March Comes in Like a Lion season 1

Production

All through my watch of this season, I kept thinking, this is an interesting anime to watch. As in to see. The images were great. The art style might not be everyone’s cup of tea. It certainly isn’t exactly the aesthetic that pops into my mind when someone says anime. But it’s a very distinctive style to the point where if you see a character from the show that you’ve never seen before, you’ll know what series they are from even if it’s completely out of context.

Beyond the art style though, March Comes in Like a Lion plays with the images quite a bit. The style changes a few times, or the style itself doesn’t change but the artistic technique does to create striking scenes.

Colours are also used but much more subtlely. Basically, there’s a subtle shift from warm to cold colours depending on the setting. The Kawamoto house being the warmest of course, with a lot of worn wooden accents and warm coloured food often filling scenes. The sisters also tend to dress in warmer shades. Rei’s apartment is the coldest, often shown in shadows that make it look almost black and white. Shimada’s house is in the middle and the shogi hall tends to go from one to the other depending on the situation. This type f colour play really adds a lot to the atmosphere of the series.

I only realized right now that it was made by Shaft and thought, oh that makes sense. Shaft is a studio that likes to use cinematic language and incorporate the visual impact into the narrative itself. No exception here. It’s not only a technically good production but an artistically interesting one.

Story & Characters

I have been meaning to watch March Comes in Like a Lion for a while. A lot of bloggers I enjoy really like this show. And it was pretty much universally praised when it aired. Not just that but the story sounded like something I would like. It gave me Natsume vibes. You guys know I can’t resist Natsume vibes! and like a lot of series I decide I’m going to love, I was a little afraid to start it. It was already this perfect little show in my imagination, why ruin it with reality.

I’m rarely correct in those feelings. Almost always the show is as good or even better than I expected. This is why I’m not an author.

I liked March Comes in Like a Lion. I liked it a lot and I will watch the second season soon. There was a rhythm and sway to the narrative that was both a little clumsy and deeply endearing. I have no doubt it was created on purpose. One of the most interesting and quietly ambitious narrative pacing I have ever seen.

But I didn’t love March Comes in Like a Lion. I almost did.

First let me tell you a weird little thing about myself. I tend to enjoy stories that deal with grief, isolation and loss. As long as they don’t get too dramatic that is. Most of my favourite anime have some or all of these as central themes. However, I’m really not that into stories that deal with depression. And the difference might not be obvious to most. It’s not always obvious to me.

March Comes in Like a Lion is a story about depression. There are themes of grief and loss throughout but right now Rei is drowning and he’s not entirely sure if he wants to try swimming. (I have noticed that water is often associated with depression in anime, I’m not sure if it’s the same in other media. I find it intriguing. Water is everywhere in this show!) And I have to admit, to my untrained eye, March Comes in Like a Lion looks to be a solid and very down-to-earth exploration of this subject matter. I think it could be cathartic for a lot of viewers.

So I recognize what the story was trying to do. I was impressed by it and even enjoyed it at times. But I couldn’t entirely relate to it and it’s just not a theme that usually appeals to me.

Mind you, if it was just that, I would have called March Comes in Like a Lion a fantastic anime that should be watched by all. Some of my contemporaries would heartily agree with this statement.

ED: I’m rereading this as I am formatting it and I think it’s coming off a bit too negative. I really liked March Comes in Like a Lion. I want that come through.

But I also think it overreached in places. There are elements that just don’t work in my opinion. For example, I love Nikaidou, he’s my favourite character in fact. As the series progresses you get glimpses of his backstory and this is one colourful character. But why make him ill, potentially gravely so? His health is mentioned repeatedly but never elaborated on and it never has any impact on the events of the story. It’s just sort of there. Shimada also has poor health but in that case, it’s used to heighten the tension of matches.

OK, I looked it up and Nikaidou is modeled on Satoshi Murayama who had a lot of health struggles in real life. I take it everything back. Best character!

Fine then, instead I’ll tell you the element I really found superfluous: Kyouko. Not Kyouko herself. Just the tortured, oddly suggestive relationship between her and Rei. It took a lot of space in the story all things considered. And I think it detracted rather than added to it. It sort of goes nowhere. I guess you could say the character is used to show just how difficult Rei’s home life was after he got adopted but I don’t think it did. The self-imposed guilt that Rei felt for surpassing all his siblings and even adoptive father in shogi despite not liking the game that much was more than enough to understand his unease. His imposter syndrome was also easy to understand and created tension and drama.

I just don’t think bringing in another character with messy psychological issues was necessary and because there was no way to spend the same amount of time on Kyouko that we did on Rei, to me it felt tacked on and annoying. After the first time we see her, I remember wishing we could get back to the ‘real’ story everytime she was on screen.

It’s as if the author didn’t trust us to see just how dramatic the situation is and started thinking of all the extra ways a little more drama could be injected. Thankfully, it’s not too maudlin in execution.

So at the end of the day, there were a lot of things I liked. I enjoyed seeing Rei develop friendships with the sisters and get his confidence slowly back. I liked that they were two broken families coming together to commiserate instead of some questionable love story. I love Akarii and I think she would be great for Rei but it also would have considerably changed the relationship for something much more cliché. besides, her infatuation with Nikaidou is way more entertaining.

I liked the quiet pace of the show and most of the supporting cast were complete and enjoyable characters. I really liked that Shogi was used as an emotional catalyst. I have a feeling I would have enjoyed the show even more if I understood shogi. I know chess but it’s not the same thing. This said I had a great time watching the competition even if I didn’t really know what was happening.

So at the end of the day, March Comes in Like a Lion is a good show that was almost great for me. I look forward to watching more. Depending on the direction, a second season could quiet all my misgivings.

You might like this anime if:

You like well-crafted explorations of depression.

I save all my screencaps on my Pinterest and you can find more there if you are interested. But I still like to show you a few in the post. If you’re like me, screencaps are something that really helps you decide to watch an anime or not.