Ch three hundred and fuck i forgot the number and am too lazy to go back a page and check (Cell vs. Son Goku) Did Cell just get a ton of beetle DNA or something? because he's awfully coleopteran from the back. Those wing-cases.... Insect seems pretty predominant in his makeup, especially in the earliest form. Second in line to fight is Goku, and everyone in the know about what's actually going on is avidly watching, because this is probably going to be a fight to remember. Goku enters the ring and there's a lot of intense staring going on between him and Cell as they size each other up prior to fighting. goku is dessert!! i wonder what flavor he would be. strawberry? maybe that doesn't make sense but that's kind of what i'm feeling i love these shots where it's mostly trunks with a tiny bit of vegeta in the frame The reporter has an interview with Mr. Satan, who trash-talks Goku for being a rank amateur and says he'll last maybe five seconds against Cell. So, not much of a break (NOT THAT IT'S A BREAK BECAUSE YOU'RE OUT!! YOU DON'T GET TO FIGHT AGAIN! YOU ARE OUT! god i'm so annoyed by how he apparently thinks he can super flaunt the rules like this. not that they make much sense in the first place, but you know) for Mr. Satan, but it certainly should be a good bit of entertainment, har har! It's Time Goku attacks, and the first exchange of blows is pretty uneventful: every strike is blocked or evaded on both sides as both combatants try to gauge their opponent's abilities. Goku disengages and moves away; Cell throws himself towards him, head-first, which seems a little dangerous for Goku given Cell's weird head protrusions, which may or may not be sharp/dangerous. well he's certainly got that good ol' saiyan instinct for headbutting Goku drops to the ground and kicks Cell skyward. He follows him and throws a small kamehameha, which Cell just baps away, only to find Goku right behind him -- it was a distraction. Goku punches him square in the back and Cell retaliates with his own to Goku's face, followed by everyone's favorite double axe handle. Goku lands on all fours in the ring and Cell descends more gracefully, landing delicately. Goku gets up and there's some more somewhat intense gazing; both Cell and Goku seem pretty happy with that first round and Cell declares that it was an adequate warm-up. Mr. Satan and the newscaster are stunned. Ch 398 (Full Power) But Mr. Satan writes it off as Goku being juuuust a hair better than he thought. He's probably already at his limit! tempura goku But now it's time to get serious. you know you say that? but i still think there's a distinct possibility that this will not be at full power and a chapter or two down the line it'll be revealed that he wasn't actually fighting at full power, and now it's time to REALLY be at full power!! Goku charges up and the resulting force lifts a huge cloud of dust that blows out from the ring and blows everyone's hair (/capes/other flappy garments) around. everyone needs to wear eye protection to these fights i swear Vegeta, Trunks, and Krillin are shown to be impressed by Goku's full power, but Gohan's a little bit dubious. Yeah, this is incredible and all, but.... (But WHAT, Gohan? Spit it out already!!) it's just an aura no worries Cell grins and does his own charging up, which blows away any leftover dust, ruffles everyone, and knocks over the announcer and Mr. Satan. It seems like it might have been more intense than Goku's, but it's hard to say. I feel really bad for Tien right now because he has three fucking eyes to keep track of and a 33% better chance of getting rock debris in some eye than the rest of them. Goku slowly approaches Cell. aura mixing. i wonder if there's an area of more intense combined power when that happens? what exactly does an aura do? Cell tells Goku to "do it" and Goku says "okay!" and proceeds to punch Cell in the gut (...?), elbow the back of his head when he doubles over, kicks him upwards, and then sends him flying with a final punch. Cell halts his flight in midair, upside down, and looks pretty pleased about the whole thing. life on earth hangs in the balance but at least cell's having a good time slugging it out with goku!
Trunks' hair is currently super luxurious, it's true. He must get it from Bulma because he certainly doesn't get it from Mr. my-hair-never-changes over there Piccolo should start being in charge of making sure people have proper protection for observation. If he can make clothes, he should be able to make things like safety goggles and protective suits! He probably can't make snacks, though, or at least not just materialize them out of nothing like he does wearable things. (But maybe...)
I wouldn't trust Piccolo with snacks considering that Namekians don't eat. Has Piccolo ever consumed anything other than water and senzu beans?
Ch 399 y'know, piccolo could make a mint selling clothes if he so chose. unless they disappear or something? it's hard to know, he keeps throwing away stuff and we don't see what happens to them (The Highest Level) Cell rights himself. Newsaster asks Cameraman if he got that fight on film, but it was too fast for him to follow. Maybe too fast for the camera? No idea how that works. But it's probably for the best, I think it's better for Goku and them to just kind of... stay out of the limelight. Speaking of which, does Vegeta get a similar reaction when he's out in public as Piccolo does? Do people know he's one of the saiyans that attacked Earth before? Or does he just hang out at Capsule Corp. headquarters/go out in the wasteland and not do mundane things like grocery shopping/movies/etc.? What does Vegeta do for fun when he's not punching things? Cell gets into that stance that we all know by this point is the kamehameha prep stance. Oh right, I forgot for a hot second that he's not only composed of everyone's* cells but also has all of their moves (at least up until the point the cells were harvested? I'm not sure if anyone's come up with anything new and fancy recently except Vegeta). i'm gonna say there's about a 4% chance he pays any attention to you asking him not to do the thing 4% might have been a little high Goku draws Cell's fire away from the planet at the last second by flying upwards, although Cell has to change his aim and the beam knocks over several of the observers. Goku gets out of the way with his handy teleportation skill (MAN that shit is useful) and the beam goes... off into space, presumably to just keep traveling until it hits something? Do energy beam attacks just dissipate on their own or... what? I fully admit to not having enough physics knowledge to understand how these things work. Or maybe I did at one point, but that point is not now. Goku appears behind Cell. I've wondered: can he control where in spatial relation he is to his target? Does ki have a "front" side and a "back" side? I mean, he seems to be able to, because he did it just now, unless he's just lucky like that. In any case, Cell's startled by that and gets kicked in the face. thank god he didn't get the teleportation from goku Goku reveals his fancy technique and asks if Cell really would have destroyed the Earth if Goku hadn't jumped. Yep, straight up! But he knew that Goku would, so it's kind of a moot point. He readies himself and charges Goku and knocks him around a bit, not letting him dodge or get his own hit in. ah. he wanted to show off. i see *whoops i forgot to include my endnote - not everyone, but a lot of people and i didn't want to make a list
Ch 400 * big celebration emoji * (Ring Out) or (Defeat or Death?!) The chapter starts off with Goku being hit in the face, then avoid a second hit and kicks Cell away. He teleports behind him, meaning to surprise him again, but Cell's had some experience with this teleportation business at this point, and this kind of ploy probably isn't going to be super successful in the future, unless there's a lot of other distraction going on. i wonder if this is as disconcerting as missing a step - not punching someone when you meant to hit 'em real good Cell's speed has allowed him to move behind Goku and he tries a double axe handle, but Goku manages to get out of the way in time. The ordinary humans on the ground have no idea what's going on or where the contestants have disappeared to. The extraordinary humans, aliens, and alien-human hybrids are able to keep track, though. Cell's having a grand old time, more so than he thought he would, and doesn't want his match to end with something as boring and un-fun as a ring-out victory (for either contestant). you're basically the judge and executioner here, buddy. you make the rules. you don't have to do that. man you spent time making that! you pulled a huge mass of rock from the ground and sliced it up like a hard-boiled egg to make the arena! what a waste! what a dangerous waste! Everyone got out of the way and Sixteen continues to be a good dude. although in the next panel he tells them to get away because they're doing nothing but getting in the way, so he's not necessarily the nicest dude, but no one else bothered to save them Cell's arena is now the entirety of the planet itself, and not just the little ring. He has plans to use all of this new real estate! And apparently the plans are just "shoot a lot of beams and chase Goku around with them". Which he does, with aplomb. None of these are of planet-destroying levels, though; just landscape reshaping levels. Goku goes upwards and starts up a kamehameha. ahuh you were saying???
Implying Vegeta is at some point not punching things. From my fairly limited experience - kinda, but only if you do it wrong. The idea is to aim your punch just beyond the target, so as to maximize your strength while avoiding throwing yourself off balance if you do miss.
Ch 401 things vegeta likes: punching, mountains, punching mountains (baking??) (Kamehameha Full Power) he might he might are you guys listening to a single thing i say It looks like Goku will, life on Earth be damned... but at the last second, he disappears. you crafty mofo! combining techniques! get some distance and fake everyone out, then teleport in close and use your major beam attack! dang, goku, you can be sly sometimes! lemme finish that thought for you: SHIT well that certainly looks like a direct hit I LOST MY FUCKING SHIT AT THIS PANEL GOOD FUCKING GOD I WASN'T READY TORIYAMA YOU CAN'T JUST SPRING THIS ON ME LIKE THAT I ALMOST DIED my stomach hurts so much from laughing oh lord what even is happening i completely lost track !!! The dust clears, and there's Cell's body (minus arms, head, and wings) lying on the ground, smoking slightly. That looks promising! Yamcha is fucking stoked, which, yeah! Things are looking pretty darn good right now! He celebrates the win, but notices that at least Trunks and Krillin still look pretty perturbed. Goku wonders why the heck there's still so much ki still hanging around when half of Cell has been just... vaporized. Apparently no one bothered to let Goku know that Cell can regenerate until right this moment, when Krillin yells at Goku to be careful, he's gonna come back. Lo and behold, the remaining torso + legs stands up on its own, and Cell regens a whole new upper half for himself: arms, chest, head, wings. It's just as nasty as it sounds. you say "just like piccolo", but i really don't think if piccolo's whole upper part was completely destroyed, he could make a whole new head. but maybe i'm wrong! i hope i never have to find out because i really don't want piccolo to get super fucked up in that way. please leave my large green man alone and do not kill him Aww, man! Goku thought that was just a bit too easy. At least Cell's probably used up a bunch of ki in all of that. True, but Goku's kind of hurting for ki himself now. Plus, that particular combo of kamehameha + teleport probably won't work on Cell again, now that he's prepared for it; it was kind of a one-off. So now it's right back into slugging it out, hand-to-hand, close-combat style.
Ch 402 i may be slightly loopy from driving for 7+ hours today, but, uh, i find myself more okay with cell's weird head as time goes by (Last Resort) or (Son Goku's Mysterious Behavior) godDAMN those are two very different titles! I get the change, because the more literal translation is pretty clumsy-sounding to an English speaker's ears (/...eyes, I guess) and I'm not sure how much you could have transliterated that to keep closer to both spirit and meaning of the original title.... But it really gives a different impression of the chapter. One is much more... serious, and the other is kind of... disconcerting. In either case, Cell punches Goku into a mountain (appropriate, considering our deep and revealing discussion of what Vegeta does or does not like. Speaking of, he's probably not having a great time right now: someone's knocking Goku around and destroying bits of the landscape, and it's not him. Goku frees himself from his rocky prison and holds Cell off with some rapid-fire blasts, until Cell gets sick of that and makes a large-radius energy shield. I say "shield" but it also has some definitive offensive capabilities, because it destroys the ground near the observers. A shield with spunk! you shouldn't doubt a saiyan's capability for destruction Then there are some reactions from onlookers. should i know you? that's not good news, but bulma looks rad with that hairstyle you're not alone. everyone's wondering what the heck is going on between his ears Cell dissipates his shield, which leaves a very interesting hemispherical cavity in the landscape. Goku's pretty severely winded at this point, and Cell suggests that he have a senzu to get back to full capacity. Trunks agrees, because he is consistently fairly sensible. Give Goku a senzu, then attack Cell together and overwhelm him. Angery Dad yells at him to shut it. i worry about vegeta's adrenal glands and his longterm health. he's so fucking stressed about something all the time looks like everyone's coming to the same conclusion, huh? hey hey hey hey don't get so defeatist on me now!! buck up vegeta, you can do it if you try! let's hope it's not an incredibly ill-conceived one!!! * puts face in hands * There's a simultaneous "wut" reaction from everyone, Cell included, as they try to figure out exactly what Goku's planning on doing. Cell reminds him that if there's no one left to fight, the Earth and its people are forfeit. Goku knows that! He's not just resigning everyone to death just yet! There's still someone to fight. (The newscaster suggests that Mr. Satan take this chance to get in the ring again and show Cell's what's what, and Mr. Satan says "Yeah!!"... and then suddenly develops some just terrible abdominal cramping. Oh no, he can't go out, so sorry, the pain is just too bad!) Goku asks if he can designate the next fighter. this is why you can't let goku get away with this shit! someone needed to get this plan out of him beforehand so that it could be vetted!
Ch 403 it took... 209 chapters, but I finally figured out I can add 194 to any DBZ manga chapter number to get the equivalent DB chapter number (The Successor) or (The Warrior who Surpassed Goku) If Goku's choice can't win against Cell, then the Cell Games will be over and humanity doomed, because if he can't win, then no one can. Big, big words. This is a lot to suddenly dump on whoever you're going to choose, Goku, especially since you haven't said word one to them about it. Maybe they didn't even want to fight in the first place! Maybe they aren't prepared because you kept it all secret and hush-hush this whole ten-day period! Sigh. I know it probably comes from a place of overweening trust and belief in whoever you're going to choose, but I just can't get behind this particular choice. But it's fine, because Goku just knows that his pick can win, after fighting Cell himself. There's no doubt in his mind or heart! no doubt!!! So who is it? Who exactly is it?? Cell wants to know. So does everyone else. Which of them is going to be called up to take on Cell? * suspense * Goku looks over at edge of the hemispherical pit where everyone retreated to, and calls the name of his chosen warrior. it was obviously gohan. we all knew it was gonna be gohan, right? like gohan was basically the only choice. vegeta and trunks? nah. piccolo? completely outclassed. the humans? no way. sixteen? don't think so hey goku you can't just send gohan into danger without running it by his mom and other dad first Everyone's shocked, because apparently no one did the math and figured out that Gohan was the only choice. Piccolo wonders angrily if Goku's finally lost his fucking mind, sending his son into the ring to get killed. The cameraman picks up on the word "gohan" and he and the newscaster take it to mean that they're going to be taking a lunch break, which just goes to show that you shouldn't name your kid a word that's a homophone for food. ("Gohan" means rice/meal in Japanese; asagohan = breakfast, ohirugohan = lunch, etc.) Piccolo tells Goku that he can't send Gohan to fight Cell; he's grown, but not enough to fight against Cell, whom Goku was relatively powerless against. but... i... you didn't have teachers as powerful as you are now? your situations are very different? how can you think that you are a good datapoint to use as comparison?? Anyway, it's important that they ask Gohan how he feels: was the fight too much for him? ;.; gohan you've gotten so big. i miss tiny gohan. feels like just yesterday you were small and had a bowl cut. i feel like i've said this exact thing before. sorry for being a broken record Apparently Goku's all-out looked to Gohan like non-serious fighting. Which, also apparently, means that he's more powerful? Or something? I'm not quite sure how that works, but whatever. become a biologist become a biologist!! Gohan steps up to the plate, as it were, and takes off his Piccolo cape, although not as elegantly as Piccolo does; Piccolo's had a lot more practice. He moves to stand before Cell, looking pretty darn cool for a nerdy kid who wants to be a great scholar/scientist/whatever. (I feel okay saying that because I was a nerdy kid who wanted to be a scientist, and now am one, so....) Goku asks for a senzu from Krillin, current Senzu Keeper. Krillin hands one over. um excuse me what in the goddamn fuck do you think you are doing? It's only fair, Goku insists. Gohan's fresh and Cell's all tired from fighting Goku, so he needs a boost before Round Two. Cell eats it amid cries from Goku's comrades to the tune of "you're insane", "that was fucking dumb", and "wow who even cares about fairness when all humanity is at stake??" Cell apparently likes a good senzu, and after eating it is feeling nice and sprightly again. Ready and raring to go. Even if you have all the faith in the world in Gohan, even if you're 100% confident he's going to win, even if you believe that with every single fiber of your being, should you not... predispose him to winning? If not for the sake of all those innocent people who are going to die, at least for the sake of your GODDAMN CHILD?? I just. I can't even begin to fathom that mindset and this is why people like Piccolo or Trunks or Kaiou or even Vegeta in a pinch need to fucking reign in the more extremely dangerous of your impulses. Gohan powers up and it's very impressive. * sniffs * our little boy's all growed up. except not because he's only like 12 or something. jesus christ you should not be putting this all on him, he's just a kid still
This makes me wonder how much saiyans generally actually parent tbh. Like they dont seem to have to human parenting "protect smol at all cost" instinct at all.
Goku was sent out alone as a toddler to subdue Earth, and this was apparently the Done Thing. So, yeah. I'm guessing parental instincts are basically nil. Also considering his own childhood, apparently Goku didn't learn how to dad at any point either.
Well, Goku accidentally killed his adoptive grandad when he was a kid, and since then the closest thing he had to a father figure... W- Was Master Fucking Roshi
It also reads to me not like Goku doesnt care but like hes just entirely confident Gohan can handle it, without the anxiety a human parent would feel.
Ch 404 well... those are some good points. but i am very attached to gohan and i can't help feeling a bit miffed (Let's Go, Gohan!) or (Take Off! Super Son Gohan) Ooof, the color pages being printed in B&W are pretty rough. that's my boy!! punch scientist! Cell concedes that this wasn't just a bluff, but that doesn't matter. He'll kill Gohan before he can land a single attack. Hey, maybe don't do that? Cell descends to land near Gohan and asks him if he really thinks he's up to this challenge. Cell lashes out with a kick, but Gohan blocks it easily with his forearm. Cell follows up with an attempted flat-handed chop, but Gohan evades... and continues to evade as Cell tries a few other attacks. Cell is forced to show his true speed, using which he's able to grab Gohan's shirt. i'm surprised he hasn't broken one of his head flanges yet. if he did he could just grow it back though He follows up his headbutt with several shots right to Gohan's face (please do not), then throws him away and shoots him with a blast attack, sending him through several of the nearby rock formations. Everyone watching thinks that he's killed Gohan almost immediately. i'm sorry chichi :( i appreciate that you're doing your best i'm sorry piccolo :( Don't get your antennae in such a knot, Piccolo! Goku points out that Gohan's ki hasn't disappeared. I guess Cell's too distracted to notice; he tells Gohan to eat a damn senzu and get his butt back in the ring so the real fight can continue. Goku tells Cell to "look behind you, idiot!" so goddamn cool right now Cell has to concede again that Gohan might really be something. Gohan tells Cell that they should stop, because this battle is pointless. Cell chooses to treat it like a joke: of course there's a point, isn't there? Both sides have something to gain. Cell gets to have fun showing how big and powerful and perfect he is, and Gohan gets the chance to save everyone on Earth. Win-win (sort of)! Gohan makes himself more clear. He doesn't fight in the same way as his dad does, and he doesn't want to kill Cell, even if Cell is terrible. Well, okay, you don't like to fight, but what is all of this about killing Cell? Gohan's starting to have an inkling of why his dad thinks he might be the only one able to defeat Cell. ... well okay then If Gohan thought this might make Cell back off and reconsider fighting, he's shortly proven sorely mistaken, because yyyyyyyyyyup
