Losing your parents at a young age can influence your later life significantly. Luckily for the protagonist Rei, he is taken in by a family. How did it affect his life, and the relations with other people? From the creator of Honey & Clover, comes the manga "3-gatsu no Lion", a slice of life manga which incorporates dramatic elements.

As mentioned earlier, due to Rei losing his parents, his life is thrown upside down. Insecurity and loneliness plagues his everyday life, even when living in an adopted family, being shogi his only scapeway to avoid confronting his new-found life. Obviously showing talent in Shogi, he ranks up to a professional player, enabling him to move out. Next door a family composed of three sisters live, which have one thing common: both don't have parents. This will enlighten the protagonists mood through this new heartwarming and welcoming neighbours.

It may appear as the main focus of the manga lies in developing the main character as a shogi player; I rather believe it to be play a secondary role in developing and narrating Rei's everyday struggle with life, such as loneliness and his insecurities. Through interactions with different characters, the author manages to flesh out the different main characters as well as developing them subtly through heartwarming, realistic, yet human relationships including their hardships.

To lighten up the atmosphere of the story, humorous moments are introduced through personalities of certain characters, or simple, yet daily situations. The story doesn't focus entirely on Rei: besides of the background stories of secondary characters, and interactions between them, it also incorporates detailed explanations on how Shogi works, as well as providing in-depth explanations at the end of chapters of certain rules or moves on certain matches.

The characters of 3-gatsu no Lion are fleshed out well through background stories and interactions with the cast. However, character development is restricted to the main protagonist, which in turn isn't tremendous either, focusing mainly on exploring his past and behaviour. Nevertheless, through little actions, some of it can be appreciated.

One thing that must be mentioned is the fact that most secondary characters are overly too positive and bright, meaning not acting as realistic as the main characters are. Nevertheless, this in turn provides a good medium to enlighten the overall atmosphere of the manga and enhance the narrative, as I believe its objective isn't to narrate realistic stories, rather a heartwarming tale of a developing young adult.

The art style of 3-gatsu no Lion is well done. The characters are easily distinguishable from each other, even the secondary characters. It must be mentioned that the main character's design is very generic. Backgrounds are detailed and drawn when needed, though at times there were empty panels present. The succession of these panels are not displayed in the usual approach either, which is a nice change.

Overall 3-gatsu no Lion was an enjoyable read, where its main strength lay in portraying human relationships, in which Shogi played a secondary role as a medium to develop the main character. I personally found myself more intrigued in the human relationships and background stories than the game, yet readers that want to have an insight and immerse themselves in Shogi won't be disappointed, as this was shown well.

Thank you for reading.