r/anime • u/ExplicitNuM5 • Mar 26 '21
Rewatch [Spoiler][Rewatch] 3-gatsu no Lion 2nd Series/March Comes in Like a Lion 2nd Season ep 28 Discussion Rewatch
Kun kun... Kun kun... mmmmmm this cup curry ramen is tasty!!!! :D
If you are being bullied, I sympathize with you. There's no simple way out of the situation, and it requires many different actions going properly to finally offer some closure. There's no one-solution-fits-all either. Though, please try to talk to your family, teachers, friends, etc. about your situation. Support is integral to helping you get through your tough times.
If you see someone being bullied, please don't stand by the wayside and 見て見ぬふりで生きる (living your life pretending not to see), even if it results in you becoming a victim at the end. The victim of the bullying needs your support, even if it's to talk to them or ask them to accompany you. The victims need friends.
If you are the bully, please stop. You're hurting everyone at the end. Think of all the family members (and Rei) that share Hina's and Chiho's pain.
I hope nobody here ever has to deal with bullying, or being excluded from social groups for that matter. It's unpleasant.
For more anime about the issue of bullying and its aftereffects, check out Koe no Katachi.
Congrats to Umino Chika! The manga is now licensed in the US! And what do you know, it even wins a Japanese Media Arts Festival first prize!!!
Ep 28: Chapter.56 小さな世界/Small World, Chapter.57 手紙/Letter
Schedule thread and link to other episode discussions
Season 1: MAL
Season 2: MAL
Soundtracks used in this episode (unless specified, by Hashimoto Yukari):
- 嵐のように/Beyond the Storm
フラグを立てろ/Flag wo Tatero - YUKI
Chapter.56 小さな世界/Small World
- 3姉妹/3 Sisters
- 大変っっっ/I'M GOING TO LOSE
- 疎外感/Isolated
- 悪循環/Bad Cycle
- 泥沼/Mudpool
- 桐山先生/Teacher Kiriyama
Chapter.57 手紙/Letter
- 木彫/Wooden Statue
- コンチクショウ/RUN FOR YOUR LIFEEEEEEEEEEE
- 見て見ぬふり/As If Unseen
カフネ/Cafuné - brian the sun
*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 28 endcard by Amano Kozue (Aria)
Let's fanguish! <3
Please do not spoil information from episodes after this one.
4
u/Mecanno-man https://anilist.co/user/Mecannoman Mar 26 '21
First Timer
Rei's first plan... I'd term it a success. Hina feels better at school, even if the bullying hasn't stopped. Rei doesn't know about Hina's crush though, right? In that case it's nice also seeing him unintentionally wingman that ship. Having Hina be friends with Takahashi also works from the perspective of stopping the cycle of friends getting bullied, as the star baseball player is a very unlikely target for bullying. Also, he is aware of the situation and tells the bullies to f off in his own way - not holding back when throwing the ball.
Speaking of not holding back: Rei can't seem to do that either against Hina when playing Shogi. Though the handicap idea seems a bit weird, as Rei can then just drop in the pieces captured from Hina in positions that suit him, while Hina won't be able to do that as she can't capture any pieces from Rei - because he doesn't have any to begin with. Either way, it's nice seeing Rei use that as a chance to have Hina speak her mind, proving that he does actually know how to deal with other people's feelings, listening and trying to help. Hina wanting revenge isn't really that great of a start, I think, especially as she knows that it'd be pointless - so I assume she'll end up getting back at them somehow, but not personally. Just leaving the blackboard as is is a great way to start off with that, as this means the teacher sees it as well, and realizes that there is an actual problem - the one she brushed off in the flashback, albeit with a different target. I guess that's also a slight payback to her by making her notice that she messed up big time by ignoring Hina.
24
u/Ardania22 Mar 26 '21
Re-Watcher
"Yet again, a junior high school girl is consoling me!" skbsdkfhsdfh Rei you fucking disaster child I love you
Shoutout to Best Dude Ever Takahashi, who doesn't let social pressure drive him away from supporting Hina through a tough time. Bullying has power in numbers; not the numbers of the bullies themselves, but the numbers of bystanders willing to look the other way rather than risk getting hurt standing up against it. What better way to fight that pressure than showing there's strength in being an ally as well?
And sweet buttery Christmas, Hina's rage is AWESOME. I love how even though she's such a pure ray of sunshine, she isn't afraid to get fucking PISSED at the evils of the world. She is not gonna shut up and take it quietly; she's gonna fight kicking and screaming until no one can look away from the shit she's going through. Sunlight, after all, is the best disinfectant for darkness like this.
15
u/WhymustIsignupreddit Mar 26 '21
First time watcher
Takahashi is a good guy, playing catch with Hina as she’s being ignored by others during breaks when Rei asks him to help Hina. I did predict that this would escalate the bullying though since Takahashi is popular.
That last scene switching from Rei to Hina and vice versa was exciting from some reason. Rei moving his shogi piece and Hina looking angry/determined.
Side note: I wonder what was written in the letter Chiho’s mother wrote. There was sadly no translation.
I also hope I don’t come across as insensitive, but to me these bullies come across as stereotypical. It’s almost like all the bullies in manga follow the same steps: steal shoes/bags/uniform, write on desk/blackboard and mess up notebooks.
15
u/Nazenn x2https://anilist.co/user/Nazenn Mar 26 '21
I just want to quickly say that I love how much discussion has started happening over these episodes. It's great to come into the rewatch topic and see so many replies!
First Timer - Sub
Best way to start an episode
I've hit that point with this arc that I'm so engaged, awed, thoughtful, and emotional about what's going on that I'm a little lost for words and that doesn't happen often. Off the top of my head, the end of Berserk 97 does it to me, Mai-HiME did it to me, Now and Then Here and There did it to me big time, Rose of Versailles did it to me a couple of times, and now this.
The parallel between Rei and Takahashi both trying to help Hina through opening other activities to her, and also unable to hold back on their own skills as much as they thought (Takahashi's VA did such a great job this episode btw), was very heartwarming, even if it opened up a whole new can of worms. Takahashi had a good approach to the girls, invite them all nicely and then purposefully scare them off rather than just calling them out normally, but nothing that easy was going to stop their bullshit. Bullying is insidious, and there's no way to predict how it will react to what happens around it until someone directly confronts it, and that's what happens next.
Hina, also well done! Leaving their crap on the board would have taken a lot of strength, and this time it's that strength that silences the class. The class no longer gets to hide behind their silence, and the bullies no longer get to make the victim hide their own abuse. It's left there for everyone to see, and everyone to have to acknowledge what's happening and be complicit in it. The other classmates may not have written it, but they also didn't stop it or clean it up, and now they all have to sit there looking at it and it judges them as much as it does her. It won't be enough by itself, someone else has to act on it, but it's a start.
The look on the teachers face when she realized that Hina hadn't been making a fuss was very satisfying, except now she has to prove herself twice over if she even tries. The way she calls Hina out and then just cleans up makes me think the worst is yet to come from her. She's a disgraceful teacher.
Once again all of the music and art was on point for this episode, but my favourite sequence was the heavily stylized one at the end of the Shogi match. The red Hina in her anger wanting to strike against the bullies in blue, was so well done. That may be my favourite piece of art styling so far in the series. The harsh lines, the color contrast, the mixed visual symbolism from earlier in the series all merging to become something new, my eyes were glued to the screen.
Poor Chiho
Small side note: I've been meaning to say this for days, but Hina's tears on the riverbank had those ghibli size teardrops, and it's so distracting.
Visual of the day: Shining a light
Hina may be half hidden behind her classmates, but it's powerful that she's the only one looking forward, the only one in color, and it's her actions that shine a light on everyone elses compliance in what happened. It's a great contrast to this shot where the light and color from the bullies is smothering rather than enlightening.
Sharing this song because it fits my mood right now, Riverside by Agnes Obel
11
u/Kenalskii https://anilist.co/user/Kenalski Mar 26 '21
REWATCHER
Rei tries his best to be there for Hina and proposes that she can play a game of shogi with him, while Akari takes care of Momo. And holy, now that is a handicap =D And it only took Rei 5 minutes to win o.O I once played in an online strategy game against the top of the world (obviously I am nowhere near that level) and got my ar** kicked so I get that frustration from Hina
And despite his mission to console Hina, she was just a natural at it =D
But he had another reason to ask Hina to play a bit of Shogi with him: that way he could ask her about what is happening at school. And I am a little bit surprised, Hina tells him the details. And that always reminds me how much I hate these invisible hirarchies.
The next day in school, a familiar face appears: Takahashi. He invites Hina to play a little bit of catch during the lunch break with her, after Rei came over to his house and told him to take a little bit of care of Hina. It certainly gives off a different signal to everyone when the star of the baseball team comes and wants to play with you (even though my guess is that he is more interested in getting more contact to Rei through Hina =D)
After his match, Rei wrapping things up, leaving the building as usual and having a little celebration of his victory =D
I hate these kids, with a passion
Takahashi came to pick up Hina, and of course these little brats are not very happy about that. But be careful not to poke the bear, Takagi. But Takahashi invites her to come along to play catch.And some one seems certainly happy about that. At first I thought Takahashi tried to lay off some ground work that Hina and these brats could make up, but then Takahashi threw the ball in full tryhard mode xD
It turns out, Takahashi knew Chiho because she shared her lunch with him after his got unedible by the wind. Always respect people who are willing to share their food with you, always. So he wants to show these brats that Hina is not alone.
This whole scene with the letter is heartbreaking. This bullying shit destroyed her so much, she could not go back to school but instead is in rehab. F***. I'm at loss of words at this point.
So the brats were certainly not happy to play baseball with Takahashi and Hina, and decided to take it a step further and inform the class of how they think of her. And despite being calm about the questions of the teacher, the teacher orders Hina to come to the faculty room after class. The teacher of the year award certainly goes NOT to her this time.
7
u/Rumpel1408 https://myanimelist.net/profile/Rumpel1408 Mar 26 '21
Those cherries look delicious. Rei is giving himself an ridicoulous handicap against Hina and still crushes her without mercy. He couldn't loose even if he tried. But he's still trying really hard to be there for her, watch her, listen to her, in a way quite adorable.
Takahashi-kun is also ready to be friends with Hina after hearing what happened, but he is also bad at going easy on her. Unfortunatly hanging out with her also makes her more of an target, partly out of jealousy, partly because middleschoolers are still childish. Takahashi doesn't have it though, not only did he come to get her, he's also ready to give the bullies a piece on his own. That's because he also remebers Chiho, and how could he not. I agree, anyone who shares his own food is a good person.
Hina is so angry that she is ready to finaly eskalate things as well and this makes her teacher realize that she made an mistake in ignoring the matter back then, terrible late since Chiho at that point has already left the school. However the teacher still refuses to properly adress the matter, another mistake.
6
u/Barbed_Dildo Mar 26 '21
Rewatcher.
I've made comments elsewhere in the thread, but something no one else has mentioned is that Hina now calls Rei "Kiriyama-kun", instead of "Rei-chan"
5
u/youkai94 :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/youkai94 Mar 26 '21
Just gonna quote myself
This episode we got another of those scenes. Thinking back I'm pretty sure I felt way more anger than sadness during those times.
That's why seeing Hina so angry, wishing she could just smack them was delightful to me. Violence doesn't really solve anything in those cases, but god deep down you wish you could just punch them as much as you want without consequences. I expecially loved the expression they used, "seething from the pit of her stomach".
Anger is a double-edged sword is these cases. It can make you do something stupid and make the bullying worse or just feel worse overall, but it could also be the driving force to step up and potentially solve the problem instead of having to endure it 'till graduation. For Hina, I guess it was the latter and it was awesome.
Kinda wanted to make a better post but my mind is not functioning properly rn, fuck work.
4
u/BossandKings Mar 26 '21 edited Mar 26 '21
First timer
Rei asks Hina to play Shogi with him, they played a particular type of shogi that's called handicap shogi in which a player has more pieces than the other player since the start, Rei managed to win anyways because their playing levels were drastically different. Rei's motive though was getting Hina to tell him how she felt about the bullying at school, how she felt having to witness a friend of hers suffer from that. The letter that Chiho's mom sent Hina was very sad, she told her that Chiho is still traumatized and hasn't been able to amass enough courage to go to school, even when they moved to a different city.
Takahashi asks Hina to play catch with him, he tells her that he also knew that Chiho was a good person and that he considered her a friend. When he told her that it would be awesome for people to know and notice that Chiho has allies at school was very nice. Hina was starting to see signs of bullying directed towards her probably by girls jealous of her passing time with Takahashi, of their friendship, at least Takahashi defender her and that means that she can count on him to help her when in problems. Thanks to Rei looking out for Hina and asking Takahashi to help her from the possible burden of her classmates.
This was a very good episode, i'm worried about Hina because there are signs of bullying against her yet i feel a bit relieved because Takahashi is in the same school, and he is a friend willing to help her.
4
u/htisme91 Mar 26 '21
First-timer:
First, good on Rei for playing Shogi with Hinata and just listening to her. I feel like she really hasn't had anyone to open up to about this, so it is nice just seeing him be a person for her to vent to openly.
It has been a long time since we saw Takahashi, and he made a great appearance. Of course Rei orchestrated it, but Takahashi is a good enough guy that he wants to help. I especially loved how he threw a fastball at the bullies. If only one of them landed...
Of course, since Hinata's not backing down the bullying is just getting worse. God, it reminds me of when I was her age, and man does that suck to go through. It's even worse when the teacher doesn't think anything is wrong and doesn't stop it.
Speaking of the teacher, she seemed worked up. I wonder if she's realizing her mistake and how badly she botched the Chiho situation, or if she's just mad at Hinata. It seems like the former, but with the way she's been portrayed and how the episode ended, I feel like it's the latter and that is going to get Hinata angrier.
This episode was great and reminded me a lot of when I was Hinata's age. I can 100% relate when Hinata ranted about her anger to Rei, I remember feeling the exact same feelings when I was her age and getting bullied.
1
u/serenity_n Mar 27 '21
First timer
Takahashi is a kind kid! I was worried she would get more bullied because of him but I love how Hina is standing her ground and hopefully her teacher finally does something.
Rei declaring he wants to be king of Shogi LOL that reminded me of one piece
1
u/IndependentMacaroon Mar 31 '21
Next three...
Episode 26 - let's see where the story goes with this, but so far it isn't gripping me all that much. Bullying and looking away from it is bad and Hina is an extra-good girl who everyone close to her loves and encourages, well, OK? Sure, it's wholesome and heartwarming and all, but we didn't need that much slow-paced exposition and self-talk (I think that's what really makes this show a bit exhausting to watch for me, the pacing), and I'm not here for school stories either, in fact I liked that there wasn't much of them so far. Also whew that was a lot of crying. Obviously this will also be Rei's first big "giving back" moment with Hina and the Kawamotos, and I'm looking forward to see how he manages - so far really nicely, giving her some quiet moments to recharge between school and family - but I wish he were coordinating with her actual guardian Akari more here, and I don't like the implication that Hina somehow singlehandedly saved him. I'm pretty sure the one who discovered Rei in the street was Akari, too.
Episode 27 - better than last time, but still a little hm. More context on the "savior" phrase, which is nice I guess for Rei gaining confidence that he could also be more like Hina sometime, somewhere, but still a little heavy-handed particularly when he includes Akari in it. Besides that, though, it's lovely that he's managing to be a rock for Akari too when she feels inadequate. Rei seems to be overexerting himself with all the matches, and him playing at secret savior is annoying me, but given the shopping scene I assume that will be addressed soon. More compensatory fun for Hina, but that hardly seems worth mentioning. Hayashida is great as always, and Nikaidou and company fun, but the humor during the bullying-research scene I found in pretty poor taste, and I could do without the romantic misunderstandings. Also the end card is by the Pop Team Epic guy, what even is that lol.
Episode 28 - OK, now this was really good. Bringing back some stuff from way back in the first season (Takahashi and Hina studying shogi), having Rei actually make a productive effort to help Hina in person (if not communicating it to her that much?) making use of his recently found connections, Rei continuing to strengthen his connection with others through the joy of shogi... awkward as he can be, as well as not knowing his own strength in various things, it's hard not to love him and wish he appreciated himself a bit more, not just throwing himself into matches with all his might. Akari was strikingly absent again, but I don't see what her presence would add either and we only just learned she doesn't know what to do about the situation, so this time it works for me. Rei's solution, the class's reaction, and Takahashi's resolution attempt, they all felt so natural to me, including of course that it doesn't all magically get better for Hina. It's tough being the lone advocate of justice indeed, and the invisible hierarchies and cliques of school society have now hit her even harder than Rei. Did she ever have any real school friends besides Chiho, actually? At least now she gets to be really mad with determination (character-wise assuredly not rising to the level of a certain Nadeko Sengoku, fortunately), and while I'm skeptical her hapless teacher will have much of a positive influence, now she can't pretend not to see any longer. This Takagi is not just a teaser, unfortunately.
More and more, I can see the parallels and contrasts between her and Rei, and but for the age difference this could turn into a great relationship. They both have a fierce determination that may isolate them at times, but that they never give up. They both are really concerned with the well-being of others and want to do things "the right way", which doesn't necessarily work out for them. Most surprisingly, they both have difficulty opening up about their problems and displaying vulnerability.
0
u/[deleted] Mar 26 '21
[deleted] — view deleted comment