Name: Dragon Ball Color: Saga de los Androides y Cell 2
Rating: 4.37 (6 reviews)
ISBN: 9788416401222

1,459 reviews

July 27, 2021

Dragon Ball continues with Artificial Human No. 20 fleeing the Z-Fighters in order to awaken Nos. 17 and 18, beings even he seems to fear ("I would have liked to avoid the laboratory if at all possible..."). Interestingly, it turns out 19 and 20 are not the Artificial Humans that tormented Trunks's future, and matters are complicated further when 17 and 18 awaken No. 16, whom Trunks had never seen before, and when 18 in her battle against Super Saiyan Vegeta proves herself to be far more powerful than what Trunks experienced in his own time. Even worse for Trunks, this volume ends with a horror/mystery setting up the introduction of Cell, who will hijack this story arc as its new primary antagonist!

In re-reading this part of the manga, I'm a bit surprised to see just how short is the actual Jinzouningen section of this arc, before it focuses on Cell. There are only twenty chapters or so between 19 and 20's introduction and the discovery of Cell's time machine and discarded shell. I was under the impression this chunk of the arc was a little longer, but according to Wikipedia there are about a dozen episodes of anime dedicated to these same chapters, so I'm thinking Toei just dragged things out a lot, and I'm remembering seeing so many videocassettes of the "Androids Saga" (before it segues into the "Imperfect Cell Saga") that I tricked myself into thinking there would be more manga chapters. This is somewhat important to note, as allegedly Toriyama had had some conflict with his editor around this time, who disliked the designs of 19 and 20, prompting the creation of 17 and 18, whom the editor also disliked, so Cell was introduced, but he was too spooky, so Cell eats 17, but his new form is too ugly, so Cell eats 18 and becomes "Perfect." I don't know if there was an error with the translation I'm reading, but I recall Trunks earlier referring to Nos. 19 and 20 as the enemies he fought, but did not mention their physical appearances. In this volume, he is aware of specifically 17 and 18, and their teenage appearances, so either the translator fucked up and wrote "19 and 20" earlier, or Toriyama fucked up and tried to breeze past it. Regardless, I don't mind the inclusion of Cell, as the angsty teen twins don't command enough gravity to feel like sufficient "final bosses" for the story arc. Or maybe it's just that I'm so used to Cell existing, that it makes me think backward? I don't think 19 and 20 would work well as final bosses either, so it makes sense to introduce new Artificial Humans, but I don't know. (I also feel the edginess of 17 especially is meant to reflect some "moral panic" about juvenile delinquents or something, to encourage young readers to take Son Gohan or Future Trunks as superior role models....)

At the end of the day, Nos. 19 and 20 are analogous to Dodoria and Zarbon, and 16, 17, and 18 are the Ginyu Tokusentai, with Cell being a stand-in for Freeza. Or, put another way, 19 and 20 are Raditz, 16, 17, and 18 are Nappa, and Cell is Vegeta. To reduce the story to such simplicities would be to continue to say Spopovich and Yamu are similarly the introductory tier of opponents for the Boo Arc, with Pui Pui, Yakon, and Dabra as the next tier, and (Super) Boo as Vegeta/Freeza/Cell. But is it fair to think like this, to accuse Toriyama of doing the same structure over and over? I don't know, honestly. The Namek Arc had a somewhat different organization, with Kuririn, Gohan, and Bulma running around the planet, dodging Freeza's forces, before the Ginyu crew came in and the heroes had little choice but to fight. There is less an "adventure" element to the Artificial Human Arc, and the return to Earth sees a greater focus on urban environments, with 19 and 20 first attacking in a city, 18 fighting Vegeta on a mountain road near another city, and Cell appearing next volume as a horror movie "slasher" in Gingertown. With these scenes, Toriyama has gone back to the pre-Pilaf Dragon Ball hunt, as well as the original Red Ribbon Army Arc for which this new story is Gero's vengeance, so it's a good way to "return to form" while acknowledging just how different action works in a world that now has three Super Saiyans. (Of course, Cell will host his tournament in an abandoned mountain valley, as happens a lot with big "boss" battles....)

****

Miscellany I enjoyed:
*the perspective of the first panel of Chapter 345 makes the hovering Vegeta look like a giant standing on the ground among Kuririn and co.
*Vegeta is established as a more strategic fighter than Son Goku (per Piccolo's analysis). This isn't unreasonable, as Goku has mostly unga-bunga'd his way to victory, but Vegeta doesn't really get too much a chance to think more cleverly than unga-bunga'ing himself. In one sense, his tendency to discard new techniques after their first use may show he is always trying to improve himself, unlike Goku who basically keeps trying and failing to use the Genki-Dama. But, really, Vegeta isn't all too different from Goku until the Super manga has him train on Yardrat.
*there's a large panel where Piccolo takes up most of the frame, and I noticed his biceps and chin are particularly jagged-looking, showing the shift Toriyama has made from the earlier, rounded art-style. Unfortunately, I did not keep this change in mind while reading the Full Color Freeza Arc, so I can't recall how gradual the art evolution may have been, or if everyone started getting pointier suddenly with the arrival of Trunks.
*No. 20: "Heheheh... He's become so accustomed to sensing out an opponent's ki, that he has lost his eye for movement..." On Namek, Vegeta learned how to sense ki rather than rely on the Scouter technology. Now that he's on par with the earthlings, he is as poor at sensing movement with his naked eye. Or, possibly, the earthling martial artists may be better-suited to tracking the ki-less Artificial Humans, as they learned how to follow high-speed opponents before they could sense ki. Vegeta skipped this step, having a Scouter instead, and had no reason to learn this skill before 19 and 20 appeared.
*Piccolo's knee to 20's chin, taking up almost an entire page, was pretty neat.
*Vegeta: "Piccolo, hurry up and finish him off. That is unless you want me to step in and do it for you." I never noticed before that Vegeta calls Piccolo by name, rather than his continued preference to "deadname" Son Goku.
*I never paid much attention to the importance of 16, 17, and 18's infinite energy... at least, not until the Tournament of Power in Super, wherein the limitless power allows a reformed 17 to become the tournament's MVP. In fact, I don't think I ever paid attention to this at all; it's hard to ignore the energy-absorbing sensors in the palms of 19 and 20's hands, and it's easy to assume the other Androids are stronger because they don't need the ability to siphon ki, but I never thought much about 17 and 18 having infinite ki. It makes sense that they're so fearsome in Trunks's future, even if it doesn't make sense with what we know of previous robots in the series. I guess, also, their teen angst combined with infinite energy is what's truly terrifying to old Dr. Gero, which is why he put them back in hibernation. And I guess further that being back in their tubes allowed them to... charge more(?), making these incarnations stronger than those from Trunks's time(??). Or is it really just because Cell's around?
*it's funny that Bejita would underestimate 17 and 18 when he's a few chapters away from getting his ass beat by No. 18
*20 exists because Gero wanted immortality, but I never looked too deeply into 19's genesis. I guess it was just to have a buddy while the newer/younger-looking models were put back in hibernation. I mean, I always assumed 19 was there to convert Gero into 20, and as much is stated in the manga itself, but the question is whether Gero/20 still sought revenge on Son Goku after benching the twins, or if he gave up and wanted to live a quiet life, eternally working on new machines and shit. I guess he was cocky about his power, because obviously he and 19 do go out to kill people, but... I don't know.
*kinda funny that No. 17 keeps one hand in his pants pocket while impaling 20 with the other
*No. 16's face looks kinda dorky for someone with such a hot mom. Of course, his mom wasn't designed until like thirty years later, but still....
*I can't remember if I mentioned this when Goku first went Super Saiyan in the Freeza Arc, but it's interesting the SS aura in the digital colored manga is just white, which is the anime's default aura color. Like, if I was in the anime as my regular human self, and tried to charge my ki, I'd just have a white aura. But Super Saiyans in the anime always have a yellow aura. I think Boo always had pink. Kaio-Ken had red, which I believe is true for the colored manga as well, but I'd have to check my copies. Super Saiyan Blue has a weird, chunky aura when first introduced in Toyotarou's Super manga, while the Toei anime is a bit different. I'm thinking Toriyama didn't place much importance on aura colors, and it was Toei who decided to color-code things. I kind of prefer the less-busy aura in the color manga, but I think maybe the anime version works better there.
*Vegeta: "You've got a big mouth for a wind-up doll!! I'll take you apart!! Who's first!? The punk, the whore, or the big bastard!? Or should I take all three of you on at once!?" Then he gets his ass beat by the aforementioned "whore."
*Vegeta: "...but you're not a woman, are you? No, you're merely a thing!..." Prince of the Saiyans thot-patrolling 18. Then he gets his ass beat by the aforementioned "thing."
*kinda looks like Vegeta shoots a Big Bang at 18, so I guess I was wrong to say earlier that he abandons new techniques after their first use in combat
*the choreography of the Z-Fighters versus the Artificial Humans shows Toriyama still knows his craft very well, even if the skirmish simply doesn't feel anything like a "final battle," suggesting there are maybe different plans for the future (and, indeed, we'll get Cell soon)
*No. 17: "Doctor Gero has nothing to do with it. This is a game." I never considered this before, but is it possible Cell starts his Game because of the teen angst 17 adds to his brain? I always assumed it was Goku and Vegeta's DNA that encouraged Cell to stake the fate of the planet on a tournament, but it could very well be the juvenile delinquents he eats as well.
*No. 18 kissing Krillin isn't just important for setting Krillin's thirsty "simp" self up to remove the Artificial Humans' bombs and allow them to live normal human lives (and allow Krillin to marry 18), it's also important that her eventual presence in the next World Tournament could cement her status as "token female fighter" for the majority of video games based on the series. And, accordingly, she's the primary source of "fanservice" going forward, since Bulma stops going on adventures, and I guess Videl gets her ass beaten too hard by Spopovich to be too sexy overall? I don't know, pigtailed Videl is still my favorite female design in Dragon Ball, and I think I only recently found 18 attractive just because she has four (4!) figures in MegaHouse's "Dragon Ball Gals" line, so I'm used to the inflated ass and titties in those figures, more so than her actual manga appearance. (Ironically, the pigtailed Videl figure isn't as naughty as any 18 figure, and my peepee kinda likes it a bit less, accordingly). As a minor side anecdote, I have one of those old "Beckett Dragonball Z" magazines, which has a breakdown of the Red Ribbon Androids (including Hacchan from much earlier, and 13, 14, and 15 from the Super Android 13 movie), and which uses the phrase "blonde bombshell" to refer to No. 18; having not heard "bombshell" to describe a woman, nine-year-old Me thought it was an innocuous reference to the actual bomb existing within 18's body....
*Piccolo talking about Vegeta's pride wounded with his loss against a woman is somewhat interesting, as the only female Saiyans we would have seen so far would have been in the non-canon TV special about Goku's father, Bardock. Do we necessarily have reason to believe Vegeta would be particularly upset about losing to a woman? He doesn't like getting his ass kicked in general. 18 is far stronger than every man seen thus far, so her power shouldn't be viewed in the same tier as e.g. Bulma. We don't have enough information to know if Saiyan women were notable combatants, so we don't have enough information to know if Vegeta ever would have sparred with a woman before, let alone whether he had to fight female enemies worth a damn.
*Piccolo recalling his classification as Mazoku, calling back to his previous characterization as a demon (rather than an alien). He shows some pride at being the former demon king, mirroring Vegeta. It's somewhat unfortunate knowing the story ahead of Piccolo, as his future fusion with Kami will not be enough to stop the Artificial Humans or Cell, but it's polite to give him a moment to feel cool.
*in watching Dragon Ball Super recently, I've been struggling with figuring out why I don't find Chi-chi too cute in her later incarnation. When she appears in this volume (many years before Super, chronologically), I see that it's her hair being completely tied back in Super versus having locks dangle before her ears in this arc. But now I'm wondering how different she may look in the Boo Arc(?).
*Trunks: "Many different futures are created over the smallest things." It's odd Toriyama would establish parallel timelines so early, yet when Beerus and Whis are later introduced they do not understand that changing the past may not directly affect Trunks's future world.
*there appears to be a little stuffed Totoro knock-off in baby Trunks's room in Chapter 357

****

Throwing in the "horror" tag because of the menace established for the impending introduction of Cell.

childhood fantasy horror

Dragon Ball Full Color #22

Dragon Ball Color: Saga de los Androides y Cell 2

Akira Toriyama

About the author

Akira Toriyama

Ratings & Reviews

Friends & Following

Community Reviews

Join the discussion