Anime! Chapter One: No. 30| | Slice of Life (Or is it?)

When you get on your phone/laptop/computer with an urge to watch a wholesome anime, chances are you're looking for a slice of life! There are many good things about a slice of life, from the focus on characters rather than story, to the overall good feeling you get from finishing a good slice of life. A list of the pros and cons:'

Pros:

Focus on characters

No confusing lore

No confusing story

No "evil for the sake of evil" shounen villains

Wholesome feeling

Cons:

Not enough story and if there is it's not that good

Despite the focus on characters, they're all pretty bland

No heavy-hitting theme, similar to other genres (Shounen, Horror, Adventure etc.)

Let's continue with an analysis of each, as to show you why the pros may overwhelm the cons or vice versa. Let's start with the pros.

Everyone likes when a story focuses on the characters, seeing as even if the story is mediocre, if the characters excel, it can be saved. To continue on the topic of characters, there's the lore. Lore is basically the backstory of a piece of fiction. This lore can shape how certain characters interact, how important they are, as well as why they do what they do. Avoiding a confusing lore can assure you that readers/watchers won't leave due to not knowing what's going on. "God of Highschool" is a perfect example of lore gone wrong.

For our next pair of pros, even though, like lore, it's good to avoid a story that has no direction, it's also not good to make a story that only has one direction. (This will be expanded upon in the Cons). Story and Lore are what shape heroes and villains, when the Story is coherent and the lore isn't the minecraft enchantment table, "evil for the sake of evil" villains won't be an issue. Heck, villains might not even have to be in your story.


Now...the cons *sigh*, ooh boy the cons. Okay to start off, we'll expand on the story sections of our pros list. A lot of Slice of Life seem to think they need to have a story to be readable/watchable, but when you combine usually ominous/ancient elements such a story and lore with a wholesome/happy topic such a slice of life, you get...out of a lack of a better term, interesting contrast. We'll deal with that later.

Now you'd think a story that focuses on characters would, y'know, HAVE GOOD CHARACTERS, but noOoOoOo. They all have to be one-dimensional. Like okay I get you don't want your characters to be too complex for the same reason you don't want your story and lore to be too confusing, but at the very least give them more than one personality trait. (No, their ability to tell someone's feelings by...licking their face, what the fuck! (Spy and Spice, I think) doesn't count) Wait, is that even a slice of life? Ehh, who cares! Googling is for dweebs.

Finally, no heavy hitting them. So, I don't think anyone deliberately watches a slice of life for the theme, and neither do I to be honest, but when I watch an anime, I don't wanna be left with, "Yeah, that was pretty cool," but then forget it a week later. That's what puts (puts? Put? That is what puts-yeah, puts) shounen and horror anime/manga above SOL (Slice of Life)

Rant time! You know the biggest deal breakers for SOL are that there are one too many SOL that aren't actually SOL, but in-fact super dramatic stories that will make you cry your heart out. This is bad because, look, if I wanted to watch an anime that I wouldn't forget a week later, I would've just watched a battle shounen. It feels like a huge copout. If you can't commit to a theme, don't write about that theme. I either want straight SOL or straight whatever-the-second-half-of-the-manga-seems-to-be. Another deal breaker is...holy (extreme cursing, gotta keep the T-Rating to make Fanfiction happy) *bleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep* Don't EVER mix SOL with romance or action. Especially romance! It's usually filled with cliches and it's so easy to understand, you'll know the climax of the series in the first episode when MP (Main protagonist) gets into a love dodecahedron with literally every other person in the series, to the point where the main character went through every sexuality in the book (Straight, Gay AND Lesbian (somehow), Asexual, Pansexual, transsexual, bisexual, sexualsexual) over the course of the entire series. Mixing action with SOL is like mixing water with sizzling oil, it won't work out.

End of rant, end of chapter. Seeing as how mad I can be at Slice of Life, we're in for a wild ride. That's our No. 30 spot for worst genres in anime.

Statistics:

Pros: 5

Cons: 3

Advantage: Cons

Deal breakers: Action SOL, Romance SOL, SOL that isn't actually SOL

Rating: 1/10 = Bearable

It isn't over yet! I still need to cover all the SOL subgenres. Picking at every little problem with this *bleep* genre until I, worst writer of the 2020-2021, tell YOU, the reader, why you should stop watching these genres- I mean..uhhh, why, in my "humble" opinion, you should pay attention to certain genres when watching anime/reading manga. Yeah we'll go with that.

Cringe Levels: Very High