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Thoughts Anyone on Slice of Life?


Beocat

Your Opinions on Slice of Life?  

9 members have voted

  1. 1. Do you enjoy watching Slice of Life anime? (click on all that apply)

    • Of course! Slice of Life is only my favorite genre of all time!
    • Definitely. I enjoy learning about the various cultures of Japan and Slice of Life gives me the minute details that I crave.
    • I enjoy Slice of Life if it is focused on a hobby (bicycling, dancing, or cooking for instance).
    • It has to have a plot to have any chance with me. I once watched this plotless Slice of Life and felt it was a huge waste of my time and energy!
    • I'm not picky. I like it about as much as any other genre.
    • Slice of Life is what I watch when I've run out of other things to watch...
    • No. I tried them and they are not the anime for me!
      0
    • Wait....what is a Slice of Life again?
  2. 2. Does an anime need a plot to be enjoyable?

    • Absolutely!
    • Nah, anything goes!
    • It depends....I'll tell you why in my comment below...


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So, in a similar fashion to an earlier thread of mine (shamelessly linked here for anyone who wants to check it out and vote ;) Click Here for the Post! on Magical Girls), I've been wondering about all of your thoughts about the Slice of Life genre.  What is really Slice of Life to you?  Do you enjoy or dislike them?  And why?  Which ones are your favorites, and why did it stand out amongst the crowd?  What was your first Slice of Life?

 

To me, Slice of Life is a big change in pace from what I usually enjoy watching.  I've only ever collected a handful for my library but have doubtlessly enjoyed them (even the ones that I thought were a bit slow and strange!).  I tend to consider them as Slice of Life's whenever I find myself unable to label them as anything else...which probably means my grasp of Slice of Life as a genre needs more development haha...  For the most part, I've enjoyed the ones I've seen.  My favorite would probably be HaNaYaMaTa with its color and music.  I suppose having a plot to follow helped (I get lost in the plotless ones lol).  My first (that I finished) was Non Non Biyori which is impressive since I spent most of the first season trying to figure out what the plot was LMAO.  The first I started was Hanasaku Iroha (which I only had half of the first season in my possession at the time).

 

So, what are all of your thoughts of the genre?  And don't be shy guys ;) I think Slice of Lifes tend to end up in a forgotten group.  Maybe it is because they aren't as flashy as some other genres. 

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I've always said that any genre can be enjoyable, so long as it does what it set out to do properly. I'm the furthest person from picky, and I will in fact watch anything and probably be capable of enjoying it, so long as it's good at doing what it's doing. Naturally, this means that if ANY genre is bad at doing its genre, I probably won't like it.

You wouldn't watch a comedy with bad comedy right?

So basically, it's hard to vote here since I can't pin anything on the first chunk of the survey. It entirely depends.

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8 minutes ago, awesomedude20 said:

You wouldn't watch a comedy with bad comedy right?

so basically, anime based on puns ?

 

but yea, im not picky either, id go for any type of anime,doesn't matter on genre, doesn't matter on the art, aslong as the plot is good

good art is a bonus, bad art isnt much of a turnoff for me, its like 2d/sprite games, they are unique can neat just as today's 3D model-games are

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I like pretty much any anime/manga genre, as long as it is good.

Of course, it all depends on what I am getting. If it is something like Girl’s Last Tour, I would send that to the trash. I did see some moments that I liked and could enjoy, but my overall experience of the piece of it that I tried could not give me a reason to continue on. If it is Barakamon though, then I could not get enough of it.

As for whether an anime needs to have a plot to be enjoyable, I do not think that any work of fiction really needs a plot, but it has to be enjoyable and there must be something to capture the audience’s attention, in addition to having an enjoyable cast.

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7 hours ago, Wedgy said:

Some of the best anime I've seen falls under this category in one way or another. Wolf Children, Free, WataMote, Natsume's Book of Friends, Beck, Lovely Complex, and even Fruits Basket, to name some. I'm not certain what exactly would be an example of a 'plotless' anime, save for perhaps something like Pokemon which seems to forget itself every season. I think the closest I can come to that description would be Love Com; it didn't follow so much as a sequence of important events or anything, but it did have an end goal in mind and things definitely moved forward with it as it was extremely character-centric.
But I believe that's almost entirely the point of slice of life. It's about how the characters interact with the world around them and chronicles their journey through the trials many of us face in reality. Maybe they don't always deal with them in a realistic way, but the issues they face are relatable and at times, seeing how things play out can often resonate with you on an emotional level. And I just love that. 

Ah, Wolf Children.  I loved that anime...heart wrenching...  It is definitely in my top favorites as well for Slice of Life.  Fruits Basket...I'd probably call that one a Reverse Harem personally.  But that's just my opinion there. 

 

As for Plotless, try out Non Non Biyori.  It basically revolves around school life in an extremely rural area of Japan and how extremely different the setting is from urban and suburban Japan.  So, the focus there is on the setting and how it affects the characters lives and on the interactions of the characters.  There didn't seem to be an overarching plotline, just more of a look inside the lives of the girls living there.  

[mal type=anime id=17549]

Another one would be Sweetness and Lightning (Amaama to Inazuma) which I have not yet had the opportunity to watch but have heard about.  It focuses on cooking (usually a different Japanese meal oer episode) and deals with character development on a per episode basis of a grieving widower, his young daughter, and a friend, but with no overarching plotline.  So, it is simply a collection of weekly meals amongst the group. 

[mal type=anime id=32828]

Those are the only two that popped into my mind so quickly, but I'm sure there are more out there.  I agree too that SoL tends to be much more character centric than most other anime.  When well done, it can really be something spectacular to see.

6 hours ago, awesomedude20 said:

I've always said that any genre can be enjoyable, so long as it does what it set out to do properly. I'm the furthest person from picky, and I will in fact watch anything and probably be capable of enjoying it, so long as it's good at doing what it's doing. Naturally, this means that if ANY genre is bad at doing its genre, I probably won't like it.

So basically, it's hard to vote here since I can't pin anything on the first chunk of the survey. It entirely depends.

I think it depends on each anime, but genres tend to gather a certain reputation at the same time.  Slice of Life is actually quite broad for a genre (almost like Space Opera having a broad definition) so there is a lot of variability that can occur within it.  The one thing that tends to stay the same though is how ordinary it portrays life.  No superpowers and usually no outrageous personalities...just normal people trying to make the best from the life they have.  There is a simple beauty in that, but beauty is judged by everyone differently too so I understand where you are coming from here.

6 hours ago, XII360 said:

so basically, anime based on puns ?

but yea, im not picky either, id go for any type of anime,doesn't matter on genre, doesn't matter on the art, aslong as the plot is good

good art is a bonus, bad art isnt much of a turnoff for me, its like 2d/sprite games, they are unique can neat just as today's 3D model-games are

I'd say that bad comedy is Slap Stick comedy in my opinion.  I know my husband loves the Three Stooges but I can't stand watching them.  >_<  If there was a Three Stooges anime...I would refuse to watch it.

There are many out there with a good plot but lots that have no plot too.  So, are you saying that a plot is necessary to enjoy it? 

11 minutes ago, brycec said:

I like pretty much any anime/manga genre, as long as it is good.

Of course, it all depends on what I am getting. If it is something like Girl’s Last Tour, I would send that to the trash. I did see some moments that I liked and could enjoy, but my overall experience of the piece of it that I tried could not give me a reason to continue on. If it is Barakamon though, then I could not get enough of it.

As for whether an anime needs to have a plot to be enjoyable, I do not think that any work of fiction really needs a plot, but it has to be enjoyable and there must be something to capture the audience’s attention, in addition to having an enjoyable cast.

I guess what I'm trying to figure out is what makes it good to other people...   Okay, so I looked up Girl's Last Tour and wow...have not seen that one.  Just reading the premesis of the anime gives you a pause.  That would be a hard anime for most people to enjoy.  Definitely more of a psychological dive than most Slice of Life's aim for so maybe more of a fringe-SoL there.  Barakamon though, that seems definitely more in line with most SoL titles.  I might have to put both of those on my "watch eventually" list.

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3 minutes ago, Beocat said:

There are many out there with a good plot but lots that have no plot too.  So, are you saying that a plot is necessary to enjoy it? 

 
 

pretty much, plot will get me into the anime, with bad plot, ill probably end up yawning and just drop it to do something else, say draw or watch youtube vids, there are instances when ill stay due to my interest in a character, but once i find out they dont have much screen time i just drop it and do other thing's

(an example of one anime you suggested where i would stay and watch would be non non biyori, im somewhat interested in one character there, mainly her art style, i somewhat want to copy it and or make my own!, incidentally the characters name is hotaru-chan~)

Edited by XII360
wake me up inside (cant wake up)
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Another series I kind of liked wasMiss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid. It did not really have a plot, but I liked how I could get a laugh out of it. Only bad part was that I only liked the anime. I tried the manga, and got annoyed with how after only three volumes and a cast that was more than adequate enough to get some laughs for a while, I got the feeling that it was going to become a battle Shonen, as the end of volume 3 made me think that a fight was about to down.

As for slapstick comedy being bad, I kind of disagree. Yes, it can be stupid, and Three Stooges is definitely in that category, but it can still be quite enjoyable. That gets into the territory of “slapstick done right”. Besides, a lot of anime humor is kind of in the realm of slapstick, as opposed to satire.

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10 hours ago, XII360 said:

so basically, anime based on puns ?

 

but yea, im not picky either, id go for any type of anime,doesn't matter on genre, doesn't matter on the art, aslong as the plot is good

good art is a bonus, bad art isnt much of a turnoff for me, its like 2d/sprite games, they are unique can neat just as today's 3D model-games are

Puns are the best jokes ever to grace God's green earth.

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SoL is a weird genre, because we think it gets thrown on more shows than it should. Many romances get SoL. Comedy centric anime get SoL. Serious dramas get SoL.

We don't consider any of those to be SoLs. SoL is a genre about normal life. It can have a plot, or it can not have a plot, but normal, everyday life does not include romance, exaggerated comedic situations, or serious moral dilemmas. Those are particularly special moments in your life, not every day occurrences.

For that reason, we don't consider shows like Toradora, Anohana, Mob Psycho 100, GTO, or Beck to be SoLs, even though they have the tag on MAL. MAL tags have so many issues though that it's kind of to be expected though.

With all that being said, SoLs generally get thrown in one of two camps. Either A) We're selling this on the cute girls alone, or B) We've put some thought into them.

Camp A) is your typical CGDCT style show. These aren't generally very interesting to us, although there are a few exceptions. Demi-chan was one of our favourite series of last winter, and it was terribly overshadowed by Kobayashi, even though we thought is was more enjoyable.

Camp B) includes shows like Bartender, Hourou Musuko, and Shoujo Shuumatsu Ryokou. These are the great ones. All three of those examples are fantastic series that really look into what it means to be a person. Hourou Musuko in particular is one of the two anime that we think everyone should watch at least once.


Right then, to finish this off, we're going to defend Shoujo Shuumatsu Ryokou / Girls' Last Tour, because it was recieving a bit of slander up there. Shoujo Shuumatsu Ryokou is a fantastic exploration of philosophy. It tackles questions such as 'what is god?', 'what is a home?', 'what does it mean to be human?' and 'what is left after you die?' in a casual, easy to watch way. The characters are interesting and have distinct personalities, there is a genuine sense of character development, and the art and music are fantastic. It's probably our third favourite series of last year, behind Kuzu no Honkai and 3-gatsu no Lion, both of which made it into our top 5 of all time.

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26 minutes ago, the_twig said:

Right then, to finish this off, we're going to defend Shoujo Shuumatsu Ryokou / Girls' Last Tour, because it was recieving a bit of slander up there. Shoujo Shuumatsu Ryokou is a fantastic exploration of philosophy. It tackles questions such as 'what is god?', 'what is a home?', 'what does it mean to be human?' and 'what is left after you die?' in a casual, easy to watch way. The characters are interesting and have distinct personalities, there is a genuine sense of character development, and the art and music are fantastic. It's probably our third favourite series of last year, behind Kuzu no Honkai and 3-gatsu no Lion, both of which made it into our top 5 of all time.

Nice response, and you are certain free to enjoy Girls’ Last Tour, but that does not really change how I feel about it.

The questions that you bring up, and say are interesting questions the series brings up are interesting, but only in the confines of a discussion like this, where things can get pretty deep.

My problem was that the girls featured were not really different from the norm (they are different from each other, but they do not stand out) and, even though they were living in a post-apocalyptic world, with few humans left, they never seemed to be in danger, except for a few instances, and you will be experiencing such harshness almost everyday in a world where humans have abandoned things long enough that things are not being maintained, with the only thing happening is these girls talking, except when they get a lecture about how humans left nature for our cage known as civilization.

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2 hours ago, SAO LILDOOP said:

Puns are the best jokes ever to grace God's green earth.

This reply to you might be a bit off topic but I can't resist....  Have you watched the first season of Digimon recently?  It has many many puns for your enjoyment....So many bad puns v_v

2 hours ago, the_twig said:

SoL is a weird genre, because we think it gets thrown on more shows than it should. Many romances get SoL. Comedy centric anime get SoL. Serious dramas get SoL.

We don't consider any of those to be SoLs. SoL is a genre about normal life. It can have a plot, or it can not have a plot, but normal, everyday life does not include romance, exaggerated comedic situations, or serious moral dilemmas. Those are particularly special moments in your life, not every day occurrences.

For that reason, we don't consider shows like Toradora, Anohana, Mob Psycho 100, GTO, or Beck to be SoLs, even though they have the tag on MAL. MAL tags have so many issues though that it's kind of to be expected though.

With all that being said, SoLs generally get thrown in one of two camps. Either A) We're selling this on the cute girls alone, or B) We've put some thought into them.

Camp A) is your typical CGDCT style show. These aren't generally very interesting to us, although there are a few exceptions. Demi-chan was one of our favourite series of last winter, and it was terribly overshadowed by Kobayashi, even though we thought is was more enjoyable.

Camp B) includes shows like Bartender, Hourou Musuko, and Shoujo Shuumatsu Ryokou. These are the great ones. All three of those examples are fantastic series that really look into what it means to be a person. Hourou Musuko in particular is one of the two anime that we think everyone should watch at least once.


Right then, to finish this off, we're going to defend Shoujo Shuumatsu Ryokou / Girls' Last Tour, because it was recieving a bit of slander up there. Shoujo Shuumatsu Ryokou is a fantastic exploration of philosophy. It tackles questions such as 'what is god?', 'what is a home?', 'what does it mean to be human?' and 'what is left after you die?' in a casual, easy to watch way. The characters are interesting and have distinct personalities, there is a genuine sense of character development, and the art and music are fantastic. It's probably our third favourite series of last year, behind Kuzu no Honkai and 3-gatsu no Lion, both of which made it into our top 5 of all time.

I whole-heartedly agree with those first few paragraphs.  It does get thrown around a lot and ends up being slapped on far too many shows that it isn't.  If the main focus is romance, then it is a romance.  I guess that's why for me it ends up being at times a category of exclusion (as in, not a romance...not a space opera....not a mystery...is it a SoL?  Hmmm...).  I do feel strongly that it must being focused on the snapshot of life that it is aiming for.

 

As for Camp A...that goes for just about any genre these days.  Look at Girls und Panzer and High School Fleet.  Pretty girls...sell just about anything.

 

I feel like I've missed something not having seen Girls Last Tour... >_>  I might need to bump it up on the timetable...That said, I will stand by my own words of.....

5 hours ago, Beocat said:

That would be a hard anime for most people to enjoy.  Definitely more of a psychological dive than most Slice of Life's aim for so maybe more of a fringe-SoL there.

And I will explain in more detail this opinion.  While it does answer those psychological questions you posed @the_twig, you must also consider that you are watching two children trying to eke out a survival in a post-apocalyptic world.  They are alone (psychologically traumatic, even in a pair) and very young (and not trained for the situation in advance).  This is not a story that would appeal to a great number of people.  How many people really want to watch children who may be suffering and who are coming face to face with their own mortality so early in life?  The situation that they are in is far from normal (though the show focuses in on their own every day life within that setting so...SoL-fringe to me) and may be emotionally distressing.  I will admit, I love survival shows.  I watch this pretty awesome show called "Alone" (first, second, and fourth (only season to feature a pair of survivors) seasons took place on Vancouver Island, Third in Padegonia, and the fifth is in Mongolia) where trained survivalists compete to see who can survive the longest (up to a full year) without tapping out with no human contact (other than the weekly medical team that drops off more batteries for the cameras and picks up the used camera film and verifies that their health has not declined to the point that they must be medically evacuated to save their lives) and while I enjoy seeing how they respond to the environment and the things they are able to create to survive and the genuine planning they put into every action, the physical toil and psychological trauma is severe, even when you have someone to suffer with.  While I can watch an adult who knew what they were getting into put themselves through that kind of suffering, I'm not sure I could watch a child do the same and really enjoy myself.  I may not love kids...but I don't hate them either.  I also know what kind of effort one must put in to survive in situations like that, so I may not appreciate the lack of realism if the series suffers on that part (especially because I understand how much food you would actually need to survive and not slowly starve to death).  So, I'm not slandering the anime, but I am saying that it could be difficult to watch.  Most SoL's definitely take a lighter view of life.  Am I interested enough to watch it sometime?  Yes.  Might I not make it to the end?  It's a possibility.  I'll only know after I've seen it. 

 

Still, this is a good discussion.  I'd consider that to be a fairly unique SoL for sure.

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38 minutes ago, Beocat said:

And I will explain in more detail this opinion.  While it does answer those psychological questions you posed @the_twig, you must also consider that you are watching two children trying to eke out a survival in a post-apocalyptic world.  They are alone (psychologically traumatic, even in a pair) and very young (and not trained for the situation in advance).  This is not a story that would appeal to a great number of people.  How many people really want to watch children who may be suffering and who are coming face to face with their own mortality so early in life?  The situation that they are in is far from normal (though the show focuses in on their own every day life within that setting so...SoL-fringe to me) and may be emotionally distressing.  I will admit, I love survival shows.  I watch this pretty awesome show called "Alone" (first, second, and fourth (only season to feature a pair of survivors) seasons took place on Vancouver Island, Third in Padegonia, and the fifth is in Mongolia) where trained survivalists compete to see who can survive the longest (up to a full year) without tapping out with no human contact (other than the weekly medical team that drops off more batteries for the cameras and picks up the used camera film and verifies that their health has not declined to the point that they must be medically evacuated to save their lives) and while I enjoy seeing how they respond to the environment and the things they are able to create to survive and the genuine planning they put into every action, the physical toil and psychological trauma is severe, even when you have someone to suffer with.  While I can watch an adult who knew what they were getting into put themselves through that kind of suffering, I'm not sure I could watch a child do the same and really enjoy myself.  I may not love kids...but I don't hate them either.  I also know what kind of effort one must put in to survive in situations like that, so I may not appreciate the lack of realism if the series suffers on that part (especially because I understand how much food you would actually need to survive and not slowly starve to death).  So, I'm not slandering the anime, but I am saying that it could be difficult to watch.  Most SoL's definitely take a lighter view of life.  Am I interested enough to watch it sometime?  Yes.  Might I not make it to the end?  It's a possibility.  I'll only know after I've seen it. 

If it helps push it up even further, that's about as far from what the series is about as you can get. There is no contest for supplies. There is no background radiation for them to die from. There are no ferocious wild animals trying to kill them. In fact they mention at one point that the gun that Yuu carries arround is kind of pointless, and that the excess ammunition is just taking up space. Shoujo Shuumatsu Ryouko is not an anime about survival, it's an anime about a journey. They're essentially just a couple of nomads in a lonesome world full of the corpses of buildings. The girls don't even know what civilisation was like outside of the few books they have, and what Chi's grandfather has taught her. They don't suffer at all, they discover things.

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49 minutes ago, the_twig said:

If it helps push it up even further, that's about as far from what the series is about as you can get. There is no contest for supplies. There is no background radiation for them to die from. There are no ferocious wild animals trying to kill them. In fact they mention at one point that the gun that Yuu carries arround is kind of pointless, and that the excess ammunition is just taking up space. Shoujo Shuumatsu Ryouko is not an anime about survival, it's an anime about a journey. They're essentially just a couple of nomads in a lonesome world full of the corpses of buildings. The girls don't even know what civilisation was like outside of the few books they have, and what Chi's grandfather has taught her. They don't suffer at all, they discover things.

Cannot really say that you are sounding that convincing, at least in my eyes.

It is true that there is no contest for food or ferocious and wild animals, as I believe you are thinking of, but that does not change the fact that there are still dangers left behind by the humans that had left everything where Chito and Yuuri find things and other humans, who are also technically creatures/animals, can pose a problem too, yet nobody they come across in either the anime or the 3 volumes of the manga that I read has ever been a truly legitimate threat to them.

Not only do you have threats of other people, which I so wanted to see in the series, due to how desolate things appeared, but you have the possibility of internal conflict.

So far in the series, there has been about only one or two times where they got into a fight or, as they put it "war", but then things go back to being normal and they continue talking about stuff that can lead to deep conversations, but their conclusions are simple enough conclusions that almost any adult can come find out on their own, regardless of level of intelligence.

A journey needs hardship and I am not really seeing that, only a possibility of the stuff that @Beocat mentioned, and even those kinds of things do not quite rear their ugly heads.

For now, I can only let people try it out for themselves, but I tend to view it as more overrated than actually good, though the anime was better than the manga in some aspects.

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Unlike regular American films I'm not picky when it comes to anime. I have favorites in every genre and subgenre of anime. I mean sure, some series bores me to tears but that doesn't mean I don't like a particular genre in general. 

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16 hours ago, the_twig said:

If it helps push it up even further, that's about as far from what the series is about as you can get. There is no contest for supplies. There is no background radiation for them to die from. There are no ferocious wild animals trying to kill them. In fact they mention at one point that the gun that Yuu carries arround is kind of pointless, and that the excess ammunition is just taking up space. Shoujo Shuumatsu Ryouko is not an anime about survival, it's an anime about a journey. They're essentially just a couple of nomads in a lonesome world full of the corpses of buildings. The girls don't even know what civilisation was like outside of the few books they have, and what Chi's grandfather has taught her. They don't suffer at all, they discover things.

Then the anime suffers from a lack of realism (especially if they start stating the gun is pointless.  What extreme naivety...).  If the buildings are "corpses" then they are probably falling apart from lack of maintenance.  The people they meet could be threatening (truthfully, we are savages.  Civilization and the constraints society places on us is one of the only reasons we are "Civil" to one another.  To be in a lonely world stocked with friendly people going about their own way is insane.  Watch infants and children who haven't learned of society yet.  They'll take what they want when they want, and if the other child cries from the loss of his/her favorite toy then so be it.).  That too would bother me.  Maybe it is more fantasy than anything else.

15 hours ago, brycec said:

Cannot really say that you are sounding that convincing, at least in my eyes.

It is true that there is no contest for food or ferocious and wild animals, as I believe you are thinking of, but that does not change the fact that there are still dangers left behind by the humans that had left everything where Chito and Yuuri find things and other humans, who are also technically creatures/animals, can pose a problem too, yet nobody they come across in either the anime or the 3 volumes of the manga that I read has ever been a truly legitimate threat to them.

Not only do you have threats of other people, which I so wanted to see in the series, due to how desolate things appeared, but you have the possibility of internal conflict.

So far in the series, there has been about only one or two times where they got into a fight or, as they put it "war", but then things go back to being normal and they continue talking about stuff that can lead to deep conversations, but their conclusions are simple enough conclusions that almost any adult can come find out on their own, regardless of level of intelligence.

A journey needs hardship and I am not really seeing that, only a possibility of the stuff that @Beocat mentioned, and even those kinds of things do not quite rear their ugly heads.

For now, I can only let people try it out for themselves, but I tend to view it as more overrated than actually good, though the anime was better than the manga in some aspects.

And that is a huge departure from realism in their situation. Like before, I wouldn't want to see a child suffer, but if they are just meandering around with no threats...it is not realistic and kind of shows that maybe the author was writing this story through Rose-Colored Glasses. 

 

For now I'll have to hold my judgment until I've seen it.  But those two thoughts would be huge detractants for me.

7 hours ago, EnviousEnvy said:

Unlike regular American films I'm not picky when it comes to anime. I have favorites in every genre and subgenre of anime. I mean sure, some series bores me to tears but that doesn't mean I don't like a particular genre in general. 

Ooooooooh ^_^ Don't say that Envy....  I've already thought up my next polling topic (came to me a few minutes after waking up today) and it deals with a subgenre....one that most people have some strong opinions on (but I am so curious as to what those opinions are O_O ). I wonder if you really might have a favorite in this genre now.....  >_>

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I've always been into Slice of life anime with other genres of course. But it's nice to see other 'daily' lives other than the one I live lol. So I enjoy all stages with good plot and art. But cooking and sports to hunting demons etc anything goes for me in my book. Like one I really enjoyed recently was Sakura Quest. I thought it was absolutely adorable and heartwarming. The characters had depth and it didn't feel rushed.

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47 minutes ago, Part_time_anime said:

Everything needs a good plot to be interesting. Not only anime but movies and tv shows also regular shows. If they don’t have a plot then they are dull and dead. 

You know, I'm actually wired that way from decades and decades of reading books.  Even when I do writing on my own, I consider where the plot will go, how it is going to develop, where it will end and more before I even start.  Non Non Biyori was a huge departure from that for me.  It really has no plot...there are things that continue from one episode to the next (like the whole plush doll thing - more a questionable personality trait of one of the girls), but no overarching storyline.  What kept me watching it was the insight into rural Japan.  I wouldn't say it is my favorite SoL, but it was probably my first plotless anime (I think my only plotless anime lol).  I definitely prefer a good plot too.  It was interesting but not my favorite and it was the setting that made it interesting to me.

1 hour ago, bootsies said:

I've always been into Slice of life anime with other genres of course. But it's nice to see other 'daily' lives other than the one I live lol. So I enjoy all stages with good plot and art. But cooking and sports to hunting demons etc anything goes for me in my book. Like one I really enjoyed recently was Sakura Quest. I thought it was absolutely adorable and heartwarming. The characters had depth and it didn't feel rushed.

I completely agree with both of these statements.  That's actually where I think the allure of SoLs lie.  It is the time that they genuinely can spend focused on the characters and their motivations (other than the generic types and deres we've all become painfully familiar with that take up most anime).  The characters aren't running from place to place and the slower pace seems to bring out more of the characters nuances so they don't end up as a "type-cast" for the story.  I often wish more anime had characters as carefully and thoughtfully crafted as SoLs tend to have.

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