This is my favourite anime to date, and I fear I won't find another like this for a long time. March Comes in Like a Lion is the story of Rei and his journey of self. Rei is a 17 year old professional Shogi player [think Japanese chess] His family died when he was a child, and he was adopted by his fathers friend, a professional shogi player. Feeling he owed the man a debt, he did everything
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This is my favourite anime to date, and I fear I won't find another like this for a long time. March Comes in Like a Lion is the story of Rei and his journey of self. Rei is a 17 year old professional Shogi player [think Japanese chess] His family died when he was a child, and he was adopted by his fathers friend, a professional shogi player. Feeling he owed the man a debt, he did everything possible to become an expert in shogi, sadly, this resulted in the mans biological kids being heartbroken they could not make their father proud and hating Rei for it. As a result, Rei moved out on his own at 17, feeling he ruins lives, hating himself, feeling worthless and a burden to all.
Enter the sisters Akari, Hina, and Momo. Akari finds Rei one evening drunk, injured, and abandoned [how he came to this state is explained later on] She takes him home and nurses him back to health. From this point on Rei has become part of the family. Sadly, everyone has problems, Rei is haunted by his past, both mentally, and physically when his adopted sister starts to hound him and hit his pain points, doubting himself. This whole story is about Rei overcoming his [undiagnosed] depression, and finding his place in the world. He is surrounded by colourful, happy people, and he is the quiet observer, feeling out of place in the sea of smiles. Any who has dealt with depression can relate to Rei's view of the world.
The other thing this series does well is fleshing out characters. No one is simply a 'monster of the week'. Everyone gets some time in the spotlight to show their story. The jerk is actually stressed, the joker is sick, everyone has a secondary story. This is what makes the highs so high and the lows so low. You feel connected to them, you want them to be happy. Sadly life isn't always sunshine. Without the rain there can be no rainbow, and that's this series. It's beautiful, and I love every second of it.
Do I have complaints about the series? It had to end, does that count? I will say season 2 had a bit of a cut in the art department. Season one is a living water colour, and while season two is still beautiful, you can see the cracks, the lines aren't as crisp. I also felt a little disappointed by some resolutions we got in season two. The biggest one I remember being what happened to the sisters father. They suffered the loss of their mother and grandmother which they still hurt from, and it's hinted at they have issues with their father, but what happened to him? Well we find out and I was hoping for more. Say, more than a sentence and never mentioned again? Yeah, that bugged me, all that build up for essentially a shrug. However, these are nitpicks. The series is calm, fun, funny, exciting, and tragic all in it's own time. It's the perfect slice of life series. Anyone who loves slice of life will love this... Or if you own a cat. Seriously, if you can can find a 'best of the cats' you have got to see it.
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