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A slice of life story is a category for a story that portrays a "cut-out" sequence of events in a character's life. It may or may not contain any plot progress and little character development, and often has no exposition, conflict, or dénouement, with an open ending. It usually tries to depict the everyday life of ordinary people, sometimes but rarely, with fantasy or science fiction elements involved. The term slice of life is actually a dead metaphor: it often seems as if the author had taken a knife and "cut out" a slice of the lives of some characters, without concern for narrative form. It is sometimes called tranche de vie, from the French.

John Steinbeck is an example of someone who uses "slice of life". Steinbeck takes experiences from his own life and makes characters who could very well be real characters and turns it into a story. An example is Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men.[1]

It has also been defined as an "episode of actual experience represented realistically and with little alteration in a dramatic, fictional, or journalistic work". (cp. Answers.com).

Slice of life stories appear in books, TV shows, movies and video games. Super Jinsei Game and Bakushou!! Jinsei Gekijou are two examples of "slice of life" video games. Slice of life stories may either be dramatic or otherwise presented in a very serious nature, or may be used to help frame a comedic setting. Sports may be present in "slice of life" in a thematic form in order to advance the plot of the story.

Another common trait in slice of life is emphasis on seasonality or procedures. To illustrate seasonality: a show such as Ichigo Mashimaro has an entire episode dedicated to it being summer, and therefore hot; the characters stay inside in front of the air conditioner, cicadas are heard, eventually they eat popsicles. To illustrate procedures: a show like Yokohama Kaidashi Kikō spends significant time depicting in detail the process of brewing coffee. One example that combines the two [which two?]: in Aria (manga) the gondolas are removed from the water once yearly and scraped to remove barnacles this is depicted in detail and constitutes the basis for an entire chapter.

Examples

See also

References

  1. ^ Joe Banno (November 9–15, 2001). "Reigning Men". Washington City Paper. Retrieved 2008-06-05. It does justice to both Of Mice and Men's European smarts and its italicized form of Americana, without apologizing or attempting to hammer itself back into Steinbeck's slice-of-life original.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: date format (link)
  2. ^ Dirk Deppey (2007-01-24). "ADV's Abandoned Manga". The Comics Journal. Retrieved 2008-01-06. Like this manga's closest spiritual contemporary, Hitoshi Ashinano's Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou, it doesn't have story arcs so much as an endless string of idyllic moments. Rather than a plot, Aria contains a series of encounters with customers, townspeople and the city and surrounding countryside.
  3. ^ Carl Kimlinger (2007-12-15). "Azumanga Daioh GN - Omnibus Edition". Anime News Network. Retrieved 2007-12-16. Azumanga Daioh is a slice-of-life chronicle of high-school friendships cranked up to just the right extremity to be absolutely hilarious.
  4. ^ Christopher White. "James Joyce, Dubliners Unabridged". Green Man Review. Retrieved 2007-12-16. The structure and content of the Dubliner stories, with their 'slice of life' approach and often lack of overt dramatic conflict and resolution, are today thoroughly familiar forms and devices, but were part of the explorations engaged in by Joyce and his contemporaries that transformed our literary tradition.
  5. ^ "Hidamari Sketch". December 20, 2007. For those of you who wish, count how many words generated in this post and we will see if it beats 1000. For I will talk about Hidamari Sketch, a slice of life anime thrown together with comedy, chibi, and a bit of cuteness that is not overbearing.
  6. ^ ""Lucky Star (TV)"". Genres: comedy, slice of life
  7. ^ ""Seinfeld a Study of Modern Character"". Annika Backlund. Retrieved 2008-02-28. ...Television offers its viewers a slice of life of New York citizen Jerry Seinfeld and friends...
  8. ^ "To Heart". November 26, 2006. Genres: Comedy, Romance, Slice of Life No. of Episodes: 13 {{cite web}}: Text "accessdate 2008-02-07" ignored (help)
  9. ^ "Tom's Diner". The Rusted Pipe Web Site. Retrieved 2008-06-05. "Tom's Diner" was written in Tom's Restaurant, it's really about Tom's Restaurant, on 112th Street and Broadway in New York City, and it was really written from the point of view of my friend Brian, who is a photographer, and had made a comment to me one day that he felt that as a photographer, he saw his whole life through a pane of glass, and always felt like he was the witness to a lot of things, but was never really involved in them.
  10. ^ Dirk Deppey (2006-10-13). "A Comics Reader's Guide to Manga Scanlations". The Comics Journal. Retrieved 2007-12-16. The few actual incidents that occur in this series -- Alpha getting hit by lightning and recuperating in a hospital, or running out of coffee beans and riding her scooter to Yokohama to get more -- punctuate a calm, endless sea of chapters wherein she does little more than sit by the window, drink coffee, wander the fields with her camera, visit the beach with friends or pay leisurely visits to the town's few remaining human citizens.
  11. ^ Carlo Santos (2007-11-27). "RIGHT TURN ONLY!! - Society for the Study of Really Awesome Endings". Anime News Network. Retrieved 2007-12-16. Such is the way of Kiyohiko Azuma's slice-of-life storytelling, which was mastered within the four-panel pillars of Azumanga Daioh but perfected only in the full-chapter format that Yotsuba&! brings.
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