Farewell, My Dear Cramer

This show is definitely not even close to being the best anime about football, let alone sports anime in general. During the first few episodes, instead of football itself, you are more focused on a technical issue that occurs when someone is standing behind the netting, the netting disappears around the area of their head and it looks like their head is actually poking through the netting, so you really cannot get a good impression regarding its technical and animation prowess. The rest of it is just one big bunch of crap, with the screenwriters constantly shoving this football team having assembled some above-average football players down the audience’s throats, and making them believe that big things are finally going to start happening, however, they never do. Then during the game, you have to listen to Nozomi's male teammates constantly banging on about how great their female friend is. From the sidelines, her friend is spouting the same crap at you. However, Nozomi’s performance on the pitch (with two exceptions that amount to nothing) does not live up to this hype. However, it’s not only Nozomi that has this issue, there are many more similar female characters. Early on, the screenwriters introduce us to the central trio, show us their motivations and talents, and raise some expectations, only to have it all kind of go to shit. You get that kind of feeling like when the Czechs send the strongest possible team to the Ice Hockey World Championships and everyone expects them to win, and then those guys blow it in the quarterfinals. The objective of football is to score goals, however, it seems that no one was able to explain that to this show’s protagonists, and so you keep asking the same question throughout every episode, "What the hell are you supposed to be doing here?" (A question that, incidentally, is asked in the final episode as well.) Statistically speaking, the best player and top scorer on the Warabi team in the first season is a comical character called Swan. She is an interesting girl who most audiences will hate as she is extremely irritating, though I actually and unexpectedly took a liking to her, please do not ask me why, I just do not know. Other disappointing aspects of this show are that some of the matches are played completely off-screen and only mentioned in one or two sentences, and when it comes to an actual match it is not really worth it visually, the graphics are quite bad, there are a lot of shots of one player running and the background is just green grass and even that simple movement does not come across well. The funniest thing then is that when you expect something football-related from the protagonists, at that exact moment the show’s focus switches to the opposing team, usually accompanied by some backstory to show that they are also passionate about football and have above-average talent. It makes you wonder who and what this anime series is supposed to be about, and if you would maybe rather watch an anime about the opposing team. Well, all right, ultimately it is finally explained that this first season is just a stepping stone, that the team is actually just starting off and finding their feet, and so are their coaches, and that the next season could really go well. I am really trying to believe them once again, but this is the last time. If only they could lose all the unnecessary hype this time around. After all, even if it does not seem like it, there were moments when I was intrigued, the characters were entertaining, and even if their performances on the pitch irritated me, I guess I was still interested enough to see if something would finally start happening in the following episodes, and where the manager Panda and lead striker Swan would take this team of lightweight talent and that is why I am awarding this the weakest three stars even though Farewell, My Dear Cramer probably does not deserve it. I am awarding it 4.5/10. (27/06/2021) (less) (more)