Manga Review: Sayounara Football (It's about soccer guys)

I'll say this now. I am not a really big fan of sports animes or mangas. For the most part, they just don't entertain me. I know it's supposed to be all, "Oh My Gosh! He fouled him! He can't play the rest of the game! They'll LOOOOSSEEE!!" and while everybody is GASSSPPING I'm just in the corner like "meh, put somebody else in. You all be dumb for relying on one player anyway."

I don't necessarily not like them because I don't like sports, I just don't like them, most of them, for how unrealistic they are. I know it may seem a bit hypocritical, but I just don't want my sports to be unrealistic. And there are a lot of famous ones that aren't, but I also don't like an overpowered main character. I also don't like the ridiculous cheesy sayings they do, and just a lot I don't like about the genre.

Also the art is freaking exquisite!
Volume 1 Official Cover Art

So with that all said, when I came across this and decided to randomly read it, I was skeptically, but I look at a comment saying it was good, looked at the star count of 4.45 of the website I was on, read the summary, and was like, Meh, what the heck.

I am so glad I read it. It was really good.

Sooooo, SUMMARY TIME~~!
 (ahem, so it's been a few months that I've read this, meaning I started this post early and then bailed and came back so this is the official summary of the manga)

Onda Nozomi is in her second year on the middle school soccer team but has yet to play a single game because she is a girl. Growing up playing soccer, she has the technical skills, endurance and the elegance. However, as a girl, she can’t overcome the physical difference and she can see all her male teammates that she grew up playing soccer with get further and further away from her. Even her younger brother, Junpei, who is also on the team, is starting to rise above her. Coach Samejima sees that Nozomi is an amazing player but because soccer is such a physical sport, he can’t let her play. Nozomi isn’t the kind of girl that just gives up so she practices harder than anyone and drives the team in the hopes of one day playing in a game - See more at: http://www.mangahere.co/manga/sayonara_football/#sthash.OqX22kbw.dpuf

So there you have it. This manga is truly amazing. It's not about a girl overpowering her teammates and proving that she is capable of being just as powerful as the boys, it's about her, loving her dreams, but letting go after going out with a bang. She faces the reality of the fact that she is less physically able compared to the boys.

She's a determined character that doesn't pay attention to anything but her soccer. And I don't mean in a Free or a Kuroko no Basket way. It's in a way that she is so focused on proving herself, showing that she can become what she want. This manga is about chasing your dreams, but it's also about checking in with reality. Facing what is really happening.

It is also a strong feminist manga but not about a girl can do just as much as a boy, but a girl can try and care about something just as much as a boy. Nozomi wants to be the equal to the boys, she wants them to recognize her, and in the end, she gets them to do just that.

This manga is something that definitely needs to be read. It's only 8 chapters and is written and illustrated by Arakawa Naoshi. It's not reeeeaally a romance. I mean, some of the characters like her but it doesn't really develop anywhere in the manga at all. (Which is perfect because it helps shows her independence when it comes to supporting herself through her own dreams because NO ONE thinks she can do it or at least, can even kind of do it).

An inspiring manga that everyone should read.