Comments on: In defence of slice of life, dodgy endings and Japanese storytelling

By: ConcreteBadger

ConcreteBadger — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 17:50:03 +0000

@ Owen S: Thanks! I’m quite tempted to revisit Honey and Clover actually - I guess I was waiting for it to get licened and have a DVD release but that doesn’t seem to have happened.

@Hashihime: I suppose Slice of Life is an umbrella term for other subclasses of entertainment such as romance, drama, fantasy and so on; it can also form part of ‘mature entertainment’ where it’s assumed that the audience is prepared to think about what they’re seeing and also have a concentration span of minutes rather than seconds! I could go on for ages about anime endings - so muchso it’ll have to wait for another day!

Drmchrso: Not all people, but a discouragingly large proportion, like shallow entertainment. So doI at times (Shinji Aramaki’s Appleseed movie rocks) but it’s good to have a balance of mentally taxing stuff and mindless entertainment.

@Mike: I like your definition ‘realistic fiction’, which reminds me of why I don’t recognise ‘horror’ as a genre. In the same way as you described, some viewers refuse to watch mecha shows because giant robots look ‘unrealistic’ (in which case they should check out Gasaraki!) - I do think that slice of life/realistic fiction is seen as more ‘grown up’ by some though. That’s going back to the ‘elitism’ debate, which is really fun and enlightening!

By: Mike

Mike — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 05:02:29 +0000

The pleasures of a “slice of life” show are different from that of a more “fantastic” or (heading into elitist snob territory) “genre” type of work. I think deep down it really depends on how much realism is important to you as a criterion for artistic validity. A lot of literary-snob types reject any “genre fiction” (mystery, horror, SF, fantasy, etc) categorically, which I think is profoundly mistaken, but it is also true that the realistic fiction genre (I like that better than “slice-of-life”) can offer unique and relatable insights into ordinary existence. Its emotional power depends in large part on its realism.

Honey and Clover is one of the best examples. And “Looking up at the Half-Moon” is a bad example: a show that tries to be poignant but falls down because it wasn’t realistic enough.

By: DrmChsr0

DrmChsr0 — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 01:06:54 +0000

The problem here is this: People have lousy tastes and would love to see shallow series than series with pure win.

By: hashihime

hashihime — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 23:47:42 +0000

I’m beginning to wonder if “slice of life” has any meaning as a genre. Perhaps it’s just a catch-all term for things that do not fall into categories such as mecha or magical girl or shounen adventure. Bokura ga Ita is nothing if not romance, and for me it had (still has, in the manga) a compelling storyline. Honey & Clover was not really a portrayal of students’ daily lives, but an interweaving of their stories, as they progressed (or regressed) through life. Sometimes I think “slice of life” means “for adults.”

I loved your confirmation that anime endings often have people up in arms. As a strong partisan of Simoun, I have been shocked by some people’s deep dissatisfaction with its wonderful ending.

By: Owen S

Owen S — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 22:26:47 +0000

Amen to that. And welcome back! Your posts have been missed, looking forward to the Yoko Kanno OST review. Although your mentioning of Honey & Clover together with Bokura ga Ita in the same sentence makes me sad.