The Hard Cell is the twenty-ninth episode of Season 3 of Team Four Star's DragonBall Z Abridged and is the fifty-ninth episode overall. It was first uploaded to YouTube on June 23, 2017.
Plot
Up on the lookout, Dende is trying to watch the Cell Games, but is having trouble focusing on doing it (as he is having sexual thoughts about Gohan). Mr. Popo offers Dende some weed to help, which he happily agrees to. Back on Earth, Goku and Cell's fight continues, both evenly matched. Jimmy Firecracker is having trouble watching, and while Larry offers to use a different camera to help out, Mr. Satan dismisses it, believing what Goku and Cell are doing is using camouflage.
Cell remarks that he's been waiting for this fight ever since he became Perfect and this whole tournament was just the thing he needed to get what he wanted. Goku said he only needed a good fight, and the whole Cell Games wasn't really needed, and Cell decides to get more comfortable by destroying the ring. The Z-Fighters get out of the way, and Android 16 rescues Mr. Satan and camera crew. With no ring, Cell launches a barrage of ki blasts, but Goku manages to dodge and get to higher ground. Goku prepares to charge a powerful Kamehameha, much to the concern of his friends as it might destroy the Earth in the process, but Cell goads Goku to do it. Goku however Instant Transmissions in front of Cell, and fires point blank. Cell's upper torso is gone, causing Yamcha to believe they won. Jimmy is shocked on this, but Satan believes what just happened was a combination of special effects. Before Krillin can start the countdown, Cell's body gets up, and he regenerates his upper torso. Cell and Goku continue their fight, and it's revealed that Master Roshi, Turtle, and a recently arrived Bulma and Baby Trunks are watching at Kame House, while Chi-Chi and Ox-King are watching at home.
Seeing that Goku is starting to tire out, Trunks tells Krillin to give Goku a Senzu Bean, but finds no one moving. He demands they put their moral code aside and help Goku out for the fate of Earth, but Vegeta tells him that as a full blood Saiyan, Goku is fighting for his pride and will see this fight to the bitter end. Inexplicably however, Goku powers down and forfeits the match, much to the shock of everyone. Cell is confused over this, and is furious that Goku is taking the tournament idea seriously. Cell threatens to blow up the Earth if Goku doesn't fight, but Goku reminds him that this is still a tournament and there's one more fighter left to fight him.
Cell, believing this to be a joke, asks who will fight him; Vegeta, Trunks, Yamcha, or Tien (which he might consider). Goku however reveals that Gohan will be Cell's opponent, much to everyone's shock. Cell is angry that Gohan is chosen, and Gohan is confused over what's going on. Goku however tells him that this is what they trained for, and he planned on this to happen. As a furious Piccolo, and a worried Krillin try to voice their disapproval (Chi-Chi especially furious while watching back home), Goku is confident in his son's abilities since their time in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber. Gohan reluctantly agrees (noting he has no choice as refusing to fight would result in the Earth's destruction), and heads down, with Goku giving his assurance. While Cell is still angry that he now has to fight against the "World's Strongest Bookworm", he decides to play along with this "joke" and tells Goku he'll be thinking of him when he's beating up Gohan. Gohan thinks that he might be able to take on Cell since he is still tired from his recent fight, and he himself has gotten stronger, but Goku gets a Senzu Bean from Krillin and tosses it up to Cell much to everyone's horror. With Cell rejuvenated, Gohan powers up. Piccolo is furious over Goku's decision, but Goku tells Piccolo to watch, expressing confidence that Gohan will stand a chance because of all the experience he has had since the beginning. Unfortunately for them, Cell is beating on Gohan really hard.
In the Stinger, Mr. Satan's daughter Videl is watching the fight, and is impressed with Gohan's hair.
Cast
- MasakoX – Goku, Gohan
- Hnilmik - Chichi
- Antfish - Mister Satan
- Lanipator – Krillin, Vegeta, Piccolo, Mr. Popo
- Takahata101 – Cell, Dende
- GrantBTW - Guy In Crowd
Featuring:
- Sarah Anne Williams as Videl
- Xander Mobus as Jimmy Firecracker
- KaiShiden as Larry the Camerman
Running Gags
- Mr. Satan's dumb excuses.
- Dende's sexual interest for Gohan.
- Cell is the one to yell "Crap Baskets" this time.
- Cell's hate boner for Tien.
- Jimmy keeps calling Goku an "Orange Hillbilly"
- Goku does Krillin's Senzu Bean schtick with Cell
CallBacks
- Piccolo mentions Goku's heart attack from Super Saiyan Swagger.
- The way Chi-Chi threatens to castrate Goku with a butter knife is similar to how she told Krillin in Happily Ever Afterlife.
- Trunks mentions the events of Flashpoint when he sees Goku charge his Kamehameha.
- When Goku mentions the Instant Transmission, Cell asks if it's another move he stole like he asked in Cell Mates. Goku mentions he ate sick aliens to gain it, which was from News of Future Past.
Trivia
- As with the previous episode, this was first released on Twitch Tv at 6pm Central time.
- This marks the first appearance of Videl. What's interesting that she appears before the Buu saga in the original thanks to original Team Four Star animation, which consists of a combination of a child's body drawn for the episode, combined with a face taken from Dragon Ball Super.
- Gohan says "Back the HIFL up". HIFL (which stands for "Home for Infinite Losers") is the censored name for hell in the old Funimation English dub.
- The Predator franchise and Harry Potter franchise are referenced by Mr. Satan. It also appears that Videl is a Harry Potter fan.
- This Episode was released a couple days before the 20th Anniversary of 1st Harry Potter Book 'Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'.
- It was taken down by Toei but has since been back up.
- This was the final episode for 2017. As it stands now, DragonBall Z Abridged is on hiatus and will not come back until a bit into 2018. This is because of multiple projects meeting Team Four Star's full attention at the moment (Hellsing Ultimate Abridged, Final Fantasy VII Machinabridged, and the official dub for the 2008 anime film Hells). Another factor is YouTube's changing copyright policies being very unpredictable.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||