Particle の on 進撃の巨人
Hello.

This question may sound a dumb and a very basic one, sorry for that, but..

There is this anime called 進撃の巨人 [ しんげきのきょじん ]. My question is about the の particle on that name.

Basically 進撃 means invasion and 巨人 is giant, monster. So in english it could be translated as "Giant's invasion" or "Invasion of the Giants".

But why 進撃 is coming first instead of 巨人? Shouldn't it be 巨人の進撃 ? The giants are invading, taking action, so 巨人の進撃 would make more sense, right?

Question

Particle の on 進撃の巨人
Hello.

This question may sound a dumb and a very basic one, sorry for that, but..

There is this anime called 進撃の巨人 [ しんげきのきょじん ]. My question is about the の particle on that name.

Basically 進撃 means invasion and 巨人 is giant, monster. So in english it could be translated as "Giant's invasion" or "Invasion of the Giants".

But why 進撃 is coming first instead of 巨人? Shouldn't it be 巨人の進撃 ? The giants are invading, taking action, so 巨人の進撃 would make more sense, right?

Answer

IMO, according to some online dictionary, 進撃 means "(military) advance". So 進撃の巨人 is roughly translated as "the giants of the advance" => "the giants that advances" => "advancing giants". The title actually focuses on the 巨人, not the 進撃.

If the English title is "Advancing Giants", it would sound a bit ridiculous and not cool (lol), so "Attack On Titan" is used instead.

Answer

my understanding is ,進撃 is an suru verb here, so 進撃の巨人 means attacking giant, or invading giant

Answers · 3

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