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Fri 27 Apr 2012
Friday Anime Podcast 8: When Two Podcasts Collide!
Posted by kevo' under Anime, Podcast
[4] Comments
This week, Aeroblip and I sit down the the boys from Anime Afterlife Podcast and FAP about what’s on our minds. Lerxst and Gabe have a podcast on their own, so make sure to check it out, too! First we talk briefly about some shows that are airing, including Fate/Zero and Sankarea and then we go into a discussion about what “slice of life” means. As kevo’s favorite genre of anime, this is a topic close to his heart, but does his definition of it match Lerxst’s description? Can the two compromise on an opinion? Finally, the four of us have a discussion about two very different animation studios: Kyoto Animation and Shaft.
From left to right: Lerxst, kevo, Aeroblip, Gabe
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I actually think the biggest problem with Nisemonogatari was the misdirection. It seemed everyone was following Karen because the arc was called Karen bee, when it was actually Araragi, Shinobu and Hitagi’s story. Also Kizumonogatari was suppose to come out before Nisemonogatari since that was how the novels were published and there’s a lot of stuff in Kizu that is connected to Nise.
Regardless though, the sales of Nisemonogatari are close to, if not greater than those of Madoka. The -Monogatari series is a license for Shaft to print money.
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I define “Slice of Life” as a genre that puts extra emphasis on the daily routine of life, and it’s minor, meaningless events that naturally happen “just because”, as opposed to using the characters as devices to tell an overarching plot with twists, climax, and conclusion. Every narrative trope used, takes away from a show’s slice of life-ness.
For example when Clannad’s cast goes on a picnic, it’s a plot point in a romantic relationship developent, leading towards a conclusion. When the K-on girls go on a picnic, it’s really just a picnic.
Not that the typical K-on like girl-group shows are the ultimate examples of slice-of-life: Their conspious lack of adults, male characters, romance, (not as a genre just as something that realistically happens), and personal conflicts, are also tropes in a way, that are twisting the story’s “naturalness” even if more subtly than an epic drama plot. Something like Hanasaku Iroha would be closer to it.
Oh, and Nichijou, while it’s title pretty much means “Slice of Life” is a PARODY of the SoL genre. It throws up stereotypically SoL mundane themes, like “the vending machine ate my money” or “I didn’t do my homework”, but then concludes them with crazy unrealistic results.
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GabexAeroblip OTP
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While Kevo hit on the thematic core of the slice of life genre, its still important to understand what makes s’life anime structurally similar to each other; namely, focusing on the mundane events of daily life without adhering to a set chain of events. The important difference between s’life and sitcom is that it does so without embellishing the humor. Western sitcoms have a laugh track to emphasize the punchlines, while anime comedies use visual outtakes and tsukkomi-boke-type manzai routines to make the joke. So while I think shows like Lucky Star and Azumanga Daioh are s’life-ish, they’re hybrids with heavy sitcom elements.
Pure anime s’life are much less common, and exponentially less popular than the hybrid comedy-s’life shows out there. Think along the lines of Yokohama Shopping Trip, Asatte no Houkou, Someday’s Dreamers, and the Aria series as good examples.
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