DBZ #62 - Title refers to cut scene? ("Goku on Final Approach! Smash through Freeza’s Dragnet")

[jpranevich]

Still working my way through the series and I'm up to DBZ #62, titled in Japanese (approximately) as: "Goku on Final Approach! Smash through Freeza’s Dragnet"

I don't often pay that much attention to the titles, especially as they can be spoiler-filled in Japanese, but this one seems odd. Goku IS on final approach, but he spends his time on the ship brushing his teeth and getting ready for the descent. Most of the episode is Vegeta+Kuririn+Gohan's initial face-off against the Ginyu Force.

So, what is "Smash through Freeza's Dragnet"? (Google translate this as a "siege net". My dictionary says that a "dragnet" is a "systematic search".)

I guess I would have expected a filler scene where Goku has to pierce Freeza's blockade that he likely placed on Namek to prevent any more ships arriving while he was gathering the Dragon Balls, especially as he now knows about the Earthlings. That at least would have lined up with the title, but instead there is no blockade and no search for Goku? You can argue that it meant the Ginyu team searching for Vegeta and co., but at least in English it seems that Goku is the subject of the second sentence.

Any ideas? Just a fanciful title or perhaps a suggestion of a filler scene that didn't make the final cut? Or just a title that someone thought was cool that doesn't make all that much sense. All speculation of course, but the title has me intrigued.

[KBABZ]

I think in this case, "Dragnet", to refer to a siege net, is possibly a fanciful way of describing the Ginyu Force.

[Forte224]

I assume it's referring to 2 separate things: 1. Goku being on his final approach, and 2. Gohan, Kuririn and Vegeta attempting to defeat the Ginyu Force.

[jpranevich]

Does the Japanese give any clue what the subject of the verb "smash" is supposed to be? I guess I thought it was implying Goku, but if it is left ambiguous then it obviously can be Gohan and Kuririn. I'm not sure that I could call what the Ginyu Force were doing a "dragnet" (since they had no difficulty making a bee-line to the group since they had scouters), but there could be a slight difference in translation there. Not a huge deal.

If you look at most of the other DBZ titles up to this point, they have the same "Something happened! This is really exciting."-style of formulation. Just a quick look at them suggests that MOST seem to have both sides of the title referring to the same person or event. That probably informed my confusion. (Actually, looking over them I cannot see any of them where the two halves of the title referred to different events, but I admit that I haven't studied this fully.)

[KBABZ]

Does the Japanese give any clue what the subject of the verb "smash" is supposed to be? I guess I thought it was implying Goku, but if it is left ambiguous then it obviously can be Gohan and Kuririn. I'm not sure that I could call what the Ginyu Force were doing a "dragnet" (since they had no difficulty making a bee-line to the group since they had scouters), but there could be a slight difference in translation there. Not a huge deal.

If you look at most of the other DBZ titles up to this point, they have the same "Something happened! This is really exciting."-style of formulation. Just a quick look at them suggests that MOST seem to have both sides of the title referring to the same person or event. That probably informed my confusion. (Actually, looking over them I cannot see any of them where the two halves of the title referred to different events, but I admit that I haven't studied this fully.)

Honestly a lot of the Japanese titles have a sort of "slightly out of character but I GUESS that works" feel to them, at least to me, so I'm not surprised this episode's title is a bit confusing.