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@Marcus, I think genre is important, not necessarily for those of us who have already watched a particular show, but for those of us who have yet to watch that show. It helps a lot in determining "Do I want to watch this" (after all, we don't have time to watch every anime).
As for the general topic... It's tricky because Slice of Life doesn't really have an analogue in western cinema or television, and most of are genre labels derive from western cinema.
There is certainly a genre of "Ariaesque" or what I call "mood anime" that channel a very relaxed vibe, I would disagree with tempester about Natsume not being in that genre though. On those criteria that genre would basically be just Aria!
One thing to bear in mind is that almost all the "mood anime" contain elements of the supernatural. Examples of "mood anime" I would say is Mushishi, Natsume Yuujinchou, Aria, Hotarubi no Mori e and certain Ghibli Movies (Most notably My Neighbour Totoro and Spirited Away). They all have a kind of thread linking them, they're all pretty laid back in their pacing and often concern man's experience of the supernatural. Perhaps I would call them "spiritual", but they also often come under slice of life.
There's another group of "setting" anime which you have referred to, which are about a group of people doing not much of anything in a particular place, basically the titles you're referring (though I wouldn't restrict it to schools). I would personally class those under Drama, not necessarily Slice of Life.
When I say Drama I don't mean that they are akin to JDrama or KDrama (though there are plenty of titles which hew very closely to being animated JDrama), but perhaps more akin to western Drama. The Genre that dominates JDrama and KDrama I would instead call "Soap Opera", which is exactly what it is, albeit with an Asian twist.
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