I'm having a hard time trying to figure out how to put it. 部長=[Team] Captain. の=possessive particle. なでなで means "patting", but has a broader understanding of the satisfaction of something that is being patted (typically on the head). So it seems she's commenting on that not only is her captain patting/petting the Nekobus on the nose, but is surprised that Maho also has a satisfied expression on her face without actually directly saying so. Condensing that into a concise intelligible spoken sentence is foiling me. ^^; It would be a lot easier if it wasn't for the の particle bringing the focus back to Maho (which the commentary also hints at). It'd just simply be "She's patting it!" if の wasn't there.
I'm having a hard time trying to figure out how to put it. 部長=[Team] Captain. の=possessive particle. なでなで means "patting", but has a broader understanding of the satisfaction of something that is being patted (typically on the head). So it seems she's commenting on that not only is her captain patting/petting the Nekobus on the nose, but is surprised that Maho also has a satisfied expression on her face without actually directly saying so. Condensing that into a concise intelligible spoken sentence is foiling me. ^^; It would be a lot easier if it wasn't for the の particle bringing the focus back to Maho (which the commentary also hints at). It'd just simply be "She's patting it!" if の wasn't there.
の isn't always a possessive particle. Sometimes, it's a noun-making particle. That's not the case here, since Maho is already a noun. However, occasionally, の can also act act as a subject marking particle, which I believe to be the case here. I'm going to go with your translation, however, I think it sounds a bit more natural to have her say "She's petting it!".
の isn't always a possessive particle. Sometimes, it's a noun-making particle. That's not the case here, since Maho is already a noun. However, occasionally, の can also act act as a subject marking particle, which I believe to be the case here. I'm going to go with your translation, however, I think it sounds a bit more natural to have her say "She's petting it!".
I Know that Creature it's a Catbus from Studio Ghibli's 1988 film My Neighbor Totoro
