Episode 82, "The Awakening of Super Power! Trunks Has Surpassed his Father Vegeta", or "Put An Asterix By His Number"
*****SPOILERS*****
Synopsis: Trunks continues to power up, unleashing a great amount of energy. He bulks up considerably and attacks Cell. Cell admits that Trunks' power surpasses his own, but claims that he cannot win. Kuririn lands on an island and revives Vegeta with a senzu. Again, Trunks engages Cell, but can't manage to land a hit on him despite his massive strength. Back in the Room of Spirit and Time, Goku is impressed with how strong Gohan's become. Goku transforms into the form Trunks is using. Trunks still can't land a hit on Cell, frustrated and confused. Cell takes the clear advantage in the fight. Goku explains to Gohan that the form he's using (and therefore the form Trunks is using) is too bulky and sacrifices speed for strength, and expresses his desire to do better than that. Cell explains as much to Trunks, telling him that that form uses up too much power to maintain itself, even demmonstrating it himself. He claims that even Vegeta knew that, and Trunks realizes that his father must've already known. Trunks powers down and tells Cell to kill him. Cell is about to oblige him, but asks if they could further excel if given more time. When Trunks confirms the possibility, and tells him that Goku is training to beat him, Cell backs down, opting instead of hold a tournament where any fighter can fight him, to test his power more. He admits that his only goal is to enjoy himself and flies off, leaving Trunks perplexed.
Comments:
Oh, Trunks. You finally had a chance to regain your luster. You had a huge surge of power, surpassed your father, and even fought with a song sung by you playing in the background ("The Lone Warrior", which in my favorite vocal piece in Kai thus far). With all that power and confidence, you'd think you would have at least done better than that, or not given up so easily. Hm, but then again, Vegeta had the same things going for him (complete with his "Saiyan Blood" song) in the last arc and still got killed. Maybe quitting while you were ahead was a good idea. If you're a character in this show and you hear a song sung by yourself, you pretty much have to run the fuck away, because you're about to lose.
I really like this part of the story, because Trunks believes he's truly surpassed his father, but even though he's come to a form that has more raw power, his speed is sacrificed. It shows that just training a lot is worthless if all you're doing is improving your brute strength. Vegeta, who is gifted in combat, realized the drawbacks of that form, and decided to use a lesser version, somewhere between the original Super Saiyan form and the current new form (dubbed "Ultimate Super Saiyan" by the fans). I like how even Cell realized this.
However, Trunks gave up a little too easily, and it kind of bothers me. I get that he realized he was outdone and wouldn't be able to beat Cell, but just saying, "Oh hey, you can kill me now" is a bit melodramatic for his failure. He was lucky that Cell was being sporting. Extremely sporting in fact. So sporting, in fact, he wanted to hold a martial arts tournament! Yyyyeeeaah. 
Overall Score:
4 out of 5
