March comes in like a lion is a story about life at its highs, lows and in-betweens, yet portrays the struggle to attain happiness and a place to belong as difficult due to personal struggles the characters undergo. It's a series about living life to the fullest however you can, growing out of one's shell in order to trust others and move beyond pain. It's a personal journey for one young man to overcome depression, another story about a woman whose life has been defined by raising her sisters and yet shoulders on, a clinically sick man who barely struggles to finish his games despite his energy and passion for the game and one of an old man who has seen people retire and die yet shoulders on as a symbol of tenacity despite his old age. It's a story of these wounded people who despite struggling in a hyper-individualistic society, strive for connection and purpose, with the narrative glorifying this struggle painful as it be for a happier tomorrow. To gain happiness, one must first undergo pain, and it is this that drives the characters' struggles for attaining happiness.

Rei is at the heart of all these themes, being a reluctant professional shogi player who only plays shogi because it's what grants him recognition to his adopted father, yet said father's actions have ironically made him a somewhat dysfunctional and self-destructive person who often keeps problems to himself instead of entrusting others. His parents and sister were lost in an accident, providing a frightening explanation for a child that only craved a new family to belong to due to compensate for his loss; this also made him the center of his new adopted father's attention, but actively harmed his relationship with his new siblings due to their lack of proficiency at shogi, making them unhealthily withdrawn and difficult to deal with. This inspires Rei to live independently as to not burden his family, but despite this Rei desperately - as anyone would - crave company, and manages to find it in all the people he encounters along the way. The Kawamoto sisters in particular were and continue to be a positive influence on his life, with him constantly being dragged to dinner at their place which he reluctantly attends because he internally craves company and a new place to call home, yet believes he is unworthy of one due the damage his proficiency in shogi has done to older family, never opening up to them and simply leaving to live on his own. In many ways something the series establishes from this point onwards is the value of opening up to others in order to form a connection, with characters that refuse to do so often sliding deeper into their own depression while characters that take the risk with doing so usually attaining happiness, and this is exemplified best in Rei - who starts off by drawing a line between himself and the Kawamotos, his teacher and Nikaido but slowly has that line fade away as he accepts the kindness that other people shower on him, finding his place in this community.

The Kawamotos and specifically the two elder siblings, Hinata and Akari, are also worthy of mention. Akari's life has essentially been her being unfairly burdened to be the head of the family due to a lack of active father figure from an early age, turning her into someone that actively took the responsibility of raising her sisters as well as managing the affairs of the bakery. Admirable as this is, this also meant she is a person who perceives herself as having little to no self-value, constantly drowning in self-loathing if anything happened to either Hinata or Momo - even as the former was well into her teenage years. Her character arc is more about finding self-worth in herself and learning to lean on others instead of shouldering the burden on her own. This also has consequences involving Hinata, who has been shielded from much of the ugliness that Akari faced head on and when confronted with a situation where that ugliness came at her, came at the situation with a level of naivete and struggled to cope. This does lead to characterization for both characters - where Akari acknowledges her never genuinely raising Hinata to stand for herself but rather simply rely on her as an out, and for Hinata deciding to stand up for herself while also accepting the love she receives from both Rei and her family.

A recurring theme representing a desire for connection materializes through much of the cast of the series - Nikaido desires connection through shogi despite his illness, Shimada wants to continue to play to cement a legacy tying him as a potential legendary shogi player to his hometown, Souya to connect and play with others despite his hearing disability, Yanagihara to his old comrades as he perseveres in being a shogi legend despite his age, being a source of inspiration to people around him - and many, many other examples. Something that's similarly discussed are characters that strive for connection but end up only doing so superficially - Kyouko being a noteworthy example, as she puts down Rei and engages in a toxic relationship where she gaslights and torments him, yet due to never having a genuine bond she's constantly put down, and while despises her father and rightfully so also hypocritically is not independent, still retaining financial ties to him. Similar things can be said about the Kawamoto siblings' father, who simply barges into their lives and demands money or other material content before vanishing elsewhere, and is rightfully considered the antithesis of everything the narrative tries to represent. Another example that similarly comes to mind is a man who plays against Rei, only to lose catastrophically - he then blames Rei for being unable to end his relationship with his wife on good terms, as Rei rightfully when alone agonizes in the unfairness of being blamed for a situation he had virtually no part in. March comes in like a lion glorifies the bravery it takes to connect to others as well as the power of said connections, but it similarly looks down on connections that exist only because they have to exist, in this respect firmly being about finding a place not just in a community but even finding family through those bonds.

The artwork is well above average to look at - the series emphasizes the monologues and self-reflections of most of the relevant cast, and it's these monologues that help give context to the characters while also as establishing tone. The manga in-spite of its dialogue-heavy nature largely consists of small yet mostly drawn panels, with illustrations being on the overwhelming majority of them. Character designs are beautifully drawn - there's a strong emphasis on clothing and mannerisms, which contribute greatly to developing characters, to say nothing of body psychology that is often conveyed through facial expressions and body movements. Backgrounds are often lavishly drawn, with attention to minor details that help in setting the tone of a given scene as well as being aesthetically pleasing to look at in general. Similarly, there's a clever use of motifs - ranging from distance, height motifs as well as what March comes in like a lion is most remembered for, water motifs, often reflecting the characters' relationships with one another or the state of mind of a given character (the latter being especially relevant considering the series extensive use of monologues). The series takes advantage of its placement in the medium by usually emphasizing - be it in comedic or more somber moments - the use of black and white imagery, enhancing the ability to set the tone. Paneling can similarly be both playful and often non-existent at all, usually being spaced but sometimes being lumped together - this doesn't break the flow of a given page thanks to the series' extensive use of illustrations as mentioned previously. There were no shortcuts while the manga was drawn and despite the majority of my praise on the series' artwork being largely complementary of any well-drawn manga series, it's the combination of all these elements that makes March comes in like a lion an absolute joy to read.

I cannot recommend this manga highly enough.

Thank you for reading.