About the slice of life alternative reality in episode 26

[arilando]

I've always wondered, what anime or manga is that inspired from? The only slife of life anime i know are way later than evangelion, but it's not like that small segment could be without precedent or without inspiration in other anime.

[robersora]

Well, then it seems like once again, Eva did it before it was cool.
So hip.

But seriously; Eva is boasting with "Slice-of-Life" elements from beginning until the end, so the way the different reality without Evas was depicted doesn't seem too far-fetched for me.

[FreakyFilmFan4ever]

Did a quick Google search and found a list on Wikipedia. The TV show High School! Kimengumi is listed as a Slice of Life genre series, and it ran from 1985-1987. It was based on a mange that was running since 1982 at that time. (Maybe there are more of this in manga predating Eva than there was in anime. I don’t know.) Everything else on that list is from 1998 and later.

Though, if you were to ask me, Hayao Miyazaki’s Kiki’s Delivery Service in 1989 is the BEST slice of life film you’ll find in Japan. Or, at least it’s the most honest and adorably happy animated slice of life film that’s also brimming with joyful wonder that you’ll find in Japan. (My infatuation with that film as a whole runs very deep within my veins.)

[Nuclear Lunchbox]

The only slife [sic] of life anime i know are way later than evangelion, but it's not like that small segment could be without precedent or without inspiration in other anime.

It's not something that would have needed specific inspiration, I think. Generic slice-of-life anime didn't suddenly start existing after 1995, and the sort of world that was created for part of Episode 26 wasn't something that would've needed to have been based off some other world.

[AuraTwilight]

Slice of life genre aside, every trope and cliche in that scene already existed in light-hearted anime. Usagi Tsukino (Sailor Moon) did the running-while-eating-toast thing ages before Evangelion existed, and would often clumsily run into new people who would be important to the current plot.

And she did not pioneer those tropes, either.

Become a Magical Boy, Shinji.

[LukeMM95]

Wasn't the majority of anime during the early 90s, just like that? I mean the first episode of Sailor Moon opens pretty much exactly the same with the protagonist waking up, discovering she's late for school and then rushing to class. It's just a spoof of how so many anime shows are interchangeable.

[Gob Hobblin]

Yeah: the 'schoolgirl late for class' trope is an old and favored one in anime.

[arilando]

Yeah, but there were a few other tropes in that scene too, like a childhood friend who comes to wake up the protagonist every morning and has a romantic interest in the protagonist, a hot transfer student, a hot "older" female teacher, and probably a few that others that i missed. I've seen these in a lot of post-evangelion anime, but i'm wondering if those anime are inspired by evangelion or if these tropes predate evangelion (i'm assuming they do). I know some anime tropes are really old, like the "beach episode", which also appears in mobile suit gundam from 1979 (though i assume it predates gundam).

[Nuclear Lunchbox]

I doubt that silly SoL really inspired other anime based off of the meager time it got. But hey, it's not every day that you get baloney ponies.

[Atropos]

Just look at the series Anno directed after Eva: Kare Kano, a near-perfect slice-of-life comedy (although a tad melodramatic for a genre where the lack of conflict is meant to the point).

[FreakyFilmFan4ever]

But hey, it's not every day that you get baloney ponies.

If there’s anything that interests me in the English dub, it’s this line right here. (Also Gangstah Hyuga.)

[Nuclear Lunchbox]

There's also "Don't point it at me! It might go off!"

[FreakyFilmFan4ever]

Wait, who’s life was sliced here? I don’t remember that being a regular in my teenage years. (Oh, Alternate-Universe Shinji, you. )

Anyway, whereas the AU segment in Ep 26 certainly does take tropes from other shows and contextualizes them in a slice-of-life fashion, I can’t say that the tropes that satire/parody/reference are slice-of-life themselves. Sailor Moon is a Magic Girl anime, not a slice-of-life anime.

One thing I find interesting is that modern slice-of-life anime does seem to heavily revolve around doe-eyed or otherwise adorable little/high-school girls. (Clannad, K-On, My Little Sister Can’t Be This Cute, ect.) Again, I think this is more of something that sprung up by (or at least have more in common with) Kiki’s Deliver Service. There’s a strong sense of moé coming from these modern slice-of-life shows, and the presence of moé this strong seems to be blamed upon in some sense by Eva. (At least, that’s the impression I’ve gotten from the anime industry, possibly even this forum’s discussions.)

Now I still don’t know if Eva inspired slice-of-life anime, or at the very least produced a demand for that style genre of works from anime audiences, but I find this correlation very interesting to say the least. We’ve gone from sci-fi space operas and mecha anime in droves to the only real big things produced in those genres of late are the words of Shinichiro Wantanabe and Hideki Anno, the creators who more or less had a more definitive impression left of these genre works. I mean, sure. We still have some mecha/kaiju anime come out like Big-O and whatnot. But they didn’t leave nearly as much of a lasting impression on the industry as Gundam back in the 70’s and 80’s. Eva seems to be the last big title of that aesthetic (not really genre, per se) that people seem to speak of anymore. Ever since then the more trending anime titles do seem to be Clannad and K-On and the like.

[Ray]

There's also "Don't point it at me! It might go off!"

Even more (Or Less depending on your point of view), humorous after the opening few minutes of EOE.

I'm a terrible person sometimes. . .

[Chuckman]

Give the boy some respect. It's not like he had a hair trigger. Boy had to work it for a good thirty seconds. I remember that age. An actual naked homo sapiens sapiens with her boobs right there and lock eyes from across the room

[Sailor Star Dust]

Sailor Moon is a Magic Girl anime, not a slice-of-life anime

A lot of the filler episodes (and oh boy, there are a lot in the 200-episode run!) in the 90's series are very slice of life, actually.

[Jäeger]

Slice of life and manga/anime have gone together since the beginning of time.

Rumiko takahashi's master work, Maison ikkoku, it's one of the best examples.

[arilando]

Slice of life and manga/anime have gone together since the beginning of time.

Rumiko takahashi's master work, Maison ikkoku, it's one of the best examples.

Yeah, but i don't know, evangelion still seems somewhat unique.

[FreakyFilmFan4ever]

A lot of the filler episodes (and oh boy, there are a lot in the 200-episode run!) in the 90's series are very slice of life, actually.

Wait, does this mean that modern “Slice-of-Life” shows we have now are simply rebranded nothing-but-filler episodes? Are we settling for simply filler episodes these days?

[Sailor Star Dust]

Wait, does this mean that modern “Slice-of-Life” shows we have now are simply rebranded nothing-but-filler episodes?

I thought it was more that slice of life took off as a genre? SM filler episodes in particular are SoL, but of course that's not true for all filler out there.