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The story
Episode 13 of the original anime “Goodbye Lara” aired, and on 5ch’s live-watch and reaction threads, viewers voiced frustration over how few episodes remain, alongside debate over the show’s overall direction. Quoted from an interview in which the director said he “didn’t want to fit into a clichéd genre,” many argued that this ambition ended up feeling undercooked given the short runtime. Meanwhile, some pointed out that the episode viewers rated most highly was Episode 7 — which stepped away from the main yuri storyline — highlighting a gap between the creators’ intentions and audience expectations. AI-generated images were also posted in the thread, sparking further back-and-forth over how to handle them.
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Lara, a mermaid princess, longed for love with a human.
But—that wish never came true, and she vanished into the sea as sea foam.
Source: goodbyelara.com / original article here
What people said
S, I, G, A… Shiga — sounds like something Hanawa would sing (a Japanese comedian famous for his prefecture-themed songs)
Guess it's the same as how humans eat some mammals and not others
Apparently Rowan's favorite food is sturgeon, so I guess it's about the same gap as humans and animals
Setting aside the whole "blame the director" crowd — wait, is Re: #25 actually AI-generated…?
However you look at it, Re: #25 sure looks like a generative AI image
https://n.picvr.net/2609070057049435.gif
Editing aside, there's AI now that looks just like human work — AI that holds up against illustrations and manga drawn by actual people.
I bet "AI-looking" art is going to become rarer.
Honestly the AI stuff is good enough now that if you told me a human drew it, I wouldn't know the difference.
Well of course it's good — it's built on other people's work used without permission.
Seriously off-putting, and I bet it gets regulated before long.
Dubbing Report Comic ┈‧⁺ 🫧˚
We've published the dubbing report comic for Episode 10, "The Princess with a Blade"!
The warm-up massage part is adorable ♡
Please enjoy it alongside Episode 10 😌
Veteran actress Fukami is so cute
His loyalty to Big Sis Lisa is probably genuine though
He's a side character's side character, so isn't that about right?
I think a bit of an epilogue is all he needs beyond that
Then why even include him?
He's a character who didn't need to exist
He does that occasional smirk that hints at something cruel though
I kinda want to see that side of him let loose
A novel's coming out in October, so maybe that'll dig into him more
Really? That'd make me happy
If it's a rookie director, I can get behind that more than just churning out something clichéd
"Goodbye Lara" might've turned out better if it didn't try to seem so highbrow and just nailed the basics of a conventional anime instead
Well, if it's a world where yokai actually have real power, then the benefits Dara-san theorized about would probably actually kick in
Does saying "I can't see you because I might end up killing you" really count as menhera…?
Wait, could they just mean "standard/classic" tropes…??
People are just mindlessly quoting the director's interview, so there's no way they've thought that deeply about it
Wasn't he created because he was needed for the scene where Lara visits Luka's studio?
They needed someone to plant the idea in viewers' heads that Luka's art is bad, so Lara had "permission" to laugh
If you're going to explain everything in words, there's no need for it to be a visual medium at all
Yeah, fair point, honestly.
Anything the visuals can already convey doesn't need spelling out.
Though if you push that too far it just gets incomprehensible.
"Didn't want to make a clichéd yuri story."
"Didn't want it to have no genre at all."
"Didn't want people watching it through a genre-shaped lens."
This is from the director's interviews and Twitter Spaces talks —
"I don't want it to be genre-less, but I don't want it boxed into a genre either."
That seems to be roughly where the director's head is at.
But even granting all that, it still comes off like they diluted it into watered-down Calpis with too few episodes
In Chou Kaguya-hime there's still almost 30 more minutes of story after Yachiyo's true identity is revealed, though?
What exactly is "the very end" supposed to mean here?
the story's playing out pretty much exactly how everyone predicted from the OP,
yet suddenly there's this wave of booing like the whole thread got swapped out with different people, it's kind of funny.
Guess some people were actually hoping for a romance with Luka even though the yuri angle was pretty visible from the start
But Episode 7 is the highest-rated one, though…
Which means viewers were wanting the Luka love story after all
From an outsider's view, the people hoping for yuri are cut from the same cloth
Sounds like you're saying that without knowing what "SF" (sci-fi) even means
https://imgur.com/jqvbvXz.jpg
Background and Key Points of the Discussion
“Goodbye Lara” is an original anime with a limited episode count — per post #45, only two episodes remain, with a spin-off novel also announced for October. In an interview, the director stated an intent to avoid “fitting into a clichéd genre” (post #94), and the thread split between viewers criticizing this approach for leaving the show feeling undercooked within such a short runtime, and those praising the attempt itself. Notably, the observation that the episode viewers rated most highly was Episode 7 — which leaned into romance outside the main storyline (post #101) — is cited as evidence of a gap between the creators’ intentions and audience expectations. The thread also saw AI-generated images posted routinely, sparking debate over their use, though this is a separate issue tied to fan-made content in general rather than to “Goodbye Lara” itself.
*This article is compiled and summarized from the 5ch (Anime) thread “Goodbye Lara #13.”
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