March comes in like a lion

Episode 42

Smiles and sunshine reign supreme in this week's extraordinarily fluffy episode of March comes in like a lion. With both Rei and Hina having triumphed over their immediate social and emotional conflicts, they were able to fully enjoy their lives this week, carrying on the familial tone and general warmth of last week's summer festival. It was some thoroughly earned and confidently executed downtime, allowing March to demonstrate how it's improved as a slice-of-life series over its years of production.

The episode's first half occupied a farcical, uptempo tone that's been one of March's most inconsistent modes in the past. The show has often fumbled when it comes to this style of goofy comedy, with its labored pacing lacking the punch and brevity necessary to make little visual asides or multi-step gags work. That fortunately wasn't the case this week, as Rei and the Kawamotos' trip to the shogi science club's noodle flume ending up being both endearing and funny.

There wasn't any one single thing that made this sequence work; it was a combination of emotional payoff, narrative purpose, and individually well-executed moments. The sequence's basic concept made it an emotionally satisfying event for both Rei and Hina; not only did it demonstrate how much the two have come to rely on each other, but it also paid Rei's happiness with the shogi science club forward, letting his hard-fought high school friendships comfort Hina in turn. March is often unfocused in terms of how all its various narratives line up, so I appreciated this rare bit of narrative congruity, with the dramatic payoff of Rei's shogi science club both comforting and pointing a new way forward in Hina's story. And in terms of execution, the brevity and visual pacing of gags like Rei's mustachioed classmate repeatedly being mistaken for a teacher or performing a dramatic windup only to lightly drop noodles down the chute were solid and rewarding. As Rei's story continues to take a turn for the better, it's nice to see March improving in its portrayal of the lighter side of life.

The episode's second half shifted from perky, joke-peppered slice of life to atmospheric, contemplative slice of life, as we jumped a full half year forward to witness Hina prepping for her entrance exams. Given how slowly March has explored each step of Rei's adolescence so far, I was surprised to see such a casual time-skip; pretty much our only constant in terms of pacing-wise for March has been "methodical", so seeing that rule of thumb discarded felt like a pretty momentous shift. But even that jump ultimately seems like a positive thing for Rei and Hina; they appear to have pushed past feeling like every day is a struggle, and they now possess enough security in their lives for months to actually slip by.

Unexpected time skips aside, the content of this segment mostly just emphasized what exceedingly good kids and great friends Rei and Hina are. Rei's excitement upon hearing about Hina wanting to attend his school, and Hina's anxieties about forcing her grandfather to work for her tuition, basically just underlined our understanding of these characters, but that understanding can always use more underlining. These kids have suffered through depression and bullying and isolation and self-hatred and paralyzing doubt, and with just two more episodes to go, I'm happy to see them simply enjoy each other's company in the Kawamoto living room. March has punished these kids plenty, and like Hina, I am ready to see them pampered instead.

Overall: B

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.