Ending didn't do anything for me. Felt a bit... uh... Scooby-Doo almost. The villain sorta... loses all composure at the end. The twist was interesting although not entirely unpredictable given the size of the cast, but it relies on Shion specifically remembering the hair color of her parent's murder wrong. Maybe it's a detail that wasn't as apparent in the manga. Actually, apparently that's still ongoing, I have no idea what to make of that. Seemed a pretty definite stopping point to me.
For a series about Shogi it doesn't seem to be very much about Shogi for much more than a Backdrop. They're obviously playing Shogi for most of the series, but what they're doing often doesn't seem to be very important other than revealing character traits. The obvious contrast is Hikaru no Go, which I think features the game more than Shion no Ou centers around Shogi. I dunno if it's worse off for it.
I do have to say that the series is pretty geographically isolated. You don't really get to see much more than Shion's house, the police station (well, some desks in a police station), occasionally some train trips, and a whole lot of the same shogi room (more or less) in the same shogi center.
I tossed it for space after I finished. It was worth finishing, but it's not something I'd probably watch again.
