Quite a lot of slice of life anime has been consumed by me since I put together the first Slice of Life Retrospective post. So here is a quick look at a bunch more slice of life stories. As with the original post I will separate the titles into a few vague categories.
General Slice of Life
A Drifting Life: Semi-biographical account of the authors entry and maturation in the world of manga after the Pacific War. His experiences and the way the industry change reflect the way the nation rebuilds and modernizes its self.
This is an excellent history lesson in the way people strove to change the way manga was perceived and consumed. While no where near as in depth at the day to day details as Bakuman, A Drifting Life did a fantastic over view of how the modern manga industry emerged from the end of World War 2. This is kind of a must have for any one series about the medium from an academic point.
Father & Son: A fun look at the life and difficulty of a single parent raising his young son. You is a reformed gangster turned high school teacher who has to keep his rambunctious son Shou on the straight path. But he's only in pre-school so how hard can it be?
This manga is a little reminiscent of Yotsubato! with the ensemble cast that help control and reign in the wild child Shou as he shows tendencies of his former bosozoku dad. While much more comedic than Sweetness & Lightening it is very similar in the telling of a struggling single father who works as a teacher, raising their young child. Though in this case, Shou's mother, Mami isn't dead, just so completely lacking in direction she wanders the globe obliviously.
Flying Witch: Sweet and calming tale about a with in training who moves to the country side to live with her relatives and begin her road to being a full blown magic user.
While about a witch and dealing with some super natural things this is a very mundane and peaceful slice of life series. it does a good job of revealing a little bit of the main characters world and the way her normal relatives interact with the super natural elements. I could definitely go for more of the anime.
Honobono Log: A series of unrelated snap shots of young domestic life.
There is not much to say about this short series based on an art book. Its quaint, charming and firmly rooted in realism. The shorts show 2 to 3 people who are deeply invested in each other and funny situations that show how deep they are connected in only a few worlds and actions. Very well crafted, telling volumes in only a few sentences.
Itohen: A short manga about an idealistic young woman who forces herself on a young tailor/shop owner when she makes herself his apprentice.
While the author went to school for fashion design this is the first time she has ever done a manga dealing with that world. This series is cute, enjoyable and easy to read, would make a great live action movie.
Sweetness & Lightening: Another story about a single father and his young child and the struggles he faces. Unlike Father & Son, this one centers around the characters relationship with food and how it represents their daily struggles and coping mechanisms for the loss of the mother.
A fantastically sweet manga and anime that will warm any cold heart. Plus the food is fantastic and the manga has great recipes. If you can't find something to like with this sweet story you are a cold jaded human who only cares about self satisfaction.
Wakako-zake: A quirky manga/anime about a young single woman obsessed with the finer points of Japanese street food. There is no plot or character development, it really is all about the love of food and detailing different cuisine, usually ones designed to be eaten while drinking. While enjoyable, it reminds me that a lot of Japanese street food isn't appetizing to me...I got this thing against eating organs and cooked fish. Either way fun series that works to expand your knowledge.
Dramatic Slice of Life
A Distant Neighborhood: A middle aged man suddenly finds himself back in his adolescent life. Once he over comes the shock he uses the opportunity to try and reverse events that shook his family, hoping to reverse the damage done.
This is a fantastic manga about the consequences and challenges of revisiting your youth, or anytime in the past. If you could change the past what effect would it have on the future and present?
City of Light: A series of vignettes about different people in a promising housing development and the dark secrets that seep into the facade of normalcy and progress.
Honestly on of Inio's weakest manga that I have read but still better than most of whats out there. The story flows a little uneven as it appears to try and capture the methods used in Pulp Fiction to tell realistically dark tales of lost hope and desperation.
Colorful (movie): The spirit of a dead person is given a second chance at life by inhabiting the body of a suicide. Can he discover the reasons behind the suicide and come to terms with his own death at the same time.
While this movie does have a super natural undercurrent it is firmly rooted in the real world and real struggles. It is an excellent mouth piece for the struggles modern adolescents have to deal with as they and the world they live in changes rapidly and confusingly. There is an unrelated ecchi comedy TV show from the turn of the century called Colorful too that is worth checking out for abusive humor.
Only Yesterday: A young woman questions the direction of her future as memories of her childhood during the beginning of the modernization boom flood her mind. She feel's that a different life awaits her away from the city but isn't sure if that feeling is realistic or authentic.
A classic movie by Studio Ghibli's other director genius. This is an excellent examination of the changing social conscious of Japan following the post war economic recovery. The main character acts as a manifestation of questioning how the historical identity of Japan can survive modernity. She is uncomfortable with her city living and upper middle class upbringing, but are her yearnings for a simpler, more rural life really just the playful musings of a spoiled brat?
She and her cat - Everything Flows - : A remake of Shinkai Makoto's student animation. The story is a heartwarming and heart breaking tale of a woman living on her own in the city and her faithful childhood companion cat.
Get the Kleenex out, the feels are strong with this one. Shinkai is so incredibly good are telling sad tales. Sad, heart warming, life affirming tales. Damn you Shinkai!!!!
Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju: A low level criminal decides to turn around his life by becoming an apprentice to a rakugo master after serving time in prison. The master reluctantly decides to take him in but mostly as a way to reconcile the man he apprenticed along side decades earlier.
This was an incredibly surprising and excellent story. The majority of the first season dealt with the master telling his apprentice his life's story, which was fantastic. A second season is right around the corner and will focus more on the apprentice and should be just as fascinating.
Sunny: This manga is a tale of a private orphanage in the late 70's and its inhabitants struggles with accepting the way the world views them and how they view themselves, the abandoned ones.
Some of Matsumoto Taiyo's best work. The cast of characters are memorable and their stories transport you to a different time and place in which they live only by the benevolence of the strangers who have taken them in.
Tabimachi Late Show: A series of shorts dealing with loss, regret and life's fickleness. Each story is more and more engrossing and is a good example of deep story telling in brevity. The third one will likely get the water works flowing.
When Marnie Was There: A girl who is uncomfortable with who she is is sent to find her self with relatives in a small ocean side town. There she discovers a girl from the past who has a strange and strong connection to her.
This was the last movie to be made by Studio Ghibli and it is a well made human drama. There aren't any super natural elements to it, at least not that we are familiar with in Ghibli films. It is a really nice piece about a girl discovering herself and gaining confidence in who she is.
Comedic Slice of Life
Handa-kun: Taking the main character from Barakamon and showing what he was like in high school, as he was already a star in the world of calligraphy. Unlike the original series, this one is a goofy gag comedy piece that shows Handa as an obtuse outsider and the people who fawn about him.
Completely different flow and feel of Barakamon but still entertaining, if somewhat unoriginal in some of its delivery. I'm a fan of quick paced gag comedy and there are some weird situations that are set in a mostly realistic world.
Himoto! Umaru-chan: The perfect girl in public transforms into a spoiled otaku brat when in the comfort of her own home. How can her adult brother deal with her toddler like tendencies?
This is a cute, and mildly fan-serviced, show that uses super deform in a new way for great affect. Umaru is almost like a magical girl when she switches between star student and spoiled shut in. Filled with some good laughs and touching moments of human weakness.
Haven't You Heard? I'm Sakamoto: Sakamoto is the new student everyone is talking about. Everything he does is cool, confident and stylish. The school thugs can't stand his attention and plot scheme after scheme to make him loose face.
This series reminded me at times of Cromartie High. The situations Sakamoto gets into and out of are pretty clever and it doesn't really drag at any point. The cast of odd ball characters, who are not Sakamoto, give it touches of color that the ice cold main character can't deliver.
The High School Life of a Fudanshi: Life as a heterosexual high school student is tough when your greatest passion is yaoi manga. It's even harder to find others who are into it as much as you.
This gag only travels so far, but luckily the series is only a few minutes per each episode so it doesn't wear its self out too fast.
Joshi Kausei: A manga with almost no dialogue that details some quirky personal moments of three average high school girls.
The artwork is the best part of this manga, its very well done and the execution is fantastic. Over all its a fun read, even if its solely based on the situation, at times it gets slight fan service based, but usually in good taste.
Kuma Miko: A remote villages young shrine maiden wants to break out of her country bumpkin shell and attend high school in a nearby city. Her talking bear shrine companion doesn't think she has the mental fortitude to actually pull it off.
While the humor is pretty good and the cast of characters is colorful, eventually you start to realize that Maki has severe social disorders and what starts out as a joke become cringe worthy as her mental illness becomes more apparent.
New Game: A fresh recruit learns all the ropes to producing video games when she is hired at her favorite company. The rest of the staff are spunky moe girls who cheerfully help her navigate the pratfalls of the industry.
I was hoping for the video game world version of the excellent Shirobako but instead got a moe fantasy land full of panty shots, absurd scenarios and a cast of annoying archetypes.
Nichijou: Tokisadame is a town full of strangeness, but that strangeness only really impresses its residents at it's worst. The series follows a cast of characters through mini vignettes.
Nichijou may be the funniest slice of life school age comedy series ever. It's like the best of Azumanga Daioh, Lucky Star and Pani Poni Dash all rolled into a fast paced, absurdist landscape. So many quality moments accented with imaginative animation and delivery.
Please Tell Me! Galko-chan: Galko is a gyaru who has a little more to her brain than one would imagine. She wiles away her school days with her close friends, wondering about the strange things teenagers wonder about.
While the artwork leaves some to be desired for the conversations and interactions are fantastically realistic. Fun for the 6 or 7 minute bursts each episode is but I wasn't upset when it ended its run.
Seiyu Life: Three girls try to find success as voice actors in an increasingly demanding and stressful career field. To survive they have to work in as many projects as possible, to try and build their experience and credibility.
As with New Game, I was hoping this would be a fantastic and well laid out expose on the world of voice acting as Shirobako was on anime production. Sadly it became too focused on building the moe level of the characters and I lost interest half way through. It is better and more believable than New Game, but still a little too fantasy land for me.
Shonen Maid: A newly orphaned boy suddenly fins himself as his estranged, eccentric uncles house keeper. The thing is, he forced that role upon himself due to his obsessive cleanliness and his uncles sloppiness.
What originally might have been a cheap gag ended up being a touching story about family and connecting with them. I was rather surprised that this wasn't just some stupid on-running joke about the main character always wearing a frilly maid outfit. Instead it was about him learning about his mothers past and connecting with the family he never knew.
Tanaka-kun is Always Listless: Tanaka-kun is the king of slack. He expends as little energy as possible, mostly using his energy to achieve maximum listlessness. He relies on his close friend to help him achieve this goal.
This is a fun series that goes a little beyond Tanaka's hang ups about being energetic. It incorporates a small and well developed cast of friends that really make this a fun show about building personal relationships. The slacker thing is thrown in, rather heavy, for comedic effect. But beyond that its a fun slice of life story.
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