LogFAQs > #970213572

BONUS. March Comes in Like a Lion
https://myanimelist.net/anime/31646/3-gatsu_no_Lion
Fall 2016 (22 episodes), Fall 2017 (22 episodes)
My Score: TBA, MAL Score: 8.39/10 S1, 8.94/10 S2
Best Character: Hayashida Takashi
Recommended by: @changmas

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKWqPXkLgzY

Premise: Kiriyama Rei became a professional shogi player in middle school, and now he faces intense pressure to succeed despite his own self-doubts. Luckily, he befriends the Kawamoto family, three sisters who provide an uplifting presence in his life.

The Good: March Comes in Like a Lion is a drama anime about shogi. It mostly follows Rei, exploring his past traumas, his present mindset, and where he hopes to go in the future. I thought he was an interesting character. His family situation forced him to try become independent as soon as possible just so he could escape it. This left him with mental scars, which is an obvious detriment in a mental game like shogi. It often became difficult to watch, but this was still a very realistic depiction of depression. Still, my favorite things about this anime were the lighter parts. The Kawamoto sisters were (usually) happy and fun. My favorite character was still Rei's supportive teacher, Hayashida. He was a good dude, and easily the funniest character. The production values in this were also very high quality, and the animation was relentlessly unique. Even when I didn't enjoy parts of the story, it was at least still visually striking.

The Bad: While I found Rei's inner turmoil interesting and realistic, and the lighter parts with the Kawamoto family were good, there were large sections of this anime that didn't appeal to me at all. I never cared about shogi. I just couldn't follow the flow of the matches. Whether a character won or lost seemed 100% tied to their mental state, so very little effort was spent trying to make the game itself entertaining. I had a similar complaint when I watched The Queen's Gambit awhile back, though, so maybe stories about these kinds of games just aren't my thing. They certainly lack the fun visual element something like Chihayafuru has with the card-smacking!

Other than that, March Comes in Like a Lion was just too dramatic and bleak for me. I really hated Rei's evil stepsister Kyouko, like every time she was onscreen the show became awful. Gotou, her abusive lover, was somehow even worse than she was. Every time they appeared, the Crunchyroll comments would have someone saying "wow, I really sympathize with Kyouko/Gotou now" and... that never happened for me. Everything they did, and everything I learned about them, just made me hate them more. There was also a long plotline in the second season that I can only describe as miserable. Shows like this are why I'm wary of the iyashikei tag on MAL. It's supposed to stand for 'healing', but large parts of this anime hurt me instead.

Overall: I cant claim that March Comes in Like a Lion is a bad anime. The visual flair was great and the writing was clearly intricate and well thought out. Sadly, most of it just didn't appeal to me. I liked Rei, and I enjoyed the uplifting supporting characters like the Kawamotos or his teacher. I never felt invested in the shogi, however, and most of the drama was too much for me. I can see why this would resonate with other people, but it wasn't my thing. Still, I'm glad that I watched it! Thanks for the recommendation, changmas. This will most likely get a low ranking, but it'll be in good company alongside other beloved anime like Violet Evergarden and Sound Euphonium. That whole section of the ranking is full of shows that seemingly everyone loves except for me, so I'm most likely the crazy one.