Japanese: コタローは1人暮らし (Kotarou wa Hitorigurashi)
Episodes: 10
Aired: March 10, 2022
Studio: LIDENFILMS
Genre: Drama, Slice of Life
Duration: 27 min. per ep.
Rating: PG-13 – Teens 13 or older
Add to list on MAL
MY RATING: 8 out of 10
One day, manga author Shin Karino is greeted by four-year-old Kotarou Satou, his new next-door neighbor, who gifts him a box of tissues. In Karino’s eyes, Kotarou is an odd kid: he speaks in an extremely formal manner, and he lives alone in his apartment—no parents or relatives in sight. But Kotarou neither seems to mind, nor wants to rely on people.
Feeling sympathetic toward Kotarou’s circumstances, Karino decides to follow Kotarou to a bathhouse in case something might happen to him and there he comes to understand the little boy is not so different from him. Little by little, Karino—along with the other residents of the apartment complex—grows fond of Kotarou and his antics. At the same time, Kotarou himself might have found something akin to a family in his unique neighbors.
via MAL
Opening & Closing Themes + Songs
I don’t think I ever have any opening or closing themes that I hated especially in my slice of life anime, and it’s no different for this series. The intro was so cute and colorful which surprisingly reminds me of those childhood shows that I like. Just watching the opening already makes me feel relaxed, which really is the reason why I love slice of life genre, *wink. The song suits the opening as well, which sounds really cute <3
The ending on the other hand is pretty simple but the illustration changes in every episode and looks really good. It was not my usual upbeat music, but I really like the ending song as well.
Story
This is a story of a four year old boy named Kotaro who lives alone in an apartment complex. There he met some adults who soon became his friends and guardians.
A four year old kid living alone?! Honestly, when I started this anime I didn’t think it would work out considering the technicalities. But it’s hard to dwell on that one when Kotaro is very cute and acts so mature unlike his age. I really love how he influences the people around him, just watching this anime just proves why I love this genre. It was just so heartwarming how the people around him can’t help but love this kid.
His life definitely is hard, he’s still a kid but he can’t live like one since he needs to be an adult to live. His backstory was revealed little by little as you watch this series, and I’m not sure what to think. Should I feel sad for him? Or be proud? Maybe I should feel both? I really love how he endured and always thinks of other people before himself. Seriously, this kid is more mature than I do, lol.
Aside from heartwarming scenes, this series has a lot of cute scenes as well, especially Kotaro’s scenes with the cats. Just looking at that scene, you can really see that he is still a child, so precious <3
That ending was really sweet and you can’t help but imagine what his life would be years from now. And really hope that everything would work out well for him, *smile.
Characters
You’ll definitely finish this series feeling so proud of Kotaro. Considering he doesn’t have parents to guide him growing up, you can see that despite all of that, he was able to grow up so well. I think he’s more mature compared to all adults in this anime, lol.
The side characters are something you also need to look forward to. I just love seeing how they care for Kotaro and make sure to help him eventhough he always insists on not asking for help from anyone. I don’t think there’s someone in this anime that isn’t likable, even the gangster looking character lol.
Art & Animation
I think the animation was pretty good and was able to deliver the message this anime wants to portray to its viewers. The only thing I didn’t like in this anime was the eyes hahaha, I just think that Kotaro’s eyes look like a frog, so sorry hahaha. Other than that, I think everything looks good, *wink.
Voice Actors
The EN dubbed sounds fine sometimes(?), but I highly recommend watching it in JP dubbed to fully appreciate the anime and be immersed with the emotion especially on emotional parts.
***
Kotaro lives alone is definitely a nice break to your usual high energy shounen anime. I hope you give this one a try. Have fun watching!
This one would definitely be a struggle to believe a four year old living alone, but I’m glad the personality of the little boy won you over.
Definitely. Considering I’m not a big fan of the graphics at first, I’m glad that didn’t hinder me to enjoy the story 🙂