March Comes In Like a Lion — Ending Explained

Season 1: Breaking the Frozen Surface
Rei Kiriyama lives in an austere Tokyo apartment, playing professional shogi mechanically to survive after alienating his foster family. Flashbacks reveal that following his biological family’s death, his foster siblings Kyouko and Ayumu grew resentful as Rei surpassed them in shogi, leading to their father favoring Rei and destroying household harmony. To stop inflicting pain, Rei left home. Across Season 1, the warmth of the Kawamoto sisters and the persistent friendship of Harunobu Nikaido and Kai Shimada gradually chip away at his emotional wall. Rei joins Shimada’s shogi study workshop, learning to respect the vulnerability of veteran players and recognizing that he is not fighting alone on the board.

Season 2: Fighting for Others & The Bully Arc
The second season shifts focus to Hinata, who is bullied at school after standing up for a tormented classmate. When the classmate transfers away, the bullies target Hinata, while the homeroom teacher ignores the abuse. Instead of regressing into despair, Hinata declares she has no regrets about defending her friend. Rei is shaken to his core and resolves to dedicate his shogi earnings, intellectual energy, and presence to protecting Hinata. With the help of high school teacher Takashi Hayashida and school interventionist Mr. Kokubu, the bullying is methodically resolved.

Parallel to this, Rei witnesses grandmaster matches: Sakutaro Yanagihara defends his Kishou title against Shimada, demonstrating the immense spiritual dignity of aging professionals. Later, Rei plays against the legendary, deaf Meijin Raido/Souya, discovering a rare, transcendent kinship through the silent language of shogi.

The anime concludes with the return of the Kawamotos' selfish, absent father, Seijiro, who tries to force the sisters to accept his new mistress and move away. Rei directly intervenes, exposing Seijiro’s hypocrisy and declaring his commitment to standing beside the Kawamoto family as their steadfast ally. The season finishes with Rei walking confidently forward—no longer drowning, but firmly grounded in community and purpose.

The Reality vs. Defense Mechanism of the Kawamotos: Some critical analyses propose that the almost angelic, fairy-tale gentleness of the Kawamoto home in the initial episodes is partially filtered through Rei’s starved, romanticized perception of familial warmth. Only in Season 2, as their domestic crises, financial hardships, and unresolved maternal grief are exposed, does Rei see them as real, flawed, and struggling individuals rather than just saviors.

Shogi as Survival vs. Addiction: Another reading debates whether Rei’s bond with shogi is fundamentally therapeutic or a form of psychological escapism. While shogi provides financial autonomy, it also serves as an emotional fortress isolating him from peers. His growth lies not in mastering the game, but in learning to separate his self-worth from his win-loss record.