Sayonara Lara Episode 6 Discussion

I found the last couple episodes that focused on Lara and Mari to be a little flat for my liking so getting an episode focused on Kota and Lisa was refreshing and important to the narrative this show is putting forward. She didn't get the romantic treatment and the conveniences right off the bat that Lara got, the capturing definitely painted an even stronger negative image of humans for her, and being used as a tool/sideshow isn't the best feeling. It's fairly justified. She still did care for her family though, and Kota's loyalty also left a deep impact on her too, even willing to gain legs just for Kota to be by her side. Just knowing about her past and what led her to who she is today in wanting to stop Lara from ever loving a human was interesting, and understandable from her side (even if a bit predictable). The after-credits scene was also different, but expected to be honest with a lookalike of the prince that Lara was previously in love with showing up, having Lara lose control a bit of her emotions and exposing her mermaid legs in public with Mari there. I'm not a fan of bringing the prince lookalike back to be honest, but it was expected given how obsessed she was with him in the past and having a new version of that prince to cause conflicts of feelings with Lara inside, and Mari potentially with Lara maybe gravitating away from her. It's cliche, but based on the inspiration with the series, it's on brand.

@Iamthewalrus8002 what kind of delusion is this? She was shaking and sweating cuz of how Lara transformed back to mermaid in front of a human being.
U people love gaificate evry straight works nowadays to the extent of pure deluison.

@Iamthewalrus8002 what kind of delusion is this? She was shaking and sweating cuz of how Lara transformed back to mermaid in front of a human being.
U people love gaificate evry straight works nowadays to the extent of pure deluison.

@Maou_heika They are pitiful. I mean the anime isn't labelled as Yuri,yet they wanna force it to be Yuri without respecting other people's taste.
They are plenty of yuri works out there.
Not every works need be yuri and not every friendship between females needs to be yuri.

@Raizer007 lmao.. even for a Yuri fan myself gotta agree with you.

@Raizer007 Buddy, have you seen the official art?

This isn't friendship. Also director said it would be yuri so stop trying to force your own stupid agenda. Just go watch something else if you don't like yuri.

@Iamthewalrus8002 The director didn't say it would be Yuri, the opposite in fact, the actual quote is that this won't be a "typical Yuri story", nothing else. Mind you, I think that Lara is most likely to be with Mari because it's weirdly late to introduce another option, but saying that the director called it Yuri is a total misquote.

This show is truly something special. Every episode is excellent and the plot keeps getting better. I love all the characters and their backstories.

On the other hand, I was really hoping they would subvert expectations by not introducing another "prince", or an unnecessary romance subplot for Lara, so that post-credit scene is concerning. It's been fun witnessing the connections she's formed with the people around her and how Lara is growing as a person through them.

Based on how good the writing has been so far, I'm trusting they won't choose to follow the generic romance route that ends up resolving the conflict.

Beautiful episode as always, but I'm not really sure what Lisa wants to do?

If I understood it right, Lara needs to find true love for everyone's light to be restored... Why does Lisa say, "why won't Lara share her light with us," or something along those lines? What does she expect Lara to do? Does she not know how it all works?

And if Lisa is worried about her own life (and Kouta's life maybe), then maybe it isn't such a good idea to try to harm people in Lara's social circle?

It's all very vague, and she just comes across as mysterious and antagonistic for no good reason.

Hope they clear things up a bit next episode.

@perseii she was surveying the whole lake all those years in search for lara. but she didn't really anticipate she would choose to have legs again. shes still under the impression that human = bad

But Lisa has legs herself. Why is it such a huge problem that Lara has legs, and not her?

Also, what does it matter that Lara chose to have legs? Maybe think about not dying and turning into bubbles first, and deal with legs later? Does she think Lara remaining a mermaid is somehow going to save her and everyone else?

I interpreted Lisa’s line to mean “Why isn’t Lara’s love for me true love?” Grace says in episode 1 (at least in the English dub) that “true love is different from standard romantic love.” This has two interpretations: 1. You need romantic love greater than normal romantic love, or 2. True love doesn’t have to be romantic.

For a while, I thought they’d go with option 2 and have Lara’s love for her family be what saves them, but given the parts with Mari triggering the giant fish thing, I imagine they’re still going with option 1 (or option 2, but with friendship love… hoping for option 1 though). I think Lisa loves Lara more than anyone (maybe including Kouta) and she wishes Lara would love her back enough to trigger the light.

Her trying to destroy Mari was because she thought if it had to be someone else, at least have it not be an evil human. She saw what happened with the prince and the circus and understandably thinks all humans are evil. Plus, we still don’t have the lore of why the mermaids hated humans originally. Lisa cares about Lara’s safety more than her own life, so she’s willing to delay Lara’s light if it means protecting Lara from a human betraying her.

All just my thoughts/interpretations, of course. I hope you’re enjoying the show!

Beautiful episode as always, but I'm not really sure what Lisa wants to do?

If I understood it right, Lara needs to find true love for everyone's light to be restored... Why does Lisa say, "why won't Lara share her light with us," or something along those lines? What does she expect Lara to do? Does she not know how it all works?

And if Lisa is worried about her own life (and Kouta's life maybe), then maybe it isn't such a good idea to try to harm people in Lara's social circle?

It's all very vague, and she just comes across as mysterious and antagonistic for no good reason.

Hope they clear things up a bit next episode.

@perseii Lisa wants Lara's true love to be familial love. It's already been heavily implied before - at the end of episode 3 when Lisa finds Lara's ring, she said "find us, your true love".

She thought that after being betrayed by a human in the past, Lara would come running back to her family, realizing that that was true love all along. It's the "safe" option, but it was a bit of wishful thinking on Lisa's part, cause their survival kinda depends on Lara finding true love. It's just a theory, but maybe the reason why true love can't be familial love in this case is the lack of acceptance and understanding. I mean, Lara's father literally threw her into a dungeon for getting too close to humans, and Lisa sent Kota to hurt/kill Lara's human friend. And while Lara still cares for her family, her quest to save them is largely driven by guilt. There are some serious unresolved issues there.

As to why Lisa made the decision to attack Mari and her family, it seems that she thinks humans will betray Lara again and feels frustrated that Lara is once again wasting her (and their) precious time on humans. It doesn't help that their father told her that their only hope is Lara fixing everything once she returns and put the burden of ensuring that it all goes smoothly on Lisa. Lara drinking the witches potion and bonding with humans again makes it look like she's repeating the same mistakes, not having learnt her lesson. There's also the fact that Lisa has been suffering under the influence of that potion for centuries, trying to survive until the day when all of them can finally be saved. So it's understandable why she's upset that her sister willingly drank the potion again "to find love".

Lisa doesn't think that it's possible for Lara to find true love with humans, and thinks that Grace is manipulating her. When Lara told Lisa that she took the potion because she needs to marry a human to save their family, Lisa basically scoffed and was like "oh, that's what the witch told you, huh". Lisa is probably right about Grace manipulating Lara to some extent. From the opening it seems that Grace also fell in love with a human in the past. And her sister was the previous "special princess". She is withholding truth from Lara.

With the way the plot is going, I think at the end neither Lisa or Grace will be correct about Lara's true love, and she will find her own answer.

This backstory makes me fully sympathize with Lisa and that tenfold.

Imagine

- getting exploited and treated like shit by humans for so long
- having to manage not turning to foam for decades
- feeling the huge pressure of protecting Lara for decades

You finally see Lara awaken after a century to see her have human legs and being FRIENDLY with the humans she has 100% valid reason to hate.

I love Lisa and Kouta after this episode, i hope they don't commit to doing something stupid here.

Also that after-credit gave me GOOSEBUMPS, oh my god it's all happening now!! Mari's reaction though!!!