Welcome, traveller, welcome to Omsk
Doktor von Eurotrash: Some of these works are definitely misplaced. The Simpsons is not slice of life: it's a Sitcom. Each of its episodes is driven by a plot. Suzumiya Haruhi is not slice of life (though, arguably, that episode where nothing happens is): it's a supernatural series with mystery elements. Harry freakin' Potter... need I go on?
The thing is, while you may have a sliding continuum between certain genres, Slice of Life does not work that way. Most works, unless extremely action-packed, have sections where you just follow the protagonists in their daily life, going about their job etc. A Slice of Life work should be something that is nothing but the characters' daily, drama-less life, or very little else. (Anne Of Green Gables, Adrian Mole, Azumanga Daioh etc.) If a work alternates between daily school kid tribulations and fighting the Dark Lord of the prophecy, it's probably not Slice of Life.
Edited by DoktorvonEurotrash It does not matter who I am. What matters is, who will you become? - motto of Omsk Bird Hide / Show Replies
Created a forum topic for this matter. https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=13700255350A27920100&page=1
In order to ascertain consensus about which examples do and don't belong, I'm going to list them all here and cover all the ones I know about.
- Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane - listed because romance
- Archie Comics - listed because romance
- Scott Pilgrim - listed because romance
- Justice League International - listed because romance
Romance is not the same as slice of life. Archie definitely does not use any slice-of-life techniques, Scott Pilgrim uses them very little, and the other two I haven't read, but from the description I doubt it. The rest of the list is pretty suspect too, just shoving anything with any sort of romance or roommate life into the slice of life category.
- Napoleon Dynamite - does not use slice of life techniques at all
- Clerks - same
- Dogtooth - same
These examples confuse "personal life" stories with "slice of life." Dog tooth especially has nothing to do with slice of life, and the person who added the example even went as far as demonstrating that they don't understand that the trope is different from the literal meaning: "slice of isolated-from-the-world-and-living-in-a-walled-in-estate life"...
- The Adventures of Tom Sawyer - clue in the title...
- Ulysses - FINALLY something that's unquestionably slice of life. You know how you can tell? Because it focuses on the small, insignificant moments IN AND OF THEMSELVES!!!
- children's books - no, that's just mixing up personal stories with slice of life.
- Diary of a Wimpy Kid - no... I'm starting to repeat myself: "personal life" stories are not necessarily "slice of life" stories; in fact they rarely are.
Moving forward...
- Most sitcoms tend to be this. - NO! Sitcoms precisely DON'T examine the moments in and of themselves, sitcoms use moments as jokes or setups for jokes etc. This could possibly be the polar opposite of slice of life, it's disregarding the moment and just using it as a joke vehicle.
- The Wonder Years - journal again
- Friends - sitcom again
- The Office - ...
- Seinfeld - ...
I'm just gonna stop listing sitcoms because they are so obviously not slice of life that it just shows how misunderstood this concept is.
- Rollercoaster Tycoon - wat is this I don't even
Now simulation games are slice of life too...
The Western Animation section is filled with children's shows that are clearly not slice of life. They may deal with highschool, or a kid's personal life, but that is not slice of life. I'll mention a few:
- Arthur - almost every episode has a very clear message and all of the events in the episode build towards this message. This is not slice of life.
- Clifford the Big Red Dog - same.
- My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic - this one's interesting because I've seen this called slice of life so many times I doubt I could ever successfully remove it from the page, but even the person who added this admits that it's not slice of life yet still tries to force it. The oft-cited episode about a sleepover is not a slice of life episode... it's an episode about resolving the conflict between two friends...
- Beavis And Butthead - There is definitely a lot of focus on little moments in this show, but it's clearly satire, meant to put these moments in a mocking light, not meant to depict them in and of themselves.
TL;DR tropers think everything is slice of life because they take the phrase literally.
Welcome, traveller, welcome to Omsk
Doktor von Eurotrash: Axed Harry Potter (epic fantasy) and The Simpsons (Sitcom). Also Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni... its entry even acknowledged that it's horror, not Slice of Life.
It does not matter who I am. What matters is, who will you become? - motto of Omsk Bird
Should Anime and Manga get its own page?