Binchou-tan

びんちょうタン

Binchou-tan, the anime's protagonist, is a young girl living alone in an old house far from town. True to her name, she frequently wears a piece of charcoal on her head. Each episode portrays a day in Binchou-tan's life as she works to purchase food and essentials.
She is presumed to be an orphan due to her solitary living situation, her refusal to answer shopkeepers' questions about her mother, and her habit of greeting and bidding farewell to herself while traveling. She apparently also has the ability to alter her body size. While normally the size of a small child, she can sometimes shrink, for example, to fit inside a shoe or ride on a duck's back.
She also cherishes clothing made by her grandmother, which serves as a plot point in one episode. Binchou-tan is initially very lonely. Her birthday is May 07.