I tell you what – starting with Mao yesterday that’s four absolute banger anime episodes in a row (and since every ep of World is Dancing has been a banger so far, it’ll be an upset if it doesn’t end up being five). What I can say about Sayonara Lara at this point is this: it’s almost certainly going to be a tragic ending, and I’m going to care. The first always seemed pretty likely, despite Andersen’s tacked-on milquetoast ending in the original. The second I wasn’t too sure about, but at this point the connection is pretty solidly established.
I’m still not really sure where this story is going or what it intends to do, which for a chestnut as old as The Little Mermaid is sort of astonishing. Any time anime dabbles in Christian themes the potential for whack is pretty high. The original is certainly rife with them, but this is a re-imagining at the very least. Mari’s grandmother being a pastor is an interesting turn, and those cutaways to the cross on the church every time Lara mentioned true love seem full of intent.
The other thing I’m vibing very strongly here is that with Grace, the prologue was a total misdirection. It would be a liberal twist on the original to be sure, but after this episode my sense is that Grace is trying to give Lara happiness. To free her from her family, which is a curse that eternally dooms her. In essence that Grace is good and Lara’s family evil, though it won’t wind up being that simple. I know this much – when Kouta arrived at the Otsu house with clear intent to do Auntie Witch in, I was certainly rooting for her.
There was a deep melancholy permeating everything about this episode. The stuff with Lara and Luca especially (that place they visited was “Blumen Hügel“, another Shiga landmark). He’s a weird, sweet kid. Mari is right, he is a good guy and his is good for Lara. They have real chemistry and mutual affection, but there’s no denying that from Lara’s side she has the manner of someone doing a choreographed dance. She’s trying to fulfill her destiny by intent, and I don’t think it works that way. That doesn’t mean she does and doesn’t love Luca in abstract; it just means love can’t be forced in the way she’s trying to force it. And no, I don’t think Luca realizing that makes him a coward.
Luca is not the prince – this is clearly an important revelation for Lara. But is that a good or bad thing? Both, neither? What does it mean for her quest and her destiny? Grace drops what’s clearly the line of the episode: “We are born twice, once to exist and once to truly live”. It’s one of those quotes that sounds like something a famous person said, but I think it’s basically original (Confucius said something vaguely similar). Obviously that can be interpreted in many ways – in the Christian sense perhaps most obviously. It could also refer to Lara living for herself now rather than as a device to sustain her family’s existence.
I do think the audience is getting sidetracked with the endless and tiresome arguments about whether this show is yuri or not, as if that were the point. I don’t know exactly what the point is, but I feel very confident that’s not it. But then, this is anime so it’s not surprising. What my gut tells me is that what Grace’s quote, and the general zeitgeist of the series, are getting at is Lara truly embracing the world around her and being nourished by it. “Light” can be a metaphor in a million different ways, some more literal and/or obvious than others.
For myself, if Lara’s light turns out to be either Mari or Luca and nothing more I’ll be quite disappointed. I’ll also be quite let down if it turns out to be an abjectly religious message, though that would be largely faithful to Andersen’s original. Her light is herself as far as I’m concerned – her inner strength, her independence, the joy she draws from those she loves and from experiencing things. That would be a message I could totally get behind, even if it would be a pretty big departure from the original (and from expectations).
