Welcome to Gaia! ::

Since this is a "Guild for Slice of life and School anime fans," I figured it'd be nice to talk about anime & manga that fit either or both categories, but which aren't Lucky Star. (Since Lucky Star can have any other thread.)

(Note that I'm not saying any of these are better or worse than Lucky Star. I'm giving you my impressions of what's in them so that you can determine if they sound interesting to you at all.)

(One thing about all these is that they are, to some extent, cute, sweet, and funny. They also have nothing too unrealistic; even Lucky Star had a ghost, but so far, these have nothing like that. I mean, it's debatable whether luck or powers had anything to do with anything in one of them, but... nothing provable.)

I'll start off with Azumanga Daioh. This title refers to the fact that the mangaka is Azuma Kiyohiko, and was originally a manga published in Dengeki Daioh. Both focus on a group of ordinary high school girls, much as Lucky Star does. In fact, the two casts have a lot in common. I sometimes say the Lucky Star girls are a mix-and-match.

The anime starts on the first day of the first year of high school; the manga started a little later. Both end shortly after the last of the main characters has found out her college.

While Azumanga Daioh does have a good deal of humor, it seems to have more quiet character moments than Lucky Star, or at least it seems to be a higher percentage of the content. (One poster on MAL asked of an episode, "Where are the jokes?" The episode actually did have a few, but it was really more about the characters than telling jokes.)

I can't say whether or not Azumanga Daioh has anime or manga references, because they're never called out like in Lucky Star. The characters also all have natural hair colors. I can't think of anything more to say about it right now...

...so next is Ichigo Mashimaro, known in English as Strawberry Marshmallow. It focuses on a 16-year-old (in the manga, that is; in the anime, her age was bumped to 20 because she smokes and drinks, both of which are illegal in Japan until then, and they figured the manga would be fine while the anime wouldn't. Or something.) girl, her 12-year-old sister, their 12-year-old neighbor girl, their 11-year-old friend, and an 11-year-old English girl who wants to speak only English at school despite having forgotten most of it in favor of Japanese fluency, which she dislikes.

The series is mostly set at the Itou home, with occasional visits to other locations, including their schools.

I would also caution guys about getting this series. In America, I can't help but think it'd be really easy to be thought a ****** because of this series, especially thanks to a few panels. So weigh your situation carefully...

A much safer series would be Yotsuba&!. The title character is a 5-year-old girl who moves into a new neighborhood with her father and encounters a number of new things, including new neighbors. Everything she does, she seems to do with exuberance.

The title refers to the fact that nearly every chapter is called "Yotsuba & (something)". This something will usually be the subject of the chapter, but not always. (Notable exception: "Yotsuba & Respect for the Aged Day", which starts out involving it, but quickly moves on from there.)

I love Azumanga Daioh and Ichigo Mashimaro smile

I'm adding Azumanga Daioh as one of my other Slice of Life Animes