The opening animation of Goodbye, Lara, the Summer 2026 anime that offers a new spin on The Little Mermaid, has been released on the KADOKAWAanime YouTube channel.
Goodbye, Lara director Takushi Koide (who was assistant director, revue costume designer, weapon designer, and more on Revue Starlight and its movie sequel) storyboarded and unit directed the attractive sequence, which includes some traditional cel elements.
The opening theme song’s title is also “Goodbye, Lara” (“Sayonara Lara”). Ikimonogakari is the artist.
The anime’s Moaang-storyboarded and -unit directed ending animation, which also debuted with its second episode, hasn’t been released on YouTube at the time of writing.
Goodbye, Lara began airing on July 5 at 24:30 JST (effectively July 6 at 00:30). 200 years before the main story, the titular mermaid Lara fell in love with a human prince and consumed a witch’s potion to become human herself. However, Lara’s failure to find true love results in a bubbly death. Now, Lara has returned to life in modern-day Shiga, Japan, where she ends up as housemates with teenage boxer Mari Otsu.
Goodbye, Lara is the 15th anniversary project of animation production studio Kinema Citrus and the series directorial debut of Koide, a Shiga native.
Production credits (those with asterisks had the same role on the Goodbye, Lara pilot film)
• *Director: Takushi Koide
• *Character designer: Shiori Tani (Revue Starlight prop designer, Revue Starlight the Movie co-main animator and animation director et al.)
• Series composer: Anna Kawahara (Ashita, Watashi wa Dareka no Kanojo live-action series co-writer)
• *Background art director: studio Pablo’s Mari Fujino (Sonny Boy)
• *Color designer: Miyao Yamashita (Made in Abyss)
• Color designer: Rika Aizawa
• *Compositing director: Kazuto Izumita (Revue Starlight)
• Music composer: yuma yamaguchi (Undead Murder Farce)
• Animation production: Kinema Citrus
Cast
• Hana Hishikawa as Lara
• Nana Kawaishi as Mari Otsu
• Rika Fukami as Grace
• Ayumu Murase as Luca
• Tomohiro Ono as Yoshiya Otsu
• Mitsuaki Madono as Makoto Otsu
• Nanae Sumitomo as Ema Otsu
• Masaki Terasoma as Rowan
Source: KADOKAWAanime YouTube channel
