3-gatsu no Lion

Having reached professional status in middle school, Rei Kiriyama is one of the few elite in the world of shogi. Due to this, he faces an enormous amount of pressure, both from the shogi community and his adoptive family. Seeking independence from his tense home life, he moves into an apartment in Tokyo. As a 17-year-old living on his own, Rei tends to take poor care of himself, and his reclusive personality ostracizes him from his peers in school and at the shogi hall.

However, not long after his arrival in Tokyo, Rei meets Akari, Hinata, and Momo Kawamoto, a trio of sisters living with their grandfather who owns a traditional wagashi shop. Akari, the oldest of the three girls, is determined to combat Rei's loneliness and poorly sustained lifestyle with motherly hospitality. The Kawamoto sisters, coping with past tragedies, also share with Rei a unique familial bond that he has lacked for most of his life. As he struggles to maintain himself physically and mentally through his shogi career, Rei must learn how to interact with others and understand his own complex emotions.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Kiriyama, Rei Main

Kawanishi, Kengo Japanese

Kawamoto, Hinata Main

Hanazawa, Kana Japanese

Kawamoto, Akari Main

Kayano, Ai Japanese

Kawamoto, Momo Main

Kuno, Misaki Japanese

Shimada, Kai Supporting

Miki, Shinichiro Japanese

Nikaidou, Harunobu Supporting

Okamoto, Nobuhiko Japanese

Hayashida, Takashi Supporting

Sakurai, Takahiro Japanese

Kouda, Kyouko Supporting

Inoue, Marina Japanese

Souya, Touji Supporting

Ishida, Akira Japanese

Noguchi, Eisaku Supporting

Ueda, Yuuji Japanese

Yodo, Akiko Producer

Nojima, Masahiro Producer

Fukino, Fuminari Producer

Ooshima, Miku Assistant Producer

Reviews

Jan 2, 2025

Kranst

Recommended

The first season of March Comes In Like a Lion weaves a heartfelt story of interpersonal connection and emotional struggles through the lens of a misplaced Shogi player. Choice language and expressions accompanied by a delightfully crafted production give breath to relatable and thought-provoking concepts, and the themes explored resonate with the audience regardless of their familiarity with the game. This series feels reminiscent of the visualization one creates when reading a novel. It is equal parts disheartening and uplifting, but outright beautiful in the message it conveys: Our life is often turbulent, but moments of calm certainly will come. Everyone has somewhere they belong.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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May 25, 2024

Peyta12

Mixed Feelings

March Comes in Like a Lion is a frustrating show that often sacrifices it's plot and impact for comedy with no relevant audience. It demonstrates an above average ability to write complex characters and emotional struggles, however uses it so little that it calls into question who the target demographic even is. The comedy seems written for nobody older than 12 but the weight and subject matter of the drama falls much more into the seinen category it is marked as. The music is perfectly adequate for the show and the OPs and EDs are very good, both in tone and overall quality. It also ... has Studio Shaft's trademark directing, which is personally jarring with its erratic jumps and framing, but this is far more of a subjective comment. The art style is also unique, but is not inherently bad, and everything is well animated enough that there isn't anything to complain about.

Overall, March Comes in Like a Lion is inconsistent in its quality where the good parts are very good, but there are so few of them that by the time they come around, you are so withdrawn from the show that they barely have any impact.

Score: 6/10

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Aug 25, 2024

perennial_suit

Not Recommended

Loved "Honey and Clover", Hated This!

I simply did not enjoy 3-gatsu no Lion. It had a great premise and a great potential. There are some nice moments and arcs, I really enjoyed a couple of episodes. But I had to really force myself to push through the rest of them. I would say there are 5 major reasons why this show fails for me:
1) The story has a nice premise, but major themes and characters remain somewhat underdeveloped and unexplored. The pacing is weird and I didn't find it enjoyable.
2) Too much obnoxious humor and gags that I did not find funny at all. And ... when I say too much I mean TOO MUCH.
3) The Shogi aspect of the show made it totally boring and unrelatable to me. It's simply hard to pay attention to characters obsessing over something you simply do not care about in the slightest.
4) Total lack of a romantic love aspect. The MC does not even express any romantic feelings in any way and does not reflect on love, at least not that I remember. Yet, this is a big part of adolescence for most people. So I find this puzzling. Again, it wouldn't be a problem if the show had more substance over unfunny humor and wasn't overfocused on the whole shogi thing. I think a romance could possibly, just possibly somewhat save this show for me. 'Soredemo Ayumu wa Yosetekuru' was pretty much focused on shogi too, but it didn't feel like a drag because it didn't suffer from the issues that plague 3-gatsu no Lion and had a romance that most people could relate to to keep the viewer engaged.
5) Music and atmosphere: not bad, but not memorable or special at all. It's average.

Overall I say that 3-gatsu no Lion is a major let down for me. I went in with high expectations, given how much people had praised this show. But why, exactly? A lot of them seem to like it mainly because they can "relate" to the MC who is struggling with anxiety, depression and trauma. But is this really enough to call this show a masterpiece? I guess it is enjoyable if you like the humor, the way they integrated the shogi theme and the pacing. But I didn't and I would not recommend watching this show, from my perspective. There are a few meaningful momenst that are overshadowed by lots of bad stuff. I think it just wasn't worth it for me. But I would recommend watching 5 or 6 episodes to see if you like it. If you don't - I doubt it will get better for you and I doubt anything of value will be lost for you.

After I ended up disappointed with 3-gatsu no Lion I went on to watch 'Honey and Clover', also a work of Chica Umino. I found it to be a solid work of perfection. It succeeds at everything that 3-gatsu no Lion fails at: creating strong characters and showing powerful character development, creating a great atmosphere with an amazing soundtrack, making the pacing enjoyable and finally at creating a truly deep reflection on life and its meaning. Indeed, 3-gatsu no Lion failed at everything that Honey and Clover did so perfectly. Sad!

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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