Kyouko Kouda

March Comes in Like a Lion Season 2 is a quiet, deeply human drama from Studio Shaft. Akiyuki Shinbo directed it with co-director Kenjirou Okada. It aired from October 2017 to March 2018 and has 22 episodes. The story comes from the award-winning manga by Chica Umino, who also created Honey and Clover. Her manga has run in Hakusensha's Young Animal magazine since 2007 and has won the Manga Taisho and the Kodansha Manga Award. Crunchyroll later named the anime one of the best 100 anime of the 2010s. The story is about shogi, a Japanese board game that is similar to chess. The main character, Rei Kiriyama, became a professional shogi player while he was still in middle school, which is very rare. His parents and little sister died in an accident when he was a child. A shogi master who knew his father then took him in. Life in that foster home was painful, and Rei left to live alone in a mostly empty apartment in Tokyo. He is very skilled, but for a long time he did not know why he kept playing. He was lonely, tired, and sad. What changes Rei's world is a family who lives nearby: the three Kawamoto sisters. Akari, the oldest, is warm and motherly and loves to feed people. Hinata, the middle sister, is a lively middle school girl with strong feelings. Momo, the youngest, is a small child full of energy. They welcome Rei into their home, share meals with him, and treat him like one of the family. With them, he slowly learns what it feels like to belong. In season 2, Rei is in his second year of high school. At school, he has found a place in a small club and has a caring teacher, Mr. Hayashida, who loves shogi too. In the shogi world, the matches get harder, and he keeps meeting strong, interesting players. His friendly rival Harunobu Nikaido, a boy with a big heart and poor health, is always by his side. His older foster sister, Kyoko, still shows up and makes things complicated. A large part of this season is about Hinata. She faces a painful problem at her school, and the story treats it with real care and honesty. Rei, who once felt helpless, now wants to protect someone else. This storyline shows how kindness and courage can make a difference, even when the answer is not simple. The show uses beautiful, dreamy art, with soft watercolor colors and creative scenes that show how the characters feel inside. It is slow and thoughtful, but it also has plenty of gentle humor, cute cats, and delicious-looking food at the Kawamoto house. You do not need to know shogi to enjoy it. The games are really about the people who play them. Its themes are depression, healing, family, and learning to lean on others. It is one of the highest-rated drama anime on AniList. Watch the first season before this one.