Television series

March comes in like a lion

Name: March comes in like a lion
Genre: Drama, Comedy, Anime
Released: 2016
Cast: Misaki Kuno, Kana Hanazawa, Ai Kayano, Kengo Kawanishi, Marina Inoue

A depressed teenage shogi prodigy, estranged from his adoptive family, gets slowly coaxed back to life by three orphaned sisters who feed him and refuse to let him disappear. It's gorgeous, unhurried, and genuinely about grief and loneliness rather than the game itself — shogi is the excuse, not the point. Best watched patiently, in a low light, when you want something tender rather than fast.

If you liked this

Hyouka2012

Same unhurried KyoAni patience, same trust that small gestures carry real weight. If you fell for the show's quiet pacing and clean, melancholy visuals, this scratches exactly that itch.

But Much lower emotional stakes — it's a mystery club, not a study of grief, so it can feel slight by comparison.

A Silent Voice: The Movie2016

Guilt, isolation, and the terrifying difficulty of letting people back in, told with the same visual delicacy. One of the most emotionally exact films about loneliness anime has produced.

But It's a single sitting of concentrated heaviness — no episodic breathing room, and the bullying subject matter is rough.

Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso2014no page yet

A wounded prodigy, a found family of loud, loving oddballs, and a performance-based art form standing in for emotional expression — the parallels to Rei's story are almost uncanny.

But Leans harder into melodrama and tragedy than March ever does; some find it manipulative rather than moving.

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Searching for Bobby Fischer1993no page yet

Same central nerve — a young genius crushed by expectation inside a competitive mind-game — but filtered through a completely different era, culture, and adult gaze.

A live-action American film from decades before March existed, built on the exact same fear: what happens to a child when a mind game becomes the whole of his identity, and adults start arguing over his soul.

But Told from the parents' anxious perspective rather than the prodigy's, and its resolution is far tidier and more optimistic than March allows itself.

Chihayafuru2011

Another obsessive, beautifully drawn competitive-game anime — karuta instead of shogi — with the same obsessive attention to the psychology of competition and the friendships built around it.

But It's a much longer commitment, and leans more into sports-anime tournament structure than quiet character study.

Barakamon2014no page yet

A prickly, burnt-out young man is slowly, hilariously healed by an eccentric community that refuses to leave him alone. Warmer and funnier, but the same core mechanism.

But Considerably lighter and more comedic — if you want March's melancholy specifically, this may feel too breezy.

Мажор2014no page yet

Another lost, directionless teenage boy finding purpose through an unlikely community, this time an agricultural high school. Gentle, funny, and quietly moving in the same register.

But The stakes are lower and the tone breezier — it never digs as deep into depression or family trauma.

Hibike! Euphonium2015no page yet

Kyoto Animation's craft again, this time pointed at a school brass band, with the same gift for making ordinary striving feel enormous and the ensemble cast feel truly lived-in.

But More ensemble-driven and less interior — you don't get the same close, aching focus on one boy's inner life.

NHK ni Youkoso!2006

A much darker, funnier take on the same shut-in loneliness Rei starts with, before anyone reaches out to save him. Uncomfortable, sharp, and unexpectedly compassionate underneath the satire.

But Considerably bleaker and more cynical, with no equivalent of the Kawamoto sisters' warmth to soften it.

Bunny Drop2011no page yet

A quieter, smaller-scale story of an unlikely household forming around someone who needs looking after. If the Kawamoto kitchen scenes are your favourite thing about March, start here.

But Very low-key and slow, with almost no dramatic engine beyond domestic tenderness — some will find it too slight.

Brooklyn Castle2012no page yet

Swaps fiction for documentary and shogi for chess, but keeps March's real subject: a competitive game as a lifeline for kids whose home lives are precarious.

A documentary, not a drama, following real teenagers at a Brooklyn public school whose chess team is both their escape and their pressure cooker, funding cuts and all.

But No animation, no music swells, no neat narrative arcs — it's messier, funnier, and sadder in the unscripted way real life is.

Paddington 22017

Same emotional engine as the Kawamoto sisters' kitchen — unconditional, unglamorous hospitality rescuing someone who'd stopped expecting it — dressed in the lightest possible costume.

A wildly different register — bright, comic, British family filmmaking — built on an identical idea: a lonely outsider is saved by a household that simply decides, without asking, to love him.

But It's a children's comedy with a bear in a hat; if you want anything resembling March's melancholy or realism, this will feel like a different universe.