This was a real exchange between Jeff Lawson and J. Valdez:

Jeff Lawson: I watch a lot of slice-and-life shows.
Jeff Lawson: And by “slice-and-life”, I mean “slice-of-life”.
J. Valdez: Do you mind if I start calling shows like Higurashi no Naku Koro ni and School Days, “Slice-and-Life?”

Fun times. I reserved the slice of life shows for the last because I had a nagging feeling I was going to like them regardless of when and how I saw them, to say nothing of how viewable subs for Minami-ke were only made available some time back. The wait was worth it, in any case, since I can’t remember the last time I laughed till my chest hurt.

Minami-ke, then, isn’t as much Ichigo Mashimaro as people have said it is. Rather, it feels like the natural progression of what IM would be if you took away the lolicon voyeur lens which coloured the show something fierce, killed off Matsuri (who was the weakest link) and Ana, and then forced what was left of the cast into an alternate universe, with the appropriate alterations.

also, unlike Ichigo Mashimaro, the violence here is actually displayed

Perhaps “natural progression” isn’t the best term for the above situation, but I digress. What I really meant to say was that while it certainly does seem natural to compare it to IM, Minami-ke has the higher ground by virtue of not really wanting to cater to the lolicon crowd, at least not exclusively or in an obvious fashion. Now, before the purists and fundies get riled and say that IM was a pure and lovely show that didn’t pander, I’d suggest a cold shower, so as to not get roused further (see what I did there?).

Minami-ke lends for variety where there might have been none through a considerably larger cast. In this sense it’s more Lucky Star than anything, since each sister is conveniently aged so that they’re in elementary, middle, and high school respectively. Neither is it as monotonous as IM as the viewer is treated to both the public and private lives of the Minami sisters, with an equal emphasis on both.

Those who’ve watched their fair share of anime might be irked at the archetypes that the main cast initially seems to settle into. There’s the motherly, doting, gentle type (Haruka); the excessively random, almost anarchic type (Kana); finally, the tsundere tsukkomi type (Chiaki). Fortunately, that doesn’t happen as might be the case with lazy writing — the comedy is hard-hitting, lending for a myriad of outrageous and side-splitting endeavours that the IM cast could never come close to touching.

Sketchbook ~full color’S~ isn’t slice of life at all. I’d like to think it’s more of like a chunk of life, or maybe even a whole bit of life, for I’ve never seen anything so utterly pointless and random. While it’s not a good thing that Sketchbook basically is Lucky Star without the jokes and with plenty of chocolate cornet talk, it’s not a bad thing that it’s relaxing, therapeutic even.

“a cat is fine too” jokes, if made in this context, would get old fast given the abnormal number of them per episode; they’re even all over the ED animation

Regarding Sora as a realistic character — didn’t we have that in Hitohira in the form of that girl who virtually went mute during her bouts of shyness? I wouldn’t know, for I’ve yet to see that. Nevertheless, the whole debate on whether Sora’s the quintessential slice of life character or merely a random construct made for the sake of forwarding the slice of life premise shouldn’t even exist. After all, her monologues read like a Makoto Shinkai character, which is a good thing.

Mokke left me speechless. I don’t mean that in a bad way, but if I were to quote a certain character, its defining characteristic is that it has no defining characteristics. It’s perfectly ordinary in a harmless, clinical sort of way, which doesn’t really work to its advantage when you realise that the animation looks like something out of the 90s — think Evangelion.

While I’m definitely not a stickler for animation, there’s a certain standard that all anime produced as of late generally adhere to. I’ve yet to see what made episode 04 (or was it 05?) of Gurren Lagann that made fans go berserk, but if Mokke’s standards are anything to go by, well.. you get the idea. It might be the raw used by the subbers, although I’m doubtful. There’s none of the crisp, sharp colours and contrast that’s present in anime nowadays; everything’s awash in a slightly blur and faded sheen that just looks plain terrible.

Neither is the premise isn’t much to shout about. When compared to the shows I’m watching, whether this season or last, the reason for that becomes clear enough — it lacks character. It doesn’t have the strong impression that any of the shows of this season have left on me, and I’m puzzled over whether the lacklustre animation is what’s standing in my way, or if it’s really that so-so of a show. I’ll probably watch the remaining episodes that I’ve downloaded before deciding, but the force isn’t strong with this one.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 13th, 2007 at 11:42 pm and is filed under Anime. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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