Sayonara Watashi no Cramer Movie: First Touch

This movie is quite simply a triumph for football anime as a whole. Adapted from Arakawa's first ever manga - Sayonara Football - it acts as a prequel to the manga and also the TV series anime, Farewell My Dear Cramer. It tells the events of Nozomi Onda back in middle school as she tries her hardest to break into the boys' football team against all the odds.

I gave this series an easy 10 because it nails everything genuine about football as a sport and a way of life. Plenty of football anime struggles to stay grounded when telling their stories but with this movie, ... it understands the essence of football to its very core level and how that anybody can fall in love with football and play it. No superpowers, unrealistic movements or ridiculous situations. Just a girl that wants to play football and wants to do so really badly.

And speaking about Onda, her as a main character carries the show on her shoulders really well. She represents why billions of football fans love the sport so much. She lives and breathes football - and watching it in front of eyes makes her heart beat even faster as she wants to be out there playing football and not sitting on the bench. She has so much talent and most importantly- determination. She's a stubborn little gorilla but she does so in a way that never comes off as annoying but endearing. And that's why she is so admired and why I fell in love with her.


Story-wise, the whole battle of the sexes plotline has been done to death in all forms of media but this movie executes it really well by not having Onda magically destroy her more powerful and physically imposing male counterparts. I won't spoil what she does but she uses her brilliant brain and of course mazy feet to counter the physical aspect and it makes for a wonderful climax as she executes them.

A last note on the CG animation, people seem to have a hate boner for them as it was used a little bit in the movie but I think it was great CG and how it should be used in anime. Football is such a dynamic sport with balls moving from back to front in mere seconds - the use of CG manages to envelope me into the game like I was watching it in real life. There is plenty of traditional animation here as well which was done great too and it was such a fun ride.

All in all, a fantastic movie and was a fitting adaptation to the wonderful manga as it says Sayonara Football to Onda in middle school - off to experience beautiful football in its sequel anime and raise the level of girls football.

English is not my language.

This movie is an adaptation of another work by the author of Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso, so I didn't have such high expectations. Well, the movie is bad.
I thought I would never see a bad sports anime like Ashita no Eleven-tachi. As much as this movie is not as shitty as Ashita no Eleven-tachi, it is still bad.

It has script convenience that isn't the best (but it wasn't bad either), and it was used to generate a drama.
The main character falls down playing soccer with a boy who is superior to her, and the coach forbids her to play official ... games just because she has an arm injury, and it wasn't even a serious injury, doesn't the coach know that in soccer people can get hurt?
Then comes the excuse that men have a superior physique than women. In most cases it is true, and this movie is one of those cases, but... the protagonist plays soccer with boys since always, and she is already used to it, which makes it kind of "meh".


"Soccer is a contact sport.
I am bigger than you. A girl doesn't even stand a chance against me."

I wonder again:
Has the author ever seen women in professional games? Many women's professional games are more "brutal" than men's games, however yes, men usually have superior physical stature. Yes, I know it's not professional gaming, that's just an example.
I really want to understand why you are trying to give a girl a message of victimhood. Yes, there are men who think they are superior to women, but in this anime it is kind of "meh", because the girl has been playing soccer with boys since forever, as I mentioned before. All right it is explained that in official games everything is heavier than in training, BUT THE SHOOTER HAS ONLY PLAYED ONE OFFICIAL GAME. And it's also funny that the coach calls a boy, and he is not at all confident, unlike the protagonist.
There is a part where the main character slaps the boy saying what I mentioned above. Well, she is right to do that, at least.
At least the boy who was a friend of the protagonist some time ago, knows that he talked trash to her. This at least was something positive, it shows the character being more human. By the way, in the heat of the moment of an argument, anyone can talk some nonsense.

One thing that I thought was a little shitty was that the protagonist pretends to be her brother and arrests him in the bathroom and takes his clothes. Like, it would have been better if it showed how she did it, but no, it just happened.
After that the coach sees that she can play against the boys, and also comes up with those typical generic motivational lines... It is the typical "I can do it" anime. It is nothing innovative, I have seen this in so many anime...
At least the technician gives more detail that he cared about the protagonist and her career. In a way, it has logic. The problem is how this is executed, because, as I said before, the protagonist only fell once playing an official game and it wasn't even a serious injury (besides this game wasn't even detailed to see how everything happened).
Ok, fine, we know that most of the boys are bigger than the girls, but do we need to keep reminding them of this all the time?
There is also a moment when the main character says that she really has no chance against the boys' strength, and that because of this, she wins in her own way. Aaaaah... What was all the drama about physical size for? This movie is a joke.
It seems that she wanted to say that physical size doesn't matter, regardless if you are a man or a woman, and that her childhood friend and her coach are wrong, even though they are right. So what was the point of all this?

Comedy scenes are also not that funny, very few of them work. At least it is not as bad as in Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso, which has comedy in the middle of drama where it takes away all the impact of the scene.
There is one scene in this movie where a more emotional dialogue is cut for comedy, but it is done in a very natural way, and it was well planned. This scene is at 49:00 of the film, when the characters are talking and the main character is hit by a ball and falls into the water. This was really functional, and kind of funny. Other than that, the few times it has comedy, it's not good.

The technical part of the anime up until 01:00:00 of the movie is good, but then it has game with a CG that is not so good, but not horrible.

The movie has almost no positive points. There is so much bad stuff in it that it prevents it from being at least average. I didn't expect much for being from the author of Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso, and in the end it turned out to be another bad work from a terrible author.

This review may not have been good. But that's okay, the movie is not good either.

I'll write a quick review for the prequel film of the series 'Sayonara Watashi no Cramer'. Yes, if you are planning to watch the show you should watch this movie first. The show references the movie a handful of times and it's important to understanding Onda as a character.

Story: Fairly good story that's straightforward. It follows Nozomi Onda who loves football (soccer) but now finds herself being told by everyone that her frame is too small to be playing with boys. You follow her journey of frustration and struggles, being looked down upon simply by being a girl. The writing is good but not special, ... and doesn't get anything horrendously wrong. 7/10.

Art: It's better looking than the show especially in a few moments. The show utilizes some 'tricks' to not display as much footage of actual football being played however the film instead opts to use CGI for a decent amount of the duration of the match. Personally I think the CGI looks ok. There was no bad 2d animation from what I remember, it was noticeably consistent. Nothing groundbreaking but it looks good for the most part. 7/10.

Sound: There's some good insert songs and I enjoyed the score quite a lot. 7/10.

Character: It's very Onda focused and the film suffers a bit because of that. However I did enjoy seeing the relationship of Onda and her friend Sawa Echizen. Lacks the charm the characters in the show provide but still not horrible. 5/10.

Enjoyment: It felt like a film and not just episodes stitched together. I was confused at times in the show because I didn't really understand why Onda was the way she was. Thankfully the movie does provide context. I enjoyed how it was structured and there was a lot of actual football being played. Fun to watch. 7/10.

Side note about the romance tag: There's maybe 2 or 3 short scenes where romance is hinted/talked about but it's not a center of importance. Nothing comes of it and (so far) has been irrelevant to the show.