![\"biyori2\"](\"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/biyori2.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nToday’s thrilling adventure: eating watermelons by the river!<\/em><\/p>\n Normally, the plot of an anime series can be compared pretty easily to the structure of a novel.\u00a0 Each episode is like a chapter in that it has its own beginning and resolution but ultimately serves to advance the story as a whole.\u00a0 The end goal is to tell one long story that causes the characters and world to change significantly by the end.\u00a0 You could conceivably pick a random episode out of the middle of a series and watch it, but it would make about as much sense to you as reading the fifth chapter of a novel.<\/p>\n By contrast, a slice of life show is structured more like a collection of poetry, short stories, or essays on a particular topic.\u00a0 There\u2019s a central theme or idea that\u2019s being explored, but not necessarily an overarching plot to resolve.\u00a0 Each episode offers a small observation or makes a minor point, but it\u2019s mostly self-contained.\u00a0 Like a single poem in a collection, you could watch one episode and get something out of it, though it might not have the same emotional significance without the rest of the work.<\/p>\n To explore this idea a bit further, I\u2019m going to take a look at one of my favorite slice of life shows, and one I use as a benchmark to judge other works in the genre: Aria<\/i>.\u00a0 Based on the manga series by Kozue Amano, Aria<\/i> ran for three seasons and a one-shot OVA.\u00a0 In that time, the viewer follows three apprentice gondoliers as they learn to guide tourists around the canals of a future city modeled after Venice.\u00a0 While there is some semblance of a plot as the heroines work their way up the ranks, the story is only really ever advanced in a handful of episodes.\u00a0 The rest of the series is concerned mainly with getting to know the city and its inhabitants.\u00a0 Without any princesses to rescue or dragons to slay, Aria<\/i> is free to stop and smell the metaphorical roses.\u00a0 The series is obnoxiously sweet and sentimental, but nearly every episode has an observation to make about friendship, personal growth, or finding beauty in ordinary things.\u00a0 It\u2019s like a collection of poems about what it means to grow up and find your place in the world.<\/p>\n There’s also a sci-fi backstory about terraforming Mars, but that’s not important right now.<\/em><\/p>\n Like Aria<\/i>, there\u2019s no way Non Non Biyori<\/i> would make a good novel.\u00a0 I\u2019ve been trying to figure out exactly what it\u2019s meant to be instead, and the consistently beautiful background art finally clued me in.\u00a0 Watching Non Non Biyori<\/i> is like flipping through a book of photos that were taken of a tiny rural town in Japan.\u00a0 The characters wander through a series of snapshots, each one a sentimental glimpse of life lived at a leisurely pace in the middle of nowhere.\u00a0 In many ways, the setting is the star of the show.<\/p>\n Seriously, there’s literally an episode where the characters wander around and take photos of stuff.<\/em><\/p>\n I suppose the point here is this: if you look to anime for its epic storylines and frenetic energy, you probably won\u2019t get much enjoyment out of the slice of life genre.\u00a0 If, however, you\u2019re willing to adjust your expectations for a different kind of storytelling, you might have a new experience altogether.\u00a0 When the atmosphere is allowed to upstage the story, the result can be a fascinating, immersive experience.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I\u2019ve been keeping up with the simulcast of Non Non Biyori this season, and at first glance it\u2019s a bit difficult to explain why.\u00a0 Like most shows in the \u201cslice of life\u201d genre, there isn\u2019t really much of a plot to speak of, and any conflicts that arise among the characters are pretty mundane.\u00a0 If [Read more…]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=440"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":447,"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440\/revisions\/447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n