I was watching one piece and came across with the title シャンクス見参! without . I want to google it by myself the answer but I am not sure the proper keyword so I ask about it here. would you tell me why there is no in the title? if you have link reference about, I'd love to read it.

And what's the meaning of it? the subtitle translate it as shanks appears. is that correct? but I tried google translate and it gave me worse translation Shanks kenzan.


Japanese often omits "助詞" (particles) from sentences.

For example:

先生が言ってたよ！→ 先生、言ってたよ！

このぬいぐるみが欲しい。→ このぬいぐるみ欲しい。

In your case:

シャンクスが見参した！→ シャンクス、見参！

シャ ン ク ス / け ん ざ ん
sya n ku su (4 morae) / ke n za n (4 morae)

This tempo sounds good, natural and impressive, the first and second half having the same number of morae/syllables.

My English is not good. Please edit somebody! Bye!

  • Thank you :) .my english is not good too, you are not alone. – Kakashi Oct 29 '16 at 23:47

I think it's because it's an old-fashioned set phrase using old grammar. (Incidentally, it should be が if you dare to use any).

  • oh so it should be "ga" not "ha". okay thank you. I edited the question and wait for more longer before accepting your answer :) – Kakashi Oct 29 '16 at 14:34
  • btw may I know the reason why we use ga there? thank you :) – Kakashi Oct 30 '16 at 2:31
  • 1
    When you say or report something that has just happened or been discovered which is not shared in the existing context, you use a sentence that lacks topic parts, in short, you don't use は. This kind of sentence is called 現象文 or "sentence of neutral description". – user4092 Oct 30 '16 at 7:12

I think it is because the omission of this が make a stronger impression on people and shorten a sentence. So it is often used in titles.

When I make シャンクス見参 a sentence, it become シャンクスが見参する(した) but it is a bit long as a title, so it become シャンクス見参 as less word as possible but not to change the meaning.

Other examples are ヒーロー登場, ジャックス参上, 首相辞任, 日本連勝 etc.

A dictionary said 見参 means 目上の人が目下の者に会ってやること or 参上して目上の人に対面すること.シャンクス見参 means probably "Shanks came to see".

  • "came to see" seems correct translation, given the episode is about shanks came to battle field to stop the war. is there any short translation of it? or appears is the best approach? "came to see" seems too long for one verb kanji. – Kakashi Oct 29 '16 at 15:55
  • I think the word "appear" seems to be good. – Yuuichi Tam Oct 29 '16 at 16:12
  • "Shanks is here!" とか "Here comes Shanks!" とかどうでしょう？ – Chocolate Oct 30 '16 at 0:53

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