Discussion Main / Iyashikei

The Sentai Filmworks page explicitly lists K-On as iyashikei. https://www.sentaifilmworks.com/a/news/what-is-iyashikei-and-why-should-you-care As the page creator, you had the purpose in mind of restricting this to Japanese anime/manga, but as a member of the community, I come to this page looking for more content that has this soothing effect, whether it's Japanese in origin or not, or is in some format other than anime or manga. I learned about the RPG Golden Sky Stories on this page, for example. I agree that not every slice-of-life or moe series qualifies... at least for me. But I think a lot of other content has this effect. I'd recommend the mobile game "Sky: Children of the Light" or nearly any game by That Game Company, for example. Would you disagree?

What about this? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUoCYuAm4bA

ブラッシングされるねこに癒される。-Healing video by cats being brushed.-

I could make a case for the entire Mugumogu channel, but this one makes the specific claim, including the root verb 癒.

Well, Sentai Works is wrong. At least half the works mentioned on that list are not Iyashikei in any way shape or form. It's a pretty common occurrence that writers for western outlets don't really understand Japanese media, even if those outlets specialize in them. I think we should be able to do better than that.

Iyashikei is a Japanese phenomenon. The fact that it is a Japanese word kind of gives it away, I would say. It's a direct result of Japanese culture, with its emphasis on concepts as Mono No Aware, Wabi Sabi and Shibui, with no real western counterparts.

I am fine with perhaps mentioning some Western works if they clearly wear their Japanese influences on their sleeve, but this would still mean that the vast majority of examples have to go.

Maybe there should be a tab aptly titled "Works Mistaken for Iyashikei" to make it clear that just because it is an So L story doesn't mean it has all the keystones of what makes it Iyashikei.

I've been working on removing entries that don't fit the trope (like series that are obviously gag series or rom-coms, or deal with serious conflict, and therefore aren't just meant to be "healing"), but yeah, I agree that the page really does need to be cleaned up. Having feel-good vibes sometimes doesn't automatically make a series an iyashikei.

The only one of those I am directly familiar with is Mr. Rogers, and the point of it isn't "healing" so much as "teaching."

"Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood" is an interesting example. It was intended as an educational show, certainly, but a lot of the content focuses on kindness. I think "solving problems through kindness" might be one of the key elements of this trope, and the segment of each episode set in the "Neighborhood of Make Believe" might be a historical precursor to iyashikei https://www.misterrogers.org/articles/the-neighborhood-of-make-believe/ . "The Joy of Painting" might have had this effect for a lot of people, and it includes the idyllic scenery and "happy trees" etc. It would be easy to imagine an anime version following a painter around rural areas who paints and talks like Bob Ross, and that would almost definitely be in the trope. Without the bare minimum of character and plot, I'm not sure it counts. If Great British Bake Off were an anime with fictional characters, it would probably count. I'm less convinced on Marie Kondo, but I guess if you could imagine her show as anime with a character like Belldandy cast in the lead role, you would probably end up with a series like Mushishi but about decluttering... (I'm surprised it hasn't been done yet.) I don't know if they are quite _in_ the trope, but definitely related.

They're still there, just ZCE'd out until someone gives context to them.