If you've read a single review about any of the box sets so far in this series, then you already know the lowdown. There's no point in repeating the same things over and over, so I'll focus on what's new, the story.
This box set contains one saga, the Cell Games. This makes this set easily the shortest thus far as the Cell Games are shorter then the battle with Freiza or the Fusion Saga, as such it's a rather paltry set in the series. Still it represents a major story arc in the series and has irrevocable changes for all the characters involved.
Cell, now in his perfect form, announces that he's going to hold his own tournament along the lines of the old World Martial Arts tournaments that the series used to be based around. The tournament is to take place in nine days and yes, there are nine filler episodes to choke down before the action starts. Strange how not long ago we traversed three years in only three episodes but now it takes nine episodes to travel nine days.
In honesty not all the filler build up is bad. While the episodes revolving around Mercenary Tao (yeah, he's still around) are rather dull, the episode about Gohan's birthday is actually a very charming little episode to add. Also these filler episodes introduce the rather irritating Mr. Satan. The idea is that the World Martial Arts Tournaments did eventually resume after the epic finale between Piccolo and Goku years ago, and that the new champion was a man named Mister Satan. With no Z-Fighters participating in recent tournaments, Satan is naturally much weaker then the superhuman characters fans have become used to, but he's completely unaware of it. As such the character treads a rather thin line between comical support and flat out annoying. It does feel rather refreshing to be reminded just how powerful the Z-Fighters are and to have someone around that makes everyone else, even the irrelevant fighters like Tien and Yamcha, still seem strong. On the downside, Mister Satan gets a lot of screen time and his ignorance can be very irritating. Having watched these episodes when they original aired in the US back when I was in High School, I can tell you everybody hated Satan and the time he took up. When you've got to wait a whole week for a new episode, you don't want to finally see one just to have to watch a guy that has no importance whatsoever to the story punch holes in busses and break bricks.
When the tournament finally begins, it's a really slow start. Mister Satan and his students get an entire episode to themselves as they all predict easy success and all fail miserably. After wasting so much time, we finally get to see the real fight begin as Goku steps up to challenge Cell. The fight that ensues is actually pretty good. The Super Saiyan and the Android exchange blows and special moves at an impressive rate. However it should be noted how Cell relies so heavily on borrowed techniques. He uses everything from Tien's multiform to Piccolo's Special Beam Cannon and even Freiza's energy disks. Goku surprises Cell by utilizing his Instant Transmission with a full power Kamehameha which incinerates the upper portion of Cell's body, including his head. At this point even the Namekian regeneration shouldn't save him and the fight should be over, but once again Cell manages to regenerate anyways, and manages to outlast Goku.
With nobody seemingly as powerful as Goku to step up and face Cell, it all falls to Gohan. While the fight between Gohan and Cell has a very promising start, it quickly gets dull. Gohan flat out refuses to fight back because he's afraid of losing control and he suddenly decides he hates fighting. So Cell spends a couple of episodes trying to force Gohan to lose his temper. When beating the tar out of the young Super Saiyan doesn't work, Cell steals the sensu beans and creates seven miniature clones of himself that go on a rampage attacking the rest of the Z-Fighters. The Cell Juniors prove too powerful for the Z-fighters, but Gohan still refuses to fight. Finally, Mister Satan fulfills his one and only purpose in this entire story arc by tossing the decapitated head of Android 16 towards Gohan. After a speech from the fellow pacifist, who is promptly silenced by Cell, Gohan finally gives in and lets his rage consume him. Gohan then transforms into a super saiyan to the second power, and dominates Cell.
After killing all the Cell Jrs and a quick one-sided battle with Cell, Gohan's arrogance (when he developed an ego, I'm not sure) gets the better of him. He hits Cell so hard that he spits out android 18 and reverts to his second form. In desperation Cell activates his self destruct to destroy the entire planet. Goku decides to use his instant transmission to save the planet from the explosion and sacrifices himself. However, by achieving new levels of cheapness, Cell regenerates even from self destructing. He returns in his perfect form, even without android 18, and because of his Saiyan Cells he gains an instant power boost. Cell returns to the battle, promptly kills Trunks (conveniently, the only character left who hasn't died before besides Gohan) and thumps and enraged Vegeta. At this point it would appear that the saiyan prince has officially degenerated into nothing more then a rapid fire laser gun, as all he does is pummel Cell with weak energy blasts. Gohan takes a blast for Vegeta to save his life but is hurt in the process. The finale of the battle is a dramatic beam struggle between Cell's Kamehameha and Gohan's Kamehameha. Each of the Z-Fighters attacks Cell from behind to distract him but it all fails until Vegeta steps in himself. Finally with Cell distracted, Gohan turns up the juice and ends the fight.
With Cell completely disintegrated, the last few episodes wrap up the story arc nicely. Trunks is wished back to life, but Goku choses to remain dead as both Freiza, the androids, and even the saiyans only threatened Earth to get at him. As such Goku deems it safer for the planet if he stays dead this time. Finally Trunks returns to the future where he defeats both androids and Cell, finally winning peace for his own world.
This story arc is probably better though of as the climax of the previous two sagas in one fight. While Tien, Yamcha, Krillin, Piccolo, Vegeta, Trunks, and Android 16 all show up to fight Cell at the games, only Gohan and Goku actually get turns. While I don't think Cell is nearly as impressive as a villain as Piccolo, Vegeta, or Frieza had been , the final battle is still very epic. With all that takes place, this saga finally concludes a lot of loose ends that have been hanging around since the series began. And the fight between Goku and Cell alone is pretty well worth the price of the set.
Get more detail about Dragon Ball Z: Season Six (Cell Games Saga).
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