Yeah episode 11 had me hyped up that they might really blow it out of the water (heh) with this series, but the non-commital ending was a big letdown. Aside from that, it was a very great show to watch this season.

Episode 11 had me so hyped that my watch’s heart-rate monitor was going above my normal rate. But like I said in the image thread before, with an eventful and plot-heavy anime series like Goodbye, Lara, you either get an epic ending or a calm and collected one. And it seems like we got the calm and collected ending, as lackluster as it was.

Oh that's interesting, I wonder if it's someone I'm familiar with

They’re probably referring to this post by Takano Saku:

https://x.com/takano_wf/status/2102078697973141602

Takano Saku made a whole post on the last episode?! Oh, she's standing on business!!

Another thing I’d like to add is that, given how most of us here watched the anime while it was airing weekly, the sudden shift toward Lara’s independence in the final episode is probably going to leave a lot of first-time watchers, especially those discovering it after the summer season, with mixed feelings. When you also consider all the discussion surrounding this anime on Reddit, MAL, Twitter, and even here, I can easily see people who haven’t watched it yet wondering whether they should even start it. The story has become so confusing by the end that knowing how it concludes might completely change how they view everything that came before it. :P

At first, the story seemed to be building toward the idea of true love, but the studio ultimately didn’t want Lara’s “true love” to be another woman, so instead the plot suddenly pivots in the very last episode toward her wanting independence... And I’m not against a story about a young woman finding herself or becoming independent, but the way it was handled feels incredibly abrupt. Lara is typically, by human standards, a young girl with no education, no job, and presumably only whatever money she has left from working at the bakery, yet suddenly she’s supposed to go out into the world on her own.

Also, as a quick Google search showed, this was made by Takushi Koide, who is pretty well known for working on projects with a CGDCT-ish style, like Bocchi the Rock! and Revue Starlight. So I honestly like to imagine he went into this thinking he was just making another CGDCT-type anime, and then by episode 12 he was like, “Oh shit, this is yuri.” Just joking, but yeah...

last edited at Sep 22, 2026 4:09AM

My feelings on this series are complicated, because I like how it's done basically all the way till the last 5 minutes, so I've been grappling with myself on whether I let those 5 minutes determine how I feel for it or if I take it and try to negotiate what I take away from it.

Because I could go on about how I think it's important Lara's bodily autonomy became a focus in the plot over the fairy tale idea of true love, kind of like a plot twist scenario that wasn't really a plot twist if you thought about how her father has been treating her up to this point, and the fate of her mother and Grace as well was because they both had to be forced into finding true love while young. In that perspective, the ending to me is Lara breaking away from all those expectations to build a life for herself completely separate from those things. I think people who say she could build independence while staying in Shiga are missing the point a bit. Her sister is there, her slumbering family members are there. Even if Mari and her friends help her establish a life there, there are markers everywhere of the mermaid she used to be and the true love she was trying to achieve that was hurting both herself and her relationship to the people that meant the most to her. I think the fact that Mari and herself talked about wanting to live together in the future shows Lara isn't abandoning her love for Mari or her found family and friends. Realistic or not, this is after all the story of mermaid turned human, Lara had to leave to get a fresh start. I myself think 6 months is too soon, but after thinking about it more, the exact time frame is more a nitpick than anything.

However, I am also sick to bastard death of yuri and the relationship between young girls being treated as this pure and untouchable thing that transcends "love". It's my problem with Cosmic Princess Kaguya as well. Physical intimacy let alone sexual intimacy is seen as something that introduces conflict to a pure relationship. It's the kind of thing where these girls mean more to each other than friends, but they can never call themselves girlfriends or explicit romantic partners. As much as I enjoy them, I won't defend SayoLara, CPK, or really even any original anime yuri-adjacent work from this.

So we've dismantled the fairy tale and the need for young women to find true love, instead valuing independence and living for the sake of living -- which is fair, I don't hate this -- but Lara still loves Mari, and Mari still loves Lara, and they're definitely still going to live with each other as adults.... sooo, what's the word for that? Are we ever going to be allowed to say it? Let alone, will they be allowed to say "I love you" to each other? I'm okay with beating around the bush for the sake of building intrigue, but doing it so much only for them to never acknowledge it to each other is just cowardly.

crazy how a shitty ending completely ruins this entire series for me
every fanfic and fanart only fills me with anger

It's my problem with Cosmic Princess Kaguya as well. Physical intimacy let alone sexual intimacy is seen as something that introduces conflict to a pure relationship. It's the kind of thing where these girls mean more to each other than friends, but they can never call themselves girlfriends or explicit romantic partners. As much as I enjoy them, I won't defend SayoLara, CPK, or really even any original anime yuri-adjacent work from this.

The whole ending of CPK was about getting Yachiyo a touchable and touch-capable body again. (Followed by a consuming body, given the photo of NeoKaguya drinking something.) It doesn't go as far as "they're a couple, smooch" but it doesn't pull the rug out, either.

last edited at Sep 22, 2026 6:16AM

It's my problem with Cosmic Princess Kaguya as well. Physical intimacy let alone sexual intimacy is seen as something that introduces conflict to a pure relationship. It's the kind of thing where these girls mean more to each other than friends, but they can never call themselves girlfriends or explicit romantic partners. As much as I enjoy them, I won't defend SayoLara, CPK, or really even any original anime yuri-adjacent work from this.

The whole ending of CPK was about getting Yachiyo a touchable and touch-capable body again. (Followed by a consuming body, given the photo of NeoKaguya drinking something.) It doesn't go as far as "they're a couple, smooch" but it doesn't pull the rug out, either.

They show lots of physical intimacy in the new sequel manga.

crazy how a shitty ending completely ruins this entire series for me
every fanfic and fanart only fills me with anger

i am there too right now honestly, seeing any fan works kinda just has me feeling like what's the point.

i changed my discord PFP to grace too after episode 11 and while she's still based for "live for love, not the laws" i kinda want to change it back because like i just want to move past this show at this point.

Guess I'll move my post here, since there is a dedicated thread now.

I don't dislike the idea that now that Lara finally broke free of her duty, she can explore the world and find herself and better understand her wants without the future of her people hanging over her head. But there wasn't enough build up for this kind of ending. The whole episode seemed to be building towards a huge romantic moment (you know, like sacrificing yourself for your loved one) and the epilogue was kind of the complete opposite. It felt like it was written by a different person altogether, or like this ending was decided on an earlier draft of the story, but it no longer fit the story as it came to be. It isn't terrible to me, mostly just underwhelming. The implication is, of course, that they will meet again and that they will live together again in the future (which is okay, though I don't really understand why she would just leave by herself if she wants to be with Mari. They could certainly go travelling together if she wants to explore the world but whatever).

I was actually mostly—and extremely—pissed off about that one Luca scene and the line about "dating and breaking up countless times" (wtf???), but looking more into it (and trusting the ever reliable reddit lol), it seems that this was just a (terrible) translation issue.

Anyway, I really enjoyed this series even with the somewhat lackluster epilogue. Though, reading through the comments here actually pissed me off again about the epilogue lol. I can see some commenters' point about how this is an example of writers refusing to completely commit to a lesbian ending and to showing physical intimacy, though as I was watching it, what I was just thinking, this doesn't feel like how Lara would act in such a goodbye. I think the epilogue would be infinitely better if they had the two be closer: a temporary-goodbye kiss, or even a jug or holding hands, just to make the promise of living together again feel less distant. I am not surprised with the way they refused to show Lara's face up until the end; this is a storytelling device I've seen used a thousand times, though one I am not personally very fond of, and one I think was unsuited to this story. It made Lara feel even more cold and un-Lara.

I liked the ending a lot and I think it does fit really well thematically (the opening's lyrics hit different now knowing what happens... Idk if there's an english translation but they're really cool with the anime's story), but I don't like how the majority of the criticism isn't taking the context of the work itself in consideration, but what the audience wanted it to be like to the point of distorting the characters to be vile versions of themselves (Those are two fictional teenager girls who have had their own struggles made explicitly throughout the work... no need to distort that.) The train scene for example, many ignore that the plan is for them to live together and that even for Lara herself, that wasn't an easy choice, and when she notices Mari is crying, there's clear hesitation on her part. What Sayonara Lara really needed was a few more episodes to further flesh out the relationship between the two girls and Mari's character itself.

Lara's desire for independence to make own choices is something that has been hinted throughout the episodes and it goes together with the themes of patriarchy. The way the princess' light is used not for her own benefit, but for others', how she can't escape from the pressure of marrying a man, and even when she found out that it didn't have to be a man, the other mermaids wanted to take that love away from her and make it for them, without considering what Lara herself wanted, because Lara only existed to provide her light, her body, her feelings... all of these are part of it, and now, she can have her love for Mari to herself, the urgency is gone.

This is one of my favorite animated works so it sucks that all discussion online about it is so extreme with one side even going as far as calling it "yuribait" (this doesn't exist and if you insist on saying there wasn't anything really going on between Lara and Mari you're just homophobic. Leaving aside that this comes from people thinking lesbian relationships need to be a certain way, I sure wish I lived in an universe yuri is so lucrative you can trick people into it to get money) and the other ignoring that there was indeed some pacing issues, so really if there had been just a few more episodes, I don't think the reaction would have been so negative, and maybe more impactful than them just staying together without facing reality following the fairy-tale model Lara was trying to escape from the start. My interpretation of this scene is that she is taking her life into her hands and building a reality where she can love as she wants, without the pressure of others choosing how she needs to express it, and become whoever she wants. I don't like labeling things, but their relationship was still queer, could even be described as aroace, and the text itself has established just how valuable they are to the other.

And personally? I'm a lot more interested in the transgender themes present in the work rather than the romance itself. It just comes with Lara being a mermaid, so there are clear physical differences between her and a human girl that make it easy to other her, who is interested in something that's forbidden to her, punished for tainting herself with what her conservative family considered inferior and hideous, fighting to be able to remain a human. Same goes for Grace, especially the scene of her affirming that she is a human, a woman. They're like two different results of a transfeminine struggle. Grace couldn't save herself, and didn't even think it was possible to reach a different outcome, but she could save Lara, and Lara was then seen for what she really was, a human girl. So if you read this story through trans lens, it's like a metaphor for a trans girl who was saved by another trans woman and could finally get what she wanted, and now that she found somewhere to belong, someone who saw her for what she is, she can be free and a person of her own, and I really like this reading. A story of two girls healing the other.
Plus, Kota can be easily interpreted as a transmasc fish and Leo is so obviously transfem, the way she was looking at Luca's finalized painting... something clicked in her head lol

So what I mean to say is that I don't like that people are classifying this story as not being queer. I think it's fine to be frustrated that you wanted something that's more allosexual/romantic in nature and to see more of the two girls (I did want to see more too!) but you can do that without making it so that the amatonormativity Lara was running away from was the only way to make their relationship real in the story. It's yuri no matter what anyone says.

I have a cope theory for the ending:
In order to save Mari's life, Lara literally gives over her true love. She stops loving Mari because of this and that's why she's so disinterested in the end (also, the mermaid ring that before turned red when close to your true love is now blue. In episode 1 you can see it's red on the first moment Lara and Mari meet).

Of course, this only works if they announce some kind of continuation to actually explain and deal with this because if this was somehow the intention they didn't explain correctly.

Being realistic I think Anna Kawahara is just a homophobe that's always been very explicit how much she dislikes Mari as a character. I hope she would never get another job in the industry.

I don't think a continuation is likely here unless Koide is just as dissatisfied with the ending and is willing to fight for one.

Takano Saku made a whole post on the last episode?! Oh, she's standing on business!!

Yes she did and her post was not on from a narrative standpoint. Good to see Japanese and Chinese viewers with the exact same issues.

I was actually mostly—and extremely—pissed off about that one Luca scene and the line about "dating and breaking up countless times" (wtf???), but looking more into it (and trusting the ever reliable reddit lol), it seems that this was just a (terrible) translation issue..

That line is still ambiguous, which is a large part of the whole issue with this bad ending. I've seen many Japanese fans who also interpreted it as "we've been dating on and off for the last 6 months" from Luka. I can't blame them because Lara showed such emotion during that scene, even crying.

Takano Saku's post seems to imply she was there for the Director's comments:

"According to the director, "I intended it to be really straightforward," and from the start, it was meant to be a story about a girl named Lara growing up, with her independence as the endpoint. But if that's the case, wasn't setting the hook as "searching for true love" just way too misleading?"

And from a fellow writer (and teacher's) perspective, I agree with her main point:

When the hook is "searching for true love" but the endpoint is "independence," that's like yanking the steering wheel way too hard. And to do it out of nowhere in episode 12, no less. At the very least, if midway through Lara had consciously started grappling with "how do I want to live my life," then I could've gone, "Oh, so that's the kind of story this is," and accepted it. But instead, it's all "I have to find true love. There's no time" from start to finish, and it never once feels like a story about independence. So when it suddenly hits "I'm becoming independent" in episode 12, it feels like such a letdown. No, if they'd just shown a bit more of that thought process or her inner psychology, I could've bought into it.

I agree. This could be a story about independence perfectly fine but, as I said before, I don't agree that separating after 6 months satisfies the story's themes or Lara's recent thought at all. It would make more sense for her to experience life in that town, go to school, all these new experiences, then travel with Mari after graduating. All of that world was new to Lara and she specifically wanted Mari in it; so spending a short time seeing what that school life would be like then going abroad later would tie both of her desires together very easily.

I think the issue I have with comments like from girlswhokiss is this undercurrent that these things were mutually exclusive; for her independence, she needed this separation from Mari. I know the director wants that to be the case but it doesn't follow. I also don't see enough discussion again of where this leaves Mari's character.

There is so much tunnel vision on how it helps Lara, even from the director. What about where this ending leaves Mari, after everything she's said about loneliness, wanting Lara and everyone with her and after sacrificing so much? One woman is dead, the other leaves on her own accord and she's left in her town alone. I know people assume they'll live together but again they specifically wrote in a line to question that assumption when Mari asks if she'll be back soon and Lara responds with "No." Are we sure they will be back together in the future? Really really sure?

The reactions aren't because people can't handle splitting up or a story about independence; we just had "The Lovers" release to mostly positive acclaim. The issue is it's execution and the reasons for why they'd avoid the obvious. Clearly, they didn't do enough of a job communicating to a large portion of the audience it seems (from their marketing) they were targeting. This ending also creates a space for fans to be targeted by viewers who fell on the other side of this ambiguous seasaw and are attacking yuri fans for not understanding how this "wasn't ever yuri" and wanting, as a Japanese fan put it, "nasty sexual stuff" like having the girls kiss once. I'd like an ending that avoids that and don't think it's much to ask for. I read so many romance manga and it's largely only the yuri or yuri-adjacent series that are this evasive.

last edited at Sep 22, 2026 8:29AM

It's my problem with Cosmic Princess Kaguya as well. Physical intimacy let alone sexual intimacy is seen as something that introduces conflict to a pure relationship. It's the kind of thing where these girls mean more to each other than friends, but they can never call themselves girlfriends or explicit romantic partners. As much as I enjoy them, I won't defend SayoLara, CPK, or really even any original anime yuri-adjacent work from this.

The whole ending of CPK was about getting Yachiyo a touchable and touch-capable body again. (Followed by a consuming body, given the photo of NeoKaguya drinking something.) It doesn't go as far as "they're a couple, smooch" but it doesn't pull the rug out, either.

I mean yes, but that's the problem. It's only ever implications, it's never explicit. The problem is when they treat this implicitness as something ground breaking or genre bending. A lot of young homosexual girls and women feel the need to hide their relationship, so what mountains are we moving exactly by refusing to be explicit with showing this in media, either on the scale of CPK/SayoLara or not? It puts the homosexual reading of these girls in a state of existence and non-existence, the best of both worlds -- they can be the best of friends or they can be lovers, you decide. In a world where homosexual love is not given the same support or protections as heterosexual love, that's a cowardly decision.

And it is only ever homosexual couples in fiction that get this treatment. Heterosexual couples are allowed to go the full nine yards, to be in a relationship, married, acknowledged by everyone as romantically involved. I don't need it said to my face that, say, IroKaguYachi, or UtenAnthy, or LaraMari are yuri or romantically involved. But it would be a nice, it would be a GREAT change of pace even to have the confirmation be explicit. To have it acknowledged in the world by other characters, by the story telling, etc.

Edit to add: BTW I'm saying all this and I still like the whole series, and the ending. I'd give the entire series a 10/10, and the last bit of the finale a 8.5/10. Overall, 9/10. If numbers mean anything to anyone lol.

last edited at Sep 22, 2026 8:15AM

I will stand with a bullhorn and shout that ep 12’s ending is a set-up for a second season until proven wrong.

I will stand with a bullhorn and shout that ep 12’s ending is a set-up for a second season until proven wrong.

A last minute change to set up a second season when they realized the show is doing great and they need to milk it.

@girlswhokiss:

Your comment is long so I won't quote it to make this forum easier to scroll lol, but I also share your same frustrations. I had my own criticisms of how they handled the ending, but some people on Twitter (yeah yeah, Twitter being Twitter) will make you think they retconned everything in the epilogue. I am seriously concerned at the large amount of people who continue to want Mari to be Lara's true love, as if the entire point wasn't that the pressure on young women to find "true love" to save their kingdom was unsustainable and the root cause of a lot of the female mermaid's suffering. It's like being frustrated that Utena wasn't the prince that saved Anthy.

Isn't it better that Lara still chooses to love Mari, even if it isn't "true" love?

The trans reading is also very dear to me. Watching her father strike Lara's legs from her was sickening. It's also why I grew to like the ending as I let myself think about it. She's still stumbling and her legs are still painful but she wants to keep walking. I can't hate that, good for her.

It's a bit of a shame that the ending was executed the way it was because within it I can see exactly what they were going for but also why the show could have really used two maybe three more episodes to focus more on Mari and also how Lara doesn't really have a life outside of needing to find love and the ways it constrained her.

The bakery episode did get at it a little giving Lara a real interest outside of needing to find true love and the show could have really made use of more like it to highlight how she doesn't really have a life outside of her duty to marry and give her family the light. Though I do like how clearly the finale shows that her family just kind of doesn't care for her as a person and that true love as seen by the mermaids is just comphet and that the overarching narrative is about resisting familial pressure to get married for a family that only aims to parasitize itself on your love.

So while the ending is lackluster I do think it's moreso because the show could have used at least one more episode focusing on Mari, and another focusing on how constrained Lara is knowing that as the princess of light her life exists only for love.

But hey, maybe they saw the success of the anime and are just planning to make another season or a movie or something that actually cashes in on the one loose end of this story, Mari.

@girlswhokiss:

Your comment is long so I won't quote it to make this forum easier to scroll lol, but I also share your same frustrations. I had my own criticisms of how they handled the ending, but some people on Twitter (yeah yeah, Twitter being Twitter) will make you think they retconned everything in the epilogue. I am seriously concerned at the large amount of people who continue to want Mari to be Lara's true love, as if the entire point wasn't that the pressure on young women to find "true love" to save their kingdom was unsustainable and the root cause of a lot of the female mermaid's suffering. It's like being frustrated that Utena wasn't the prince that saved Anthy.

Isn't it better that Lara still chooses to love Mari, even if it isn't "true" love?

Yeah, I think it's clear what they were trying to go for when you consider everything else the story was touching on, even if it didn't work the way they wanted it to exactly because there were many bits of the story left unexplored, that more episodes were needed for. But it's simply wrong to try and analyze it as a story that was solely focused on romance and judge it solely on how it handled it, when so much of it was about a girl who couldn't bend herself into fitting an oppressive system that literally took the light out of their women, and even had the existence of another woman like her hidden away from her so she wouldn't be influenced even further by her deviance.
And this is like, where my own personal complaints come regarding how we didn't also
see this angle from Mari herself, who comes from a christian family and even has christian reasons on why she is named Mari. Had this aspect of her character been explored more, the scene where her cross necklace is broken wouldn't just signify her letting go of her grief thanks to Lara coming into her life, but also the heterosexual violence imposed over women by christianity and her determination to go against it.
The story was already dealing with comphet and amatonormativity, so it would have been interesting to see this through Mari, especially with how much she had in common with Lara, and how it could have contributed to Lara's choice to become independent and Mari's decision to respect that.

So again, I do get the frustration of it not being romantic the way some wanted, that there are many yuri stories where the relationship is ambigous (even though I don't think that's a problem) and many don't like that, but this wasn't a story just about how love doesn't mean being with a man, but also about autonomy and their love being their own, not what everyone wants out of them and I'm not very happy about the general disregard of an aroace but still lesbian angle. I like bittersweet endings, so I really don't mind them being separated before they can be together again (this is an explicitly stated desire and I personally see the white fade-out as putting an end to the fairy tale, not their connection), but in my opinion, what was really necessary for it to really land was more development on Mari's character and what this separation meant to her.

I think that, in the story's attempt at showing that being with Luca wasn't the right choice for Lara, it did end up focusing too much on her relationship with him and didn't leave time for more with her and Mari. There was still so much to explore on her character.

I think the issue I have with comments like from girlswhokiss is this undercurrent that these things were mutually exclusive; for her independence, she needed this separation from Mari. I know the director wants that to be the case but it doesn't follow. I also don't see enough discussion again of where this leaves Mari's character.

I'm not really trying to say those things are mutually exclusive, but I think the points we wanted to have gone differently may be... different lol. I like the idea of the separation so they can exist together without their love being about others, but again, it's Mari that needed more focus on her character so that, if we consider the two as the focus of the story, this involved both characters with more significance, because for Lara it does make sense.

The trans reading is also very dear to me. Watching her father strike Lara's legs from her was sickening. It's also why I grew to like the ending as I let myself think about it. She's still stumbling and her legs are still painful but she wants to keep walking. I can't hate that, good for her.

The scene where Lara's father forcefully took her legs away was probably one of the most gut-wrenching moments in the whole work, he was literally stripping away her humanity from her as the last display of his power over her life. And if Lara wanted to regain not just that form, but her autonomy as a whole and control over how her own feelings are used, she had to drag herself through maws that only grew that powerful due to how much she loathed what she was. They handed out the trans reading for free

This shit was so ass. Lara in the epilogue was so cold and detached to Mari. Why are you leaving the girl with big abandonment issues who just recently lost her mother figure? Why can't she find independence and her true self without leaving Mari? Honestly, I don't think Lara even deserves Mari.

The trans allegory was completely accidental, I don't believe the creators are aware or capable enough for that.

last edited at Sep 22, 2026 10:20AM

It's funny. I think people would have been mostly okay with the ending had it not been for the weird tone-shift and Lara's personality lobotomization. I think they were going for, "Lara is more adult-like now and therefore serious" but really, could we have not had that without the random dismissiveness and aloofness she gave off? It's an important step for her, but she doesn't have to act like a totally different person to make that clear to the audience.

That said, I also disagree with a lot of other people's opinions on the overall themes of the show. The fact that the anime had always been against Lara's (and her family's) idealized notion of "true love" was clear from the beginning, and I have to assume that people who are claiming to have been lead on were actively turning a blind eye to how absolutely depressed the search was for her.

I also full-on disagree that it's aromantic rep. I thought it was pretty clear that the true love that Lara chooses to reject is one that assumes that one must die or be consumed for love. Before, she points the dagger at herself because she's become convinced she is a sinner for the simple fact that she loves Mari, but Mari reassures her by saying that we're all born to love, her love is innocent and natural.

She loses her life as a mermaid the more she steps towards saving Mari, so that she can live in a world where they coexist (the human realm). Maybe I am the only person who sees the ending this way, but I also believe that she is trying to learn to be human to be with Mari, because the idea has always been that you need to be and to love yourself in order to love another. After all, had Lara chosen to ultimately stab herself through, she would not have been able to live with Mari.

That said, I'm still annoyed as much as everyone else about how badly the ending was executed. They really could have just made the scene bittersweet, but instead it's abrupt and completely emotionally detached.

I personally think the ending would be fine if Lara was happy to go be independent. But the way her face wasn't shown and the fact that Mari was crying hurt me. Also I don't care if it's yuri or not, deep down I just want a good ending for these good characters. But not even a hug? I'd hug a friend if they were leaving. I think it's out of character for Lara to not act on Mari's feelings. I think it was really out of character for her and that's what bothers me most about the ending.

I think I also would've wanted a small scene or hint in the future that Mari achieved her dream and Lara fulfilled her promise. I feel like they made Mari suffer just for a sudden ending that Lara didn't seem happy about. Maybe for a different ending, it could've been high school gradation and Lara decides to move out and go to college or something that feels less sudden. Also I was hoping more for a scene that remembers Grace. Maybe just even a small bit of dialogue or something in the background so it doesn't feel a little brushed past.

Anyways that's my small little rant. I love this anime though. The art style, voice actors, soundtrack, and characters are great. I love you yuma yamaguchi :D

last edited at Sep 22, 2026 3:03PM

Gonna join the "Seeing fanart just makes me angry" group.

Look, this isn't the first time, or the second time that this has happened to us. This has happened to us over and over and over again. There was a major argument during the show's run about how people were worried this was going to happen to us.
The issue isn't that the series ends with the characters going their separate ways. It's that this was not foreshadowed or explained.
At the end of the Locodol Manga, the main character's love interest goes away to study, but this is set up, explained, and it's established that she's coming back.

Same thing happens at the end of Himitsu Aipri S2 and that's a children's toy commercial.

The reason people are angry at Goodbye Lara is that it very abruptly drives off the side of the road in the last six minutes. The whole episode and in fact series up to that point was building to a different conclusion then the one we ultimately got.

Moreover, this is not happening in a vacuum. We're supposed to believe that this was a creative choice and not cowardice when there was an extremely public fight between the suits and the creative team over G-Witch declaring Miorine and Suletta married? We're supposed to find this original and brilliant when it's something that happens all the goddamn time in this genre, and it's usually better done than this?

I mean seriously.

When the hook is "searching for true love" but the endpoint is "independence," that's like yanking the steering wheel way too hard. And to do it out of nowhere in episode 12, no less. At the very least, if midway through Lara had consciously started grappling with "how do I want to live my life," then I could've gone, "Oh, so that's the kind of story this is," and accepted it. But instead, it's all "I have to find true love. There's no time" from start to finish, and it never once feels like a story about independence. So when it suddenly hits "I'm becoming independent" in episode 12, it feels like such a letdown. No, if they'd just shown a bit more of that thought process or her inner psychology, I could've bought into it.

I agree. This could be a story about independence perfectly fine but, as I said before, I don't agree that separating after 6 months satisfies the story's themes or Lara's recent thought at all. It would make more sense for her to experience life in that town, go to school, all these new experiences, then travel with Mari after graduating. All of that world was new to Lara and she specifically wanted Mari in it; so spending a short time seeing what that school life would be like then going abroad later would tie both of her desires together very easily.

I think the issue I have with comments like from girlswhokiss is this undercurrent that these things were mutually exclusive; for her independence, she needed this separation from Mari. I know the director wants that to be the case but it doesn't follow. I also don't see enough discussion again of where this leaves Mari's character.

There is so much tunnel vision on how it helps Lara, even from the director. What about where this ending leaves Mari, after everything she's said about loneliness, wanting Lara and everyone with her and after sacrificing so much? One woman is dead, the other leaves on her own accord and she's left in her town alone. I know people assume they'll live together but again they specifically wrote in a line to question that assumption when Mari asks if she'll be back soon and Lara responds with "No." Are we sure they will be back together in the future? Really really sure?

The reactions aren't because people can't handle splitting up or a story about independence; we just had "The Lovers" release to mostly positive acclaim. The issue is it's execution and the reasons for why they'd avoid the obvious. Clearly, they didn't do enough of a job communicating to a large portion of the audience it seems (from their marketing) they were targeting. This ending also creates a space for fans to be targeted by viewers who fell on the other side of this ambiguous seasaw and are attacking yuri fans for not understanding how this "wasn't ever yuri" and wanting, as a Japanese fan put it, "nasty sexual stuff" like having the girls kiss once. I'd like an ending that avoids that and don't think it's much to ask for. I read so many romance manga and it's largely only the yuri or yuri-adjacent series that are this evasive.

Yeah I feel like people strongly focusing on Lara's independence here are handing the creatives a "Get Out of Jail Free" card, by basically saying it's okay for the creators to not commit to the relationship and to only give us a maybe they'll be together in the future non committal ending. When as the title you mentioned, The Lovers, gives us BOTH a much stronger narrative of independence and sapphic love in a far shorter amount of time. Lara wanting her independence is good in theory but the creatives in this case ultimately use it as an excuse to not commit to any emotional or physical intimacy between Lara and Mari in the end, when they could have done both in meaningful ways like the spoiler tagged title did. As others have said even a hug would have been lovely, but I feel like the creatives were cowards.

Also your mention of people saying "nasty sexual stuff" about just a kiss is so painful to me, because I've seen this over the years from a variety of people that label kissing as sexual in order to use it as a weapon against queer media. As an example I remember an English speaking person saying "Owl House" is "sexualizing minors" by having Luz and Amity kiss, and Dana (the creator) is problematic for allowing them to kiss. Which is insane to say. I also saw another English speaking person this month with the same line of thinking about "My Wish Is To Fall In Love Until You Die" having kissing. People constantly try to erase and censor any kind of intimacy between queer couples by labeling it as sexual and specifically in a negative way, and it makes me incredibly angry and sad.

Also this part "I read so many romance manga and it's largely only the yuri or yuri-adjacent series that are this evasive." and yeah this generally rings true, this kind of evasiveness is so rarely a thing with hetero focused series and couples. Which I can even mention with this anime season "You and I Are Polar Opposites", which is a hetero romance anime that imo is very well written and handles the couples in interesting ways, and I can even compare the two a bit with where the narratives go. Major spoilers for "You and I Are Polar Opposites", The main couple in that series is extremely lovey dovey but as they get ready to graduate high-school they need to focus on their futures and this puts a strain on their relationship, where they almost break up but communication saves the day, and for awhile at least they will have to have a long distance relationship when they go to college due to their colleges being far away from each other and in separate stated locations. So there's an angle of maintaining being a couple while also being independent. This is a couple with physical and emotional intimacy, they kiss and enjoy kissing each other. I adore them as a couple but it also pains me that we couldn't get all or even any of this for Lara and Mari as well, and that might simply be because Lara and Mari aren't a straight a couple...which makes me incredibly sad.

When the hook is "searching for true love" but the endpoint is "independence," that's like yanking the steering wheel way too hard. And to do it out of nowhere in episode 12, no less. At the very least, if midway through Lara had consciously started grappling with "how do I want to live my life," then I could've gone, "Oh, so that's the kind of story this is," and accepted it. But instead, it's all "I have to find true love. There's no time" from start to finish, and it never once feels like a story about independence. So when it suddenly hits "I'm becoming independent" in episode 12, it feels like such a letdown. No, if they'd just shown a bit more of that thought process or her inner psychology, I could've bought into it.

I agree. This could be a story about independence perfectly fine but, as I said before, I don't agree that separating after 6 months satisfies the story's themes or Lara's recent thought at all. It would make more sense for her to experience life in that town, go to school, all these new experiences, then travel with Mari after graduating. All of that world was new to Lara and she specifically wanted Mari in it; so spending a short time seeing what that school life would be like then going abroad later would tie both of her desires together very easily.

I think the issue I have with comments like from girlswhokiss is this undercurrent that these things were mutually exclusive; for her independence, she needed this separation from Mari. I know the director wants that to be the case but it doesn't follow. I also don't see enough discussion again of where this leaves Mari's character.

There is so much tunnel vision on how it helps Lara, even from the director. What about where this ending leaves Mari, after everything she's said about loneliness, wanting Lara and everyone with her and after sacrificing so much? One woman is dead, the other leaves on her own accord and she's left in her town alone. I know people assume they'll live together but again they specifically wrote in a line to question that assumption when Mari asks if she'll be back soon and Lara responds with "No." Are we sure they will be back together in the future? Really really sure?

The reactions aren't because people can't handle splitting up or a story about independence; we just had "The Lovers" release to mostly positive acclaim. The issue is it's execution and the reasons for why they'd avoid the obvious. Clearly, they didn't do enough of a job communicating to a large portion of the audience it seems (from their marketing) they were targeting. This ending also creates a space for fans to be targeted by viewers who fell on the other side of this ambiguous seasaw and are attacking yuri fans for not understanding how this "wasn't ever yuri" and wanting, as a Japanese fan put it, "nasty sexual stuff" like having the girls kiss once. I'd like an ending that avoids that and don't think it's much to ask for. I read so many romance manga and it's largely only the yuri or yuri-adjacent series that are this evasive.

Yeah I feel like people strongly focusing on Lara's independence here are handing the creatives a "Get Out of Jail Free" card, by basically saying it's okay for the creators to not commit to the relationship and to only give us a maybe they'll be together in the future non committal ending. When as the title you mentioned, The Lovers, gives us BOTH a much stronger narrative of independence and sapphic love in a far shorter amount of time. Lara wanting her independence is good in theory but the creatives in this case ultimately use it as an excuse to not commit to any emotional or physical intimacy between Lara and Mari in the end, when they could have done both in meaningful ways like the spoiler tagged title did. As others have said even a hug would have been lovely, but I feel like the creatives were cowards.

Also your mention of people saying "nasty sexual stuff" about just a kiss is so painful to me, because I've seen this over the years from a variety of people that label kissing as sexual in order to use it as a weapon against queer media. As an example I remember an English speaking person saying "Owl House" is "sexualizing minors" by having Luz and Amity kiss, and Dana (the creator) is problematic for allowing them to kiss. Which is insane to say. I also saw another English speaking person this month with the same line of thinking about "My Wish Is To Fall In Love Until You Die" having kissing. People constantly try to erase and censor any kind of intimacy between queer couples by labeling it as sexual and specifically in a negative way, and it makes me incredibly angry and sad.

Also this part "I read so many romance manga and it's largely only the yuri or yuri-adjacent series that are this evasive." and yeah this generally rings true, this kind of evasiveness is so rarely a thing with hetero focused series and couples. Which I can even mention with this anime season "You and I Are Polar Opposites", which is a hetero romance anime that imo is very well written and handles the couples in interesting ways, and I can even compare the two a bit with where the narratives go. Major spoilers for "You and I Are Polar Opposites", The main couple in that series is extremely lovey dovey but as they get ready to graduate high-school they need to focus on their futures and this puts a strain on their relationship, where they almost break up but communication saves the day, and for awhile at least they will have to have a long distance relationship when they go to college due to their colleges being far away from each other and in separate stated locations. So there's an angle of maintaining being a couple while also being independent. This is a couple with physical and emotional intimacy, they kiss and enjoy kissing each other. I adore them as a couple but it also pains me that we couldn't get all or even any of this for Lara and Mari as well, and that might simply be because Lara and Mari aren't a straight a couple...which makes me incredibly sad.

100% in agreement here. I think I've said all I want to about this subject at this point, but I enjoyed your response. Some are really trying to reduce this to "you just don't get what this story was about " I can't agree and my responses have been about rejecting that exact idea. This would fail whether it was yuri or not and this sudden idea that the only focus of this story was Lara's independence rather than a combination of her independence and her growing arc with Mari is also interesting. Only one part of the story's major arcs was dealt with by this finale and the half left to dry was predictable. There's no universe where see say this story wasn't ever really about it's romantic build up even within it's themes of independence.

last edited at Sep 22, 2026 2:12PM

Wow, that ending hit me like a brick. When I first saw that scene I got so pissed off that I decided I'd better rewatch it before writing my thoughts, and I'm glad I did. Lara is not quite as heartless and aloof as I remembered, but it's still a very painful watch.

Judging by Lara's text messages it seems that her destination is some 4 hours traveling by train train away, so not around the corner. So where is she going? How will she get by? She has no money, no skills and no experience. Maybe someone scouted her to become a model? Or an idol? I mean, she is a mermaid after all.

That whole scene comes across to me as the last stage of a relationship, with one party wanting to keep trying, while the other just feels the need to move on. Mari's question why Lara had to leave feels like last-ditch effort to make her reconsider, but Mari quickly seems realize it's no use anymore. She may have asked numerous times, never getting a real answer, and right now they're standing on that platform, waiting for the train that will finally take Lara far away.

Poor, poor Mari. First she loses her mother, then her beloved Grace, and now the girl who said she'd live with her is breaking her promise big time. Mari loses her mother's keepsake, and literally dies for Lara, and mere months later it's rendered completely meaningless. I felt so sorry when she teared up, and the least Lara could have done is give her a hug, but she doesn't. It's just so heartbreaking.

Ah well. So here we have yet another yuri(-ish) show where the makers swerve away from giving two girls any type of romantic resolution, to the point of having a last scene that pretty much ruin the rest of the show. Good job, everybody!

The entire show said light=love and it was lara trying to find the light
Mari was lara's light = Mari was lara's love, whether it was romantically, platonically, or familially

we didn't see that at the end, we saw lara abandon her light, her love, to find it somewhere else