Dragon Ball Z - Season Five (Perfect and Imperfect Cell Sagas)

"Dragon Ball Z has been called the Greatest Action Cartoon of all Time, and it's True!" --- Anime Insider

Season Five contains the Perfect and Imperfect Cell sagas on 6 discs.

The Z-Fighters gather their forces in an effort to combat the Android menace that has been set loose upon the planet. But they are about to discover that the Androids are the least of their worries. An even greater threat has risen from the shadows—Dr. Gero’s most lethal creation—Cell!

Born from the genetic material of the greatest warriors ever to walk the Earth, Cell is Dr. Gero’s ultimate weapon, a perfect fighting machine capable of duplicating all of the Z-Fighters’ most powerful attacks. Now, after years of waiting, Cell has begun to unleash his terrifying powers, wiping out entire cities as he gathers the energy he needs to fulfill his creator’s grand design. Time is short! The Z-Fighters must find a way to stop this monstrous foe before he completes his quest to absorb the other Androids and achieves his invincible Perfect Form!

Stills from Dragon Ball Z: Season Five (Click for larger image)

The artificial humans 17 and 18 who terrorized Earth in Season #4 of Dragon Ball Z were only a preliminary threat: Dr. Gero's ultimate creation, Cell, strikes in Season #5. A bio-entity created from genetic material taken from Goku, Piccolo, Vegeta, and Frieza, Cell arrives via the time capsule Bulma built for Trunks. (There are now two of them, somehow.) Although he defeats the merged Piccolo and Kami, Cell remains imprisoned in his "imperfect form," a sort of larval stage. Until he absorbs androids 17 and 18, he can't attain his ultimate power. Vegeta and Trunks train in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber at Kami's palace, which enables them to undergo the equivalent of a year's heavy workouts at high gravity in one day. Transcending his powers as a Super Saiyan, Vegeta clobbers Cell. When Cell challenges Vegeta to fight his perfect form. Vegeta takes the bait and allows Cell to evolve. The perfect Cell proves so powerful, Trunks has to draw on untapped reserves of power to save Vegeta. Goku plays only a small role in Season #5: he spends the first episodes recovering from the heart virus, then waiting with Gohan for the Hyperbolic Chamber or training in it. One of best-loved stories in the Dragon Ball Z continuity the "Cell Saga" offers plenty of action, with characters punching each other through rock walls and destroying entire islands as they fight. But it ends on a weak note when, instead of killing Trunks, Cell challenges the Z Fighters to a martial arts tournament--the focus of Season #6. The paradoxes of the time travel story, including adult Trunks encountering himself as a baby, don't seem to bother the fans--or the writers. These 26 episodes could have easily fit on five discs or even four, and spreading them over six feels chintzy.(Rated TV PG. suitable for ages 8 and older: violence, tobacco use, ethnic stereotypes) --Charles Solomon