An introduction of 'March Comes in Like a Lion (3月のライオン)': New manga series from the creator of 'Honey and Clover'

So Umino Chika (羽海野チカ), the manga artist who produced Honey and Clover, has started a new series on Young Animal magazine. The title of her new series is March Comes in Like a Lion (3月のライオン). As you may well imagine, there is something behind this strange title:

Apparently, there is a Japanese movie directed by Yazaki Hitoshi that is also called March Comes in Like a Lion (1991). In the movie, there is a line that goes like this:

三月は、氷の季節と花の季節にはさまれた嵐の季節、獅子の目覚めるとき。
March is the season of storms caught between the season of water and the season of flower, the time when the lion wakes.

Lovely line, is it not? It may be a reference to the English old saying: March comes in like a lion, and goes out like a lamb.

I have skimped through the first two chapters quickly and I like what I see so far. The plot goes like this:

Kiriyama Rei is a 17-year-old young genius at shougi. He has just won a match against his old master. However, he is very introverted and socially awkward. His name Rei - meaning 'zero' - seems to refer to the fact that he has nothing. He has no family, few friends, and no place to which he belongs. However, he is the acquaintance of a family consisting of a young woman, Akari, and two young girls, Mono and Hinata. He deliberately goes to a high school where there is no shougi club. He has something that passes for friendship with a teacher at his high school, and with a rich young man who is something of a rival at shougi.

It seems to me that it is a slice-of-life story about finding one's ibasho ('the place where one belongs') in this world. Anyway, let us hope that this will be adapted into an anime series. I seriously think this has the potential to exceed even Honey and Clover.

(I am not sure if the manga story bears any reference to the 1991 movie though. I gather that the movie is a story of incest: A younger sister is in love with her elder brother. The elder brother lost his memory and she lies to him that they are actually lovers. Then they begin to live together as lovers...)