Dragon Ball Reveals Original 33-Year-Old Perfect Cell Design That Akira Toriyama ‘Came to Regret’

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As a huge fan, I’m always checking the official website’s Toriyama Archives – it’s become such a great resource! They keep digging up really rare images from the history of the series, but you only have 24 hours to see them. The latest find is especially cool – it’s an old, 33-year-old draft illustration of Perfect Cell, one of the most famous and powerful villains! It’s amazing to see early designs like this.

This draft illustration showcases Perfect Cell, emphasizing his unsettling smirk and disdainful gaze. The artwork provides a clear, full view of the character, unlike the original magazine cover which showed him partially hidden behind Goku and Trunks. The draft reveals the character’s detailed design, including the glossy finish of his insect-like armor and the numerous dark spots across his body – features that would become iconic to his appearance, but later cause some concern for the artist who created him.

Drawing Dragon Ball’s Cell Was a Painstaking Process for Creator Akira Toriyama

According to the official website, Toriyama reportedly added the spots to Cell because he thought the character’s otherwise smooth design needed something extra. He later confessed this artistic decision was a problem when it came to actually drawing him, saying, “I had to carefully draw all those spots with a felt-tip pen every single time. It was exhausting.”

This feeling is similar to another well-known case where Toriyama changed a character’s design to make things easier during the weekly production of the manga. In an interview celebrating Dragon Ball‘s 30th anniversary, he shared that he simplified the design of Goku’s hair to speed up the process. “I made his hair blond so my assistant wouldn’t have to work as hard,” Toriyama explained. “He was spending a lot of time filling in Goku’s hair, and I kept having to erase over it. It was really troublesome… (laughs).”

The initial design for Perfect Cell was made for the cover of the Weekly Shonen Jump magazine’s combined 1992 issue No. 36/37, which came out on August 11, 1992. As previously noted, the original cover only showed Perfect Cell’s face, appearing behind Goku and Future Trunks in their Super Saiyan forms. This issue was particularly important for Future Trunks, as it featured the start of his fight with Cell on the magazine’s full-color first page. It also included a special short story called Trunks: The Story – The Lone Warrior, which explored his connection with the androids from his devastated future.

The chapter released in the issue titled “Trunks Surpasses His Father!” showed the character finally revealing his incredible power to rescue Vegeta. Meanwhile, the magazine created excitement with a two-page preview of the fighters preparing for the dangerous Cell Games. The chapter’s cover also prominently displayed Perfect Cell, alongside smaller images of the other Z warriors in square boxes.

Akira Toriyama’s difficulty with drawing Cell’s spots was probably made worse by how long Cell was a major threat in the story. Cell’s storyline is one of the longest in the original Dragon Ball Z manga, lasting more than 60 chapters – from when the android first appeared to his ultimate, explosive defeat by Gohan. This meant Toriyama had to carefully draw Cell’s complicated pattern every week for over a year.

Even though he caused problems for his creator, the character left a significant mark on the franchise. He was updated for modern fans in the 2022 movie Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero, returning as the gigantic and destructive android, Cell Max. Those who want to experience the original storyline can find the Dragon Ball manga on VIZ Media.

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2025-09-30 00:10