March Comes in Like a Lion, Volume 1

by Chica Umino

Overview

Rei Kiriyama is a child prodigy. Rei Kiriyama is also an orphan who lives alone in an empty apartment. Rei Kiriyama is a teen working in an adult's world. Life is complicated for Rei. He's an up-and-coming shogi (Japanese chess) player on the verge of turning pro but he has no homelife or much of a life period outside his board game but thankfully with the help of some life-long friends he has an opportunity start all over again.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781634428125
Publisher:	DENPA LLC
Publication date:	06/06/2023
Series:	Sangatsu no Lion
Pages:	186
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.10(h) x (d)
Age Range:	13 - 17 Years

About the Author

Chica Umino is one of the most decorated and best-selling authors in modern day Japan. She is the first comic artist to win the manga grand slam, having taken the Tezuka Prize, the Manga Gran Prix, the Kodansha Award and the Japan Media Arts Award. She broke through with her hit series Honey & Clover (Viz Media). Outside of her comic work, she has provided character designs for the Eden of the East television series and the Fate/Grand Order video game franchise

Editorial Reviews

04/01/2023

Gr 8 Up—Seventeen-year-old Rei Kiriyama is a prodigious shogi (also known as Japanese chess) player who turned pro in junior high. With a rank that now requires him to play 30 to 40 tournament matches per year, and living alone in a mostly empty apartment, Rei has little free time for anything besides training; he thinks of going pro as "jumping onto a train that never stops…not until you lose." In this first volume of the series, which was adapted into an acclaimed anime, Rei gradually peels back the layers of his past, from the loss of his parents and sister in a fatal automobile accident to his meeting Akari, a hostess at a bar who found Rei passed out one night and began inviting him over to share meals with her grandfather and younger sisters. Readers meet some of Rei's competitors as well, including Harunobu Nikaido, his rival and self-proclaimed best friend (Nikaido has an unnamed illness that affects his kidneys, and other characters comment on his diet and body shape; he is described in a chapter endnote as being modeled after real-life shogi player Satoshi Murayama). While readers familiar with shogi will especially appreciate the detailed looks at game boards and players' moves, the foregrounding of players' emotions in the visuals ensures that all readers will be able to follow the excitement of the matches. Umino's expressive artwork effectively steers the book's tone between moments of action and comedy and moments where Rei feels his sense of isolation acutely. VERDICT A character-driven story about the complex emotions that turn players into competitors, recommended for gamers and fans of sports manga.—Andrew Eliopulos

School Library Journal