(Average) March Comes In Like A Lion

NOTE: Watched season 1.

Series in one sentence:
Imagine a world where people are going wild over Japanese chess.

Series in more sentences:
A young orphan with a talent for "shogi" received small fame status after becoming an early professional, though he struggles the more he plays and wonders if the game even brings him happiness.
After having experienced many negative events, he's become a silent pessimist who can't recognize a friend when he's made one.

I don't know what to think. Some episodes make me feel like "Yeah, now we're on a roll!", but the majority doesn't excite me or turn me off. I just keep watching, because I was given at least one scene in the last episode that was interesting enough to make me do so.

I like the general story, many of the characters even, but there's often so much time in between their appearances that they hardly seem important to the main character. Why do we have 2 or 3 episodes of the boy hanging out with a certain person, where everything is cool and fun, but then 2 or 3 episodes where they're completely absent?

The anime occasionally impresses me with its interesting portrayal of depression and self-doubt, I very much believe that the main character has issues, but then it downplays him and his feelings by inserting all these "lulzy" exaggerated comedic scenes. They feel misplaced to me.
The humor in this anime is non-existent; it doesn't exist out of jokes or clever writing, just loud talking/fake fighting, and pulling funny faces. Animes often use this method to establish a relationship they apparently can't set up using an actual script, I noticed.

I read there's a second season, but my Netflix doesn't have it. Based on what I've seen, I'm not going to check out the rest. The series is too "alright", and I don't get up for alrights in the morning. The characters and interactions I want to see hardly make an appearance, so why should I come back.

If the anime took itself seriously and put real focus on the people in this boy's life, it would've been an emotional masterpiece, I'm sure.