Kotaro Lives Alone (Japanese: コタローは1人暮らし, Hepburn: Kotarō wa Hitori Gurashi) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Mami Tsumura. It was serialized in Shogakukan's seinen manga magazine Big Comic Superior from March 2015 to June 2023, with its chapters collected in ten tankōbon volumes. A ten-episode television drama was broadcast on TV Asahi in 2021.
The eponymous 4-5-year-old protagonist who moves into a ramshackle apartment building and becomes the next-door neighbor of manga artist Shin Karino; he also enrolls himself into a local kindergarten. Forced to take care of himself like an adult, Kotaro is very independent for his age. He carries around a toy sword, and speaks like a samurai, mimicking his favorite cartoon Tonosaman. It is implied that Kotaro was neglected by his parents to the point of starvation. His mother abandoned him and his father, and later died from an unknown cause. Kotaro then left his abusive father and went to live at a foster facility. When his father found him (after seeing a picture of him online from the facility), Kotaro fled and moved into the Shimizu Apartment complex to hide from him. The residents of the Shimizu Apartment complex befriend Kotaro and come to care for him after realizing his situation. His father is actively looking for him despite Kotaro having a restraining order against him. There are implications that Kotaro was born from an unplanned pregnancy. He is financially supported by money he receives every week from a family lawyer who secretly knows about his family situation; Kotaro does not know that the money actually comes from his mother's life insurance, as he is unaware that his mother is dead.
Although it is shown he does suspect something about the money despite being told that it is from a benefactor, he has asked a few times where the money "really" comes from.
A lazy but kind manga artist who scrapes by. Upon meeting Kotaro, Shin takes it upon himself to look out for the boy and comes to care for him like a father.
A rather loud neighbor of Kotaro's. Isamu is divorced and not on speaking terms with his son, due to his ex-wife keeping him away. Because of this, he tries to be a father figure to Kotaro. It is not known what his job is, but because of how he acts and looks people tend to assume he is a low-level yakuza.
A neighbor of Kotaro's and a hostess at a local nightclub. While she puts on a brave face, especially in front of Kotaro, it is implied that Mizuki is in a domestic abuse relationship, as shown when she returned home one day with a blemish on the side of her face. Halfway near the end of the series, when Kotaro learns about this, he and the other tenants become concerned; when the situation worsens, Kotaro tells her to move out of the complex for her own safety.
A newer lawyer at the firm that handled the estate of Kotaro's deceased mother. Ayano regularly visits Kotaro to give him money from Mrs. Sato's life insurance. At the insistence of her boss, Ayano stays to play with him; she is the one of the few people who knows the truth about Kotaro's mother being deceased.
Aota (青田)
Voiced by: Soma Saito[8] (Japanese); David Errigo Jr. (English)
A private investigator hired by Kotaro's estranged father to find him and retrieve him. He moved into the building and built a relationship with the boy to ensure it was Kotaro. Despite the words of Shin and Isamu, Aota believed that Kotaro's father is the only one who should take care of him. However, a week after he moved in, Kotaro revealed he knew everything about Aota and Aota decided against filing the report, especially after revealing (through old scars on his upper body) that he too is a victim/survivor of child abuse.
One of the older kids at the foster facility that Kotaro was living at before Kotaro left due to his father finding out about his whereabouts; he and Kotaro have a special friendship as he shares his interests of photography with the young boy. He has a fondness for stargazing and even took Kotaro to go see a meteor shower with him. He is later shown working as a construction worker.
Written and illustrated by Mami Tsumura, Kotaro Lives Alone was serialized in Shogakukan's seinen manga magazine Big Comic Superior from March 13, 2015,[10] to June 9, 2023.[11][12] Shogakukan collected its chapters in ten individual tankōbon volumes, released from December 28, 2015,[13] to August 30, 2023.[14]
In September 2021, an original net animation (ONA) anime adaptation was announced. The series is animated by Liden Films and directed by Tomoe Makino, with story composition by Hiroshi Satо̄, character designs by Tomomi Kimura, and music composed by Yūya Mori.[4][8] It premiered worldwide on Netflix on March 10, 2022.[26]
Episodes
No.
Title
Original release date
1
"Episode 1"
March 10, 2022 (2022-03-10)
2
"Episode 2"
March 10, 2022 (2022-03-10)
3
"Episode 3"
March 10, 2022 (2022-03-10)
4
"Episode 4"
March 10, 2022 (2022-03-10)
5
"Episode 5"
March 10, 2022 (2022-03-10)
6
"Episode 6"
March 10, 2022 (2022-03-10)
7
"Episode 7"
March 10, 2022 (2022-03-10)
8
"Episode 8"
March 10, 2022 (2022-03-10)
9
"Episode 9"
March 10, 2022 (2022-03-10)
10
"Episode 10"
March 10, 2022 (2022-03-10)
Reception
By September 2021, the manga had over 1.4 million copies in circulation;[4] it had over 1.7 million copies in circulation by June 2022.[23] In 2018, Kotaro Lives Alone, alongside La La La, won the Electronic Manga Award in the Boys' Category.[27]
