‘Goodbye, Lara’ Is Easily the Most Enchanting Fairy Tale Reimagining You’ll Watch This Year

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.

cnx.cmd.push(function()cnx("playerId":"6a2960d9-f005-463b-9268-fc7857147e87","settings":"advertising":"macros":"AD_UNIT":"/23178111854/od.gizmodo.com/article","CHILD_UNIT":"article","POST_ID":"2000785941","POST_TYPE":"post","CHANNEL":"io9","SECTION":"anime","SUBSECTION":"","CATEGORIES":"anime","TAGS":"anime,crunchyroll,goodbye-lara","NOP":"0","timeBeforeFirstAd":0).render("cnx-player-main"));

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.

What makes Goodbye, Lara stand head and shoulders above other remakes to grace us this year is how its literal fish-out-of-water tale brings vivid color, whimsy, and an ample helping of grotesque imagery to every corner of its lush watercolor-toned animation. While its first episode effectively gets its foot in the door, retreading familiar touchstones of Danish author Hans Christian Andersen’s 1837 fairy tale, its second episode contains all the bravura and charm of a Studio Ghibli feature film in a quarter of the runtime.

Much of that charm comes from director and creator Takushi Koide‘s kinetic and breathtaking direction for the anime, imbuing every scene not only with the sheen of a retro classic but also with the energy and propulsion of one.  And a lump sum of that charm rests on the shoulders of its heroine, who never fails to endear herself in every waking moment of the show.

HER GETTING USED TO THE HUMAN WORLD MY POOR GIRL IS SO SCARED