Could Tenshinhan kill Imperfect Cell and the Androids?

[Flame Dragon]

The Shin Kihoho was powerful enough to push back Semi-Perfect Cell even throught there was a massive power difference (remember that Tienshinan was not even powerful enough to stand against Androids 19, 20, 18, 17 & 16, so Semi-Perfect Cell is leagues beyond him), so it's obvious that it's an extremely powerful ki technique (AND IT CAN BE SPAMMED, althrough it damages the user as well), probably one of the best in the series.

So could Tienshinan use the Shin Kihoho to damage or even kill Imperfect Cell? If one blast wouldn't kill Imperfect Cell, could he spam it like with Semi-Perfect Cell to kill him? Or would Cell regenerate?
If Tien couldn't kill Imperfect Cell either, how would he fare against the other, lesser androids?

[Kamiccolo9]

I'm guessing no, seeing as he never used it. While it worked well for stalling, it didn't exactly harm Cell, I'm guessing that that was due mainly to the "pushing" properties of the attack, rather than the power of the attack itself.

[Super Vegetto]

It's just force pushing Cell down, nothing compered to destructive power...

[dbgtFO]

Seeing as it could push second form Cell down, it should have even greater effects on those weaker than him, so maybe it could.

[Godo]

If Tenshinhan had a chance to use it, he would have. He didn't use it against the androids when there was a brawl after the Vegeta vs. #18 fight, either. So even though it is a strong attack (much so, that it can push Semi-perfect Cell down), I doubt that it is strong enough to actually kill the androids.
Also, he would have needed to surprise the enemy and not making his presence known, since otherwise they would evade it easily (remember that their speed is many times Tenshinhan's).

[sekzee]

Plot-no-jutsu aside, Tien wouldn't have managed to do much else to the other Androids.

[Flame Dragon]

Maybe he just didn't want to risk his life again, remember, he died in the Saiyan Saga using the same, albeit weaker, attack. It's a dangerous technique and it drains your lifeforce.

[Super Vegetto]

Maybe he just didn't want to risk his life again, remember, he died in the Saiyan Saga using the same, albeit weaker, attack. It's a dangerous technique and it drains your lifeforce.

He didn't used same attack like in saiyan saga which had destructive power, while shin kikoho is more of kiai...

[TheDevilsCorpse]

He didn't used same attack like in saiyan saga which had destructive power, while shin kikoho is more of kiai...

The Kikōhō and the Shin Kikōhō are both Kiai, the latter is just a stronger, rapid fire version.

Kikōhō
Characteristics
The secret weapon of the Tsuru-sen School. It concentrates a kiai into one point, then releases it in a single burst. Its main difference between ki blast-type techniques is that its trajectory cannot be seen. Its destructive power is formidable enough to instantly obliterate the Tenkaichi Budoukai arena. Indeed, it is a technique characteristic of the Tsuru-sen School, whose objective is to mercilessly kill people. Because this technique heavily uses up one's internal energy, it can only be used to decide the match in a single shot.

Shin Kikōhō
Characteristics
A technique that increases the force of the Kikoho. An attack that becomes possible when one has improved their abilities through intense training. Tenshinhan fired this technique to stop Cell from moving when Cell was trying to absorb No. 18, but he used up all of his power and collapsed.

[dualist]

Crazy, I was about to post this same exact question after watching that particular episode recently. I happen to think that he would've at least weakened Cell to the point where 16 or Piccolo could have possibly defeated him. You have to figure that it would've done some damage to Imperfect Cell

[mAcChaos]

SSJ Kid Trunks managed to knock Fat Buu through a mountain with a surprise kick.

And then there's Piccolo with barely any ki at all doing the same to Freeza.

You can get away with a lot if you have the element of surprise.

[dbgtFO]

You can get away with a lot if you have the element of surprise.

Cell saw it coming.. repeatedly.

[Marco Polo]

The only way Tenshinhan could defeat Cell with Kikoho is if someone constantly supplies him with Senzu and Tenshinhan fires fast enough to sink Cell into the core of the Earth.

...yeah.

[ChahikoDBZ]

I agree with Marco Polo. But otherwise I can't see Cell getting hurt or much less defeated by that technique. Maybe the other Androids would take some damage but in the long run it would probably just take Tenshinhan down before anything.

[Super Vegetto]

He didn't used same attack like in saiyan saga which had destructive power, while shin kikoho is more of kiai...

The Kikōhō and the Shin Kikōhō are both Kiai, the latter is just a stronger, rapid fire version.

Kikōhō
Characteristics
The secret weapon of the Tsuru-sen School. It concentrates a kiai into one point, then releases it in a single burst. Its main difference between ki blast-type techniques is that its trajectory cannot be seen. Its destructive power is formidable enough to instantly obliterate the Tenkaichi Budoukai arena. Indeed, it is a technique characteristic of the Tsuru-sen School, whose objective is to mercilessly kill people. Because this technique heavily uses up one's internal energy, it can only be used to decide the match in a single shot.

Shin Kikōhō
Characteristics
A technique that increases the force of the Kikoho. An attack that becomes possible when one has improved their abilities through intense training. Tenshinhan fired this technique to stop Cell from moving when Cell was trying to absorb No. 18, but he used up all of his power and collapsed.

So the only diffrence is that increases the force of Kikoho...

[Pantalones]

The "but it just pushes things!" excuse honestly has always sounded pretty absurd to me, considering that Shin Kikoho is nothing more than a stronger, rapid-fire version of the regular Kikoho which we already know is fully capable of causing real damage, not just... pushing things. #16's punch right to the face didn't even make Cell flinch, while the Shin Kikoho blasts knocked him back even after he'd been hit by the first one and knew the next was coming. So Shin Kikoho is at the very least capable of putting out more power than a punch from #16, even if it's still not enough to cause real damage to someone on "semi-perfect" Cell's level. And nothing aside from fan-assumption has ever said that Kikoho/Shin Kikoho are attacks that primarily work by pushing their target away--in fact, the description posted above says that the main difference from any other ki blast is... that you can't really see where the attack is coming from, you just get hit by it. That would make it much more difficult to dodge, of course, and that could explain Cell getting caught off guard and being thrown back once if that was what had happened... but that should have no effect on a far-more-powerful character's ability to just muscle through it once they know it's coming. Only the first time was unexpected, after that Cell saw Tenshinhan and knew that he was the source of the attack that had just smacked him into the ground, so it wasn't a surprise attack after that point. And yet Cell still couldn't just push through the blasts, and he tried.

Maybe it wouldn't be quite enough to take care of #16 or the full-power Imperfect Cell who was able to fight evenly with him, but I think at the very least it would be able to weaken #16 (and maybe Cell, depending on regeneration and such) and seriously harm (maybe even kill) #17 or #18. As for why he didn't try it earlier--Goku, Vegeta, and Piccolo were more than enough for #19 and #20 as it was, he didn't really have a chance to use it against #17 or #18 (#17 grabbed him in a headlock shortly after the everyone-vs.-the-androids fight started and held him like that until he blacked out, if I'm remembering right), and he probably chose not to try it on Imperfect Cell after seeing that #16 was handling him pretty well until he absorbed #17. The first chance he really had to show that technique off was when Piccolo and #16 had already been beaten and nobody else was there to hold Cell back, so I'm guessing he sees it as a last-resort technique that he doesn't want to fall back on unless it's really the only option left.

[Kaboom]

Obviously the Kikoho or Shin Kikoho would injure or kill someone on Tenshinhan's level or even somewhat stronger. Nobody is claiming that the Kikoho ONLY "pushes" things. Just that the push from the force behind the attack is the only thing left when someone is too strong to be hurt by it.

So would the attack kill Kuririn? Yep. Would it seriously injure if not kill base Goku or Vegeta? Most likely. Would it injure 100% Freeza? Probably not, but it would shove him around and might pinch a bit. By the time you get up to someone as strong as Stage-2 Cell, it's only going to make him uncomfortable and push him around.