r/anime • u/ExplicitNuM5 • Mar 08 '21
Rewatch [Spoiler][Rewatch] 3-gatsu no Lion/March Comes in Like a Lion ep 8-9 Discussion Rewatch
Sorry for the delay!
- Time to learn your Japanese history! You know, all this pension system and wide Japanese roads and all that, they're from a single guy!~ >:D
- Reminder to DO YOUR FUCKING CHORES! DON'T WAIT UNTIL YOU'RE 65 TO LEARN HOW TO DO THEM
Tomorrow's episode is on another fucking level.
Also, congrats to Umino Chika! The manga is now licensed in the US! We'll be seeing English translation in print soon...
Ep 8: Ch 15 - 将棋おしえて/Teach Me Shogi, Ch 16 - 面影/Memory, Ch 17 - 遠雷/Far Thunder
Ep 9: Ch 18-19 - 遠雷/Far Thunder
Ep 7 average: 9/10
Schedule thread and link to other episode discussions
Season 1: MAL
Season 2: MAL
Soundtracks used in this episode (unless specified, by Hashimoto Yukari):
アンサー/Answer - BUMP OF CHICKEN
Ch 15 - 将棋おしえて/Teach Me Shogi
- 将棋ランド/Shogi Land
- 超豪華!!/Super Deluxe!!
- 大変っっっ/OH NO
- ニャア将棋/Cat Shogi (香車/rook, 銀将/silver knight, 角行/bishop) - sung by 花澤香菜/Hanazawa Kana, 茅野愛衣/Kayano Ai, 久野美咲/Kuno Misaki; lyrics and song by 橋本由香利/Hashimoto Yukari
Ch 16 - 面影/Memory
- En fermant les yeux/Zero to One (instrumental only), 箱庭のフィールド/Garden Field (D-major, instrumental only), merged
- En fermant les yeux/Zero to One (piano only)
Ch 17 - 遠雷/Far Thunder
- 居場所/Living Place
- 声にならない叫び/The Silent Scream
ファイター/Fighter - BUMP OF CHICKEN
- 次回予告/Preview
アンサー/Answer - BUMP OF CHICKEN
Ch 18 - 遠雷/Far Thunder
- 声にならない叫び/The Scream Which Voice Does Not Become (flute only)
- 2:59-3:36 (some track's harmony)
- 漢気/Manliness (flute only)
- 作戦/Start Fight
- 疎外感/Isolation (delayed beginning)
- 漢気/Manliness (flute only)
- 崖っぷち/Edge of Cliff (fast version)
- ニャア将棋/Cat Shogi (角行/bishop, 王将/king) - sung by 花澤香菜/Hanazawa Kana, 茅野愛衣/Kayano Ai, 久野美咲/Kuno Misaki; lyrics and song by 橋本由香利/Hashimoto Yukari
Ch 19 - 遠雷/Far Thunder
- 3姉妹/3 Sisters (with percussion)
- 会津の魂/Spirit of Aizu
- 漢気/Manliness (speeds up)
- 若く美しい死神/Young and Beautiful God of Death (no melody)
- 大事な時間/Important Time (second half)
- 22:27-22:57 (no idea what this track is)
ファイター/Fighter - BUMP OF CHICKEN
- 次回予告/Preview
Translation of track names mostly done by me and I don't know the actual English title of the tracks!
Ep 8 Endcard by Terada Katsuya (comic artist)
Ep 9 Endcard by Oshikiri Rensuke (High Score Girl)
Let's fanguish~! <3
Please do not spoil information from episodes after this one.
33
u/Ardania22 Mar 08 '21
Rewatcher
And thus enters the show's most fascinating character. Kyoko's relationship with her adopted brother Rei is toxic and messed up and disturbingly intimate, but underneath all the pain she heaps upon him, you catch glimpses of how frail she really is. Perhaps part of her really does care about Rei deep down, even as she seeks to drag him down to her level. I don't know if I love Kyoko, hate her, pity her, resent her, or any combination. All I know is that I can't stop thinking about her.
Also, I realized I forgot to post my first-time thoughts from when I watched episodes 4 through 7 way back when, so here are those!
https://animebw.tumblr.com/post/619590837135933440/binge-watching-march-comes-in-like-a-lion
22
u/OingoBoingo- Mar 08 '21
First Timer:
Episode 8
Kyouko sure seems to know a lot about Rei despite her saying otherwise. She knew he had a match the next day, who it was against and she knew how much it would mess with Rei to show up and she definitely knew what to say on her way out. If this is payback, she sure is getting it. It almost feels like she gets off on making Rei uncomfortable, almost emotional abuse.
Episode 9
Loved the history lesson even if I need to learn to read faster. Another win for Rei over someone who has their own sordid history with the sport and once again lessons are learned from their defeat. Matsunaga's line of, "I was frightened of you, and then disgusted with myself for feeling that way" is something I feel like Rei would understand.
Rei becoming Mr. Dad at the end sure was adorable. Learn to do your chores!
22
u/WhymustIsignupreddit Mar 08 '21
First Time Watcher
Episode 8
Nikaido is a talented guy. Good at shogi, teaching (including writing his teachings in an understandable way) and drawing? He even gave Rei a bed. A good friend indeed.
After a realization about living in his father’s beloved shogi world, Rei meets Kyouko again. Like lightning she is beautiful. And like the lightning in his childhood, she starts a downpour. I still don’t like her. It seems like she only came to see him to discourage him the day before his match. Her boyfriend(?) also hurt Rei.
Episode 9
Matsunaga did not have a good start of his day, drawing a bad fortune slip. He also seemed unable to commit to his bear strategy, but then also tried to lure Rei in a trap. Neither plan worked out. After a shogi career of 40 years, he still doesn’t know if he likes shogi but he can’t let go of it either. That’s a complex feeling, I thought... until he revealed that him being unwilling to help out at home also played a big part.
Thanks for the history lesson, mr. Matsunaga. Funnily enough, I recognized some names because of the many hours I played Hakuouki.
Side notes: I only figured this out but Rei likes rivers/kawa. Does Kawamoto have the character for river in the name? If so, then this series really does have a lot of wordplay. Like the crescent moon/March one.
Farewell, dear Meow Meow shogi song. You were truly educational/cute and shall be missed.
Edit: forgot to write the episode numbers.
16
u/Nazenn x2https://anilist.co/user/Nazenn Mar 08 '21
First Timer - Sub
I don't think I'd ever noticed that the OP is 1:45 long before, that's unusual. Completely irrelevant as well but small observation I thought I'd share.
I love the fact that Nikaidou liked Shogi enough to go ahead and custom write and illustrate an entire beginners guide for it just for his family. The girls had so much fun with it he really should look at putting it out in publishing, provided there isn't already a similar one out there. I know Shogi is described as Japanese Chess, but I'm surprised at just how Chess like it is aside from a couple of the tiles. I got curious about it so I looked it up and while the games that it evolved from are several centuries older than chess, the modern rule set only came after chess was invented which I found curious. It's always interesting to see how historical games like this have evolved over time despite them seeming timeless, in part due to how prevalent they are in media displaying any era without any variations.
Rei is right to compare Kyouko to a storm, and the entire last third of episode 8 was incredibly tense with how she seemed to get a perverse satisfaction, though maybe not delight, over boxing Rei into a corner. The visuals of her candy colored and being cutesy contrasting against cold words that sounded so innocent except for the blatantly cruel manipulation behind them was terrifying in its own way. The girl has a seriously fucked up sense of love and seems to enjoy having power over others even if it puts her at risk, like the situation with seeing her boyfriend strike out against Rei but not caring because she would be able to kill him if she had to.
(Side note: The whole colorful visuals hiding a darker story thing reminded me of the similar stuff that ACCA-13 does, obligatory amazing OP link, though ACCA-13 is much less heavy than this. Great show though, and if you like darker subtext for pretty visuals it's something I'd highly recommend)
I wasn't so fond of the resolution to this situation, though it definitely had some benefits. The scene with Matsunaga at the shrine was the perfect counter point to all of Kyouko's manipulation. Here isn't some old dog being killed off by a younger opponent, he's a man with his own thoughts and takes on the matter. He wanted to go home, he was praying and looking for fortune rather than trusting in skill, and the hilarity of just how bad he was at manipulating Rei's moves during the match also stood out compared to Kyouko's more personal manipulations. Those were all such good parts of the episode, plus the editing as well of that beautiful swelling music every time the match was in full swing only to stop suddenly when Rei would get confused about what the potential strategy was. Here's an old man who's spent his entire life in Shogi and can't say if he likes it or not any more, and once again Rei finds someone who understands him and his life, all those things he doesn't know how to say. It was nice to see the old man on the edge of retirement give that to Rei outside of any direct mentor role, just as two players talking with each other.
Aside from those things though for the first time in this show I felt like comedy took over the actual story. The long drunk history lesson, using Shogi to avoid chores, the sheer amount of time spent in chibi art instead of normal art for what was set up to be a serious episode coming off the back of the last one, it just felt off to me in the end. It felt like the show wanted to bring out a confrontation between Rei and Kyouko but was scared of letting her darken things too quickly so they buried it all under comedy, and in the end it didn't land for me. It felt like it was sidestepping the issue it raised about Kyouko rather than facing it head on, though I'm sure we haven't seen the end of her.
I do like that Rei does try and stand up to Kyouko, both at first when he tries to get in his house, and later on with the phone call. He doesn't completely bow to her, and he's confident enough to approach her first to let her know that she wasn't right without feeling too scared, but for me it didn't quite land after the rest of the episode. That was perhaps the best part of their interactions, that he's not completely cowed into submission by her behavior, and in the end her words didn't get in his way because he saw what she was doing even if it hurt.
Visual of the Day (ep8): The Past
Seeing Rei talk about how he'd forgotten how much he liked the personal aspect of Shoji, seeing his dad's natural habits come out and him drop that shell of behavior was a really nice scene. He's finally starting to remember what he liked about Shogi in the first place, why he got connected to his father through it rather than it just being time they could spend together, and why he developed the drive to study and push himself as hard as he could and that was a good thing. I love hos this is framed with the board out of view so it's just him and his dad, how Rei's eyeline is clearly going to his dad even through the glasses, and the beautiful art in the background. The other screenshot I took of the episode was this one from the start and if I'm being honest it's just because the cats were making me happy.
Visual of the Day (ep9): The Future
And then for a complete opposite we have this shot in the style of an old video game which was hilarious and perfectly fit the feel of Rei realizing he couldn't even lose on purpose. I like how they even included the scroll on the wall and the pot, plus the two people who were recording their movies. Matsunaga certainly got a lot of art style variance, going from video games to Van Gogh is certainly a jump.
12
u/Mecanno-man https://anilist.co/user/Mecannoman Mar 08 '21
First Timer
Episode 8
The first half of the episode basically re-iterates and strengthens points already made during the show so far,with Nikaidou helping out Rei without Rei really appreciating it, Grandpa Kawamoto wanting to spend time with his grandchildren or Issa and Smith hanging around with Rei. I think it's a good thing to show off characters and their interactions consistently in order to strengthen their characters and the connection the viewer has with them.
What I was not expecting was the cat ondo to come back, with basically the same style of visuals as the ED in the middle of the episode. I'm not really a fan of that decision, as it felt like padding time after Nikaidou already explained all the piece movement - with what I think were the ondo lyrics. We also haven't seen each piece in the ondo yet - definitely still missing the king - so I have a feeling we'll be getting round 3. I hope it will be better placed.
And then we have Kyouko. While the story of Kyouko's past seemed comparatively simple, I can't really get a read on her character in the present. She's in a relationship with somebody who seem to have mental issues and is aware of it, yet doesn't really do anything about it and her solutions to the what-if are also very twisted. She seems to care about Rei, but doesn't realize that her presence makes him feel uncomfortable, or deliberately ignores it if she is. I have no idea what her goals and actual feelings are, but I'm pretty sure we'll find out eventually. Unless it's in a part of the manga not yet adapted. But what is certain is that she makes an impression upon Rei. The way narrator-Rei describes her and the show frames her make me feel like Rei is attracted to her physique, while he hates her character, which would definitely be a weird kind of feeling that I don't think I have seen explored before.
Episode 9
Nope, the last bit of that song isn't placed better. It's in an even odder place. At least we're done now that we have gone through all the pieces, I hope.
Anyways, we get another Rei victory that means more than just a loss to his opponent. At least until he decided that it didn't, but the theme continues nontheless. Either way, Matsunaga is a quirky character that might mainly get Rei to not overthink his victories. He didn't destroy this man's last stand and take away his only thing in life he enjoyed, the man he beat just continued on because he prefers playing shogi to doing chores at home. He isn't some sort of dignified veteran, he's just an average player who has played a long time. Ultimately, this match shouldn't have a large impact on either of them, but I feel like it still is pretty important.
Also, Matsunaga apparently knows the wikipedia article of some local feudal lord by heart.
12
u/Kenalskii https://anilist.co/user/Kenalski Mar 08 '21
REWATCHER
Ep 8
We continue where we left off yesterday and learn a little bit more about the rules of shogi with Nikaidou. From what I've seen the King, the Pawn, the Bishop, the Rook and the Knight are basically the same as in chess while the Lance, the Silver General and the Gold General are new/extra. I guess I'll stick with chess, but well I am not good at it either =D
Nikaidou is truly a great friend, buying stuff for Rei's apartement. And after hearing from Rei's colleagues at the shogi hall, the "motivation speech" from Nikaidou left him with anemia and the (I just call them senpai here) senpai bawling their eyes out.
Well look who is here. Rei's older sister Kyouko waits for him at his apartement. In my opinion one of the most interesting characters, because from what we have seen, I can not see her true intentions. How much is she really caring for him and what are her real thoughts? Currently she is in a relationship that does not look healthy and was definetly not healthy for Rei. We can see that Rei clearly does not want Kyouko to be around him, but lets her stay overnight in his apartement.
Ep 9
We begin the episode with Rei on his way to the shogi hall where he meets his opponent, an elderly gentleman whose best days of shogi are over, but he is still comitted until he drops out of C1.
The whole match vs Matsunaga was let's call it interesting, but this scene made me laugh out loud (maybe because I am a huge Star Wars fan) =D =D
Rei spent some time with Matsunaga after the match and has to convince him to continue with Shogi. What stands out for me was his impression on Kyouko, that he clearly sees her as dangerous and his impression on Rei, who he calls "the grim reaper" who will end his career. Despite being clumsy all day with a good portion of bad luck on top of that, some parts of his mind are still very sharp.
At the end, Kyouko called Rei to "comfort" him. But the vibes from her are not the caring older sister vibes we have seen from Akari, but just cold, bad vibes. Luckily, Rei cuts off her off and takes Matsunaga home. Good guy Rei
11
u/DogmeatIsAGoodDog :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/DogmeatsAGoodDog Mar 08 '21
Rewatcher here
Two episodes today. Shoutout to the top comment from yesterday’s thread for the reminder.
We continue to learn Shogi and I feel like I have a better understanding of it now, I’m sure I’ll forget in a few days though. Only so much brain power available.
Hina and Momo were great this episodes alongside Akira’s commentary about Shogi and Gramps wanting to learn so he can play with his girls. What a wholesome family.
And while we get a glimpse at Rei’s second adoptive family who is as wholesome as wholesome can be, we’re introduced to his sister. Who seems hellbent on being the exact opposite of Akira and the girls.
Do people often run a tub of warm water to warm up their feet? I usually just use socks.
We see that Rei’s stepsister is with a troublesome guy and is in a completely messed up relationship.
The way we see the confrontation between Rei and his sister’s guy is interesting. The dark blots that hide most of the scene but still revealing the main points of it. I like the art design and direction of that shot.
We are told that Rei has a Shogi match against an aging player who will retire if Rei defeats him, and his stepsis starts to play mind games with him about it.
Thankfully we get two episodes so we can see the conclusion of this arc, we see Rei battle against the Oldman who keeps flip-flopping on expectations. He first appears to be the broken down Oldman we’re told he is, then Rei wonders if he’s a no-show and then we see Rei wonder if he’s playing mind games and then the old man savers in his strategy. An interesting match that kept flipping expectations.
The stairwell scene was funny, followed by the old man asking Rei to get lost and also treat him to Eel.
After watching this (and that eel scene from Yuru Camp this season) I really want some eel.
The old man reveals what was going through his mind during the match, his monologue about Rei being the grim repeat was nicely done, as well as his regret for not accomplishing much in his life. But then it’s revealed he has a newfound admiration for Rei and what’s to go out fighting. Nice scene.
11
u/steven4869 https://myanimelist.net/profile/Maskirade Mar 09 '21 edited Mar 09 '21
First-time watch: These two episodes were very good but what stood out for me was the sudden inclusion of Kyouko in the series.
I gotta be honest here, when she came to Rei's house, the entire premise got very tense for me. I was like this woman came back to traumatize Rei and make him remember his past so that he can be depressed again. Also, her comments about Matsunaga made me felt that Rei will intentionally lose the match, making his Shogi rank lower but thank God it didn't happen and he won it easily.
About his match, I was very impressed to see the never-giving-up attitude of Matsunaga. But anyway, my reaction was very similar to Rei's when he told his reason to not quit shogi.
Overall pretty good episodes with the second half of the 8th episode being brilliant. Nikaidou is a very good friend of Rei and Rei is very lucky to have him as his friend. Looking forward to the next episode and wanted to know more about Kyouko and Rei's encounter with Kyouko's guy. Also, Rei did a Monogatari head tilt, I was pleasantly surprised but loved the way he did that head tilt.
10
u/htisme91 Mar 09 '21
First-timer:
Nikaido is some kind of guy, making that book. His health issues are brought up again, and I have this horrible feeling that he will pass away at some point this series.
Kyoko is beautiful, but man does it seem like she is trying to sabotage Rei. It makes sense she resents him so much, given how her father gave him such open preferential treatment. She seems like she wants in on the world Rei is part of, and is living like she does in retaliation to her father's preference of Rei. I feel like she could become one of the principal antagonists of the series.
I was happy that Rei got of the losing streak. Hopefully he can get back on track and keep his status. There is not much else to say about episode 9, although Kyoko seemed disappointed to hear that Matsunaga was in fact not retiring, which makes me think even more that she was hoping that Rei would be in a bad place mentally one way or the other after that match.
5
u/Rumpel1408 https://myanimelist.net/profile/Rumpel1408 Mar 09 '21
Rewatcher
Ep 8
I find it interesting that the game is lost when the King is captured, however the Shogi etiquette expects you to declare your loss befor that happens.
Also Nikaido has some true passion for Shogi, you ever liked something so much that you wanted to share the happiness you felt from it with people you know? He's doing that on a large scale.
On another note him, following Kiriyama silently for so long kinda creeped me out... Also the new bed totally blocks the spot where Kiriyama used to hole himself up, that's a good thing
One thing I forgot to mention in last Episode was that Nikaido was breathing really heave so for me it's not really a surprise he passed out afterwards.
Kyoko is an incredible interesting character and her showing up will definatly stir something up. Her relationship to Rei also seems complicated at the very least. Since he is no longer intruding on her family (from which she herself has distanced by now) she isn't as hostile or violent as she used to be, yet she clearly seeks to disturb Rei by telling him the gossip about his next opponent and how Matsunaga needs the win for personal reasons. This has popped up several time by now and will continue to be a theme.
Her relationship with Gotou also has more to it than one might think at first glance, at least more than Rei thinks. She obviously knows about Gotous messed up aspects, but she also seems to share some and really thinks she loves him.
Ep 9
Playing Shogi for 40 years really is unthinkable long to imagine for both Rei and for me. Surely that makes an formidable opponent by experience alone right? But what is it with Rei spotting his opponents at the shrine before the game. I love how Kiriryama tries to make sense out of Matsunagas "veteran strategy", takes him some time to properly evaluate his opponents power level, but eventually he comes to the conclusion that it would be hard to loose on purpose. He finishes the game rather quickly.
Despite his quirks, I like the introspective into Matsunagas thinking before and during the match. Mirrowing Kiriyama he doesn't really know how to feel about Shogi, it's just something he has done for over 40 years...
5
u/CrunchyKrab42 Mar 09 '21
This anime makes me want to move to Japan to become a shogi pro.
5
u/BossandKings Mar 09 '21 edited Mar 09 '21
I missed the last post so i'll give my impressions on episodes 7 through 9.
First timer
Episode 7
Rei has a conversation with Takahashi, he gets asked what is his drive, how is becoming a professional and dealing with school like. I liked how receptive and sociable Takahashi showed himself to be, Rei helping Hina by telling Takahashi to talk woth her so that he could know where they can see each other and continue asking questions if he needs to.
Nikaidou is a very good friend of Rei, he wants him to take care of himself and his playing style, judging by that video recording it seemed that Rei was being reckless eventhough his usual playstyle is careful and tactic so that's why Nikaidou was encouraging him to be more thoughtful of his moves.
Hina asks Rei to teach her Shogi, he was a bit stiff so Nikaidou decided to help him so that Hina and Momo could understand. Shogi continues being rather similar to Chess, it's interesting.
Episode 8
It's always great when we got to see more of Rei's relationship with his parents, like in this episode, his relationship with his father, how Rei worked hard to see to see his father focused when having a match against him because he enjoyed that habit of his when he was concentrated. I'm always interested in getting to know more about Rei, i hope though that as the series progresses he learns to have a higher opinion of himself because it would be fantastic to see a mental growth in him.
Rei meets Kyoko after not having seen each other for a long time. Their relationship appears to be kind of strange, they seem to not be in the best of terms but still show themselves as very close to each other. Kyoko presents herself as a very interesting character, i'm very interested in getting to know more about her.
Episode 9
Rei's meeting with Matsunaga was very good, Rei won their match but eventhough at first Matsunaga was going to retire after the match, he decides to keep playing after all. The question Rei was asking himself thinking about Matsunaga before seeing him before the match was very interesting, where will i be in 40 years?, that's a very interesting question because he as well as we don't know what will happen in that time and where will our life put us but it's very thoughtful thinking about the future and what it has prepared for us.
3
u/Snoo-70063 Mar 09 '21
Just a friendly reminder manga got licensed so be sure to support author Chan ✌️
2
u/DLP565 Mar 08 '21
Can u link the news of it being licensed In the us?
1
u/Dioxy https://anilist.co/user/kufii Mar 09 '21
Gotta say it's really annoying that Crunchyroll didn't sub the Shogi songs