Where would you rank Super perfect cell power relative to SSJ2 Gohan?

[Seekeroftruth]

Except this isn't how it went down.

In your analogy, Cell would be a guy who starts an arm wrestling contest with someone who is only using 50% of his strength, while cell is using 100% of his. Cell cannot immediately overpower this person despite this person only using 1/2 their strength. Cell then gets bite by an insect (a more accurate interpretation of what vegeta attack felt like). Cell gets mildly distracted. The person who was using only 50% of his strength goes 100% and wins the arm competition. Whether, cell had gotten distracted or not is not a factor. The fact he cannot insta overpower someone at 50% of their strength is telling that he is in no way close to that person at 100% power.

As I had said in my first post, it was made pretty clear that Gohan was not at 50% power. He only lost his confidence. Once he got a pep talk from Goku, his power returned. If you want to believe Gohan was at 50% power during the beam struggle, you're entitled to that opinion. I am still siding with the guides on this one that state Cell and Gohan were even in power.

Both herms strength guide and direct text from the manga tells us that gohan was at 50% power when he fired his blast at cell. Why are you denying a direct text from the manga?

[Kaboom]

It's rash to just lock in on Gohan's remark about being at half-strength while overlooking everything else. Ki is just as much a spiritual and mental power as it is a physical one, and Gohan's despair was holding him back just as much as his injury. He didn't win in the end because his 50% was still stronger than Cell's 100%, he won by managing to briefly summon back his own 100% (and possibly beyond) when it mattered.

Various Daizenshuu volumes clarify for us that Cell after his regeneration was now "the strongest being," making him at least slightly above SS2 Gohan, but also that Gohan's last burst to win the Kamehameha duel is "his strongest power" and "the strongest Kamehameha in history," meaning he managed to re-surpass Cell with that last push.

So put it all together in an easy-to-understand power chain and it's...

SS2 Gohan (Injured & demoralized) < SS2 Gohan < Super Perfect Cell < SS2 Gohan (Final KHH burst)

Easy-peasy.

[Seekeroftruth]

It's rash to just lock in on Gohan's remark about being at half-strength while overlooking everything else. Ki is just as much a spiritual and mental power as it is a physical one, and Gohan's despair was holding him back just as much as his injury. He didn't win in the end because his 50% was still stronger than Cell's 100%, he won by managing to briefly summon back his own 100% (and possibly beyond) when it mattered.

Various Daizenshuu volumes clarify for us that Cell after his regeneration was now "the strongest being," making him at least slightly above SS2 Gohan, but also that Gohan's last burst to win the Kamehameha duel is "his strongest power" and "the strongest Kamehameha in history," meaning he managed to re-surpass Cell with that last push.

So put it all together in an easy-to-understand power chain and it's...

SS2 Gohan (Injured & demoralized) < SS2 Gohan < Super Perfect Cell < SS2 Gohan (Final KHH burst)

Easy-peasy.

Daiznshuu though has several entries in it that are flawed because when created they look at things in isolation and there is oversight into how they relate to one another. For example, daizenshuu entry states that Piccolo daimo's strongest attack can destroy only a city. This is because this is his max output shown on screen. However, when you realize that piccolo daimo is much stronger than Roshi who can blow up a moon then this entry makes no sense. This is why it's best to always prioritize manga illustration over guidebook.


As to the topic of ki. It's said that dragon ball characters have physical limits and use ki to become stronger and surpass those physical limits.

According to Akira Toriyama, ki includes at least three parts:

Genki (元気 lit. "Vigor")
Yūki (勇気 lit. "Courage")
Shōki (正気 lit. "Right-mindedness")

He implies yūki is literally the emotion of courage and the energy rush that comes from that, which would mean ki is as much an emotional concept as it is a physical energy to use in battle.

We've seen from the start of DB that gohan's ki is very heavily tied to his state of mind. We saw with raditz how Gohan went from a battle power of 7 to rivaling raditz when he saw his father was about to be hurt/killed and got enraged. This was same concept presented in the cell saga when he turned SSJ2

"Ki can be used for many different techniques. Because there are physical limits to the strength of the body itself, it is necessary to increase one's ki to overcome this barrier and become stronger"

From all standpoint, cell had all 3 in his favor. He had vigor, courage and was in right state of mind and using all of his power when he fired that blast at Gohan. He was fully energized and ready to take him out. Gohan was demoralized (not in right state of mind) , injured physical (lacked vigor) and lacked a bit of courage. We are told how much this affects son Gohan when he exclaims that he has lost 50% of his ki in battle. And yet, a cell who is operating at 100% cannot seem to overcome a ki base attack from gohan who is operating at 50% and is also having a pep talk with Son Goku.

Goku even states that he is confident that Gohan can beat cell if he uses all his power. This contradicts the daizenshuu entry of cell being the most powerful in the universe. Gohan then unleashes his full blast and cell cannot even put up a defense to push it back even a little. It shows right there that at 100% power, Son Gohan's full power can crush any energy output from cell. The fact cell could not completely overwhelm gohan using only 50% of his ki energy in a ki base beam struggle is a testament to their gap in power.

[Hugo Boss]

It's rash to just lock in on Gohan's remark about being at half-strength while overlooking everything else. Ki is just as much a spiritual and mental power as it is a physical one, and Gohan's despair was holding him back just as much as his injury. He didn't win in the end because his 50% was still stronger than Cell's 100%, he won by managing to briefly summon back his own 100% (and possibly beyond) when it mattered.

Various Daizenshuu volumes clarify for us that Cell after his regeneration was now "the strongest being," making him at least slightly above SS2 Gohan, but also that Gohan's last burst to win the Kamehameha duel is "his strongest power" and "the strongest Kamehameha in history," meaning he managed to re-surpass Cell with that last push.

So put it all together in an easy-to-understand power chain and it's...

SS2 Gohan (Injured & demoralized) < SS2 Gohan < Super Perfect Cell < SS2 Gohan (Final KHH burst)

Easy-peasy.

That perfectly summarizes what I think. I would just add that Gohan’s peak power is a firm example of when a Saiyan faces a dire situation and breaks his own limits. Gohan managed to reach the same resolve that Goku had against King Piccolo. That’s why in the years that followed Gohan was remembered as the strongest.

[Kaboom]

Daizenshuu though has several entries in it that are flawed because when created they look at things in isolation and there is oversight into how they relate to one another. For example, daizenshuu entry states that Piccolo daimo's strongest attack can destroy only a city. This is because this is his max output shown on screen. However, when you realize that piccolo daimo is much stronger than Roshi who can blow up a moon then this entry makes no sense. This is why it's best to always prioritize manga illustration over guidebook.

Toriyama's the one who had Muten Roshi blow up the moon but then later portrayed King Piccolo blowing up half a city like it was a big deal. Don't blame the guidebooks for simply cataloguing what he wrote and drew in the first place, because that's all they're doing >90% of the time.

We've seen from the start of DB that gohan's ki is very heavily tied to his state of mind. We saw with raditz how Gohan went from a battle power of 7 to rivaling raditz when he saw his father was about to be hurt/killed and got enraged. This was same concept presented in the cell saga when he turned SSJ2

You seem to understand these concepts pretty well, especially when relating to Gohan, but the idea of Gohan not being permanently stuck at 50%, and his emotions and determination letting him make up for his injury and overpower the even-stronger Cell, somehow just doesn't compute for you?

Seriously, there's absolutely nothing wrong or manga-contrary about Cell becoming a smidge stronger than Gohan but then Gohan managing to re-surpass that in the final beam clash moments. It only seems like a problem when one myopically zeroes in on that "Gohan's at 50%" bit and ignores the actual narrative surrounding it.

Gohan managed to reach the same resolve that Goku had against King Piccolo.

Yes, that's a very good comparison. Another one that's similar is Piccolo losing his entire arm against Raditz but still being able to build up a strong enough ki attack to kill him. Gohan versus Cell is functionally almost the same, just more about being emotion-driven rather than simply charging an attack over time.

[Bloodthroe]

Both herms strength guide and direct text from the manga tells us that gohan was at 50% power when he fired his blast at cell. Why are you denying a direct text from the manga?

I remember that section of the manga vividly. The manga didn't say that at all. I don't know what else to tell you.

You've chosen to believe Gohan was at 50% during the beam struggle. Nothing we can say will convince you otherwise.

Perhaps, I will point out that SSJ2 is only a 2x multiplier over SSJ1. So if Gohan's SSJ2 was at 50% power, then he would only be as strong as his earlier SSJ1 level. Which would not be enough to defeat Perfect Cell, much less Super Perfect Cell.

[Galan007]

We saw Super perfect cell tank blast from an enraged vegeta when he SSJ 2nd grade and enraged.

Correct. The difference, however, is that Cell saw Vegeta coming in that instance, and was fully prepared/ready:

Spoiler:

...So of course his attacks were effectively no-sold, given the power discrepancy between the two.

But to reiterate(yet again): I'm not saying that Vegeta's cheap-shot blast during the beam-struggle in any way injured/harmed Cell -- but it did distract him for a moment, and took his focus off of Gohan entirely:

Spoiler:

And in that moment of distraction, Goku saw the brief opening in Cell's defenses -- hence why he exclaimed "NOW!!!", and why Gohan immediately unloaded his full power at that exact same moment:

Spoiler:

A weakened vegeta firing off a blast at him while cell is would not have made a difference. The reason goku says "do it now" and it timing with vegeta distraction was merely done for dramatic and story line effect by Toriyama.

Nah, trying to go the "dramatic effect" route is just a cop-out.

Vegeta hits Cell with a cheap-shot blast that clearly distracts him > Goku notices this brief gap in Cell's defenses and screams for Gohan to attack > Gohan unleashes his full power at the exact same moment > Cell dies.

That isn't just a coincidence, my dude.

[theherodjl]

Is it possible that the manga & anime depictions of the beam clash are getting mixed up and causing confusion here? The manga clearly shows Cell having the advantage against Gohan's momentary struggle of power flow and nearly winning until Vegeta distracted him, while the anime greatly drew the scene out and had Gohan & Cell frequently change places with who was stronger until Gohan's final push. Dragon Ball Kai kept the original anime depiction of the beam clash intact despite cutting out a lot of other non manga scenes, so that could be a source of the manga & anime getting intertwined in some fans' memory.

[Mr Perfect Cell]

Equal imo but 80% at worst. Would be pretty shitty for the final boss to be like less than half as strong as the hero. The way I see It cell after powering up many times (from Full power to Buff mode) against gohan, he finally matches him and is ready to throw down. Neither Gohan nor Cell back down with their matching flaring SS2 auras (to me implies They're on par).

[Seekeroftruth]

Daizenshuu though has several entries in it that are flawed because when created they look at things in isolation and there is oversight into how they relate to one another. For example, daizenshuu entry states that Piccolo daimo's strongest attack can destroy only a city. This is because this is his max output shown on screen. However, when you realize that piccolo daimo is much stronger than Roshi who can blow up a moon then this entry makes no sense. This is why it's best to always prioritize manga illustration over guidebook.

Toriyama's the one who had Muten Roshi blow up the moon but then later portrayed King Piccolo blowing up half a city like it was a big deal. Don't blame the guidebooks for simply cataloguing what he wrote and drew in the first place, because that's all they're doing >90% of the time.

We've seen from the start of DB that gohan's ki is very heavily tied to his state of mind. We saw with raditz how Gohan went from a battle power of 7 to rivaling raditz when he saw his father was about to be hurt/killed and got enraged. This was same concept presented in the cell saga when he turned SSJ2

You seem to understand these concepts pretty well, especially when relating to Gohan, but the idea of Gohan not being permanently stuck at 50%, and his emotions and determination letting him make up for his injury and overpower the even-stronger Cell, somehow just doesn't compute for you?

Seriously, there's absolutely nothing wrong or manga-contrary about Cell becoming a smidge stronger than Gohan but then Gohan managing to re-surpass that in the final beam clash moments. It only seems like a problem when one myopically zeroes in on that "Gohan's at 50%" bit and ignores the actual narrative surrounding it.

Gohan managed to reach the same resolve that Goku had against King Piccolo.

Yes, that's a very good comparison. Another one that's similar is Piccolo losing his entire arm against Raditz but still being able to build up a strong enough ki attack to kill him. Gohan versus Cell is functionally almost the same, just more about being emotion-driven rather than simply charging an attack over time.

But you seem to have missed the point. The guidebook are made by people who just want to make a buck and have no care or passion to how each categories action relates to one another. They put piccolo daimos feat in a seperate isolated case without factoring that said feat is not impressive from what roshi did and that daimo is more powerful than roshi. Hence, you should never reference the guidebook if said material contradicts what is said in the manga.

Yes. However, this is the issue. We are given clear % of gohan's ki output and emotional state before the clash. We are told he is only using 50% of powers and he even has less time to charge up his attack compared to Cell. And yet, In a ki base beam struggle, Gohan is shown to match Cell's blast initially. Do you not find it weird that if Cell was equal or near Gohan strength that he could not outright overpower his blast like Gohan did it him? In most of the beam struggle, we are given insight that all 3 elements that determine your ki was not in gohan's favor while for cell case everything was in his favor. And yet, cell could not finish off Gohan who needed encouragement from his dead father.

[Seekeroftruth]

We saw Super perfect cell tank blast from an enraged vegeta when he SSJ 2nd grade and enraged.

Correct. The difference, however, is that Cell saw Vegeta coming in that instance, and was fully prepared/ready:

Spoiler:

...So of course his attacks were effectively no-sold, given the power discrepancy between the two.

But to reiterate(yet again): I'm not saying that Vegeta's cheap-shot blast during the beam-struggle in any way injured/harmed Cell -- but it did distract him for a moment, and took his focus off of Gohan entirely:

Spoiler:

And in that moment of distraction, Goku saw the brief opening in Cell's defenses -- hence why he exclaimed "NOW!!!", and why Gohan immediately unloaded his full power at that exact same moment:

Spoiler:

A weakened vegeta firing off a blast at him while cell is would not have made a difference. The reason goku says "do it now" and it timing with vegeta distraction was merely done for dramatic and story line effect by Toriyama.

Nah, trying to go the "dramatic effect" route is just a cop-out.

Vegeta hits Cell with a cheap-shot blast that clearly distracts him > Goku notices this brief gap in Cell's defenses and screams for Gohan to attack > Gohan unleashes his full power at the exact same moment > Cell dies.

That isn't just a coincidence, my dude.

The issue with this is as followed:

1. We have prior dialogue from Son Goku that he did not account for Vegeta's blast in helping Gohan win. As Goku clearly says early in the beam struggle that if Gohan cuts loose like cell, he can win.

2. We know from BoG that all base saiyans are weaker than Frieza. Vegeta in this instance was also heavily injured and wouldn't have been in top shape. It's seems rather weird that we would act like Cell being mildly distracted would cause him to break his defense and concentration by such an extent when Gohan had bigger distractors.

For example of comparison

Cell was fresh. Gohan still was exhausted from using his ki prior.
Cell was uninjured. Gohan had lost use of one of his arm.
Cell was confident, courageous/arrogant and in right state of mind. Gohan was filled with grief, depression, physically weakened, and lack self confidence. All of which are components of ki.
Cell was hyperfocus in his beam struggle. Gohan was having a conversation with his dead father.

Putting all these things into consideration. Cell has every advantage and far less distractors in said beam struggle and the only thing holding him back is not having enough ki to outright overpower Gohan's beam. To put it simply.

[Galan007]

1. We have prior dialogue from Son Goku that he did not account for Vegeta's blast in helping Gohan win. As Goku clearly says early in the beam struggle that if Gohan cuts loose like cell, he can win.

Once more: Vegeta's blast clearly distracted Cell, and took his focus entirely away from the beam-struggle for a brief moment(see the scans I posted above.)

And it was then...and only then...that Gohan, at the explicit urging/prompting of Goku (#NOW!!!!), actually unleashed his full power to prevail. Is it possible that Gohan could have still beaten Cell without Vegeta's distraction? Perhaps. But it's ultimately impossible say with any kind of certainty, given that we only saw one scenario play-out in canon: ie. the one where Vegeta did intervene, thereby providing Gohan with the opening he needed to win.

2. We know from BoG that all base saiyans are weaker than Frieza. Vegeta in this instance was also heavily injured and wouldn't have been in top shape. It's seems rather weird that we would act like Cell being mildly distracted would cause him to break his defense and concentration by such an extent when Gohan had bigger distractors.

Except we know that it is possible for attacks from weaker characters to, at the very least, distract much more powerful characters in DBZ/DBS, IF the latter is unprepared... Here is one of the more recent examples:

Spoiler:

That being said, Vegeta's cheap-shot blast was sufficient enough to cause the brief distraction/opening that Gohan needed to fully unleash and destroy Cell. The manga scenes were exceedingly clear in that regard, tbh, so I'm not sure why you're completely unwilling to see the bigger picture here? My argument in no way lessens Gohan's 'status' or w/e, if that's what you're worried about. /shrug

[Seekeroftruth]

1. We have prior dialogue from Son Goku that he did not account for Vegeta's blast in helping Gohan win. As Goku clearly says early in the beam struggle that if Gohan cuts loose like cell, he can win.

Once more: Vegeta's blast clearly distracted Cell, and took his focus entirely away from the beam-struggle for a brief moment(see the scans I posted above.)

And it was then...and only then...that Gohan, at the explicit urging/prompting of Goku (#NOW!!!!), actually unleashed his full power to prevail. Is it possible that Gohan could have still beaten Cell without Vegeta's distraction? Perhaps. But it's ultimately impossible say with any kind of certainty, given that we only saw one scenario play-out in canon: ie. the one where Vegeta did intervene, thereby providing Gohan with the opening he needed to win.

2. We know from BoG that all base saiyans are weaker than Frieza. Vegeta in this instance was also heavily injured and wouldn't have been in top shape. It's seems rather weird that we would act like Cell being mildly distracted would cause him to break his defense and concentration by such an extent when Gohan had bigger distractors.

Except we know that it is possible for attacks from weaker characters to, at the very least, distract much more powerful characters in DBZ/DBS, IF the latter is unprepared... Here is one of the more recent examples:

Spoiler:

That being said, Vegeta's cheap-shot blast was sufficient enough to cause the brief distraction/opening that Gohan needed to fully unleash and destroy Cell. The manga scenes were exceedingly clear in that regard, tbh, so I'm not sure why you're completely unwilling to see the bigger picture here? My argument in no way lessens Gohan's 'status' or w/e, if that's what you're worried about. /shrug

My issue with this, as i've previously pointed out, is that you are acknowledging one inconvenience to cell while total disregarding the multiple inconvenience to Gohan in their fight as justification for why they are equal.

Let me break it down again. When that beam struggle happened.

CELL GOHAN
1. Perfectly fresh and at his highest level of power 1. Physically weakened and mentally tired out
2. Had a longer time to charge up his attack. Full intention 2. Shorter time to charge up attack. Intentionally holding back his
to kill Son Gohan and did not care of collateral damage. full power out of fear of damage to the Earth.
3. Had no distraction prior to Vegeta firing ki blast and 3. Having full fledge conversation with his dead father who is
solely focused to kill Son Gohan giving him a pep talk and telling him not to feel regret for
indirectly killing him
4. Got distracted by a minor ki blast from a battered/weakened 4. Did not get minor ki blast from battered weakened vegeta
Vegeta

Do you see how Gohan went into this fight with far more disadvantages than Cell? This is like if you got into a fight with someone with a knife stuck in their stomach, that is bleeding out, has a broken arm and couldn't put them down from the start. A kid throws a rubber ball to your head that mildly distracts you and the guy knock you out with a hay maker. Can you honestly say that you are an equal to said character if you failed to overpower them in such a weakened state?

"Once more: Vegeta's blast clearly distracted Cell, and took his focus entirely away from the beam-struggle for a brief moment(see the scans I posted above.)

And it was then...and only then...that Gohan, at the explicit urging/prompting of Goku (#NOW!!!!), actually unleashed his full power to prevail. Is it possible that Gohan could have still beaten Cell without Vegeta's distraction? Perhaps. But it's ultimately impossible say with any kind of certainty, given that we only saw one scenario play-out in canon: ie. the one where Vegeta did intervene, thereby providing Gohan with the opening he needed to win."

And again I've pointed out this is completely false narrative and just head cannon. Goku had stated before the beam struggle that if Gohan had gone all out, he would win against cell. Goku was not banking on vegeta to fire his blast to beat cell. Goku telling Gohan now right when Vegeta fired the blast was merely done for dramatic effect by Toriyama from a storyline perspective. Whether vegeta was present or not, cell was always going to lose once Gohan unleashed his full power and stopped being afraid of his power.

Chapter: 415 (DBZ 221), P6.2-5
Context: after Gohan's injured saving Vegeta, and Cell charges up his final Kamehameha

Goku: “Go strike with an all-out Kamehameha, like Cell! If you do that, you’ll definitely win! Absolutely!”
Gohan: “B-but, the way I am now…I can only use one arm, and even my ki is already less than half…”
[ ]
Goku: “That’s alright, you can win! Believe in your own power! Show me one last time…The power we created together!”

[Seekeroftruth]

1. We have prior dialogue from Son Goku that he did not account for Vegeta's blast in helping Gohan win. As Goku clearly says early in the beam struggle that if Gohan cuts loose like cell, he can win.

Once more: Vegeta's blast clearly distracted Cell, and took his focus entirely away from the beam-struggle for a brief moment(see the scans I posted above.)

And it was then...and only then...that Gohan, at the explicit urging/prompting of Goku (#NOW!!!!), actually unleashed his full power to prevail. Is it possible that Gohan could have still beaten Cell without Vegeta's distraction? Perhaps. But it's ultimately impossible say with any kind of certainty, given that we only saw one scenario play-out in canon: ie. the one where Vegeta did intervene, thereby providing Gohan with the opening he needed to win.

2. We know from BoG that all base saiyans are weaker than Frieza. Vegeta in this instance was also heavily injured and wouldn't have been in top shape. It's seems rather weird that we would act like Cell being mildly distracted would cause him to break his defense and concentration by such an extent when Gohan had bigger distractors.

Except we know that it is possible for attacks from weaker characters to, at the very least, distract much more powerful characters in DBZ/DBS, IF the latter is unprepared... Here is one of the more recent examples:

Spoiler:

That being said, Vegeta's cheap-shot blast was sufficient enough to cause the brief distraction/opening that Gohan needed to fully unleash and destroy Cell. The manga scenes were exceedingly clear in that regard, tbh, so I'm not sure why you're completely unwilling to see the bigger picture here? My argument in no way lessens Gohan's 'status' or w/e, if that's what you're worried about. /shrug

My issue with this, as i've previously pointed out, is that you are acknowledging one inconvenience to cell while total disregarding the multiple inconvenience to Gohan in their fight as justification for why they are equal.

Let me break it down again. When that beam struggle happened.

Super Perfect Cell:
1. Fresh and energized and at the height of his power. Also no physical injuries.
2. Intention to kill Son Gohan using his full power and no care for collateral damage as evident by his statement of destroying the entire solar system
3. Had longer time to charge up his ki base attack
4. Confident in his power and in right stat of mind
5. No distraction prior to vegeta firing his attack and clearly focused on killing Gohan

Son Gohan
1. Physically injured and bleeding out. One hand is usless
2. Holding back his powers out of fear of causing harm to the earth
3. Shorter duration to charge up his ki base attack
4. Lacked confidence, depressed, tired and regretting his decision that leads to his father being killed
5. Has distracting conversation with his dead father who is encouraging him to unleash his full strength and to not feel about about his action that ultimately lead to his death.

Do you see how Gohan went into this fight with far more disadvantages than Cell? This is like if you got into a fight with someone with a knife stuck in their stomach, that is bleeding out, has a broken arm and you still can't put this person down despite them being in such a weakened state. A kid throws a rubber ball to your head, midway in the fight, that mildly distracts you and u get knocked out by a haymaker from the other guy. Can you honestly say that you are an equal to said person if you failed to overpower them in such a weakened state?

"Once more: Vegeta's blast clearly distracted Cell, and took his focus entirely away from the beam-struggle for a brief moment(see the scans I posted above.)

And it was then...and only then...that Gohan, at the explicit urging/prompting of Goku (#NOW!!!!), actually unleashed his full power to prevail. Is it possible that Gohan could have still beaten Cell without Vegeta's distraction? Perhaps. But it's ultimately impossible say with any kind of certainty, given that we only saw one scenario play-out in canon: ie. the one where Vegeta did intervene, thereby providing Gohan with the opening he needed to win."

And again I've pointed out this is completely false narrative and just head cannon. Goku had stated before the beam struggle that if Gohan had gone all out, he would win against cell. Goku was not banking on vegeta to fire his blast to beat cell. Goku telling Gohan now right when Vegeta fired the blast was merely done for dramatic effect by Toriyama from a storyline perspective. Whether vegeta was present or not, cell was always going to lose once Gohan unleashed his full power and stopped being afraid of his power.

Chapter: 415 (DBZ 221), P6.2-5
Context: after Gohan's injured saving Vegeta, and Cell charges up his final Kamehameha

Goku: “Go strike with an all-out Kamehameha, like Cell! If you do that, you’ll definitely win! Absolutely!”
Gohan: “B-but, the way I am now…I can only use one arm, and even my ki is already less than half…”
[ ]
Goku: “That’s alright, you can win! Believe in your own power! Show me one last time…The power we created together!”

[Galan007]

Circular as this discussion has become, you still seem to be confused as to what I am actually saying here... So to reiterate once again:

Goku was indeed pushing Gohan to dig deep and utilize all of his power earlier in the beam-struggle(I never argued otherwise.) The point, however, is that Gohan never *actually* did so until the exact moment when Vegeta created a brief opening in Cell's defense with his cheap-shot blast. THAT is when Goku exclaimed "NOW!!!!", and THAT is when Gohan finally unloaded all of his remaining power to achieve victory. So again: Cell WAS momentarily distracted at the time Gohan overpowered him -- this is incontrovertible(I provided pertinent scans above.) I am not saying that Gohan would have been incapable of defeating Cell if the distraction hadn't occurred. I'm saying that we cannot possibly know either way, because we only saw this ONE scenario play-out in canon.

tl;dr
You can't just ignore such a heavily important bit of context(ie. the fact that Cell was clearly distracted when Gohan overpowered him), simply because you have your own preconceived notions of Gohan's power-level... It doesn't work that way. The surrounding context is very much relevant in this case, and all bias aside, should absolutely be taken into consideration.

[miguelnuva1]

Ss2 kid Gohan injured 50
Ss2 Teen Gohan 80
Ss2 Kid Gohan majority of cg 85
SPC 88
SS2 PM Vegeta 90
Ss2 Kid Gohan full power 100
Ss2 Goku/Majin Vegeta 110

Something like this.

[PowerLevelGuy]

Super Saiyan Goku 250
Perfect Cell (Vs Goku) 275
Perfect Cell (Vs Gohan) 350
Super Saiyan Gohan 375
Injured Ssj2 Gohan 750
Perfect Cell (FP) 1,000
Super Perfect Cell 1,700
Super Saiyan 2 Gohan 1,800
SPC Kamehameha 4,250
Gohan Kamehameha 4,500

I think SPC isn't very far behind Gohan, but when Gohan does finally unleash his full potential, it's enough to overwhelm Cell.

I would like to mention I think Injured Ssj2 Gohan is worlds above Super Saiyan Gohan. I never agreed with these two being on par with each other.

[GreatSaiyaman123]

Power level crunch aside, is there any reason to think Cell is close to Gohan? He was dominating a <50% Gohan, but then got pulverized by 100% Gohan. There's a lot of room here. Going by the Boo Saga, Gohan is respectable and Cell isn't.

[Mireya]

Power level crunch aside, is there any reason to think Cell is close to Gohan? He was dominating a <50% Gohan, but then got pulverized by 100% Gohan. There's a lot of room here. Going by the Boo Saga, Gohan is respectable and Cell isn't.

I think so, because Gohan was likely already more than simply <50% amidst the clash, as according to VIZ, it's said Gohan hasn't put out his true power "yet" by Goku, which implies he was already in the process but not quite there yet. Cell seemed to be smiling and having a little fun by dragging the beam clash, while Gohan had his veins popping up. Even when closer to 100%, Cell had the advantage. It was when Cell felt momentarily distracted by Vegeta and Gohan put it all in, unlike Cell who decided, likely, to do such when he said "now it's over" right before Vegeta firing a blast at him, that Cell was decimated. It's also arguable that once regaining a little confidence by Goku's encouraging words, Gohan got over the <50% state, as according to Toriyama, one's state of mind can alter their power. So it's more complex than summing as "Cell didn't pulverize 50% Gohan while Gohan did so vs Cell" imo.

Cell came with a certain confidence. While villains have wrong confidence many times, it also many times happens in the heat of the battle. Cell had already tasted Gohan's power so there was no reason to come back if he didn't feel a legitimate chance of victory. He also didn't seem to assert his superiority in a so clear way, which many villains blinded by overconfidence do, he replies to Gohan's statement of revenge by "Things won't turn out as easily this time".

So while Gohan is ahead as Goku seems sure that in a beam clash, were Gohan to put forth FP he would do it, and is also the benchmark in the Boo saga... Cell seems definitely close to make it a not so sure and challenging battle. So I'd classify them as rivals with Gohan holding a slight edge.

[Kaboom]

Power level crunch aside, is there any reason to think Cell is close to Gohan?

A) Because we're explicitly told he is, in the Daizenshuu quote I mentioned before, just to get that bit out of the way. But also...

B) Because in story-telling terms, that's... kind of the whole point of Cell's comeback. His final, freak-accident power-up here has put him up on Gohan's level and made him a serious threat again. The tables have turned, victory for the heroes looks out of reach, and it takes Gohan making a big, dramatic, "need to push past it and bring everything I've got" effort to win in the end.

I mean, after everything that'd already transpired during the Cell Games, with Cell making a grand total of three power-ups after Gohan went Super Saiyan 2, for him to somehow still be nowhere near Gohan in power and beaten by less than Gohan's best would be anticlimactic and... well, just incredibly lame.