Attitudes to Slice-of-Life Comedy Anime
There’s been a lot of disparity in reactions to the slice-of-life moe comedy genre of late sparked by the recent end of K-On!. A lot of its defenders have fallen back on the idea that “it is what it is”, while its critics have argued that that’s no excuse for mediocrity. My own opinion is that there’s no question that K-On! is mediocre, but there’s merit in the “it is what it is” defense provided one adds appropriate riders. The problem with the “it is what it is” defense is that, if you take it to its logical conclusions, you can’t criticize anything, because everything “is what it is”. What you can criticize something for is how well it achieves its intent. Personal preference inevitably plays a role in criticism, but the fact of the matter is that every genre (and arguably every individual title) has its own unique set of criteria which depend on a number of things, and sound, reasoned criticism is about minimizing the number of criteria which cannot be controlled or influenced by the creators themselves.
Personally, I think some of the more prominent attempts to criticize K-On! have gone to the opposite extreme of the logical conclusion of “it is what it is”, and have set unreasonable expectations and asked for things that K-On! never had any intention of delivering in the first place. K-On! is, after all, firmly entrenched as a slice-of-life moe comedy, a genre which has been well and truly established since the classic Azumanga Daioh (which I’ll get to later), and we’ve probably seen enough of these, particularly more recently, to know what the game is all about. There have been what I’ve seen as too many attempts to unnecessarily overcomplicate what is, at heart, a simplistic genre, and I’ve always thought that the appropriate criteria for titles within the genre are similarly simplistic. My view is that the most important criteria for slice-of-life moe comedy – possibly the only one that matters – is whether it’s funny or not. If you’re laughing, you tick the box, if not, you give it a thumbs down. The problem with this is that its an inevitably subjective criteria and disagreers generally have difficultly finding common ground on which to critically analyze the work and their difference of opinions in a way that, well, isn’t futile.
Its unique in that sense since so much of one’s opinion of titles in the genre are formed from subjective reactions, which makes it a rather challenging genre to review objectively. Does that mean we shouldn’t be reviewing these titles at all? Well, no, I don’t think so… but you know me, I’m a big believer in reviews (I wouldn’t write them if I wasn’t). In most other genres, you can look at things that have an internal or creative logic, or can be justified somehow… it’s much harder to do this with works that are so innately simple. I think this is why works driven by meta-humour seem to be better critically received; you can look at anime like Kannagi or Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei or Ouran Host Club and point to tangibles that can be acclaimed: “oh look at the sharp wit and the timing and the references and the self-awareness”. It’s much harder to do this with titles that have an opaque fourth wall. Then, the question is, how does one justify a positive response to Azumanga Daioh and Minami-ke and then an indifferent one to K-On! and Minami-ke Season Two, when they’re basically all trying to do the same thing. That’s a tough question. You can only talk about what you liked and what you didn’t like, but ideally you’re working within a set of criteria that are fair and reasonable and considerate of the intentions of the series. But who exactly decides what’s “fair and reasonable”?
Man, I've been writing a lot about moe lately
“It is what it is” is basically what I see as a clumsy attempt to raise a reasonable rebuttal: consider a title’s intentions when criticizing it. But its use to defend K-On! carries with it a disturbing implication: the idea that slice-of-life moe comedy don’t have to have anything more than what K-On! delivered. It’s an idea which is easily refuted just by the half-dozen or so other titles I’ve mentioned already in this article in passing, all of which are funnier and more entertaining than K-On!. This has basically been my major criticism of K-On! since the early episodes: when you compare it to other anime within its genre, it doesn’t stack up. If I took a random slice-of-life moe comedy from the list of anime I’ve seen and was forced to choose between it and K-On!, chances are pretty low that I’d pick K-On!, and chances are almost as low that I’d have think about that decision for long. This is what I see as a real indictment on K-On!, since it basically points to a failure on its part to distinguish itself within its own genre. But that (obviously) is my opinion, and I’m kinda curious as to how proponents of the “it is what is is” defense consider this. Simply as a non-threatening curiosity, my question to fans of K-On! is, how does it compare with other anime within the slice-of-life moe comedy genre in your opinion?
Maybe that comes back to my own attitude that, if there are two titles that do much the same thing but one has a greater impact, then that means the other has failed to be distinctive, and thus has less chance of being deemed “good” (but, again this comes back to the idea that the response to a slice-of-life moe comedy is generally more subjective than other genres). My own opinion of the slice-of-life moe comedy genre as a whole is that the bar was set in its infancy with Azumanga Daioh and nothing since has raised that bar (although the much more satirical Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei came close). But, I’ve recently wondered whether it would have anywhere near the same impact if I was watching it for the first time today. I suspect not, and I daresay there’s a bit of a “Seinfeld Is Unfunny” effect going on with Azumanga Daioh (which is ironic, since Seinfeld was often the title it was compared to in the early days as they were both among the first in their respective media to utilize the revolutionary concept of being “about nothing”). These days the ideas that were (relatively) unique to Azumanga Daioh at the time have been copied, subsequently watered down and repeated to the point of cliche, which means that there are greater expectations now for what makes a good slice-of-life comedy (although its a credit to Azumanga Daioh that it’s still fairly highly revered in its genre after so much time has passed and so many new titles in the genre have been released, even if it is mostly by slightly old-school people… relatively speaking, of course, since it is only seven years old).
As a fan of the slice-of-life moe genre, this is what makes K-On! disappointing. It’s essentially taken things from other anime which have taken things from Azumanga Daioh, which isn’t all that shameful a thing of itself (formulas are successful for a reason) but many of the things that K-On! put in play are basically stale now. Add to that some pretty banal comedic execution, and you end up with a rather forgettable, throwaway entry to the genre. Fans may say, well “it is what it is”, implying that ambition was never an intention. My response is, with all the other funny and entertaining slice-of-life comedies being made, even now, with not a great deal of ambition themselves, why couldn’t it be something more? Never mind plot or character development or things that it never intended to have. Just “more funny” would have been enough to make it serviceable.
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A collection of final reactions to K-On! here.
Well if it’s as simple to review as gauging whether one finds it funny or not then I’m thankful and will just go right ahead and give it a thumbs down. I still have to say my biggest problem with it though was just how derivative it all felt. The goings on just weren’t interesting and were of the kind that you could see done in a lot of other anime like K-On and in my opinion more cleverly or to some long-term relevance at that. I don’t really think I have to go into too much detail as you pretty much already did that for me again.
Sadly though I have to admit K-On has put me off of attempting to watch all but one of the all girls club/slice of life anime next season. It’s not a permanent thing and I still very much intend to find the slice of life comedy series that is just right for me someday. Just not in a hurry now.
Anyway sadly (or perhaps not) I can’t answer any of your questions since yet again I pretty much see it all the same as you (only difference I can see is that you used the word distinguish and I used the word define to describe what I was looking for K-On to do more of) so I’m just going to sit back and listen from this point on to what some of the propogators of the “it is what it is” defense have to say to your write up. After all I’ve already done my time with this sort of article anyway.
Okay well I do have just one last thing to say though:
“My own opinion of the slice-of-life moe comedy genre as a whole is that the bar was set in its infancy with Azumanga Daioh and nothing since has raised that bar”
I never expected that we would share this feeling in common too. I don’t think that means we can’t have good shows of the genre, but that indeed nothing has really come along to redefine it all since then. A lot of it is the same basic stuff going on, but it’s how it handles it all that can be the key to making critically good show.
An interesting read about K-On and how it relates to the slice of life moe genre as a whole.
To be completely honest, I have difficulty in reviewing any all girls slice of life moe shows given the fact that the only way to get me to like any show in that genre is to have all the girls have hot lesbian sex with each other. All the time.
“My own opinion of the slice-of-life moe comedy genre as a whole is that the bar was set in its infancy with Azumanga Daioh and nothing since has raised that bar”
I suspect most fans who are old enough to remember when Azumanga Daioh was new will have the same sentiment. The situation actually reminds me of Super Mario 64 and how it defined the genre of the 3D platformer in video games. No one has really done anything new in the genre since then, and it took over a decade of time and the migration since of the whole industry towards “dark and edgier” hardcore games like your GTAs, FPS games, or generic MMORPGs for something like Mario Galaxy to seem fresh again.
So, are slice-of-life comedies doomed to a similar cycle, where it suffers through years of stagnancy, then unpopularity, until again it comes around and seems innovative again?
I’m watching AzuDai now and I don’t think it’s that funny at all. I think it draaaaags scenes/jokes faaar toooooo loooooong. I’m not saying that it doesn’t have its moments, it has very good ones. However I am bored a lot halfway through the series.
With regards to Keion, I liked it more than I expected it to. I didn’t expect to laugh much, only that I laughed a lot. Characters I wanted to dismiss I became rather fond of.
Now, I don’t think this comment will ’settle’ the issue of how ‘good’ a Sol show is, and I don’t mean to do so. I do see it as a moe fanservice show that gives some choice treasures for those who want to see it as such.
I’d have to agree with this on pretty much all counts and continue to be puzzled at the fact that few are trying to make that cross comparison between K-ON! and other shows in its niche. I’ve bandied enough in my other comments regarding shows that I think are comparable to K-ON!, and yet, I still think there’s a disconnect in the discourse; that is, I’m only halfway to seeing where people are coming from in praising K-ON!
@ghostlightning: See, you perfectly demonstrate how going back to watch AzuDai now is a completely different experience than it was 6-7 years ago. The jokes are old hat now, the structure has become more streamlined, and character archetypes refined with laser accuracy. Seinfeld is unfunny indeed. Although I posit that the final episodes are its best ones.
As far as my evaluation of K-ON! goes, if it were in a vacuum, it would fall in that not-good-but-not-bad kind of category, watchable and sometimes enjoyable, but to me its the unfunniest SOL-comedy I’ve seen. Which in the context of this article, fails.
“My response is, with all the other funny and entertaining slice-of-life comedies being made, even now, with not a great deal of ambition themselves, why couldn’t it be something more?”
For me, as long as a show’s entertaining (and I found K-On! to be so), it doesn’t matter if it’s the same things over and over again or if it lacks that “something more” that it seems that many people want.
(I’m a bit pissed because I lost my first attempt to reply to everyone when my browser crashed).
@Kaioshin Sama
This kinda goes back to an article I wrote earlier, in that, the initial or subjection reaction forms the contention of a review, but the more important part of it is when you try to justify it. It’s all well and good to say “I enjoyed this anime”, but it’s probably more valuable to say “I enjoyed this anime because…” It’s kinda hard with slice-of-life comedy, though, since what comes after that “because…” is probably more individual than it is with other genres.
@Snark
Do you really want to watch the girls of K-On! in a lesbian orgy, though? You see, I wouldn’t find that too hot at all. If it was just Mugi and Mio, that’d be a whole different story.
@kadian1364
I’m not going to attempt to predict the future, but that’s an entirely plausible possibility. The worrying thing about K-On! is that it shows that, if you have an adept handle of moe and what the audience wants, you can phone it in and still have a hit. I’m not asking for every entry into the genre to be as unique and creative as Hidamari Sketch. I just want them to have good jokes.
@ghostlightning
I’ve always thought of Azumanga’s slow pacing as one of its strengths. It’s very meticulous with how its jokes are built up, with great care and attention of detail given to a lot of little things (like where the characters stand) to make sure the jokes work, and off the top of my head, only Haruhi rivals it in that respect. There’s probably a bit of a “Seinfeld is unfunny” effect going on here (as kadian1364 suggests) but from what you say, I suspect that expectations are playing a part as well. Expectations probably helped in your enjoyment of K-On!, but I too had fairly low expectations, and got pretty much what I expected.
@zzeroparticle
It’s not like K-On! was bad all the time, though, there were some moments that were quite chuckle-worthy, but too much of it was simply boring. After reading ghostlightning’s response, I’m starting to think expectations have a role in K-On’s reception. No one who’s serious about slice-of-life comedy would have had high expectations for K-On!. It’s much easier to enjoy something if it exceeds your expectations.
@TheBigN
I didn’t really want K-On! to do anything new. One of my favourite slice-of-life moe comedies is Minami-ke, and it didn’t really do anything new. I just didn’t think it had enough funny moments for me to think much of it as a comedy. But again, that’s a subjective gauge. I just found it too stale to be constantly enjoyable.
I have no problems with AzuDai’s pacing. Only that when it makes a ‘punchline,’ it lingers on it for waaay toooo loooooong, which actually detracts from the comedic effect.
I got it, she blushes at cute things.
I got it, the cat bit her finger.
I got it, the GIANT sweat drop makes it clear how awkward it is.
In all cases, it would take 3-5 more seconds (feels more than that) to change to the next scene. Budget considerations?
I haven’t really read much of the responses, so forgive me if I repeat an idea, but are Slice-of-Life comedies Japan’s Sitcoms (in respect to how Sitcoms are in the American TV realm)?
Sitcoms are essentially slice-of-life narratives, so the correlation struck me while reading this.