May 19, 2016 1:06 PM
No-So-Thoughtful Top 20 List - Slice of Life
Anime Relations:
Azumanga Daiou The Animation, K-On!
Okay, so I won't be providing a new list of my own today; I'm going to be complaining about an article list here on MAL. I was bored and browsing around different anime entries and came across this article:
Top 20 Best Slice of Life Anime of All Time
My initial thoughts were, "Oh cool, I like a good slice of life series. If Azumanga Daioh isn't #1 or at least close to it, this will be a travesty!"
Well, it ended up much worse. #20 on the list was WataMote and I was like, "Okay, slight stretch, but I guess it is mostly a slice of life show." #19 was Free! and I was like, "Well, I haven't seen it, but from what I've heard it's basically K-ON! with hot swimmer boys, so it's probably fine." Then it came to #18 with Fruits Basket and I'm just like, what? No. This is a classic shoujo supernatural rom-com! There may be some elements of slice of life, but that is not the focus. This is NOT a "slice of life show". The list just made less and less sense from there. The top three were freakin' Suzumiya Haruhi, Clannad, and Toradora! and they even had Mushishi on the list!! Really, from the shows that I've actually watched, K-ON! is the only one on the list that felt like a true, 100% slice of life anime.
So yeah, this list quickly became very suspicious to me. I ended up clicking on Toradora! since it's my favorite romantic comedy and found out that it did indeed have Slice of Life listed as one of its genres. Again, I'm not saying that these shows don't have slice of life elements, they're almost all just far from being real slice of life shows.
Anyway, I then clicked on the Slice of Life genre link and I saw something very familiar. It isn't exact, but the list of anime that came up was very similar to the Top 20 list. I then noticed that the default sort for the genre search is "Most Members" (meaning shows that are a part of the most members' lists show up first). Well, going back to the Top 20 list, it actually shows the stats of each show that made it on the list. If you look at the "Members" stat, you will see that as you go down the list the next anime has more and more people who have it included on their lists. So taking into account that the stats have changed since the article was written over 4 months ago, the writer basically just clicked on the Slice of Life genre link and picked the first 20 series that came up, discarding sequels. Very little real thought went into the list and it is extremely deceptive when it's labeled as a "Top of All Time" list. He could have at least switched the sort to "Score" instead of ones with the most members! It's basically a popularity list of anime that includes slice of life themes. To make it worse, I went to the writer's MAL list and I only see two of the anime from the article (K-ON! and WataMote) on his list.
Bottom line, just because a show has elements of everyday life within it does not automatically make it a true slice of life anime. A slice of life anime is a show about (almost) nothing. They are the Seinfeld-style sitcoms of the anime world. Any real plot progression or drama is far secondary to gag comedy and/or just experiencing the everyday lives of the characters. They are shows like Azumanga Daioh, Nichijou, Yuru Yuri, Lucky Star, Ichigo Mashimaro, etc. etc.
Well, I just wanted to get that off of my chest. The article really annoyed me. I feel a bit better now. Until next time!
Top 20 Best Slice of Life Anime of All Time
My initial thoughts were, "Oh cool, I like a good slice of life series. If Azumanga Daioh isn't #1 or at least close to it, this will be a travesty!"
Well, it ended up much worse. #20 on the list was WataMote and I was like, "Okay, slight stretch, but I guess it is mostly a slice of life show." #19 was Free! and I was like, "Well, I haven't seen it, but from what I've heard it's basically K-ON! with hot swimmer boys, so it's probably fine." Then it came to #18 with Fruits Basket and I'm just like, what? No. This is a classic shoujo supernatural rom-com! There may be some elements of slice of life, but that is not the focus. This is NOT a "slice of life show". The list just made less and less sense from there. The top three were freakin' Suzumiya Haruhi, Clannad, and Toradora! and they even had Mushishi on the list!! Really, from the shows that I've actually watched, K-ON! is the only one on the list that felt like a true, 100% slice of life anime.
So yeah, this list quickly became very suspicious to me. I ended up clicking on Toradora! since it's my favorite romantic comedy and found out that it did indeed have Slice of Life listed as one of its genres. Again, I'm not saying that these shows don't have slice of life elements, they're almost all just far from being real slice of life shows.
Anyway, I then clicked on the Slice of Life genre link and I saw something very familiar. It isn't exact, but the list of anime that came up was very similar to the Top 20 list. I then noticed that the default sort for the genre search is "Most Members" (meaning shows that are a part of the most members' lists show up first). Well, going back to the Top 20 list, it actually shows the stats of each show that made it on the list. If you look at the "Members" stat, you will see that as you go down the list the next anime has more and more people who have it included on their lists. So taking into account that the stats have changed since the article was written over 4 months ago, the writer basically just clicked on the Slice of Life genre link and picked the first 20 series that came up, discarding sequels. Very little real thought went into the list and it is extremely deceptive when it's labeled as a "Top of All Time" list. He could have at least switched the sort to "Score" instead of ones with the most members! It's basically a popularity list of anime that includes slice of life themes. To make it worse, I went to the writer's MAL list and I only see two of the anime from the article (K-ON! and WataMote) on his list.
Bottom line, just because a show has elements of everyday life within it does not automatically make it a true slice of life anime. A slice of life anime is a show about (almost) nothing. They are the Seinfeld-style sitcoms of the anime world. Any real plot progression or drama is far secondary to gag comedy and/or just experiencing the everyday lives of the characters. They are shows like Azumanga Daioh, Nichijou, Yuru Yuri, Lucky Star, Ichigo Mashimaro, etc. etc.
Well, I just wanted to get that off of my chest. The article really annoyed me. I feel a bit better now. Until next time!
Posted by
pluvia33
| May 19, 2016 1:06 PM |
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