Ask John: Why do Japanese & American DBZ Episode Numbers Not Match?

Question:
How come FUNimation’s episode numbers on Dragonball Z are “off” from the Japanese episode listing. The Japanese version starts off with the 200th episodes at the beginning of the Buu saga. But FUNimation’s 200th episode doesn’t come until later in the Buu saga. Why?

Answer:
The first two seasons of American Dragonball Z are missing roughly 14 Japanese episodes worth of footage. Some entire Japanese episodes were deleted from the American version, and in some cases two or even three Japanese episodes were heavily edited and spliced together to make a single American episode. For this reason, the American episode numbers fall close to 14 episodes behind the Japanese equivalent episodes. Because Dragonball Z premiered in America in 1996, before anime was an a viable, marketable commodity on American television, and because the early episodes of Dragonball Z are relatively slow moving, FUNimation chose to edit the series to “speed up” the pace and include more action and less story and character development in order to appeal to young male viewers with short attention spans. As years went by and Dragonball became more popular, increasing awareness and fan demand partially encouraged FUNimation to limit its “Americanization” of the series. Also, as the series became more profitable, it’s natural that FUNimation would want to have more episodes to sell to television broadcasters and consumers rather than less.