As some of you may know or noticed, I’m a huge fan of slice-of-life series. Nothing makes me happier than to unwind with some lighthearted, fun series that usually are slice-of-life. Slice-of-life in anime refers to series with little plot and character development. More often than not, the series are filled with comedic moments.
You probably already know that, don’t you?
Anyway, the list below is my favorite slice-of-life series, not arranged in any particular order.
I managed to watch the whole series, Sakurasou no Petto na Kanojo, in a couple of days on my iPad. I brought it along with me when I was on a business trip in April. My first time watching the entire series on such tiny screen. Sakurasou, as most anime fans called it, was an easy series to watch – it has its share of happy moments and then it has its share of sad moments. Typical.
The reason why I decided to write about this series is because of the two categories of characters found in the series. One category being the super talented students and the other category being the not-so-talented-but-very-hardworking students.
It might sound silly to some people, but I’ve seen friends and strangers alike being overly attached to fictional characters. In the context of this blog, being too attached to 2D characters from anime or manga. Maybe even games! But I seldom read or hear people complain about characters in games. I wonder why…
This thought crossed my mind every time I read or hear fans complaining about a certain tragedy that has fallen on their favorite characters. Most recently, a friend told me she was scared to read the then latest chapter (probably two weeks ago?) of Naruto because she was scared to find out what’d happened Kakashi. Apparently, our mutual friend had told her that something bad might happened to the character. I didn’t know what to say when she explained her reason. I simply kept quiet.
I’ve written before about how motivating and inspiring the pair Shuujin and Saikou it is for me and their dynamic relationship with fellow mangakas. While those two elements are still present throughout the third installment of Bakuman, the vibe I’ve been getting the most can be described in one word – Positivity.
I don’t think anyone of the characters in this series could have accomplished what they did if they did not have a positive mindset, the positive attitude, and with positive criticism. This is especially true when it comes to Ashirogi Muto. And when I say this name, I meant the three characters whose name were used in the pen name formulation.
Come to think of it, I never really wrote anything about Fairy Tail. I might not be fully invested in the series, but still I have follow the anime until the end. That’s right – 175 episodes. All watched. It’s pure leisure.
Fairy Tail isn’t any different from other shounen titles. In my opinion, that’s a good thing and a bad thing. It’s a good thing because it feels familiar and I know it won’t go too far off the formulae. At the same time, it’s a bad thing because of the good thing (am I confusing you here?) and that makes it some sort of a clone. It makes it easy for skeptics to say “Oh, that’s just another shounen series. Good guys will win at the end.”
In my opinion, Steins;Gate was great fun. The interactions among all the characters and the mystery behind gooey banana, I like. Heck, Chaos;Head was interesting even though it was only during the first half. It could’ve been a lot better. It had potential. So needless to say, I had high hopes for Robotics;Notes. I was eager to know what’s the mystery this time around.
Maybe I was a little too hopeful, a little too eager.
Gosh, I am super late with this post. Sigh. Anyway, Kai from Deluscar has recently asked us to write about our reasons for watching anime. We may all be like-minded, loving anime but are we reasons the same?
I admit. Even though I have watch anime for almost a decade, I never really question why I watch anime. Seriously. I sorta just went with it the moment I discovered it. Okay, while I didn’t directly ask myself the question, somehow deep down inside I have a few reasons why I favor anime over other form of visual entertainment.
And no, it’s not because there are plenty of cute 2D girls. I started with shounen series. Let’s face it, there aren’t many cute 2D girls or even guys to look at.
Blood. More blood. And even more blood. There’s an air of eeriness surrounding Psycho-Pass. It was shockingly violent and unkind to gentle hearts. The very first episode literally shocked me into silence. I remember staring at my computer screen, trying to absorb what just happened, what kind of series had I just watched. Besides Chaos;Head, I cannot recall a series with such dark vibes.
Psycho-Pass shows us a community in a time not too far ahead from now, governed by Sibyl System, an application. It’s crazy right? As a developer by profession, one of the first thoughts that crossed my mind is the reliability of such a system. We developers were all, or at least I, was taught that there is no 100% bug-free, loophole-free software. Also, relying on a logical system to run a legal system that are subjected to multiple elements including empathy is absurd. It’s not the kind of place I’d wanna be in.
Be warned. A little spoilers ahead.
Itazura Na Kiss started with Aihara Kotoko being optimistic and brave, might I add, when she wrote her first love letter to the male protagonist, Irie Naoki. In a shocking encounter, Irie rejected her outright without even attempting to read her heartfelt words. Before her love story begins, it has already ended. Poor Kotoko-chan. Sniff.
Itazura na Kiss is perhaps the first romantic comedy in which I get to follow the characters through the different stages of their relationships. It all began with Kotoko’s high school crush to having a wonderful family with Naoki many, many, many years later. I honestly can’t remember when was the last time I saw an anime with such complete cycle. That was nice. Having the anime aired long after the manga is completed may have something to do with it? This 25-episodes anime was aired in 2008.
Sure, I’ve talked about the top 5 anime I’ll rewatch countless times because I just adore it so much. Or maybe how I’d choose which anime to watch and I tend to stick my favorite genres. I won’t hesitate to give other genres a go, of course. Otherwise, I won’t be watching Haganai or Mayo Chiki. They’re not that bad. I have a habit of ranking my favorite anime of the year too.
But what make an anime memorable? Memorable, as in easily remembered. What makes it stands out more than the rest? An anime season consists of a lot of series so it needs that extra special something to stand out from the rest. After thinking for a while, I decided I have a list if a few criteria that makes an anime memorable for me.
