Naoshi Arakawa (Japanese: 新川 直司) is the author of Sayonara, Football, Sayonara Watashi no Cramer, Your Lie in April, and A School Frozen in Time.
Biography[]
After getting advice from a friend at college, he decided to enter for the Monthly Shōnen Magazine Grand Challenge. The one-shot he submitted would become the basis for Your Lie in April. Afterwards, he then worked as an assistant before making his serial debut with the manga adaptation of A School Frozen in Time. At the time, he was also working on a one-shot manga prototype, which would eventually become his second serial, Sayonara, Football.
After Sayonara, Football, he decided to make a sequel called Sayonara Watashi no Cramer. It ran in Monthly Shōnen Magazine from May 6, 2016 to December 4, 2020. The manga ended with 14 volumes. As of 2021, 13 volumes have been published digitally in English. The English physical volumes with the title of Sayonara Football: Farewell My Dear Cramer are currently being published.
Inspiration for creating the series[]
In an interview [1], Arakawa stated that he became aware of girls' soccer when he saw Homare Sawa's documentary program when he was a student. At that time, it was often said that "women's soccer is over" which left a strong impression on him. For Sayonara, Football, he decided to draw women's soccer because he liked soccer and he wanted to draw a cheerful girl. He also heard that the Olympic Games are more important than the World Cup in women's soccer and he wants Japanese soccer to become stronger as a whole. For that reason, he wanted the interest in the sport to increase.
For Sayonara Cramer, he just wanted to continue the series. He read a lot of books on football and watched matches. The title is a dedication to Dettmar Cramer, who passed away before the manga was published.