Kotarou wa Hitorigurashi (Kotaro Lives Alone)

Add to My List

Add to Favorites

Alternative Titles

Synonyms: Kotaro Lives By Himself

Japanese: コタローは1人暮らし

More titles

Information

Type: ONA

Episodes: 10

Status: Finished Airing

Aired: Mar 10, 2022

Producers: None found, add some

Licensors: None found, add some

Studios: LIDENFILMS

Source: Manga

Genre: Slice of Life

Theme: Childcare

Demographic: Seinen

Duration: 26 min. per ep.

Rating: PG-13 - Teens 13 or older

Statistics

Score: 8.19¹ (scored by 87,801 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #390²

² based on the top anime page. Please note that 'Not yet aired' and 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #1508

Members: 153,380

Favorites: 2,016

Available At

Official Site

@kotaro1_anime

Resources

AniDB

ANN

Synopsis

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.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Edit

Background

No background information has been added to this title. Help improve our database by adding background information here.

Edit

Related Anime

Adaptation:

Kotarou wa Hitorigurashi

More characters

Characters & Voice Actors

Satou, Kotarou

Main

Kugimiya, Rie
Japanese

Karino, Shin

Main

Masuda, Toshiki
Japanese

Akitomo, Mizuki

Supporting

Hayami, Saori
Japanese

Tamaru, Isamu

Supporting

Suwabe, Junichi
Japanese

Fukuno, Ippei

Supporting

Sawashiro, Chiharu
Japanese

Ryouta

Supporting

Ishikawa, Kaito
Japanese

Takei, Sumire

Supporting

Tamura, Mutsumi
Japanese

Tonosaman

Supporting

Kugimiya, Rie
Japanese

Kobayashi, Ayano

Supporting

Hanamori, Yumiri
Japanese

Takuya

Supporting

Shinoda, Minami
Japanese

More staff

Staff

Satomi, Tetsurou

Producer

Bizenjima, Mikito

Producer

Ooyama, Yuuichi

Producer

Makino, Tomoe

Director

Edit

Opening Theme

	1: "Hoshi no Runway (星のランウェイ)" by KOCHO (eps 1,3-9)
	2: "Tonosaman no Uta (とのさまんのうた)" by en (eps 2)

Edit

Ending Theme

"Chiisana Te no Hira (小さな手のひら)" by Kotoringo

Reviews

Mar 10, 2022

issa_labshat

Recommended

I've been waiting for this to drop ever since it was announced during the Netflix Festival Japan last November. I stopped what I was doing at the last minute before the show was released on Netflix. I binged all 10 episodes. And here's my review

Story.
In this anime, we are shown the stories surrounding Kotaro and how he goes about his independent life. Along the ride, we get to know his circumstances and have an idea why he is living alone. This alone intrigued me and made me interested. We also meet Karino and the rest of the neighbors.

Art
To be honest, I was a bit ...

Open

Gift

Jul 9, 2022

daaphish

Mixed Feelings

*No Spoilers*

Summary:
Kotaro Lives Alone is a story about a four-year-old boy who moves into his own apartment to escape from his father. The story is sweet and has some beautiful moments with character growth among the protagonist and his neighbors who learn to take on the role of nurturing him. The premise is over-the-top and the art is a weakness, but the show (season 1 so far) is enjoyable looking beyond that. I recommend this to anyone interested in an anime that doesn’t stay true to a typical sci-fi or fantasy genre. It does teach some lessons about learning to care for others.

Story: 5/10
The story ... begins with Kotaro moving into a new apartment and living on his own. This is jarring and doesn’t make any sense. The problem with the story is that other children are involved with a “children and families” type service, but he only has a negligent lawyer check in on him weekly. I suppose she happens to be the most incompetent lawyer working in the business. On top of this, the neighbors don’t report the child, even after they recognize that he is in harm’s way: the television alludes to child abductions, someone is hired to find him even though there is a protective order against him, and he’s a four-year-old. Looking beyond this (which is challenging since it’s the premise of the show), the story is interesting because of the side characters. Kotaro gradually grows because he is surrounded by neighbors who nurture him and teach him lessons. They also learn from Kotaro, which is wonderful. Information about his parents is gradually shared, although this season ends without divulging too much about his father. The episodes are broken into mini-episodes with straight-forward mini-episodes that teach lessons. Overall, this works well, although the show feels like it tries to teach lessons to children who would not be mature enough to understand the severity of Kotaro’s situation. The storytelling element and general plot are enjoyable, but the initial premise is contradictory.

Art: 3/10
The art style is jarring and somewhat creepy. The backgrounds are fairly detailed (and faded) but the eyes are bizarre. It is hard to take the characters seriously when they have vertical pupils with inverted pupils inside. The character designs in general are okay, especially regarding the fashion and story behind Kotaro’s clothes. However, Tamaru’s suit is one of the most annoying visual effects I’ve seen in anime. The design could work, but it doesn’t move properly. It’s like the screen glitches and only his body moves, which is unnecessarily jarring.

Sound: 5/10
The background music is fitting and the voice acting is sufficient, but the opening and ending themes are very annoying to listen to.

Character: 7/10
The supporting characters are well-developed and grow with Kotaro, and the characters, in general, are the biggest strength of the show. They learn to overcome their fears and often learn more lessons from Kotaro than he learns from them. Many of the characters have interesting backstories, but it does become challenging to keep track of the side characters at times and it feels like some characters grow nicely and suddenly leave the story, like a revolving door. By the end of the show, the viewer may feel like they were also Kotaro’s neighbors.

Enjoyment: 5/10
Once I got past the ridiculousness of the premise, I enjoyed the story. I work with children who have similar experiences and backgrounds to Kotaro, and I found the lessons in the story to be compelling. This is not my favorite anime genre, but I found it more interesting than I initially anticipated.

Overall: 5/10
This is an average-quality anime.

Open

Gift

Aug 18, 2022

nostalgiaas

Not Recommended

Oh boy was this irritating to watch.

This show started off as a decent slice of life show but as it went on it just turned into this weird mixture of comedy and as someone already called it, misery porn. That's the biggest problem with this show, it just doesn't know what it wants to be. It's tagged as a comedy, but is it? Well it does have its cute little fun scenes, but I wouldn't call it ~funny~ per se. What IS actually funny though is the ridiculous amount of abuse stories the writers shove in just 10 episodes and how poorly executed they are ...

Open

Gift

More stacks

Interest Stacks

cry someone's eyes out

by clairey

50 Entries · 122 Restacks

Life in Four Walls - Dorm and Apartment Anime

by AnimeboyAnubhab

50 Entries · 24 Restacks

Sad Boy Hours

by Mediocre_Artist

50 Entries · 234 Restacks

More recommendations

Recommendations

View All

More news

Recent News

'Kotarou wa Hitorigurashi' Reveals Additional Staff, Cast, First Promo

The official website of the anime adaptation of Mami Tsumura's Kotarou wa Hitorigurashi (Kotarou Lives Alone) manga revealed on Thursday additional cast, staff,...read more

Feb 9, 2022 9:40 PM by DatRandomDude | Discuss (2 comments)

'Kotarou wa Hitorigurashi' Unveils Pair of Additional Cast

The official website of the anime adaptation of Mami Tsumura's Kotarou wa Hitorigurashi (Kotarou Lives Alone) manga revealed on Friday two additional cast membe...read more

Nov 27, 2021 4:16 PM by DatRandomDude | Discuss (3 comments)

More discussions

Recent Forum Discussion

Poll: Kotarou wa Hitorigurashi Episode 4 Discussion JokerVentura - Mar 12, 2022	16 replies	by OutOfGalaxy »» Mar 14, 7:51 AM
Poll: Kotarou wa Hitorigurashi Episode 3 Discussion FMmatron - Mar 11, 2022	27 replies	by OutOfGalaxy »» Feb 17, 5:28 PM
Poll: Kotarou wa Hitorigurashi Episode 2 Discussion FMmatron - Mar 11, 2022	22 replies	by OutOfGalaxy »» Feb 15, 3:06 AM
Poll: Kotarou wa Hitorigurashi Episode 1 Discussion FMmatron - Mar 10, 2022	29 replies	by OutOfGalaxy »» Feb 10, 9:53 PM
Poll: Kotarou wa Hitorigurashi Episode 10 Discussion ( 1 2 ) MarcusWongKS - Mar 11, 2022	76 replies	by OldHermit_ »» Feb 1, 9:16 AM

Kotarou wa Hitorigurashi

Alternative Titles

Information

Statistics

Available At

Resources

Synopsis

Background

Visit MALxJapan
MALxJapan -More than just anime-

Related Anime

Characters & Voice Actors

Satou, Kotarou

Karino, Shin

Akitomo, Mizuki

Tamaru, Isamu

Fukuno, Ippei

Ryouta

Takei, Sumire

Tonosaman

Kobayashi, Ayano

Takuya

Staff

Opening Theme

Ending Theme

Reviews

Interest Stacks

Recommendations

Recent News

Recent Forum Discussion

MoreTop Anime

MoreTop Airing Anime

MoreMost Popular Characters

Kotarou wa Hitorigurashi

Alternative Titles

Information

Statistics

Available At

Resources

Synopsis

Background

Visit MALxJapan MALxJapan -More than just anime-

Related Anime

Characters & Voice Actors

Staff

Opening Theme

Ending Theme

Reviews

Interest Stacks

Recommendations

Recent News

Recent Forum Discussion

MoreTop Anime

MoreTop Airing Anime

MoreMost Popular Characters

Visit MALxJapan
MALxJapan -More than just anime-