This Anime Captured Loneliness

Let's talk about a certain word I feel like it relates a lot to this video see this word is called sonder the word sonder indicates a profound feeling that everyone from your close relatives to The Strangers you see on the street has a life as detailed and complex as your own it's a bit of an umbrella term it's a term that really ties into the.

Psychological Concepts tailored to our well-being and now if you look at this frame for March comes in like a lion our characters always seem to be staring out into the vast World filled with towering buildings and overbearing lights and in a sense they are kind of collapsing under the pressures of their own situations every step of the way you.

Start to feel real affinity for these characters both young and old regardless of who they are they all have their own issues and we as the audience can understand the situations and the sort thematic of the show but the real question is will the characters themselves feel this way about one another.

What if you're new to the channel subscribe means a lot so off the bat we are introduced to Rey this guy seems really really quiet like the whole atmosphere is quiet why are we spending so long staring at a bottle with green tea why is the patient so slow why is the kid frowning all the.

Time like he kind of looks constipated hello everyone welcome to Jake's Drawing Tutorials today we're going to be drawing Ray kiriyama let's proceed ah but yeah this all really does have a meaning so welcome to much comes in like a lion a manga slash anime written by chica umino that's a pen name see chica is.

Interesting because her work is really grounded and it usually explores relationships in a very close to home environment which we'd consider The Slice of Life genre to be and this manga slash anime is all about a 17 year old boy called Rey kiriyama who seemingly has nothing going on in his life except for playing shogi and contemplating his.

Own existence I mean it sounds like a good time to be fair but why shogi out of all things well why not I mean it was either this or boxing yeah that's actually that's actually true but on the surface you might feel the inclusion of shogi is a little random given our character's demeanor but the more you think about it the more.

Perfect it really becomes and for context shogi is like a really old board game um it's very similar to chess it's like the Japanese equivalent essentially that's the best way I can explain it but what's really important about shogi in this like what effect does it actually have on our characters well in any good writing any good literature they use a.

Lot of connotative imagery and it's always really good having assets involved in your story that can expand on the thematic as well as having really good characters and a lot of them derive of Rey's continued fight against loneliness see all of these people all of these characters they all possess some form of issue whether it be kind of.

Family relationships or physical health it's a mix of things and it's very much like in the real world hence Slice of Life now off the bat you don't need to understand shogi like at all to understand the series I mean I didn't I kind of still don't I'm smooth rainbow I I can't I don't remember how it works but there's a really great scene in.

Episode 7 of season 1 which is more revealing than just a simple explanation of this board game see Rey is supported a lot by the family of sisters zakari and Hina and Momo and their granddad and akari takes a motherly approach to Rey she and the other sisters can pretty much see straight through him and they very delicately tend to his needs and he.

Kind of does to them as well like they both help each other so in episode 7 Hina and Momo are taught how to play this board game I mean the word taught is kind of questionable see they're initially taught by Rey now Rey is kind of a board game Prodigy like it's kind of established to us like he's just ridiculously good at it and though he.

Had to work really hard to get where he is thanks to his dad he seems to lack the understanding that he's talking to people who know nothing about the game he kind of refers to it as the language of shogi and just gives them a really really convoluted explanation of how the game works and understandably it goes straight over their heads because.

They're not robots and so the game goes on to be explained by haranobu another shogi player who friends Ray despite Rey's initial wishes and he's pretty much like the binary opposite of Rey where like Rey is really like introverted and withdrawn but paranoboo is like just out there and extroverted and just super excitable he's not as.

Good as Ray but what relax in a lot of things harunoby really makes up for and vice versa they teach each other thing and Harry Nobu explains the game in a way the girls can understand using kittens to represent the play in pieces and on the surface this just seems like that they're just teaching the girls how to play shogi and you learn along with.

Them but it's a lot more than that see what it's doing is actually establishing the goals of our characters see it gives Rey some incentive to actually open up to people and what makes harunobu such a great addition to the story is because he plays a major role in Rey's development alongside the majority of people Rey meets in the world and she.

Raised reasons for why he continues to play shogi is a lot more different from the aspiring people around him though he explains his reasons to these people in a superficial way they can understand he still finds it really difficult to explain it to the fullest and it's not just because he can't put the words together it's physically because he.

Can't bring himself to tell people to be open to people to tell people his feelings he's closed off and he establishes that it's just a really overbearing thought I'm really pressuring thought to open up to people and to tell them about his feelings and at one point when he actually explains his reasons for playing shogi in a kind.

Of shoehorned way that still gets interpreted in the way he wanted it to be interpreted he almost comes close to tears it just blows his mind I think that's his first taste really of opening up to someone and ultimately what really drives Rey isn't just about winning though he obviously you know he doesn't want to lose I mean he even obliterates.

An old man who's basically dedicated his entire life to the game just to walk in and get absolutely destroyed by a 17 year old you know I think Rey might be the actual villain of this story see what really drives Rey and the story is finding a purpose and persevering regardless of his past and the title of the story.

Itself refers to an Old English saying March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb what this saying really means is that when March comes around that's kind of the cusp of winter it's kind of the very end of it ordering on the spring and then things start warming up obviously much comes in like a lion they kind of cut off the other bit.

Because I feel like it would have made the theme a little bit too obvious but it's still representative of the story Rey is this cold figure very introverted very closed off to people throughout the story it's it's transitioning it's his development to open up a lot more and that is represented through the months through the seasons through the weather.

The months and the weather itself just perfectly aligns with Rey's character development if you know me I have to talk about the art style because it's gorgeous see the art style was inspired by fosako kurimochi and Moto hagio I don't know if I'll ever get these names right maybe I did maybe I didn't we move you know what I mean but Moto hagio was.

The real reason chica adopted her own painterly technique and the art in this series just goes really hand in hand with chica's personal way of telling stories it's a very soft and graceful look almost as though it's made of watercolors and it's perfect because on the outside it appears quite Sumptuous much like the characters in the story.

It's good looking on the outside but on the inside is where the story lies and with Rey we're kind of presented with someone who's a blank canvas someone who's really closed off to not just the characters in the series but also the audience see we can obviously tell Rey is carrying a massive burden not just from how he interacts with other.

Characters but the way he perceives the world and amazingly to us we can physically see this because it's animation and you can get really creative when you have messed up characters because you can draw the world in that way and this is one of those times where internal monologue is used really well in a narrative and.

Keeps you on the sideline despite being in our character's head in both the metaphase physical world and the rule the cool thing about this show is that each chapter always starts on a poetic piece of dialogue it usually describes a positive aspect of life a piece of momentary Bliss which Rey in that moment finds beautiful or before turning to.

Rain and sorrow I think Rey just has this really good skill at going oh that looks pretty it's gonna die one day but it really does capture this very real idea of loneliness and subsequently depression we're being presented with small Snippets and insights into Rey's unique perspective on life but never given the.

Full picture until later on again good Rider and this is just the foundational show don't tell technique I mean it is telling but like in a different way in cryptic words kind of poetic holiday slide even in his own head his worlds are still grounded in reality it's not like he's been taken somewhere else somewhere nicer ultimately he's.

Surrounded by what's the most scary thing to him and this being reality it's the pressures of life and everything around it and having to deal with such a wide array of situations and emotions which manifest itself into this visual representation of the ocean is such a fantastic way to represent anxiety because it's literal pressure and this.

Is something I've actually been inspired by to incorporate in my own work it's a little shot here I've done on a little documentary of my friend really the essence of a loneliness can be told in so many different ways and has in so many different mediums but when it comes to representing this loneliness I'd go on a limb and say March comes in like a.

Lion is just one of the most effective stories in its approach this is just because nothing is really sugar coated all of these aspects are very much grounded and the pacing is kept so slow to really Propel the importance of introspection another series slash manga I and a lot of other people would compare this to would be your lie in.

April there are similarities and both do have their merits but I really preferred how march approaches platonic and family relationships which is something we don't see all that much in comparison to the more romantic side of your line ape honestly I couldn't choose one or the other I love them both for their own reasons much comes in like a lion is the.

Perfect package it takes the visuals thematic elements character writing and combines them into this fantastic Journey a transition from a very cold and dreary world to a warmer hopeful place but if you haven't watched or read this series I will always recommend it but I've than that thank you so much for watching this video feel free to.

Subscribe if you enjoyed it and if you're new and other than that take care

Sharing is caring!