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Made this since Fearless never made the follow up to his Freeza Arc thread.
Simple thread. For those unfamiliar, just rank all the fights from the Artificial Humans/Cell Arc from best to worst, preferably with a reason to go along with it.
As for my list...
#1 - Piccolo VS #17 - Along with having good choreography and being the only fight in the arc where a main character utilised some semblance of strategy, the actual tension of Cell moving in coupled with Piccolo's finite stamina make it a race against time and one of the most well written fights in the Z portion of the series.
#2 - Goku VS #19 - Similar to the previous one, it's a good case of what's going on with the characters in the fight that makes it worthwhile and not flashy choreography. Goku's struggle to keep up with his heart virus as well as the build up to it from the spectating characters' reactions help add a good sense of mystery to Goku's condition and a lot of tension when the illness starts to kick in.
#3 - Vegeta (and other Z-Warriors) VS #18 (and later #17) - Whilst a typical stomp match, it's executed decently as a way to bring Vegeta off his pedestal after acquiring Super Saiyan gave him an ego boost.
#4 - Piccolo VS Gero - The initial set up of the fight is what makes it with Gero biding his time to find an opening and using the terrain to his advantage. After that, it becomes a typical stomp match, but at least had more going on internally than the other generic fights of the arc.
#5 - Trunks VS Mecha Freeza/King Cold - Whilst the idea of giving Super Saiyan to anyone but a single user instantly devalues it, having one show up out of nowhere to easily kill the previous strongest antagonist along with the next best thing makes this fight an exciting opening to the arc.
#6 - Vegeta VS #19 - Typical stomp match, but at least Vegeta psychologically breaking #19 adds a little more uniqueness to the killing blow.
#7 - Piccolo VS Cell (Gingertown) - The mystery at the start of the fight is an excellent way to build up Cell. Unfortunately, it's all made pointless quickly by Cell infodumping everything and becoming one of the dumbest villains in the franchise by not realising the guy he inherited regeneration from would just regenerate his arm. Still, at least it still had something to it.
#8 - Goku VS Cell - Probably tied with Piccolo VS #17 in terms of having the best choreography of the arc, especially anime-wise, but it's completely lacking compared to previous battles Goku had with major villains due to what ties he had with Cell never being brought up as a main driving force for his actions and Cell having not killed anyone close to him like Daimao, the Saiyans and Freeza did. Also, Goku giving up for Gohan to be the hero makes the fight pointless immediately afterwards.
#9 - Piccolo, #17, #16 and Tenshinhan VS Cell - It's probably best to bunch all these consecutive sequences together as they're an equal pile of mediocrity. Whilst the initial segment is nice for a stomp match, that's still all it is. #16 VS Cell was alright, but didn't have much weight behind it when #16 is a very bland character. Tenshinhan's contribution is also a major asspull and means nothing in the long run when it was just prolonging the inevitable and Ten's survival meant the technique lacked any real plot significance.
#10 - Gohan VS Cell - More important than the Goku VS Cell fight for sure plot-wise, but its execution was even worse with each part of it just shifting between which side is offering a one-sided beatdown, not to mention Gohan going through two obvious character rewrites during both main sections of the fight making him coming into the role of Goku's successor feel hollow.
#11 - Vegeta (and later Trunks) VS Cell/Vegeta VS Trunks - A typical stomp at the start only to have Vegeta make the out of character decision of letting Cell achieve his Perfect form only for it to turn into an obvious stomp in Cell's favour. Grade 3 was also pointless.
#12 - Trunks VS Future #17 & #18/Future Cell - Just predictable stomp matches that were nothing but clean up duty and added nothing to the plot people couldn't already decipher. At least some of the choreography was nice though.
#13 - Z-Warriors VS Cell Juniors - Absolutely pointless when none of the main cast died and didn't contribute to Gohan achieving SS2 at all.
*Note: I didn't include Future Gohan VS #17/18 or Trunks' similar match due to them not even being an on-screen fight in the manga. The TV Special version would rank at #12 due to not providing anything we didn't already know from when Trunks first infodumped about the Artificial Humans.
Simple thread. For those unfamiliar, just rank all the fights from the Artificial Humans/Cell Arc from best to worst, preferably with a reason to go along with it.
As for my list...
#1 - Piccolo VS #17 - Along with having good choreography and being the only fight in the arc where a main character utilised some semblance of strategy, the actual tension of Cell moving in coupled with Piccolo's finite stamina make it a race against time and one of the most well written fights in the Z portion of the series.
#2 - Goku VS #19 - Similar to the previous one, it's a good case of what's going on with the characters in the fight that makes it worthwhile and not flashy choreography. Goku's struggle to keep up with his heart virus as well as the build up to it from the spectating characters' reactions help add a good sense of mystery to Goku's condition and a lot of tension when the illness starts to kick in.
#3 - Vegeta (and other Z-Warriors) VS #18 (and later #17) - Whilst a typical stomp match, it's executed decently as a way to bring Vegeta off his pedestal after acquiring Super Saiyan gave him an ego boost.
#4 - Piccolo VS Gero - The initial set up of the fight is what makes it with Gero biding his time to find an opening and using the terrain to his advantage. After that, it becomes a typical stomp match, but at least had more going on internally than the other generic fights of the arc.
#5 - Trunks VS Mecha Freeza/King Cold - Whilst the idea of giving Super Saiyan to anyone but a single user instantly devalues it, having one show up out of nowhere to easily kill the previous strongest antagonist along with the next best thing makes this fight an exciting opening to the arc.
#6 - Vegeta VS #19 - Typical stomp match, but at least Vegeta psychologically breaking #19 adds a little more uniqueness to the killing blow.
#7 - Piccolo VS Cell (Gingertown) - The mystery at the start of the fight is an excellent way to build up Cell. Unfortunately, it's all made pointless quickly by Cell infodumping everything and becoming one of the dumbest villains in the franchise by not realising the guy he inherited regeneration from would just regenerate his arm. Still, at least it still had something to it.
#8 - Goku VS Cell - Probably tied with Piccolo VS #17 in terms of having the best choreography of the arc, especially anime-wise, but it's completely lacking compared to previous battles Goku had with major villains due to what ties he had with Cell never being brought up as a main driving force for his actions and Cell having not killed anyone close to him like Daimao, the Saiyans and Freeza did. Also, Goku giving up for Gohan to be the hero makes the fight pointless immediately afterwards.
#9 - Piccolo, #17, #16 and Tenshinhan VS Cell - It's probably best to bunch all these consecutive sequences together as they're an equal pile of mediocrity. Whilst the initial segment is nice for a stomp match, that's still all it is. #16 VS Cell was alright, but didn't have much weight behind it when #16 is a very bland character. Tenshinhan's contribution is also a major asspull and means nothing in the long run when it was just prolonging the inevitable and Ten's survival meant the technique lacked any real plot significance.
#10 - Gohan VS Cell - More important than the Goku VS Cell fight for sure plot-wise, but its execution was even worse with each part of it just shifting between which side is offering a one-sided beatdown, not to mention Gohan going through two obvious character rewrites during both main sections of the fight making him coming into the role of Goku's successor feel hollow.
#11 - Vegeta (and later Trunks) VS Cell/Vegeta VS Trunks - A typical stomp at the start only to have Vegeta make the out of character decision of letting Cell achieve his Perfect form only for it to turn into an obvious stomp in Cell's favour. Grade 3 was also pointless.
#12 - Trunks VS Future #17 & #18/Future Cell - Just predictable stomp matches that were nothing but clean up duty and added nothing to the plot people couldn't already decipher. At least some of the choreography was nice though.
#13 - Z-Warriors VS Cell Juniors - Absolutely pointless when none of the main cast died and didn't contribute to Gohan achieving SS2 at all.
*Note: I didn't include Future Gohan VS #17/18 or Trunks' similar match due to them not even being an on-screen fight in the manga. The TV Special version would rank at #12 due to not providing anything we didn't already know from when Trunks first infodumped about the Artificial Humans.