Superhero Media: Dragonball Z - Seaon Five

I was fortunate enough to pick up a couple of Dragonball Z seasons that I was missing at Dixon's Recycled a couple of weeks back; Seasons 5 and 6, basically giving me the entire Cell story arch. Season 5 covers the Imperfect Cell and Perfect Cell Sagas; I never remembered the Cell stuff fondly, probably because the Trunks and Android Sagas are among my personal favorites. I found it a pleasant surprise then, when I really enjoyed the Imperfect Cell Saga this time around. The action focuses on Piccolo, Tien, Yamcha and Krillen as they chase after the elusive Cell, who they can't hope to defeat, trying to prevent him from killing too many innocent people or getting close to the Androids.The reveal of Cell is actually really well handled; in a deserted city, Piccolo can sense a great evil as is looking for it and there's no sound, absolute silence. As cell gets closer, breathing can be heard, then footsteps. A pretty awesome and subtle moment for an action-based show. 

Another scene of note involves an airport and a couple of siblings running for the last areoplane as Cell chases them, bent on absorbing their energy into himself. Krillen is the only hero on had to save the children, and he leaps into the fray, knowing full well that he is no match for Cell. It's a great moment of a hero being defined by their actions rather than their powers and, again, pretty rare for Dragonball Z. Krillen actually has plenty of good moments in the Imperfect Cell Saga, really getting some hard choices to make and having to live with the consequences of his decisions. It's probably the best use of Krillen since Dragonball and pretty rewarding character development for longtime fans. 

The Imperfect Cell Saga is, itself, imperfect. Lengthy ego-clashes between Cell and Vegeta are dull and constant references to the Saiyans being the Earth's only hope grate after a while. That said, the Saga isn't terribly long and has a lot of great moments to check out. The scenes in the deserted city and at the airport are great inspiration and I can see myself using them for scenarios before too long.