Cliche anime technique:

*Main character unleashes his most powerful attack. Surely it will annihilate his scoundrel of an opponent.*

*But no! His enemy doesn't have a scratch on him!*

*Unable to believe his eyes, the hero says...*

まさか…
Impossible... // No way... // It can't be...

Quite a few of you have heard this one before, yeah?

But do you know how to use the word まさか in, well, real life?

Let's take a look...

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Aside from muttering まさか when you simply cannot believe you've failed to smite your enemies, you can also use it to express doubt about something, like Person B does in this convo:

A:
明日雪降るって。
あした　ゆき　ふる　って。
They’re saying it’s going to snow tomorrow.
Literally: “tomorrow + snow + fall + って.”
Note: This って, a "verbal quotation marker," indicates that the speaker saw or heard this information somewhere.

B:
まさか。今8月だよ？
まさか。　いま　はちがつ　だよ？
Yeah, right. It’s August.
Literally: “impossible / no way. + now + August + だよ？”
Note: This speaker uses まさか to express that he thinks there's no way it's going to snow tomorrow.

But then―SHOCKING TURN OF EVENTS―it snows the next day!

Person B looks at the snow falling all around her and says...

B:
まさか本当に降るとは....。
まさか　ほんとうに　ふる　とは....。
I can’t believe it. It’s really snowing.
Literally: “impossible / no way. + really + fall + とは....”
Note: This まさか is used to express that the speaker cannot believe what is right before her eyes, much like the まさか that appears in anime when an enemy is unscathed by a powerful attack. Oh, and for more on とは, see this lesson.

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You're at the airport with your friend, about to set off on an awesome vacation to [dream destination].

Your friend stops in his tracks and says...

A:
あ、やばい。
あ、　やばい。
Oh, sh***.
Literally: “ah, + damn / crap / not good.”

You turn to your friend, and he's frantically checking his pockets, his backpack.

Realization slowly coming over you, you say...

B:
何？まさか、パスポート忘れてないよね？
なに？　まさか、　パスポート　わすれてない　よね？
What? No, there’s no way you forgot your passport, right?
Literally: “what? + impossibly / no way, + passport + haven't forgotten? + よね？”

A guilty look on his face, your friend sheepishly replies with...

A:
......そのまさかです。
......その　まさか　です。
You guessed it. // That’s exactly what I did.
Literally: “......that + no way / impossible + です.”

If you ever have a friend who says まさか to some fact or situation which you know to in fact be true, try saying そのまさか to them. I'll bet that it's the first time they've ever heard a non-Japanese person say it.

At least, I never would have thought to use まさか as a noun (which it is), since in my mind it was always just a phrase: "No way!" "Impossible!" etc.

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Ready to level up?

So this one time Rei and I were at a Japanese restaurant in Thailand, and we happened to be sitting next to two teenage Japanese boys who were having lunch together.

On the table there was a container of 七味唐辛子 (しちみとうがらし), which is a type of Japanese pepper mix:

You can read all about it in this Wikipedia article.

One of the boys said...

A:
七味ってほんとは「ななみ」って読むらしいぜ。
しちみ　って　ほんと　は　「ななみ」　って　よむ　らしい　ぜ。
Apparently the correct pronunciation of shichimi is nanami.
Literally: “shichimi (=a Japanese pepper mix) + って + truth + は + nanami + って + read + it seems / it appears (=[hearsay marker]) + ぜ.”

His friend responded with...

B:
まさかの⁉
まさか　の⁉
You’re kidding! // Seriously?
Literally: “impossible / no way + の⁈”

Now, if he had only said まさか, it would sound like he seriously doubted that the correct pronunciation of 七味 is ななみ.

Instead, he is just showing that he is surprised by this information, much like saying, "Are you serious?"

So what is the の after まさか doing? I have no idea. This「まさかの⁈」can be thought of as an abbreviation of「まさかのななみ⁈」...but that doesn't really help us understand how/why the nuance changes, does it?

I asked my editor in Tokyo about this, and he said that he never says まさかの and has never heard a young person say it before. His wife countered that with,But maybe they do say this nowadays.

To avoid all of this confusion, we can just ignore の after まさか... but don't freak out too much if you hear some young people using it!

Let's just accept our limited understanding and move on... like all of the things I can't explain. *_*