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I came across the anime/manga title 「進撃の巨人」 and I am a bit confused about the
usage of the の particle there.

I know that の has several uses, but I'm not sure which one applies in this
case. I looked at the possible ways の can be used with a noun and tried
figuring out which one might apply:

  * It seems like it would indicate possession, but that would make it "giants of charge", which sounds weird to me (as opposed to "charge of the giants", 巨人の進撃, which is what I would have expected).

  * I know の can also be used for nominalization, but 進撃 is already a noun, so that doesn't seem likely to me. This isn't really a subordinate clause either.

  * [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_particles#no) also lists another function of の, with the following example:

> 車のトヨタ - Toyota the car [company]

This one doesn't seem to apply in this case either, I think.

None of these possible meanings of の make sense to me in this case. Can you
help me understand how/why の is used in this title?
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-08-28T20:45:19.330
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2013-12-27T01:26:15.797
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question
particle-の
Function of の particle in the title 「進撃の巨人」
Don't try to translate の too literally. For example, 友達のようこ means "my friend
Yoko," not "my friend's Yoko."

My (possibly flawed) understanding is that in this case, の serves the same
purpose as in 巨人の進撃 but reversing the order changes the emphasis slightly, so
that 巨人 becomes the focus rather than 進撃.

I'm sure you already noticed that the English version of the title ("Attack on
Titan") is a mistranslation (possibly intentional?)

As an aside, the anime is absolutely fantastic, although I haven't read the
manga yet.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-08-28T21:16:06.670
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2013-08-28T22:26:25.217
2013-08-28T22:26:25.217
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You've already figured out what's going on in your first bullet point - the の
in 進撃の巨人 functions in its usual role of forming a 連体修飾語{れん.たい.しゅう.しょく.ご} (a
modifier; の's role in forming possessives is one example of this function of
の).

The only issue is that you've done your translation in kind of awkward
English. Rather than "giants of charge", you probably want something more like
"the charging giants" (which is, after all, basically what the anime/manga is
about).
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-08-28T23:32:37.930
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2013-12-27T01:26:15.797
2013-12-27T01:26:15.797
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answer