For an anime to be worth 10 ratings for people reading your review, you have to get that nostalgic feel or be in that anime trance for a week, it should be as if the scene were replaying over and over before your eyes.
But guess what?, I forgot the feeling just after a few hours of watching it.
An anime can be praised for its Art, music, and character development, but at that end of the day what you need is to watch a story and be able to tell damn, I felt connected and stay in that story for a long time.
So how did this anime get such high ratings and top reviews? Well 'March comes in like a lion' has 22 episodes and is a Slice of life (SOL), So most chances of people watching season 2 are due to the appreciation it received from season 1. i.e, mainly fans of this series watch it hence the final result is the rating you see and most of the 10 rated reviews are those which are written because of the last 4 episodes, damn they are too good, but that doesn't mean you have to sit for 16-18 episodes of normal everyday life to get that smiling conclusion. Well, I am not saying that it is overrated, I am just cautioning you to not get deceived by them.
This is actually too much into a "Slice of life" (SOL) that it wouldn't give you any lesson or knowledge which you might be expecting in a SOL or in an anime.To be honest this is just way perfect SOL, without much melodrama but more into daily life activity which might or might not be interesting.
To all those who haven't watched the season 1, if you are a fan of SOL type of anime then this is the best thing for you or else if you are trying to adjust watching this due to its rating then I am sure you might be disappointed and left with regret. Just watch it like an another SOL, then it's better and you might even be a fan.
I'll stop the commenting here about the overall series, I hope I lowered your hype levels, the following review is based on the idea that you have already watched season 1 : (If you need REVIEW ON SEASON 1 then I'm writing it under the heading "FAQs", look for it below)
PLOT:
The story continues from where it stopped in season 1, i.e., from the formation of the Shogi science club and the normal everyday life of Rei begins, as usual, going to school, playing shogi etc.
This season is divided into 4 major Arcs: Bullying Arc, Souya Arc, 'Match b/w shimada and Sakutarou Yanagihara' Arc and finally, 'Hinata's future after middle school' Arc followed by the conclusive ending.
This story is made as if all the problems in the world come only to these people surrounding Rei...as you know shimada in season 1 with stomachaches, Nikaidou with anemia, Hinata with bullying, and then there is Souya and Sakutarou which I won't spoil. It makes you feel irritated at some point actually but somehow the writer tries to compensate the feeling in later episodes by either giving unexpected or a satisfying conclusion to the Arc.
This might be the experience you might have with the series, so that reading this will help you get a better idea of what I meant from the sentences used at the beginning of the review: (I've put the arcs in such a way not to spoil you, as a matter of fact there is nothing to spoil in a SOL of this kind)
Coming to the 1st Arc:
It was able to portray bullying in the best possible way unlike any other anime, which only show up to what child experiences but not what parents face. Here Hinata gets bullied, but the problem was, I was feeling most of the time," why isn't it over yet, dammit why is he dragging so long, I need to know what happens in the future", the reason I felt is because of the pacing, it was too damn slow, watching Hinata in such situation was unbearable, the story neither was fully concentrating on bullying nor on shogi matches...it was felt half hearted as if the episodes were put just to show a script rather than creating an impact (earlier episodes). but later, the feeling is compensated a little by giving a good conclusion.
2nd Arc:
This is my favorite Arc of all the Arcs, which really concentrated on Rei's Shogi skills and mainly creating that exciting environment before a match begins, It also gives you more information on the Walking devil or Shogi playing Machine, the lookalike of Rei:- Meijin Souya
3rd Arc:
This Arc is a match between Sakutarou and our beloved Shimada, Well It’s another match between two people who aren't the main characters, between an old man defending his title and a promising new generation genius. This is also another dragging story, with repetitive flashback scenes which are kinda irritating.
Well I know a little about the feeling of players of mind games, since I am a chess player myself, to be honest the things shown here, like the thought process behind players especially in Sakutarou's case, it was meant to create emotional connection with the story...but in reality, you would be actually thinking about what the next moves are gonna be and mostly have a feeling that you shouldn't be losing the game... because, the amount of mental strain is too much for you to think about what your "friend said". There is absolutely no chance for you to remember his words and reminisce because if you are losing a match, your brain would be really depressed cutting off such thoughts, it would try to either fight back or give up.
And 4th Arc:
This arc is another boring or routine story which you see almost in every Slice of life stories where it's the end of the school and time to move on...
and finally, there comes the perfect ending which is made with all the best soundtracks and colorful Art, they are able to hold both the fan-base, the haters back which resulted in 9 and 10 rated reviews.
Yeah and I almost forgot!!! The Jokes are the same usual lame dumb ones with 'squeal' and 'swish' character sounds, but you really need them because they are the ones which seem to relax our brains after such mindscrewing sad scenes. The jokes made in the 22nd episode were the only ones which made me laugh truly.
Characters:
Rei: He seems more mature and responsible and is helpful instead of being a crybaby. This series is not about him or his past, I can guarantee you that.
Hinata: Well she is a really cute and a good person, to be honest, I kinda like her attitude of helping others and sharing your problems with family rather than shutting yourself which is the best thing you can learn from this anime.
Rest all characters aren't focused much or I don't feel the necessity to mention them, I wish there was more Shimada's or Nikaidou's character development, but unnecessary time was wasted on side characters like Yamazaki Junkei's lifestyle etc.
At many instances in the series, we are suddenly in the middle of a conversations of characters and you wouldn’t know how came to be in that situation. I know, it was meant to cut short the time but it didn’t seem to give the full impact of the situation.
Art:
The Art is in its peak form, it is really way better than the season 1, the 3 sisters who take care of Rei are cute as ever and the scenarios are beautifully drawn, I fell in love with the city lights in background and moonlight which are better colored and drawn.
Soundtrack:
This time the soundtracks weren't that great, I mean most of the scenes were sad ones so yeah there were mostly normal melancholy guitar and violin with a mix of flute music. But in the last 4 episodes, we get to hear the beautiful soundtracks which are famous in season 1. The openings and endings songs aren't that good when compared to season 1, but were kinda normal to hear, only the 2nd ending song seemed good with the piano intro.
Overall:
Yeah, it may be a Masterpiece of great Art and well-written psychology of people and their reactions to the situation, but for a normal general audience like me, we can't get the true essence from one sitting, nor do we have time to re-watch it either cos It has 22 episodes of content with lots of meaningless stuff in between. If you liked the season 1, then I would definitely recommend you to watch this season, but if you hate it then don't watch this series because even if it shows about bullying and has few other good episodes, I would rather ask you to watch some other anime than this :)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FAQs:
SEASON 1 REVIEW:
I am not a fan of Studio Shaft's Art or animation, I don't like anime similar to Monogatari series because of their Art, which feels weird, but 3-gatsu no lion's Art is different from those type of series, because even though, it had black, blue and whitish colours which represent sad theme, it also has colorful drawings with beautiful soundtracks representing the happy atmosphere.
Cutting everything short, it’s a Slice of life of a high school student and ‘kinda’ orphan named Rei Kiriyama who is a professional Shogi player, who lives independently with the money he gets from the games, he is sometimes taken care by 3 Sisters (one of them is Hinata) who live in the neighborhood. (I don’t want to mention further as it’s already available in the plot of the series)
Well many anime have the scenario as if the hero has a natural talent but due to financial problems, they wouldn't come up. But this one is different, our hero has talent, money and also has a family to help. But did you ever think that this talent would make you go away, live separately and lead a sad depressing life? This anime depicts some another level of reality which actually makes you relate to it and the only problem is there is no "Moral of the Story" at the end.
Like I said earlier Art and Soundtracks, were the ones that made me compelled to watch this show, they are also perfectly timed to give you correct emotions. Even the opening and ending are simply awesome which makes you listen to it at every episode without skipping.
Coming to Enjoyment, starting 2 episodes were boring, but it picks the pace and moves on to another level by keeping you engaged till the end. By the way, the jokes are dumb, you would get used to them in the longer run.
Season 1 Overall:
Go and watch season 1 without dropping in the first few episodes, it is good, But if you hated it after completion, then skip season 2 because season 2 is similar to 1 and it might turn out to be a 22 episode hell. :P (Sorry for the lazy review of Season 1, please read other ones )
Comparison between both the Seasons:
Season 1 is way better when it comes to story and narration, because there is suspense feel throughout the series and keeps you wanting to know what actually happened in Rei's past...but season 2 is more of the SOL of other characters (Mainly Hinata) and hence not much suspense is felt, you just feel like watching it just for the sake of completion...
There is also a perfect representation of the feelings of players during the matches in season 1 as I personally know as a chess player which was shown very less in season 2
Only the match between Souya was the coolest thing in this series because you get to know about the great Meijin.
dub? : Season 2 doesn't have a dub yet, but the dubbed version of season 1 is good and has good English.
I don't know why I couldn't like this show (season 2) that much, maybe it's because I was tired binge watching continuously without gap both seasons, it made me exhausted by the time I reached 16th episode in season 2. If you want me to re-watch it again to get a better understanding, it’s just way too much pain to sit through another 22 episodes and waste time, I would rather go watch some new anime to know a new story :)
