For me, one of the most poignant aspects of slice-of-life is how the genre treats the concept of time. The chain of moments that make up the series slowly advances, but there are rarely consequences to the flow of time itself. This is a necessary thing. The environment and situation remain relatively static in order to highlight the development of their characters. The removal of “real time” from slice-of-life is what makes the characters (and their interactions with one another) endure as charming and heartwarming.  

One of my favorite examples of this is from Nichijou. There are little transitions that occasionally follow a scene, what the folks at the Nichijou wiki refer to as interstitials. They’re only a few seconds long, displaying the title of the anime and usually some sort of small animation. While they contribute next to nothing to our understanding of the story, I love them immensely. To me, they’re slice-ier and life-ier than Nichijou’s already slice-of-life plot. Major respect for Kyoto Animation for how they implemented these scenes.

And enough talking, here are a few interstitials that I thought were really fun:

Episode 3 Interstitial 3

Episode 6 Interstitial 2

Episode 10 Interstitial 2

Episode 13 Interstitial 1

Episode 15 Interstitial 5