Are SLICE OF LIFE anime boring?

Hey_Taka-tin_Hey said:
It's less an opinion and more the ramblings of yet another misinformed user.

There's a reason you didn't reply to my Kino no Tabi comment. You simply don't know. You have preconceived notions about a genre and pass them off as fact, much like a child.

I could give you a list of SoL with plenty of depth, but you won't watch them. You will simply continue to paint an entire genre with broad strokes and call it a day.
And this one isn't even a genre that is particularly easy to pin down. It encompasses a shit ton of different types of anime. Some might say that it's barely a genre at all...

alshu said:

Then maybe you are misinformed or prejudice against sol?
Watch some and you will have real arguments against it and more fuel for your hatred.

Krayken said:

Oh but I do have real argument read above!

YattaX said:
They are also saturated same type of shows emerge every season, then they are hyped until the season ends, and then people forgot all bout them and move to hype next sol seasonal fad.
I watched my fare share of them but these days I mostly avoid them.

FMmatron said:
Even within the frame of what I consider a slice of life anime, there will be of course deviations and I'm not capable of coming up with a defintion that would cover every single aspect, but thankfully we're able to evaluate the shows in question.

OppaiSugoi said:
I am probably the only one in this thread that will say that this question applies to me in that SoL genre really does make me fall asleep. So Yes, to me the genre is boring.

Fite me.

Calal-Chan said:


The fact that you have quite a few slice of life's rated quite high means you clearly don't hate it or find some of it boring. Sakurasou, A Silent Voice, Saki, and Little Busters all want to have a word with you ;)

Griff-ith said:
For me they are very boring although I do enjoy some slice of life episodes in action anime for example.
Another reason why I don't like slice of anime is because I hate the moe stereotype and in most slice of life the females act like mindless fools, which can't seem to do anything.

katsucats said:
That was an interesting read -- the whole thing -- but I'm going to respond to the part I quoted. To define slice of life, it may be useful to consider what is not slice of life. More specifically, what is a traditional drama narrative. A traditional plot, first described by Aristotle, and later used famously by Shakespeare, has a 5 act structure. They can be grouped into 3 categories: Protasis (setup), Epitasis (conflict), Catastrophe (resolution). That is that despite introducing the daily lives of the protagonists in a realistic manner (or not), the drama will eventually introduce a clearly defined antagonist and a main conflict. The antagonist may be a person, a condition (e.g. the conflict between the two families in Romeo & Juliet), or groups of people (e.g. the people perpetuating the condition). Therefore, the drama consists of the protagonist overcoming a specific challenge. You could say, at the end of a drama, maybe that you'd like to see more, but you understand why the show ended where it ended.

The slice of life, then, might follow a protagonist, but lacks any main antagonist or archplot (main conflict), kind of how real life is, you might have some issue one day, but after a while you're over it. The difference between this and a drama lies in the framing structure. The narrative of a drama might tie every event to that issue, whereas a slice of life treats it as no more important than any other event. Both can have character developments and subplots, but one is structured like a mountain.

By that definition, I think, in my opinion, it's clear that Welcome to the NHK has rather straightforward, uncontroversial arcs (e.g. the suicide group) that are clearly resolved by the end. Hanasaku Iroha, too, starts with an immature girl that doesn't really know what she wants, and ends with, well you know... It's a traditional coming of age story.

Sangatsu no Lion is a bit more ambiguous: There are several ups and downs. Kiriyama is moody, gets into an emotional block, then figures it out. In that sense, it may be dramatic. But I think over the course of 44 episode, there are so many of these mini-arcs and it never shows Kiriyama settling in any kind of stable situation. His relationships with his peers improve, but over gradual steps rather than any single defining event. He doesn't gain new friends or definitively resolve any internal struggle. Instead, new inner doubts arise when old ones are resolved. In this sense, one might interpret that all these stories revolve around some kind of theme, whether depression or solitude, and that it's a kind of vehicle to drive a meta narrative. Or, it could just be the ups and downs of a person with no overarching narrative. It could be slice of life or not.

Cowboy Bebop is also interesting. It is structurally similar to just another shounen anime, except it doesn't settle in any clear resolution. There is one arc near the end that could be considered the main arc, a back story that sort of explains Spike's character, and then ends it rather ambiguously. However, I think the choice of that as the last arc in the show is deliberate. If the producers wanted to add more material, it wouldn't fit anywhere after the finale. That's why even the movie is set before the ending of the show.

Yuujinchou Natsume, Usagi Drop, Mushishi, etc., all end up with the characters relatively similar to who they were before. If there's any plot-wise development, say in Usagi Drop, there's no single realization that could be the crux of what the show communicates. Rather, the show proceeds incrementally. These are what I'd call slice of life.

Another show, AnoHana, also shows the characters about in their daily lives for much of it, but it clearly revolves around a certain event as setup for the conflict of the characters overcoming a tragedy. The ending is definitive -- no one could question why the producers ended it there. Kids on the Slope (despite what I said before in this thread) begins like a slice of life and ends with the characters moving on in their lives. But there's a narrative focus culminating in the development of certain relationships. It is also a coming of age story.

I think the idea that any character piece that's realistic must be slice of life stands on no ground. By that logic, Aku no Hana, which had a clear antagonist, would be a slice of life. Rec, which is clearly centered around establishing a single relationship, would be a slice of life. Danshi Koukousei no Nichijou, which is clearly centered around comedic punchlines, would be slice of life. Shows like Tari Tari, centered around students overcoming some important high school event, whether it's sports, band, or the cultural fair, or the angst of graduation, would all be slice of life. They are not: They are coming of age dramas of the most traditional kind.

jal90 said:

This is completely false, particularly in procedural slice of life which is very common for instance in iyashikei.

Griff-ith said:

I said "most" not "every" mate, idk you can't say it's false.

FMmatron said:
It also helped me to sort-out some misconstruction regarding Hanasaku Iroha. Despite the fact that silly ol me knows well about the coming of age nature, heck I even praised it for that in the episode discussion. Yet the thing is, although, it's charcteristics of the drama narrative were present and of importance, I still perceived it as if both narrative forms were working concurrently. Ohanas initial conflict, the ones she encountered during her job at Kissui and her development came naturally with the process of growing up, encountering people, facing new challenges and gaining experience, instead of coming off as if the story tried hard to adress one specific theme. The themes of family and growing up were still existent, if that makes any sense. So yeah, for me it's kinda hard to make the call here. By facts it's obvious, it's drama/coming of age since Ohana had to overcome some tasks or events, even tho they weren't necessarily always of personal concern(aside from the stuff with the family and Kou) nor predominant enough in contrast to the slice of life. While watching, it felt like the latter was more than just supplementary.

Absolutely agree with the rest, I also don't think that the premise, realism = slice of life stands any chance, there are way too many examples that prove it isn't the case.

pianist88 said:
Some are good, some are plain weird, and some are bad. K-On, Yuru Camp, Seitokai Yakuindomo (aka Sex Jokes: the anime) are both masterpieces. Then you have shows like Minami-Ke, which started off good, but then went downhill, B Gata H Kei also started off funny, but I stopped watching it when it turned into hentai. Watamote is also good overall, but personally I found it to be one big letdown. It wasn't boring, it just got depressing. But if you're looking to relax and unwind after a long, boring day, Slice of Life anime are great. Not every anime has to involve battles which last for 5+ episodes, or FMA. I can see why people hate on it though.

FMmatron said:
I still heavily disagree with you regarding the appeal of Welcome to the NHK and Koe no Katachi. To claim they're appealing due to their slife of life nature and not because they present interesting themes or emotional themes is a stretch.

inim said:
Sorry I'm really late to this, but I wanna add a few words.

Slice of Life is a way of storytelling more than anything else. Attention to detail of daily life of the (usually) ensemble cast, semi-episodic structure with overlaid "at large" story line, laid-back pacing are all hallmarks of the style. No anime tag is more relevant than another, priorities among tags are merely subjective. For example I watch sports anime despite that tag because i don't like the genre. But I enjoy them when they double as good Slice of Life, which is a favorite genre of mine. Look no further than Cross Game, Ashita no Joe and Hajime no Ippo for examples.

There are the "pure" SoLs which strip a classic plot and max out the SoL aspect, e.g. Non Non Byori, Aria, or Yokohama Shopping Trip. But of course a Sci-Fi like Planetes, a romantic melodrama like Nana, shounen like Mob Psycho 100 II, sports anime like Ashita no Joe, comedy like Kobayashi's Maid Dragon and so on and so forth all share something: SoL narrative style and episodes. In varying degrees, but always present.