Slice of Life - This one seems to be specific to one or two users here. This is a genre that I have the least amount of experience with, but from what I have watched, it's usually pretty boring. No action, no plot. Just the daily happening of a bunch of characters. Of course, correct me if I'm wrong, again, I have little experience with the genre.
This is something I disagree most strongly on. I tend to find slice-of-life elements within other genres of anime to be the thing that really adds depth to the story, and life and love to the characters. By a similar token, I find slice-of-life to be the most heavily story-focused genre of the lot - with no big explosions or evil factions to overcome, it can focus precisely on delivering a tight, concise story in its most intimate detail. I will say that slice-of-life comedy does tend to strip away storyline in exchange for laughs, but pure slice-of-life are almost by definition heavily storyline focused. I'll also say that SoL can sometimes feel to lack a real conclusion, partilcularly the Ghiblis (My Neighbour Totoro and Ocean Waves immediately spring to mind), which does tend to throw you off when the end credits suddenly roll unexpectedly. Its better to think of SoL as a journey for the duration of the feature, rather than an end goal to reach.
I love slice of life mangas! They are better then any other genre.
I just watched the 11 th episode of Durarara!!, and...OH MY GOD WAS IT BRILLIANT!!! Maybe I'm just caught up in the moment, but it just felt so damn RIGHT!!! Everybody needs to watch Durarara!! RIGHT NOW!!!
Yeah, I'm on episode 12 of Durarara!! right now actually. To be honest, I think it's OK, but nothing more than that. It's frustrating as the plot seems pretty damn good, but for some reason I can't get into it/I can't seem to care about it. I kept wanting all the twists and turns to shock me, and although they were certainly unexpected they never felt...BANG (if you see what I mean). I think it's partly due to the boring characters. There are a couple who I like, Shizuo and the blonde kid, but most of the rest are so achingly dull and/or annoying. I'm probably still going to finish it, it's decent enough. The city itself is well thought out too.
@SuperSushiLax If you think Nichijou is in-your-face you should watch Gintama.
And if it's not too late, probably my favourite opening and ending themes are from Cowboy Bebop. They're what got me into jazz, folk blues and ,well, bebop. Not to mention the final song of the last episode, I start bawling every time I hear that. The Outlaw Star opening was also pretty catchy as are the numerous One Piece themes. In general, I like anime themes that don't drown you in J-pop, it's not my very favourite style of music, although that's not to say I don't like some. Oh yeah, and the Samurai Champloo ending, one of the only hip-hop songs I've ever liked. The Mushishi opening is ace too, fits the series perfectly.
Speaking of Mushishi I just finished episode five, and I haven't quite made up my mind about how good it is, but it's certainly that. Action is non-existent so it needs to have good episodic story-lines, which it mostly lives up to. Sometimes, though, you have to wonder what the point of a particular episode was, what was the moral exactly? The artwork is fantastic in a a subdued kind of way, but the character design isn't really up to much, to the extent that every single child of a certain age looks exactly the same. Minor niggles though, I'm still enjoying it a lot.
Slice of Life - This one seems to be specific to one or two users here. This is a genre that I have the least amount of experience with, but from what I have watched, it's usually pretty boring. No action, no plot. Just the daily happening of a bunch of characters. Of course, correct me if I'm wrong, again, I have little experience with the genre.
This is something I disagree most strongly on. I tend to find slice-of-life elements within other genres of anime to be the thing that really adds depth to the story, and life and love to the characters. By a similar token, I find slice-of-life to be the most heavily story-focused genre of the lot - with no big explosions or evil factions to overcome, it can focus precisely on delivering a tight, concise story in its most intimate detail. I will say that slice-of-life comedy does tend to strip away storyline in exchange for laughs, but pure slice-of-life are almost by definition heavily storyline focused. I'll also say that SoL can sometimes feel to lack a real conclusion, partilcularly the Ghiblis (My Neighbour Totoro and Ocean Waves immediately spring to mind), which does tend to throw you off when the end credits suddenly roll unexpectedly. Its better to think of SoL as a journey for the duration of the feature, rather than an end goal to reach.
Like I said, I don't have much experience with the genre. In fact, after double checking, I think it turns out that I haven't actually watched any slice of life shows. Ever. That description was based romance shows that I mistook for slice-of-life. (EDIT: After further investigation, it seems that NANA and Toradora are slice of life according to ANN) If you have any recommendations, I would be pleased to educate myself.
Recommendations, hmm. Well, on the Ghibli front, there's My Neighbour Totoro of course (although that's very much a film for youngsters with very little meat on its otherwise adorably charming bones); Ocean Waves tells of young love but again is a little lacking in real substance. The supernatural Kiki's Delivery Service is my favourite of the Ghibli SoL, telling of a young witch's first foray into the real world; Whisper of the Heart is a touching little love story and has a spiritual sequel in The Cat Returns (which is much more of a typical Ghibli adventure). Away from Ghibli, there's Makoto Shinkai's films; the only one of which I've currently seen being 5 Centimeters Per Second which feels more like three 20-minute haiku's. It explores the characters' feelings and blossoming understanding of love with a deep intimacy and incredible realism, it's possibly the most touching SoL I've seen thus far. Currently streaming online (it may be on Crunchyroll in the US, I know that it's on AnimeOnDemand in the UK) is Usagi Drop, which could be my favourite anime this year. It tells of a young man who finds himself suddenly the single parent of a six-year-old girl whose origins have rather disgraced the family (she's the illegitimate child of the man's recently deceased grandfather and a mystery woman who's since disappeared), and follows his struggles to bring up the girl knowing nothing of child care whilst trying to hold down his job. Finally, there's Mamoru Hosada's The Girl Who Leapt Through Time and Summer Wars, both of which put as much emphasis on their tales of young love and family bonds as they do on the action, and both of which are by far my favourite anime movies of all time. TGWLTT saw a live-action adaptation with Time Traveller recently too, which is a cute bit of SoL... if not terribly good. Still had me curled up on the sofa hugging a cushion by the end of it, but it's not like that takes very much. I'm a huge sucker for slice of life romance.
[I think it's partly due to the boring characters. There are a couple who I like, Shizuo and the blonde kid, but most of the rest are so achingly dull and/or annoying.
lolno, Durarara would be worthless if it wasn't for it's amazing characters. Try again.
@kkslider555200 Well, there's Izaya who I find to be pretty archetypal, basically a maniacal control freak; see plenty of them all the time, the sushi chef who doesn't appear to have any role at all (at least up until ep 12), the main kid with black hair (he's the annoying one) and the bland trio who don't seem to do anything other than drive around in a van. Then there's Celty who lacks a face, thereby missing out on one of the crucial ways of conveying emotion and the extremely irritating young doctor who never seems to have anything worthwhile to say. So. Who else? There's also the guy who only turns up to school once, he doesn't seem to have more than one character trait not to mention his two biggest fans. The rest are OK, but don't seem to have much of a role (particularly Shizuo, apart from being a rival to Izaya, what's he for? Maybe it will reveal all later).
I can't think of any other reason why it hasn't clicked with me. I'll give it a mulling over.
Slice of Life - This one seems to be specific to one or two users here. This is a genre that I have the least amount of experience with, but from what I have watched, it's usually pretty boring. No action, no plot. Just the daily happening of a bunch of characters. Of course, correct me if I'm wrong, again, I have little experience with the genre.
This is something I disagree most strongly on. I tend to find slice-of-life elements within other genres of anime to be the thing that really adds depth to the story, and life and love to the characters. By a similar token, I find slice-of-life to be the most heavily story-focused genre of the lot - with no big explosions or evil factions to overcome, it can focus precisely on delivering a tight, concise story in its most intimate detail. I will say that slice-of-life comedy does tend to strip away storyline in exchange for laughs, but pure slice-of-life are almost by definition heavily storyline focused. I'll also say that SoL can sometimes feel to lack a real conclusion, partilcularly the Ghiblis (My Neighbour Totoro and Ocean Waves immediately spring to mind), which does tend to throw you off when the end credits suddenly roll unexpectedly. Its better to think of SoL as a journey for the duration of the feature, rather than an end goal to reach.
Like I said, I don't have much experience with the genre. In fact, after double checking, I think it turns out that I haven't actually watched any slice of life shows. Ever. That description was based romance shows that I mistook for slice-of-life. (EDIT: After further investigation, it seems that NANA and Toradora are slice of life according to ANN) If you have any recommendations, I would be pleased to educate myself.
Recommendations, hmm. Well, on the Ghibli front, there's My Neighbour Totoro of course (although that's very much a film for youngsters with very little meat on its otherwise adorably charming bones); Ocean Waves tells of young love but again is a little lacking in real substance. The supernatural Kiki's Delivery Service is my favourite of the Ghibli SoL, telling of a young witch's first foray into the real world; Whisper of the Heart is a touching little love story and has a spiritual sequel in The Cat Returns (which is much more of a typical Ghibli adventure). Away from Ghibli, there's Makoto Shinkai's films; the only one of which I've currently seen being 5 Centimeters Per Second which feels more like three 20-minute haiku's. It explores the characters' feelings and blossoming understanding of love with a deep intimacy and incredible realism, it's possibly the most touching SoL I've seen thus far. Currently streaming online (it may be on Crunchyroll in the US, I know that it's on AnimeOnDemand in the UK) is Usagi Drop, which could be my favourite anime this year. It tells of a young man who finds himself suddenly the single parent of a six-year-old girl whose origins have rather disgraced the family (she's the illegitimate child of the man's recently deceased grandfather and a mystery woman who's since disappeared), and follows his struggles to bring up the girl knowing nothing of child care whilst trying to hold down his job. Finally, there's Mamoru Hosada's The Girl Who Leapt Through Time and Summer Wars, both of which put as much emphasis on their tales of young love and family bonds as they do on the action, and both of which are by far my favourite anime movies of all time. TGWLTT saw a live-action adaptation with Time Traveller recently too, which is a cute bit of SoL... if not terribly good. Still had me curled up on the sofa hugging a cushion by the end of it, but it's not like that takes very much. I'm a huge sucker for slice of life romance.
I was kinda expecting series. Not that I don't like movies, I just don't really have the patience for them. With that said, I did see Kiki's Delivery Service and My Neighbor Totoro. I didn't think either of them were slice of life, though. I also know for a fact that Summer Wars is a Thriller, not SoL. I also highly doubt The Girl Who Leapt Through Time is SoL either. Usagi Drop probably is, even though I don't see it designated as such.
What about some shows that keep getting recommended over at AN, such as Azumanga Daioh, ARIA, or Maison Ikkoku? Have you seen those? If so what's your opinion of them?
Oh, sorry for that, I was messing around. Anyways, unfortunately I haven't been watching Anime in quite a while, as I don't really know what there is to see. I might get some recommendations here.
Oh, sorry for that, I was messing around. Anyways, unfortunately I haven't been watching Anime in quite a while, as I don't really know what there is to see. I might get some recommendations here.
I was kinda expecting series. Not that I don't like movies, I just don't really have the patience for them. With that said, I did see Kiki's Delivery Service and My Neighbor Totoro. I didn't think either of them were slice of life, though. I also know for a fact that Summer Wars is a Thriller, not SoL. I also highly doubt The Girl Who Leapt Through Time is SoL either. Usagi Drop probably is, even though I don't see it designated as such.
What about some shows that keep getting recommended over at AN, such as Azumanga Daioh, ARIA, or Maison Ikkoku? Have you seen those? If so what's your opinion of them?
'Slice of life' just denotes any series that puts a heavy emphasis on... well, normal, average life. As wikipedia puts it, "Slice of life is a phrase describing the use of mundane realism depicting everyday experiences in art and entertainment." It's commonly misconstrued to mean exclusively school life comedy/romance/drama, but it actually covers a heck of a lot more ground than that, and it doesn't necessarily need to be an entirely real-world setting so long as the characters are dealing with real-world problems in a largely realistic manner (hence Kiki and most definitely Totoro are SoL films). Anything that puts heavy focus on the characters just living life and the normal, quite real-world stumbling blocks they come across (love, being late for work, family matters, school etc) is slice of life, or at least has slice of life elements. Summer Wars is both thriller and SoL - the family drama that makes up at least 50% of the film is very definitely SoL, and of huge importance to its appeal and storytelling. And TGWLTT is far more SoL-heavy than Summer Wars is; where in Summer Wars the danger threatens a large portion of the world, in TGWLTT the danger threatens her close friends, family and love life.
I've not seen any of the anime you've listed, so I couldn't comment on those specifically. Usagi Drop is the purest slice of life I've come across thus far.
I second SSL's recommendation of Usagi Drop. I saw the first four episodes today, in one sitting. Sometimes I can find this sort of thing overbearingly cutesy, but this show was actually quite charming urgh, what a sickening description. It does have a basic plot and set-up, but mostly it's just the very detailed story of a uniquely struggling parent with a surprisingly fast pace to it.
@Matillion For action I recommend Black Lagoon / Baccano! or Samurai Champloo and for humour I'd say Nichijou/FLCL or Gintama (the latter if you like it fairly crude) and for an anime that combines the two, Outlaw Star or One Piece. In terms of general anime, go for Cowboy Bebop (my favourite of "all-time"), Planetes (almost like a slice-of-life in space) and Darker Than Black.
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