Farewell, My Dear Cramer – Ramen For Two

© 2016-2017, Naoshi Arakawa. All rights reserved.

Farewell, My Dear Cramer

Women’s football is booming in Spain. The explosion of FC Barcelona in Europe, the arrival of real Madrid to competition, the creation of the F-League, the incentive to play from an early age… all are elements that have contributed to the improvement of sport in our country. And if we look back, there is a peak moment that served as a catapult throughout the world: the unexpected victory for Japan at the end of World Cup 2011against the all-powerful United States. In a moment of indisputable fragility after the Fukushima tragedy, the Nadeshiko gave hope to a whole generation, who wants keep dreaming road to australia and new zealand this summer. And, among them, the protagonists of this story could perfectly have been.

Farewell, My Dear Cramer supposes the return of Naoshi Arakawa to the Spanish shelves, after making thousands of readers cry with Your Lie in April. departing as sequel to a previous work (Sayonara, Football), we met with the trajectory of three young soccer players, full of talent and who aspire to do great feats in a not-so-great team. With the help of a Japanese women’s soccer legend and surrounded by good friends, each one will make the best contribution possible for her. work as a unit. In Ramen Para Dos we have been able to thoroughly analyze the first two volumes of the double edition of Manga Districtso we are ready to jump into the field and tell you all the details.

Argument

The play focuses on the lives of three high school soccer players: Sumire Suo, midori soshizaki and Nozomi Onda. sumire and Midori were staunch and formidable rivals players in Middle School, with the second going on to participate in the Under-15 selection; while Nozomi already showed his midfield skills as the protagonist of Sayonara, Football. The three meet at the institute Warabi Seiran of Saitama, in a team that is in the doldrums. However, the arrival of the legendary Nadeshiko Naoko Nomi Her fortune will change radically, and together they will do their best to become legends and enjoy everything that happens around them.

gala eleven

Farewell, My Dear Cramer is a choral workwhere the entire Warabi Seiran squad and even rival players Play a fundamental role in the development of the work. It’s not just the story of sumire and Midoribut the plots of Nozomi and other characters. In the end it is something that one must assume, as it is a football team. It is the day to day of an athlete at a young age: training sessions, classes, matches, tournaments, crazy plans to improve the team, all the variety. It does not show fantastic and interdimensional battles like Inazuma Elevennor the professional youth soccer of Ao Ashinot even the ins and outs of the industry football agent.

In this case, we find a product very similar to Haikyu!where rivals from Middle School and other talents their age come together in high school to reach the National Championship and aspire to represent the Nadeshiko one day. And between steps towards that dream, Arakawa shows us that football is not only eleven against eleven. Give examples of more variants such as indoor football and accompanies them with their respective strategies and alignments, enriching their work with valuable information.

A triplet of diamonds in the rough

A football club is nothing without its squad or its technical staff, and in Cramer everyone gets a chance to shine. Nozomi sample sparks of talent as long as the spring of your passion is activated. Midori is a torch with legsHe likes to edit his rivalry movies and show off his talent in midfield. For his part, sumire is the silent killercapable of destroying you with a single sprint and verbally reducing you to ashes if the fuse is lit.

All three have solid facetseven with reflections and references to real life footballers, but the rest of the cast help them stand out even more when they do something awesome. Yeah Vibe has the magic and fluidity of Alexia Putellas, Leo Messi or Luka Modricthe center forward Shiratori has the arrogance and opportunism of a Cristiano Ronaldo or Mario Balotelli. They also add the intensity of the coach nomithe encouragement from the band of Sawathe almost invisible mischief of the coach Fukatsuthe kindness of the captain appraise and even the paintings found in its rivals (in these two volumes): the Kunogi Academy, Rei Kutani of the futsal tournament and the Urawa Hosei. A complete and varied repertoire, each one with its pertinent motifs and performances, perfect for a work of this caliber and structural complexity.

The repetition, in full camera

Continuing with the line of the characters, the characteristic drawing of Arakawa It helps to highlight even more its best and worst facets. Although in a football game what you never lose sight of is the ball, Cramer allows us to pay attention to a facet that often ends up in the background: the faces. With the peculiarity of the lips as a distinctive feature, the eyes instinctively fix on the faces and in the physical effort that they reveal. Tiredness, anguish, joy and disaster.

They all spend about ninety minutes on the pitch of a stadium and in this work they certainly do not go unnoticed. Neither do the big playswho receive a more than deserved double page deal. An impossible race, a Marseillaise roulette, a shot for the entire squad… no matter what it is that will take two pages completely to show the world in full detail. In the comical and more relaxed aspects, the drawing also stands out, thanks to the reactions of the players to any crazy situation they have to go through.

The coach: Naoshi Arakawa

Little more can be elaborated on the work of Naoshi Arakawabeyond being one of the biggest names in manga worldwide in the last decade. Your Lie in Aprilthe jewel in his crown, made millions of people cry so much for the manga that he would bring to Spain Milky Way Editions as the television series that would license select vision.

from the series CramerIt will remain to be seen if Manga District is encouraged to bring the precursor Sayonara, Footballwhile there are two other unpublished titles left in our country: his first film, A School Frozen in Time; and the work that began last September, Atwight Gamewhich seems to completely move away from its emotional narrative to bring us more action and a premise about which very little is known with only one volume.

Editing at the top of the table

This edition of double take in large format of Manga District drink a lot of work Editorial Standard with Tokyo Revengers. In fact, both practically share the Same size (15 centimeters wide by 21 high) and the use of reversible dust jacket. The great difference between one and the other is he relief and color.

The tactile details on the cover of Ken Wakui and the laminated color pages from the beginning they do not replicate in Naoshi Arakawa’s manga, but everything balances out again in the number of pages and the price: about 380 for 16 euros per volume. Despite the fact that the Warabis did not debut with a 2×1 promotion like the boys of the They takethe double format always allows you to squeeze much more reading time.

A work worthy of a star

Being a regular follower of women’s football since Barça reached the final of the Women’s Champions League in 2019, it is celebratory to see how the sport now can reach the public from all corners possible. This work can be very good accompaniment for young promises thanks to municipal programs that encourage its practice. Playing first and then reading the adventures of adolescents with whom you can share values, desires, and anecdotes makes the experience even more enjoyable.

Also, you can expand knowledge thanks to the explanations, alignments and tactics that are taught throughout the work. Beyond the big blockbusters that share traits of action, violence and adventure, this title manages to catch you and make you a fan more pressing within a state that more and more people join every day.

In conclusion, Farewell, My Dear Cramer it is a perfect introduction for young and not so young to the knowledge and follow-up of women’s football. The chorality of the work helps each reader to feel identified with a particular playerbe of Warabi Seiran or another rival team. The fact that it is not reduced to showing the classic eleven-on-eleven matches and expand to other modalities like futsal makes Naoshi Arakawa’s effort all the more commendable. AND apart from living an adventure, you learn from football, of its big names and its best-known strategies. All one encyclopedia in our hands which is perfect to go over before the anthem plays and it’s time to hit the grass.

The best:

• An exceptional introduction to a world in expansion in Spain, that of women’s football.
• The choral format of the work makes it possible to create links and follow many characters, whether they are protagonists or even rivals.
• Pages and pages full of references to real-life soccer players, tactics, line-ups, and strategies to learn soccer while enjoying reading.

Worst:

• The work begins in medias res in the absence of Sayonara, Football on our shelves.
• In the end, it ends up depending on Japan, but it would be very interesting to see color pages in future volumes.
• How fast it reads despite being the equivalent of four volumes, leaves you wanting much more.