Nozomi Onda is in her second year on the middle school soccer team but has yet to play a single game because she is a girl. Growing up playing soccer, she has the technical skills, endurance and the elegance. However, as a girl, she can't overcome the physical difference between them and she can see all her teammates who she grew up playing soccer with getting further and further away from her. Even her younger brother, Junpei, who is also on the team, is starting to rise above her. Her sensei knows that Nozomi is an amazing player but since soccer is such a physical sport for boys, he can't let her play. Nozomi isn't the kind of girl that gives up so instead she practices harder than anyone in the hopes of one day playing in an official game.
Sayonara Football is a manga by Naoshi Arakawa (Your Lie in April fame), and his first published work. The manga ran in Kondansha's shounen Magazine E-no for 8 chapters throughout 2009 and 2010, eventually collected into 2 volumes. Arakawa would go on to continue Nozomi Onda's story in Farewell, My Dear Cramer, though with Nozomi no longer as the primary focal character.
The manga is published digitally in English by Kodansha Comics USA. It's also currently available for digital purchase via Comixology
and Kindle.
In September of 2020, a theatrical anime was announced for Sayonara set to premiere in April of 2021, animated by Liden Films, with Farewell receiving a TV adaptation from the same creative team. The movie was later delayed to June 11, 2021.
Sayonara Football contains
- Adaptation Title Change: The film was titled Farewell, My Dear Cramer The Movie: First Touch, because it was meant to be released alongside the Farewell, My Dear Cramer TV series. Unfortunately it got delayed by 2 months, and was released when the TV series was already near its end.
- Asleep in Class: Who else? Onda
- Determinator: She plays soccer even if she'll never actually play in an official match.
- Driving Question: Like its successor series, Sayonara Football asks if there is any merit to women's soccer; although with Sayonara's short length, it doesn't dive into it as hard.
- Japanese School Club: Being a sports series, the club in question is for soccer.
- Junior High: They are in their second year of school
- Meaningful Name: Nozomi means 'rare or seldom' in Japanese.
- Retronym: The film adaptation is titled Farewell, My Dear Cramer: First Touch, as it was made in conjunction with the anime for Farewell, My Dear Cramer.
- Passionate Sports Girl: This defines Onda, she lives to play soccer.
- Training Montage: There's a page where Onda trains because she thinks it'll convince her coach to let her play
- Unwanted Harem: Not that she knows it of course, but her childhood friends all have a crush on her. Namekku confesses in the last chapter after her school lost.
- You Go, Girl!: She has the technical skill to outplay the boys. It's just that they are physically superior than her.
