haters will always be hating, and that is what they were often observed to be doing best. yet interestingly however, there is often one thing these haters have always be sharing in common - 'their general lack of understanding towards the subject of which their hate is directed to'. and this, is seemingly true when it comes to a sub-group of the anifan community [ dubbed 'the elitist's and the 'wannabe-elitist's ] which were often at extreme odds with the slice of life genre [ and its fandom, to which these haters often mount their assault to as they can never bruise the genre itself lol ] - our intended focus for this very brief post here.
so often were their arguments being primarily centered upon the basic idea that 'a good series [ according to their standard ┐(’~`;)┌ ] needs to be backed upon by solid, good plot or story'. well this certainly is true for some genres - action, drama and / or psychological thriller - for instance. however, the need for a plot can easily be overridden in case of the comedy / slice of life genre, where most of its topic / story concerns were focused merely on observation / satire / criticism of the society / cultural norm [ lucky star / seitokai no ichizon / kannagi ], or just primarily to document the progress of their respective charas [ aria / k-on ! / haibane renmei ]. and besides, slice of life is meant to be served as is without being buttered by serious build ups nor drama, though they can sometimes be served together as well as bonus.
oh, and as apparent best from titles such as aria and k-on ! for example, the lack of a progressive plot / story also doesn't seem to ground these series [ gravely ] much as some has often thought / believe them would be since their main forte lies with the underlying theme of social growth / friendship between its characters, resulting in outstanding heartwarming moments that is often absent from series with progressive plot in their pockets. the emotional impact these series had upon their viewers alone is more than adequate to made up for the [ mild to absolute ] absent of a gripping plot and dramatic actions.
despite recurring criticisms laid upon by these haters over the 'apparent lack of story' - which i find to be quite a shallow point of argument in itself - there obviously is / was stories behind each and every slice of life series, as quoted from the meaning of the word 'story' itself; "an account of imaginary or real people and events told for entertainment" :3 . and from the way i perceive it, a 'story' is made of several components that are crucially dependent upon each others; a cast of characters as the primary center of attention, the settings / backgrounds on which the development and / or action for these characters to take place in [ as well as providing necessary influence / interaction for them ] and the timeline, which is to capture / mark the growth or progress of these characters alongside relevant changes in their respective settings / backgrounds. so with all these three elements set in place, only then will a story ever take place - thus to hastily claim the lack of story from a certain group of series found within the slice of life genre is most certainly a baseless and shallow critic indeed.
one must also realize that unlike some other genres, slice of life are mostly character driven rather than being plot-dependent. often their premise are built around the characters themselves, instead of a given plot and a goal set for the story to wrap itself up; thus the title 'slice of life' - which itself leads to the point mentioned in our second paragraph above [ observation ]. still with the characters; another classic argument often laid by the haters were that some of these slice of life characters were made to be boring. well again there's the obvious explanation to this. one fact that is often ignored by them [ and some of us ] is that, slice of life essentially is among the most human, or should i say... the-most-closest-to-realism-kind of genre that is available out there alongside drama [ by drama i meant to point out stuff like school days and hachimitsu to clover ]; thus to comply to the given humanness of the genre, there needs to be flaw set to its characters in order for dynamic character development [ again which, is the main concern / forte of the genre ] to take place.
to be precise, this is quite an old draft left and ignored since the start of k-on !!, but somehow i was called [ and suggested by zange-chan ] to pull this one off the draft bin and get some proper work done for. as i am currently struck by a severe case of creativity block, i may have not written much points nor arguments for this post here, but i still hope for whatever i've written here would decently serve as hint[s] to other unspoken ideas and / or thoughts i have yet to key-down for the topic at hand :3
so often were their arguments being primarily centered upon the basic idea that 'a good series [ according to their standard ┐(’~`;)┌ ] needs to be backed upon by solid, good plot or story'. well this certainly is true for some genres - action, drama and / or psychological thriller - for instance. however, the need for a plot can easily be overridden in case of the comedy / slice of life genre, where most of its topic / story concerns were focused merely on observation / satire / criticism of the society / cultural norm [ lucky star / seitokai no ichizon / kannagi ], or just primarily to document the progress of their respective charas [ aria / k-on ! / haibane renmei ]. and besides, slice of life is meant to be served as is without being buttered by serious build ups nor drama, though they can sometimes be served together as well as bonus.
oh, and as apparent best from titles such as aria and k-on ! for example, the lack of a progressive plot / story also doesn't seem to ground these series [ gravely ] much as some has often thought / believe them would be since their main forte lies with the underlying theme of social growth / friendship between its characters, resulting in outstanding heartwarming moments that is often absent from series with progressive plot in their pockets. the emotional impact these series had upon their viewers alone is more than adequate to made up for the [ mild to absolute ] absent of a gripping plot and dramatic actions.
despite recurring criticisms laid upon by these haters over the 'apparent lack of story' - which i find to be quite a shallow point of argument in itself - there obviously is / was stories behind each and every slice of life series, as quoted from the meaning of the word 'story' itself; "an account of imaginary or real people and events told for entertainment" :3 . and from the way i perceive it, a 'story' is made of several components that are crucially dependent upon each others; a cast of characters as the primary center of attention, the settings / backgrounds on which the development and / or action for these characters to take place in [ as well as providing necessary influence / interaction for them ] and the timeline, which is to capture / mark the growth or progress of these characters alongside relevant changes in their respective settings / backgrounds. so with all these three elements set in place, only then will a story ever take place - thus to hastily claim the lack of story from a certain group of series found within the slice of life genre is most certainly a baseless and shallow critic indeed.
one must also realize that unlike some other genres, slice of life are mostly character driven rather than being plot-dependent. often their premise are built around the characters themselves, instead of a given plot and a goal set for the story to wrap itself up; thus the title 'slice of life' - which itself leads to the point mentioned in our second paragraph above [ observation ]. still with the characters; another classic argument often laid by the haters were that some of these slice of life characters were made to be boring. well again there's the obvious explanation to this. one fact that is often ignored by them [ and some of us ] is that, slice of life essentially is among the most human, or should i say... the-most-closest-to-realism-kind of genre that is available out there alongside drama [ by drama i meant to point out stuff like school days and hachimitsu to clover ]; thus to comply to the given humanness of the genre, there needs to be flaw set to its characters in order for dynamic character development [ again which, is the main concern / forte of the genre ] to take place.
[ this image has nothing to do with the post here, i just felt like putting a fumino here so to add in some color ]
to be precise, this is quite an old draft left and ignored since the start of k-on !!, but somehow i was called [ and suggested by zange-chan ] to pull this one off the draft bin and get some proper work done for. as i am currently struck by a severe case of creativity block, i may have not written much points nor arguments for this post here, but i still hope for whatever i've written here would decently serve as hint[s] to other unspoken ideas and / or thoughts i have yet to key-down for the topic at hand :3
