Sayonara Lara

Yuri (girls romance) I was really disappointed by the ending of this show. The marketing only labeled it as a standard 'Romance' and 'Fantasy,' so I expected a traditional story about a boy and a girl. Instead, the creators used the romance tag as a trick to hide a Yuri plotline. For me personally, I believe that men and women were naturally created for one another, and I prefer watching stories that reflect that traditional bond. I felt misled because the tags didn't accurately warn viewers about the direction of the romance. If you are looking for a standard male-female love story, I highly recommend skipping this one." So, I really hate this type of anime and manga. I hate the mindset of people who say, “Romance is romance—it can be between two boys or two girls.” I just don’t understand how they think that way. I really can’t stand this kind of romance.

I found my years old account just to leave a review on this whole journey. It was Yuribait to such a high capacity. Every reddit post I have seen feels the exact same if not very similar, the 11 episodes leading up to the ending were AMAZING. The music, the character/story development, the climax it was hinting towards, and ESPECIALLY THE YURI THAT WAS BEING BUILT UP. Throughout the entire show, it gives signs and supporting details that support EVERYONE'S thought that LaraXMari is going to happen in some capacity. The Epilogue to EP12 destroyed everything that was built up throughout the 11 episodes, not just in the romance between them but with the development of Lara as a character and the life she was building and learning to be apart of with Mari and her family. The ending was great, but that last few minutes of the epilogue ruined it and it all felt a bit rushed with no explanation as to why it happened the way it did. An ending everyone has to guess and make assumptions to justify why it happened it happened the way it did isn't a good ending. No way on anything would I rewatch this, I'm not masochistic.

This show opens remarkably well. A recap of the original Little Mermaid mythology, combined with some original storytelling, sets up an inviting show. However, the viewing experience is inconsistent. Some episodes are genuinely engaging, pulling you in with the characters' backstories and motivations, while others fall disappointingly flat and are, at times, dull. The pacing never quite finds its footing, and the narrative rises and falls, focusing on characters who simply aren't as compelling as others in the cast. The characters are perhaps the most telling symptom of this inconsistency. Grace and Lisa are the clear standouts: they are compelling, layered, and worth following. It is often difficult to flesh out a character within such a short runtime, but these two were handled very well. Conversely, the rest of the cast, perhaps barring the main character, struggle to leave much of an impression. You finish scenes with them and feel very little. I must note that I struggled to care about Mari's character, which meant that her focused arcs suffered. The character designs reflect a similar story: they are functional and suit the show's tone, but are rarely daring, with Grace once again being the exception, sporting the most visually interesting design of the lot. Again, Lucas’s character, who arrived noticeably late in the show, felt rushed. I wish he had been given more time to integrate into the story and have a more meaningful stake in it. He possesses some interesting quirks and personality traits that were ultimately underutilised, leading to a predictable ending. With more time to flourish, the same conclusion of the show would of felt more layered and compelling. On the romance side, things remain notably ambiguous. Whether that is intentional or a result of a lack of commitment is hard to say, but I will leave it there to avoid spoilers. Finally, the one area where this show genuinely excels is its visuals. The art, colour palette, and composition are simply lovely. The way scenes are framed, whether focusing on characters in a quiet moment or something as simple as food, is eye-catching and carefully considered. It is clear that real artistic attention went into this, and it elevates the show noticeably above what the writing alone would achieve. While the show is visually appealing and the story is mostly intriguing, I would struggle to recommend this to most people. It is such a mixed bag, with half the cast feeling rushed or uninteresting and parts of the narrative lacking the focus needed to keep the viewer fully engaged. Ultimately, it is a production that relies heavily on its aesthetic to mask a hollow and uneven centre.

Yuri (girls romance) I was really disappointed by the ending of this show. The marketing only labeled it as a standard 'Romance' and 'Fantasy,' so I expected a traditional story about a boy and a girl. Instead, the creators used the romance tag as a trick to hide a Yuri plotline. For me personally, I believe that men and women were naturally created for one another, and I prefer watching stories that reflect that traditional bond. I felt misled because the tags didn't accurately warn viewers about the direction of the romance. If you are looking for a standard male-female love story, I highly recommend skipping this one." So, I really hate this type of anime and manga. I hate the mindset of people who say, “Romance is romance—it can be between two boys or two girls.” I just don’t understand how they think that way. I really can’t stand this kind of romance.

I honestly don't know what I just watched - this show is all over the place with the overarching theme being "finding the light to save the kingdom!" but everything is executed in a half assed fashion. The villain is not as evil as Ursula from Disney's The Little Mermaid and after twelve episodes I still don't get what makes Lara so special; she's more like a wishy washy Ariel dating a weak/femboy Eric that ends up liking her female friend (however the yuri isn't convincing either; Lara seems equivalent to a newly hatched chick who latched onto the first human that was nice to her). This anime is basically the shoujo version of Seraph of the End with the same inherent flaw where the characters keep repeating the overambitious goal of saving the world/kingdom over and over to instill in your brain that they are doing something grandiose in every single episode, but in actuality nothing is happening for a major chunk of the series and then the story just abruptly ends. I wasn't planning on watching this show in the beginning because I had a hunch that this would be a letdown but was once again bamboozled by the false hype and high ratings. Moral of the story: trust your gut and don't waste your time.

Let’s make the little mermaid, but make it Japanese and gay. That’s surely the thought process going through Kinema Citrus’ staff heads when they made Sayolara and thank God it was because this was amazing, an absolute masterpiece from start to finish with some of the best direction and most emotionally charged writing of the year. Not a single dull episode in an original anime like this is wild, but it’s a testament to the staff who worked on this because it oozes with love and passion. It’s a visual masterpiece as well as a thought provoking ideological struggle of choosing between one’s past and one’s future that doesn’t really paint either side as right or wrong and requires you to use your brain and come to your own conclusion. Not to mention having one of the more lovable protagonists of the year in Lara and a lovely totally not(sarcasm) yuri dynamic between she and Mari. This was awesome! Watch it. The two things that really make Sayolara so good to me are Lara and Mari’s unlikely friendship, after Lara had seen the worst of humanity, Mari shows her the best, and then the conflict between Mari and her sister over saving their kingdom. Throughout the show, we, like Lara, are constantly pulled between Lara’s commitment to her family and old home vs her commitment to those who are here now for her. Anyone telling you this would be a quick or easy decision to make after everything Lara went through is lying. I do not envy her in this show, that said, I like how the show shows you multiple sides to the situation and you kind of go back and forth between wanting to restore the kingdom’s light and wanting Lara to be happy in modern Japan. Of course, being anime, there’s always a third option forward as well. Speaking of Lara’s sister, Lisa was arguably the best character in the entire show. Even though Lara was the MC, once we got Lisa’s backstory I really found myself rooting for her and wanting her to not lose. She’d been through and sacrificed too much. Yes, she only saw the bad in humans, but why wouldn’t she? You can only go off of your personal experiences. She was such an interesting foil to Lara because as the audience, we saw everything Lara had been through to make her trusting of humanity and what had given her the strength to get up and dust herself off after being betrayed by humanity, but Lisa on the other hand was alone the whole time and only had her hatred to fuel her. How could I blame her for becoming that way when that’s all she knew? I love conflicts like this where they’re more grey than black and white and when both sides really have valid reasons for being the way they are. It’s just a matter of luck of the draw. Same thing could be said for the witch who also became one of my favorite characters of the season thanks to her penultimate episode backstory. I think this show just really does a good job driving home the point that different people can have different experiences with groups of people and they’re both valid, neither is right or wrong. It just is what it is, but it’s on all of us to not fall into hate and judge entire communities based on our limited interactions, no matter how good or bad. The one downside about this show for me was the forced attempted romance between Lara and the totally not reincarnated prince. Their ship felt so pushy and weird.. just couldn’t get into it at all, especially considering Mari and Lara were the obvious best choice from the jump. Last time Lara trusted a man, her life went to shit, so why would we run that back lol? Even if you’re not a huge yuri fan, you’ll quickly see that the het ship just ain’t it. Talked about it earlier, but I really cannot praise Kinema Citrus enough for the production values here. Every episode looks and feels like a film. Character designs are gorgeous, direction is stellar, voice acting top notch.. what a piece of art, man. Some of the best stuff out of Japan this year and a candidate for best art direction of the year for sure. Sayolara was without a doubt one of the best shows of the season and such a well written story and conflict. I’m sad it’s over, but I’m also looking forward to the manga by the author of Citrus which should be dropping soon! Hopefully that will flesh out Lara and Mari even more as well as Lisa during her time in the human world and a few other characters. Sayolara gets 9 out of 10

I won't lie and say the anime is terrible. The visuals are beautiful—very reminiscent of the 90s—and it features a great soundtrack, solid animation, and engaging characters and storytelling. The show balances drama, comedy, and moments of reflection very well, making for a truly enjoyable journey; however, the ending didn't live up to the quality of the preceding eleven episodes. The conclusion of Episode 12 felt rushed and lacked clarity, leaving many loose ends—especially regarding Lara's family. Furthermore, the events of the final ten minutes seemed to undo the entire plot, including the confirmation of the "supposed" main couple. It’s as if all her drama and her quest to find and save something ultimately amounted to nothing, you know? I felt the writing took the coward's way out, failing to give the audience—and, more importantly, the characters—the closure they deserved. I think there were other ways to wrap up the story satisfactorily, even if it meant relying on subtext. Ultimately, despite the bittersweet ending, I believe it’s worth watching—just without high expectations for the finale.

Yuri fans, don't do it. I'm telling you. Just don't. I'm writing this review as someone who's opinion of a show heavily relies on the ending. The first 11 episodes are amazing. Art direction is beautiful, it's genuinely the best looking show of this year. I love the soundtrack and it elevates a lot of the emotional moments. All the characters are super charming and just generally oozes with personality. Unfortunately, the ending is terrible. Truly awful. I won't spoil it but there are several decisions made that I'm just genuinely confused by. Not only does the last episode suck, it makes the rest of the series feel pointless. If you're not a romance fan or don't really care about that stuff, then you might get something out of the show. Like I said, everything leading up to the ending is great.

We can't have anything. I am sick of relationships between women not being developed properly or sidelined for a male lead. People don't take our love seriously and see it as a silly game you will grow out of. If this was a yaoi or a BL then I know that Mari and Lara would've kissed and it would be so clear to the audience that they are together but because they're women no one cares. I am so disappointed by whatever it is I have just seen. I had hopes up to about episode 10 of this anime, thinking we may finally get a yuri love story that is clear to the viewer that the characters are together. Then episode 11 came out and still no yuri. Then episode 12 dropped and it all turned out to be for nothing. We were promised a yuri anime that wasn't generic yet we were served one of the most generic yuris out there as they left it ambiguous. If Utena and Anthy could kiss in the 90s then why can't Mari and Lara kiss in modern day? I'm only rating this anime a 6/10 because visually it was beautiful, but if you want a yuri that is an actual yuri then look elsewhere because you won't find it here.

the series started off well, i was interested in Lara's character and her relationship with Mari and the other characters, but i personally found the show to be running on a treadmill. running but not *really* going anywhere. i believe it really suffers from the modern day curse of anime and live action shows being 8-12 episodes long, the characters are barely developed enough enough to make something somewhat enjoyable. i was really looking forward to the final episode, and it was good, up until the last like 5 minutes where it left me feeling disappointed and with more questions than answers. i recommend it for the art, Lara and Mari specifically, but be prepared for a mid epilogue

My disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined. (felt so betrayed we had to leave our first review) Biggest set up for absolutely nothing to happen. The animation was amazing, but the storyline revolved around Lara finding true love only for her to not love anyone in the end (or at least not say or show that she does). Luca was the most correct about Lara's personality, she's just unpredictable to be unpredictable. No reason behind her final actions whatsoever. Wasted 6 hrs of our lives to be sincerely disappointed at the resolution. ONLY REDEEMING PLOT IS GRACE'S (although Lara not completing her arc results in Grace not having a resolution either but let's ignore that lol)

My relationship with yuri has been turbulent, to say the least. On one hand, I truly wish yuri would be something more meaningful than just pure fetishism. On the other hand, yuri that focuses on romance tends to be sappy, melodramatic, and pretentious. The latter particularly ends up as shallow, with the main duo being characterized solely by love and nothing else, like Bloom into You. The fetishistic kinds at least pay more attention towards the entertainment value rather than hyperfocusing on the “love” by constantly having acting chummy with each other like an insecure lesbian couple. That’s why the best yuri, to me, incorporates other elements into the show, like Madoka Magica or Flip Flappers to some extent, making the yuri part secondary or as bait. Luckily, this season Goodbye Lara opts for the best yuri by opting for the bait-and-switch tactic, luring its audience like a bunch of sailors into the deep sea like a siren by hinging most of its plot on the subversion and reimagining of an age-old classic, Christian Andersen’s fairy tale, The Little Mermaid, and taking certain elements of the Disney adaptation and improving it drastically while sprinkling in some yuri subtext along the way, albeit with some glaring issues. From the get-go, the part that strikes me as impressive is the production design for Goodbye Lara. Kinema Citrus has always been a curious studio. Their presence has always slipped under the radar in the seasonal chart, mostly because the quality of some of the source materials they choose to adapt has always been mediocre at best (I am talking about you Shield Hero). Occasionally, they will produce something that has wonderful production with a decent to great script, like their adaptation of Made in Abyss or their original Revue Starlight, that really brings out their A game. To me, Lara is one of those occasions. The amount of effort that the animation staff put into this show to immerse the audience in the world of Goodbye Lara is telling. The show's color design, using beautiful painterly background art with no noticeable CGI alongside careful coloration of every scene utilizing dominant and accent colors, makes the entire presentation vibrant and pleasing to look at. The intricate details in all of these scenes are so great that you easy screenshot any frames of this show to make a beautiful picture. On top of that, the simplistic character design has distinctive silhouettes while paying great attention to aesthetics. The merfolk dress code, like our protagonist, reminds you of the late 19th century, a style used in some of Ghibli’s work like Howl’s Moving Castle or Laputa. It is a brilliant choice to illustrate the clashing values between the merfolk of the bygone era of monarchy and modern-day humans. The fluid animation brings characters to life by adding more expressiveness to their facial expressions, body movements, and gestures. There are so many beautiful-looking animated sequences that would put even the most sakuga-heavy action shounen to shame. The musical arrangement adds a major touch of whimsical punch to every emotional moment, making it feel like a theatrical spectacle without the corniness, unlike some other adaptations. Cough... cough... Disney...cough...cough. For the script, instead of following Andersen’s fairy tales to the letter or roughly retracing the original plot of the original and tweaking certain parts like the Disney musical, the scriptwriter for Goodbye Lara decides to put a fun twist on some of the fantastical elements in the original fairy tales. The first major change is definitely the nature of the merfolk themselves. In Goodbye Lara, instead of not possessing a human soul like in the fairy tale, they now function on love, as love is the power that would lend them the light to prevent the kingdom dwellers from being dissolved into sea foam. The light can breathe life into the underwater Kingdom of the merfolk. This is a great change overall compared to the original fairy tales because it doesn’t make much sense for the little mermaid to forgo her longevity just to obtain an immortal soul that ascends to heaven. It’s a religious reasoning for the protagonist's motivation but doesn’t make sense given the context of the merfolk, who don’t operate within human standards. The mermaids are no less human than the actual humans. They can dance, sing, possess emotions, and even have their own culture, so it doesn’t make much sense for the little mermaid to desire affection from a human to obtain an immortal soul, for her to become human. The changes made in Goodbye Lara manage to rationalize the little mermaid’s mission for love and add a sense of duty to that quest. The duty to bring light to the merfolk kingdom before Lara gets reduced to foam makes for a compelling driving force of the narrative. This is not the only neat touch the show made to distinguish the merfolk from the humans. As beautiful as the light residing within the merfolk’s love can be, there is also a terrifying side to it, a hideous-looking fish dagger that can pierce through the hearts of those who betray their love because they are scary fish people. It’s a trait that would reasonably instill fear within those who encounter the elusive mythical creatures. This characterization is a pretty clever homage to the darker origins of the merfolk across various cultures such as Greece or even Japan, as sea creatures that bring about bad omens to sailors who are unfortunate enough to encounter. Goodbye Lara’s version, however, portrays them as mostly misunderstood instead of harbouring any ill will. The human's hatred for the mermaids are mostly due to prejudice against them because of how dangerous they are. It's a fine allegory for racism at first glance, but Goodbye Lara ends up fumbling this idea down the line because of how it is developed to fit into the overarching theme of the show. Ultimately, Goodbye Lara’s major theme is about rebelling against old traditions. I more often disagree with this subject of this kind of narrative. The traditions a lot of shows attempt to subvert are not actually that bad, like Journal with Witch with its attempt to tear down familial traditions, for example. Unfortunately, I don't think Goodbye Lara escapes that fate, as I somewhat disagree with their take on this theme, even if the show provides a creative set of antiquated rules and misconceptions that bound both the humans and the merfolk, causing both great suffering, while also keeping it fair by giving ample reason why they are established in the first place. The old humans are bound by the myth that the merfolk are terrifying creatures of the deep who bring nothing but misfortune. Their fear is not largely unfounded, as the terrifying fish dagger can snuff out human lives in a heartbeat if they dare to betray the merfolk’s goodwill. The tragedy that befell the merfolk’s kingdom with Rigmor, the late wife of the current monarch Rowan and the Sea Witch, Grace, is also a good basis for the austere measures Rowan takes to isolate the merfolk from the humans by preventing them from travelling ashore. This rule does end up restricting a lot of the curious merfolk, like Lara, from wanting to travel far and wide and be free as themselves. With that said, I still think that the risk of the merfolk dropping a giant fish nuke on humanity, or the invisible daggers that the merfolk possess, poses a threat to humanity that is far too great, or the entire merfolk kingdom dying out, and that reconciliation between the two might just be beyond all hope. If your kawaii mermaid waifu has a menopause one day, the next thing is you are stuffed in a body bag dumped into Lake Biwa, or your entire town will end up in fishy gastric juice. They could have made it explicitly clear that the merfolk are dying out because the light they possess through each generation is fizzling out because of inbreeding or something along those lines. The show fails at demon…

Edit: It's ironic that there are people offended by my review yet there is a review where someone expressed disliking this series mainly because the main character was in a yuri-like relationship. I stand by what I said and I won't change my mind on the matter. I find it weird how some people complain about No.6's shounen-ai elements and Gnosia's romantic subtext/undertones yet are defensive of this series. For years people complained that No.6 has BL undertones and two kiss scenes between male characters but now this same community wants to defend one of the worst anime of the year. Good luck with that "trend hoppers". Lmao Disclosure/warning: I will try my best not to spoil the series too much but please be aware that there will be some minor spoilers as my review continues. Unlike majority of my other reviews on Goodreads and Myanimelist so far this one would be filled with mostly criticism because unlike most series I've watched there isn't much to praise with Goodbye,Lara so if you are raging yuri or yaoi fanatics,you definitely should refrain from reading this review or any reviews of mine. Unlike other users on here I won't praise stories simply because the writers pander to a certain trend or fringe group. I review a story based on it's quality and the writer's abilities to properly convey the character's actions and motives in a complex and meaningful way. If the story is lazily written or rushed my reviews will reflect,my opinions of that. I've seen comments stating that this anime based on the fairytale and movie The Little Mermaid. Goodbye,Lara is nothing like The Little Mermaid. The only aspects they have in common story other than Lara's red hair,becoming human from a potion from a sea witch is having her tongue cut out (it grows back later). The story isn't a yuri/GL. Lara only has boys as "love interests" in the series however there are quite a few scenes of obnoxious "yuri/GL baiting" that seemly is there to pander to yurijoshi and yuriota. The story writers attempt to copy the same gender bonds frequently shown in shounen series and shoujo and josei series with shounen-ai elements/undertones yet does such a terrible job at it and it's painful to watch. It seems the writers are people who believe their viewers are a bunch of fools who don't care for a decent story as long as they receive their "yuri - esque" content. With that said let's continue the review and of course my criticism of why Goodbye,Lara is my lowest rated anime since Yashahime:Princess half-demon. Review: Goodbye Lara is a fantasy anime influenced and inspired by vintage shoujo anime featuring a mermaid princess protagonist to feed onto the current reemergence/popularity of vintage shoujo manga amongst younger readers of this era. Lara is a mermaid princess with a fixation with the human world. It is never explained why she is obsessed with humans in fact nothing is explained well in this series at all. Scenes happen because the writers will it to and that's simply it. Lara is supposedly to be close to her family yet her actions show the complete opposite. During her time away from them she almost never thought of them. She doesn't care that she caused her family's curse either. Instead Lara spends her time eating cakes and watching romance TV shows. It's very strange. After Lara takes a potion from her aunt (the sea witch) to become human she later meets a human prince on the surface and falls in love with him. She must make him fall in love with her before she is turned onto mass of form and bubbles. Never once does she think of her family who were worried about her sudden disappearance. Her entire relationship with the prince was completely shown in a montage instead of displaying scenes in "real time" which is unfortunate because the animation during these scenes were actually very elegant and beautifully designed. I would have liked to see her love bloom with the prince so his feelings of betrayal and her dismay of being rejected would be more impactful. All her relationships are written in this rushed fashion and they are very superficial which makes them very difficult to care about. The prince was never given a name and the audience knows nothing about him other than his status and that he was kind to Lara. The relationship fails because the prince discovers Lara's true form as a mermaid. She almost kills him but stops herself before she goes through it. Lara runs out of time and becomes bubbles. She is given a second chance by the curious sea witch who is interested in watching Lara's journey in finding true love with a human against her father's wishes. Fast forward 200 years in the future Lara meets a girl named Mari who is a boxer with a tragic past and a boy named Luca who is an inspiring painter. Mari is a tomboy who spends most of the story boxing - disinterested or annoyed by Lara's antics until she randomly becomes official friends with her in episode 7. She is resilient and apparently used to have a close bond with her family before her mother died. Her brother used to have a boxing hobby alongside her before he moved on to other things. Unfortunately the supporting cast are sidelined in this series so it's never quite explain why her family dynamic seems mostly unchanged and if her family are aware of her changes in behavior or actions after losing their mother. Mari wore a cross that her mother used to wear - a nod to her close relationship with her late mother. Luca is an elegant bishounen archetype with a resemblance to the previous prince but it's never explained or addressed as to why he looks like him. His clothing seems to be modeled from 1970s shoujo manga characters from stories such as Mari and Shingo or The Heart of Thomas. He has a little sister who is a little rude and doesn't have many scenes. Nothing else is known about his family or his life. Luca is a very sweet and polite boy but because he is shy and clumsy,Lara doesn't value him as an ideal boyfriend because he rather learns more about Lara instead of kissing on command and is "too polite" which makes others believe he is a "coward" . Male characters who are decent towards female characters are treated as "cowards" or underappreciated in girls' anime. It seems many writers prefer the forceful types. Yikes. The progress of Lara and Luca's relationship isn't shown much and the same goes for most of the plot. She doesn't bother to learn much about humans at all. Lara complains a lot and she refuses to acknowledge that her egotistical behavior and selfishness is the true problem of her life both her friends. The writers could have taken the opportunity to have Lara attend school and learn about humans but they never attempted to do so. The writers don't even explain why Lara could read Japanese and type it on a smartphone but couldn't write an application for work,understand the concept of working to earn money and paying for items. Lara's time at work at a bakery is hardly mentioned or shown which is odd because she made such a big deal about wanting to bake her own cake that she almost quit because she wasn't allowed to work on larger orders during her first week. This entire arc was a waste. Lara didn't learn much from this event instead she was validated for her tantrums and for being upset for being scolded for burning cake she wasn't supposed to touch. She doesn't understand humans or the concept of love yet she is always seeking it. What is her goal at this point? She wants a boyfriend - that's it. She has nothing interesting about her other than the fact that she is a mermaid princess and has a passion for cake(two aspects of Lara that the writers wasted). Now that brings me to Mari and Lara's relationship. The "yuri baiting" of her relationship with Mari is horrendous and unearned because the audience always knew Lara has only had "male love interests" so what's the point of baiting her relationship with Mari? It's stupid and unnecessary. I know this show's creators w…

Being loosely inspired by Andersen’s The Little Mermaid, this anime offers not just eye-catching visuals, but also an intriguing story. Sayonara Lara isn’t an isekai, despite said mermaid ending up in modern Japan. It also isn’t exactly a reincarnation, as despite us learning from the start that the heroine has already died once, she is given new chance back in her body, back in her mind and back in the same reality. The one thing Sayonara Lara borrows from these often cliché-riddled subgenres is simply the narrative element of main character being lost in a world she doesn’t understand and having to learn even basic common sense. Okay, one more thing, she gets a mission assigned. But it is no slaying of the demon lord – it’s to find a true love. Alright alright I can already see some of you getting disappointed but trust me, even if romance is not a genre you seek out, give this one a try. (And if you already prefer it, prepare for the possibility of your standard expectations of the genre being increased.) What we have here is well blended fantasy and romance, but certainly no romantasy. Sayonara Lara goes from romcom to drama and back and it increases and decreases fantasy elements as needed. Not because it’s unsure in its own identity and scatterbraningly unsure what it should do, but because it cooks from these ingredients just right as the story needs it. Under the story of the little mermaid we can (but not necessarily have to) find an allegory of late bloomer, one that “woke up” in a world they don’t understand and is asked to do things they don’t get while their family is putting pressure of them to “save their kingdom”. But whether you decide to see the series through these glasses or not, the conflict still draws you in. And while I could dissect it more – how the second chance is viewed, how it shows the differences between instances of confrontation of scale of values between own ego and others and the consequences of doing so, the intention of this review is not to spoil the plot. So the last thing I’ll say regarding the characters is how I quite like the Witch and the audience being kept unsure whether her goal is selfish or whether she is actually helping the others just with some “rough” method of hers. It’s one of the rare recontextualizations of villain that actually works. Through as Sayonara Lara is not officially connected to Andersen’s story, does it even count? I’ve mentioned the visuals and next to the great character design that works very nicely with the underwater aesthetics, Sayonara Lara also evokes fairy tale book illustration with its backgrounds and scene composition. Doing so it not only pays tribute to its inspiration, but also achieves a unique vibe that makes the anime recognizable at first glance. Also, I did not expect that it would be a romcom drama mermaid coming of age story that would give us one of the hardest going designs for a sword I’ve seen from a fantasy work. It’s great to see passionate original anime works like this, and the staff of Kinema Citrus really did great with this one, as even the exact same idea could have been executed much worse depending on the production and such. Thankfully, we exist in the reality that this worked out in. And to think this is Takushi Koide's directorial debut? We have something to look forward to with his hopefully upcoming works.

Hey Fred! Gimme a Little Mermaid taking place in the contemporary world, but hold the prince, we’ll make it so the mermaid won’t be in love with him. Hold the prince? And hold the evil witch, she’s not really gonna be evil but rather misunderstood. Hold the evil w-? Hey Jimmy! Gimme a Little Mermaid with nutn! Nutting?? Ok no, truth is Sayonara Lara does keep the original story but rushes through it in its first episode, and to be honest it doesn’t do a bad job at it, keeping the basics and even featuring moments of silence, letting the visuals do the job. It’s not like it can’t be done in such a short runtime, Russia did it in the 60s with the most serious tone and the darkest aesthetics out of all the versions I’ve seen of it, which is why I consider it the best of all. The thing is that there is in fact an older anime version of the tale done in the 70s. Andersen’s Ningyohime (that means mermaid princess) was called, and like the most famous version of all, it was a musical comedy for the most part. By now it’s obviously outdated in terms of both visuals and audio quality, but its short length of barely over an hour and staying faithful to the original tragic ending makes me consider it worth watching it at least once. Then the Disney version became the most famous of all and distorted the image of the original almost completely, replacing it almost entirely with a musical romantic comedy and even changing the tragic ending for a happy one that led to some very hated sequels. But it also had the best visuals obviously and Ariel, Erick and Ursula had more personality and charisma and were more memorable than the casts of every other version I’ve seen. So after that, Sayonara Lara asks what would it be like if the mermaid was revived in a contemporary world and society? And she was a fish out of water both metaphorically for a theme, and in this case also literally. Well, that was also done in the past in the Aquamarine live action movie from I believe…2006? But that version was easily the worst of all because it also lacked core elements of the original story, the mermaid adapted to the different world very easily and the plot played out like a typical Usanian highschool comedy with even the group of mean girls bullies, what a drag. So even though Saynora Lara seems to be the least creative version of all for doing things that were already done in the past, it is also quite innovative in its approach. First for its comedy around the protagonist being lost in a contemporary society, but in a cutesy funny way, instead of a wild funny way like Yuru in Yomi no Tsugai or if you recall it, the protagonist in Kuromukuro, and most likely more that I’m not remember it right now. The same mermaid that was amazed by human creations in the modern era that inspired her to make contact with that species even going against her own, is now scared of the technology, vehicles and houses of the contemporary era. In that regard, Sayonara Lara also likes to play around with some common anime tropes, and more specifically romcom tropes. For example, at the end of the first episode, the protagonist is about to fall on top of another girl from the sky like in several romance and harem shows, but the latter punches her in the face. Later on the main character comes to find common romance tropes in movies, both happy and sad, and how fiction does not reflect reality, as a love between secondary characters that she thought was destined to be ends up with the two of them going out with other people, it was the classic childhood friend girl not getting with the boy trope done right. This last part is also relevant for the themes of the show, as Lara learns that her idea of true, destined love is not real or not the way she thinks it is and thus despite desperately trying to find it she is not successful at that no matter how much she tries to force it to happen, things just won’t take form in a fairy tale or just plain fiction-like manner. In that regard, Sayonara Lara is not much like Little Mermaid, but closer to the musical romance comedy drama cartoon and live action hybrid movie Enchanted from 2007. But where that movie chickens out near its end and plays conveniently by the same rules it was poking fun at, and even got a way worse sequel decades later, Lara takes it to another dimension of theme exploration. What if that love, in its forced artificial invention, became harmful, both for the protagonist and the supposed love interest? And I don’t mean that just metaphorically, as said infected love takes the form of a literal fish-like living dagger that attacks others and even grows to a gigantic thing that tries to eat them. So the love that couldn’t flourish becomes rejection and aggression and even makes interacting with others afterwards hurtful due to distrust. At one point it seemed like Lara was the real villainous character of the story and not anyone else, what a concept would have been if the anime followed it through. On a related note, and since I’ve already mentioned Yomi no Tsugai before, let’s talk about the theme of human and non-human relationship. In that series, the supernatural creatures make a contract with humans to help them and are devoted to them by nature, whereas they don’t comprehend why humans could fight, hurt and betray each other. In Sayonara Lara the merfolks creatures besides Lara fear, despise and reject humans, seemingly with no reason, but as we are shown more backstory then yeah, it’s made clear that they do have a sort of justified reason to feel that way, whereas most humans hate the aquatic species back, and did it first, seemingly just because they are different and non-human. That’s not the case for all of them of course, it’s not like the show tells you that nature is right and humans are a plague or something like that like some supposed woke naturalists and/or activists try to push instead of attacking the real source of the problem which are big corporations, and in turn replicate the ecofascist speech that serves said big companies and go against common people. No, of course and a central topic and theme is that Lara does find worthy of trust, good humans that are not like the rest, and thus not all of humanity deserves to get a resentful attitude, distrust, fear and hate directed towards them. But let’s not divert much further and go back on track to move away from the themes onto the actual plot and script, that is where the issues begin. Initially Lara is scared to live among humans, the family of the deuteragonist, and tries to run away, breaking a lot of stuff in the process, but gets used to that idea and starts to chase that true destined love and starts working in a bakery, which works in a quadruple sense. First it retains her cute and wholesome side for the audience, second it helps her pay for what she broke, third it serves in making her understand the ways of the contemporary society, and fourth it helps her in her objective to find more people and thus her intended true love, even if that doesn’t exactly work in the end. It is not related to anything but I don’t have anywhere else to mention it, I liked that Lara lives with a family in a cramped room and the power even goes out during an episode, a rare thing to see in anime full of spacious rooms even if they are set on small or poor houses or the countryside or whatever. Going back to the script, after the time skip, the supposed villain turns to a pet of the deuteragonist, and if you wonder why no one does something about a girl talking to a fish is because no one knows about that because she is a loner with some drama after losing her mother, hey this is anime after all. And for why the villainess is like that…plot reasons revealed late in the story. Something that bothered me in the beginning is why Lara would listen to the witch after what happened to her the first time and why would them try to chase love, the thing that destroyed the…

I haven't logged into this site in 3 years, and I decided to do so solely to rate this anime poorly. This was shaping up to be one of my favorite shows of all time - art, storyline, characters were all fantastic, like Ghibli meets Ikuhara - but the ending completely destroyed everything it had spent 12 episodes carefully building up. I genuinely can't believe how botched the final 5 minutes were, my God! Did someone else write the ending specifically? Someone who hates GL and the show's audience? I'm still in disbelief. I think it's worth watching if you're willing to turn it off 75% through the final episode and make up your own ending, but if you're like me and still have nightmares about the ending of Wonder Egg Priority, I wouldn't waste your time on this slop.

Story: 3 Characters: 5 Animation: 7.5 Sound: 7 Enjoyment: 3 Overall: 5.1/10 P.S. - Watched with Amp. Notes: A Ghibli film in practically all regards, with style over substance and magical wonder over properly explaining the world, and love/friendship fixes all problems and hatred/ugly emotions are the source of all strife/evil. Frankly, it's just not my cup of tea. Just like practically all Ghibli films, I was simply... whelmed. It was fine. Mediocre. Consumable. Yet entirely unmemorable, and that is a far bigger insult than being good or bad, in my opinion. Good shows stick with me forever, bad shows entertain me via watching a metaphorical train wreck occur, but mediocre shows just... exist. I will surely go through my list one day in the future, or come across it randomly on a forum or through discussion or something, and think to myself... "Oh hey, I *did* watch that show, huh?" Upon completion of the last episode: Wow, that last episode practically ruined anything good the show had going for it. What a waste of everyone's time. Hard [not recommend], unless the visuals or the unique take on 'The Little Mermaid' truly interest you.

High production value, exquisitely directed modern fairy tale, an easy recommendation… but not quite everything I wanted it to be? I have no complaints about the visuals. From beginning to end, it’s colorful and evocative. No expense spared. The lights of summer glow in every shot, from the heavy middays, to the radiant twilights, to the gentle streetlights after dark, only muted in the depths of the deep from whence Lara came. The teardrops and bits of foam linger on the screen, still in motion. Lara is adorable, of course, running around town with her bright red braid and her reattached tongue. Her quest to self-actualize is starts with the classic fish-out-of-water tropes, but then progresses to the harder questions as the plot progresses. Her arc is a bit slow, but the characters she meets all get their time to shine and fit neatly fit into her journey. Characters like Himeka and settings like the bakery give her a lot to think about, and I especially liked the awkward, lovable Luca, to the point that I almost wouldn’t have minded if the show ended up being yuribait. Speaking of which, does the show end up being yuribait? Well, I can’t answer that without spoiling. I will say that the buildup of Mari and Lara’s relationship doesn’t feel necessarily romantic. Beyond that, I’ll let you figure that out for yourself. I do still have some narrative gripes. The light of the kingdom plot is really important to Lara’s story, entangling generational hatred and personal happiness in a way that should work, but it has so little effect on the non-mermaid characters that it ends up feeling clunky. Some of Lara’s family threaten the human characters, but it mostly boils down to what Lara is going to do, where she’s going to go, and it can feel like we’re waiting around for things to happen when the human characters start asking “where’s Lara?” The lack of significant effects for long stretches of the runtime can make it feel a bit abstract, even though it’s clearly building to something, and it ultimately pays off. Also, having the mermaid-focused flashback episodes being set apart from the main episodes feels somewhat important to fleshing out the magic plot, but they really stick out, and only one really felt like a successful standalone story that enhances the themes present in the main plot. I don’t think I’d start my review off by saying this wasn’t everything I wanted it to be if it didn’t feel so important. A modern fairy tale. A story about love, “TRUE love.” I really wanted this to be a 9 or a 10, but a gorgeous-looking 8 is still worth your time.

Goodbye Lara is a beautiful little seasonal, set for the summer season all about hope. And boy oh boy did I have hopes too large for this show. To preface this, I do believe goodbye Lara is fantastic - in theory - but falls short in execution - the main reason being the 12 episode time constraint that squeezes this show so much it deflates and leave you unsatisfied. TBH if this show had more episodes, I'm sure it could have been so well executed that it could be considered 'anime of the year', and that was the thought I had before witnessing the horror show that was the ending of ep 11, knowing the far too large chunk of meat episode 12 failed to digest. The main conflict in the show is Lara, herself, her identity and her relationships, and most importantly of all, her fate! Goodbye Lara, in essense is a retelling of the little mermaid, set from the inital failure of Lara failing to into having a second chance. The show itself, as a little mermaid based-tale, has a large focus on the ocean vs the land, with both being drawn and coloured beautifully, almost like we're seeing the world from Lara's perspective. I think even from the first episode, you can tell the grandious scale of the world, and all the beauty within it, with the detail and wonder akin to that of what a child might experience or think about within a fantasy - or what a fish may think about land. The colouring of absolutely everything in this show tends to rely on fantastic contrasts between blue and red, and allows for this brilliant mirage of detail to show up, Lara's red, hopeful future shines throughout the entire show, and colours everything in this show in its wake, compared to the almost oppressive blue of the past that refuses to give way to the future. For the story, the main aspect of the plot can be simplified to 'hope' or 'determinism' , hope for Lara, and determinism for Mari, both of these themes mingle throughout the show, and weave themselves into a variety of conflicts that the characters wrangle themselves out of these intricate webs of plot. This sense of lighthearted conflict is overshadowed by the main plot of redemption / second chances, and throughout the show, references to this theme are made apparent and imminent, you can really feel as if you're in Mari or Lara's shoes, that there's some impeding sense of doom, that you could be overcome with hope, or determinism or fall into the doom and gloom. Ultimately, this show leans towards being very artistic, and relying on motifs to bring out subtleties, that the plot prospers with, but ultimately serve to refine the obvious present story even more. the narrative is lovely and hopeful and you do really feel like you're seeing the 'human' world from the eyes of a non-human, everything is exciting and new and fresh. And then it all comes crashing down. The amount of sub-themes, it contributes to the conflict of the show excellently, no doubt, but it can feel a little overwhelming to have so many ties that tie down the story at the end. Lara's doubt & hope, Mari, Grace, Lara's dad, Lisa... I could expand even more within these characters, and the setting itself, but for spoiler's sake, I won't. The point is, there's so many themes and motifs going for this show, and they could have mingled together excellent and weaved themselve into a wonderful mirage, but instead they tangle and clump -some get forgotten, others are resolved in a befuddling manner and a very slim few get any closure whatsoever. Ultimately, ultimately, I would say if you like this show, watch up to ep 11 and make up your own ending from there, the conclusion is not at all representative of how great the story is. I beg of you STOP AT EPISODE 11 if you want to love this show and not hate it.

A truly remarkable show. I went into it with basically no expectations. Just thought it looked fun and would probably make me feel a bit nostalgic. But it truly blew me away. I was in awe of it since the very first episode, and it kept on building on that wonderful premise, yet still managed to positively surprise me at every turn. Throughout the whole show the visual storytelling was absolutely phenomenal. I don't think I've ever watched a show where the direction had so much... personality? I don't know how to describe it, but it's so vivid. The colors, the framing, the movements. It's all so addicting. It's a show that doesn't just demand your full attention, but captures it seamlessly. And just to reinstate, it's not just a pretty package. It's part of the story. You can't truly appreciate what this show has to offer without paying attention to the visual details. I also want to applaud the show for it's consistency, since it can't have been easy to keep up this level of quality each and every episode. Secondly, the soundtrack of this show is incredible, and used very thoughtfully. There is a moment in EP1 where the buildup created by the music is just so good, and it's a scene that made me fall in love with this show head over heels. You'll know it when you hear it, I can tell you that much. The characters have their own unique motivations and are full of personality. There are at least two characters in the show whose true motives were hidden for a long time, and the show did such a masterful job of leaving small clues here and there, slowly assembling the full picture. And to be honest, even Lara herself is a bit of a mystery, so many messy feelings. She can be a bit of an unreliable narrator at times. It's one of the reasons why I think this show has a huge rewatch value. There's things you simply don't catch on the first watch, don't realize how important they are until later on. It's also worth bringing up that the character designs in this show are phenomenal as well. The story has high stakes, but despite it's short runtime it isn't afraid to slow down for a bit to actually sit with it's characters. Sometimes even in silence (a reference to a very memorable scene in EP2) The pacing of the show might be a bit fast at times, but it never loses sight of what is the most important. Goodbye Lara is also a wonderful tribute to the fairy tale that it's based on. It may initially seem like the connection ends after the first episode, but you'll be surprised at how many elements it brings back in new context along the way. I strongly recommend reading Andersens' Little Mermaid before watching the show, you're going to have so much fun with all of the references. It's worth noting that the show introduces itself as a tribute to Hans Christian Andersen in the very first episode, and let me just say, that was a beautiful homage all the way through. The ending of this show is bound to be a bit controversial. Personally, I found it exciting and weirdly hopeful. Definitely a type of an ending that leaves an open door for a potential sequel if the creators ever want to come back to this story? (let me dream) But to each their own. I do encourage to go into it with an open mind though. The last reason as to why I hold this show in such a high regard might not belong on a recommendation, since it's entirely subjective, but I'll mention it anyway. Sometimes you just find a story that tells you exactly what you needed to hear at that point in life. It's a type of coming of age story that doesn't expect its main character to have it all figured out by the end, and that's weirdly comforting. And the subtext behind some of the struggles Lara is dealing with definitely made me reflect about real life a bit. Goodbye Lara will always have a special place in my heart.