Picking up again on the theme of sacrifice / ambition in March Comes in Like a Lion, escape/discipline is another theme that circulates throughout the series and closely mirrors the sacrifice theme. The main character's adoptive brother and sister failed to become high-level shogi players because of their lack of discipline. Instead they play video games and run away from home. Another main character, Hinata, becomes the target of bullies, lead by a girl named Takagi, who victimizes "losers" because she's afraid to work hard and test her own abilities. Some minor characters make fun of Shimada, the shogi player with stomach ulcers, taking cheap shots because they know they might never get to his level. These characters all provide the foil against which the main character and his friends' discipline and perseverance shine.
All of this sounds trite when described in words here, but for some reason the illustration/animation make the story so dramatic and relatable! I guess this is the power of a propaganda machine that is technologically advanced and saturated with both high-level infrastructure and sophisticated networks of cultural production. For example, after an episode revolving around sweets made by Hinata's family, this product - inspired by that episode - was revealed and is on sale for a limited time at Lawson, a ubiquitous convenience store chain.
The boundary between the imaginary and the real seem to blur more easily in Japan than in the U.S. I can't imagine such seamless marketing, even at the hands of Disney, which always has a heavy and plastic marketing style.
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