Kotarou wa Hitorigurashi

Kotaro Lives Alone follows Shin Karino, a manga author whose quiet, isolated routine is disrupted when four-year-old Kotarou Satou moves into the apartment next door and greets him with a box of tissues. Kotarou is unsettling in the most ordinary way: he speaks with unusual formality, lives entirely on his own, and shows no sign that parents or relatives are watching over him. Even so, he carries himself with a calm that makes solitude seem less like a hardship than a fact of daily life. At first, Karino cannot help worrying about the boy. He trails Kotarou to the bathhouse and keeps a wary eye on him whenever something seems off, uncertain whether the child is simply eccentric or in real danger. But the more time he spends observing Kotarou, the more he realizes the boy is resilient and far more used to independence than anyone his age should be. As Karino and the other residents of the apartment complex gradually let Kotarou into their lives, the building becomes an unlikely home where small gestures of kindness matter. In turn, Kotarou begins to find something close to a family among his unusual neighbors.