Goodbye, Lara Reframes The Little Mermaid as a Reincarnation Quest
This review signals that Goodbye, Lara is deliberately reclaiming the Andersen fairy tale from Disney's shadow by granting the mermaid a second chance and reimagining the witch as a morally complex ally.
Reporting from 1 source: Anime News Network.
The first three episodes of Goodbye, Lara adapt Hans Christian Andersen's original story in episode one, then kill the heroine and resurrect her two centuries later with a mission to save her underwater kingdom. The Sea Witch, Grace, is portrayed not as a villain but as a prescient strategist who may have engineered Lara's journey. The series acknowledges Disney's 1989 film while carving its own narrative path.
Community scores for the first three episodes sit at 4.6, 4.6, and 4.5, suggesting strong early reception. The anime dispenses with Andersen's 1837 original in the first episode, letting Lara turn to seafoam before being reborn from a seashell womb two hundred years later. The Sea Witch, Grace, does not demand a second price for Lara's legs-the scar on Lara's tongue shows she has already paid-and appears to have placed herself in the household of Mari, the human Lara will meet. The series sets up a "true love" requirement for saving the merfolk, but leaves open whether that love must be romantic.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the 1 cited source below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.
Sources
- Anime News Network Goodbye, Lara Episodes 1-3