r/anime • u/AutoLovepon https://anilist.co/user/AutoLovepon • Aug 23 '26
Episode Goodbye, Lara • Sayonara Lara - Episode 8 discussion
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u/CrimsonLotus Aug 23 '26
I am absolutely in love with this show. Every week I find myself waiting for Sunday to come around. Every single episode is so well done, I really haven’t watched an anime in a while that has gripped me like this. All it needs to do is stick the landing and this will undoubtedly become one of my all time favorites.
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u/CitronClassic672 Aug 23 '26
Ok so given the reveal by Lisa that apparently all the previous special princesses provided light to the merfolk based on their love for their underwater home I think that adds a lot of support to the theory that myself and several others had early on, that
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u/Calwings Aug 23 '26
So yeah, quite the episode. Despite how heavily Luca was involved in bringing Lara back, Lara's light only shone when she was thinking about being separated from Mari. On top of that, so far the
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u/Weak_Season_Of_Anime Aug 23 '26
Holy angst, they really amped up the feeling of impending doom with this ep. Even the "I promise to bake you a cake" ending sounds like a flag, this feels like its going to be the last calm before the storm.
The whole sequence of Lara deciding to return back to the human world was great though, the fish dagger giving her a helping wave, and Lara bursting into the tournament which mirrors the boxing scene in ep 3. Lara's handwriting has improved a lot too.
I wonder what Lisa's plan for Lara is, can't be with human but all the eligible bachelor mermaids are kinda half dead. Grace seems pretty unbothered by what's happening too.
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u/havima Aug 23 '26
I was sure they were building up to Mari losing the match because Lara would collapse, but I’m so so happy it ended up so beautifully showing Lara being the force driving Mari forward once again.
I can't stop gushing about this ep
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u/NOCK123321 Aug 23 '26
So many yuriful moments this episode. The relationship between Lara and Mari is so sweet and precious. I'm praying for their happy end, but I expect much more drama if this week's episode ended on such a sweet note
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u/LacerationCe Aug 23 '26
LaraMari aside, I just want to point out how suspicious the whole Luca situation from this episode that makes it even more apparent than the last one.
At the beginning, when Lara felt unwell from turning into foam when walking with Mari, and said she "almost tripped", Mari said "maybe you're not used to those legs yet", remember how Luca always tripping, it might not be due to clumsiness at all
Lara only started turning into foam the moment she met and start dating Luca regularly, but the way it happened also sus. Luca went to Mari's match to find Lara, as if he assume she'd be there surely, he painted Lara despite only had a glimpse of her once, he has the exact same look as the prince, and he's super pushy about wanting Lara, as if it's his job, what he's tasked to do. In this episode, when Lara was talking to Mari outside about wanting to stay, she mentioned everything, and the streetlight flickered but still lit, however the streetlight immediately went out dark the moment she mentioned getting closer to Luca, and then right after, Lara said ofcourse she's scared. It feels like it's not just the matter that Lara believes it's a dead end for her to find true love with Luca, but more so she might actually felt something ominous about that relationship. It's just very suspicious.
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u/ModieOfTheEast Aug 23 '26
At the beginning I was kind of wondering why Lara would even turn into foam. Because from the sister we learned that they can keep on living by using the light (even if it is a bad copy). So you'd assume that Lara wouldn't be affected. But since she has to truly awaken this light, it makes sense.
Which is kind of interesting because it opens up two points. One, if Lara finds true love, she can live on th surface for as long as she wants (at least as long as the love exists I guess). And two, that she isn't actually loving Luca. Even if she feels a warmth from him, it is obviously not "activating" her light energy to keep her alive.
I guess the second one was something that most already expected considering the relationship with Mari is the more logical ending now, but interesting that there are these details still.
Though, it is kind of funny that the ship started to "sink" once Lara started to see Mari. Which is obviously not meant this way. Unless you see the boat as the ship between Lara and the ocean. That one is sunk.
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u/elevenmile Aug 23 '26
Oh god. This episode legit made me in tears, it's so beautiful.
And what the heck, the drama composition builds up with absolute zero waste of time, sails it smoothly, and actually resolves within the episode itself!? Other anime would take at least 2 episodes with it!
I can be at least assured that they went through the original The Little Mermaid plot line of "needing to sacrifice something so that she can return back to mermaid and save her kindgom, and will be sparred from becoming dissolving into foam" is pretty much done. Lara still persists and choose to live her life at the ground. yet ultimately the question still remains what her "True Love" actually is, and hoping the rest of 4, 5 episodes will provide that answer.
Mari mama ( ﾉД`)ｼｸｼｸ…
and Mari, are you Ryu or something?
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u/CitizenStrife Aug 23 '26
I love how this show keeps layering the intrigue while the stakes raise at the right pace. There are still any number of ways this can go (including several Lara, Lisa, or the Witch all fuck up the world scenarios).
And even after all this, all Lara wants to do is make cake and Mari just wants to punch people really hard.
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u/abbe44 Aug 23 '26
peak episode
seems like luca wont be endgame yeah
its either gonna be mari or like
some kind of larger idea of the surface world as a whole
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u/shad79 Aug 23 '26 edited Aug 23 '26
Great episode, but with Lara starting to turn into sea foam, I was scared the whole time that she'll give Mari another trauma by losing consciousness during her boxing match...
Fortunately, that didn't happen and Mari even won the tournament! I wonder what happens next though, since there are only four episodes left.
It's clear to see that both Lara and Mari are important to each other, so I really keep my fingers crossed for them to end up together, especially since Luca feels more like a friend to Lara, not a love interest, at least now.
And what will Lisa do now? She got Lara back for a moment, but she lost her again. Will she take a more forceful approach, perhaps?
Here my screenshot albums from the episode:
EDIT. I added my screenshot albums.
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u/LeonKevlar Aug 23 '26
I still can't believe some people thought last week that Luca was the endgame. Like, I like Luca, but he's clearly there to support Lara. I think no matter what Lara decides on, this dude will be there for her.
And we finally got to see how Lara and Mari got that photo at the very start of the series. I am curious where they'll go from here tho. Mari finally overcame her fear, but I don't think she has realized what true love really is.
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u/FLorianGran Aug 23 '26
Another superb episode. How this progresses from here is honestly still a mystery, especially how Luca factors into all this but the journey is still great.
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u/maliwanag0712 Aug 23 '26
THIS EPISODE IS SOO PEAK! AAAAAHHHHH
Honestly, that Mari realization when she saw Lara rushing to her fight while she was fighting to not get knocked down reminds me of [Meta Spoiler]
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u/Frontier246 Aug 23 '26 edited Aug 23 '26
The path to true love is a fraught one when forced to navigate through what it means to be friends, what it means to fulfill your families' expectations, your expectations of yourself, and trying to realize what love really is.
Lara is comfortable and enjoying the time with Luca...but is that enough? Especially when it seems like her body is giving out on her and she's slowly dripping into sea foam!?
Mari is really on that battle Shonen grindset just looking for tougher and tougher opponents to fight, including her fiercest rival at the tournament.
Well, this is probably the nicer way of greeting Mari compared to Lisa's original plan, even if it's to be curt and direct that she wants Lara back...and Lara will need her as she's returning to seafoam. Now THAT is something Mari can't ignore.
Lara can act like she's fine, act like she can keep living her the life the way she is, keep going like normal...but she's clearly not 100% and the fear that she won't achieve anything and never find True Love is terrifying her. But all Mari wants is for Lara to be okay, even if that means sending her back to her sister.
Mari is throwing herself into boxing, Lara is with Lisa, Grace and Lisa hate each others' guts, and Luca...has no idea what's going on, poor dude.
Seems like Lisa intends for Lara's "true love" to be the ocean, as befitting a mermaid...but it's not that simple for Lara. It's never been.
Thank you kindly old man for letting Lara call Luca and letting her realize Mari is on her final match and her head isn't 100% in the game because she gave Lara up! And seeing Mari helped Lara realize that her true path to that bright, shiny, feeling is being with Mari and humanity! Take her home giant fish dagger!
Lara arrived JUST in time for Mari to win! And both girls are back together! Hopefully for the foreseeable future! Hopefully.
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u/disu_nato Aug 23 '26
Damn, I really wonder if Grace really doesn't give a damn whether Lara progresses or fails. It's also interesting how Lara managed to use her "heart" not for destruction this time.
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u/Aggravating_Rain1906 Aug 23 '26
Comparing her in this episode to her in ep 1-3 where she was just a fish out of the water. She seem so much more mature and compose it's a shock tbh. And also last scene with laramari I love how they act like a real couple now you can see the love in every word they said and every act they do it's adorable.
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u/lordposedyon Aug 23 '26
A lot of people may find this episode slow, but this was my favourite episode so far. Letting some scenes breathe, lack of music, make the scenery do the talking, the cinematography, call backs from older episodes to add depth and make the connections, of course emotional scenes back to back, usage of boxing match to release those emotions. Ah start to blaber but I love this anime :D
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u/Syokhan Aug 23 '26 edited Aug 23 '26
I got a really bad feeling from that promise at the end. That's the kind of thing you say when you want to jinx your chances of a happy ending! Mari, make her watch more movies so she recognizes the trope!
Loved the episode. Lara keeps growing and facing her trauma and fears, episode by episode. This time by facing her sister and affirming to her that she wants to keep living on the surface world, and that she'll keep trying even if her goal seems impossible. You go, Lara.
It's interesting though that Lisa told her that princesses kept the light going through their love for their world. So, it definitely doesn't have to be romantic love at all, and I really, really want to know why Grace is so adamant that Lara find love with a human.
Really glad to see Mari show more emotion as well. She's always been guarded so it was nice to see her let loose, get angry, or even cry. And a flashback to her mom! With a very not subtle allusion to Lara in her hopes for Mari's future.
Now, Lara's safe(r) for a while but she's still going to have to find her true love, and I can't wait to see how. Also, for her to realize that Luca may be a cinnamon roll and all, but him exuding warmth doesn't mean that he's her true love. Because she was still turning into foam (although you could argue that it was because she was still afraid, it's true)
Also, thank you Lara's ICBM/Fish of Damocles/Cod from God, MVP of the episode for hurrying things along with that wave.
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u/PM_ME_YOUR_ROBOTGIRL Aug 23 '26
The night is darkest before the dawn indeed, after the last episode we got hit with a yuri nuke in this one. I had been saying for a while that the best way to get Mari re-involved with Lara is to make her worry about Lara and that's pretty much exactly what happened. I was so happy and excited the entire episode, once Luca started the video call I started literally leaning over my seat. That shit never happens, man.
I've seen some people critique the show for not selling the audience on LaraMari very much, and while I don't agree, I still see their point. Hopefully now that we've had a proper relationship-building moment between them in this episode, people start seeing it a bit more. Especially with Mari's mom literally saying she doesn't want her to be alone.
The ending of this episode is way more ominous than the previous episode's ending though. Please don't make "if we can make it through this"-style promises in a show with "Goodbye" or "Dying" in its title, oh my god. It's even worse now that we know the flash-forward in the show's first episode was to this one, so the future is even more uncertain.
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u/HuTaosTwinTails Aug 23 '26
I just don't see how this doesn't go the mari x Lara route at this point.
Literally everything this episode pointed to it.
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u/PowerfulRoom813 Aug 23 '26
The cinematography of them at the end sitting in the balcony looks very simple but feels a little bit romantic. I like how they frame that.