I was listening to a recent episode of Anime World Order where they were discussing their thoughts on the “slice of life” genre. Slice of Life is used to describe a show that follows characters through daily events. These events are depicted as realistic, not sensational like most other anime stories, and any overarching story is replaced with character development through said events. Usually the takeaway of these series isn’t the end result or sum of the episodes, but rather each episode individually portraying a “slice” of life.

Saying that, I have to debate whether slice of life actually exists. Personally, I believe it is a lot like Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD). ADD is an excuse to explain a more underlying problem that people don’t want to deal with. It is a fake diagnosis. I know people who “have” ADD, and it’s just an excuse for them being lazy and unmotivated, usually as a result of poor upbringing or bad parenting.

The Slice of Life genre is a lot like ADD. It is an excuse created to mask the lack of storytelling and character development skills. For example, in what other media does Slice of Life exist? No where. Someone could put On Golden Pond or Terms of Endearment in the Slice of Life bucket, but realistically those are dramas. Napolean Dynamite could be a Slice of Life movie but no, it’s a comedy. But in anime, Slice of Life is used when a show has no direction or motivation. It simply exists, like life itself.

So I stand on record by saying Slice of Life is just another way to give poor writing and planning a pass. And I call all anime fans to stop tagging shows with this genre and start calling them what they really are – lazy.