March comes in like a lion: Story, Cast and Series Facts

Story and premise

Having reached professional status in middle school, Rei Kiriyama is one of the few elite in the world of shogi. Due to this, he faces an enormous amount of pressure, both from the shogi community and his adoptive family. Seeking independence from his tense home life, he moves into an apartment in Tokyo. As a 17-year-old living on his own, Rei tends to take poor care of himself, and his reclusive personality ostracizes him from his peers in school and at the shogi hall.

However, not long after his arrival in Tokyo, Rei meets Akari, Hinata, and Momo Kawamoto, a trio of sisters living with their grandfather who owns a traditional wagashi shop. Akari, the oldest of the three girls, is determined to combat Rei's loneliness and poorly sustained lifestyle with motherly hospitality. The Kawamoto sisters, coping with past tragedies, also share with Rei a unique familial bond that he has lacked for most of his life. As he struggles to maintain himself physically and mentally through his shogi career, Rei must learn how to interact with others and understand his own complex emotions.

Series details

• Title: March comes in like a lion
• Format: Animation
• Language: Japanese
• Genres: Drama, Comedy, Anime
• Premiere date: 2016-10-08
• Final broadcast date listed: 2018-03-31
• Status in TVmaze: Ended
• Network listed by TVmaze: NHK
• Network country: Japan
• Typical episode runtime: 25 minutes
• TVMaze ID: 19237
• IMDb ID: tt6074794
• TVDB ID: 306269

Cast and credited roles

• Misaki Kuno — Momo Kawamoto
• Kana Hanazawa — Hinata Kawamoto
• Ai Kayano — Akari Kawamoto
• Kengo Kawanishi — Rei Kiriyama
• Marina Inoue — Kyōko Kōda
• Nobuhiko Okamoto — Harunobu Nikaidō
• Shigeru Chiba — Sōmeiji Kawamoto
• Shinichiro Miki — Kai Shimada
• Subaru Kimura — Issa Matsumoto
• Takahiro Sakurai — Takashi Hayashida
• Tomokazu Sugita — Tatsuyuki Misumi
• Tōru Ōkawa — Masachika Kōda

Seasons in the TVmaze catalogue

• Season 1: premiered 2016-10-08; final listed air date 2017-03-18; episode order: 22.
• Season 2: premiered 2017-10-14; final listed air date 2018-03-31; episode order: 22.

Source and licence

Adapted from March comes in like a lion on TVmaze. The synopsis is reproduced as plain text; catalogue facts, cast and season records are selected and reformatted. This adapted text is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, following the TVmaze API licence. Network and web-channel credits identify the service listed in this source; they do not establish current streaming availability.