Red Corps

"The Red Army" (Japanese: 赤の軍団) is the ninth episode of Farewell, My Dear Cramer, written and illustrated by Naoshi Arakawa. The series is published in Kodansha's *Monthly Shōnen Magazine* since May 2016. The episode premiered on May 30, 2021 on Tokyo MX.

Note: "The Red Army" is the official translated name.

## Overview

The episode first begins on the girls of Urawa Hosei High School. In a meeting, they go over the plan to counterattack the Warabis. Then the focus switches over to the Warabis playing an intra-squad match. Later on, both teams arrive at the stadium where the match will take place.

## Plot

The episode begins with the anime trailer for Heartthrob Country. As a big fan of the show, Alice Adatara is watching the trailer over and over. Chika Kirishima walks up to her and tells her that there's a meeting for the soccer team and they should go there soon. Two boys notice Yū Tenma and try to approach her. She turns around and insults one of the boys. At the meeting, the girls go over the strategy to defeat the Warabis. As the recon, Kei Hanabusa took notes on the Warabis and lists them out to the team. The most important detail is that Suou and Soshizaki are the strong members of the Warabis so they need to be dealt with in order for Urawa Hosei to win. Chika becomes irritated when Kei compliments Soshizaki because it reminds her of the time she lost against Kunogi Academy. Lastly, Kei mentions a mystery player that she calls a "jizo statue."

Meanwhile, the Warabis are playing an intra-squad match. Soshizaki kicks the ball over to Onda but she doesn't go for it. Soshizaki asks why she didn't go after the ball and Onda replies that she prefers to receive passes at her feet. Shiratori comes over to insult Onda. Then Suou comes over to insult Shiratori. Soshizaki tells them that they have been playing half-assedly so they shouldn't be arrogant. They tell Soshizaki that her passes are bad. She tells them to not underestimate Urawa and to go back to their positions. They continue the intrasquad match afterwards.

The Warabis arrive at the entrance of the stadium where the match against Urawa will take place on a rainy day. Urawa arrives in their own bus. In a hallway of a building, Naoko meets Urawa's coach Masahiro Gotoda. Attracted to her looks, Gotoda tries hitting on her. Yu drives him away. As a fan of Naoko, she asks Naoko for a handshake.

In the dressing room, the Warabis are changing into their kits. Echizen tells Onda that the both of them haven't been here since Onda's game in middle school. Soshizaki mentions that Suo and herself came her to watch a match too and ran into a pervert in the bathroom (it was Junpei Onda stripped and tied up after Onda took his clothes to substitute in).

In the stadium, both teams arrive and line up to exchange handshakes. Chika notices Onda and realizes that she must be the jizo statue that Kei mentioned earlier.

From her observation, Onda never moves more than five meters from her position. And if a ball does come her way, it's immediately snatched up by the other players. In the Warabi team circle, Tase is understandably intimidated by Urawa, remembering their loss last year in a practice match. Most of the members agree that Urawa is a powerhouse and they are not happy. Shiratori tries to cheer them up by telling them to leave the ball to her. Miyasaka encourages Tase to get it together. The Warabis join in a cheer before the game.

The members of the two teams get into their positions and the game starts.

## Character Debut

* Masahiro Gotoda
* Nanami Zaizen

## Trivia

* The Urawa Hosei bus and cheer team didn't appear in the manga.
* The scene with Junpei, Tetsuji, Yasuaki, and Kaoru is anime original.