March Comes in Like a Lion

Living alone in a sparse Tokyo riverside apartment, seventeen-year-old professional shogi player Rei Kiriyama drifts through clinical numbness until three sisters—Akari, Hinata, and Momo Kawamoto—welcome him to their dinner table. Akiyuki Shinbo and Shaft render both isolation and warmth vividly. Reaches towering dramatic heights in Season 2's middle-school bullying arc as Hinata Kawamoto refuses to regret standing by a friend. Visualizes depression through submerged water imagery while rendering the Kawamoto kitchen in watercolor warmth. Humanizes aging shogi veterans like Shimada, Nikaidou, and Yanagihara without needing viewers to know shogi rules. Avoids melodramatic shortcuts, letting Rei earn belonging one shared meal and tournament match at a time.