When discussing anime with people for the first time, it might not come across as cool to bring up the slice of life genre. After all, slice of life shows are stereotyped into kawaii-fest plotlines where nothing special happens.
The stereotype of slice of life anime is true in many cases, but they can also contain some elements of romance or comedy to spice the episodes up. Simply watching cute girls doing cute things can be entertaining to watch.
As an avid anime viewer, here are my top 3 slice of life anime series. At a minimum, fans of this calming genre should not miss these shows.
1. Teasing Master Takagi-san
Set in the beautiful island town of Tonosho, Teasing Master Takagi-san features a middle school girl named Takagi who keeps teasing Nishikata, the boy sitting to her left in class. Nishikata tries to counter Takagi with his own contests, but they never seem to work against Takagi, hence the show title.
From the start, it seems obvious Takagi likes Nishikata. However, Nishikata resists the idea she likes him or any notion of them dating. Instead, he becomes more determined with each episode to finally “win” against Takagi.
The premise sounds incredibly dull at first, but the writing is sharp and results in many funny moments between the pair. It also leads to an interesting dynamic where Nishikata overthinks every interaction as a contest while Takagi arguably exploits this instinct to spend time with him.
Watching Takagi keep her cool during these contests and Nishikata blow up every time he loses never stops being entertaining. As time goes on in this series over three seasons, some light romantic elements do start to leak in, which gives this slice of life anime some variety in addition to the constant teasing.
Also, the opening and closing themes for the three seasons are excellent. The opening theme “Zero Centimeters” for Season 2 is a personal favorite of mine.
You can watch Teasing Master Takagi-san Season 1 on Netflix and Crunchyroll. Season 3 is found on HIDIVE. Season 2 and the recent movie release are not as easy to find. American fans may need to research where to watch them.
2. Minami-ke
Minami-ke features three sisters who live alone, with the oldest sister Haruka acting as the default mother in the absence of their parents.
The youngest sister Chiaki attends elementary school and is portrayed as a smart girl who prefers studying over socializing. She also constantly shows the highest respect to Haruka. Meanwhile, the middle sister Kana attends high school and acts as the loudest and most socialized one out of the three.
Again, the overall premise sounds dull. However, In Season 1 the writing is sharp where almost every segment of each episode a winner. The bulk of the show’s humor derives from the constant misunderstandings between the characters through bad communication and the hilarious resulting scenarios.
The supporting characters are strong as well, with Hosaka providing a good portion of side humor in his never-ending quest to win Haruka’s affection and Fujioka giving multiple hints he wants to date Kana, who is oblivious.
As for one negative point, Minami-ke does not offer a whole lot in terms of progression. Rather, it works more like a comic strip that keeps going for four seasons, which is why the fourth season feels like a good place to end.
Regardless of the lack of progression, the different personalities of the three sisters and the side characters Hosaka and Fujioka keep the show funny.
Unfortunately, Season 1 is probably not obtainable through normal ways. Season 4 was done by a different studio and does not exactly match Season 1’s quality, but it is available on Funimation, Crunchyroll and even YouTube.
3. K-On!
For anime fans who want the quintessential slice of life series with cute high school girls doing cute things, then K-On! is the right show. Over two seasons, K-On! offers a loose storyline of a group of girls forming a music club and growing as musicians, but the overall pacing is extremely slow.
The initial cast for the music club is led by Yui, who becomes the lead guitarist and vocalist for their emerging band. Mio, who is the shy girl, plays the bass guitar and shares in the vocal responsibilities as well. Their rich friend Mugi uses the keyboard. Finally, Ritsu takes up the drummer role.
Later on, the girls recruit a rhythm guitarist named Azusa, who is in a younger grade than the other four girls. She gets sucked into their antics.
Does the idea of watching anime high school girls eat pastry and drink tea in a music club sound exciting and fun to watch? Then, this is the right anime for you.
Does the idea of watching one of the characters wear cat ears and act like a cat in front of her bandmates sound cute? Then, this is the right anime for you. In one scene, Azusa literally makes a “Nyaaa” sound and the other characters almost faint because of how cute she acts. She is then renamed Azun-yan.
When the girls do play concerts, they perform cute songs such as “Fluffy Fluffy Time,” “My Love is a Stapler” and “Brush and Ballpoint Pen.”
The entire series is animated beautifully and the songs hold up as catchy and light tunes. Plus, watching cute girls do cute things is oddly entertaining.
Just do not expect a deep storyline or even a funny one. Fans watch K-On! to see five high school girls hang out in a music club and do cute things. As strange as this sounds, the show works for the type of audience it goes for.
Ultimately, the “slice of life” genre refers to stories which are so close to events that could occur in real life that they don’t quite fit in any other genre.
If readers are not turned off by the premise at this point, they can still find K-ON! seasons 1 and 2 along with the movie on Funimation.
About the Author
Reinier has been an enthusiastic writer his entire life, later attending California State University, Stanislaus where he earned an English Master of Arts degree. He grew up with a Nintendo Entertainment System as his first console and still plays a wide range of retro games. In recent years, Reinier wrote for Nerd Reactor, a website covering video games and other nerd material. Now, he writes horse racing articles and contributes to Phillip Schneider.
This article (The Top 3 Slice of Life Anime of All Time, Listed and Ranked) originally appeared at Phillip Schneider and may be re-posted freely with proper attribution, author credit, and this copyright statement.