After reading the synopsis, I just can’t help but to read it right away.

Sayonara Football is a football series starring a 14-year-old girl, Nozomi Onda, as the main protagonist, and her dream to play in an official match as the main plotline.

The story is very straightforward, from the beginning it’s very clear what to expect. It’s even predictable in some sense. However, the charm of this series is not in the complexity of the story, but it’s in the execution.

I simply love how this series is not dragged unnecessarily. The way the characters are introduced, the way their backstories are told, the way their relationships are portrayed, are all just on point. You just can tell the author has planned every scene of this series from even before the first page has been drawn. It’s all built up into something coherent. The series really embraces the concept “show, don’t tell” to the core. There’s just enough exposition given to us while the impact scenes are shown with the author’s breathtaking art. Sometimes, the author simply puts highlights into the character’s lips and it’s already enough to give me goosebumps.

Honestly, coming into this series, because of the synopsis, I was expecting more drama than actual sports, but how wrong I was. Not only is there just enough sports content in it, as a football fan myself, I am even impressed with how the football match is played out. “The beautiful football” they claim to play is displayed, indeed, beautifully. The passing, the dribbling, the attacking sequence, the defense, the shooting, the one-touch, the footworks, they are all drawn and played out very nicely. It just got me pumped up and wished I could see a good studio adapt this series into an anime movie.

I have so much praise for this series already and I haven’t even talked about Nozomi Onda, the protagonist. Onda is such a lovable character, with her always cheerful and never give up attitude. Although that might sound like a generic shōnen protagonist you might have seen plenty of times, and while it is probably true, but after following her story and seeing how she interacted with her surroundings and reacted to her circumstances, I think it’s a very appropriate attitude and very fitting approach, and that results in a lovable character.

Sayonara Football is a good series, with many positive aspects I can expand on, but it is not without some negatives, obviously.

Flashbacks, a bit too many of them. I usually don’t complain about flashbacks as they can be necessary to show what shaped up the characters. However, in this particular series, I just feel there’s too much of them. I get that the author sometimes was trying to emphasize certain scenes and adding flashbacks could enhance that impact. However, when you’ve seen so many flashbacks already previously, you get fed up instead. “Not again”, that thought got into me for quite too many times.

Also, the simple and predictable storyline, while not always a bad thing, gives it a ceiling only at a certain height. It’s difficult to give this series the highest score.

Most importantly, the ending can definitely be improved. This is the most confusing part for me as to why the author spends only a little time on it. As if the author is trying to conclude the story with some kind of continuation in mind. Although it is confirmed to have a sequel (by the time this review is written), I still don’t think it’s a good practice as whatever the sequel is, as a series, Sayonara Football, should have done better in this regard.

So, in conclusion, is this worth reading?

Yes, I recommend this series especially to fans of series that have cheerful and passionate characters. Also, I am confident football fans will enjoy the football match in this series. Football is nicknamed “the beautiful game” by the fans and this series portrayed that beautiful game nicely.

Heck, personally for me, Nozomi Onda is such an inspiring person. Well, sure, she’s neither changing the world nor turning the world upside down. She’s just playing football, but to see someone working so hard despite the unlikely odds, I can’t help but become her fan. I’m not joking, Sayonara Football is a series I can’t wait to show my daughter.