Goodbye, Lara is an original anime series that follows Lara, a mermaid princess who falls in love with a human prince. As a result of not finding true love, she is transformed into sea form and disappears. 200 years later, Lara awakens in Japan’s Lake Biwa, where she must navigate modern-day life while in search of her true love. Ahead of the anime’s premiere, Asia Blooming sat down with director Takushi Koide at Anime Expo 2026 to discuss his directorial debut with Goodbye, Lara and his approach to retelling Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid.
Goodbye, Lara has been years in the making. Koide, who has been with Kinema Citrus since the studio’s founding 15 years ago, shared that the former president Muneki Ogasawara entrusted him with the project five years ago. Its completion in time for the studio’s 15th anniversary made the premiere especially meaningful.
While this was Koide’s directorial debut, his work as an assistant director on various projects like Revue Starlight positioned him well to take on the workload. “On Revue Starlight, I had the opportunity to be involved in almost every aspect of the work,” he said with a laugh. “So when I actually became a director, I was able to cover most things on my own. Even so, I still had twice as much work as a director.” Deeply involved in the production, he shared that he also served as key animator and also made considerable contributions to the storyboard and original artwork.
What’s striking about the project is its nostalgic 90’s anime aesthetic, though Koide revealed that the look was purely incidental. “For the past 10 years, I believe the current anime trend is focusing more on thin lines and lighter, pastel colors,” he said. “But for our project, we wanted to emphasize thicker lines and more vivid colors. We were originally not aiming for that 90’s nostalgic vibe, but it ended up that way.”
In reimagining The Little Mermaid, Koide said it was important to preserve the fairy tale’s core themes, like the line between humans and mermaids, while taking creative liberties to deliver something new to audiences. While the series is based on the tale, it is an entirely original anime with no source material. “We were able to work on this project from scratch altogether as a team,” he shared. “It might sound like a very ideal dream-like project but when you have all this freedom, it means you don’t have any boundaries either.” On whether boundaries are a challenge, he explained, “When you have too much freedom, it’s bound to be disorganized. When we worked together on this, we had to set rules in order to make sure we’re on the same page.” One way he grounded the series was to set the story in his hometown of Lake Biwa. That familiarity with the setting, he said, allowed him to portray everyday Japanese life with a greater sense of realism.
While the mermaid’s forbidden love for the prince is what sets the whole story in motion, romance is only one facet of Goodbye, Lara. Koide said the series explores a more nuanced view of love rooted in Japanese culture. “For us in Japan, love might be beautiful, but it could also be scary,” he said. “Through this series, we want to show that there are many definitions of love.”
Goodbye, Lara is now streaming globally on Crunchyroll.
