Forum - View topicEP. REVIEW: March comes in like a lion
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zrnzle500
 Posts: 3767 |
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@Blood- This is where maintaining reasonable expectations comes into play. If you are expecting him to be more or less cured of his depression, you are bound to be disappointed, as such a condition is never really permanently "cured" from what I understand. The best we can hope for his for him to be in a somewhat better place, which is definitely possible within two episodes. If you're thinking, well he'll just need to win an important match and then everything will be ok, I don't think that would be for the best either, as what he needs is to be able to survive the inevitable low points in his career and life and winning is not enough to do that. Having that "cure" him would ring false to me.
I don't believe it is as tangential as you seem to think either. There are at least two things that are important to Rei's growth that have happened even just in the last episode. First, he has learned that just getting up to the next rank or even the highest rank will not be the end of his struggles. Far from it. Now that he knows, he won't be crushed by the realization that what he finds difficult about professional shogi won't go away just by getting closer to the top when he gets there. Second, he identifies a game changing move that, among those assembled, only the top player identified, whereas everyone else thought the game was already over, showing his potential to the audience and his mentor, and reinforcing the parallels between him and Souya previously established in the arc, or even earlier with both being professionals since middle school. And to answer your all caps question, I do and I suspect I'm not the only one who does, and perhaps more importantly Rei does and not in a tacked on way. He is his mentor and also his window into the upper ranks of his profession. Now that certainly doesn't mean that you have to care about what happens to Shimada, but understand that people will see the arc and subsequently the show in differently as a result. |
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Blood-
 Bargain Hunter Posts: 23779 |
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No, I certainly don't expect Rei's story to be wrapped up in a neat little bow, that's for sure. And I acknowledged that Shimada's story did involve Rei. This is where my Western bias comes in. I'm used to shows where the important action directly involves the protagonist. He or she isn't simply an observer of somebody else's story from which he or she derives lessons or he or she isn't a secondary player in somebody else's drama. Again, this kind of thing is fine as an arc in an ongoing story, like the manga. It is merely a sequence in the protagonist's journey. But when you adapt it in a 22-episode anime that is obviously not going to trace the protagonist's entire journey the way the manga will, it takes up a strange and outsized piece of visual/dramatic real estate that I'm straight up gonna say I don't appreciate.
I would have even been okay if this arc had taken place earlier in the show, just as it unfolded here as long as whatever arc ends the TV series is DIRECTLY involved with Rei. |
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Seishin Jinrou
 Posts: 29 |
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Since this season will end 1/3 of the way through the manga, we could easily get two more seasons of this length before hitting the end of the published material. Umino has apparently decided to make this a much longer story then Honey and Clover, which isn't a bad thing. Shaft has been so completest with the monogatari material, and this is a successful manga/anime, so I hope that is the case. It will be interesting to see exactly what story the two live action films choose to tell.
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DuskyPredator
 Posts: 15464 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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I agree that the episode was really happy, that it was showing the sun through the usually gloomy focused skies, and kind of has me hope that Rei gained some insight that he can focus on the positives, and let himself be part of that family unit that he likes so much. That Shimada himself is kind of blinded by his gloom that he does not see the great things.
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chaccide
Posts: 295 |
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I think Shimada's arc is crucial in convincing Rei that life and happiness exist beyond shogi, and that even when you suffer major loss and humiliation that home and a loving "family" and friends will provide support. He saw what a shogi player in a non-toxic environment could have.
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Parsifal24
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I really wanted to like this as at one point Chica Umino was one of my favorite Mangaka and the first few episodes had real promise. Yet looking at it now having watched the entire series I'm far different person now at 31 than I was at 25 when I first read Honey and Clover. March Comes in Like a Lion gets the feeling of depression and social anxiety but doesn't really do anything with it unless it becomes plot convenient.
Also the overblown "Studio Shaft" style of directing took away from the series and made it feel overly Byzantine. In conclusion March Comes In Like a Lion is not bad series it just feels more like a wasted opportunity. Hampered by seeming slavish devotion to the source material and overblown directing and artistic choices. However it is a second season in October http://www.crunchyroll.com/anime-news/2017/03/18/march-comes-in-like-a-lion-animes-second-season-announced-for-october-premiere which I probably won't watch but at least bodes hopeful for the series |
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7jaws7
 Posts: 704 Location: New York State |
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^Using "overblown" to describe Shaft twice in the same paragraph without any other constructive criticism suggests an animosity towards visual creativity.
If you dislike how the source material was animated then instead of saying "ew it's Shaft" give us an example of what bothered you. |
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DuskyPredator
Posts: 15464 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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I really did not like March first, it reminded me too much of Your Lie in April, and if you told me it was by the same author as Honey and Clover, I would probably be even more against it. But I ended up highly liking it, I thought it was great how it showed what is inside the head of someone with depression, the light parts as a way to cope were great. I really recommend it, even if it feels like it finished of on a bit of a non ending. It was still a sort of the battle with things like depression is an ongoing battle that does not just suddenly end.
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maximilianjenus
Posts: 2863 |
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seeing this way it's even better because he leanred it form someone who rejected the life and happines that exists beyond shogi. |
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Jose Cruz
 Posts: 1773 Location: South America |
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Its weird for me to think of Shaft doing something completely mainstream in the sense of being a straight drama manga also adapted into a pair of live action films. Although it's true they did that before.
Shaft's style is indeed very agressive. That's the point though. Criticizing it for being overblown is like criticizing a complex symphony for using too many notes. |
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killjoy_the
 Posts: 2459 |
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While I do agree that the show's content wasn't the best, I felt like the story did have a bit more bite to it than 'just shenanigans while we don't get an arc going'. Having Rei actually enjoy school time, and wanting to share it with the girls later was splendid.
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AksaraKishou
Posts: 1410 Location: End of the World |
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Complex Symphony -> BECAUSE -> too many notes Aggressive -> BECAUSE -> ??? That's what jaws7 wants you to fill in. |
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Seishin Jinrou
Posts: 29 |
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I really couldn't stand the premier, which focused on characters I couldn't care less about--a bunch of old men sitting in rooms engaging in boring and useless conversations. I found the closeups of the junk food eating disgusting, and rather hated the naive and idiotic way the characters praised it. I had to start fast-forwarding at one point, and then the episode just ended with nothing significant happening. Terrible chapter to open the season with. I wish shaft would just cut all the extraneous BS and adapt the parts of the manga which are actually about Rei.
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boodagess
Posts: 2 |
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Merida
 Posts: 1945 |
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Well, looks like the animators didn't read Nick's reviews of last season and are still making all those "mistakes" he pointed out over and over (and over) again...
While i agree that this wasn't the most exciting episode to start off the new season, i enjoyed it well enough. It's always nice to see Rei having fun and i actually like think those "old men" are fun. Glad this show is back! |
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