"The strongest on the Earth": Dragon Ball's Frieza & Cell Share the Same Genius Real World Origin (2024)

Dragon Ball chronicled Goku's rise as the strongest being on planet Earth, and Toriyama felt it was only natural that the scope of his threats began to expand beyond Earth. Toriyama's reasoning for how he came up with Frieza and Cell provides some insight into how the two iconic villains came to be, and how they're both secretly connected by this theory of challenging Goku.

It was only with the advent of the Dragon Ball Z era that the series began to see threats emerge from beyond Earth, and the franchise began to transition to being more sci-fi than fantasy (although fantastical elements remain to this day). First there were, of course, the Saiyans, including Vegeta, which ultimately led Goku to finding out about Frieza in the first place. With Goku having conquered every challenge so far, and even emerged as the World Martial Arts Tournament Champion, it was clear that he needed to face threats on an entirely new scale.

This led to the creation of the Frieza/Namek arc, where Goku would go up against the most vile force in the cosmos: a land developer.

Frieza and Cell Represent Two Different Aspects of Reality

In the Daizenshuu 2 databook, Toriyama did an interview (as translated by Kanzenshuu) in which he elaborated on the creation of Frieza: "Having become the strongest on the Earth, Goku and co. had also beat the Saiyans who came from outside of Earth, and then they went out into the universe. I came up with Frieza around the time of the Bubble, and the land shark was the worst person of all. So I made him the #1 land shark in the universe."

Frieza's inspiration from real estate developers is pretty obvious from his M.O.: wiping out all life on planets and then claiming them as his own, selling them to buyers at a high price. By "the bubble," Toriyama is referring to Japan's rapid economic growth and subsequent collapse in the 90's, a time when land prices reached insane levels in Japan. What's really interesting, however, is that Frieza was designed to represent the broader universe--a challenge that would undeniably put Goku on a new level of power, and one that he ultimately matched by going Super Saiyan.

In the interview, Toriyama continues, talking about Cell, "Since they had become the strongest in even the universe, they next had to surpass time. So with that I did time-travel stuff, but it was really rough." Therefore, Cell symbolically represents the future, the greatest challenge imaginable. With Cell's defeat, Goku and his friends had not only conquered space, but time as well, making them the ultimate champions of the universe.

The idea of Frieza representing Space and Cell representing Time is an interesting one, as they make up two of the fundamental aspects of the universe. With this line of thinking, it's no wonder that Dragon Ball Super would eventually go on to establish a multiverse for the franchise--it was basically the only way left to escalate. Two of Dragon Ball's most recognizable villains were created to showcase Goku's success across space and time, and with his victory over them cementing him as the most powerful mortal ever.

Dragon Ball

From the creative mind of Akira Toriyama, Dragon Ball is a mega multimedia franchise that spans back to the 1980s. Dragon Ball expanded quickly, starting as a serialized manga for Weekly Shonen Jump in Japan. It made its way overseas via manga and an anime adaptation that is enjoyed worldwide. Dragon Ball was the initial starting animated series that followed the adventures of the young Son Goku as he sought after the Dragon Balls. These mystical orbs would grant the wish of any who gathered them together. Then, the series would branch off into the immensely popular Dragon Ball Z, which followed Goku as an adult and featured high-intensity battles and Goku's never-ending search to be the strongest. The series has also enjoyed several popular video game adaptations and continues to release several new animated series and theatrical films up to the recent popular Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero.

Created by

Akira Toriyama

First Film

Dragon Ball: Curse of the Blood Rubies

Latest Film

Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero

First TV Show

Dragon Ball (1986)

Latest TV Show

Super Dragon Ball Heroes

First Episode Air Date

April 26, 1989

Latest Episode

2019-10-05

Cast

Sean Schemmel , Laura Bailey , Brian Drummond , Christopher Sabat , Scott McNeil

Current Series

Dragon Ball Super

Video Game(s)

Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 , Dragon Ball FighterZ , Dragon Ball: The Breakers , Super Dragon Ball Heroes: World Mission , Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Z , Dragon Ball Xenoverse , Dragon Ball Z Kakarot

Summary

From the creative mind of Akira Toriyama, Dragon Ball is a mega multimedia franchise that spans back to the 1980s. Dragon Ball expanded quickly, starting as a serialized manga for Weekly Shonen Jump in Japan. It made its way overseas via manga and an anime adaptation that is enjoyed worldwide. Dragon Ball was the initial starting animated series that followed the adventures of the young Son Goku as he sought after the Dragon Balls. These mystical orbs would grant the wish of any who gathered them together. Then, the series would branch off into the immensely popular Dragon Ball Z, which followed Goku as an adult and featured high-intensity battles and Goku's never-ending search to be the strongest. The series has also enjoyed several popular video game adaptations and continues to release several new animated series and theatrical films up to the recent popular Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero.