3-gatsu no Lion 2nd Season

If you thought that the Shogi in season 1 was boring but stuck it out anyway for the melodrama then you are in luck!
For many people season 1 was good and season 2 only gets better. And if you thought that the best part of the show was the MC's inner turmoil then by all means this second season won't let you down! As long as you weren't too attached to Kiriyama Rei that is. We kind of left him behind to pursue other crestfallen and overly dramatic heroes. If you think questions like ... "show me the proof" should be followed by 3 full minutes of internal dialogue as a black haze surrounds the horror-struck listener, then it doesn't get better than this!
If you are only in it for the art, be not afraid. They didn't suddenly fire their art team and higher the guy who did Pingpong!
As far as I am concerned, however, this show is a far cry from its predecessor. The plot is a rehashing of the MC's struggle in season 1 but in a MUCH less interesting setting with much less interesting characters. There are entire episodes in which Kiriyama does not appear, because he simply plays no significant role in the plot. The story of the young, struggling, prodigy shogi player stagnates and falls by the wayside. The story of a person battling their inner demons lives on, growing increasingly mawkish to the point that Season 2 is almost a parody of season 1. I had expectations that the story would have to change to move on with Kiriyama. I never imagined that instead the story could remain the same and it is Kiriyama who has been left behind.

All fart no shit.

After finishing season 1 I was very excited to watch season 2 and after finishing it, I am more than a little disappointed. Writing one of the most negative reviews for this anime brings me no pleasure, but I really wanted to put into words why this left me feeling so disappointed.

The first season set up a lot of different interesting things that do not get pay off here. A big part of season 1 is Rei's foster sister Kyouko, who fell for a man the same age as her father because she felt that Rei replaced her, leaving her feeling ... sort of obsolete to her father. Also it is implied that Kyouko sexually assaulted Rei when they were younger. Nothing is done with this in season 2. Akari at 19 years old had watched her mother die, her dad leave, and she was then responsible for raising her younger sisters. Nothing is done with this in season 2.

It is incredibly frustrating to me how little development or new information there is in this season. I was really looking forward to seeing more of Rei and Kyouko's relationship, but it is as if she never even existed. If I was not supposed to care about her then why spend a few episodes in the first season making me care? I really do not understand this. I'm assuming this is addressed later in the manga, but Kyouko deserves more screen time. Ignoring her until she is maybe needed for some future episodes is not OK. Her story hasn't moved forward at all this season.

Then there is what the show did with Akari. Nothing. A 19 year old who is forced to raise 2 kids is not worth exploring apparently. A third season could explore her character more, but currently with 44 episodes out there just isn't enough to her character. She is a single parent who cares deeply about her family and is also working to support them financially. She never complains and is completely selfless. Her character is not believable. I need to know how she got to where she is, and what sacrifices she has made in her life, simply hinting towards it isn't enough for me. If she has accepted that she is a single parent and needs to dedicate a large part of her life to that, show her making that decision. She must have gone through a lot, and I want to see it. We know hardly anything about her. Also it is impossible for a single parent with a job to cook the meals Akari cooks and not be incredibly stressed and/or tired.

If you were to add up all the scenes of characters cooking or eating with nothing important to the overall plot happening, it would probably be over an hour of footage. Most of what the sisters seem to do is cook and eat food. If you do not enjoy watching people eat food then this anime will be boring for a lot of its runtime. After really enjoying season 1 I was fast forwarding through some scenes in this, which made me feel sad. And does anyone really want to watch two old men argue about some shit that is unimportant to anything else happening in the series? Far too many scenes with old men being boring.

Rei seems happier in this season than the previous, but it doesn't feel logical. Previous plot points that would require Rei to change as a person to resolve are simply ignored so Rei can move forward. He mentions he doesn't have the confidence to phone his sister, and then it is never mentioned again. There is no substance to anything. His relationships with people need to be in a different place at the end of a season than to the start otherwise what was the point? The only character he connects with in any meaningful way is Hina.

The main plot of this season revolved around bullying. A serious topic and the anime does treat it as serious, showing how it affects children's lives. This is easily the strongest part of this season. Hina is bullied and it mirrors Rei's time in school when he was bullied and all alone. The difference this time though is that Hina is not alone, because she has Rei to help her. He wants to save her from what he had to go through. His motivation is clear and his actions (mostly) make sense. The resolution of the bullying would have happened if Rei was not even there and he himself knows this. However the support he offered to Hina helped her get through it and is reason for him to be proud. It was frustrating then when he felt like he did nothing; this could have been a turning point for Rei where he gains confidence and has reason to like himself more, but the anime hurries onto the next thing. On the topic of Rei and Hina, he is 18, and she is 13. Rei's teacher thinks he's in love with her and encourages him. He is 18. She is 13. Bad teacher!

To conclude my thoughts on this season, I am quite upset to write that I disliked it. There were individual moments that were good, but the anime lacked focus. After the first season I was ready to recommend 3-gatsu to a friend, but now I am not going to (if a third season comes out and is as good as the first then this will change). I went through all the episodes in a short amount of time and honestly feel like it was a waste of time. It is possible that a third season could fix the problems I have with this show and focus more on interesting character development, and I really hope a third season does happen. A lot of people seem to love this series and me not enjoying it doesn't mean I want others to not enjoy it. I honestly tried to enjoy this, but I was left wanting a lot more.

Thank you for reading this review.

The second season is so boring, it shows a lot of not usefull stuff from kawamoto's family, and it gets really anoying as the anime goes. When I saw the first season, I got super interested on Kyouko, Nikaidou, Shimada and Souya, but they barely appear on the this season, instead, there are a lot of scenes of Akari cooking, I mean, not intersting at all.
They even added a scene of Rei and Souya playing so we could kill our curiosity, but it feels like they just gave up on creating an end for Rei's history, when it felt like we would ... be able to see changes on the shogi scenery on season 1, all the characters kept loosing and the only character who don't keep being a looser is the anoying Hinata, why are there so many episodes for this average character?????? I just started jumping all the scenes where she apeared till the end of the anime. It was a bad experience

*Potential spoilers for Oyasumi Punpun

I once heard a saying that life is 90% shit and 10% good. I thought it was one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever heard because at least you know there is at least 10% good to look forward to if nothing else. Being able to capture that little feeling of hope in a story is what makes or breaks most drama series

3-gatsu no Lion is yet another entry into the sad boi genre but this time with 99.7% more shogi.

I would classify the first season of 3-gatsu ... no Lion as a drama with slice of life elements. The opening scene has become something of a legend. We see the main character, Rei, slowly wake up and get out of bed as he starts his day. With just a few beautiful shots the viewer already understands that Rei has probably done this countless times, each time just as lost and without purpose. It is clear he is someone who has experienced pain and tragedy. This excellent story telling last for about all of five minutes before subtly is thrown out the window and is replaced with a million slow pans and grimacing face shots every time someone so much as says “hi”. At this point my PTSD was acting up as every series that focuses on depression flashed through my mind. I wondering when Rei was going to refuse to get into the robot and thought it was just a matter of time before he was going to go jerk off into the river by his house. Fortunately the direction changes, unfortunately that direction still isn’t spectacular.

I would classify the second season of 3-gatsu no Lion as a slice of life with drama elements. Rei's depression is healed for the most the part and I guess the story is over but it isn't. Instead, scenes of Rei moping about is changed to more scenes of food and other uneventful things. Much like every other slice of life there’s a lot of pointless bullshit, sometimes it works but most of the time you just want to kill yourself. Seeing Akari and Hina enamored with food is cute, but so are cat videos on Youtube and they take up much less of my precious time. At this point in the story I was only invested in seeing Rei's journey to be a shogi master given that is the only thing providing a sense of progression, however painfully slow it may be.

The tonal shifts between seasons leave me wanting. While it could be written off as Rei's journey I find that his transition from someone who was in such a dark place to someone who is partaking in high school club shenanigans is quite jarring. I don’t think it’s a problem with the tone being inconsistent per se but more so how fast it all happens with what little we’re given. While the second season tried to have some darker moments with the bullying arc it didn’t really work for me. It felt over the top, not necessarily impossible but just improbable given the lack of depth the situation had as a whole. We only know Chiho for about an episode before she is hospitalized for bullying? The teacher has a mental break down because all of the bullying situations over the years have caused her anxiety? Takagi’s reason for being a bully is because she is anxious about her future? For how dramatic everything was it needed to have a good sell and I just didn’t see it. In that sense I feel the first season had much more impact.

Despite the second season falling short in terms of the drama, it also focused more on the aspects of the series I enjoyed the most and that’s the backstory of all the shogi players and the psychology of the matches. Each and every player has their reasons for playing and their own demons to conquer. Though some of these could be considered a little cliché, I find it matches the tone the story has which tends be a little grand. I mean, I felt like some of these characters would literally die during the shogi matches the way they talk and act. I think the competitive aspect appealed to me because I use to play TCGs competitively back in the day and a lot of the psychology of winning, losing, and etc. is spot on in those environments. It's a long and dark road, and if you ever want to see the worst humanity has to offer just go to a Yu-Gi-Oh! tournament. That all being said, I'd say I prefer the second season as a whole.

Overall 3-gatsu no Lion is a very interesting case. It falls into the pitfalls of both of its genres but they also kind of cancel each other out and then create new problems. The story plays it close to the line with their focus on Rei's angst, but the slice of life non-sense they shift to doesn't thrill me either. The story in general can't make up its mind, as it can be very realistic one moment, then go full anime the next. Through out this there are moments I like of course, but that’s just it- I felt like I was waiting for moments instead of enjoying the series as a whole. As for what those moments ultimately count for, I’d guess I’d say 3-gatsu no Lion is about 60% shit and 40% Akari.