Goodbye, Lara knows exactly what it's doing when it opens with that distinctive red hair. The new anime is clearly aware of The Little Mermaid's place in pop culture, dominated by Disney's 1989 film, but it's not interested in copying that legacy. Instead, it uses the first episode to respectfully bid farewell to Hans Christian Andersen's original 1837 tale before spinning something entirely its own.

The opening episodes deliver a beautiful, moody retelling of Andersen's story—though mercifully minus the grimmer details, like the mermaid's agonizing pain from walking on human legs or her awkward sleeping arrangements in the prince's home. Lara follows her literary ancestor by transforming into seafoam, but here's where Goodbye, Lara diverges: rather than becoming a spirit of the air with a distant promise of a Christian soul centuries down the line, Lara returns to light and her seashell origins. In two hundred years, she reemerges as a complete mermaid once more, with a real shot at reviving her family and their underwater kingdom.

It's a fundamentally more hopeful ending that also serves as the perfect launchpad for the story ahead. More importantly, the anime reframes Lara's tragic choice to trust the sea witch Grace not as a foolish mistake she must atone for eternally, but as something she couldn't have prevented. The twist: Grace may have deliberately sent Lara to the human world—not out of malice, but because she knew danger was coming for the merfolk. Lara's curiosity about the surface world might be exactly what could save them all.

This reimagining of Grace deserves particular attention. Rather than the one-dimensional villain of most retellings, she emerges as one of the most interesting characters in these early episodes. By suggesting her motivations run deeper than simple wickedness, Goodbye, Lara adds layers to a character type that's often treated as disposable.

Through its first three episodes, the anime demonstrates that there's still fresh territory to explore within fairy tale adaptations—even beloved ones that have been retold countless times.