I've just started

do you still need spoilers?

Yes please

well . LOT of spoilers ahead. to start with.

it is a tragic depressing story disguised as slice of life because throughout the story he develops a very veryyy sweet bond with his Neighbors. especially one neighbor kinda ends up becoming his dad / uncle / elder brother figure.


also he's a stoic (only way I can think to describe) disciplined kid who eventually learns to rely on his Neighbors since kids should be allowed to be kids :"}

let's talk about why the title is "kotaro lives alone" . and mind you he's like 5-6 years old.
and that's because...

because he lives alone :(


why you might ask ?


well his mother is dead (he doesn't know that yet, he thinks she's alive)
and
his father is abusive.

the anime is sad because we readers/ watchers slowly realize exactly why he's alone via the little things he does.


for example : when he moves into this new apartment where he lives alone , he gifts all his Neighbors premium tissue papers (or was it toilet papers well smthg paper) and you're left wondering his obsession with premium tissue papers.
and later we find out that apparently some people (some kids) who live alone at home and stay without food for long periods of time, end up eating tissue papers. hence the premium tissue papers.


another example. he thinks his mom is busy somewhere but still manages to send him money every month , hence he concludes that she cares for him. ... in reality it's the law company sending life insurance money to him every month (╥﹏╥)




another example. and ik at this point I'm just giving spoilers and spoilers.

this one time he hosts a little museum tour for his neighbours inside his apartment. and that tour displays all the things that are precious to him. and it's somewhat sweet at first cause there's some things that his neighbours gifted to him , for example a bandage which had his favorite character drawn on it. but
then we reach a "glove". and one of the Neighbors find out it's his "mother's glove" and she becomes angry and asks little kotaro to throw the glove away.


which makes you wonder why this female neighbour , why she's asking him to throw away the glove , considering it was inside his museum of precious things so obv it's important to him.

turns out from the girl's past experience, some mothers feel a slight disgust when touching their own kids for any reason. like they can't do anything without gloves. example can't comb the kids hairs without wearing gloves, can't help them change clothes without gloves. and so on. so since this Neighbors is now grown up she knows how fucked up that is and has bitter feelings towards the glove BUT for kotaro it's a way his mother could should love to him , he doesn't associate the glove with bad feelings


the whole story is a series of such small things. eventually he builds up good connections too. makes good friends. relies on healthy adults (finally). etc etc. but the entire backstory+ reason why his personality is so weirdly stoic adult like at such a young age is just tooo fucking tragic.

Woah... thanks for all of that information. I have started watching so I will continue. I have a 5 year old. I can't even imagine her living alone... how is it allowed though? Like social services, child protective services? I'm so glad his neighbours help him and protect him.