‘Frieren’ Meets ‘The Little Mermaid’ in Crunchyroll’s Near-Perfect 12-Part Fantasy Series
Crunchyroll’s Goodbye, Lara is presented as a striking modern fantasy anime that reworks Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid through a distinctly Japanese setting. The series follows Lara, a mermaid who failed to secure true love with a human prince and is resurrected 200 years later in Lake Biwa, Shiga Prefecture, to reconsider what love means; its appeal lies in both that post-fairy-tale premise and its unusually tactile animation.
Director Takushi Koide, whose work includes Yuri Kuma Arashi and Revue Starlight, combines folklore-inspired storytelling with imagery shaped by his connection to Lake Biwa. Although largely digitally animated by Kinema Citrus, the show uses thick outlines, saturated colour, detailed movement and expansive water-and-sky compositions to evoke older anime; a notably labour-intensive boxing sequence in episode three reportedly used many individual drawings to create a raw, physical effect.
- Goodbye, Lara reimagines The Little Mermaid in modern Japan.
- Lara returns 200 years after losing her first chance at love.
- Its digital animation deliberately feels tactile and hand-crafted.
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Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid is a 19th-century fairy tale about a mermaid who gives up her life in the sea for the chance to be with a human prince. It has been adapted many times, often focusing on romance, sacrifice and the different worlds humans and sea creatures inhabit.
Goodbye, Lara places a version of that story in Japan, around Lake Biwa in Shiga Prefecture, the country’s largest freshwater lake. Its central character returns long after her original encounter with a prince, allowing the series to explore how her idea of love changes over time.
Crunchyroll is a streaming service known for Japanese animation, or anime. Kinema Citrus is the animation studio behind the series, while director Takushi Koide has previously worked on other stylised anime productions; the show’s visual approach is designed to give its fantasy setting a physical, hand-drawn feel.