The footage makes use of cuts created with cels, a technique that is now exceedingly rare. Cels are made by transferring the finished linework onto a transparent sheet and adding colour with paint, a traditional animation method. Distinct from the vivid look of digital art, the soft, deep and gentle texture unique to hand painting carefully brings out the world of the series, at once new and somehow nostalgic. The shot of Mari turning to look back at the start of the sequence, and Lara's profile appearing in the latter half, are the precious cuts made with cels.
Centred on Lara, the mermaid princess revived in Shiga Prefecture after some two hundred years, the sequence carefully depicts her ties with Mari Otsu (voiced by Nana Kawaishi) and her family, with Luca (voiced by Ayumu Murase) and the other kind and warm-hearted people she meets, and the love each character holds, woven together with moments from Lara's quiet everyday life. Walking briskly and leading Lara by the hand are Mari's brother Shoya Otsu (Tomotaka Ono), her father Makoto Otsu (Mitsuaki Madono), her grandmother Ema Otsu (Nanae Sumitomo) and Luca. Staff from Andeken, a long-established confectionery in Shiga famous for its cheesecake, and friends from school also appear.
The latter half turns to scenes in which each character's feelings for someone dear come to the surface: Lara's sisters gently cupping her hands, Grace (voiced by Rika Fukami) admiring flowers. Lara and Mari chatting together, Lara walking side by side with Luca along the shore of Lake Biwa bathed in sunset. Bewildered by an unfamiliar town in Shiga yet luminous all the same, these are scenes cut from Lara's ordinary, radiant days.
The opening also adopts credits in which each member of the production staff wrote their own name by hand, filled with their feelings for the work. From the careful and varied handwriting, one can sense the affection the many staff members poured into the series from the launch of the project through to broadcast, along with the anguish and struggle of production and the joy that came with it.
Non-credit opening movie
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOfC_4qCa9c
Theme songs
Opening theme: Sayonara Lara by Ikimonogakari
Vocals: Kiyoe Yoshioka / Lyrics and music: Yoshiki Mizuno / Arrangement: Seiji Kameda (EPIC Records Japan)
Ending theme: Hearts Glow by Hana Hope
Lyrics: Hana Hope, Yuko Konishi / Music: Hana Hope, KEI_HAYASHI / Arrangement: David Baron (Sony Music Labels)
Introduction
Once upon a time there was a mermaid princess named Lara. Loved by her father, the king of the sea, and by her older sisters, she grew up happily. One day, Lara fell in love with a human prince who lived on land. In the world of the mermaids it was a forbidden love.
Even so, Lara set out for the surface. She drank a potion given to her by the witch Grace and took human form. But it was a forbidden potion: unless she found true love, she would dissolve into foam and vanish.
A mermaid princess who nonetheless longed for love with a human, Lara did not have her wish granted, and disappeared into the sea as foam.
Two hundred years later, after a long passage of time, the mermaid princess Lara is revived in Lake Biwa, to find true love at last.
Staff
Original work: Kinema Citrus
Director: Takashi Koide
Series composition: Anna Kawahara
Character design: Shiori Tani
Art director: Mari Fujino (Studio Pablo)
Colour design: Rika Aizawa
Director of photography: Kazuto Demizuta (T2studio)
Editing: Masayuki Kurosawa
Sound director: Akira Yamada
Music: yuma yamaguchi
Music production: KADOKAWA
Animation production: Kinema Citrus
Cast
Lara: Kana Hishikawa
Mari Otsu: Nana Kawaishi
Grace: Rika Fukami
Luca: Ayumu Murase
Shoya Otsu: Tomotaka Ono
Makoto Otsu: Mitsuaki Madono
Ema Otsu: Nanae Sumitomo
Rowan: Masaki Terasoma
Lisa: Minami Tsuda
Kota: Kazuomi Yamamoto
Broadcast
TOKYO MX, Sundays at 24:30
BS Asahi, Sundays at 25:30
Yomiuri TV, Mondays at 25:59
AT-X, Mondays at 21:30
Simulcast on streaming platforms alongside the terrestrial broadcast
Official site
https://goodbyelara.com
©Kinema Citrus / Goodbye, Lara Production Committee
