Kotaro Lives Alone

Alternate Titles

コタローは1人暮らし
Kotaro wa Hitorigurashi

Synopsis

Kotaro Sato is a precocious 4-year-old boy who for some reason lives by himself at the apartment complex Springwater Apartments. Though he has no business living alone at such a young age, he is able to handle the ins and outs of daily life, from shopping, to cleaning and cooking, and though childlike, he is somehow more mature and wise than many of the adults living around him!

Background

Kotaro Lives Alone began as a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Mami Tsumura that has been serialized in Shogakukan's Big Comic Superior seinen manga magazine since March 2015. As of February 2022, nine collected tankobon volumes have been published under the Big Comics imprint. The manga won an Electronic Manga Award in 2018 and surpassed 1.4 million copies in print in September 2021.

A live-action TV drama adaptation was broadcast on TV Asahi from April to June 2021 and aired during the “Oshidora Saturday” timeslot. It starred Eito Kawahara as Kotaro Sato and You Yokoyama as Shin Karino. Unlike the original series, the TV drama depicted Shin as the main character and reconstructed the story to portray Kotaro’s unusual living arrangement from Shin’s perspective. The series spanned 10 episodes.

An original net animation (ONA) adaptation was announced in September 2021. It is being animated by LIDEN FILMS and features Tomoe Makino as director, with Yu Sato handling series composition, Tomomi Kimura handling character designs, and Yuya Mori composing the music. The anime’s opening theme song is “Hoshi no Runway” by KOCHO, and the ending theme song is “Chiisana Te no Hira” by kotringo. The anime will debut worldwide on Netflix on March 10, 2022.

Characters

Kotaro Satо (Voiced by: Rie Kugimiya)
Kotaro is a 4-year-old boy living in apartment #203 at the Springwater Apartments. He lives alone and does all his own cleaning, laundry, and cooking. He loves the anime Tonosaman and imitates it by speaking like his favorite characters.

Shin Karino (Voiced by: Toshiki Masuda)
Shin is 31-year-old unknown manga artist living in apartment #202 at Springwater Apartments. He worries about Kotaro, who lives alone, and likes to take him to the bathhouse and accompany him to his kindergarten.

Isamu Tamaru (Voiced by: Junichi Suwabe)
Isamu lives in apartment #102 at Springwater Apartments. He has a stern appearance but loves kids and adores Kotaro.

Mizuki Akitomo (Voiced by: Saori Hayami)
Mizuki lives in apartment #201 at Springwater Apartments. She is an older sister type who is always cheerful and often makes tea for Kotaro. She works as a hostess at CLUB DreaM.

Ayano Kobayashi (Voiced by: Yumiri Hanamori)
Ayano is a rookie lawyer at Suzuno Law Office. On her boss’ orders, she delivers living expenses to Kotaro every week.

Ryota (Voiced by: Kaito Ishikawa)

Takuya (Voiced by: Minami Shinoda)

Tonosan (Voiced by: Rie Kugimiya)

Aota (Voiced by: Soma Saito)

Toko Futaba (Voiced by: Yuka Morishima)

Music

• Opening Theme Song: “Hoshi no Runway” by KOCHO
• Ending Theme Song: “Chiisana Te no Hira” by kotringo

• Anime Site (Japanese)
• Twitter (Japanese)

• Original Creator: Mami Tsumura
• Director: Tomoe Makino
• Series Composition: Yu Sato
• Character Design: Tomomi Kimura
• Prop Design: Takuya Nishimichi
• Art Setting: Tomoyuki Aoki, Yukie Inose
• Art Director: Yukihiro Saito
• Color Design: Ikira Kyojo, Asami Kitsukawa
• Director of Photography: Mami Takamura
• Editing: Mai Hasegawa
• Music: Yuya Mori
• Music Production: FAIR WIND music
• Sound Director: Ryo Tanaka
• Sound Effects: Akiko Muto (Soundbox)
• Recording: P’s Studio
• Animation Production: LIDEN FILMS