Orphans living on their own

[the DragonBard]

Probably been talked about before, but there are a number of anime and manga where at least one character is an orphan, usually living completely on their own, even though they are still relatively young with seemingly no adult supervision. We have Makoto Kino, Chitose Hitose (from Happy Lesson), Orihime Inoue, Naruto Uzumaki, Sasuke Uchiha, there are probably others.

Honestly, what's going on?

 

[daniel_gudman]

Well, it's more of a TV thing than a Japanese or an anime thing. Not having parents around makes the main characters conveniently independent.

 

[Lord Raa]

The guy from Happy Lesion, Cheetos, or whatever he's called has adult supervision - he's living with half a dozen teachers.

 

[grant]

There was a time when losing your parents was the worst thing that could happen in media, now its rape. In anime it probably stems partly from the power of the family-unit and from the fact that it conveniently explains away any oddities of the kid going off for weeks without any supervision (Ghost Hunt really messed up there). It also can be a way to prove their self-sufficiency i.e. Fruits Basket.