It starts when they were at the preparation meeting.

The director says that while there are a lot of different types of openings to anime, he really wants one that represents the themes of the show.

It starts with a shot of her feet. She is walking on land, running, moving forward, to really put an emphasis on her feet, but he wants to use this to make sure the opening is worth watching.

The first time the were discussing the opening song with Ikimonogakari, it was before they had done anything and they kept wondering if it was really okay to talk to them about the story so much.

He said if there was one word he could use for the opening it would be movement. it's not just falling or running, but all movement. If you wanted to focus on running you'd just show running. if you wanted to focus on falling you'd just show falling. Showing things over and over can be repetitive but if you're persistent with it it can become interesting.

While there are templates for openings, he wanted to make something original because it's an original anime. While wondering how to do that he ended up with wanting to use analog photography for the cels of certain shots.

This one is marked "analog cell photography cut"

At this point they're searching for somewhere to do the cel photography but they're being told "the battery is dead" or "it's broken" by the places they've asked. They're currently getting one fixed.

They then go to the cel photography location. There's not too much to say about that part. They're cleaning the cells to make sure there's not dust and that they're lined up correctly. That they don't have any shadows from the different cels on top of each other etc.

He explains that in manga magazines for new creators they have a graph for to show how much it scored on originality, story, characters, paneling etc and that even if you fill all of those to the max it doesn't mean that it's automatically a good manga. It's the same for anime and there's something indescribable that makes a story interesting. If you try too hard it will be come a story that doesn't fit in a genre and that would make it hard to sell and maybe people won't watch. So it's like walking a tightrope. But he hopes people will watch it.

Most of the pictures of the opening are too small to read but they did show close ups of some pages

This one makes sure to note that Yoshiya is the only one who notices something off to the right.

I also slowed down the video and tried to get some shots of other things lol

Top one Lara's hand with Rowan's

The next one down is marked analog and says 10 year old lara with ???? I really don't know what that name is... リグモア???? リブモア???? They're light and blurry from him scrolling but is this her mother?? lol

The next one is marked digital 15 year old Lara and it's Nikolai's hand

The next one down is analog Lara and Lisa's hands

Last one is Lara and Mari's hands around 3 years old

Well, this one I know is a shot of her mother and Grace and those same katakana are there so it's definitely her mother. It says they're 15.

Here it says they're 5 years old.

Japan made a Little Mermaid movie in the 70s that most Japanese people know very well. It's called "Hans Christian Anderson's The Little Mermaid" and it seems obvious to me that Goodbye, Lara takes a lot of inspiration from this movie.

Maybe this first thing is just me overthinking it but I feel like the light from the sun in this opening shot and Lara holding the light in the OP are very similar. I can't help but feel this was intentional.

The main character's name is Marina... Did they talk inspiration for Mari's name from her?

Marina also has 5 older sisters.

I tried to find a shot of all of the sisters together from the goodbye, Lara anime and failed... but this pic should do

If you look closely I think their hair styles are also inspired from the movie.

Laura would be the one of the furthest right, Rosa would be the second from the left, Lisa would be third from the left, Luna would be the first one on the left, and Lea would be the second from the Right. If you don't know their names see this post.

Instead of rings, they have pearl hair pins. They're shaped like flowers with a pink pearl in the middle.

They require these pins to be able to go outside of the castle grounds and they can use them to contact each other if needed.

They have a very nice shot of an angler fish in this movie. Was that the inspiration for Kouta?

And Marina's best friend is a tiny dolphin named Fritz. To me the princesses all seeming to have animal friends seems to be inspired by this in the movie.

They mention that Marina's mother is already dead and her father blames her Mother's death on trying to help a ship that was sinking.

The coming of age ceremony in the movie where Marina is given her hair pin is very similar to the coming of age ceremony where Lara is given her ring

While the witch from the movie seems to have something like a stingray for a cape, Grace's looks more like a walrus pelt.

There's a shot of the witch watching through what looks like a shining pearl. This could be the inspiration for Grace watching through the mirrors.

Grace is shown with snakes(?) wrapped around her just like the witch from the movie.

When Marina saves the prince, she runs away and another girl comes and helps him. Could Mari be partially based on the girl at the convent?

They definitely took inspiration from this movie to name "Goodbye, Lara" The movie ends with Marina saying she's going to go back to the ocean. She failed to find love but she would love everyone else as foam. She says goodbye to everyone. Here you can see she says "Sayonara" over and over, which these subs translated as "farewell" but "goodbye' is the same lol

and finally, they show the tower from the church that I mentioned in my other post at the end of this movie.

Mari: Hey, what will you do if you meet your prince?

Lara: He'll take me with him to his castle and we'll live together!

Mari: Woah that's a bit early for cohabitation!

Lara: Cohabit?

Mari: You have to, like... date or something first?

Lara: Like they did on the TV shows?

Mari: Probably.

Lara: Then I have to practice dating! Mari be my prince!

Episode 7: Saturday at 10 am, at Lake Biwa Terace

Mari: Why would I be the prince?

Mari: You should play the prince.

Lara: Huh? Really?

One day, she received a warm can of hot chocolate from the girl. Since Lara felt her heart melt the first time she tasted that sweetness, later, she also gave a piping hot can of hot chocolate to the girl.

Because that was the greatest sweetness that Lara had ever experienced in this world. Because she felt like it would become a sign if great affection.

Lara came to love sweet things and started working at a cake shop after saying something outrageous like, "I'll die for cake!"

From this shot it seems like Kota only had 4 with him when he saved Lisa... but when did he save Lisa? It is possible he had more with him and that's just how many he grabbed to show her... but why would he pull out a handfull instead of only one then? idk whatever lol

Anyway, this is my attempt to figure out Lisa and Kota's timeline a little better

There's a difference between Lara being a princess and being THE PRINCESS.

When we are shown Lara's past we almost always hear people say the japanese word "hime" (姫) for princess.

When she is first introduced she is "Hime"

When Laura is talking about Lara being a princess of light, she says 光ある姫 (hikari aru hime). They're all considered princesses of light.

Just to throw this in here... Lara's mother is referred to by Grace in disguze as 亡き女王陛下 (naki jouou heika) The late queen. So she really doesn't seem to the the "Princess" that she's talking about right after that. And I already mentioned last time that the word she uses for resurrect isn't right for that either.

But the really important thing is that when Grace is talking about the prophecy... she refers to Lara as THE PRINCESS with the English word プリンセス (princess). This seems to be signifying this is a special role. Different from the other princesses. It's her talking about the return of "THE PRINCESS" that is the prophecy.

Rowan says 姫君(Himegimi) here... Just to get really nitpicky, translating this as princess is fine, but in this instance it's not literally princess... it's more stating that she's reached the age of maturity where she's allowed to go out on her own. They used to use this title for the daughters of any high ranking person. Anyway... not that important lol

Back on track! Even though Rowan forbid prophecies....

but when he is going to sleep, he gives her his light and calls her "the princess" プリンセス (princess) in English. I think this is signifying that he's accepting that the prophecy was true, and that she really is the princess from the prophecy.

And it's important to note that while Grace referred to Lara's mother as late (deceased) earlier, she makes sure to say that her other family members not dead. They can still be saved.

Saria will never grow up. But you did. True in the game and true in real life.

I assume they'll share these online?? but they haven't yet so here's screenshots from the steam!

The first one is Reki and Langa in winter and they're in historical clothes????

Fairy Ranmaru Lore - Simplified

I got a suggestion to write commentary for my Glimmer fics. It never occurred to me that people could be interested in the thought process behind my fics. I think the best place to start, is to discuss the Fairy Ranmaru lore I have in mind while writing. I try to follow canon, though I've simplified some bits to minimize reader confusion.

What is Attachment?

Fairy Ranmaru has aspects inspired by Buddhist philosophy. Though, I believe the creators aren't intentionally trying to say something Buddhist. It's like Evangelion, where the creators said they used Christian elements mainly because it looked cool. Not to convey a specific religious message.

People tend to think of attachment as a positive thing. In Buddhism, attachment is a negative thing. It is the root of suffering. Attachment refers to grasping, clinging, or fixating on something. It’s the mental and emotional habit of holding tightly, fearing change or loss. People attach because we want things to stay the same: to hold onto a perfect moment, a person we love, a version of ourselves that we’re proud of. But life doesn’t work that way. Everything is impermanent: our bodies, relationships, jobs, and even our emotions. When people cling to what can’t stay, they suffer. Being able to let go of those attachments will free you from suffering and help you towards enlightenment. (Source: Various websites about Buddhism. I didn't save links because I didn't expect to write commentary.)

Fairies can collect attachment from humans, releasing them from harmful attachments. Attachment helps fuel fairy magic. According to Takara, it's used like human money in the fairy world.

The message of releasing humans from harmful attachment is muddied in the show, since the fairies 'ascend' people who have 'wicked souls'. Most of the time, the fairies are smacking around a bully. They don't smack the attachment out of their client (usually), even though the client shows attachment too. This is the main reason I think the Buddhist elements are for funsies rather than something very serious. In my fics, I cut out the wicked soul element to keep the messaging simpler and more focused.

Attachment is also a little punny. In Japanese, 'attachment' is 'aijyaku' and 'love' is 'ai'. Aijyaku can also mean love. Love is very much a theme of Fairy Ranmaru. When Sirius/Chilka says he doesn't need vast quantities of love anymore, he just wants to be loved by one person: He also means that he doesn't need vast quantities of attachment anymore. That's why he brings this up when talking about quitting the idol group. Translating it to English loses some nuance.

Fairy Religion

So are the fairies Buddhists then? Kind of. We know the fairies have a religion, because the Lux Clan is in charge of religious rites. We don't know the details of that religion. In the show, before collecting attachment, they pray to a 'Holy Mother'. I think this could be the Fairy Queen, though it's not proven. Most of the fairies are unusually loyal to the Queen, even when she does fucked up stuff. There has to be a reason they venerate her so much, right?

More things supporting the "Fairies are Buddhist" belief:

The Ten Laws of Fairies are loosely modeled after the Buddhist Ten Precepts for novice monks and practitioners.

In the ending song (warning: NSFW-ish imagery), the fairies make mudras, or sacred hand gestures with meanings in Buddhism.

Fairy Elements

At the start of Fairy Ranmaru, we're told there are five clans. However, near the end we find out there is a sixth element. Houjou is a "Fairy of Loam". In other words, he's an Earth elemental fairy. I made him an Arbor fairy in my fics to keep it simple, since we know nothing about the Earth clan. The fairy clans and elements are based on the five Chinese elements.

Notice anything? Lux, or Light, isn't one of those elements. Word of God says that Chilka is a Tenebrae (or Darkness) fairy. That is also not one of the Chinese elements. There are scenes throughout the anime where we see Jyuka's, Uruu's, Homura's, and Takara's parents. We never see Ranmaru's or Chilka's parents. Do they even have parents?

What's going on here? I headcanon that Ranmaru and Chilka are artificially created fairies, made to serve the Queen. We see them being her bodyguards when younger, and they were her choice to start an idol group with. They are especially close to her for whatever reason.

So there are at minimum seven fairy clans, and probably even more we were never told about. Good news for people making fan clans!

Lux Power

Glimmer tends to be very boring and uncreative with its default suggestions for how to use Lux powers. It's always just blasts of light. I've written in better suggestions for creative uses of Lux power.

Lanternfish are bioluminescent fish that create their own light. They're small fish, only about 10 cm long but they make up a huge portion of aquatic life in the ocean.

We see a close up of a lanternfish when Lara gets in trouble for going to the surface, and she asks her father if humans are really such ugly creatures.

It seems to be reacting to her emotions. It seems to react to her words and flashes when they show it. I think this tells us more about her light than anything else so far. The first time she ever outright defies her father, a self illuminating fish reacts to her emotions! And, to me, the giant fish in the sky look like a stylized version of a lanternfish.

This fish reacted to her emotions when she though Mari was in danger and took action to stop it.

Sunsets are so pretty, but whatever you do, DON’T look directly at the sun!! Be safe: look at paintings of the sun instead. I am posting these for your personal eye health. You’re welcome!

These were created for last month’s Patreon drawing challenge on sunsets ☀️ If you like drawing challenges, join us: we’re drawing feet this month. Yes, that’s right: Feet. It’s a weirdly polarizing topic and most search engines try to block me from searching up good reference pictures. But drawing feet is an essential skill for any character artist!