Farewell My Dear Cramer Manga: All 14 Volumes Guide

Farewell, My Dear Cramer at a Glance — A Complete Women’s Soccer Manga in 14 Volumes

Farewell, My Dear Cramer (さよなら私のクラマー) is a completed manga by Naoshi Arakawa, the creator behind Your Lie in April — a music-focused drama manga that was also adapted into a well-known anime. It was serialized in Monthly Shonen Magazine (a Japanese manga magazine published by Kodansha, where chapters were released one at a time before being collected into book form) and ran from May 2016 to December 2020. The full series spans 14 volumes and 55 chapters.

A quick note on those terms if you’re new to manga: a chapter is a single installment of the story (usually around 20–40 pages), originally published in the magazine. A volume is a physical book that collects several chapters together — that’s what you buy at a bookstore or online. So 55 chapters across 14 volumes means each book contains roughly 4 chapters of story.

In English, the manga is published by Kodansha Comics (the English-language publishing arm of the Japanese company Kodansha) — but here’s what causes all the confusion: the English volumes are released under the title Sayonara, Football, not Farewell, My Dear Cramer. We’ll get into exactly why that matters and how to navigate it in the buying section below.

The story follows a group of high school girls building a competitive women’s soccer team at Warabi Seinan High School. If you’re expecting a light, fluffy sports comedy, this isn’t quite that. Arakawa takes women’s soccer seriously as a sport and as a setting for character drama. The manga tackles the real frustrations female players face — lack of funding, lack of respect, lack of opportunity — while also delivering genuinely exciting match sequences and a cast that grows on you steadily across all 14 volumes.

It’s a completed series, which is a huge plus if you’re tired of waiting for ongoing manga to finish. You can read the whole thing start to finish right now.

How the Story Is Structured Across 14 Volumes

The series follows a roughly chronological structure centered on the Warabi Seinan high school women’s soccer team. There’s no time-skip gimmick, no parallel storyline running in a different era. You follow the same core group of players as they go from a disorganized, underestimated squad to a team that can actually compete. Each major stretch of the story — sometimes called a story arc, meaning a self-contained narrative segment within the larger series — builds on what came before.

Early volumes focus on assembling the team’s lineup. The squad is dysfunctional at first — the players have talent but no cohesion, no strategy, and frankly not much reason to believe they can win anything. This is the underdog setup, and Arakawa takes his time with it. You get to know the individual players, their personal baggage, and why soccer matters to each of them. It’s character work disguised as a sports story, and it pays for itself later when the matches start carrying real emotional weight.

Mid-series volumes sharpen the rivalries. Other schools enter the picture as genuine threats, and Arakawa starts layering in tactical growth — you can see the team learning, adjusting, and developing actual strategies on the field. Character backstories get deeper here too. Some of the strongest individual chapters in the series live in this stretch, where a single player’s history gets folded into a crucial match moment.

Later volumes escalate to tournament-level stakes. The matches get longer, more intense, and the emotional investment the earlier volumes built starts paying off. You care about these players by now, and the outcomes feel like they matter.

Volume 14 wraps the team’s journey with a satisfying ending that feels earned rather than rushed. Arakawa doesn’t drag things out past their natural endpoint, which is something you learn to appreciate after reading too many manga that overstay their welcome.

Key Volumes Worth Highlighting

Volume 1 is where it all begins. It introduces Sumire Suo, one of the central characters, and establishes the founding of the team. If you’re trying the series out, this is your litmus test — if the character dynamics and the grounded approach to women’s soccer hook you here, you’re in for the long haul.

Volumes in the middle stretch — without spoiling specific plot turns — contain some of the series’ best matches and most revealing character moments. The rival school clashes in particular stand out. Arakawa has a gift for making you understand both sides of a competitive matchup, so even the opposing teams feel like real people with real stakes.

Volume 14 is the finale, and it lands. The full 14-volume story feels complete and intentional rather than something that got cancelled or padded out. That’s worth appreciating.

Signature Matches and What Makes Them Work

Sports manga live and die by their matches, and Farewell, My Dear Cramer delivers on this front. The series is built around pivotal soccer matches that serve double duty — they’re exciting as athletic competition and they function as turning points for the characters.

Early practice and exhibition matches do the heavy lifting of establishing team chemistry. These aren’t throwaway games. Arakawa uses them to show which players clash, which players complement each other, and where the team’s weaknesses lie. You’re watching a group of individuals slowly become a unit, and the early matches are where that transformation starts.

Rival school clashes in the middle volumes raise the competitive stakes considerably. This is where the series shifts from “can this team even function?” to “can this team actually win?” The opposing teams aren’t cardboard cutouts — they have their own motivations, their own star players, and their own reasons for wanting to win. Some of the best illustrated frames in the entire series come from these mid-story showdowns, where Arakawa’s dynamic art style captures the speed and physicality of the sport.

The final tournament stretch delivers the series’ emotional peak. By this point, every character has been developed enough that each play on the field carries narrative weight. A pass isn’t just a pass — it’s two characters who couldn’t work together in volume 3 finally trusting each other in volume 12. That’s the kind of layered storytelling that makes sports manga worth reading, and Arakawa executes it beautifully.

One thing worth noting: Arakawa doesn’t shy away from losses. Not every match goes the way you want it to, and that honesty makes the victories feel genuine.

Manga vs. Anime — Where the Adaptation Stops

Both a TV anime (a full animated television series) and a companion anime film (a standalone animated movie that tells a related but separate slice of the story) were released in 2021, the same year the manga concluded in Japan. If you came to this manga through the anime, here’s what you need to know.

The TV anime covers roughly the first few volumes of the manga’s story. It doesn’t reach the later tournament arcs or the series’ emotional climax. If you finished the anime and felt like the story was incomplete — that’s because it was. The manga goes substantially further, covering the full competitive journey and its resolution across all 14 volumes.

The anime film, titled Farewell, My Dear Cramer: First Touch, covers a different slice of the story — think of it as a prequel piece rather than a direct continuation of the TV series. (A prequel tells events that happened before the main story’s timeline.)

The manga is the complete version of this story. If you want the full experience — every match, every character’s growth, the actual ending — the manga is where you’ll find it. The anime is a fine introduction to the world and the characters, but it’s an incomplete version of the story the manga tells in full.

For readers coming from the anime, the recommendation is to start from volume 1 rather than trying to pick up where the anime left off. The manga’s pacing and character development differ enough from the animated version that you’ll get a lot more out of reading the full thing. Plus, at 14 volumes, it’s not an overwhelming commitment.

Which Edition to Buy — Why the English Title Is Different

This is the section that will save you the most frustration. Pay attention here.

For print purchases, Kodansha Comics releases the English volumes under the title Sayonara, Football; Kodansha’s own site also carries the digital edition under the Farewell, My Dear Cramer title. If you search for “Farewell, My Dear Cramer manga” on most retail sites, you might not find what you’re looking for. The anime used the title Farewell, My Dear Cramer, but the English manga volumes use Sayonara, Football. Same series, same author, same content — different title on the spine.

This naming discrepancy is the single biggest source of confusion for English-speaking buyers. It’s worth understanding so you don’t accidentally skip volumes or buy the wrong thing.

How the English Volumes Are Numbered (and the Prequel Situation)

Here’s where the English numbering gets tricky. The Sayonara, Football English title covers 16 total volumes, not 14. That’s because Kodansha Comics packages Arakawa’s earlier, shorter manga — also called Sayonara, Football (さよならフットボール) in Japanese — as volumes 1 and 2 under the same English title umbrella. The main Farewell, My Dear Cramer story then occupies volumes 3 through 16 (that’s the 14 volumes of the main series, renumbered to continue from the prequel).

So when browsing retail listings, here’s what you need to know: volumes 1–2 under Sayonara, Football are the prequel — a separate, shorter work that shares its central character and cast with the main series and was published in Japan as a standalone two-volume manga. Volumes 3–16 are the main Farewell, My Dear Cramer story that the anime was based on. You do not need the prequel to read and enjoy the main story. The main series is fully self-contained. If you want to explore the prequel material later, think of it as bonus context rather than required homework.

Practical tip: When searching retail sites, use “Sayonara Football Naoshi Arakawa” as your search term. That will get you to the correct volumes much faster than searching the anime title. Start with volume 3 — that’s where the main Farewell, My Dear Cramer story begins in the English numbering — and read through volume 16 for the complete run.

The series is available in both physical and digital formats. Physical volumes are standard manga size from Kodansha Comics, priced at typical manga retail rates. Digital editions are available through platforms like Amazon’s Kindle store, BookWalker, and other major digital manga retailers if you prefer reading on a tablet or phone.

If you’re looking to complete the set, the final volume of the main story is volume 16 in the English numbering — the conclusion of the full Farewell, My Dear Cramer run.

At 14 volumes total for the main story, this is a very manageable complete collection. You’re not looking at 30+ volumes or an ongoing commitment with no end in sight. You can own the entire story on one shelf, which is a genuinely appealing proposition for a series this good.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many volumes does Farewell, My Dear Cramer have?

14 volumes. The main series is complete at 14 volumes and 55 chapters. The final volume was published in Japan in April 2021 (the magazine serialization itself concluded in December 2020), and all 14 volumes are available in English from Kodansha Comics under the title Sayonara, Football. Note that the English Sayonara, Football title covers 16 total volumes — volumes 1–2 contain Arakawa’s prequel material, and volumes 3–16 are the main Farewell, My Dear Cramer story. The core story is 14 volumes.

Is the manga finished?

Yes. This is a completed series. You can read the entire story from beginning to end right now — no waiting for future volumes.

Who is the author?

Naoshi Arakawa (新川直司). You might know Arakawa from Your Lie in April, a manga about a young pianist dealing with grief and creative pressure, which was adapted into a popular anime. Arakawa’s strength is blending sports or artistic pursuits with deeply felt character drama, and that skill is on full display in Farewell, My Dear Cramer.

Why is the English title different from the anime?

Kodansha Comics publishes the English print volumes under the title Sayonara, Football; the series is also available digitally under the Farewell, My Dear Cramer title on Kodansha’s own site. The anime used the latter title, which creates confusion for anyone trying to find the manga after watching the show. They are the same series. When shopping for the manga, search for Sayonara, Football by Naoshi Arakawa.

Does the anime cover the whole manga?

No. The TV anime and companion film cover only a portion of the manga’s full story. The manga continues well beyond where the anime ends, including the later tournament arcs and the series’ conclusion across all 14 volumes. If you want the complete story, the manga is the way to go.

Do I need to read the prequel Sayonara, Football first?

No. Arakawa wrote a two-volume prequel — also titled Sayonara, Football in Japanese (さよならフットボール) — that shares its central character and cast with the main series. In English, Kodansha packages these prequel volumes as volumes 1 and 2 under the Sayonara, Football branding, with the main series continuing as volumes 3 through 16. The main Farewell, My Dear Cramer story spans those 14 volumes and is fully self-contained. You can start at volume 3 — the beginning of the main series in English numbering — and follow the entire story without any prior reading. The prequel adds some background context but is entirely optional.

Is this series good for someone new to sports manga?

It’s a strong starting point. The 14-volume length means you’re not committing to a massive ongoing series — you can see the whole story through in a reasonable amount of time. The soccer action is exciting and clearly illustrated without requiring you to already understand tactical formations or soccer strategy. And Arakawa’s character writing gives you reasons to care about the players as people, not just as athletes. If you’re interested in women’s sports stories — which are still underrepresented in the genre — this is one of the best complete options available.