‘Old Enough!’: Netflix’s not-so hidden gem

Doing errands may be mundane for us grown-ups, but for kids in Japan, their first one is a big deal worthy of a reality TV series that has been running for decades now.

Imagine a two-year-old waddling alone on a sidewalk to buy ingredients from a store about a kilometer away from home. The boy carries a flag for crossing the street and a charm for safety. After arriving at the store, it takes a moment for him to remember what he was supposed to buy. He stares on with a puzzled look.

After a few moments, or as the narrator puts it, when the “circuits linked”, he rushes into the store to get what he needs. In a voice as loud as he could muster, the kid asks a store clerk about items he couldn’t find. He then returns home safely and enjoys the fruit of his labor, praised by his parents.

Such is the usual flow of an episode of ‘Old Enough!’, a Japanese TV series that was recently made available on Netflix. The original title is Hajimete no Otsukai, which literally translates to “My First Errand.” While the first episode described above sets up the structure neatly, expect it to be shattered in the succeeding ones. One Twitter user succinctly described a particular set of episodes that left us in tatters.

Our personal favorite was mentioned in that tweet, which features Sota running an errand for his baby sister. He’s to go down a hill, drop by a fish store for sashimi, buy milk and apples and climb back up the same hill. It didn’t take long for things to go awry as the rope of the basket carrying the fish his dad caught snapped moments after he stepped out of the house. He was about to give up and return home when he realized there was a cat nearby. Without giving away too much, he would later on face a literal uphill battle involving apples and gravity.

The show, which airs twice annually in Japan since the 1990s as a three-hour program, has been handpicked and cut up into bite-sized episodes on Netflix. The shortest runs for seven minutes while the longest clocks up to 21 minutes. And while the show hasn’t gained much mainstream traction in the Philippines, it ranked no. 4 in the Kids category as of April 21 and garnered international attention (even debate, but more on that later). Fans all over Twitter can’t help but gush over the wholesome, heartwarming program.

No kidding around

It’s totally normal and expected, really, for some adults with different cultures, backgrounds and upbringing to be shocked at the level of independence the parents allowed their kids on the show. Tokyo-based news blog Sora News 24, however, explained that it’s typical to see young children walking to school or taking public transport without adult supervision “because adults foster independence and a sense of responsibility in children from a very young age.”

“In Japanese culture, independence doesn’t mean arguing with others or expressing oneself. It means adapting yourself to the group while managing daily tasks, such as cooking, doing errands and greeting others,” Toshiyuki Shiomi, an expert on child development and a professor emeritus at Shiraume Gakuen University in Tokyo, told the New York Times.

It also reflects the importance of urban planning in making streets safe for children. Hironori Kato, a professor of transportation planning also at the University of Tokyo, told Slate that drivers in Japan are taught to yield to pedestrians, speed limits are low and neighborhoods have small blocks with lots of intersections.

While other countries may need to catch up to Japan’s urban planning, parents in different countries already delegate responsibilities to their children at a young age. Who here hasn’t been asked to buy suka sa tindahan? We didn’t have cameras following us then, but we made sure we did a good job.

In another New York Times piece, Dan Kois, who wrote a book about traveling the world with his children, said, “Our experience in most of the places we lived in the course of that year, children, especially middle-grade children, were given enormous amounts of freedom that were totally incomprehensible” to the average American.

The typical Japanese over-the-top and animated voice-over narration may give viewers a sense of disbelief that these kids are ever in harm’s way. And that’s how it actually is. Sora News 24 clarified that the show’s production takes months of preparation, including inspection of routes and making sure no suspicious persons are reported in the area. There is also coordination with local authorities, residents are notified in advance “so they don’t go out of their way to help the child as they normally would” and production staff disguise themselves as normal passersby, utility personnel, and even in-store shoppers so they can immediately intervene if necessary.

So if ever you find yourself at odds on what to watch on Netflix, give this not-so hidden feel-good gem a try. It may just bring back some nostalgic memories, remind us of childlike innocence and deliver wholesome thrills and tears we didn’t know we needed.

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