>“Gaining and losing things are an unavoidable part of life for everyone… Because of loneliness people master courage and reach out to a new world.” – Eisaku Noguchi
March Comes in Like a Lion feels like watching someone slowly learn how to stand up straight while the world keeps trying to push them back into the river. It starts as Rei’s story—a lonely, burnt-out teenage shogi pro drifting through life—but by the time you’re deep into the bullying arc, it quietly shifts into something bigger about family, hurt, and how people keep moving even when they’re cracked all the way through.
Hinata’s bullying arc is where the series stops being “a shogi show with feelings” and becomes something much heavier. She stands up for her friend Chiho when the class goes feral, and when Chiho is driven out, that cruelty just pivots and lands squarely on Hinata instead. Shoes stolen, desk vandalized, fake rumors, a teacher who refuses to see what’s obviously happening and blames her for not “getting along” — it’s textbook group bullying, and the show doesn’t look away or wrap it up neatly. Hina knows she did the right thing morally, but knowing that doesn’t stop her stomach from hurting every morning or keep her from breaking down when it all becomes too much.
The show keeps widening the lens beyond just the kids. You see how bullying scars families, how administrators dodge responsibility, how older generations see echoes of headlines and past cases and feel both scared and proud that Hina chose not to look away. In parallel, you get someone like Yanagihara, the aging shogi veteran whose peers have retired or burned out, still dragging his tired body into matches because the game is his last remaining proof that he’s alive. His arc mirrors Hinata’s and Rei’s in a different key: he’s standing in the ashes of everything he’s lost, but he keeps playing anyway, knowing the board will outlast him. The series is full of those little echoes—different lives, same currents.
