Which Goodbye, Lara Character Are You?

Learn More About Goodbye, Lara

Goodbye, Lara is one of the standout original anime of the year, taking Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Mermaid and reimagining it as a bittersweet, modern love story. The series opens in 1792, where Lara, a mermaid princess, falls for a human prince and sacrifices everything to become human herself, only to be rejected when he discovers her true form. Her kingdom collapses into a centuries-long sleep, and Lara dissolves into sea foam, seemingly gone for good.

Two hundred years later, Lara is resurrected in the very real, very modern Lake Biwa in Shiga Prefecture, Japan, as part of a trial set by her aunt, the banished sea witch Grace. To restore her fallen kingdom and wake her sleeping family, Lara must find true love again, but this time the show is far more interested in what "true love" actually means than in a straightforward romantic retread.

That theme plays out through Mari Otsu, the high school boxer who takes Lara in and teaches her how to navigate modern human life. Mari is dealing with her own grief over losing her mother, and her gruff, no-nonsense exterior slowly softens as she and Lara become genuinely important to each other. Their relationship, more than any romance, becomes the emotional backbone of the series.

Grace, meanwhile, provides most of the show's comic relief and narrative momentum, orchestrating Lara's trial from the decidedly undignified position of Mari's pet fish. Despite the absurdity of her situation, Grace is playing a much longer game, and her scenes hint at deeper reasons behind Lara's exile. Lara's older sister Lisa, who has her own history of trauma and captivity, adds another layer of urgency to Lara's quest, while Luca, a gentle human boy who resembles Lara's former prince, offers a version of acceptance that feels earned rather than assumed.

What sets Goodbye, Lara apart from typical mermaid retellings is its refusal to treat romantic love as the only kind worth chasing. Found family, grief, self-acceptance, and platonic devotion all get equal weight, making the show resonate well beyond its fairy-tale premise. It has quickly become one of the most talked-about new anime of the season, climbing the weekly trending charts thanks to its emotional writing and gorgeous, painterly animation.

Curious how you'd fare in other anime worlds? Check out more of our anime character quizzes to keep exploring.

Part of what's fueled the show's rapid rise is how differently it handles its central fairy-tale conceit compared to other isekai-adjacent romances currently airing. Rather than treating Lara's resurrection as a simple reset button, the writers lean into just how disorienting it is for a centuries-old mermaid princess to navigate a smartphone, a school uniform, and modern social expectations, often for genuine comedic effect. That tonal balance between whimsy and real emotional weight has drawn comparisons to Studio Ghibli's more melancholic works, and it's a big part of why Goodbye, Lara has climbed so quickly on weekly anime trending charts since its debut.