with eating children, and he also has no issue with beating the hell out of Gohan. Though as Cell points out, he's technically only six years old himself (not counting his larval and egg states).
• Xenomorph Xerox: While not as blatant as Freeza's third form, Cell does borrow from the Xenos, particularly in his Imperfect form. The writers seem to have caught on to this considering his horrendous sexual preferences....
• Yandere: Subverted. He's crazed and obsessed with absorbing the Androids, but it's not out of love or affection; it's just because he's that hellbent with becoming Perfect. Played straight with Goku, being the only challenge now that he is perfect and threatened to destroy the Earth if Goku gives up.
• Yank the Dog's Chain:
  • He loves doing this, the most prominent one being acting like Vegeta's Final Flash actually caused him pain just to insult him and invalidating Vegeta hitting him with everything he had by regenerating his lost body mass in mere seconds.
  • And then he spends a while letting Trunks think he stands a chance, when actually Trunks' Super Saiyan form is a Mighty Glacier that can't even touch him unless he lets it.
• You Have No Chance to Survive: Spells this to Gohan during their Kamehameha Beam-O-War. Too bad he didn't account for Vegeta distracting him long enough for Gohan to kill him.
  Cell: Take solace, Gohan! Though you have fought alone, you will not die alone. That is my last gift to you! A PERFECT DEATH!!!
• You Monster!: Piccolo and Android 18 call him one on different occasions. He claims he "never had that screamed at him before" the first time and says "and [17] was delicious" the second time.
• Younger Than They Look: Cell's response to Krillin telling him to keep his dialogue age appropriate.
  Krillin: [Gohan]'s eleven!
  Cell: I'm six!
• Your Mom: He uses this just to rub it in Vegeta's face even more.
  Perfect Cell: And much like Vegeta's mother, I will accept all comers.
  Vegeta: How dare...

Future Cell

A-Z

Voiced by: Takahata101

Doctor Gero's final trump card, a bio-mechanical insectoid monster created from the genetic material of the Z Fighters and their enemies... but not the one we know. This one is from the timeline Trunks is from.

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• invokedAccidental Innuendo: Unlike his main timeline self, his innuendos are all on accident.
• Atrocious Alias: He's actually glad when Trunks calls him "Cell" because the name he came up for himself was in his own words: "boring". It was "Jiren".
• Big Bad Wannabe: Lampshaded by Trunks. Future Cell is Cell at his weakest, so showing up after Trunks achieved his highest level takes away all sense of menace. Rather than being a cunning manipulator or the predator that killed Trunks...this Cell is a punching bag.
• Butt-Monkey: Trunks refuses to dignify him in any way, shape, or form. This results in what amounts less to an "epic final clash" and more "Trunks jumps and proceeds to kick the shit out of an under-leveled Cell."
• Curb-Stomp Battle: On the receiving end of a brutal one from Trunks.
• Face Death with Dignity: Parodied. He launches into "My Way" the same as Perfect Cell, but his incredibly small amount of screentime means he doesn't even get past the first verse before dying.
  Future Cell: AWW GOD DAMMIT (gets hit by Trunks' Heat Dome Attack) SHIEEEEEEEEET...! (vaporized)
• Locked Out of the Loop: Trunks quotes his counterpart's explanation to time travel, "Multiverse Theory's a bitch". Future Cell is completely clueless what he's on about.

Future Cell: Okay, I feel like you're referencing something and I don't get it, and that's not fair.

• Laughably Evil: He's the same old Imperfect Cell who once terrorized the Z-Fighters time, just up against a much stronger and much more informed Trunks. This makes him so ineffectual it's hilarious.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: His counterpart gloating about how he got back in time to Trunks lead to making it impossible for this Cell to ambush him and start the whole thing over again.
• Post-Final Boss: Is essentially this. Rather than being an epic final clash, he's a loose end that needed tying up.
• Sure, Let's Go with That: Future Cell decides to go with the name Cell when Trunks calls him this. He says the reason for this is because it's way better than the name he was considering. He was thinking about calling himself Jiren, but thought it was a little too boring.
• That Came Out Wrong: Says this immediately after Trunks reveals that he knows everything there is to know about him.
  Future Cell: Okay, you suck! You're sucking all the fun out of this! I'm the only one who sucks here, boy — that came out wrong.
  Future Trunks: Nah, sounds right to me.
• Undignified Death: He gets stomped easily and spends his final moments loudly expressing exasperation over just how easily he was killed.
• Villain Forgot to Level Grind: A variation. He's a version of Cell that didn't time-travel to the present, and Trunks destroys the Future Androids, so he's left incapable of reaching his perfect form or being a threat to Trunks. It's less that he didn't level grind and more that Trunks killed him before he could level grind.

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But through it all, when there was doubt
I ate it up and spat it out!
The record shows, I took the blows
And did it my way!