TV Asahi’s live-action Kotaro Lives Alone series is getting a sequel.
As detailed on Anime News Network, the network’s official Twitter page announced the upcoming series with a promotional image featuring Eito Kawahara and You Yokoyama, returning to reprise their respective roles as Kotaro Sato and Shin Karino. Picking up where the first season left off, the sequel will revolve around the titular character’s adventures as he enters elementary school. Starting this April, the show will air on TV Asahi’s “Oshi Drama Saturday” programming block. TELASA will also stream the episodes as they come out in Japan.
Based on Mami Tsumura’s manga of the same name, the first live-action Kotaro Lives Alone series originally aired in 2021, predating Liden Films’ (Cells at Work! Code Black) Kotaro Lives Alone anime series by almost a full year. Both series follow the daily misadventures of Kotaro Sato, a five-year-old boy who moves by himself into a dilapidated apartment building. He later befriends Shin Karino, a struggling manga artist who helps his strange new neighbor adjust to life in the complex.
Cast & Crew Behind Kotaro Lives Alone’s Live-Action
Kazuki Tobita (My Cuteness Is about to Expire 2022) and Naomi Kinoshita (live-action Maru Maru Chibi Maruko-chan) are directing the Kotaro Lives Alone sequel. Rin Etou (live-action Nodame Cantabile) is writing the script. Series star Eito Kawahara is known for his roles in Toto Nechan and Mirai e no 10 Count. He also had a minor voice acting role as Lanan from Maho Films’ I’m Standing On a Million Lives. Kawahara’s co-star, You Yokoyama, is a member of the popular Japanese boy band Kanjani Eight, which will be performing the show’s theme song. Daisuke Shinoda (Blue Reflection Ray) is composing the series’ music.
Netflix’s popular anime adaptation was created by an entirely different team, with Tomoe Makino as Director and Yu Sato as Series Composition writer. Rie Kugimiya (Fairy Tail) and Toshiki Masuda (My Hero Academia) starred as Kotaro and Shin, respectively. Supporting cast included Junichi Suwabe (Fate/Stay Night) as Isamu Tamaru, Saori Hayami (Is It Wrong To Try To Pick Up Girls In a Dungeon?) as Mizuki Akitomo, and Yumiri Hanamori (Kaguya-Sama: Love Is War) as Ayano Kobayashi.
Tsumura’s Kotaro Lives Alone was serialized in Shogakukan’s seinen magazine, Big Comic Superior starting in March 2015. The series went on to become a modest success, with 1.7 million copies in circulation as of June 2022. In 2018, the series also won the Electronic Manga Award in the Boy’s Category.
Source: Twitter, via Anime News Network
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