Life can be strange and the most wonderful thing aspect of life cartoon do a great job reflects that. Even the most mundane, typical life can be filled with novel experiences. Thanks to the imaginative storytelling in anime, those small, everyday moments can really get a chance to shine on screen.
Of course, because so many imaginative stories can be told in anime, the medium also allows for the inclusion of deliberately fantastical, surreal, and strange plots into the slice-of-life genre. Whether it’s stylistic flourishes that capture the inherent strangeness of the characters’ dreams and imaginations or telling the story of the everyday lives of purely supernatural characters, anime has created a some memorable and interesting twists and turns in the slice-of-life genre.
10 Oshi No Ko
Although Oshi no Ko has a reincarnation angle and exists as a murder mystery story, its main focus is a rather unflinching look at life in the Japanese entertainment industry. Especially for audiences outside of Japan, this is an eye-opening examination of the difficulties faced by Japanese idols and actors.
The overall plot is driven by more fantastical elements, and most of the drama the characters face comes from the pressures of the industry itself. Despite the fantasy elements that are important to the overall plot, Oshi no Ko is still easy to understand for anyone who has tried to become an artist or entertainer.
9 Himouto Umaru-chan
At school, Umaru is a perfect student and a woman of exemplary poise and grace. At home, she is an obsessed, lazy bookworm who plays video games until the early morning, collects the latest manga, and survives mainly on a diet of potato chips. The change in personality is shown by her changing appearance when she is at home.
In public, she is drawn with the same style and proportions as the other characters. At home, she is drawn in a miniature chibi style to emphasize her much goofier personality. It’s a smart artistic choice that really makes the difference between Umaru’s public and private personas stand out and drives much of the series’ humor. Despite Umaru’s selfish and obsessive nature, she still develops meaningful relationships with her brother and friends, best illustrated by the anime’s memorable Christmas episode.
8 wolf children
Wolf Children tells the story of a single mother raising two children with a werewolf father. Hana’s children Yuki and Ame both have human and wolf forms, and must navigate their childhoods while learning to accept that part of themselves. Despite its low fantasy nature, Wolf Children is still a fairly grounded and incredibly heartfelt family story.
Differentiated by its fantasy elements, The Wolf Children is essentially a story that involves both a mother watching her children grow up, trying to do what’s best for it, and helping them determine their destiny. navigate in a society that doesn’t really understand them and the children they are growing up. and try to discover their own identities.
7 Aggretsuko
Aggretsuko can best be called Hello Kitty among Millennials. Retsuko is a red panda who hates her office job and vents her resentment into singing Death Metal karaoke. Essentially, this is a story that could relate to the life of a working adult, but has the inherent humor of the visual and thematic disconnect created by A cast of cute animal characters doing completely normal human things. This is a very adult series, not in the sense of containing a lot of adult or graphic content, but in the sense of being about different aspects of life as a young adult.
6 Nichijou
Nichijou’s title was localized as “My Ordinary Life”. It’s clear that Nichijou’s world is nothing. The series is a very deliberate and self-aware parody of the slice-of-life genre. Although the school setting is mundane on the surface, the series is filled with eccentric characters who do ridiculous things.
For example, an eight-year-old science genius built himself an android companion and no one seemed to notice that the android had a giant wind-up key on its back. Another iconic moment in the series occurs when the school principal confuses a deer. Things got even weirder from there, and Nichijou has become an icon of comedy anime.
5 lucky stars
Originally a four-panel comedy manga, Lucky Star has been adapted into an anime for anime fans. Most of Lucky Star’s humor comes from references and super fourth-wall-breaking jokes. For example, the local anime store manager is drawn in the deliberately absurd art style of a series and acts more like a hot-blooded action hero fighting the fate of the universe than someone is trying to sell anime and manga.
Unfortunately, Lucky Star is very much a product of that era in Pop Culture history. Many of the references are no longer topical or relevant, so some of the humor has lost its effectiveness since the series’ initial launch, but there is still enough humor in the The character interactions are worth recommending.
4 The life of a centaur
Technically set on Earth, the main difference between the real world and the world of A Centaur’s Life is that evolution has taken a significantly different turn, causing the world of the series to have fantasy creatures such as centaurs, dragons, and angels contrast with mortal humans.
Although the film is primarily a high school comedy, A Centaur’s Life also examines exactly how the world really works. The series has made every effort to reasonably explain the history and social development of a world inhabited by fantasy creatures and the main differences that will appear when compared to the real world.
3 Pani Poni Dash
The high school setting is pretty much the only normal thing in Pani Poni Dash. The teacher is an 11-year-old genius with a degree from MIT and a talking pet rabbit. She often needs to be taken care of by students. The students all have quirky personalities that are intentionally exaggerated for humorous effect. There’s a cat claiming to be God that lives in one of the vending machines. An alien crew watches from their ship. The intentionally nonsensical events that take place are combined with self-aware meta-humor and even simple slapstick comedy to create a bewildering yet thoroughly enjoyable work of absurdist, surreal comedy. taste.
2 songs
Set on Aqua, a terraformed Martian planet in the 24th century, Aria has a surprisingly high-concept premise for a series where nothing actually happens. Although set on a completely different planet, Aria is a laid-back, laid-back slice-of-life series about a teenage girl named Akari, who travels to the city of Neo-Venezia on Aqua to train to become a Undine, Aqua’s equivalent of the rowers. in Venice.
Although Neo-Venezia resembles the original Venice, there are aspects of the series that clearly indicate Aqua is an entirely new world such as airships and holographic video phones. Akari also tends to encounter various supernatural phenomena, giving the series a light but ever-present Fantasy element to the series.
1 Azumanga Daioh
Azumanga Daioh is less prominent now than it was in its early days, but this 20-year-old anime still has its fans. Overall, the story of Azumanga Daioh is quite simple, focusing on a group of girls when they are in high school. However, the storytelling method includes absurdity. The characters experience dreams, daydreams, and completely ridiculous flights of fantasy. Cartoon models and characters are often intentionally exaggerated to emphasize humor.
It’s worth noting that Azumanga Daioh is one of the best depictions of neurodivergence in popular culture. Even though characters like Osaka and Sakaki say and do strange things, they are still part of a close-knit group of friends that accept and value them.
Although life is full of strange things, you can also tell stories about everyday life that exaggerate the strange aspects of life or deliberately introduce strange new elements to mix up life. live every day. This is made possible on a whole other level through the imaginative storytelling and magic that aspect of lifecartoon provide.