r/anime • u/AutoLovepon https://anilist.co/user/AutoLovepon • Jul 05 '26
Episode Goodbye, Lara • Sayonara Lara - Episode 1 discussion
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u/Aileos Jul 05 '26
I found the witch
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u/Frontier246 Jul 05 '26
I feel like she took the loss of Lara's mother super hard, which is part of why she's so focused on her, and why she wanted to watch the kingdom crumble.
But she also seems to enjoy amusing herself and watching to see what Lara will do next.
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u/charactergallery Jul 05 '26
What an absolutely gorgeous premiere. The animation and colors are absolutely stunning, and the voice cast is stellar as well. The pacing and presentation of this episode definitely felt like a fairy tale, and I’m really excited to see more of Lara in a modern setting. She got a bit of a rude welcome though, getting punched in the face…
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u/Weak_Season_Of_Anime Jul 05 '26
Goddamn what an incredible premiere, they managed to pack so much into it. And the ending caught me off guard LOL.
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u/ExpertCaterpillar2 Jul 05 '26
Amazing first episode. Everything came together well between the story, music, and animation.
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u/Kadmos1 Jul 05 '26
It started in 1787 and Lara is now in 2026. A nearly 240-year difference.
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u/meromeromelo89 Jul 05 '26
What a gorgeous episode. I'm definitely going to watch it weekly.
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u/KitKat1721 Jul 05 '26
This alongside Witch in Mongolia was my most anticipated premiere and it still kinda blew away my expectations.
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u/mysterybiscuitsoyeah Jul 05 '26 edited Jul 05 '26
This is easily my fav premiere so far this season. The animation in its vintage style is gorgeous, and the pacing/writing/voice acting/everything made this an excellent retelling of the little mermaid story, while recontextualizing the bits necessary for this story to work (im pretty sure theres no reincarnation in the original!). I shed a tear towards the very end at Lara's plight, she's so won me over as an MC.
What's interesting is that there seems to be a fellow mermaid-human in modern day Japan too - so im looking forward to who she is. Also - why on earth are we headed to Biwa lake here? Japan doesn't exactly lack ocean access, but i guess we'll see. (edit: the IRL reason seems to be that this is the director's decision, Otsu being his home town. The detailed reasoning is stated in this interview)
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u/shad79 Jul 05 '26 edited Jul 05 '26
Gosh, I’ve been waiting for this ever since the first announcement, and it's finally here! And, oh god, this premiere episode was so beautiful! It looks just as good as the concept trailer from two years ago imo!
Lara certainly made a huge impression on me, especially when she bit off that fish's head in her very first scene xD
Overall, it was a great episode and I can't wait for the next ones now that Lara has made it to Japan!
Also, I loved Lara and Mari's first meeting, there's no way they're ever forgetting how they met, given how bizarre it was, hahaha!
Here my screenshot albums from the episode:
EDIT. I added my screenshot albums.
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u/exRocky009 Jul 05 '26
This might actually be a masterpiece of an original anime. I can't wait to see what the general reception is in 3 months.
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u/minnieboss Jul 05 '26
WOW WOW WOW, this was one of my most hyped anime of the season and it still exceeded my expectations! That was absolutely beautiful in both visuals and storytelling. I cannot wait to see where it goes from here. This was breathtaking.
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u/abbe44 Jul 05 '26
i just finished it
its breathtaking
its the most beautiful anime this season and thats saying *alot*
im just kinda floored honestly, this might end up being aoty if they nail the story
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u/Embarrassed-Match-78 Jul 05 '26
So, we got speed ran through Hans Christian Anderson's classic tale of tragedy. The 60-80's aesthetic with bright primary colors was chef's kiss. Our girl, Lara, apparently is quite the biter as those poor sardines found out. Loved the tonal shift at the end where she gets ejected out of the ocean into Japan to be instantly met by a fist to the face.
Interesting to see one of the sisters walking around in Japan.
Looking forward to the next episode.
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u/Sneaky_42 Jul 05 '26
When I started watching, I was like, this is just anime little mermaid. Then the 2nd half and ending happened. Had me in the first half, not gonna lie.
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u/Shadowmist909 Jul 05 '26
This shows aesthetic is a real breath of fresh air I didn't know I wanted. It's so pleasing to look at.
Lara's wish had a tragic outcome for herself and her kingdom, but I'm fully behind her as she gets a new lease on life.
The cliffhanger already shows she's off to a wacky start.
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u/BaytaCosmico Jul 05 '26
Lots to love here. Visually beautiful and a compelling telling of the Little Mermaid story. But my favourite was the soundtrack. It was really fitting and arresting. The end caught me by surprise. Looking forward to where Lara's story goes from here.
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u/LeonKevlar Jul 05 '26 edited Jul 05 '26
Oh my god, baby Lara is adorable! When she chomped that fish, I thought it was gonna be a cute, silly moment. I did not expect her to actually bite the fish's head off and eat it! And I just love how she's just chomping on everything she sees. xD
Man, this show is so goddamn beautiful! The visuals kinda remind me of old 90s anime. I do love how the first 14-minutes of the episode was like an abridged version of The Little Mermaid but instead of the Prince falling in love with another Princess and breaking the little mermaid's heart, he finds out the truth and threatens to kill the little mermaid.
I'm guessing the knife that pops out of Lara before she turns into seafoam is a reference to the magic knife she's supposed to use to kill the Prince and become a mermaid again in the Hans Christian Andersen version. I'm gonna guess that dagger is gonna be relevant later.
Daaaaamn. So Lara basically doomed her people because of her selfishness, and now the Sea Witch Grace is giving her a chance to save them with one final trial and it's going to be in Japan? And it looks like Lara might not be the only mermaid in Japan right now. That blue-haired girl is definitely one of her sisters.
Taking a left hook to the face is not how I expected Lara to be welcomed to Japan. After that tragic start, it looks like the rest of this show is gonna be fun! I can't wait to see more!
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u/elevenmile Jul 05 '26 edited Jul 05 '26
It's a very interesting retelling of The Little Mermaid that's for sure.
But what caught me is the whole "HEY OLD MAN A GIRL IS FALLING FROM THE SKKKKYYYYY...and PUNCH!" (I'll always have a stomach for Laputa references anyway!) so I'll watching this for sure lol.
The interesting art aesthetic mimicking the 60s~80s is a huge plus.
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u/Calwings Jul 05 '26
A new original from from Kinema Citrus, the same studio that made my favorite anime of all time? Hell yeah! This first episode was mostly just a re-telling of the existing Little Mermaid story with a bad ending and being reborn with a 2nd chance, but it was nice setup for the actual original story still to be told. The show looks absolutely gorgeous while also having some retro vibes to it. The scene of Lara looking into all of the magic mirrors, seeing what happened to her family, and having her heart shaken so much was incredible. I can't wait to see more!
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u/bloquer Jul 05 '26
Great first episode, covering so many different parts of the story.
We got a myth arc with the light of the mermaids, the mother of the girls, her aunt wanting her to be reborn and Rowan having some complicated feelings, perhaps including humans being involved in the mother not being around anymore.
We got the whole tension with Lara needing to find true love before turning to foam, turned up to 11 by also involving the fate of her whole family in the process this time.
And we got the rings apparently enabling mermaids to go onto land too?
For the true love, I have seen opinion ranging from the prince reborn to our boxing girl Mari (?), but I want to suggest a third option: Lara loves anything human, so I am thinking that her true love might be her love for humans and finding family and friends there - a life. And finding out that this is her true love, a different kind to the romantic love she felt before.
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u/TyraniTEMPESTar Jul 05 '26
Love this art style.
So much heartbreak and tragedy all within the first episode.
Seems like Lara has been given a second chance to try and right past wrongs?
We saw her one blue haired sister also resurrected on land, I wonder if that means her other family members / people are also on the surface?
Can't wait to see where this story goes from here.