Anime Reviews (2010-2019): March Comes in Like a Lion vol. 3 (a Neo-Tokyo Anime on Blu-ray Review)

If you are looking for a slice-of-life anime series that deals with realistic human emotions and complex relationships, definitely give Umino Chica’s “March Comes in Like a Lion” series a chance! Highly recommended!

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TITLE: March Comes in Like a Lion vol. 3

DURATION: Episodes 23-33 (275 Minutes)

BLU-RAY INFORMATION: 1080p High Definition, English and Japanese Linear PCM Stereo, Subtitles: Japanese and English

COMPANY: Aniplex of America Inc.

RATED: 13 and Up

Release Date: December 18, 2018

NOTE: Names are in first/last name:

Originally Created by Chica Umino

Series Director: Kenjiro Okada

Director: Akiyuki Simbo

Series Composition: Akiyuki Simbo, Fuyashi Tou

Script by Yukito Kizawa

Music by Yukari Hashimoto

Character Design: Nobuhiro Sugiyama

Art Director: Seiki Tamura

Anime Production: SHAFT

Featuring the following voice talent:

Kengo Kawanishi/Khoi Dao as Rei Kiriyama

Ai Kayano/Laura Post as Akari Kawamoto

Akio Ohtsuka/Taylor Henry as Raidō Fujimoto

Akira Ishida/Todd Haberkorn as Tōji Sōya

Daisuke Sakaguchi/Lucien Dodge as Okuyasu Yokomizo

Hiroki Touchi/Ray Chase as Masamune Gotō

Kana Hanazawa/Kayli Mills as Hinata Kawamoto

Kenjiro Tsuda/Kellen Goff as Morio Shigeta

Marina Inoue/Lauren Landa as Kyōko Kōda

Misaki Kuno/Xanthe Huynh as Momo Kawamoto

Mitsuo Iwata/Joe J. Thomas as Manabu Yasui

Nobuhiko Okamoto/Zach Aguilar as Harunobu Nikaidō

Shigeru Chiba as Sōmeiji Kawamoto

Shinichiro Miki/Kirk Thornton as Kai Shimada

Subaru Kimura as Issa Matsumoto

Takahiro Sakurai as Takashi Hayashida

Tesshō Genda as Takanori Jingūji (Japan Shogi League President)

Tomokazu Sugita/Keith Silverstein as Tatsuyuki Misumi

Toru Ohkawa/Cam Clarke as Masachika Kōda

Yōji Ueda/Doug Stone as Hanaoka

Yoshimasa Hosoya/Chris Hackney as Yūsuke Takahashi

Yūichi Nakamura/Xander Mobus as Takeshi Tsujii

Yūji Ueda/Arnie Pantoja as Eisaku Noguchi

From Chica Umino, the author of Honey & Clover, comes the award-winning coming-of-age manga about a shogi player and the meaning of family. March comes in like a lion returns to life in full animation for a second season by director Akiyuki Shimbou (Puella Magi Madoka Magica, the Monogatari series)!

Rei Kiriyama, 18 years old. Occupation: Professional shogi player. After losing his family at a young age, all Rei had growing up was a shogi board to cling to. The three sisters Akari, Hinata and Momo were the ones to gradually bring light back into his life. When Rei learns that Hinata has become the target of bullying at school, he desperately searches for ways to protect what is important to him.

Mangaka Umino Chica is best known for her award-winning manga series “Honey and Clover”, which was adapted into an anime and live-action film.

Umino would followup with “Sangatsu no Raion” (March Comes in like a Lion), an ongoing manga series which began in 2007 and serialized in “Young Animal” and a total of 12 manga volumes have since been published.

In 2016, an anime series adaptation was produced by Shaft and a second season completed at the end of 2017. A two-part live-action film adaptation was released in March and April 2017 and now the third volume (featuring episodes 23-33) of Umino’s anime series will be released in America on Blu-ray and DVD courtesy of Aniplex of America, Inc.

The series revolves around a 17-year-old professional shogi player named Rei Kirayama.

Shogi is a Japanese version of chess and is a two-player strategy board game which originated in India back in the 6th century and tournaments are held in Japan and the best players compete professionally.

Rei is a loner and often retreated to his room and the only thing he knew in his life was shogi. Often bullied throughout his life and at a young age, his parents and younger sister were killed in a car accident. Because he was good at shogi, he was taken adopted by his father’s friend and shogi rival, Koda and would become his apprentice in shogi.

Because Koda put a lot of interested in Rei, he often was hard on his own two kids who were trying to be great shogi players to gain favor with their father but because they were not as good as Rei, he was often bullied and beaten by his older step sister Kyoko.

Because of the abuse at home, Rei left home early to become a professional shogi player, quitting school and trying to live life alone. But unfortunately things didn’t go well for Rei and one day, he was found abandoned and sick by a young woman named Akari Kawamoto.

Akari is the eldest of three sisters and lives in Sangatsu-cho (March Town) and raises her two younger sisters after their mother died. She often helps her elder grandfather run a traditional wagashi (Japanese confectionery) shop and in the evening, works as a hostess at a bar in Ginza.

Akari and her two sisters, middle school student Hinata and preschool student Momo care about Rei like a family member and often are concerned about him.

But for Rei, while he was considered a shogi prodigy, he has lost two matches and on the brink of being demoted. And now he must take on a variety of people including Harunobu Nikaido, a wealthy shogi player who considers Rei his best-friend and lifelong rival.

But as Rei lives in darkness, not knowing what is out there in life if he loses in shogi, will that mean there is nothing left in life for him?

The people he comes in contact with will play a big part in trying to show Rei that he is not alone but will he open his eyes to the people around him and show that there is so much more to his life and how he has made an impact on the people around him?

In volume 3, As Rei tries to find inspiration, as many chess players are hoping he could find that passion to win again in Shogi. But things hit closer to Rei’s heart when middle sister, Kawamoto Hina becomes the target of bullying of the people at school, after defending her friend who was severely bullied for years.

Rei is determined of winning in chess to find a way to have his winnings benefit Hina, as he feels that Hina did so much to help bring him back to life and wants to repay her back.

VIDEO:

“March Comes in Like a Lion” is presented in 1080p High Definition. SHAFT did a wonderful job with this anime series and immediately, you can see, by watching the anime series is how the brought Chica Umino’s characters to life with this anime series. The character designs and art backgrounds are colorful, vibrant and look great in HD!

I didn’t notice any banding or artifact issues while watching this series.

AUDIO & SUBTITLES:

The lossless soundtrack for “March Comes in Like a Lion” is presented in Japanese and English Linear PCM. The lossless audio features crystal clear dialogue and both soundtracks are well-acted.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

“March Comes in Like a Lion” vol. 3 comes with a Textless Opening & Ending and second season commercials.

EXTRAS:

“March Comes in Like a Lion” vol. 3 comes with a 38-page Production Note vol. 3 deluxe booklet with end card illustrations and a rigid box with package illustrated by Sugiyama Nobuhiro.

I was a huge fan of Umino Chica’s “Honey and Clover”, which was more or less a slice-of-life manga series that focused on art school students and complex relationships.

The same thing could be said about Umino’s “March Comes in Like a Lion” which focuses on a 17-year-old professional shogi player named Rei, who has gone through a lot of tragedy and abuse in his life that his only solace in life is playing shogi and coming home alone, so he would no longer be hurt.

And he left home with his adoptive family to escape abuse (from his older step-sister) to focus on becoming a professional shogi player and quitting school in order to live on his own.

Unfortunately, life is not going easy for Rei, once called a shogi prodigy, he has lost a few matches and any more losses will lead to a demotion and it would take years to build his rank back up.

And because he has known nothing in life but shogi, the depression is setting upon him. He has lived through so many terrible things in life, with the death of his parents and younger sister, relatives not watching to keep him and the only person willing to take him in is his father’s shogi rival and friend Koda.

Leaving home and moving to Sangatsu-cho (March Town) has given him his own freedom but Rei has not had many social relationships and the depression and pain he harbors is still within him but that has all changed when he met the Kawamoto family, which consists of Akari, Hinata and Momo, who took him in like a family member and often invite him to their home, despite eldest Akari often having to take care of the family with the money she makes working at her grandfather’s confectionery shop and a hostess job in Ginza.

But the Kawamoto sisters care for Rei and when they saw him sleeping with his glasses with tears in his eyes, the sisters are not aware of what kind of pain he has gone through but want to be there for him.

Wanting to take his shogi career seriously but having to confront his emotional challenges, especially involving his sister who has always treated him badly and a rotten boyfriend who happens to also be professional shogi player.

And part of the challenge of watching this first season is just when you think Rei willl be fine, something happens that sends him crumbling down to the bottom and he feels there is no light for him. But the good news is that these episodes show a lot of self-reflection, especially Rei’s dysfunctional family and trying to move on.

Continuing with the second season, vol. 3 focuses on Kawamoto Hinata who has become the targeting of bullying after her friend Chiho, who has bared intense bullying is forced to leave school. When the bullies try to act stupid of why she was forced out, Hinata, who has held her emotions in, lashes out at the bullies. But doing so, has now made her the #1 target of the bullies.

For Rei, seeing a distraught Hinata makes him hurt, because he cares for Hinata and her family but most importantly, how that family saved him from despair and how they took him in, he feels he wants to repay his debt.

This has ignited the passion for Rei of winning Shogi again and wanting to become the rookie king.

This latest part of the series was no doubt emotional and dramatic, especially for anyone who has faced any type of bullying. To see the cheerful Hinata, depressed and crying no doubt makes this arc of episodes heartbreaking. But this series has always provided a glimpse of hope and for Rei, to see him grow and others around him grow, no matter how much pain they go through makes this series give viewers that hope that no matter how bad things get, things eventually get better.

“March Comes in Like a Lion” is a fantastic series that manages to capture human emotion, where “Honey and Clover” tend to focus on love triangles, problematic relationships and graduation and employment angst, this series focuses on shogi, which is usually rare in manga or anime series. But also focuses on complex relationships, good and bad. And also a bit of mental health and a main character dealing with anxiety and depression.

Umino has done a great job with character development and series director Okada Kenjiro, director Simbo Akiyuki and writers Simbo and Tou Fuyashi have done a great job in adaptating Umino’s manga to an anime series. Everything is on-point with is pacing and the character designs and background art are absolutely beautiful to look at.

The Blu-ray is vibrant in HD and the lossless soundtrack features crystal clear dialogue and music. Both Japanese and English dub soundtracks are well-acted. As for special features, there aren’t many aside from the textless opening and ending, commercials and trailers. And as one can expect from Aniplex, you get a deluxe booklet including end card illustrations and packaging illustration by Nobuhiro Sugiyama.

Overall, as an Umino fan, I may be biased towards her work but she’s such a good artist and storyteller that SHAFT has done a great job of giving her series an anime adaptation that focuses on wonderful storytelling, artwork and voice acting.

Highly recommended!

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