Summary
Dragon Ball Super: Super Herohit the theaters last year, and it had a quite successful run at the box office becoming one of the highest-grossing anime films last year. The movie had numerous things that theDragon Ballfranchise fans had been longing to see on the big screen. Finally, the fans got to witness two of their favorite characters - Piccolo andGohan getting much-needed power upgradesinDBS: Super Hero. While Piccolo got the formidable power-up called the Orange Piccolo with multiple special abilities and increased strength, Gohan got the Beast Gohan transformation which might have made him even stronger than Goku.
Besides the said power-ups, the resurrection of one of the best antagonists of not only theDragon Ballfranchise but in the history of shōnen as well, Cell, was the highlight of the movie. However, this new version of the Cell called Cell Max failed miserably and deteriorated the overall plot of the film. This happened because of poor writing and even poor execution from the makers ofDBS: Super Hero. Cell Max could have been a great opportunity for theDragon Ballfranchise to bring back its best antagonist but due to the bad writing and execution, this opportunity got ruined. Nowthe only chance at redemptionis howDragon Ball Super(DBS) manga presents Cell Max as it is retelling the story of DBS: Super Hero through new chapters. Let’s explore howDBSmanga can fix Cell Max.
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What Is Cell Max?
Far away in the stars, Goku andVegeta were happily trainingwith Broly, a strong newcomer on Planet Beerus. Meanwhile, back on Earth, Piccolo was in charge of keeping everyone safe. What he didn’t know was that danger was nearby. Out of the blue, an advanced android named Gamma 2 from the Red Ribbon Army ambushed Piccolo.
To protect his friends, Piccolo decided to bravely find the android’s hiding place. But what he discovered was truly frightening - the Red Ribbon Army had made a shocking comeback. Their goal was to defeat Piccolo, the Z fighters, and take over the world. But that wasn’t the worst part. They were involved in some shady dealings withthe evil android Cell, created by Dr. Gero. They planned to bring Cell back to life and make him even more powerful, calling this new version Cell Max. Just the thought of Cell returning scared Piccolo deeply.
Manga’s Retelling of Cell Max
A year after the release ofDBS: Super Heroand the debut of Cell Max, theDragon Ball Supermanga is retelling the plot of the movie in the form of new chapters. Events are unfolding similarly till now as they did in the movie, with the release of the latest chapter ofDBS mangai.e., Chapter 96,Cell Max has been accidentally releasedfrom his pod prematurely. He has beaten the two androids, Gamma 1 and Gamma 2, to a pulp just as he did in the movie. Therefore, it seems like there are not going to be any stark changes in the retelling ofDBS: Superheroand Cell Max in theDBSmanga as per how the plot points have been unfolded so far.
Toyotarou’s Version
TheDragon Ballfans have been counting on the option that Toyotarou who is the illustrator of theDBSmanga can maybe improvise the plot of theDBS: Super Heroasits retelling is going onin the manga. However, as optimistic as it sounds, even though Toyotarou is the illustrator of the manga the story of the manga is still written by none other than the creator of theDragon Ballfranchise himself, Akira Toriyama. It is still true that Toyotarou certainly has a say in how the story of theDBSmanga unfolds, the bigger truth remains that nothing makes it to the story ofDBSmanga without getting a green light by Toriyama first.
Maybe if Toyotarou can refine the retelling ofDBS: Super Heroand fix the issues ofCell Max and Toriyama agrees to it as well, then there is a chance thatDBSmanga redeems the mistake made byDBS: Super Hero. However, the probability of this possibility actualizing in reality is quite low since the manga’s retelling has been almost the same with no or minimal changes from the plot ofDBS: Super Hero.
Adding Value to Cell Max
Toriyama and Toyotarou can fix Cell Max by adding more value and meaning to its character while pushing the Z warriors even more to go beyond their limits. Toriyama can write a better story arc to present Cell Max in which his character gets utilized in a much better way as compared tohow it was done inDBS: Super Hero.
There are multiple possibilities to fix the complaints that the fans had regarding Cell Max and to successfully make the return of one of the greatest shōnen antagonists of all time a great one. However, as the creator of theDragon Ballfranchise and the writer ofDBSmanga, it all mostly depends on Akira Toriyama and how he wants to retell the story in the form of new manga chapters ofDBS.
