| NOTE: I have not been updating this list of CGDCT series beyond the end of 2013. Please have a look at Classiick's CGDCT thread: http://myanimelist.net/forum/?topicid=1105581 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ A CGDCT PRIMER To the best of my knowledge, I believe that "Kokoro Library" is the earliest anime series of the "Cute Girls Doing Cute Things" (CGDCT) genre. That makes it historically significant. Unfortunately, Kokoro Library has been almost forgotten. As I currently define it, in a "100% CGDCT" anime series: 1. The characters are human girls. 2. The girls are cute. 3. They do random cute things. I am not claiming that my definition of CGDCT is the right one or the best one. Feel free to propose your own or to comment on mine. Please don't confuse the term "CGDCT" with the term "moe". They have different meanings. However, the characters in CGDCT anime are very often "moe". Perhaps nearly always. But I should mention that, in online discussions, I often see "moe" mis-defined as "cute girls doing cute things". I disagree with this because (1) a moe anime could have lots of male characters (2) the girls might be moe yet not be doing cute things (3) male characters can be moe as well. The "Slice of Life" (SoL) genre is frequently used as a way to refer to CGDCT series. I am completely in favor of the legitimacy of the term "SoL". But SoL is not synonymous with CGDCT. Some CGDCT are not SoL. The vast majority of SoL are not CGDCT. I believe that CGDCT deserves just as much respect and attention as SoL. In any reasonably complete list of anime genres, CGDCT should be mentioned. This is meant to be a list of all CGDCT anime series. My intention is to compile a complete list. 2001 Kokoro Library / ココロ図書館 / Kokoro Toshokan / See Note 1. 2002 Azumanga Daioh / あずまんが大王 / 26 episodes 2005 Strawberry Marshmallow / 苺ましまろ / Ichigo Mashimaro 2005 Best Student Council / 極上生徒会 / Gokujō Seitokai / 26 episodes 2005 Aria the Animation / i.e. season 1 / See Note 2. 2006 High School Girls / Girl's High / 女子高生 2006 Binchou-tan / びんちょうタン / 12 minutes per episode 2006 Aria the Natural / i.e. season 2 / 26 episodes / See Note 2. 2007 Lucky Star / らき☆すた / Raki☆Suta / 24 episodes 2007 Sketchbook: Full Color's / スケッチブック 〜full color's〜 2007 Gakuen Utopia Manabi Straight! / がくえんゆーとぴあ まなびストレート! / See Note 3. 2007 Hidamari Sketch / ひだまりスケッチ / 12 ep + 3 "special episodes" / See Note 4. 2007 Aria the OVA: Arietta / 30 minute OVA 2008 Hidamari Sketch x 365 / 13 episodes + 1 OVA / See Note 4. 2009 K-On! / けいおん! / See Note 6. 2008 Aria the Origination / i.e. season 3 / 13 episodes + 1 DVD bonus episode 2009 Kanamemo / かなめも 2009 GA: Geijutsuka Art Design Class /GA 芸術科アートデザインクラス 2009 Hidamari Sketch x 365 (special) / Just 2 episodes 2009 Yurumates / ゆるめいつ / 12 OVA episodes / 3min/ep / See Note 8. 2010 K-On!! / i.e. the 2nd season / 26 episodes 2010 Hidamari Sketch × Hoshimittsu / ひだまりスケッチ×☆☆☆（第3期） / 12 ep + 2 special episodes / See Note 4. 2010 Sound of the Sky / ソ・ラ・ノ・ヲ・ト / So Ra No Wo To / See Note 9. 2011 A-Channel / Aチャンネル 2011 Nichijou / 日常 / Nichijō / See Note 10. 2011 Yuru Yuri / ゆるゆり 2011 Morita-san wa Mukuchi / 森田さんは無口 / 26ep / 3min/ep / See Note 12. 2011 Tamayura: Hitotose (たまゆら) / See Note 14. 2011 Copihan / こぴはん / ONA 6min/ep / See Note 16. 2011 Yurumates Ha? / ゆるめいつ は? / 6 OVA episodes / 3min/ep / See Note 8. 2012 Joshiraku / じょしらく 2012 YuruYuri♪♪ / (i.e. the 2nd season) 2012 Hidamari Sketch × Honeycomb / ひだまりスケッチ×ハニカム（第4期） 2012 Gokujyo / ゴクジョッ。〜極楽院女子校寮物語〜 / 6min/ep 2012 Kyou no Asuka Show / 今日のあすかショー / 20 ONA episodes / 3min/episode / See Note 18. 2012 Teekyuu 1 / てーきゅう / See Note 20. 2012 Yurumates 3D / アニメ：ゆるめいつ 3でぃ / 3min/ep / See Note 8. 2012 Yurumates 3D PLUS / ゆるめいつ 3でぃ PLUS / 3min/ep / See Note 8. 2013 Yuyushiki / ゆゆ式 2013 Kiniro Mosaic / きんいろモザイク 2013 Kitakubu Katsudō Kiroku / 帰宅部活動記録 2013 Tesagure!Bukatsumono / てさぐれ!部活もの / 12 minutes/episode 2013 Non Non Biyori / のんのんびより 2013 Aiura / あいうら 2013 Tamayura: More Aggressive / たまゆら / See Note 14. 2013 Plastic Nee-chan / プラスチック姉さん / 2 minutes/episode / See Note 22. 2013 Teekyuu 2 / てーきゅう / 2min/episode / See Note 20. 2013 Teekyuu 3 / てーきゅう / 2min/episode / See Note 20. 2013 Hidamari Sketch: Sae & Hiro's Graduation Arc / 2 OVAs 2013 Ai Mai Mi / I My Me / ちょぼらうにょぽみ劇場 あいまいみー / 3min/ep / See Note 24. 2013 Love Lab / 恋愛ラボ / See Note 26. 2013 Mangirl! / まんがーる! / 3.5min/ep / See Note 28. NOTE: The default assumption for each of these listings is that the series is a good example of CGDCT with 12 or 13 episodes of about 24 minutes in length. Otherwise, I have added a note. Within a given year, the series are not listed in any particular order. There are gaps in the note numbers to make it easier for me to insert additional notes without renumbering all of them. Note 1: In Kokoro Toshokan, the three sisters are busy running the library. On the other hand, they also do a lot of random cute things. My inclusion of this series in this list is based on my judgement that the "random cute" part is more than the "librarian" part. Perhaps 80% CGDCT. Note 2: With "Aria" it is not obvious at the outset that it is CGDCT. For one thing, there are male characters. In addition, the girls are involved in the consistent purposeful activity of becoming Venetian gondoliers. However, after having watched five episodes, my impression is that the important relationships are among the girls, and the males are auxiliary characters. In addition, I feel that the "random cute activity" aspect is somewhat more prominent then the story about how they become full-fledged "undines." So I decided to include "Aria". But perhaps 70% CGDCT. Note 3: Manabi Straight features very cute girls. But there is a strong possible objection to classifying this as 100% CGDCT in that the story has a very strong dramatic narrative, which is about the arrival of the new student Manabi, her election to the defunct student council, and their struggle to put on the last cultural festival in the history of the school. So it kind of goes against my definition of 100% CGDCT as lacking an over-arching dramatic story. But the characters are extremely cute. Also, the production values are outstanding. Perhaps 80% CGDCT. Note 4: Hidamari Sketch is a lot about sketching and the challenges of learning and succeeding in art. But there are enough random cute things to make it a good example of CGDCT. I would call it 90% CGDCT. Note 6: In K-On, a big part of the story is how they struggle to establish the Light Music Club and purchase and learn to play their instruments. So K-On is not 100% CGDCT. On the other hand, much of the story is about them sitting and chatting and eating cake in the clubroom. I would call it 80% CGDCT. Note 8: Yurumates has features of CGDCT, but one of the four original main characters is a man although he doesn't seem to play any significant role. Only one of the original three girls is reasonably cute. All in all, this puts it somewhat in a grey area. But in the last season, a very cute young girl joins the cast. Thus, it varies from 40% to 60% CGDCT. I have not actually viewed the earlier seasons. Note 9: So Ra No Wo To is a very interesting example since it stretches the concept of CGDCT in some unusual ways. To start with, all of the characters are girls. Secondly, they are all cute. They do random cute things. They are all soldiers stationed at an outlying army base where nothing is happening. So on paper this sounds like CGDCT. On the other hand, some features of the show distinguish it from typical CGDCT. For one thing, the characters usually wear army uniforms. But in common CGDCT, the girls wear short skirts, swimsuits, underwear or are bathing 99% of the time. In principle, being soldiers is a purposeful activity, and occasionally these girls do things which look military. Also, this show has an strong ongoing theme of learning to play the bugle and the trumpet. Taking all into consideration, I have decided to rate it 55% CGDCT. Note 10: In the case of Nichijou, there are a lot of male characters such as the rich boy who rides a goat to school and the principal. Also, the robot Nano is not a human girl. My inclusion of Nichijou is based on my impression is that the show is centered on the group of cute girls and their cute interactions with each other. The boys stay on the sidelines. 80% CGDCT. Note 12: Morita-san has some OVAs as well. A notable feature of Morita-san is that the girls have stereotypical sexual/romantic interests in boys and spend a great deal of time talking about them. On the other hand, they basically never talk to the boys. That is why Morita-san is 100% CGDCT rather than a romantic comedy. Note 14: Tamayura has a very strong story element of photography. Yes, the girls are cute and they do random cute things. But it is important to consider whether photography actually dominates cute activity when classifying this as CGDCT. Also, the tone is often quite dramatic. Maybe 80% CGDCT? Note 16: Copihan is a very strange case, with large segments that are definitely not CGDCT. So it is hard to classify. Office ladies. A policeman. Maybe 70% CGDCT? Note 18: Kyou no Asuka Show is a special case since it about just one very cute girl. But the whole point of the story is about her strange interactions with men. Hard to classify. Perhaps 50% CGDCT. Note 20: Teekyuu may give the cursory impression it is primarily a sports series. But it is almost nothing about playing tennis. It is 90% CGDCT. Note 22: Plastic Nee-chan -- random antics of school plastic modelling club, but they never actually build any models. 90% CGDCT Note 24: Ai Mai Mi is about the school manga club. In fact, very little drawing of manga actually happens. So this is 90% CGDCT. Note 26: Love Lab led to a great deal of discussion, soul-searching, emotion and intellectual re-examination. It led me to abandoning the point of view that any list should attempt to give a simple black-and-white categorization of CGDCT versus non-CGDCT. I also decided that writing a lengthy definition just for the sake of improved specificity has the disadvantage of being unappealing. Finally, it seems that, in no small part, defining CGDCT can involve the emotional reaction to a story. I can confidently argue that Love Lab is not 100% CGDCT because of the involvement of the boys and because of the strong narrative element in which the girls establish their "love lab" and make progress towards their goal. There was also a lot of yuri parody and subtext. I would rate it as 60% CGDCT. Note 28: In Mangirl!, the story definitely takes place in the context of people working in a manga magazine. A great deal of the interest is learning about what their work life is like. So not all of the cute activity is random. 70% CGDCT. Anime Series That Are NOT CGDCT: To be useful, any discussion of CGDCT needs to include the definition and a comprehensive annotated list of CGDCT series. In addition, it is very important to list a few representative anime series which are not CGDCT or which are poor examples of CGDCT. This provides a resource for historians or for people who want to propose revised definitions of CGDCT or alterate genres. 2004 Maria-sama Ga Miteru * There are cute girls in Marimite and they do a lot of cute random things. All of the main characters are very cute females. However, many viewers will see the series as primarily a dramatic yuri love story. 30% CGCDT. 2009 Sasameki Koto / ささめきこと / Whispered words * In Sasameki Koto, several yuri love stories are the dominant feature of the series. The "random cute" activities are secondary. Maybe 40% CGDCT. 2007 Minami-ke (みなみけ) 2008 Minami-ke: Okawari (みなみけ〜おかわり〜) 2009 Minami-ke: Okaeri (みなみけ おかえり) 2013 Minami-ke: Tadaima (みなみけ ただいま) * At first glance I thought that Minami-ke was CGDCT. However, the male characters seems to play significant roles, and their personalities are explored to a fair extent. So this series appears to be a mixed group of people, not just girls. 2012 Haitai Nanafa (はいたい七葉) * In Haitai Nanafa, many of the characters are supernatural fairies as opposed to human girls. 2012 Girls und Panzer * GuP definitely has a lot of very cute girls, and perhaps driving the tanks is a cute activity. On the other hand, the whole series focuses strongly on their goal of winning the national tank tournament. It features a lot of technical and historical details. I think it is 30% CGDCT. Its genre is closer to sports, tournament or military. 2012 Yurumates 3D / アニメ：ゆるめいつ 3でぃ * I actually included "Yurumates 3D" on my list of CGDCT since other seasons of Yurumates seemed to be CGDCT. But this particular season was below 50% CGDCT. However, the following season "Yurumates 3D PLUS" was above 50% CGDCT as the result of the addition of a new very cute character. See Note 8. 2013 Love Live! School Idol Project / ラブライブ! * Love Live has extremely cute girls. However, the story is very strongly driven by their goal of needing to become pop idols so that they can save their school from being closed down. So their activities are purposeful-cute as opposed to random-cute. But I have not watched the show carefully. My impression is 40% CGDCT. So it doesn't get included on the CGDCT list. PLEASE NOTE: I am updating this post as I get new information. I welcome your suggestions for new series additions as well as criticisms and proposals for alternatives. I will not automatically add any suggested series to the list. I need to carefully evaluate any suggestions to be certain that they really fit the definition of CGDCT. Some additional resources: - I happened to come across this article on the history of CGDCT anime series: http://myanimelist.net/forum/?topicid=390439 - Here is a very useful general resource for the history of anime series: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Anime_television_series_by_year - This next discussion thread is specifically about CGDCT, but they didn't mention much apart from Azumanga Daioh. However, they did seem to have a consensus of Azumanga Daioh as starting the genre (which I believe to be incorrect): http://www.crunchyroll.ca/forumtopic-824167/cute-girls-doing-cute-stuff |
okanaganAug 15, 2014 11:00 AM
| A lot of those wouldn't fall into that category even by your own standards. |
 |
| I cheerfully accept all of this constructive criticism. Certainly my definition of CGDCT is not very good. Also, I concede the point that my choice of what to include and not include could be debated. I'll say this: I really like the recognition of CGDCT as an anime genre. Part of that is because I like to watch CGDCT. CGDCT is basically never listed when anybody makes a list of anime genres. To properly define CGDCT requires somebody with much better knowledge of anime than me. Frankly, I watched no anime at all for many years. Then, after retiring due to ill health a few years ago, I started watching a lot of anime. I strongly believe that the way to do an excellent job of something is to begin by doing it very poorly. The MAL "primer" on CGDCT that I linked to was not very good, I am sorry to say, since it only gave a few examples. But at least it was a start. I tried to make a systemic list. But there is a long way to go. I would be thrilled if somebody here with a broader background in anime can improve the definition. In addition, no formal definition of a genre is of much interest without being accompanied by many actual examples of CGDCT anime series. So, it is a moderately big job to do properly. At the moment, I am greatly enjoying watching two anime series which I consider to be CGDCT: Tesabu** and Non Non Biyori. ** Tesagure! Bukatsu-mono (てさぐれ！部活もの) |
okanagan said: I'll never get bored of watching cute girls doing cute things. It's simply not possible.However, I believe that the trend has pretty much run its course, and people are sick of CGDCT and want to move on to other things... okanagan said: That's why I have hard copies of some of my favorites ;)For the hard core CGDCT fans among you, you are always free to re-watch Azumanga Daioh. I don't think *firm* definitions of things like genres are necessary. "vague" works for me. Nichijou is a good example, after the first couple of episodes I watched the show for (in order) Nano, Yuuko, Mio, Mai and Hakase - pretty much everything else was in the noise. Speaking of which, Nano, despite her protests to the contrary, is not an "ordinary human girl" -- but that makes for interesting reactions when people ask me if I have a girl friend and I show them my cell phone background image, with Nano's very noticeable wind-up key :D I guess I will throw this out there, however. For me, it seems an important element of these types of shows is strong friendship, or the development of strong friendship. Of that list of 17 you have in your first post (not counting the two that just started airing) I've seen 15 and of those I thought friendship was a very important theme of all but one of those. |
 |
| Hi Cratex. Your comments made me see that a very important element was missing from my definition. So I updated it by adding point number 5. The group of girls has to be interrelated in some way. However, I think that friendship is only one possibility. I thought about it for a little while and came up with a variety of possible relationships that could exist within the group of girls. See above. Indeed, a hard and fast definition is not realistic. This is not mathematics. It is more like botany where somebody spends times observing plants and then comes up with a "taxonomy" or classification system. So for example, plants can be divided into trees, flowers and ferns. But careful research will come up with exceptional cases that fall between the categories. Personally, I like the idea of creating a definition for my own enjoyment. Some other people did a very thorough job in the case of the yuri anime genre: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuri_%28genre%29 On that page, you can also see that they gave a long list of all of the yuri anime series. Such a list is essential to accompany the definition. Flexibility is necessary to handle special cases. Nano is not a human girl. On the other hand, she seems human enough that I can find her cute. She looks human and has human emotions. - - - - - - - Looking more carefully at that list, I notice that there are two historical periods of CGDCT. Prior to K-On! in 2009, they made one CGDCT series per year. Since K-On!, they have been making two CGDCT series per year. K-On! was a mega- hit. So, we are still in the golden age of CGDCT in terms of the number of CGDCT series that are coming out. But there are the separate issues of Blu-ray/DVD sales and artistic merit. |
okanaganOct 12, 2013 4:54 AM
okanagan said: (4) The primary basis of interest is NOT: - some major purposeful activity, I believe that this point really breaks off a lot of other series that happen to have cute girls doing cute things. I like what this does, I really do. It helps me cutting off Love Lab from the bunch. okanagan, thank you again for spending time on a trivial thing like this. It keeps my weeks interesting. |
| Hi rsslayersr. Thanks for bringing up the example of Love Lab. Apart from giving examples of anime series which ARE clearly CGDCT, it is imporant to discuss examples of anime series which are nearly but not quite CGDCT and explain why. As you point out, Love Lab incorporates many features of CGDCT. The girls are cute. They have interrelationships. There is not so much close interaction with the boys. However, the whole story seems to be a narrative about the "Love Lab", how it got started and how it turned out. So Love Lab is telling a story that takes up the entire series. It is not filled with "random cute" activities. So Love Lab is an instructive example to help people understand what is CGDCT and what is not. |
okanaganOct 14, 2013 10:34 PM
| Non-Stereotypical Sexuality in CGDCT Anime Series Morita-san (2011) definitely fits my definition of CGDCT well. Beyond that, it is a very interesting example of CGDCT. The girls have stereotypical sexual/romantic interests in boys. So they spend quite a lot of time talking about boys that they like. They also get crushes on boys. However, they hardly ever talk to boys. This is very, very unusual in CGDCT. Most often, the sexuality in CGDCT does not include stereotypical heterosexual thoughts or relationships. In some cases, such as "K-On!", there is no sexuality at all. However, it is much more common to see some form of it. Note that I am including situations of unusually strong emotional connections as well, even it could be argued that they are not clearly "sexual". Kokoro Toshokan -- The oldest sister has a very strong, apparently sexual, infatuation with the youngest sister, Kokoro. For example, she is very excited when she gets an "indirect kiss" with Kokoro via their sister. Azumanga Daioh -- Kaorin has a very strong girl-on-girl crush on Sakaki; however her teacher is strongly infatuated with Kaorin Lucky Star -- there is a symbolically lesbian pair; another girl is interested in writing yuri manga (girl-on-girl); Konata plays erotic dating simulations with her father; her father is heavily into schoolgirls; Kagami reads a yaoi manga at Comiket. Marimite -- There are some very strong emotional ties among the girls; the younger students aggressively compete to go on dates with the most popular older students Ichigo Mashimaro -- The 20-year-old girl gets strongly infatuated with the 10-year- old blonde girl one time when she is drunk. Best Student Council -- Conventionally regarded as including a yuri theme. Kanamemo -- a lesbian couple; older woman who likes some younger girls Sasameki Koto -- Two lesbians couples; one girl heavily into writing yaoi A-Channel -- Tooru has very strong feelings for Run; the male school nurse is infatuated with Run due to his forehead fetish; Tooru's strong feelings for Run could be better classified as possessive friendship rather than sexual interest and the series is not categorized as having a Yuri element. Nichijou -- One girl is heavily into drawing yaoi manga. Yuru Yuri -- Comedic nosebleeding yuri themes; Akari's older sister apparently has a very strong obsession with Akari to the point of stealing her panties. Yuyushiki -- Comic boob-grabbing. Kitakubu -- Some yuri attraction of Sakura for Botan; some yuri attraction of Claire for Karin; one instance of comic boob-grabbing. Non Non Biyori -- In Episode 2 Toharu has a full-blown girl-on-girl crush on Komari which is made even more clear in the manga in Chapters 3 and 8. Generally speaking, it is not uncommon that CGDCT involve very strongly implied deeply-emotional girl-on-girl relationships. It is also common to see girl-on-girl physical sexual activity, e.g. boob-grabbing. Nosebleeds symbolize sexual excitation. However, there is one story arc in "High School Girls" where one of the girls ends up in a love hotel room with an opportunistic boy, but gets rescued. This appears to be another rare example of stereotypical heterosexual activity. Finally, note that even in High School Girls, none of the girls lost their virginity, if I recall correctly. I believe that is the case in Morita-san as well. It is much easier to make a list of CGDCT anime series in which the characters have no sexual elements at all. The only example that I am aware of is "K-On!", but there could be some others. |
okanaganOct 16, 2013 9:31 AM
| Some additional potential candidates for CGDCT series which I have come across: ( but I have not yet properly evaluated them for the official list above ) 2002 Azumanga Daioh / あずまんが大王 -- Classic CGDCT -- 26 episodes were made, all aired in 2002 REMOVE: 2004 Lucky Star --- Totally the wrong year! 2006 Binchou-tan (びんちょうタン) -- 12 x 12min/ep --- Certainly very cute girls doing very cute things. Very random. Very slow. No fanservice. 2007 Sketchbook: Full Color's (スケッチブック 〜full color's〜) -- looks very, very likely to be CGDCT 2007 Lucky Star / らき☆すた / Raki☆Suta --- 24 episodes, all aired in 2007 2007 Gakuen Utopia Manabi Straight --- there is a strong possible objection to classifying this as CGDCT in that the story has a very strong narrative, which is about the arrival of the new student Manabi, her election to the defunct student council, and their struggle to put on the last cultural festival in the history of the school. So it kind of goes against my definition of CGDCT as lacking an over-arching dramatic story. But the characters are extremely cute. Also, the production values are outstanding. 2007 Hidamari Sketch / ひだまりスケッチ -- 12 episodes + 3 "special episodes" 2008 Hidamari Sketch x 365 --- 13 episodes + 1 OVA, all aired in 2008 2009 GA: Geijutsuka Art Design Class ----- CGDCT 2009 Hidamari Sketch x 365 (special) --- Just 2 episodes 2010 K-On!! (26 episodes) 2010 Hidamari Sketch × Hoshimittsu / ひだまりスケッチ×☆☆☆（第3期） --- 12 episodes + 2 special episodes 2011 Tamayura: Hitotose (たまゆら) ----- CGDCT 2011 Copihan / こぴはん / ONA 6min/ep -- It is a very strange case, with large segments that are definitely not CGDCT. So it is hard to classify. 2012 YuruYuri♪♪ 2012 Hidamari Sketch × Honeycomb / ひだまりスケッチ×ハニカム（第4期） 2012 Gokujyo: Gokurakuin Joshikōryō Monogatari / short eps / ----- CGDCT 2012 Kyou no Asuka Show / 今日のあすかショー / 20 ONA episodes / 3min/episode --- A special case since it about just one very cute girl. 2012 Teekyuu 1 / てーきゅう -- The cursory impression may be that this is primarily a sports series. But it is nothing about sports. It is CGDCT. 2013 Aiura (あいうら) -- looks very, very likely to be CGDCT 2013 Tamayura: More Aggressive (たまゆら) ----- CGDCT 2013 Plastic Nee-chan ---- 12 episodes of only 2 minutes each! 2013 Teekyuu 2 / てーきゅう / 2min/ep -- Not primarily a Tennis sports anime. This is clearly CGDCT 2013 Teekyuu 3 / てーきゅう / 2min/ep -- Not primarily a Tennis sports anime. This is clearly CGDCT - - - - - - - NOT YET AIRED: 2013 Hidamari Sketch: Sae & Hiro's Graduation Arc --- 2 OVA's to be released on Wednesday, November 27, 2013. 2014 Sakura Trick ( ) -- We need to wait and see. More potential candidate series would be gratefully appreciated. - - - - - - - Here is a list of anime series which I have examined and decided that they are not CGDCT. On the other hand, I am interested in people expressing their opinions that I could be wrong. Such debates could serve to improve the definition of what is really CGDCT and what is not. 2004 Marimite -- See great paragraph in Post #15 below by Cratex. 2007 Minami-ke (みなみけ) 2008 Minami-ke: Okawari (みなみけ〜おかわり〜) 2009 Minami-ke: Okaeri (みなみけ おかえり) 2012 Haitai Nanafa (はいたい七葉) -- Many of the characters are supernatural fairies as opposed to human girls. See comment by kuuderes_shadow below. 2013 Minami-ke: Tadaima (みなみけ ただいま) -- Initially I thought that Minami-ke was CGDCT. However, the male characters seems to play significant roles, and their personalities are explored to a fair extent. So this series appears to be a mixed group of people, not just girls. - - - - - As well . . . I happened to notice this discussion thread specifically about CGDCT, but they didn't mention much apart from Azumanga Daioh. But they did seem to have a consensus of Azumanga Daioh as starting the genre: http://www.crunchyroll.ca/forumtopic-824167/cute-girls-doing-cute-stuff |
okanaganNov 26, 2013 8:55 AM
| Well, I don't necessarily agree with your definition, and it appears my reasons for enjoying these types of shows is different from yours (in particular, there are a few shows on your list I just didn't care for, but whatever), but here are a few others I thought I will point out that I think fall within your criteria: Aiura Binchou-tan GA: Geijutsuka Art Design Class Haitai Nanafa Sketchbook: Full Color's Tamayura There were some others *I* consider "CGDCT", but they feature stories with a strong "plot" as opposed to random "days in the lives" type of stories, and thus like Love Lab fall outside your definition. |
CratexNov 16, 2013 4:02 PM
|
| Oh, in GA: Geijutsuka Art Design Class there are chickens wandering around the school campus, as opposed to cats. That's not really important, I suppose, but I just felt like mentioning it... ;) |
|
| Hi Cratex. Thanks for those suggestions. I did a quick check based on the Wikipedia descriptions, making it clear that they are mostly CGDCT. So I added them all to my list of "maybes" and I want to incorporate them into the overall list soon. In one case, I have not yet been able to find sufficient data, since the Wikipedia article was just a stub. One important thing is that my inclusion of any particular series as CGDCT does not imply that I like it. I like many of them, since generally I am a fan of CGDCT. Also, I am not implying that these are good series. Certainly, an anime series could be CGDCT and yet be poor. I am open to suggestions for an alternate definition. I feel it is nice to attempt to state a formal definition. On the other hand, the application of such a definition always requires judgements. So anybody who wishes to revise the definition should also provide their own revised list of CGDCT as well as some instructive examples of series which they believe are not CGDCT. Cratex said: There were some others *I* consider "CGDCT" This is a very, very important point. In the philosophy of attempting to define and enumerate a genre, it is essential to consider the common sense intuition of fans. Let us take Love Lab as an example. Suppose that most people think that Love Lab is CGDCT. Then an expert on CGDCT is probably wiser to revise the definition (or the application of the definition) in order to go along with the will of the majority. Let me attempt to make my case of why I decided that Love Lab is not a CGDCT series. Yes, it is true that superficially we see cute girls doing cute things. However, the entire story arc of the series seems to center on the establishment of the "love lab". Also, eventually male characters get involved. A commonly seen feature of CGDCT is that you can tune in to any episode and enjoy seeing the cute girls doing cute things. But with Love Lab, you would need to start watching the show from Episode 1 in order to follow what is going on. Furthermore, in certain episodes you will see the boys appearing and playing important roles. Having said that, if the majority of people who like CGDCT feel that "Okanagan is wrong about Love Lab", then I would cheerfully go along with them and add Love Lab to the CGDCT list. The same consideration would apply to removing an anime series from the list if most people see it as not belonging there. One person said that Marimite does not belong on the list. I watched all four seasons and came to the conclusion that Marimite is CGDCT. But if you just watch one season then you might decide that it is dominated by a love story. I believe that you can arbitrarily select any single episode of Marimite and enjoy it. On the other hand, I could see some possible arguments that other people can make for excluding Marimite. For me, it would be more helpful to read explanations, rather than people simply voting no. Finally, I want to make it clear that I take no ownership of CGDCT. I would not be at all offended is somebody else wants to take this over. At my advanced age I am running out of energy and memory to do this properly. So anybody has my blessing to cut and paste all of this stuff and use it any way that they want to. My only hope is that CGDCT will be remembered as a genre long, long after I am gone, along with Shakespeare, Molière and Greek Drama. |
okanaganNov 17, 2013 6:08 AM
okanagan said: The same consideration would apply to removing an anime series from the list if most people see it as not belonging there. One person said that Marimite does not belong on the list. I watched all four seasons and came to the conclusion that Marimite is CGDCT. But if you just watch one season then you might decide that it is dominated by a love story. I believe that you can arbitrarily select any single episode of Marimite and enjoy it. On the other hand, I could see some possible arguments that other people can make for excluding Marimite. For me, it would be more helpful to read explanations, rather than people simply voting no. (grin) much as I like Marimite, I wouldn't immediately think of it as falling into the CGDCT bucket, since I see it more as a drama. But I can certainly see how others might see it that way, and I can see that one who might like those types of shows could be shown an arbitrary episode and enjoy it. On the other hand, I also think such a person would be missing out on a considerable amount of subtext regarding how and why the characters react to certain things in that arbitrary episode without having seen what had gone before, since the characters undergo considerable development and growth as the stories progress. On the other hand, I freely admit I am contradicting myself here since some of the shows I think of as CGDCT (that I didn't include above) are "drama" heavy as well. The influence of guys in the classification is also very loose for me - for example one male character in particular is to me important to explain one of main female characters in Marimite, and to a large extent so is one male character in Love Lab. But I don't think either was any sort of influence in how I 'classify' either of those shows. Actually, here's a really good example of where I'm coming from - "mecha". Now, I'm not a "mecha" fan, though I've certainly watched many shows with "mecha". (I've noted that most of the ones I've liked were ones where "mecha fighting mecha" was not the "thing" about the story, but whatever.) But then, a few weeks ago while talking about mecha shows with a friend at work and showing him some things on MAL and MALgraph I was startled to see that FLCL was tagged "mecha". Really? Okay, so a show is "sci-fi" if it has space travel in it, right? So that means "Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun: Tonari no Gokudou-kun" should be tagged sci-fi, right? In short, I can't tell you why I think of some shows as CGDCT and others as Not CGDCT, except to say it mostly comes down to how I perceive the main characters and what they are doing and has little to do with the supporting characters and the background. More so than with other tags such as mecha, magic, military, and such where it's more or less obvious (still, FLCL mecha?), I think CGDCT is something that is probably to much an emotional/perceptional bias dependent thing to really be defined in a way that makes sense and avoids being to broad or to narrow. So, I can't really help you. |
CratexNov 17, 2013 8:41 AM
|
| Hi again Cratex. I found your comments regarding Marimite very helpful. You have won me over to the point of view that Marimite is not CGDCT and really is not very close to the boundary line either. So I plan to remove it from my list. But at the same time, I think your paragraph is great to append to Marimite in a list of series which are not CGDCT. Such a list provides useful examples to assist people in properly comprehending what CGDCT really is. It also serves as a valuable resource for people who are considering redefining the genre. Besides that, I expect that fans of XXXXX will frequently ask, "Why didn't you include XXXXX" on your list of CGDCT? So it is good to have an answer provided for the most common examples. Your comments are much more helpful given that you like Marimite. I have watched all four seasons of the anime series, watched the live-action movie countless times, and am beginning to read the light novel in a version with the Japanese and the English presented side-by-side. I would appreciate it if you are willing to take a side (for or against) Love Lab being CGDCT. I also wonder what other people think. I am not a fan of mecha, and I instantly turn away from any new series as soon as I see that it involves mecha in any way. This is ignorant prejudice. As a matter of fact, one of my favorite anime movies is "Project A-Ko" ( 1986 / プロジェクトA子 ) in which mecha were prominent. Someone has done an excellent job of creating a Wikipedia page for the mecha genre. I did watch Evangelion out of a sense of duty to its importance to the history of anime. Specifically, in Episode 2 of OreImo, Kuroneko mentioned Evangelion while talking to Kirino as they were sitting in McDonalds arguing. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mecha_anime In addition to Mecha, Wikipedia pages have been created for these anime genres: Ecchi, Harem, Hentai, Magical girl, Mecha, Yaoi, Yuri As well, they have created Wikipedia pages for the various anime demographics. |
okanaganNov 17, 2013 8:58 AM
| The other day I posted something, and then when I looked at it the next day I immediately wondered if I had forgotten to take my medicine that day, and quickly deleted it. Ah, well, for various reasons I consider Love Lab to be CGDCT, mostly because I see the main point of the story as focusing on the girls and their daily comedy antics while forming friendships. And while most of what they do seems focused on a "plot" to the story, to me that wasn't really anything significant other than providing a vehicle for all that, as a way to bring them together to interact when otherwise they probably would have avoided each other. |
|
| The main reason why I didn't mention Haitai Nanafa at the same time as I brought up Morita-san is because it falls flat on the first point on your list. Half the cast are spirits, after all. And even those that aren't are not exactly ordinary. |
| There is no such thing as shit taste. Only idiots who think everyone should have the same taste as they do. |
| Hi Kuuderes_Shadow. Thank you for your comment regarding Haitai Nanafa ( はいたい七葉 / 2012 ). Given what you said, I feel very lucky that I placed Haitai Nanafa on my list of series that I had not yet classified. You are certainly right that Haitai Nanafa does not seem to meet my definition of CGDCT since it is not primarily about a group of human girls. The English Wikipedia article is very, very short and the Japanese Wikipedia article is also very sketchy. I watched just one episode so far. So I had not yet formulated my own conclusion. In order to properly document CGDCT, I like to maintain two lists: 1. A comprehensive list of all anime series that I am aware of that seem to meet my own definition of CGDCT. 2. A list of some representative examples of anime series which are not CGDCT, along with specific explanations of why not. I do provide my own definition of CGDCT. At the same time, I don't assert that my definition is the best definition. By providing List 1 and List 2, I hope to provide a resource for other people who want to revisit CGDCT. They might want to remove some of my entries in List 1 or add others. Anybody is welcome to copy and paste anything that I have posted here. Rather than simply giving some examples of CGDCT anime series, I want to make the list as nearly complete as possible. This provides a resource for other people who want to do research or write a history on the topic. For example, how many CGDCT series have been produced in each year? Or how many episodes of CGDCT series have been produced in each year? And there are many other statistical measures that could be of interest in order to trace the time evolution of CGDCT. Based on the data that I have gathered, my personal impression is that we are presently living in the Golden Age of CGDCT. This tends to be supported by the extreme popularity and high production values of Non Non Biyori, of which both you are I are fans. |
| Haitai Nanafa is very much oriented around the supernatural, albeit in a SoL comedy manner. Lots of (mis)use of magic powers, that sort of thing. If you want a list like that, should sequels not be included as well? And So Ra No Wo To could probably count in the second list. Sure, the whole war situation gradually builds up along with the emotions and character backstories to the extent that by the end it is a very, very long way away from CGDCT, but for the first few episodes at least it is almost pure CGDCT material. And what about some of the Earth Star Entertainment shorts? Yama no Susume probably doesn't count, and teekyuu is more (not so) cute girls doing ridiculous things, but Mangirl could probably qualify to some people, although again it doesn't really fit your criteria as there is a definite purposeful activity going on. |
| There is no such thing as shit taste. Only idiots who think everyone should have the same taste as they do. |
okanagan said: I watch that show...occasionally......Non Non Biyori... May want to check out One Off |
|
| Cute girls doing cute things will always be the best animu genre ppl, like srsly Though this year has been really great with it, I think Yuru Yuri is still the best thing that's ever happened to the CGDCT genre. :3 |
 |
| Kuuderes_shadow asked: If you want a list like that, should sequels not be included as well? I definitely think so. I am trying to add the sequels to the list, although I have not attempted to do so in a systematic way. In addition, there are some cases where a series covers two cour rather than one. So for example K-On!! (2010) had 26 episodes, and I think that is worth mentioning. K-On! (2009) only had 13 episodes. One very important statistical measure is the number of episodes of CGDCT that are produced. So I want to make that information easy to access. When thinking about the impact of K-On! on CGDCT, it is certainly important to keep in mind that there were 13+26 = 39 episodes made. Likewise, Yuru Yuri (2011) and YuruYuri♪♪ (2012) definitely need to be listed separately. I'll address some of the other points in your post #20 a bit later. |
okanaganNov 23, 2013 11:31 AM
| Notes to accompany my November 29th 2013 update of "CGDCT Primer": My previous definition of CGDCT was: That previous definition was too wordy. Also, it ended up not being realistic to think that CGDCT was black and white. There are shades of grey. Since that early attempt, and after having had a lot more experience evaluating a lot of anime series to decide whether or not they are CGDCT, I have come up with a more concise and practical definition: In a "100% CGDCT" anime series: 1. The characters are girls. 2. The girls are cute. 3. They do random cute things. Starting from the concept of "100% CGDCT" there is room for judgement by each person (i.e. each CGDCT fan or CGDCT expert or CGDCT historian) as to whether a given anime series is CGDCT-like or not. Also, introducing a percent figure below 100% makes it possible to indicate the concept that a certain series looks a bit like CGDCT but differs in some way. When making a list of anime series, this approach seems to be workable and intuitive. Some anime series fall in grey areas even after carefully watching the episodes and debate among fans. "50% CGDCT" or higher or lower seems a useful concept for these cases. Other times, some other element is dominant in the series, such as the sports genre or the magical girl genre or the tournament genre. For such cases, to be able to say "20% CGDCT" seems like a useful way to describe it. In Fall 2013, in an earlier version of "CGDCT Primer", I wrote this paragraph, which I now strongly disagree with: "Based on this, CGDCT started in 2001 with Kokoro Library. Since then, there have been lots of great CGDCT series. However, I believe that the trend has pretty much run its course, and people are sick of CGDCT and want to move on to other things. So there is very little demand for CGDCT so that anything that is made now has to be produced on the cheap. For these reasons, I think that Kitakubu will be the last great CGDCT anime series. For the hard core CGDCT fans among you, you are always free to re-watch Azumanga Daioh." On the contrary, CGDCT is very much alive and well! In fact, it appears that we are living in a golden age of CGDCT! I am hoping that this will help CGDCT to gain more respect as a genre, so that it will be listed when anybody enumerates the main anime genres. CGDCT series should not simply be subsumed under "Slice of Life" or "Comedy". In the listings, I have tried to: - List each individual season (cour) of a series. - Indicate the number of episodes in those cases where the length was not the typical 12 or 13. - Indicate the episode length if it was not the typical 24 minutes. The way I present it, the "CGDCT Primer" has two lists. The first is a list of the CGDCT anime series. Then there is a list of series which are not CGDCT series. For the CGDCT non-expert, they will simply want to look at the first list. Perhaps they want to look for series that they have not yet watched. On the other hand, some experts will not find it useful to have a list based on some arbitrary cut-off between CGDCT and non-CGDCT. In addition, some experts on CGDCT may wish to propose new definitions. For those people, the footnotes are essential. Experts can look at the series which are not excellent examples of CGDCT and make their own judgements after careful analysis of the series. They may decide to remove some series from the CGDCT list. It is essential to provide a resource which is maximally useful to experts while at the same time being of interest to the casual user. |
okanaganNov 29, 2013 2:38 PM
| I must admit, even though I saw something in the dare of giving such a specific definition, this more general definition will please many more. Yes, CGDCT seems to exist in layers within shows. A tiny bit is enough to trigger some viewers to get the thought that this indeed is a CGDCT anime (I believe I once tried to explain this to you, okanagan, in a one-on-one about another topic). I believe CGDCT can feel really concentrated within a show, even if it actually is not. |
| CGDCT indeed doesn't have to be the prime theme in a series, sometimes there are times where it's occurs occasionally which can be pretty cool too. |
|
| Hi CBSHeadstock. Thank you for the correction on the year for Plastic Nee-san. I don't have any excuse for the mistake. They put out 12 ONA 2-minute episodes starting in 2011 and ending in 2012, so I plan to indicate the year as 2011 for simplicity. The alternative would be to separately list the number of ONAs put out in 2011 and the number of ONAs put out in 2012. Either is okay. I have a list of corrections and additions to make. The correction for the year for Plastic Nee-san won't appear for a while. Regarding GJ-Bu, I vaguely remember seeing it before. The scene where they change the florescent bulb is unforgettable. Just now I watched Episode 1 in order to evaluate it. Note that I don't evaluate CGDCT as "yes" or "no", but rather use a percent system. GJ-Bu is certainly not 100% CGDCT because of the male character. On the other hand, all of the female characters appear to be cute, based on what I saw. The activities did appear to be random and cute. However, in order to come up with an actual percentage figure, I would make use of the following procedure: 1. What percentage of the main characters are female? - Just now I didn't watch carefully, but on average I was seeing about 60% female on the screen, since a lot of the time it was the guy with just one girl. Also, the scene with the spider needed to be subtracted. Anyways, roughly 60%. 2. Next, what percentage of the female characters are cute? - Based on what I saw, 100%. 3. In terms of the activities, what percentage of it consists of random cute activities, and what I implicitly have in mind is that this involves the girls, and not the spider. Also, if I see a boy and a girl doing something random and funny, I count that as 50%. Based on what I saw, the boy was in 100% of the scenes, except for the spider part. Thus, I would roughly say that 60% of the random cute activity could be attributed to girls. Overall: 60% times 100% times 60% = 36% So, yes, there is some element of CGDCT in GJ-Bu. On the other hand, 36% is not high enough for me to add it to my main list of CGDCT, for which I set the minimum percentage at 50%. In fact, Wikipedia classifies GJ-Bu as "Harem" and "Comedy". MAL classified it as Genres: Comedy, School, Slice of Life. ANN said: Genres: comedy, slice of life Themes: harem, moe, school, school life Anyways, this demonstrates to you how my system works. HOWEVER... it sounds like you are familiar with the series. I am not. Let's say that the boy dies at the start of Episode 2. Then let's say that the remainder of the series consists of the girls holding a very short funeral and then doing 100% random cute things for the remaining episodes. In that case, the series as a whole would come out to being 95% CGDCT. You do the math. If you feel that my rough evaluation of 36% is wrong, then let me know. From experience, I know that quite often the percentage of CGDCT cannot be evaluated without watching the whole series. Thanks again for your input. |
| I watched GJ-Bu when it was airing. To me, at it's core, it's about several girls all liking the same guy, whom they've "invited" into their "club". Very very few scenes occur where this one guy is not present. Interestingly, as they even tell him at some point, they established a "no romance" agreement between themselves because they didn't want to fight over him and cause friction between themselves. Certainly much of the humor in the show is around some of the things between the girls, but from what I recall most of it really centers around the cluster of relationships with the guy in the middle. Not that others shouldn't be able to see it as one, but it never even occurred to me to see it as CGDCT. It's very similair in setup to "Seitokai no Ichizon" and "Seitokai Yakuindomo", but in my opinion not nearly as good. I thought the show was fine, but for whatever reason the humor often felt forced and the guy lacked the same presence as the guy in those other two shows. |
|
| I certainly agree that, at a gut level, I immediately perceived GJ-Bu as "Harem". On the other hand, I think that CBSHeadstock asked an excellent question by wondering whether, according to MY definition, GJ-Bu is CGDCT or not. So it was a nice opportunity for me to express my concept that, no, GJ-Bu is not 100% CGDCT, but on the other hand we can say that there is a little bit of CGDCT in it. Likewise, GJ-Bu is surely not a horror anime, but there is a little bit of horror in it if you happened to be terrified of large spiders. I also have an unreasonable fear of changing florescent light tubes. It also disturbs me to see a boy carrying a girl on his shoulders since I worry about her getting a head injury. The way I have defined CGDCT, from a strictly logical point of view, it is not possible for an anime series to be 100% CGDCT while at the same time being 100% (heterosexual) Harem. I think most people will be happy with that. However, it seems to me that it is logically possible (but unlikely) that a Harem anime series could have a fairly high percentage of CGDCT. Suppose that the boy did not appear in every single scene. Suppose that the girls did lots of random cute things that were in no way related to the boy. Perhaps 70% CGDCT is possible. But on the other hand, if the girl-on-girl action consists of the girls competing with other to see which can win the boy, then that is not "random" activity. So the word "random" in my definition does play a key role. A common feature of a Harem series is that the girls fight over the boy. It is cute but not random. Speaking of Harem anime series, there have been so, so many, many of them. Happily, it is fairly easy to define them. Perhaps some day somebody will make a complete list of them and perhaps decide which is the best Harem anime of all time. I like the character designs in Seitokai Yakuindomo but I have never been able to get into the comedy. I like the premise of Seitokai no Ichizon but it doesn't excite me enough to stay with it. But I think that there is one outstanding example of a series with a student council with a single male member which is OniAi. However, the student council aspect is a minor part of the story. |
| I have more than a few disagreements with the classification system, but one in particular I think is quite unfair : 1. The characters are human girls. I really don't think they have to be "human" to qualify. As long as they're humanoid, it should be fine in my opinion. So, Hatai nanafa should be added to the list I do agree that GJbu doesn't really count, though I am against Nichijou being on here. The four MCs (Nano, Mai, Yuuko, and Mio) do get the majority of screentime, but not by a significant percentage. There are plenty of guy characters that are pretty important, like Sakamoto. It's more about all the crazy antics that go on in that school than about cute girls doing cute things. I also feel like your idea of what girls are "cute" is a bit unfair. I found the cast of Yurumates to be quite cute from start to finish. I think it's a bit hard to really define which girls are "cute" and use that as a basis. There are probably some obvious lines that can be drawn, but there are way more grey areas out there. I have a series to suggest as well: Tantei Opera Milky Holmes. There are guys, but the real focus of the show is definitely the girls and them doing random, silly things. The story hardly exists but shows up every once in a while (which happens with these shows occasionally).The second season might be harder to include, but I think the first season does a pretty good job of falling under the category. The second season sticks to the story a lot more than the first. I don't expect this to make it, but I felt I should give it a fighting chance. EDIT Might also consider adding Everyday Tales of a Cat God. |
vampkoJan 25, 2014 8:20 AM
More topics from this board
Poll: » Kokoro Library Episode 5 DiscussionShocked - Jan 27, 2011 |
6 |
by Kennit
»»
Nov 7, 2023 5:23 PM |
|
Poll: » Kokoro Toshokan Episode 3 DiscussionCratex - Apr 25, 2013 |
4 |
by Tonosho_Takagi
»»
Jul 19, 2023 2:39 PM |
|
Poll: » Kokoro Library Episode 13 Discussiondatsunvic - Sep 12, 2009 |
6 |
by BeavisOfArabia
»»
Dec 31, 2022 8:27 AM |
|
Poll: » Kokoro Library Episode 1 Discussionclannad4ever - Mar 6, 2010 |
6 |
by BeavisOfArabia
»»
Dec 26, 2022 8:39 AM |
|
Poll: » Kokoro Library Episode 12 DiscussionMalware - Aug 2, 2009 |
6 |
by Ashhk
»»
Oct 2, 2019 2:15 PM |