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drama VS slice of life

Maybe the unusual "realism" of those shows make it slice of life.

Realism and slice-of-life are not the same thing, though. Something can be super-realistic but not be slice-of-life at all, but it seems like a lot of people don't understand that. I think that's where a lot of the confusion comes from with this genre.

Well Whisper of the Heart is close but I still don't think it is close enough to be slice of life.

Personally, I think Whisper Of The Heart is quite a long way from being "slice of life" and I was even more bemused to see it tagged as "adventure".

I was looking up The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya and I spotted "slice of life" as a genre. The show might be a lot of things but I think someone is taking the "'cut-out' sequence of events" part of the description for 'slice of life' out of context, and forgot to look at the fact that the show contradicts every other part of it. Or more like 30 people. I tried to submit an error report and it said the audit was closed and that 30 people voted to keep "slice of life" as a genre for this show.

Or I could be wrong. Is Haruhi Suzumiya really a slice of life show?

Quote:

slice of life (plotless everyday life) A slowly paced story that portrays a "cut-out" sequence of events in a character's every-day life. It may or may not contain any real plot, and often has no exposition, action, conflict, or denouement, with an open ending. It could be said that the story has no point, except for introducing viewers to characters that they can empathize with. Even if the setting is not realistic, what is presented is always the kind of ordinary, every-day life that anyone could have within that setting.

Edit: I just did a genre search for "Slice of life" and it looks like Haruhi isn't the only one being misclassified:

Ouran High School Host Club
Whisper of the Heart
Great Teacher Onizuka
Planetes
NANA
School Rumble

School freaking Rumble?! Seriously?!

And I got these titles in just glancing at the top quarter of the first page of the search. There are a lot of other titles that also look to me like they really don't belong in this genre. I think that audits are really helpful for the genre search in the Encyclopedia but it doesn't look like people are really understanding the "slice of life" genre at all.

Or again, it could be just me; please ignore or correct me if it is.

Well Whisper of the Heart is close but I still don't think it is close enough to be slice of life.

Drama and slice of life are mutually exclusive, but just because something is not drama does not mean that it is automatically qualified as slice of life. School Rumble is neither drama nor slice of life, because it is first, foremost, always and all-importantly a COMEDY.

The series is filled to the brim with ridiculous situations and hijinks; how can you call that "normal life"? It's not plotless either; when Tenma tries to get Karasuma's attention, when Harima tries to get Tenma's attention, that's all plot. Not deep, but who ever said that all plots have to be deep?

How do we convey what is slice of life?
- if it has a story then it can't be called slice of life
- if it has struggle then it's not slice of life
- slice of life is like an introduction without a middle or conclusion
- ???????

I think undeadben put it best as [i]plotless everyday life[i]. School Rumble features the characters attempting to create and resolve romantic relationships, and these are often ongoing events. Contrast this to something like Minami-ke or Azumanga Daioh, and you see neither of those have the same kind of regular ongoing story. Slice-of-life shows don't feature character development or plot progression. Also, the events shown in School Rumble, although it occasionally slows the pace to mundane, are mainly the highlights, like when Harima runs away now and then to become a mystic or work on a fishing boat. Those are not everyday occurrences, they are special events. If someone is shown food shopping, it's because they are going to bump into someone else and something significant happens. In a slice-of-life show, when someone goes food shopping, they buy what they need, maybe something happens that is a little unusual to keep things entertaining, but has no importance.

I can understand that Clannad is a little ambiguous, particularly with the arcs focusing on minor characters, but slice-of-life doesn't have plot arcs, period.

Emma, though, isn't even close and should obviously be drama instead.

No, that's realistic setting. Slice-of-life is intended to be a genre, and that's the problem people have when trying to apply it. I just did a genre search, and Clannad After Story and Emma Season 2 came up. I can understand that Clannad is a little ambiguous, particularly with the arcs focusing on minor characters, but slice-of-life doesn't have plot arcs, period. Emma, though, isn't even close and should obviously be drama instead.