Farewell, My Dear Cramer

Farewell, My Dear Cramer (Japanese: さよなら私のクラマー, Hepburn: Sayonara Watashi no Kuramā) is a Japanese manga series by Naoshi Arakawa about women's association football. The manga serves as a sequel to Arakawa's 2009 work, Sayonara, Football. The series was serialized in Kodansha's Monthly Shōnen Magazine from May 2016 to December 2020, with the individual chapters were collected in fourteen tankōbon volumes. The series is published in print and in digital in North America by Kodansha Comics. An anime television series adaptation of the series by Liden Films aired from April to June 2021.

Plot

Sumire Suō and Midori Soshizaki are the stars of their respective middle school girls' soccer teams. As they graduate to high school, they end up joining an eclectic cast of other new girls at Warabi Seinan High School, with hopes of taking the school's normally poor-performing team to the top. With the help of former Nadeshiko Japan player Naoko Nōmi as their new coach, they must find a way to defeat powerful new enemies ranging from other nationally-ranked school soccer teams, to their own school's administration.

Characters

Warabi Seinan High School

Girls' Soccer Club

Nozomi Onda (恩田希, Onda Nozomi): Voiced by: Miyuri Shimabukuro; A skilled girl who played on boys' soccer teams for several years (as the main protagonist of Sayonara, Football), thinking the overall level of competition of girls' soccer teams was beneath her, until her middle-school coach convinced her to join a women's team in high school. Despite putting in little effort in practice, Nozomi is an incredibly skilled attacker who tries to stay motivated no matter the opponent.
Sawa Echizen (越前佐和, Echizen Sawa): Voiced by: Shion Wakayama; The manager of the Warabi girls' team who tries to support them from the sidelines with everything from video analysis to nutrition.
Sumire Suō (周防すみれ, Suō Sumire): Voiced by: Tomoyo Kurosawa; The captain of her middle school team despite said team winning very few matches. An incredibly fast player with little patience for the eccentricities of her teammates. She decided to join Warabi after seeing Eriko's effort during a losing match and finding a kindred spirit with her.
Midori Soshizaki (曽志崎緑, Soshizaki Midori): Voiced by: Aoi Yūki; Sumire's friend and rival throughout middle school who played on a different team, Midori decided to follow Sumire to Warabi so she would not play alone. A newspaper article calls her the #3 defensive midfielder in the nation.
Aya Shiratori (白鳥綾, Shiratori Aya): Voiced by: Shiho Kokido; An arrogant prima donna who seems to model herself after Mario Balotelli, a striker who plays incredibly close to the offside line to get scoring chances but makes multiple mistakes that frustrate her teammates.
Eriko Tase (田勢恵梨子, Tase Eriko): Voiced by: Yū Shimamura; The Captain of the Warabi Seinan girls' soccer team who struggles to keep the team together when several players leave after the team's poor performance last year. A second-year student who plays on the right wing.
Makoto Miyasaka (宮坂真琴, Miyasaka Makoto): Voiced by: Marina Yamada
Rui Kikuchi (菊池類, Kikuchi Rui): Voiced by: Rena Maeda
Ayumu Kishi (岸歩, Kishi Ayumu): Voiced by: Azumi Waki
Saori Komurasaki (小紫沙織, Komurasaki Saori): Voiced by: Misano Sakai
Noriko Okachimachi (御徒町紀子, Okachimachi Noriko): Voiced by: Anzu Haruno
Karina Kakogawa (加古川香梨奈, Kakogawa Karina): Voiced by: Rena Hasegawa
Naoko Nōmi (能見奈緒子, Nōmi Naoko): Voiced by: Yūko Kaida; The former Nadeshiko Japan player and World Cup champion who was distraught at the decline of women's soccer throughout the nation. Naoko returns to her alma mater at Warabi to act as the new coach of the women's soccer team.
Gōro Fukatsu (深津吾朗, Fukatsu Gōro): Voiced by: Junichi Suwabe; The incumbent coach of the Warabi women's soccer team who seems apathetic to their performance, spending more time burying his head in a horse racing magazine than paying attention to the team.

Boys' Soccer Club

Tetsuji Yamada (山田鉄二, Yamada Tetsuji): Voiced by: Koki Uchiyama
Kaoru Takei (竹井薫, Takei Kaoru): Voiced by: Ryōta Ōsaka
Yasuaki Tani (谷安昭, Tani Yasuaki): Voiced by: Shimba Tsuchiya
Eiken Asuka (飛鳥永建, Asuka Eiken): Voiced by: Takaya Kuroda

Fuji Daiichi Junior High School

Junpei Onda (恩田順平, Onda Junpei): Voiced by: Ryoko Shiraishi
Kōzō Samejima (鮫島幸造, Samejima Kōzō): Voiced by: Kōji Yusa

Kunogi Gakuen High School

Mizuki Kaji (梶みずき, Kaji Mizuki): Voiced by: Saori Hayami; Captain of the Kunogi girls' team who normally plays at center-forward, she has a short temper and shows little tolerance for slackers on her team. However, when her crush Ōshio Kohei is nearby, her personality flips, which Sumire used as leverage to make her join their team for the futsal tournament.
Haruna Itō (井藤春名, Itō Haruna): Voiced by: Yui Ishikawa; An attacking midfielder and gifted technical player for the Kunogi girls' team. After a practice match against Warabi, she became infatuated with Nozomi's playstyle and quickly agreed to team up with her during the futsal tournament.
Mao Tsukuda (佃真央, Tsukada Mao): Voiced by: Makoto Koichi
Kenroku Washizu (鷲巣兼六, Washizu Kenroku): Voiced by: Kazuhiro Yamaji

Urawa Hosei High School

Chika Kirishima (桐島千花, Kirishima Chika): Voiced by: Yui Makino; The ace of Urawa Hosei playing in the role of midfielder, key to the catenaccio tactic played by her team. During middle school was in the same team of Soshizaki and resent her for joining a rival team in high school.
Yū Tenma (天馬夕, Tenma Yū): Voiced by: Aika Kobayashi
Alice Adatara (安達太良アリス, Adatara Arisu): Voiced by: Hiroko Kiso
Kei Hanabusa (花房圭, Hanabusa Kei): Voiced by: Nichika Ōmori
Nanami Zaisen (財前奈々美, Zaizen Nanami): Voiced by: Mikako Komatsu
Masahiro Gotōda (後藤田正弘, Gotōda Masahiro): Voiced by: Show Hayami

Korenkan High School

Rei Kutani (九谷怜, Kutani Rei): Voiced by: Yumi Uchiyama; A physical defender who was jealous of Haruna's talent while being her teammate in middle school, Rei decided to focus on using her body instead of technical skill.

Media

Manga

Written and illustrated by Naoshi Arakawa, Farewell, My Dear Cramer was serialized in Kodansha's shōnen manga magazine Monthly Shōnen Magazine from May 6, 2016, to December 4, 2020. The title refers to German footballer and manager Dettmar Cramer. Kodansha has compiled its chapters into fourteen tankōbon volumes. The first volume was published on August 17, 2016, and the last on April 1, 2021.

The manga has been simultaneously released in English on Kindle and Comixology. Crunchyroll published the manga starting in 2018. In July 2019, Kodansha Comics announced the print release of the manga. The first volume was released on January 26, 2021, and last on March 28, 2023.

Volumes

Anime

An anime television series adaptation was announced in the October issue of Monthly Shōnen Magazine on September 4, 2020. The series is animated by Liden Films and directed by Seiki Takuno, with Natsuko Takahashi handling series composition, and Masaru Yokoyama composing the music. It aired from April 4 to June 27, 2021 on Tokyo MX. Aika Kobayashi performed the series' opening theme song "Ambitious Goal", while Mikako Komatsu performed the series' ending theme song "Kuyashii koto wa Kettobase". Crunchyroll streamed the series worldwide outside of Asia. In Southeast Asia, Muse Communication licensed the series.