There's a special genre of healing anime and manga called iyashikei, a subgenre of slice-of-life.
Some examples are Laid-Back Camp and Campfire Cooking In Another World.
These stories help shift the focus from anxious life to the enjoyment of ordinary things.
Life is hard. We talked about anime being one of the gateways, some of the safe havens that help people inwind, get into another world away from their troubles, even for half an hour, and this healing power of anime is indisputable. But out of all anime genres there's one that's specified in this healing — it's called iyashikei.
Heal the soul
The name itself is not very familiar, usually it's too specific to be used. Instead, the world prefers to call these shows slice-of-life with some epithets like chill slice-of-life, or wholesome slice-of-life, or calm slice-of-life, or cute girls doing cute things. Iyashikei is a subgenre of slice-of-life with its name meaning "healing", "therapeutic", "refreshing." Sometimes it's used in the names of the hot springs in Japan, and it's a perfect analogy: shows like this are designed to be a soothing hot bath for your soul.
Because of this, anime and manga in this genre usually are focused on nature and mundane things. But the goal of these stories is not escapism: it's the shift of focus that reminds the viewer or the reader to find happiness in the smallest things that surround them.
Food is not just fuel
One of the most popular modern shows in this genre is Laid-Back Camp (Yuru Camp), one that features girls going camping and cooking. The girls face some obstacles: they end up in an unfamiliar place after dark, for example, with no communication, but all these troubles are resolved quite fast and allow you to still focus on the feel of a warm cup of ramen in your hands or the joy of successfully starting a bonfire. Campfire Cooking in Another World (Tondemo Skill de Isekai Hourou Meshi) scratches the same itch, but adds an isekai premise to that.
Another example is the series Aria — Aria the Animation, Aria the Origination, Aria the Natural. Akari Mizunashi works as a gondolier in Neo Venezia on Mars, which in the 24th century became filled with water and was renamed Aqua, and the story follows her daily life, as the viewers embarks on the sightseeing journey with Akari and just look at the buildings and talk with other tourists.
A different type of storytelling
One of the driving forces behind the popularization of iyashikei was the pandemic. The whole world was anxious and needed some remedy, and stories that focused on simple pleasures helped relieve the tension. They helped people experience new things and travel to some new places, they let them live some new emotions through the characters that were portrayed on the screen. And the fact that iyashikei doesn't have to follow the classical exposition-culmination-finale scheme makes it feel refreshing.
Sometimes what helps to unwind is just another episode of a show with characters enjoying the smallest bits of their lives with no anxiety looming over them.
Relax, you deserve it.
Summary:
There's a special genre of healing anime and manga called iyashikei, a subgenre of slice-of-life.
Some examples are Laid-Back Camp and Campfire Cooking In Another World.
These stories help shift the focus from anxious life to the enjoyment of ordinary things.
Life is hard. We talked about anime being one of the gateways, some of the safe havens that help people inwind, get into another world away from their troubles, even for half an hour, and this healing power of anime is indisputable. But out of all anime genres there's one that's specified in this healing — it's called iyashikei.
Heal the soul
The name itself is not very familiar, usually it's too specific to be used. Instead, the world prefers to call these shows slice-of-life with some epithets like chill slice-of-life, or wholesome slice-of-life, or calm slice-of-life, or cute girls doing cute things. Iyashikei is a subgenre of slice-of-life with its name meaning "healing", "therapeutic", "refreshing." Sometimes it's used in the names of the hot springs in Japan, and it's a perfect analogy: shows like this are designed to be a soothing hot bath for your soul.
Because of this, anime and manga in this genre usually are focused on nature and mundane things. But the goal of these stories is not escapism: it's the shift of focus that reminds the viewer or the reader to find happiness in the smallest things that surround them.
Food is not just fuel
One of the most popular modern shows in this genre is Laid-Back Camp (Yuru Camp), one that features girls going camping and cooking. The girls face some obstacles: they end up in an unfamiliar place after dark, for example, with no communication, but all these troubles are resolved quite fast and allow you to still focus on the feel of a warm cup of ramen in your hands or the joy of successfully starting a bonfire. Campfire Cooking in Another World (Tondemo Skill de Isekai Hourou Meshi) scratches the same itch, but adds an isekai premise to that.
Another example is the series Aria — Aria the Animation, Aria the Origination, Aria the Natural. Akari Mizunashi works as a gondolier in Neo Venezia on Mars, which in the 24th century became filled with water and was renamed Aqua, and the story follows her daily life, as the viewers embarks on the sightseeing journey with Akari and just look at the buildings and talk with other tourists.
A different type of storytelling
One of the driving forces behind the popularization of iyashikei was the pandemic. The whole world was anxious and needed some remedy, and stories that focused on simple pleasures helped relieve the tension. They helped people experience new things and travel to some new places, they let them live some new emotions through the characters that were portrayed on the screen. And the fact that iyashikei doesn't have to follow the classical exposition-culmination-finale scheme makes it feel refreshing.
Sometimes what helps to unwind is just another episode of a show with characters enjoying the smallest bits of their lives with no anxiety looming over them.
