Episode 8

"Teach Me How to Play Shogi/Image/Distant Thunder" is episode 8 of the anime adaptation of Sangatsu No Lion.

Synopsis
Turns out the book Nikaido uses is one he wrote and illustrated himself to be published and distributed amongst family. The kids loved his interpretation, but Rei feels excluded afterward. Nikaido invites himself over to Rei's house for the night and gifts Rei a bed.

Rei struggles understanding where Nikaido gets his energy and drive from. Rei admires Nikaido for it, but feels suffocated by it in Nikaido's presence. He goes onto feel disgusted with himself for feeling such a way. He wonders what his biological father would say to him right now. Rei remembers he is standing in the shogi world the way his father wanted to. He finds Kyouko waiting for him outside his apartment.

Rei references a time he saw dry lightning in the middle of the day, and how it undeniably brought a storm after it. Kyouko forces Rei to let her inside. She mentions to Rei that they lived under the same roof for ten years, yet she feels she knows little about him. She tells him to move back home to make their dad happier. Rei asks Kyouko if she got in a fight with their father and if she is still with a particular guy, she reveals she has been bouncing around places to sleep. She comes over, holding Rei's face between her palms saying she is glad Gotou didn't leave a scar on Rei's face. She tells Rei she is willing to stab her boyfriend in his sleep if he ever became violent with her.

Morning, Kyouko mentions Rei's match against an elderly man that has played shogi for years, even against their father. Kyouko says graphically compares Rei possibly winning the match to strangling a senile dog. She claims to assume Rei is such a nice guy that he would throw the match. Those are her final words to Rei before leaving him alone to dwell on those words.