Kotarou wa Hitorigurashi

*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.

"Funny how?"
Despite the synopsis of the show saying that it is an "apartment comedy with laughs and tears," it really isn't funny. It doesn't even try to be. What exactly would even make you laugh in this show? Even the tags don't have comedy in it.
I guess the show is definitely Seinen, though. It's about a 4 year old kid that acts as the local therapist. The basic idea is that Satou, the main character, is a very smart, mature child for his age, yet still retains some of his childish demeanors. He can take care of himself and make food for himself, yet also ... wants to be praised. and loves cartoons. The lens of a child that has gone through abuse and has matured, yet also still maintains a child-like perspective is the selling point of this show. The main cast of characters are apartment tenants that have some sort of mental problems or issues, and Satou offers the advice that only a child could say, especially a mind like Satou's. It offers a view into how the person is dealing with life, but also deepens the bond between the tenant and Satou, which results in them wanting to take care of him, like guardians. They in turn, also struggle to better themselves in light of their relationship with Satou.
Uh, it's not that good. Characters are pretty much crappy archetypes and not much really happens. I guess if you somehow got attached to Satou and the other apartment tenants, you would like the show, but how is that possible? They spew out their life story and problems, or really not-so-subtle hints about their lives. How about Satou? Is the gap between his mature side and childish side enough to make him endearing? Still, not really. The show tries to characterize a lot of people, yet manages to not even make Satou that interesting. Also, call me crazy, but introducing a setting straight from a comedy-a four year old kid living by himself in an apartment- and trying to make coming of age and "mental healing" the main aspect of the show is really pushing it.
The show had a shot of making Satou actually a good character, but it botches it by having the focus not entirely on him. The story is told in third person rather than first person. Of course, first person objective narration would have also worked, not knowing Satou's thoughts still. However, regardless, rather than observe Satou and his daily happenings with a slower pace, you're instead having events involved with him usually getting rushed, and as a result, no impact. A good example was when he tripped and fell, and had to put on band-aids and disinfectant. A trying experience, it seemed, yet the show doesn't even bother showing it, and decides to just have Satou say that it was really difficult of him to apply it since he was scared.
Show, don't tell. Yet, this show only tells. The characters spew out their life stories, and much of Satou's feelings is also just told without you caring that much.
Props to Netflix bringing a show that isn't horribly animated, but still, not a great show.

When it comes to heavy topics like abuse and neglect anime sadly drops the ball because many hack writers know if you make the watcher cry they will think the anime is great so we end up with awfully written misery porn stuffed full of cheap emotional manipulation that leaves you empty and emotionally abused after watching them. a prime example is a silent voice and to an extinct to your eternity. kotaru lives alone fairs better despite it testing your sense of disbelief with child services letting a 5 years old child live on his own ... but what I like the most about the anime is how it shows how abuse victims behave due to their trauma without the show becoming needlessly dark and depressing aka the show dose does not miss use the abuse theme or ridicule it like your lie an April did. overall I left the show with more understanding of how children process trauma instead of crying my eyes out over bullshit drama. but it is not enough to grant it anything above a 6 I like the effort but there is a lot of great psychological anime out there that deals with similar issues like welcome to the NHK.

Let's get this started by saying if it wasn't for the Mizuki episode this would've rated much higher. Talking to my friends I know I'm not alone here, but the message sent and the way it was handled was dreadful.

Kotaro Lives Alone, somewhat bizarrely, doesn't really focus on Kotaro for much of it's runtime. It seems to aim to be about victims of unfortunate circumstances or abuse and healing (it's not an Iyashikei though as Kotaro goes through zero character growth, among other reasons). The protagonist is, largely, the Mangaka next door and this acts as a strength as however weird and mature Kotaro ... is, to non-parents like me he quickly becomes someone you want to drown due to his weirdly inflexible, stubborn and occasionally rude nature. Know-it-alls do get to me, though. and the fact he's supposed to be 4 is a god damn joke, such a bizarre choice.

This isn't a relaxing watch as the subject matter is often heavy and towards the end of the series it deals with 2-3 major societal issues an episode, which is frankly exhausting and deeply depressing. It's especially exhausting when the message we're given us 'run away from your problems' or 'abuse is, partially, the victims fault and going to the Police is useless'. The worst for me is the faint tone of toxic masculinity that runs under the entire show, that men need to me strong in every way, men don't cry, etc. I may jut be less forgiving than most about these and I have to reiterate that the fact this show tries to deal with the subjects it does is incredible, it takes true courage to try and I'll always take that anime over another half-baked Isekai moneyspinner.

For all my complaining the show has a ton of heart and seems to want to focus on a deep message, which is to it's absolute credit. It's also quite funny when it wants to be and the Mangaka's story arc is really well told, showing and not telling among other strengths. In fact most of the male adults get good story arcs. Kotaro gets no growth and as I say, Mizuki's storyline is wrapped up in 10 minutes extremely poorly with a dangerous message.

Lastly, while I'm sure it works for some the art style, particularly the way every kid looks like a bobblehead doll, is one I found pretty dreadful and didn't get easier to live with.

Honestly, should you watch it? If you've been the victim of abuse I'd suggest not, you'll probably only feel unnecessarily guilty when Kotaro makes his opinions known and no adult ever disagrees. If you've lead a pretty sheltered life I do recommend it though, I don't think any of these issues are unheard of in modern society and bringing light to them is always good.

Despite the heavy themes, this is a very safe anime. It checks most of the boxes on a basic narrative level, but not in any outstanding way. It's your typical apartment comedy setup: central character and neighbors of different backgrounds have fun and learn lessons from their interactions, full of vignettes interspersed with little arcs focusing on Kotarou or one of his neighbors learning some kind of lesson, the kind that early South Park would parody with "you know, I learned something today."

It's very evident within the first episode that this is meant to be a "healing" anime, something one might ... turn on and have in the background while they decompress. It does not have any deep themes, messages, drama, humor, or anything really. Yes, it does introduce many of those things but has such a shallow exploration that trying to engage with it will only leave you disappointed and unfulfilled. Everything is portrayed so lightly, despite many, many depictions of abuse (to an almost comical degree in the latter half with how frequent it is.) There is not a single scene that could be described as "intense." You will never get some "Whiplash"-esque seen of yelling and screaming and fear and anxiety. It will show only the surface of the various forms of abuse, and things will always work out in the end, to an almost delusional degree. That is what I mean by safe. There's no tension to any of the dramatic story beats because there isn't meant to be. The show skirts around showing the true face of abuse and the ugly reality that things don't always end in sparkles and sunshine. It's a Lifetime movie in ONA form.

Overall most of the limp messages the show promotes are agreeable, there's not often an issue to take with what it's preaching, but it does greatly rely on convenience and cheap emotional manipulation to convey them. There is, however, one story arc that will make your brow furrow for not only how it diminishes the character involved, but for its takehome message as well, calling it controversial, to say the least. Every story has a message and at times it can feel preachy, especially with the strawmen and trite conveniences that make it go in the way it needs to, but they are mostly unobjectionable takes which makes it less so. The perspectives it gives regarding the various forms of mistreatment and abuse it illustrates are mostly self-evident to anyone with a brain, taking away much of the value of the stories in the first place, because without the message, the show does not really have anything else to it other than again, the cheap feel-good calming atmosphere.

I called this a comedy, but it really isn't. It does have many attempts at humor. However, these mostly boil down to kids say the darnedest things lines, the oddness/quirkiness of the characters, and very rarely, actual intentional jokes/humor, although how effective it is, that's debatable. Kobayashi, a lawyer that interacts with Kotarou for plot reasons, is the only character that is consistently portrayed humorously, which is a tad dissonant from the rest of the rather grounded characters.

This show isn't funny enough to be a comedy, nor is it dramatic enough to be a drama. Cheap and safe is very much the name of the game here. It's something that any audience can watch, but only people that don't really consume media will get anything out of. It's something you can show Grandma. But for me, it was a very middling experience, one I will surely forget, and would not recommend to anyone wanting substance.