When Naoshi Arakawa, the creator behind Your Lie in April?, wrapped up that series, it was time to move onto something else and that was Farewell, My Dear Cramer. Getting underway in 2016 and being simulpublished in North America, the series has run well since then and has produced twelve volumes and is still ongoing.
Last fall we got the reveal that the property is getting ready to expand to other media as an anime feature film and TV series are in the works. With both planned for an April 2021 debut, the film will go under the name Farewell, My Dear Cramer: First Touch as it adapts the Sayonara, Football two-volume junior high focused series. That project was previously given a premiere date of April 1st, 2021, and has confirmed that Aika Kobayashi is performing the theme song for the film (and the opening theme for the TV series) with “Sora wa Dare ka no Mono Ja Nai.”
Now, because of the pandemic, things are changing a bit. The film side of it is being pushed back to an early summer debut to be firmed up later. With a lot of closures and pandemic related changes in Japan recently, this isn’t a surprise. No details were given on if/how this will impact the accompanying TV series due out in April 2021.
The previously added cast:
- Tomoyo Kurosawa as Sumire Suō
- Aoi Yūki as Midori Soshizaki
- Shiho Kokido as Aya Shiratori
- Yu Shimamura as Eriko Tase
- Marina Yamada as Makoto Miyasaka
- Rena Maeda as Rui Kikuchi
- Azumi Waki as Ayumi Kishi
- Misano Sakai as Saori Koshi
- Anzu Haruno as Noriko Okachimachi
- Rena Hasegawa as Karina Kakogawa
- Yuko Kaida as Naoko Nо̄mi
- Junichi Suwabe as Gо̄ro Fukatsu
And the TV key visual:
The film has set Seiki Takuno to direct based on the screenplay by Natsuko Takahashi. LIDEN Films is set to animate with Eriko Ito handling the character designs.
The Japanese cast includes:
- Miyuri Shimabukuro as Nozomi Onda
- Shion Wakayama as Sawa Echizen
- Kouki Uchiyama as Tetsuji Yamada
- Ryota Ohsaka as Kaoru Takei
- Ryoko Shiraishi as Junpei Onda
- Koji Yusa as Kōzō Sameji
- Shimba Tsuchiya as Yasuaki Tani
Check out the series in print and digital as released by Kodansha Comics USA in English.
Check out the official site and Twitter.
Plot Concept: With no soccer accomplishments to speak of during the entirety of Sumire Suo’s junior high school years, the young wing gets an odd offer. Suo’s main rival, Midori Soshizaki, invites her to join up on the same team in high school, with a promise that she’ll never let Suo “play alone.” It’s an earnest offer, but the question is whether Suo will take her up on it. Thus the curtain opens on a story that collects an enormous cast of individual soccer-playing personalities.
[Source: ANN]
