If you are looking for a slice-of-life anime series that deals with realistic human emotions and complex relationships, definitely give “March Comes in Like a Lion” volume 1 and 2 a chance! Recommended!
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TITLE: March Comes in Like a Lion vol. 2
DURATION: Episodes 12-22 (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: April 10, 2018
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 RaidÅ Fujimoto
Akira Ishida/Todd Haberkorn as TÅji SÅya
Daisuke Sakaguchi/Lucien Dodge as Okuyasu Yokomizo
Hiroki Touchi/Ray Chase as Masamune GotÅ
Kana Hanazawa/Kayli Mills as Hinata Kawamoto
Kenjiro Tsuda/Kellen Goff as Morio Shigeta
Marina Inoue/Lauren Landa as KyÅko KÅda
Misaki Kuno/Xanthe Huynh as Momo Kawamoto
Mitsuo Iwata/Joe J. Thomas as Manabu Yasui
Nobuhiko Okamoto/Zach Aguilar as Harunobu NikaidÅ
Shigeru Chiba as SÅmeiji Kawamoto
Shinichiro Miki/Kirk Thornton as Kai Shimada
Subaru Kimura as Issa Matsumoto
Takahiro Sakurai as Takashi Hayashida
TesshŠGenda as Takanori Jingūji (Japan Shogi League President)
Tomokazu Sugita/Keith Silverstein as Tatsuyuki Misumi
Toru Ohkawa/Cam Clarke as Masachika KÅda
YÅji Ueda/Doug Stone as Hanaoka
Yoshimasa Hosoya/Chris Hackney as YÅ«suke Takahashi
YÅ«ichi Nakamura/Xander Mobus as Takeshi Tsujii
YÅ«ji 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—now brought to life in full animation for the first time by director Akiyuki Shimbou (Puella Magi Madoka Magica, the Monogatari series)!
Rei Kiriyama is a seventeen year old professional shogi player. Among the youngest in history to go pro, he has many expectations for the future, yet his recent separation from his foster family has left him conflicted and his career has stagnated. However, after meeting a family of three sisters, color slowly returns to his life.
Mangaka Chica Umino 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 first season 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?
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. 2 comes with a Textless Opening & Ending, nine “Moving Meow Shogi” Specials and second series announcement video.
EXTRAS:
“March Comes in Like a Lion” vol. 2 comes with a 40-page Production Note vol. 2 deluxe booklet and a rigid box with package illustrated by Nobuhiro Sugiyama.
I was a huge fan of Chica Umino’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.
This second part of the first season starts to show us growth for Rei.
Wanting to take his shogi career seriously but having to confront his emotional challenges, especially involving his sister. And now trying to get ready for the Lion King Tournament and Rei preparing against his match with his sister’s boyfriend, Gotou but also being a bit overconfident prior to his match with Shimada.
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.
In fact, his sister Kyouko plays a role in the second half of the first season, as Rei is forced to confront his sister more times than he would probably have liked, but at the same time, no matter how difficult things are, he manages to learn more about himself and also his sister and also his step-father.
The series also allows us to learn more about Shimada. In fact, Shimada’s character becomes more pronounced and utilized through this second half that he no doubt starts to become a wonderful supporting character to the point that several episodes were dedicated to showcase him.
The first season of “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 Kenjiro Okada, director Akiyuki Simbo and writers Simbou and Fuyashi Tou 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, commercial, trailers plus a “Meow Shogi Song” and “Moving Meow Shogi” Special. 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.
If you are looking for a slice-of-life anime series that deals with realistic human emotions and complex relationships, definitely give “March Comes in Like a Lion” volume 1 and 2 a chance! Recommended!
