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March comes in like a lion
Episode 14

by Nick Creamer,

How would you rate episode 14 of
March comes in like a lion ?
Community score: 4.2

Rei finds himself utterly defeated in this week's March comes in like a lion. Having spent so much of his practice time assuming this match was just a stepping stone on his road to Gotou, he is blindsided by his own poor appraisal of his opponent's skills. Shimada is a true A rank player, and by assuming the match would play out according to his own internal narrative, Rei loses his chance to take revenge on his real enemy.

Rei's slow loss consumed the first half of this episode, making for a sometimes engaging but overall awkwardly drawn-out sequence. Dedicating ten minutes to the revelation that you've screwed up and acted overconfident would be tough at the best of times, and with March's recently limited visual reach, this felt like one of the show's most unnecessarily prolonged chapters.

One of the big issues here was that March has seemingly run out of tricks in terms of visual motifs. Representing Rei's depression as sinking under water made for a powerful metaphor the first couple times, but when that motif is not only reiterated across the whole series, but also applied to situations like “I'm simply being beaten in this match,” the imagery loses its bite. The visual articulation of that motif wasn't particularly evocative here, either - this sequence leaned heavily on CG shogi tiles suspended in water, an image too plain to carry much resonance.

Likely the best portion of this chapter came near the end, when the show dispensed with visual metaphor and simply had the two players conduct their post-match review normally. The two conducted a continuous argument across alternate lines of play, with each potential route ending in disaster for Rei. This sequence combined the more tactile, weighted nature of actual shogi moves with strong voice acting and expression work, giving a far more tangible impression of Rei's loss.

The episode's second half saw Rei falling into a health and mentality tailspin in the wake of his defeat. Rei's feelings were as understandable as ever; having dedicated himself wholly to the thought of defeating Gotou, he now had to deal with all of his repressed anxieties at once and felt totally overwhelmed. Rei isn't ready to handle the great number of responsibilities he's placed on himself, and in the absence of a clear goal, he began doubting every one of his choices. Perhaps he was wrong to try and finish school. Perhaps he was wrong to play shogi competitively. Perhaps he was even wrong in the ways he disliked himself - as he said at one particularly low moment, “I'm even bad at depression.”

As has become the norm for March, this second half was largely composed of well-written character work articulated without much visual punch. Constant closeups of Rei's face offered nothing that couldn't be inferred from his dialogue, and even the background art felt somewhat restrained. March is still a compelling show, but it can't help but seem overshadowed by the greater show it could have been.

Overall: C+

March comes in like a lion is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Nick writes about anime, storytelling, and the meaning of life at Wrong Every Time.


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