March Comes in Like a Lion

Simple story,but amazing writing,beautiful animations, extraordinary soundtracks,great character developments turns 3-gatsu no lion into something special,like a precious red diamond..

Loved how the writer focused on daily life struggles and depressions,but heartwarming at the same time...

This is a slice of life anime is with themes of sports, romance and comedy. Plot line covers the coming of age tale of a 17 years Shogi (Japanese Chess) player called Rai. As is with most slice of life animation, the storytelling is slow but full of emotions. Besides having a mature story it's got one of the best animation I have come across, it works perfectly with the storytelling, bring out the feelings of the characters. The sound and music are also great and the characters among the most complex ones I have seen in an animation.

As of now I have watched the first two seasons, first season in dubbed and the second in subbed and have loved them both, although I prefer the dubbed version. Really looking forward to see what comes next for Rai.

March comes in like a lion pacing and developing carefully, every move leads to a new consequence. One of the most beautiful exhibition in Sangatsu is a conflict between the security of the sensation of being home, and the personality of Rai himself of going forward endlessly.

Making a truly great slice of life anime is not easy, while other genres like shounen or seinen can rely on action to make their stories more entertaining, the quality of a slice of life show depends almost only on the strength of their characters. Fortunately there are some truly great shows of this genre and March comes in like a lion(which a very bad translation of "3-gatsu no Lion") is definitely one of the best shows of this genre. The first season of the show centers more on it's protagonist which is a 17 year old shogi professional player called Rei Kiriyama. If an anime about shogi might seem like a boring idea don't worry because shogi is only used as a tool to tell the story of Rei and the people around him. This is more a coming of age story that deals with themes like depression and lonelines than just been a show about shogi. The character development of Rei throught both seasons of the show is one of the strongest points of the anime, but is not it's most impressive. This anime shines even more when we get into specific story arcs from other characters which are in my opinion some of the best pieces of storytelling I have ever seen in any anime. The mangaka who created the original story in which this anime is based on has a incredible ability to introduce a new character and immediately give us a reason to care about him/her thanks to the fantastic character development that this mangaka gives to the characters. Apart from the great storytelling and character development that this show has, this anime is very well directed. The themes of show are very well represented thanks to the beautiful art and animation that this show has. The soundtrack is also very appropiate for this type of story. Overall, this a very well directed and very well animated story about people just dealing with their problems and doing their best to continue living. Definitely one of the best slice of life anime ever produced.

I can't preach enough how much this is one of the best character driven stories to be made in the modern era. Part of it is credit of the source material, for sure, the mangaka who made it is extremely sensible and wrote it beautifully. But studio Shaft has shown us how to adapt things well, first with the Monogatari Series and now with Sangatsu no Lion. There's enough good stuff here for me to make a book about every episode, but I must say that one thing in particular just made me lose my marbles, and I'm talking about the last episode from the second season. I won't spoil anything here, so all I can say is: It has the best prologue to a last episode that was ever made. And I'm not exagerating just to create shock value, I genuinely believe it and extend this to any other kind of episodic show, be it anime, live action, series, anything. If, for some reason, you never watched this anime, do it right now. Also, don't think I hyped it too much with all I just said, it will surprise you with everything else before getting there.