The first season of March Comes In like a Lion is 22 episodes long, and is based on the manga series. The anime follows Kiriyama Rei, who is a 17 year old professional shogi player. Don’t expect this anime to be like a one from the sports genre, since it’s more about the emotions of the characters rather than playing shogi itself. Kiriyama, despite being amazing at shogi, has experienced several tragedies in his life and is currently living alone in an apartment.
He was lucky enough to be befriended by Akari, Hina and Momo, who are siblings of the same family. They too, have experienced their fair share of tragedies, and they help look after Kiriyama. It’s a wholesome experience, and is a very nice thing for them to do. The anime shows off a lot of moments where the characters are coming to terms with their loss, and the emotions that’s currently threatening to overwhelm them. It’s meaningful and gives depth to the characters.
The art style is odd though. It aims for the effect of having the background be a different simpler style compared to the character designs. However, it tends to be too blurry / fuzzy and clashes too much, so that it ends up looking odd. You will get used to it but it does strike you, and not in a positive way, at first.
While it never stops the focus on Kiriyama’s personal relationships with others, and how he is slowly growing into adulthood, there will be times where it swaps to his professional job of shogi. While it is beneficial to at least know the basics of shogi, the anime gives you a quick crash course, and it doesn’t get too in-depth with the matches. Sure, there are shots of the characters strategically moving places, and discussion on specific moves, but a non-shogi player doesn’t feel completely left out and the purpose and themes of the scenes is still apparent. It might surprise you though how long some of the shogi matches can go for.
However, it’s definitely Kiriyama’s interactions with others that is the highlight. The sister trio siblings come in and out of focus, but they definitely give the anime a wholesome feel whenever they come back. They shine in all the scenes that they are in, and they are so nice to Kiriyama, genuinely caring and worrying for him that it’s hard to see them in any light other than a positive one. This makes the scenes without him kind of empty at first.
Thankfully, Kiriyama’s sphere of friends or acquaintances soon expand, especially from the shogi side. There’s no sugar coating with some of Kiriyama’s experiences. He faces a lot of people that clearly have issues. He carries some of his own, but it’s like every character has some sort of bad personality traits that manifests from the trauma that they have faced. Some are definitely unhealthy and require help. It’s like the theme of the anime is that there are broken people all around you, but each will find their own way to cope.
It’s also great that despite quickly telling us in the beginning how much of a prodigy Kiriyama is, and all the high expectations, he isn’t an unbeatable opponent. Actually, he seems to often get a slice of humble pie, but what pushes this back into positive territory is how he learns, and how he develops and matures as a result of these losses. As a result, when combined with all his other experiences, the anime is surprisingly engaging.
There are a few elements that aren’t flaws per se, but are distracting nonetheless. As mentioned, Kiriyama doesn’t just indiscriminatory win through every match, and the same goes for his peers and mentors. It swings too far in the other way, where it can become too depressing when you heavily suspect that they will crash into a wall, have to experience a bout of pain or tragedy, before moving forward. Coupled with the supporting characters constantly shifting in and out of focus, and the character arcs can feel incomplete.
Overall, March Comes In like a Lion is an interesting anime. Instead of a hotblooded approach like many sports focused anime, it dials that down and focuses more on the personal relationships of Kiriyama. It’s a story about how he was alone throughout most of his life, and now, thanks to shogi and other unrelated coincidences, he slowly moves on, has friends and peers, and becomes more confident in himself. As a result, the anime feels wholesome and while it can be overly down at times, the positives and seeing Kiriyama grow helps to overcome that.
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