Epametheus said:
You could probably cut out 50% of DBZ without hurting the story at all. I'll grant that Dragonball has way too much content to be pared down to 2 seasons, or even 4. It certainly doesn't need to be as long as it actually is, though.
You "could" cut any series down without hurting various parts of the storyline. That doesn't mean you should. You seem to think the long fight scenes and such are bad. They aren't. They're what makes the series enjoyable. Anything less wouldn't capture the incredible effort and strength that such mighty beings are capable of wielding, especially when fighting each other.
Maybe the Magin Buu saga is different -- it's pretty much the only part of DBZ I haven't seen (or haven't seen past where Vegita dies for the 2nd time in the series)
Different how? I've seen some of it, and its still got everything that makes the rest of DBZ so great...which probably means you would hate it since you don't seem to like long, epic battles.
but I don't even find most of the battles in DBZ to be good action sequences. Aside from most of the battles being so horribly lopsided that they might as well as not happened
You must be joking. DBZ does nothing less than define action, and the "lopsidedness" is a major reason why. Its not just about the fighting, its about how will the hero win when he's so overmatched? How will the villain keep going when the good guy is stronger than him? Its the answers to these questions that make the story so incredible to watch.
(let's take the final battle between Goku and Freiza -- even though the battle drags on for like 8 episodes (one of which is nothing but Freiza powering up), it's pretty clear from the very beginning that Freiza is outclassed -- and as Freiza is the bad guy, that takes a lot of tension out of it), they flat-out take forever.
::shakes head:: Wrong Wrong Wrong. First, you can't just dissect it down to "the final battle" between Goku versus Freeza. It's all one big battle, one that starts out with the "lopsidedness" you're talking about being heavily in favor of the villain. Goku is outclassed and he knows it. Freeza is just toying with him until he gets annoyed and raises his own power so high that Goku has no chance. Luckily, from out of nowhere, Goku is able to power himself up later on. Then, as you say, Freeza is outclassed, but we don't know by how much. As they both push themselves to their limits, it seems that Freeza might indeed be able to win the day. That's what keeps us on the edge of our seats. Ironically, Goku himself eventually stops the battle telling Freeza exactly what you pointed out; that even at full power, Freeza has no chance to win.
Continuing in that vein, Goku vs. Vegita is one of the few good fights in the series -- Goku is the underdog, but he actually wins anyways (without dying, to boot). The underdog almost always loses in DBZ simply because there's usually an absurd gulf between the underdog and the person that outclasses the underdog. Piccolo-Kami vs. #18 is one of the few even fights in the entire series.
First off, that is Piccolo versus #17. Secondly, didn't I just mention that at first Goku was the underdog versus Freeza at first? In fact, you'll find that virtually all of the fights are with the heroes as the underdogs but still managing to win in the end. Freeza was stronger than the people he fought until he transformed. Cell several times receives a major power up that not only allows him to save himself, but turn the tables on the people who were previously about to kill him. Buu spends literally all of his time being the strongest there is, unstoppable to anyone and everyone, even if they can inflict damage on him.
As for the flat-out taking forever bit -- let's face it, did we really need to spend 3 episodes on Goku using the Spirit Bomb (especially when it FAILS to actually do anything)?
Again, you're talking about need. You don't need anything at all in the anime, but would the battles be so much fun if they all only took one episode? Its dramatic tension, and it realistically depicts that when beings that strong fight, it takes that much time and power to properly depict it. When Goku spends that long powering up his Spirit Bomb, do you think that it would do nothing? No. Most people think "Okay, he only barely managed to live long enough to make it powerful enough to win, and this is their last hope, so it has to work." And then...it doesn't work! That's brilliant storytelling!
Did we really need to spend 1 episode on Gohan becoming a L2 Super Saiya-jin, and then spend another episode on replaying and lengthening the transformation?
Frankly, yes, for the above reasons.
Did we really need to spend an entire episode on Goku and Cell punching each other as warm-up? Or something like 3 episodes on Nappa killing all of the Earth-warriors (I'm sure it took that long, if not longer)?
Again, yes! All of these things are unexpected twists and turns meant to, at length, draw the viewer in. If you had seen the previous episodes with the heroes, then it comes as a horrible shock when Nappa starts effortlessly beating them into the ground, and that he keeps doing so...with every episode that happens, you're more sure a miracle will happen...and it doesn't. Hence why the series is so great.
DBZ drags things out pretty much for the sake of dragging things out. It shouldn't take half a year of episodes to kill just one guy when the battle started at the beginning of that set of episodes(remember, these were probably coming out at the rate of 1 per week in Japan).
Of course it should. When one guy has the power to annihilate a solar system with one blow without breaking a sweat, could one measly episode of fighting possibly to justice to that kind of power? DBZ is totally justified in how long it is, because that's how long it needs to be. An epic saga like that simply cannot be contained in a mere 26 eipsodes.
