Cute ship that got ruined by a horrid ending. Will the manga by Saburo Uta save it?Previous: >>4600547
>>4608839Betteridge's Law of Headlines.
Kisses, kisses, and more kisses.
>>4609225It's not Lara's fault that the ending character-assassinated her due to being written apart.
Is the bd selling well?
>>4609272さよならララ BOX 上巻』初動売上枚数• Blu-ray: 692枚• DVD: 101枚• 合計: 793枚lol
>>4609272Decently but not anything to write home about.
Are the writer and director psychopaths?
I think my lukewarmest take is that Mari just shouldn't have existed if this is the story they wanted to tell. Lara gets taken in by a boy who looks like the prince, their developing relationship as she comes to realize how different he really is from the real prince gets plenty of focus episodes instead of being split between that and an ultimately meaningless love triangle. With those episodes, you gradually introduce the idea that "true love" itself is causing problems, rather than the problem being that Lara is looking for true love in the wrong person for 90% of the runtime; have Luca lose focus on his passions or family for her, have Lara become overprotective or willing to give up her dreams of exploring the human world. Then in the ending, it makes perfect sense that giving up on "true love" and developing as your own person first is what has to happen, because you ACTUALLY FUCKING SET THAT UP. I'd be fascinated to learn just how Mari got her role in the show. She was a lot less prominent in the concept trailer, and it feels like her entire place is the story is to ask questions (nature of true love and who you should look for it in, etc) that simply are not what the writer was ever interested in in the first place.
There's a new interview in a magazine that confirms something about Lara and Mari
>>4609295Sure pal, whatever that is it will fix everything.
>>4609295Literally nothing is confirmed; at this point, everything about this series is a disappointment.
>>4609295Confirms it's up to the interpretation at most.
>>4609319The problem is that you can dress it up with "interpretation," but there’s only one reality: the ending sucks. It leaves me with no desire to know anything more about the series—let alone fill in plot holes that shouldn't exist in the first place.
>>4609293Overall, Mari's role is incredibly minor and disappointing; she is truly relevant in only about three episodes. The rest of the time, she stays in the background, serving merely as a way to connect her family and circle to Lara—but little else. Instead of a relationship that evolves naturally over time, it feels forced whenever convenient, only to end with a role reversal handled in the worst possible way.
>>4609328She is relevant in most episodes and is key to Lara's arc. Their relationship evolves very naturally and nothing about her is forced. Just because the ending is shit doesn't mean you need to just make shit up, assuming you aren't just concern trolling.
>>4609330>concern trollinga bit late to be concerned, most concerns materialized two weeks ago, this is just hindsight
>>4609330I get that that happens in the fanfic playing out in your head, but reality is completely different; Mari is a very minor character. Just because she appears in every episode doesn't mean she's important take the bakery folks or the girl in love with her childhood friend, for example; for the most part, Mari is just there. Once the "light" moment passes, she fades into the background again. It feels like she’s only truly relevant at the very end, and that’s what’s annoying: the ending is bad, but the journey leading up to it wasn't spectacular enough to celebrate either. Most of the fan art stems from people's assumptions rather than actual content from the series.
>>4609295Sure confirms the ending is shit like always.
>>4609344Two weeks and multiple interviews later, the question "Why the fuck did Lara leave?" remains unanswered.
>>4609344>>Sure confirms the ending is shit like always.No, it makes it much worse; that statement just shows there’s nothing to interpret—this is total bullshit, and people are in denial.
>>4609338>reality is completely different; Mari is a very minor characterIt isn't and she's not. She's, at absolute worst, the central support character and second only to Lara.>take the bakery folks The ones that Lara was going to quit on before Mari said she thought she was doing good?>or the girl in love with her childhood friendThe one whose episode culminates in Lara being happy that she and Mari are officially friends?> It feels like she’s only truly relevant at the very endNo. She's extremely relevant in the start of the story when Lara is trying to find her footing and in the middle of the story when she's wavering and is the sole reason that Lara rallies before the climax and her central motivation through the entirety of the end. Nothing about Mari is "just there". She is a character with extreme intention. Again, I don't know why you'd make this shit up. Just be mad that the ending is bad, you don't need to pretend plot points didn't happen.
>>4609344Post the whole thing or fuck off.
>>4609344>leave your loved ones behind, it's fine because you'll both have memories of that love or somethingWhat a great message.
>>4609349It’s not about making things up; it’s about looking at reality. This series—even ignoring the ending—isn't the damn masterpiece people try to claim it is; the ending simply wiped out any goodwill one might have had toward it.>>4609347The answer is both simpler and more pretentious—because that way it’s "deeper and more mature," since being a normal couple is a cliché, while being apart is more modern and youthful.
>>4609344>>True love means being apart and simply remembering things.
>>4609356>pretentious>masterpiece>matureOh, you're anti-critic schizo. Why did I even bother?
>>4609361How am I lying or exaggerating? This isn't something only a few people see; everyone can now see through the director's intentions.
>>4609344>Lara ultimately chose to leave MariOkay but WHY
>>4609289No, they just didn't talk to each other.
>it's a farewellWhere's the anon who posted novels of his fanfic about how Lara was only leaving to become independent and was set to return to Mari as a true equal or whatever?
>>4609350Bear in mind it's MTL from a Chinese translation
>>4609367
>>4609361You should know better than to reply to someone who uses that many em dashes and semicolons.
>>4609344>Koide: homosexuality is just a phase you'll look back on fondly in adulthood How quaint.
Deserves to be posted again.
>>4609367>>4609368So basically, Lara left because the OG Little Mermaid did it, no deeper reason than that. Bravo.
>>4609372But also finding love and dedicating you life to doing good deeds had religious implications that made him uncomfortable so it was necessary to portray Lara as a sociopath.
>>4609361>anti-critic>is critcizing and being a criticWhat do you think "anti" means, you utter retard? Do you think Hitler is anti-nazi?
>>4609374That's not what sociopath means.
>>4609396>hey, you're that supremacist, Adolf Hitler>ummmm how can I be a supremacist if I literally just said Japanese people are equal to Aryans??????? Do you know what supremacist means???
>>4609403Nika didn't say that.
>>4609403You pointed at 3 random words to say someone's stance is anti-criticWhere's the "anti-crticism" in criticising the show, you braindead retard?. Funny how you went after the Hitler example because you can't explain how criticism can ever be anti-criticismYou can't claim someone is "anti" something they're doing It's you being anti-critic and seething when people trash on thids worthless shit for some reason. Probably because you don't like to admit you wasted your time on this trash. It's OK. I also wasted it and it felt awful, but this denial isn't healthy
>>4609344Somebody needs to prevent this hack from getting another director/writer job.
>>4609344>we decided that what Lara truly wanted was to live in this world with Mari>so how to wrap up the final episode gradually became clear: she would leave MariI can't even be mad anymore, there's no way I can ever take this guy seriously again.
>>4609405Out loud.
>>4609428She whispered it in some haughty spacian girl's ear while fingerblasting her in prison.
>>4609365I HATE anime committees so fucking much. >>4609370Koide-san is a fucking retard, what else is new?
https://note.com/joyous_beetle542/n/nbb1a38662e69Review of this season's yuri anime, including Lara, by a Japanese essayist. Most of the comments I've seen from Japan have been tweets and short forum posts, so this was pretty interesting. It's pretty critical, and seems to suggest that in trying to avoid pinning down what "true love" actually meant, the work suffered. With so many definitions of true love, the audience is forced to view it as something mechanical: anything that makes mermaid magic work is true love, which is the same as it meaning nothing at all.
>>4609505That's a Taiwanese essayist that used to post incomprehensible ESL essays on reddit. I'm glad his Japanese is readable.
>>4609409>someone's stanceNo one said anything about stance you sperg. A nickname doesn't just go away because it's not pertinent every second of a person's existence.
>>4609505>seems to suggest that in trying to avoid pinning down what "true love" actually meant, the work suffered.This was almost all of thematic frustration was coming from by the mid-way point. It doesn't say anything about the nature of love or family or independence. Hell, it doesn't even really get me interested in Shiga. Ultimately it's a work that doesn't say anything about anything.And hey, maybe that's fine for a late night anime with high production values. But it's kind of obvious the staff wanted to say something and it failed to land.
>>4608839The novel and the manga are probably only going to be about the old Lara before the dagger incident judging by the promo art, which I think is something people don't really want anymore.
>>4609367>but why does Lara leave, what was she feeling?>curiosity was certainly part of it, then there was the fact that the original story had something like that, though i didn't like it, so i didn't include that at allSo that's it, straight out of the horse's mouth, ultimately she leaves for literally no reason other than "curiosity".All it took was a few months for her to get bored of the amazing true love the whole story revolved around fighting for, character development of the decade right there.
>>4609367>>4609368>>4609621The development process of this anime is really interesting, first he established that it would end with Lara leaving to mimic the original, then they came up with a story that was supposed to lead to that but actually had nothing to do with it, in fact it made it contradictory.But instead of changing the ending to something actually coherent, he went:>you know what? screw it, she leaves anyway because she's really, really curious! there, we're done
Well I, for one, was really tired of having to come up with interpretations to vague nonsense, so I'm glad I can finally voice the internal conflict that's afflicting Lara in the picture, so painful she couldn't even let out an answer for her True Love™ who's helplessly crying beside her:>I'm so sorry Mari, I wish I could stay, I really do, but it can't be helped, I'm just so damn curious...!
>>4609626Can't she just travel with Mari if she's so curious about the rest of the world?. Just organize some plans to go see other parts of Japan or even other countries. This is retarded
>>4609621>>4609623At least it's funny that all those people online, like the leaker himself, who were trying to justify the shit ending with gaslighting like "b-but the story was about becoming independent all along, y-you just didn't get it!" were just put in their place by the same guys they were struggling to defend.
>>4609635https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iy6wryJMwVU
>>4609635Separation and time skips are the biggest pet peeve of mine in all stories but are especially grating in anything romantic. Phones and cheap and effective public transit exist. Getting totally ghosted by a friend or hell even a close work colleague is fucked up in my opinion, let alone a romantic interest. Whenever stories try to do this shit to be deep I just think how that character in real life would be looking back with regret at their stupidity years later because everyone learns that finding people gets harder and messier the older you get.
>>4609367>>4609368Oh hey, they just confirm my theory >>4605375 that they created the ending first, then made the rest of the story later, and then tried to justify why the story has the ending that they created first instead of creating a new ending that actually fit the story they end up making.What a dumb decision.I hope the other adaptation have enough freedom to make their own ending. Not that I count on it.
>>4609367>>4609368I don't understand what Maris purpose was in the story? the entire set up works with Luca.It just feels like they wanted to traumatize a little girl>>4609366probably dead
>>4610029>the entire set up works with a whiny, crybaby faggot who pays no actual attention to Lara as a person, fails to support her in any meaningful way, and doubles down on the fairytale aspects she's trying to step away fromIt doesn't, at all.
>>4610031Except it does? at the end of the day Mari only serves the same purpose Luca already did which is to show her that true love is toxic and meaningless.What is the point of having Lara triumph over both the monster of the siren and the fatality of the fairy tail because of her love for Mari if she loses that love on a whim and then seeks out a new "light" somewhere else after maybe 3 months of time?If Koide wanted to tell a story about how true love is not forever and the mermaid does not need to constantly achieve a religious "good" to walk alongside humans as a human why not just cute Mari and have Lara just realize what she already seemed to understand?She doesn't love Luca at all and her love for the prince was unrequited, yet she still lives.The story works fine without Mari because Lara already doesn't have feelings for Luca you retard.
>>4609371This one always makes me chuckle. It's so perfect for CPK whose whole point is to undoom impossible yuri to make fun of a show that doomed completely viable and unopposed yuri. I don't have to tell you which of these two is an unstoppable phenomenon in Japan and which one will be forgotten by next year.
>>4610116>Mari only serves the same purpose Luca already didHow dumb are you? Mari's purpose is showing Lara how to woman up when times are tough instead of crying and giving up, to be someone who treated her like a normal person (what she ends up being), and to show her what actual love is. Luca is a sobbing little avoidant bitch and also treats Lara like a storybook and his purpose is displaying that the prince isn't representative and that love can't be forced. They are fundamentally opposites and Luca would have taught Lara the exact opposite lesson that Mari did and not facilitated her integration into the human world at all.>The story works fine without Mari because Lara already doesn't have feelings for Luca you retard.No, you subhuman brainlet, the story does not work without Mari because without Mari Lara would have immediately collapsed in on herself in despair and being overwhelmed. An autist who can barely talk to his own classmates and is borderline non-functional in society despite being a human is not a valid replacement no matter how much you wish that were the case. Without Mari's down to earth, tough attitude at her side, Lara would have run around for days, attempted to return to the ocean like she did at the end of episode 2, and fucking drowned. Without Mari she would have given up on her job. Without Mari she would have gone quietly with Lisa and all the mermaids would have died. Without Mari to imitate, Lara would have just died at the end instead of learning to stand her ground, because she learned that from Mari, the person who has, from childhood, stood her ground.
>>4610221The story works fine without Mari based on what the directors stated goals are which is to critique the idea of true love being forever.None of the cope shit you wrote requires Mari to exist because they could have surrogates in the people at her job or otherwise.This is because Koides vision strictly at its core is a critique on "true love" which we already get from her feeling nothing for Luca and being curious about the human world.No amount of knuckle dragging cope you write will change the fact that Koides own desire for the ending contradicts the entire meaning of the rest of the show, which is that true love does matter, and that the choice of love is important.Which is obviously not Koides stated goal.
>>4610244>they could have surrogates in the people at her job or otherwise.>You could totally just remove Mari from the story!!!!!>...i-if you had a bunch of characters to do all the things she did and act like her to minimize the obvious and necessary role she has>...and you pretend that the entire narrative doesn't exist and that a show is only the most central messageYou are legit dumb. Not like memetic, internet "you are retarded". You are a real life fucking moron.
>>4610269When said centrai message is the most important thing to the staff and contradicts everything else, and the staff atre more comfortable showing het over yuri and break up the yuri, yes, don't include Mari. There 100000000000000000 het anime. One of them ending in rejection and separation is fine. There are almost none yuri originals. Wating people's time thinking they're going to get girl x girl only for girl to leave girl and true love bad and girl x boy to be explicit while girl x girl is only symbolism shit, is retarded and a waste of timeYou either commit to girl x girl or don't include it
>>4610269Why are you using exclamation points and stuttering like a shaky faggot?Actually acknowledge what I'm saying instead of losing your shit because you think I ship Luca with Lara.The director of the show stated that it was meant to be a critique of "true love" that showed Lara did not need it or needed to strive towards it in order to be human or gain a noble soul.I am saying if that was his purpose Mari is totally pointless when Luca already exist within the story as an example of failed "true love". Mari completely contradicts his stated goal because her relationship with Lara is both never considered until the final episode outside of very strong and obvious subtextbecause Lara fights for a love that is already atypical from the true love he is trying to critique and is both clearly healthy and not co-dependent like he a separation ending would imply.The story literally contradicts itself by placing negative "true love" which is forcing yourself to love someone that you do not love i.e. Lara towards Lucanext to positive "true love" which is a healthy blooming relationship built on mutual understanding outside of the confines of "true love" i.e. Lara towards Mariyet in the ending and with the context of the directors words, both of these "true loves" are weighted the same. The merit of abandoning both is seen as valuable, despite the opposite being highlighted 5 minutes before hand.so yes, if he wanted to make this story Mari is completely superfluous. Having a positive "true love" that is already critiquing the negative example be subject to the same critique is contradictory.if he actually meant something like "true love doesn't mean we spend every single day together" then it completely invalidates his statement anyway.as an example and as a critique, yes the negative "true love" of Luca and Lara serve the purpose he wants. Not the positive "true love" between Lara and Mari.
I for one am glad that Mari exists even if she is ultimately a pointless character that seems to just exist to be tortured by the writers.
>>4609344Lara learning how to be more human by being on her phone while Mari expresses her loneliness is fucking hilarious in hindsight.
>>4610290I'm glad she exists, wish she and lara were free of their retarded contradictory director though
Was it ever revealed what the bonus illustration was for buying the BD?
>>4610289>Why are you using exclamation points and stuttering like a shaky faggot?>so fucking new you don't understand greentextLurk 10 years.>The story literally contradicts itself by placing negative "true love" which is forcing yourself to love someoneIf you are too fucking stupid to understand that Luca ISN'T "true love", there is zero reason to even have this conversation.
>>4610409The story making a distinction between Luca and Mari is ultimately meaningless because Lara rejects true love anyway. The ending would in fact make a lot more sense if Lara simply came to the conclusion she doesn't need true love upon not finding it with Luca as opposed to not finding it with Luca, finding it with Mari yet rejecting it anyway.
>>4610409>Lurk 10 years.Typing and stuttering like a shaky faggot is not a personality you retard.>If you are too fucking stupid to understand that Luca ISN'T "true love"Oh my god you really are so fucking stupid you think I ship Lara with Luca/Luca is the critique of "true love" his relationship with Lara is meant to represent a negative "true love" how are you even denying this? like how do I explain overt fucking narrative implications to you? the entire script screams at you that he is meant to be a subversion of both the soulmate trope and the destined lovers trope because Lara does not love him holy shit. you're either retarded or baiting me.
