Anime Review: Kotaro Lives Alone

Overall: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Characters: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ | Writing: ⭐⭐⭐ | World Building: N/A | Story: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ | Fan Service: 🙂

Content Watched: S1

Summary:

Due to some circumstances, four-year-old Kotaro Sato comes to live by himself in Shimizu Apartments. He makes his daily shopping trips alone with a toy sword strapped to his side. Both grown-up and childish at the same time, Kotaro starts to affect the people around him with his wise ways. This is the story of a four-year-old boy who is determined to live strong until the day he can live with his parents.

Review:

This show has a slow start. It’s a pretty painful art style, but begrudgingly nostalgic for those of us who read manga or watched anime in the late 90s/00s. After the first episode or so, there really doesn’t feel like a compelling reason to continue on. It’s slice-of-life with fairly lackluster characters - they’re all losers.

And that’s where the magic is.

As an adult it gets increasingly difficult to change - at least for most of us. And you get stuck into places so much easier. You career, your relationship, where you live. It feels like it takes a miracle or epiphany to believe again and to believe. In yourself and in something bigger or better or different.

That’s Kotaro. His strange kid-adult duality puts a mirror up to each adult in his life and breaks them out of normative reality long enough to ask the hard question if they want to be something else. And their need to protect and care for Kotaro - which introduces a lot of friction into their status quo - makes it possible. Being happy means opening yourself up to sadness, and that’s scary. By bringing this community together, they each are able to open themselves up to vulnerability in their own way.

On Kotaro’s end of things, it’s a stark reminder of how capable and resilient children can be, and why we hope they never have to be. Especially how the adultification of a child can make them resistive to the change they need. It’s painful to not feel needed or wanted by a child. Fighting your way into their life in a way that is healthy for everyone takes a lot of energy and iteration. Kotaro may drive this show, but his changes are just as inspiring as the apartment residents.

This show is a needed reminder of just how resilient, for better or worse, children are and how fragile, but capable of redemption adults are.