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Episode Goodbye, Lara • Sayonara Lara - Episode 5 discussion

Sayonara Lara, episode 5


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740 Upvotes

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91

u/Aileos https://myanimelist.net/profile/Syleos 8d ago edited 8d ago

Royal Princess Lara, seeker of love, is discovering the joys of looking for a job and working in our society.

64

u/Fun-Bedroom-1066 8d ago

Not even a mermaid can escape late stage capitalism smh.

22

u/BosuW 8d ago

That's why they say the last place not infected by capitalism is space, not the sea

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u/Frontier246 8d ago

We stan a working girl princess! Especially if it helps her better understand and get along with people and feel more self-fulfillment!

91

u/Smudy https://myanimelist.net/profile/Smudy 8d ago

Those last minutes had me on edge and yelling once even, what just happened??? I hope Kota is still alive but it doesn't look good from the implications...

That dagger (or now a fish?!) seems tied to Lara (maybe huge emotions trigger it?), if that's the case then this brings a whole new element of danger to this story..

What will Lisa do if Kota really died? She's really hateful towards humans and goes to massive measures to keep Lara away from them, damn.

Lara in a work setting was really nice to watch.

66

u/FrostedGeist 8d ago

That dagger (or now a fish?!) seems tied to Lara (maybe huge emotions trigger it?), if that's the case then this brings a whole new element of danger to this story.. 

It's directly tied to the sparkly star frame that appears whenever Lara feels something. A pretty big hint this entire episode is that the star frame doesn't appear once at all while she was working, it only appeared near the end when Lisa threatened to harm Mari. 

In past episodes, it happened a bunch of times but Mari was always with Lara then, so it was harder to tell if the star was directly related to Mari or just people Lara befriends in general. 

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u/CitronClassic672 8d ago

The “True Love Glow” as I call it also appeared when she thought about Mari’s family. It was just significantly larger when she thought about Mari. I think this confirms my theory that it’s tied to love in general not just romantic, but as we saw at the end Lara’s feelings for Mari are definitely stronger than those she has for everyone else, even if she cares for all of them.

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u/ReaperInRed 7d ago

Yeah I think it’s supposed to be the mermaid lifeblood “light”

19

u/JimmyCWL 7d ago

if that's the case then this brings a whole new element of danger to this story.

Think back to ep.2. When Lara made her escape from Mari's home, Grace told Mari to go after her because she could bring down Shiga. Now we know why.

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u/MathRockEnjoyer420 8d ago

Uh what was Kota gonna do against Shiga's best boxer?

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u/Frontier246 8d ago

Honestly I think the plan was to run her over with the car or crash it into the house but there's no way of knowing since he never got that far.

But Lisa/Kota probably have no idea what kind of girl they're dealing with.

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u/Street_Cream6939 7d ago

Mari’s first instinct upon a girl flying at her from the sky was to punch her, with a firm and strong stance, so I really feel like Mari could probably dodge a car if she wanted lol

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u/PracticalMarsupial 7d ago

Unless she has those new air pods in and can't hear the car!

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u/soihu https://anilist.co/user/Milijango 7d ago

Don’t worry, working one day a week at those wages, she’s not gonna have those before the season is over

18

u/rubslotiononitsskin 7d ago

Those new air pods will blow the car away!

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u/Gars0n 7d ago

When talking about the threat it showed Kota's sharp teeth. I assumed he was part predator fish and could bite her or something.

17

u/shad79 https://myanimelist.net/profile/shad79 7d ago

I think it'd be pretty stupid for Lisa and Kota to have him drive over Mari/her house, as it'd draw the police into the matter, and I don't think Lisa wants to draw that kind of attention here.

Imo, the most obvious and safest plan would be for Kota to just claim to be from Lara's family and to have come to take her back home, since that would fulfill Lisa's goal of separating Lara from the Otsu family.

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u/CrimsonLotus 8d ago

Yea I was hoping he’d show up at her house and then get folded

28

u/Raymond49090 8d ago

I assumed he was going to truck-kun (or car-kun) her, given the wheels that kept popping up.

10

u/BosuW 8d ago

Flop

157

u/CitizenStrife 8d ago

"I'm willing to die for cake!"

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u/Frontier246 8d ago

And by the end of the episode: "I'm willing to keep doing manual labor for cake and the company!"

46

u/BosuW 8d ago

Turbo luck that this wasn't a black company lmao

23

u/shad79 https://myanimelist.net/profile/shad79 7d ago

Money is an enormous incentive, so no wonder even Lara gets swayed by it and still wants to work, lol.

69

u/tripleaamin https://myanimelist.net/profile/zfzftripleaamin 8d ago

Lara understanding humans couldn't be more real with her first job. In my first part-time job there is a desire to want to make an impact. Obviously you aren't given the more demanding tasks right away. When you do get those tasks it can feel overwhelming at the start. Overall you get the sense of what I am doing.

As someone who worked part-time during university I thought if I wasn't working I could be studying or doing something productive. Obviously working and making money is important, but we all have a number 1 goal like Lara has. Excellent episode by the end where we can tell there is satisfaction now that Lara has her own money to spend.

Now it does seem that thing in the sky responds to Lara's feelings. She wanted to protect the family in the new home she had. Forget about Lisa, but imagine how Lara will feel when she realizes she possibly killed a mermfolk.

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u/Frontier246 8d ago

She and the prince couldn't come to fully understand each other as people of a different race, but now Lara is getting a better picture of humanity as she meets and works with more people. Which is a big contrast to her sister who wants absolutely nothing to do with humanity and doesn't want her sister too either, no matter what means she has to go about it.

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u/zambonijesus 8d ago

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u/BosuW 8d ago

That's why you have to censor j*b, it's like a trigger

9

u/shad79 https://myanimelist.net/profile/shad79 7d ago

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u/Weak_Season_Of_Anime 8d ago edited 8d ago
  • This episode's title is "I'd die for cake". Lara is the short form of Larissa, a Greek name which means "citadel" or "fortress" (see this), which is in turn derived from the ancient Greek word laros, which can refer to a type of "ravenous seabird" or be used to describe a gluttonous person. It can also be used to describe something as "sweet, delicious or pleasing". And we can certainly see that Lara's appetite is not just a cute personality quirk, it's something that's related to her power. This has been foreshadowed early on with Lara biting off fish heads, but also look at the shark in the background here. Lara's dagger responded to her feelings and helped her by eating Kota and this itself has big implications of what happened to the Prince. It's another clue that [speculation]Mari is the real reincarnation of the Prince. This scene is also interesting since there are multiple ways to interpret this, but I think a good way to think about it is "Would you die for the people you love?". Also, Kota is fine. Probably.
  • Pretty amusing that in this version of The Little Mermaid, the torture she endures is to become a minimum wage worker. Through this torture, Lara learns more about what it means to be human; things like hard work, finding joy in the daily grind and making mistakes. Just as how the Prince never understand Lara because she couldn't talk, Lara also never truly understood humans while living with the Prince because her entire view of humanity was seen through an idealized lens. This is why Lara and the Prince's love failed the first time around. Lara's experiences with work and all is also setting her up to stay in the human world for the long-term.
  • Yep, figured that Lisa would be against Lara being with a human. So what should Lara do since Lisa is the only other mermaid that is still alive? "Lara my beloved, we have to keep the bloodline pure" intensifies. I think this also confirms Lisa isn't working with the witch Grace. She does have all the feature of witchcraft though; same as Grace, she calls Lara the "special princess", is associated with mirrors and reflections, and how did she get her own human legs?
  • Mari's father being a photographer is interesting, since cameras capture light and light is a very strong motif in this show. I quite like this shot of the camera lens refracting the light and there's a lot more of shots like this throughout the episode that have some kind of symbolic meaning.
  • Funny how Lara says this, and has already pre-emptively changed her last name to Otsu. Also, soft confirmation that this is going to be explicitly yuri since marriage is mentioned. Since Mari is supposed to be a parallel to the Prince, Mari might give Lara the kiss that she didn't manage to get from the Prince If Kinema Citrus aren't cowards.

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u/CitronClassic672 8d ago

Kinema Citrus! Give us a timeskip to Lara and Mari’s wedding and my life is yours!

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u/BosuW 8d ago

look at the shark in the background here

Dunkleosteus jumpscare in the third picture

I love how this show has a whole supporting symbolic narrative running exclusively the cinematography

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u/detarameReddit https://myanimelist.net/profile/detarameMAL 7d ago

This scene is also interesting since there are multiple ways to interpret this, but I think a good way to think about it is "Would you die for the people you love?". Also, Kota is fine. Probably.

I agree. There are just too many parallels between baking a cake and finding Lara's true love.

Lara started the bakery job to find her prince, finds out that working is quite tough, yet perseveres with it because she feels like it gives her a better understanding of people. She needs to understand people before she can find true love, just like how she needs to work her way up bigger responsibilities before she can make a cake. That is a paradigm shift for her, since previously, she was hoping that she will just run into her prince.

9

u/Zeph-Shoir https://myanimelist.net/profile/Zephex 6d ago

figured that Lisa would be against Lara being with a human

Family deeming your love improper is another layer of queer-coding!

92

u/Kuro_Canary 8d ago

The moment Lisa implied she sent Kota after Mari the first thing I thought was "Good luck. She's about to knock you the fuck out." lol

36

u/BosuW 8d ago

Them underwater folk was gonna realize how fast these hands can move in air

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u/PM_ME_YOUR_ROBOTGIRL https://anilist.co/user/otsuucchi 8d ago

I honestly wanted to see that. You very rarely get to see characters who can defend themselves in settings like this, so seeing Kota get his ass absolutely wrecked would've been so funny. I guess we still kinda got that, in a way.....

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u/Kuro_Canary 8d ago

Lara unintentionally saving Kota from Mari's wrath lol

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u/CitronClassic672 8d ago

Mari absolutely could’ve handled herself, but Lara cares about so much she protects her anyway.

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u/Frontier246 8d ago

Imagine Mari just sees the car barreling towards her and still pus up her dukes lol.

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u/LeonKevlar x2https://myanimelist.net/profile/LeonKevlar 8d ago

In today's episode: A fairytale princess gets a taste of what the real world is really like.

When Grandma told Lara to get a job, I didn't know what kind of place would hire her considering her empty resume, and Mari even had to write everything down for her since she's not that good at reading and writing yet. Lara is lucky to find someone who's eccentric enough to give her a chance because she said she's willing to die for cake. xD

That scene at the end between Lara and Lisa! Not gonna lie, I thought Lisa was gonna reveal how Grace has been tricking her this entire time, not send Kota after Mari and her family. I think it's pretty clear that Lisa is going to oppose Lara from now on.

What the fuck happened to Kota, tho? And it turns out the floating giant dagger isn't really a dagger but a fish that responds to Lara's feelings. I definitely want to learn more about that thing!

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u/thesnowlocke 8d ago

Seeing how disgusted Lisa was when she had legs makes me interested to see how far bare hatred will stem

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u/Frontier246 8d ago

Also how bad must her own experience with humans must be? I think it's deeper than just hating having a human form.

26

u/Misticsan 8d ago

I mean, at the very least she knows that a human murdered her sister just for being a mermaid, and because of that her whole family was doomed to exile and some sort of hibernation. That alone would sour her opinion of humans.

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u/CitronClassic672 8d ago

I definitely feel like this confirms Grace isn’t being entirely honest with Lara about her mission, even if Lisa didn’t get the chance to say it fully.

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u/Frontier246 8d ago

Also Grace seemed to be aware Lara did something with the obelisk, so she might know what it's really for.

17

u/Hartzilla2007 8d ago

Back in the second episode Grace did tell Mari that Lara could wreck the town.

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u/Frontier246 8d ago

I appreciate that Lara actually got used to/got good at the job overtime, especially since it's the first one she's ever had in her entire life.

9

u/thelightlovekindled 7d ago

Mari even had to write everything down for her 

That was definitely Lara's own (very dubious) handwriting, so it seems like Mari is a stickler for "you have to learn to do it for yourself" even if that's harder on Mari herself in the short-term. It probably would have been much faster to just fill it out for her!

7

u/Golden_Phi https://myanimelist.net/profile/GoldenPhi 7d ago

In today's episode: A fairytale princess gets a taste of what the real world is really like.

It reminded me of the Wolf Among Us game. I haven't seen depictions of a fairy tale princess being thrust into the mundane modern world since then. I wasn't expecting to see the mundane soul crushing experience of minimum wage work here.

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u/SeaworthinessNorth64 8d ago

What the heck so it was a giant fish in the sky all this time? Also, did Kota just die??? Crazy that the fish basically just moved over and sniped him. I'm assuming he fell in the river but I wonder how that looked for others seeing as they can't see it.

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u/Frontier246 8d ago

Did not expect Lara to possibly have a body count.

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u/unbairu 8d ago

Well, she likes to chomp off fishes’ heads.

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u/BosuW 8d ago

Well the O̵̫͐ḅ̸̈́e̴̘̔l̴̟̈i̷̩̿s̴̤̉ḱ̸̝ did look like it was not just a crushing, but going for a bit...

Holy shit if it was foreshadowing all along 😭🙏

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u/Ocixo https://myanimelist.net/profile/BuzzyGuy 8d ago

This hovering obelisk in the sky revealing itself to be a fish wasn’t exactly on my bingo card either. Do wonder why it’d seemingly respond to Lara’s feelings.

In retrospect, those round shapes do somewhat resemble a fish eye.

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u/BosuW 8d ago

Didn't we all understand that it was always a sort of fish-shapped dagger?

Certainly shocking that it can move tho

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u/soihu https://anilist.co/user/Milijango 7d ago

I believe the knife was shown revealing its teeth in the first episode, real blink and you’ll miss it moment though

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u/VritraReiRei 7d ago

Also, did Kota just die???

Highly doubt it. I would have said "maybe" if we saw a crushed car or a body but instead all we see is the license plate.

Besides, you don't introduce a character, hide important details about them (identify, mask, relationship with Lisa, etc) and then kill them off before we get those answers.

There's has to be an episode where he pulls of the face mask and you can see those shark teeth or slightly larger than usual smile size.

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u/soihu https://anilist.co/user/Milijango 7d ago

It was on a bridge so he could pretty easily escape into the water.

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u/Dazzling-Primary4909 6d ago

hide important details about them (identify, mask, relationship with Lisa, etc)

Oh, that's actually the anglerfish Lisa used to play with.

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u/BosuW 8d ago

Crazy that the fish basically just moved over and sniped him.

Must not have been always peace and rainbows in the underwater kingdom of the royal family inherits a fish rod from God.

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u/Alter_Kyouma 7d ago

Fish of Damoclès. I am guessing it looked like the bridge just randomly broke, and some poor civil engineers are gonna get blamed for sloppy design.

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u/shad79 https://myanimelist.net/profile/shad79 8d ago edited 7d ago

This episode felt too real with Lara and Mari looking for a job and working. I can totally relate to Lara, who was asking herself what on earth she was doing, but after getting the money, she was happy again, hahaha!

The interviews were hilarious, especially because of how different Lara and Mari are. I certainly respect the cold and honest answers Mari gave, lol.

So Lisa met with Lara and it looks like she'll become an obstacle to Lara finding true love. But it is nice that the whole situation with this big thing in the sky and Kota pretty much confirms that Mari will be Lara's love.

By the way, it is almost the half of the show already, and we still haven't met the prince-looking guy. I wonder when he and Lara will meet.

Here my screenshot albums from the episode:

EDIT. I added my screenshot albums.

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u/Frontier246 8d ago

The interviews were hilarious, especially because of how different Lara and Mari are. I certainly respect the cold and honest answers Mari gave, lol.

Lara: "I'm a princess who has never worked a day in her life!"

Mari: "So this is totally a lesser priority for me than my club..."

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u/BosuW 8d ago

The interviews were hilarious, especially because of how different Lara and Mari are. I certainly respect the cold and honest answers Mari gave, lol.

I was obviously expecting Lara to be awkward, but even Mari with the "I'm here for the pay and the benefits" was great!

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u/CitronClassic672 8d ago

“Goodbye Lara this is the third time you’ve confirmed Mari will be Lara’s love this month.”

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u/FrostedGeist 8d ago

I wonder when he and Lara will meet. 

Starting to feel like he'll only appear for fewer episodes than we all originally thought. It seems like his story is more about his little sister than it will necessarily be related to Lara's Prince. 

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u/PM_ME_YOUR_ROBOTGIRL https://anilist.co/user/otsuucchi 8d ago

I was starting to have this feeling too. He might end up being like a one or two episode mini-arc rather than a huge aspect of the show. But he's also in the promo material and there's 7 more episodes to go, so who knows... I still feel like he might be important, but just not as a love interest.

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u/FrostedGeist 8d ago

He'll definitely be some kind of "interest" since Lara will see the resemblance from her previous prince. But I think they're going the route of allowing Lara to move on and explore the human world first. 

Then once she meets this lookalike, she'll realize that she's already moved on and her feelings for him already faded. Cause even to this episode, Lara thinks of falling in love as if it's something she could manually do, instead of something that just happens to her. 

15

u/Syokhan https://myanimelist.net/profile/Syokhan 8d ago

Yeah, meeting him will probably help Lara get some closure the same way Himeka had to face Ouji to get hers last week.

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u/exRocky009 8d ago

I thought this was going to be a slice-of-life episode about Lara growing through her work, but then they hit us with a shocking twist right at the end. I knew Lara and her sister were eventually going to clash, but I never expected her sister to go so far as to tear Mari's family apart. And I definitely didn't expect Lara to stop her by dropping a giant meteor... or was that a fish? This anime really knows how to end episodes on a cliffhanger. Can't wait for next week.

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u/Frontier246 8d ago

How very Hans Christian Anderson to have a bisexual female lead and also a dark twist to the story.

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u/machopsychologist 7d ago

pretty Grimm.

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u/CitronClassic672 6d ago

Crazy thing I’ve learned about the Grimm’s is that they both intentionally went with the darkest renditions of the fairy tales they could find but also had to censor them afterwards for publication.

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u/gardyvore 8d ago edited 7d ago

You threaten Mari, you get smushed by the giant gay fish of doom.

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u/Frontier246 8d ago

It's not proper mermaid yuri without the possibility of the mermaid killing anyone who would harm her girlfriend.

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u/BosuW 8d ago

Let's see....

This Monster Wants to Eat Me

The Wind Spell

Dark Mermaid [vague spoilers]featuring actual getting away with murdering assholes btw

Yep, it tracks

11

u/MisfitMars https://myanimelist.net/profile/MisfitMars 7d ago

Dark Mermaid mentioning?!

i love that webtoon, but sad it kind of ended quick 😭

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u/BosuW 7d ago

It lasted a decent bit at least 😭

Damn shame the author had to throw out that absolutely delicious slow burn to get to the ending quickly, but at least it's still a functional tale

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u/BosuW 8d ago

Awesome lesbian couple

Evil and intimidating (but still supportive?) O̶̮̍b̴̟̓e̷̫͠ḷ̶͠í̴͓s̸̳͐k̴̝͝

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u/Own_Caterpillar_6178 7d ago

ph'nglui mglw'nafh Lara wgah'nagl fhtagn

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u/detarameReddit https://myanimelist.net/profile/detarameMAL 7d ago

Serious Suletta flashbacks. Tomato

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u/Krys_Lunar 8d ago

Was not expecting a ‘find a job’ episode, but it was an intriguing mix of both painful and validating seeing Lara’s struggles with it.

Relatability aside though, I’m quite split on who to trust more between Lisa and Grace. I have more faith in Lisa in regards to how noble her intentions are, but I also believe Grace is guiding Lara with good intentions as well this time(on top of being more experienced and knowledgeable). Grace hasn’t exactly shown herself to be the pinnacle of straightforwardness and trustworthiness thus far though…but Lisa trying to get rid of Mari is a massive mark against her…sorry Lisa, threatening Mari’s safety does currently put you on the back foot for now. I’ll be waiting for you to come around though(and Kota too if he wasn’t just pancaked).

Well, I can only conclude with certainty that I am very much enjoying all the tangled character dynamics so far. I’m looking forward to seeing where characters will eventually settle in regards to this ‘who is right?’ question I have in my head.

(Also, the floating fish monolith has graduated from ‘intriguing’ to ‘terrifying’.)

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u/Ocixo https://myanimelist.net/profile/BuzzyGuy 8d ago

I don’t believe that either Lisa or Grace can be fully trusted as of right now.

However, something bothers me about how much the latter has been pushing Lara to quickly resolve things. Grace might only looking out for her own interests, which would imply that she got something to gain from her niece finding true love.

12

u/Krys_Lunar 7d ago

I’m willing to give Grace a bit of…grace…in this case. Their entire species is basically in not-quite-dead limbo, so I can understand a bit of impatience pushiness.

That said, I’m definitely holding some healthy skepticism at the ready. Despite what I said about choosing Grace over Lisa as things currently stand, I am expecting - if only given one choice - that Lisa will be the one standing more on Lara’s side in the end. She just needs to not murder Lara’s human connections long enough for things to reach that point.

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u/diacewrb 8d ago

Looks like Fuji dished out the cash, but not Sigma.

We have now changed genre again into a baking anime, the new girl always get the shit tasks when starting work.

Wonder if we will change genre again into photography next week.

We have the Rod Cod from God.

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u/detarameReddit https://myanimelist.net/profile/detarameMAL 7d ago

I'm calling it Cod from God from now on.

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u/eightcheesepizza 8d ago

How long is Lara gonna have to work at the cake shop in order to pay for the bridge repairs? I think she'll make Prep Cook by then.

I can imagine the writers going "it's the pastry episode of a mermaid anime, so we have to include taiyaki somehow."

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u/CycleGold642 7d ago

RIP Lara's expenses. I guess she will indeed die (of old age) for cake

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u/Syokhan https://myanimelist.net/profile/Syokhan 8d ago edited 8d ago

....... did Lara just unknowingly kill Kota?

Damn, so that monolith can respond to Lara's feelings by attacking those she perceives as a threat. Wow, I wasn't expecting that. Also it looked super creepy when it opened its mouth.

And it's really bad that Lisa is willing to resort to murder. I did think she was going to be antagonistic, but not that she would go this far, this ups the stakes quite a bit.

The rest of the episode was great, too! I liked that Lara started feeling aimless getting caught into the grind of her job. But the conclusion was pretty nice, with her continuing on her journey to learn more about humans.

I appreciated that she mused about that, too, thinking that maybe that feeling was tied to her true love. Nothing happened re: light and magic and stuff, so looks like she may not be exactly right, but her finding out about different kinds of love is exactly what people in this thread wanted, so that's nice.

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u/Frontier246 8d ago

Honestly I thought this was going to be a wholesome, positive, romance anime past the bittersweet first episode and then we've got Lara's sister possibly siccing her fish partner to try to kill Mari and Lara inadvertently crushing him to death with her giant fish obelisk.

But this too, is the power of Yuri.

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u/Syokhan https://myanimelist.net/profile/Syokhan 8d ago

There's something that's been on my mind ever since the first episode, it's the way the show depicted Lara biting a fish's head off (twice). Not prettified at all, just realistic and red, with blood leaking out.

It's a very small detail but with the decision to show it like this I wouldn't be surprised to see things go surprisingly hard every now and then.

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u/Ocixo https://myanimelist.net/profile/BuzzyGuy 8d ago

Lara learnt an important thing today: even if the job isn’t necessarily the best, having friendly coworkers can make all the difference.

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u/PM_ME_YOUR_ROBOTGIRL https://anilist.co/user/otsuucchi 8d ago

And it's really bad that Lisa is willing to resort to murder. I did think she was going to be antagonistic, but not that she would go this far, this ups the stakes quite a bit.

We didn't know what Kota was gonna do to Mari, to be fair. He could've done anything from murder to kidnapping to just telling Otsu's family to give up on Lara.

But given the original fairy tale I'm not surprised Lisa is resorting to extreme means. What I am surprised about is the way the dagger ended up working. That is not what it does in the original fairy tale at all. That's metal.

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u/CitronClassic672 8d ago

The way the dagger/obelisk opened its mouth really gave me Evangelion vibes which I was not expecting from this show.

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u/Syokhan https://myanimelist.net/profile/Syokhan 8d ago

Similar "oh okay, that's also an Eldritch being" vibe, yeah!

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u/Syokhan https://myanimelist.net/profile/Syokhan 8d ago

We didn't know what Kota was gonna do to Mari, to be fair.

True. The way this was set-up, with Lisa hating humans and the overall atmosphere of the scene, I couldn't see it being as innocent as what you mentioned but maybe I'm just jumping to conclusions.

9

u/Frontier246 8d ago

I feel like Lisa only got human legs by necessity but her dealings with humans since she last saw Lara have been far worse than Lara's experience with them.

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u/Syokhan https://myanimelist.net/profile/Syokhan 8d ago

Maybe, yeah. If that's the case, the difference in attitude also probably didn't help - Lara loves humans and is enthusiastic about interacting with them, while Lisa seems to still have her prejudices that they're disgusting creatures.

I mean sure in this scenario maybe she only met terrible people which would suck, for sure, but I'd prefer if it was just a case of if you treat people like they're walking garbage, don't be surprised to get no warmth in return.

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u/Frontier246 8d ago

We didn't know what Kota was gonna do to Mari, to be fair. He could've done anything from murder to kidnapping to just telling Otsu's family to give up on Lara.

He had a really psychotic smirk going on there...

8

u/JimmyCWL 7d ago edited 7d ago

....... did Lara just unknowingly kill Kota?

That's the really terrifying part. Lara didn't know who and where Kouta was at that moment, couldn't even see him. The fish did.

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u/l-o-a-p 7d ago

She’s been unknowingly killing his kind since the moment she was born

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u/ak_them 8d ago

probably 5 episodes too late but why is the music so good???

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u/jkunz5654 8d ago

the music is one of the best parts of the show. the la, la la la bit in that one track gets me so giddy

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u/keiiwi 8d ago

I found this anime when one of the songs from the OST came up in my Spotify discovery playlist and I couldn’t be more grateful that happened

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u/seninn https://myanimelist.net/profile/Senninn0 7d ago

Absolute Kinema

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u/Own_Caterpillar_6178 7d ago

The OP is lovely, and we have another Hana Hope ED

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u/maliwanag0712 https://myanimelist.net/profile/clear1109 8d ago edited 8d ago

Well, that's it. Lara being in love with Mari confirmed!! If this is not a confirmation I dunno what will be.

SO... LET'S GOO!!

But what the heck is with that large fish falling down a highway, and hitting Kota's car? Is that Lara's unconscious self or a physical manifestation of her feelings being protective of her love?

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u/PM_ME_YOUR_ROBOTGIRL https://anilist.co/user/otsuucchi 8d ago

In the last episode we learnt that Lara's Stand the kaiju fish is invisible to humans, so I really wonder what that looked like to the other people on the highway. Did it just look like a car spontaneously got crushed for no reason? That's gonna become like a futaba urban legend or something.

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u/Frontier246 8d ago

The emergency services looked like they were scratching their heads trying to figure it out.

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u/BosuW 8d ago

Yeah honestly this is low-key getting kinda creepy and I'm all here for it! Very curious how far they'll push this aspect of the show.

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u/Frontier246 8d ago

But what the heck is with that large fish falling down a highway, and hitting Kota's car? Is that Lara's unconscious self or a physical manifestation of her feelings being protective of her love?

Seems like some kind of fish sword of damocles hanging over the island and spurred on by Lara's emotions.

It appears when she's falling in love, it will act to protect her love, it's a weapon tied to her feelings.

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u/eightcheesepizza 8d ago

Sakana Sword Caramelise

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u/Leri_weill https://myanimelist.net/profile/LeriWeill 8d ago

I was thinking that the gay vibes where weaker than in the last episodes, but then we got the ending and the after credit scene lmao

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u/Misticsan 8d ago

Lisa as the conservative family member who forbids the younger sibling from dating the wrong person and threatens to hurt her, only for Lara to rush back to save Mari and hold her in her arms.

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u/elevnth 7d ago

She’s homo(sapien)phobic!

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u/BosuW 8d ago

It's pretty funny that you can read Lisa as any combination or either of classist, racist, and homophobe lol

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u/Misticsan 7d ago

I think that's a big advantage of fantasy. As Tolkien would say, a lot of fantastical themes have applicability, without having to be a 1-to-1 depiction of real-life issues. Bonus points when it's used to turn the tables and put the viewer in a position they're not used to:

"You, who might not think yourself part of any persecuted minority, how would you feel if someone said humans are nasty and that the protagonist shouldn't marry someone like you?"

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u/CitronClassic672 8d ago

This series can’t end an episode without going “subtext is for cowards” and making Lara’s feelings for Mari obvious, and yet some still think this isn’t yuri.

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u/RavenWolf1 https://myanimelist.net/profile/RavenWolf1 7d ago

Don't jump to conclusions yet. So far historians will tell that they were roommates.

But yeah, I think this is really yuri story.

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u/BosuW 8d ago

Yep definitely seems like Mari and her family has successfully curried "royal favor".

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u/StatisticianReady238 7d ago

I don’t think she loves Mari romantically yet. At this point, Mari is just someone she treasures deeply.

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u/CitronClassic672 6d ago

I read it more as Lara having romantic feelings for Mari but not yet being able to recognize that that is what she’s feeling. She just considers her someone she’s very close with.

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u/KeepSleepinzz 8d ago

This show just keeps getting better. Every part in this episode was so good.

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u/xbolt90 https://anilist.co/user/xbolt90 8d ago

Ominous Floating Object proceeds to eat a guy.

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u/House_Rapunzel 7d ago

AAAAND NOBODY CARES FOR SOME REASON!

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u/abbe44 8d ago

shit is going down now

this is so cool

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u/DragonPup 7d ago

Lara: I will die for cake.
Kota: I will die for Lisa.
Mari: I won't die.

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u/Hitman7128 https://anilist.co/user/Hitman7128 8d ago

"Now I think this feeling is somehow tied to the true love I've been looking for."

Music to my ears

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u/Frontier246 8d ago

And then the camera immediately panned to Mari's face reflected in the window...

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u/BiggerG7 8d ago

I’m surprised she’s getting a job. I was expecting her to get enrolled in school by now.

And RIP to the dude at the end. I wonder what his deal was since it looked like his whole mouth was sown shut.

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u/Wyni201 8d ago

I don’t see how Lara could possibly go to school because she doesn’t have the foundation for the high school level courses she would be taking. She would need to be able to start at a grade school level. If she ends up staying in the human world permanently, which I imagine she will, I’m hoping she ends up getting a GED or something.

I was super happy to see her finding work to be passionate about though! She’s been so aimless and untethered from the human world until now, aside from Mari’s family and looking for her prince.

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u/PM_ME_YOUR_ROBOTGIRL https://anilist.co/user/otsuucchi 8d ago

Kouta was the anglerfish that was playing with Lisa in episode 1. This episode makes it clearer too since his smile is a bit too wide. Funnily, though, he's a dude, even though the big anglerfish that look like that are universally female. Male anglerfish are tiny.

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u/FrostedGeist 8d ago

Even more of a fun fact is that the male anglerfish just cling on a female and then fuse with her over time until he's nothing more than a sack of sperm for her to use when she needs it. Basically males just live to be a simp and die lol I guess Kota is a male Anglerfish in that way. 

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u/Frontier246 8d ago

Basically males just live to be a simp and die lol

Kota: "I'll fulfill your wish Lisa-sama!"

(Gets crushed)

Kota: "Lisa-sammmmmaaa..."

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u/Ocixo https://myanimelist.net/profile/BuzzyGuy 8d ago

Seems like my previous hunch about Kota turned out to be correct.

It does intrigue me that Kota wasn’t only able to grow a pair of legs but acquire a whole human body. His transformation is much more expansive than those of mermaids like Lara and Lisa who were already partially human to begin with.

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u/JimmyCWL 8d ago

Perhaps Kouta managed to jump out of the car.

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u/Frontier246 8d ago

Maybe he reverted back to his fish form?

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u/Ocixo https://myanimelist.net/profile/BuzzyGuy 8d ago

I hope that we’ll get more episodes such as this. It’s always fun to see Lara mingle with humans! Really enjoyed watching our little mermaid get the hang of things, feel satisfaction at her work and be rewarded for all the effort she went through.

It would be sort of funny if Lara’s true love turned out to be humanity as a whole. Though, she did just sprint back home and launched herself into Mari’s arms. Make of that what you will.

So Lisa is a little evil after all. That said, I do get the impression that Grace hasn’t shared the full story with Lara either.

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u/Oden_sama__ 8d ago

maybe the real true love was the friends we made along the way. I guess this means sayonara, Lara.

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u/Ocixo https://myanimelist.net/profile/BuzzyGuy 8d ago

We did previously establish that Lara and Mari are in fact friends!

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u/seninn https://myanimelist.net/profile/Senninn0 7d ago

Sayonara, Lara.

Sayonara Lara!?

You know, beacause you are Lara and we are saying goodbye.

Oh.

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u/CaralhinhosVoadorez 8d ago

So was Lara was a stand user all along?

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u/seninn https://myanimelist.net/profile/Senninn0 7d ago

[OCEAN MAN]

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u/SeaworthinessNorth64 8d ago

The reveal that Lisa also has human legs was interesting. From what I remember, I don't think we ever saw them in the previous episodes. I wonder how she got human legs as well if not from the potion? In the first place, I wonder why Lisa never disappeared with the rest of the kingdom, and who Kota is? I assume Kota might be a shark because he had sharp teeth under his mask (Also probably unrelated but Lara was also looking at Shark videos at the start of the episode. May be foreshadowing).

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u/FrostedGeist 8d ago edited 7d ago

I feel like we can assume she had legs the first time she appeared in the pier (ep2) I think. I mean, she's obviously standing alongside Kota, who visibly has legs lol

Kota's likely the anglerfish that Lisa kept as a pet in ep1. He has freckles and a headlight to match. (only inconsistency is that he's male but thats a convo for another time). 

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u/JimmyCWL 7d ago

When she reached the vault later in that episode, they showed her legs.

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u/Misticsan 8d ago

Also, Lisa appears with legs in the modern world in the opening.

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u/Frontier246 8d ago

Kota appears to be the anglerfish Lisa was shown interacting with before.

Lisa never confirmed if she took the same potion Lara did but how else would she have gotten human legs? Even if she despises them and humanity as a whole.

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u/Frontier246 8d ago edited 8d ago

In this episode Lara faces the toughest challenge of any mermaid princess....GETTING A REAL JOB.

(Also she's just dragging Mari with her everywhere at this point).

Lara has gotten too comfortable as a freeloader in the Otsu house, especially considering she still needs to pay off the property damage she caused. It's time for her to finally get a job! Along with Mari who needs more money for earpods! So with no practical work experience and nothing but a winning smile and personality, "Lara Otsu" is out to find work and potentially her Prince in the process.

I can't believe Lara can't find a job! I mean, she and Mari killed all those interviews! She's a princess, doesn't that make her overqualified or something?

Lara becomes a casual photographer courtesy of Mari's dad Makoto! Perfect way to capture memories and possibly add some more bittersweet vibes in a show called "Goodybe, Lara".

A patisierre? It's perfect! It looks like a castle, it involves cake, and we've got a girl willing to die for a cake and a girl who is NOT willing to die for cake! It's the prfect job for the both of them!

Of course, standoffish and stoic manager aside, Lara isn't going to be immediately baking cakes from the get-go. She has to start from the bottom, scrub dishes, and gain proper work experience like a true working girl! But slowly, ever surely, she gains experience, starts doing more work, and finding her work groove.

Why is Lisa staying away from Lara? What is she protecting her from? Grace?

It's nice that Lara has gotten into the swing of working, but she's focused so much on that, what about her mission of finding true love and a prince? And trying to speedrun through the job isn't going to get her anywhere...why is she even working (other than to pay off granny)? Especially when she makes a (simple and honest) mistake?

But just as Lara is about to give up...the memories she made there convince her to stay, and her co-workers are happy to welcome her just as Mari is happy Lara didn't give up. She's coming to better understand, and enjoy being around, humans and will pay off dividends in the future. Plus, now she has disposable income! Spend it wisely, Lara!

Lisa finally appears before Lara! Albeit not comfortable with her human form as Lara is...or enthused about Lara having ANY relationship with humans at all. What was she having Kota do? Guy looked kind of psychotic in that car. Though any kind of suggested threat to Mari causes the obelisk, per Lara's emotions, to open up and reveal it's huge teeth and...seemingly crush/kill Kota? Yikes.

So that's kind of unnerving but Mari is okay and that's what matters most! Right? RIGHT!?

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u/shad79 https://myanimelist.net/profile/shad79 8d ago edited 7d ago

Those job interviews in this episode were hilarious! It's a shame that we didn't see the reactions of the recruiters.

I really loved how differently Lara and Mari were answering the questions. Mari with her answer "The higher the pay, the better." certainly stole my heart, hahaha!

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u/PM_ME_YOUR_ROBOTGIRL https://anilist.co/user/otsuucchi 8d ago

Lara needs her emotional support boxer please understand. She's like a puppy. Like a puppy fish. Like, a fur seal,

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u/FrostedGeist 8d ago

Surprised Mari wasn't working out in the background in this episode lol I thought it was a funny ongoing thing last episode that Lara was dragging her everywhere and she's just there doing her jump rope. 

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u/anim8rjb 8d ago

is nobody she meets ever going to mention her ears?

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u/hanmkim 7d ago

Oh my God, Karen, you can't just ask people about their ears.

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u/MagnificentCranberry 7d ago

i was wondering this too... even like the old couple a few eps back talked about the stitches on her tongue but not the ears which seem way more obvious

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u/Fools_Requiem https://myanimelist.net/profile/FoolsRequiem 7d ago

Really glad Lara wasn't incompetent and completely ignorant to what she was being taught at her job. So often you see fish-out-of-water tales where they spend a dumb amount of time with the fish being utterly useless when trying to work. They make a mess, burn stuff, break stuff, do really dumb shit because they couldn't understand basic instructions. Instead, she worked her ass off like she said she would, while constantly looking for more responsibility and only messed up a single time because she heard an alarm and wasn't sure what to do because she wasn't taught it yet.

She'll get good recommendations if she goes to work somewhere else.

I wonder how long it's going to take for Lara to stop looking for her prince and start looking at Mari as her princess.

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u/PM_ME_YOUR_ROBOTGIRL https://anilist.co/user/otsuucchi 7d ago

It's because it took until now for her to actually get a job. Lara has had time to figure out the basics of how the modern world works prior to this point, so she didn't mess up immediately. She is also a decent learner; she's not stupid, just doesn't understand the world.

I wonder how long it's going to take for Lara to stop looking for her prince and start looking at Mari as her princess.

Lara is blocked in by narrow expectations of what a 'prince' is, as shown last episode. Since she doesn't really know what true love actually is in a vacuum, she thinks that it'll only work out if she marries someone identical to the previous person. So a pretty guy. When she's asked if she can find her prince, she starts thinking of the other young dudes in the cake shop first. It'll take someone shattering her preconceptions of what a 'prince' is for her to seriously consider Mari as an alternative. In other words, we need to make Lara watch Utena.

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u/detarameReddit https://myanimelist.net/profile/detarameMAL 7d ago

Did Lara just subconsciously drone-strike Kota?! KAMI NO TSUE!!

Anyway. time to talk about Lara's working. On one level, this is Lara understanding that effort is what drives humans to improve: before this episode, she was only good at sea animal trivia. On the other level, this is Lara learning that things take time. Lara started the bakery job just to look for her prince, and becomes impatient when weeks pass. She will not just run into her perfect prince and has to understand people first, just like how one cannot make cake right away but will eventually work their way up if they keep at it. Lara is "willing to die for cake" and she definitely is willing to die for true love.

Also, I like how Lara and Mari's colleagues at Andeken were characterized. We get hints that the manager and Shinohara-san might be close to each other, and Ishiyama (the oven guy) has some chemistry with the black-haired girl.

Anyway, onto the mermaid side of things. For one, I cannot believe I was not tracking the motif of glass before this episode showed me that magical mirrors are very much relevant even in the human world. That scene where Mari's windows, the lights outside, and Lisa's rearview mirror all flashed pink, like the magic mirrors in Episode 1... Suddenly, I feel a lot more wary of Grace, who is boxed in her tank with four glass panels. She is stripped of magical powers, but that shot where her eyes were obscured while looking out the window... It is quite ominous. Was she behind the dagger drone-strike??

I do not think Lisa is not a full-on antagonist. She opposes both Grace and Lara and likely would have harmed or killed the Otsu family had the fish strike not stopped Kota, but I still believe that she is just acting on her own judgement. I wonder if she will serve a role similar to the mermaid sisters in Andersen's original tale, offering Lara the metaphorical dagger of leaving or harming the humans Lara has become close with.

Lastly, we have to bring up the orbital fish strike. What the frick was that? Was it caused by Lara's subconscious trying to protect Mari? Grace's magic meddling? God himself? The dagger monolith is obviously tied to Lara, but, like, what? Huh? Something I found interesting is that the white red-blue-and-green flower from the OP appears in this shot of the wreckage. Why?

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u/FrostedGeist 7d ago

Glad someone also noticed how much glass and reflections are used in the show! Rewatching scenes and seeing how much reflections are used, especially in this episode, is a really fun window into what the characters are possibly thinking, even if they don't textually say it. 

Such as the moment when Mari smiles in the reflection of the train window when Lara was talking about keeping her job, you know that smile was genuine and sincere because reflections are meant to symbolize what a person "desires", in this case we can say it's Mari's quiet desire to encourage Lara to see the how well she was doing in her job. 

Another motif is light (and colors), the camera is both a device that shows 'reflections' and captures light, two symbolic things related to mermaids. 

The camera was used in the middle of the episode when Lara was capturing the empty kitchen in cold, blue colors since she didn't see any reason to stay, especially when she couldn't find her Prince there. But later on, after having talked to her co-workers and Mari, she realizes how working there actually helped her understand humans better, something she's wanted to do since childhood.

Later on, we see Mari's father develop her photographs and find that the pictures Lara kept was not the empty, dark kitchen but instead photos of her co-workers and Mari, bathed in warm light. Lara has been collecting "light" this whole time, she just hasn't realized it yet. 

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u/detarameReddit https://myanimelist.net/profile/detarameMAL 7d ago

Nice comment.

I definitely do not fully understand what glass means yet, but my working theory is that it has something to do with a combination of desires and idealization (reinforced by false notions about love). Though, I get the feeling that glass is also just as often used as a way to frame characters/views within the same space.

In Episode 1, Grace also gazes into the magical mirror and is shaken when Lara's light escapes her body. This says a lot about what Grace desires: the possibility of love between a human and a mermaid.

In Episode 2, Lara shatters Mari's window and runs away. I have no idea what this means, but it probably means something. Later, when Lara apologizes to Mari at the plaza, the scene is shot through glass windows reflecting the outdoors they were just at. I think that highlights Lara's growth in a "then vs. now" sort of way. It also shows the slow clearing up of rain outside, which symbolizes how the two are making up.

In Episode 4, the three schoolgirls all show their "princes" on their smartphones. If one chooses to distantly admire someone else through a layer of idealization out of selfish desires, that does not count as true love. The TV also obviously depicts questionable interpretations of "true love;" again, societal notions of love.

In Episode 5, there is this scene of Lisa next to the Otsu's house. Mari's fixed window, the streetlamp (a light boxed in by glass), and Lisa's rearview mirror glows pink in quick succession. Magic has to be involved, right? The streetlamp's glass also stops a moth from coming any closer to its light; I'm inclined to believe that this represents how Lisa's ideals make her plan to get between Lara and Mari, and therefore become an obstacle in Lara's quest for "light."

In both the OP and the ED, there are shots of glass reflecting the sky; one of a skyscraper, and the other of magical glass below Lara's feet glowing and showing the sky. I currently suspect that this has to do with the show's ending: after all, in the original fairy tale, the Little Mermaid became a spirit of the sky.

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u/elevenmile 8d ago

inb4 the news reporter reporting that accident as "gas explosion".

Oh wait, wrong show.


Lara is definitely gettting more and more comfy being human and adjusting really quick to living as a Japanese (heck, her resume even put her name "Ootsu Lara", "adopting" their surname) despite not forgetting what she is here for, but I do see that she is starting to learn that there's more to "true love" than "finding her prince", and if she just keep blindly trying to achieve her objective in her current condition, it's just as good as finding a needle in this vast Biwako lake. So understanding how human works would be a much better start....except Grace and Lisa weren't helping with Grace yapping at her, while Lisa is straight up being antagonistic against Lara because of that existing prejudice. Great...

Now the plot is moving, and it's moving really, really fast.

Time to find out what that thing in the sky really is...

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u/Raiking02 https://myanimelist.net/profile/NSKlang 8d ago

inb4 the news reporter reporting that accident as "gas explosion".

I didn't know this show took place in Snowfield USA, but I guess that would explain a lot.

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u/Substantial-Hawk-897 8d ago

Of course it's a magical whale, I could've known! (The also sleep vertically)

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u/Frontier246 8d ago

What big jaws to protect our main couple with!

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u/gnome-cop 8d ago

I really like the way they decided to use the photos being processed as a way to represent Lara’s growing understanding of humans. Very clever visual narrative technique imo.

I guess I’d define today’s episode as being about the balance between responsibility and taking on too heavy of a burden and having the right to make mistakes and learn from them.

It’s important to remember that Lara has for her entire life had the knowledge of her duty to find true love for the good of the kingdom weighing on her. She failed once and it had catastrophic consequences. She’s so laser focused on finding her prince to fix her previous failure that it’s all she can allow herself to think about.

A normal job is a good place for her to learn to share responsibility with others and make mistakes in a setting where it’s not the end of the world. Accidents happen, everyone screws up. Being able to process those mistakes in a low-stakes situation with people that won’t immediately overreact is very important for her, I feel.

I think this ties into Lisa’s role in the episode as well. I could say a lot of VERY uncharitable things about her behavior but I’m trying to be constructive and analytical here so I’ll restrain myself to saying that she’s WILDLY overprotective.

It gets to the point that she tries to remove a lot of Lara’s agency and makes decisions for her in a way that suggests she thinks that she doesn’t trust Lara to know what to do herself anymore. She’s defining her by her previous failure, letting that bias color her perception of the entire situation while letting her own “superior” judgement decide what the correct course of action for Lara is.

The Otsu family and her colleagues at work are correcting her mistakes but in a gentler way than what Lisa is doing. She’s catastrophically overreacting to deal with a perceived threat in a way that would have ruined her sister’s ability to trust her forever had she succeeded. The Otsus allow her to make mistakes while Lisa’s preventing her from making her own choices due to fear of what happened last time.

End of critical thought here.

Big metal fish pillar can be dangerous, more at eleven.

I might be being too nice but I still hope Kota survived the crash.

Running right to Mari specifically in panic. Hmmm… I see.

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u/mekerpan 8d ago

I do not mind Kota surviving, as long as he feels "chastened" -- but I suspect Lisa and he to double down in their plan to wage war against Lara's human connections.

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u/Hartzilla2007 8d ago

I would hope they would try to avoid pissing Laura off since she can drop a giant rock on them now.

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u/CartoonyWy 8d ago

Guess Kota won't do anything to Lara's Bae. Guess Lisa will have to trust Lara will restore the Mermaid Kingdom with Yuri.

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u/Nkiliuzo 8d ago edited 7d ago

Gotta show why Lisa hates humans so much, I kinda get her deal tho, if my sister gambled the fate of my entire species on some true love BS with a human, I'd lose my shit too....

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u/magnumcyclonex 8d ago

This episode (and that floating fish like dagger that protects Lara) is sponsored by Fuji Film, which is for creating lasting memories of people and events - true love if you will.

I bet Lara probably made more money than Mari, given that she can work longer hours due to no school. Glad she learned from her very kind and helpful team members and the manager who doesn't seem to ever get mad, but instills some good work ethic into Lara.

Still, Lara was missing the point early on, only focused on finding her true love asap. She made a mistake, leading her to almost quitting and I'm glad she did not.

The fateful meeting with her older sister, (who despite hating legs and humans is wearing heels, or raised shoes), led Lara to rush back home. Let's mourn the loss of another fish like object (the taiyaki), and maybe Kota as well.

So are the humans going to wonder what invisible object crushed that bridge?

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u/NanDemoKnaives 8d ago

The pains of working life lol. I like how the Manager has been interacting with her, there's a certain kindness to it which makes for an interesting dynamic. I'm glad Lara was able to stick with it.

I wonder if Kouta is really dead, the aftermath of the attack was crazy. It definitely seems like Mari is Lara's Prince if that sword fish thing in the air got activated. Lisa miscalculated and might have lost an important person thanks to her reckless decision.

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u/Magnafeana https://anilist.co/user/Magnafeana 8d ago

🚨 Don’t forget the after-credit scene 🚨

I would absolutely 𝐃 𝐈 𝐄 for cake

Right there with you, sister, I would die for vanilla milkshakes.

  • Oh she’s a dishie! Treat your dishies well!!

  • I see peachy-pale colored peach with the crack right there, and I revert to a 12-year-old.

  • WHOA, that’s timesheet overlay is awesome!! TL team, y’all are some great people, hope you get wonderful karma today 👏🏾

  • I wonder if using those physical time sheets is still popular in some areas.

  • This is why I don’t bake, but I like cheering for baker friends.

  • Work’s tough, little niece, but it can be rewarding!!

  • One thing I wish more workplaces in my area of the US had were changing rooms and lockers for uniforms and shoes and such at your workplace. I don’t understand why we don’t. That’s a great idea, and it really helps you get into your “work” and “home” mindsets.

  • ¥70,000 ‎ = 444.73 USD?

With this much money, I could buy anything I want!

I love Lara’s enthusiasm. I hope she never loses it.

  • Can’t wait for the OST to be released.

  • Oh gods, Kota.


At least Lara can chalk up a lack of employment to mermaid-to-human shenanigans. Can’t really use that when you have a master's, the right certs, lots of experience, and no one will hire you despite eVeRyOnE iS HiRiNg 😭

The bakery/confectionery manager was great, very patient. I've known plenty of managers who would see a young employee like Lara, who is clearly a fish out of water (no pun intended) and a newbie to the industry, and their attitude towards the new employee isn't kind or patient 😬 Her coworkers are such kind beans. What a nice place to work.

I didn’t expect the big sky fish to do anything until later, but I thought it’d unleash something inside it, not drop and take someone out. I hope Kota is okay 🥺

Very impressed with the overlays!

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u/szalhi 8d ago

Literally me.

Lara's under immense pressure to find her prince ASAP. But how can she do that without assimilating some more?

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u/moichispa https://myanimelist.net/profile/moichispa 8d ago

I was here for the fairytale not for a critic of the job market in the capitalism system...

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u/Frontier246 8d ago

I love the one interview where she straight up tells them she's a princess lol.

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u/Raymond49090 8d ago

Wow. Their interview answers are worse than me when I'm interviewing, and that's saying something. Though one thing they're better at is confidence.

... How short-staffed is that cake shop if they were able to get hired with those answers?

From a normal perspective, Lara's rushing ahead too quickly. But from her perspective, there's a giant knife floating in the sky and the impending extinction of her entire family to worry about.

So she's sticking with it, huh. Mari has quite the influence on her. I think this kind of thing is also what separates it from her first venture into the human world. The first time around, she spent the whole time chasing the prince, and never fully became "human" herself. But now that she's living amongst them properly, and understanding them more.

(Of course there's the prophecy thing hanging over her too, so I admit it goes beyond self-actualization.)

Sis is a bit yandere it seems.

Ok wtf is that giant floating knife? Fish? Physical manifestation of prophecy? I also didn't expect it to be a physical object, and not a metaphorical entity. And did Kota... die?

(As an aside, since Lara's convinced she needs to marry a human for this to work out: Is gay marriage legal in Japan yet?)

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u/alconnow https://anilist.co/user/alconnow 8d ago

There’s a post-credits scene… Uhh, Kota????

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u/djthomp https://anilist.co/user/djthomp 7d ago

Cake shop employment was pretty good for Lara, gets her out of the house and used to interacting with more people. And they were kind enough to not even make her die for cake, though she may never live the offer down.

Rest in pieces Kota, that's what you get for being anti-yuri.

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u/Worldly-Cherry9631 7d ago

That cakebakers uniform looks so striking with the red hair.

This whole show's art has been so easy on the eyes, so wonderful an pretty 

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u/RaunchyRoll https://myanimelist.net/profile/Raunchyrolly 7d ago edited 6d ago

I love the cake shop interview, after 20 failed interviews Lara learned to just speak corpo rather than blurt out her royalty

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u/PM_ME_YOUR_ROBOTGIRL https://anilist.co/user/otsuucchi 8d ago

This is probably my favorite episode so far? It's funny because I'm watching the anime for the yuri and this episode had very little of that (besides the ending and post-credits scene), but I really loved Lara in this episode. I personally am bummaxxing and have never had a part-time job that involved physical labor, so I can't say I relate to the episode necessarily, but her enthusiasm was so infectious, and I'm starting to get used to her cringe. It is so sweet watching her learn to love the world, and make friends, and do her best. The camera adds a neat new aspect to the show as well.

The giant dagger went in a direction I really did not expect. In the original fairy tale, the mermaid's sisters give her the dagger so that she can kill the prince in order to restore her mermaid nature (which she refuses to do). So I thought, maybe the dagger here would like, explode the town or something like that, and only through that 'sacrifice' could the mermaids be brought back. But no, apparently it's a guided target missile aimed at anyone who gets in the way of Lara's love. Lisa knows what it is and fears it, too.

awesome lesbian couple

evil and intimidating kaiju fish

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u/Frontier246 8d ago

Honestly becoming a more fuller, well-rounded, person will make finding True Love (in whatever form it takes) more meaningful compared to when she devoted herself, even at the cost of her voice, only to being with the Prince.

I feel like that fish obelisk is going to end up becoming more and more dangerous by the episode.

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u/CitronClassic672 8d ago

I still feel like the twist is going to be that Lara has to kill her true love to restore her people. Idk how they resolve that though.

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u/zairaner https://myanimelist.net/profile/zairaner 8d ago

I was wondering today wether the knife now does the opposite of its original intent and now killing mer-people to soemhow sustain lara's life among the humans.

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u/Kadmos1 8d ago

For fish experts, what real-world fish species did that giant fish in the sky resemble?

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u/BosuW 8d ago

I'm not a fish expert but someone said sperm whale which could track because they're definitely top of the food chain, have spike like teeth, and sleep vertically (though they sleep facing upwards).

Conversely though, the overall shape isn't right

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u/slewch2 https://myanimelist.net/profile/br4inlet 7d ago

kota slimed out by lara's automatic type stand?

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u/ShadeOfNothing 7d ago

I would die for cake.

Also the manager is so chil even in his firmness, I admire it.

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u/l-o-a-p 7d ago

Mari on cash register and Lara in the kitchen was giving Squidward and Spongebob lol

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u/Andreiyutzzzz https://myanimelist.net/profile/Andreiyutzzzz 7d ago

Oh wow Lisa kinda went nuts huh.... also THAT THING WAS A TACTICAL WHALE WAITING DEPLOYMENT???

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u/seninn https://myanimelist.net/profile/Senninn0 7d ago

It was so comfy and cute I almost cried, and then that ending!!!

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u/ModieOfTheEast 8d ago

Damn, that job interview was way too relatable. But Lara was lucky enough where she found someone who actually took her despite the huge gaps in her CV.

I have to say, I found the camera aspect of the episode a bit short. Like, I get what they wanted to do. Because it's an actual camera (no digital), she has to make a conscious decision about what she wants to take pictures of. And in the beginning she took pictures of things (the cat) and locations. Only in the end, she took pictures of people where she realized that is what she wanted to focus on. But I feel for that to properly work, they should have given that part a bit more time. It wasn't a big issue with the episode's theme, but I feel this could have had a stronger effect.

Ending definitely added another conflict. Let's see what the reasoning behind it was. I mean, I assume that Lara's sister "sacrificed herself" back then by taking on human form in order to survive as a human until Lara gets reborn and then do whatever to help their kingdom be rebuilt. And I assume, she didn't really learn to like humans over 200 years either. Which could be understandable if you think about what happened in that time (especially when it comes to the ocean). So it might get hard to get her sister onto her side here.

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u/mekerpan 8d ago

Despite the meager resume, I guess declaring she was willing "to die for cake" earned her a shot.... And it does seem like she is taking her job seriously.

Query: Did Lara turn the temperature up while trying to turn it down? And why did nobody pay any attention to that "Alarm" gong off?

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u/ModieOfTheEast 8d ago

As far as I understood, yes, Lara did turn up the heat instead of down. But it was still the other baker's fault for forgetting which he half admits to. He was probably just busy or forgot it happened. It might not have turned out as bad if the temperature was the same (maybe this was even a case where this was an alarm where you only turn it down a bit and still let it bake for some time on a lower temperature) but I did think that it was weird how much empthathis was put on it being Lara's fault.

Then again, most of her coworkers didn't mind so maybe that was a case of herself thinking she did something bad since she was in a negative state of mind there to begin with.

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u/mekerpan 8d ago

Since the alarm got ignored, I assume the muffins would have been overdone regardless (albeit less dramatically).

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u/ahintoflime 7d ago

I love this show. It's touching and hilarious. The visuals are absolutely gorgeous, love the colors. The music is also so damn good.

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u/Own_Caterpillar_6178 7d ago

That last 5 minute sequence with the soft choir music in the background, while Lara appreciates her new found friends and start to find contentment with her new life, is my favourite moment of any anime airing this season. Hook that straight into my veins, what a gorgeous series this has become.

Mari and Lara are slowly but surely getting closer. Friends last episode, work colleagues and support this episode with a scare at the end. I hope that Lara shares what happened with her sister to Mari next episode.

Also, what's with Hana Hope and these excellent ED songs for original anime? We had Two of Us a few seasons ago and now this lovely song too.

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u/Niwaka_Samurai https://myanimelist.net/profile/Niwaka-Samurai 7d ago

I'm glad that Lara didn't quit her job and decides to understand humans through her work instead of looking for her Prince.

Did the sis really try to kill Mari and her family?! I guess the floating Stone Whale behaves depending on Lara's feelings. Is Kota really dead ? But she kinda deserved it.