Despite anime created on cels existing only as a relic of a bygone era in today’s age of digital animation, that hasn’t stopped a retro boom of remakes, from Mappa’s Ranma 1/2 to Science SARU’s The Ghost in the Shell, from emerging in a sea of jam-packed seasonal anime as a stark reminder that “old thing good” isn’t just an aesthetic flex. In 2026’s crop of reimagined classics (executed to varying degrees of success), no show has felt so positively invigorating to watch in its endeavor to reimagine its original property (in this case, The Little Mermaid) as Goodbye, Lara.
Goodbye, Lara (also known as Sayonara, Lara), which began as a 2024 concept trailer from Kinema Citrus, landed on Crunchyroll this summer as one of the season’s most breathtaking anime. Like its fairy-tale inspo, it follows a naïve mermaid princess, this time named Lara (JP: Hana Hishikawa, EN: Brianna Knickerbocker), who falls in love with a human and is tricked into drinking a witch’s potion to forfeit her voice to be with him. Tragedy ensues, and she brings her kingdom to ruin over a boy. You know the story. But Goodbye, Lara colors outside the lines of the fairy tale with gusto in its first episode, having Lara’s would-be prince recoil in fear as her mermaid tail grotesquely bursts where her legs once were. Failing to fall in love, Lara turns into foam and vanishes in the span of its premiere episode. That is, until she’s reincarnated 200 years later in modern-day Kyoto. With her royal family scattered to the wind, her witch aunt Grace (JP: Rica Fukami, EN: Tiana Camacho) reduced to a sassy talking pet fish, and her only companion in Grace’s standoffish owner, Mari Ootsu (JP: Nana Kawaishi, EN: Anairis Quiñones)—who K.O.’s Lara upon her crash landing from Lake Biwa—Lara awakens to once again endeavoring to find her true love for reals this time.
