Review:
March Comes in Like a Lion refocuses this week on Rei and we finally learn why he is a shogi player even though he doesn’t seem to like playing much of the time. We already knew Rei had tragic back-story syndrome (a common ailment of anime protagonists) but now we get to see parts of it directly through Rei’s reflections this week and they do quite a good job of making this tragic back story actually emotional rather than just an add on to a fairly generic character. That’s probably the ongoing strength of this series (other than its interesting visual choices). Rei’s character has depth. Not because someone scooped through a list of traits that make characters seem like they have depth but because they’ve actually worked hard to make him a real person where each layer of who he is and how he responds to situations is built on the culmination of previous experiences.While the story aspect of this show still leaves something to be desired, the characterisation has been more than immersive and hopefully can continue.
March Comes in Like a Lion is available on Crunchyroll.