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.
Review of March Comes in Like a Lion
