The thing to keep in mind about the "DBZ takes a million episodes to do something" problem, is that it was based on a comic. In comics, often times, they aren't very long and because of their nature (one line and one action per character per panel, for the most part, save for vital stuff to the plot), they often go through several comics in which not a great deal happens.
Personally, to the elitists, I prefer the americanized DBZ over the japanese one. I can respect what Alea said about the japanese one being the artists' true vision...but a lot of the stuff that gets cut is nothing I'd miss. In fact, if things like Bulma flashing people or everyone porking their wives before fighting Cell was in the show, I think it would COMPLETELY OVERRIDE any of the things I like about it, because I wouldn't take it seriously in the least. I also didn't like the original voicing at all, either. And the animation was worse; all the criticism people lay on funimation around here is unfounded. I think the dub is dubbed very nicely; I think the voices are suited well; and the animation, once cleaned up, is obviously superior to the older episodes that were brought right over.
The japanese know a lot about inventing great stories but it is not always the case with the actual TELLING of said stories. In America, entertainment is our business, it is our life and lifestyle; if nothing else, the decisions to remove a lot of those scenes were good ones in that sense. I can understand losing the gore, but again--animes put gore and sex in almost entirely as the entertainment equivalent of spam. The sexual stuff in DBZ was never condusive to the plot overall--which was the fighting.
As for ditching the gore, that's just standard issue Americanization. You think Funimation went, "We'd better take that out, that way more kids will watch, and then will beg their moms to buy our merchandise and we'll be rich, because we are an evil corporation who gets a universal raging hard-on by 'ruining' anime and ripping off the fans!!!!" ...? Not at all. The FCC would never have let the frigging show on the air if that episode with Trunks cutting Frieza in half stayed how it was. Nor would they have allowed the sex, but I still think that was removed on the part of Funi...it seemed less of a forced decision, since as the series goes on the showing of the violence increases (because they could show demographic data that their audience was older overall to people like the FCC board, showing that the more mature content could be handled), but they chose to willingly leave the sex stuff mostly out.
Now, before I get flamed for supposedly insulting the japanese' ability to create entertainment content, it should be noted that I am NOT saying a blanket statement like "the japanese can't make a show." I don't thinkt here's anything wrong with japanese people or their culture, so as to disclaim myself from being flamed about that, I'd like to make that clear. But how many times have you seen an anime with seemingly irrelevent sex in it? All I'm saying is that I feel that the americanization of things like DBZ is not bad at all--I think of it as a "filler filter" and I don't see a problem with people like Funi removing gratuitous stuff, whether it's for their own creative reasons or for the FCC's approval.
