People who have been following my coverage of Re:Zero Season 3 and Kusuriya no Hitorigoto Season 2 know that I love a story with a strong mystery element, not just a story that happens to have mysteries like in those episodic mystery anime, so I guess it’s not a surprise that I’d pick up Kowloon Generic Romance given it’s the mystery heavyweight of the season that had a brilliant premiere with excellent character writing, a great setting (in Kowloon Walled City), and an interesting premise.
The episode starts with Reiko waking up and getting out of bed, and I like her character design already. It’s a neat decision to anime the dust as sparkly particles, and as she puts on her glasses, her vision notably doesn’t seem to improve at all, which is backed up by her reaction. As she’s preparing breakfast, a TV commercial advertises Hebinuma Pharmaceutical’s new eyedrops that clear your vision up quickly, and it’s obvious that’s of interest to her. She apparently really loves watermelons and smoking while eating those watermelons. Afterwards, she saves some watermelon for later and dresses in a Chinese-style outfit that would be typical of Hong Kong at the time. After we see her leave her apartment, we see a lot of Traditional Chinese characters on the shops and the mailboxes, showing that it’s definitely Hong Kong since China uses Simplified Chinese. The only other place it could be would be Taiwan, but we know for a fact that the setting is Hong Kong with people in Hong Kong speaking Cantonese while those in Taiwan speaking Mandarin. A short girl, or possibly a woman since she’s opening up a shop, enthusiastically greets Reiko, and Reiko merely waves at her, possibly ’cause she’s short on time. Then she passes by a storefront with some TVs out front that tell about Generic Terra apparently being capable of backing up all the memories of all human beings, making eternal youth and even immortality a reality, a government-funded project that’s drawing attention from even foreign nations, calling it the dream of humanity, and I know it means “dream” since I have exposure to someone who knows Japanese who indicated that “roman” can mean “romance” but more often means “dream” in the sense of something generally seen as impossible. The TV personalities remark about the Generic Terra project continuing with a focus on safety, which isn’t a surprise since it needs to be safely developed for there to be public buy-in. They also talk about the mascot of Generic Terra, Gene Tera, that is really popular, probably to woo people into thinking the project is totally safe since it has a cute mascot. Rumour has it the project is run by Hebinuma Pharmaceutical, the same company with the eyedrops that were advertised. Reiko than walked forward and stopped for a moment ’cause she had trouble seeing, showing there will be more to this plotline. Interestingly, they pan to a mysterious object in the sky.
Reiko then arrives at Wong Loi Realty Company, her place of work, where her boss tells her to clock in soon since she’s later than usual or else she’ll be late like her colleague, which is no surprise given she has checked her vision twice so far and also seemed to be in a hurry when she merely waved at her friend. Said colleague, Kudo, pushes her time card out of the way and clocks in just in the nick of time, which is inconsiderate of him to do. After handing Kudo a work order, Reiko pesters him until he agrees to buy her lunch, and I like a woman who knows her worth, so I’m glad she didn’t accept being treated poorly by him. Their boss then speaks to Kudo as if they’re continuing a conversation they had before in that the Second Kowloon isn’t really a comfortable place to live, yet the number of residents doesn’t decline, suggesting that they perhaps have nowhere else to go. Kudo then replies that he loves Kowloon as is though while Reiko is having vision problems again. This is very interesting ’cause the demolition of Kowloon Walled City had concluded in 1994. There was no Second Kowloon on Earth, and it seems this is a difference in this setting compared to our lived reality.
Reiko then took Kudo to a new Hawaiian cafe, and Kudo just brushes it off and forces Reiko to go to their usual lunch spot. Just as he’s about to dig in, Reiko glares at him, saying she wanted to eat at the other place, and Kudo just dismisses her, asking her if she doesn’t feel the rightness in the plump boiled dumpling in golden broth, and as if in cue, Reiko has vision problems yet again. She then uses Hebinuma Pharmaceutical’s eye drops, which exasperates Kudo as he doesn’t trust the new owner, the son of the previous owner and director of Hebinuma Beauty Centre. He then says that all you need for eye strain is to massage some pressure points. After he indicates his intent to press them, Reiko says he’ll just use brute strength and even though they’re both hominids, she doesn’t want to be lumped in with a gorilla like him, which is music to my ears as I prefer a strong woman who knows how she wants to be treated. The arrival of their next dish then diffuses the tension, and Reiko then mentions that Unit 205 in Sai Joeng Tower has had no tenant for six months now. Kudo replies that it gets the afternoon sun on full blast with no air conditioning, so only a weirdo would like to live there considering the interior’s pretty old as well. He threw it out there that if the walls were painted fresh it might look better. Reiko then throws out there that he fixed the door of an apartment on Naam Caang Street, and Kudo says that everything is old in Kowloon and that the landlords would be unhappy if they called the maintenance guy over every single flaw. He then earnestly showed that he wants the tenants to be comfortable, which is showing off his good side considering how he’s usually being inconsiderate of Reiko. Reiko then asks if he wants to go for tea since they still have time, highlighting only if he wants to, showing she fancies him to an extent, and he tells her to see an optometrist since she has the wrong prescription.
Reiko is apparently pretty impressionable judging by the animators showing her eyes being visibly affected indicating that she took Kudo’s words to heart, and after a trip to the optometrist, her boss is shocked that she now has twenty-twenty vision and says that she looks better without glasses, urging Kudo to chime in, and he replies that he prefers her with glasses. Up on the rooftop, Kudo says that they’ll be punished for building things like that object in the sky that was shown earlier. Reiko asks if he’s against Generic Terra, and he’s deadset against it as they’re basically creating a fake Earth with their tax money. After asking for a light, Reiko wonders how long the place she wanted to eat at will stay open as new stores close down really quickly in Kowloon. Kudo remarks that Kowloon is meant to be a nostalgic place and that a flickering streetlight, a mold back alley, and noisy neighbours are all meant to make you feel nostalgia with that feeling of nostalgia being the same as being in love. He says it’s the same as for everyone here, this nostalgia Kowloon, and that’s why Kowloon shouldn’t change as they don’t need anything new. Reiko replies that she doesn’t feel nostalgia with this place but that she does feel a sense of nostalgia with him, which Kudo reacts strongly to, leading to him getting really close to her in a sensual moment and pointing out her crow’s feet.
The next day, Reiko arrives with a pair of fake glasses, leading to Kudo teasing her about hiding her crow’s feet, saying she’s fighting a losing battle as a thirty-two-year-old, which is again, quite inconsiderate. She then notices that one the cuffs of his shirt is dirty, and he says it’s a quirk of his to touch the number eight, and he can’t help touching the eights he sees on walls as he gets around Kowloon. At night, Kudo then asks how much work Reiko still has, and she thinks she’ll keep going a bit longer, but then he turns off the lights and ropes her into having dinner with him. Kudo takes Reiko on a tour to show her what makes Kowloon Kowloon. They look like they’re having fun, and then after Reiko says that she can’t eat any more, Kudo brings her to the Goldfish Teahouse. The waiter recognizes him and says it’s been a long time with Reiko wondering if Kudo’s a regular here, which is again her showing some interest in him like when she asked him if he wanted to go for tea earlier in the episode. The waiter then brought them the two iced coffees they asked for while also giving Reiko some watermelon on the house, saying that they’re delicious this year. When Kudo brings up what she said earlier about not being able to eat more, Reiko merely replies what watermelons are mostly water, so they’re practically a drink, which he reacts well to, and she thinks she felt something nostalgic again. She then tells him it tastes good to smoke after eating some watermelon. Kudo then says he remembered someone who said that exact thing, and he says he likes a quirk like that as finding familiar quirks can make you happy as it helps you remember the person with that quirk. As they leave, the waiter says he’s happy that Kudo brought his girlfriend again, and before she can correct him, Kudo tells her to hurry up. When they’re headed back, Reiko innocently puts it out there that he needs to correct him as it’d be awkward if he goes back there with his real girlfriend, and he just dismisses her concern. Reiko then notices the strange object in the sky again with some eerie music playing, and Kudo has a bag of water with a goldfish in it, calling it a souvenir from today, suggesting that she keep it at her place. Back at her apartment, Reiko is visibly bothered by Kudo’s remark about it helping him remember the person with that quirk.
After a shot of the object in the sky, we hear an announcement that a photochemical smog warning as been issued as well as a heat and humidity advisory, and we see on Reiko’s agenda is the wall repainting Kudo had suggested could make a difference. The announcement indicates that people should refrain from outdoor activities and be cautious of indoor heat stroke. Reiko works VERY hard to paint the walls and very nearly passed out before Kudo caught her with his arm in a scene with a lot of sexual tension what she was wearing and her feverish state. Reiko answers Kudo after he asked her that the reason she had an urge to repaint the walls of this apartment was that she wants the tenant to be comfortable, and this really gets a happy reaction out of him since she was recalling something he said to her. As she watches him complete the rest of the repainting, she notes that she is without a doubt in love with him, which is no surprise to anyone who has been paying attention.
After they finished the repainting, Reiko searches for the teahouse that they had gone to together but to no avail. She then arrives back to her workplace to find Kudo sleeping. When he doesn’t respond to her calls to him to wake up, she thinks of their boss and starts calling him Kudo-kun since he uses the kun honorific for the both of them. Kudo actually visibly reacts to this and wakes up, and while half-asleep, he pulls her in for a kiss, or a make-out session to be more accurate, and when she starts attempting to pull away a few times, he gets the picture that Reiko is not who he thought she was and apologizes, indicating he mistook her for someone else. At 5 PM, Kudo asks Reiko what she had for lunch, indicating he skipped lunch, and he says he’ll have what she had for dinner, suggesting that she clock out as if nothing had happened between them. Reiko is hung over it, but the same doesn’t go for him, which makes her feel silly. Some of his files then slipped out of his drawer, leading to her spotting a photo of Kudo with someone else, and her heart races as she musters up the courage to pick it out of the drawer as she wants to know who it is that has the same quirk as her, and as a huge shock, she sees that it’s someone who looks exactly like her. While depressed, she finally comes across the Goldfish Teahouse again and asks for an iced coffee, thinking she couldn’t find the place when she was actually looking for it. She then takes the photo out, and the waiter remarks that they sure had fun that day. When Reiko questions if she knows the photo, he says that it’s a photo he took right there at the teahouse to celebrate her engagement with Kudo. Reiko indicated she didn’t understand what he said, and then it flashed back to the teahouse in disarray and heavily damaged, which appears to be the objective past before this current Second Kowloon existed.
The episode ends with Reiko thinking who in the world was it that Kudo kissed, and that was a brilliant episode with excellent character writing. I liked the contrast between Reiko wanting to try new things while Kudo was in it for the nostalgia and actively avoiding change. Sometimes tells me by the end of the story that Kudo will have to acknowledge that change isn’t bad. I also loved that Reiko didn’t put up with being treated poorly as there are a lot of poorly written romance stories where the female characters are just props meant to satisfy the main character, which is often seen in isekai harem stories, and I’m satisfied with her being depicted as a strong woman. I’m really interested in seeing where the story goes with Reiko not having memories of being engaged to Kudo.
At the start of Episode 2, Reiko is still looking depressed and thinking back to the waiter talking about the photo being a celebration of her engagement to Kudo. Reiko then gets a call from Xaiohei, whose voice matches that of the short girl/woman who greeted her in the first episode. With a really noisy sound in the background, Xaiohei says that her neighbour has been really noise at night and that she can’t take it, leading to Reiko confirm that Xiaohei’s still at Naam Caang Street, saying she’ll look into it, and the significance of this isn’t lost to me as Kudo spoke as if he lived at an apartment on Naam Caang Street when Reiko previously brought it up with Kudo fixing a door there being her inspiration for repainting a unit at her apartment.
Reiko, after arriving to the door of the unit in question, rings the buzzer, and a whole bunch of plushies of the Generic Terra mascot, Gene Tera, rush out as a blonde woman we eventually learn to be Yaomay slowly works her way out to greet Reiko, shocking her in the process. After inviting Reiko in and having her take a seat, Yaomay says she has to make fifty more plushies of the mascot before taking note of Reiko not looking well. Reiko notes how out of place it is to discuss this with someone she just met, but she pulls out the photo of her engagement and reveals that the woman in the photo is not her, much to Yaomay’s surprise, since she and Kudo don’t have that sort of relationship, and that they never actually took the photo together. Reiko then reveals that she has no memories of her past, not just of the day that photo was taken, something she didn’t even notice until today, having never thought about it before this point since Kudo never once mentioned it, leading to Yaomay revealing that there are other people without a past and that she’s one of them, so she believes Reiko since she straight up told her at the beginning that it wasn’t her. Yaomay apparently had cosmetic surgery done on her entire body to throw away her entire past so that only she could decide who is and isn’t her, showing why Reiko should trust that she believes her story. Yaomay then shares a tart with her, which is the first thing she ate after her plastic surgery, calling it a birthday cake for her new self. She is happy to serve the tart to Reiko since today was the day of Reiko discovering herself.
Back at the realty firm, Kudo sees that Reiko had taken the photo, prompting him to think back to the past. He introduced himself as Kudo Hajime and that he has been transferred from the Japanese branch to the Kowloon branch as of today. Then it shows Hajime look at someone who looks very much like the current Reiko, who I will be referring to as Kujirai B from now. Hajime zoned in on Kujirai B’s hips and slowly moved his gaze upwards toward her face, which shows how attractive she is to him. Kujirai B then remarked that he’s thirty while she’s thirty-two, which should be impossible in the present if Kowloon was rebuilt as the Second Kowloon since the current Reiko is also thirty-two, so there’s something up with this world. Kujirai B refers to him as Kudo-kun, unlike the current Reiko, after she introduces herself, and this is very important as it gives clarity to what happened in the previous episode. If you recall from the first episode, Hajime was sleeping on a couch and wasn’t responding to the current Reiko when she called him Kudo-san, but after she switched to Kudo-kun, he jolted awake while still half asleep and pulled her in for a kiss, showing that he and Kujirai B were definitely lovers in the past, and that was definitely real.
As they were talking together as Kujirai B shows Hajime the city, she says that Kudo Hajime is a good name and shared with him that eight is considered a lucky number in Kowloon as well, so I found on Quora that “Hajime” can mean the number 8 depending on the Kanji used, which I thought was important to know since most anime are written in mind for a Japanese audience. She indicates the reason is the number eight associated with wealth in Cantonese based on its pronunciation. After a game in which she beats a bunch of men at mahjong, she openly flirts with Hajime when one of those men threw out that luck favours her too much, saying it might be ’cause of Hajime’s name. What a way to seduce the new guy at work. At the Tintin eatery, which Hajime always took the current Reiko to lunch at, Kujirai B indicates that mahjong is a trick to doing well here since it allows her to hear the concerns of residents. She also indicates that learning the shortcuts around the city is important and that if he eats lunch with her it’ll always be at this place. She repeats what we heard Hajime say to the current Reiko when he took out to lunch in the first episode, showing he is feeding Kujirai B’s words back to her. On a rooftop, Kujirai B then hands him a watermelon smoothie, which he enjoys to his surprise. After he stares at her while she’s drinking the watermelon smoothie ’cause he can’t keep his eyes off her, she asks him what’s the matter, and he decides to light up and smoke as well just as she is doing. He then asks asks her there are any other hints in navigating Kowloon, and she says that to be in love is one such tip, which gets a reaction out of him as he wasn’t expecting that answer at all. Kujirai B then repeats all the words Hajime fed to the current Reiko when they were on the rooftop of their workplace, showing that the reason he did so is that he hopes deep down that Kujirai B will come back to him. Hajime then throws out there that he heard the place is going to be demolished, which she dismisses as something they’ve been saying for years with no intention of following up on that, and him asking her if it would be painful to be in love, knowing it would be gone someday, and strikingly, there is no strange object in the sky in the flashback.
Afterwards, Yaomay and Reiko meet up at a restaurant with Yaomay saying it’s been a while even though they last saw each other yesterday, which shows that something is either off with Yaomay’s perception of time or that there’s more than meets the eye regarding her. Shows such as Re:Zero, Kusuriya no Hitorigoto, and Kowloon Generic Romance tend to have many important details that you might think are throwaway lines that end up being important later down the road. Reiko has a taste of the lemon chicken, and she’s very pleased with Yaomay being glad that she’s feeling better. As they continue eating, Reiko then says she wants to know the truth after all, and Yaomay says she might as well ask Hajime as it’s not as if she’s in love with him, but Reiko’s reaction says it all. Reiko then says that the fact that he hasn’t said anything about it probably means he wants to hide it. Yaomay then comes up with the hypothesis that the woman in the photo is Kujirai B and that the simplest explanation is that Kujirai B has amnesia and that Reiko is her, and that’s why Hajime is not saying anything ’cause he’s hoping for her memory to come back. This makes Reiko think about who she is in Hajime’s eyes.
Back at work, probably the next day, Hajime says that he’s hungry and asks whether they should stop and grab a bite, and Reiko says she knows a good place with lemon chicken that opened the other day, and of course he just dismisses that and says they should go their usual spot. Reiko then says that she sometimes feels a sense of nostalgia with him, asking him whether he feels the same way about her, and he replies that he does. She then takes off her glasses and asks him to look at her in earnest, and he casually says that she’s not pierced, and we know that Kujirai B was. He also mentions that her crow’s feet are pretty obvious. He then says something quite rude and urges for them to go eat those dumplings he learned to love which must have beauty benefits, and to no one’s surprise, Reiko dismisses him since she doesn’t take shitty behaviour like that like the women in many other bad harem or romance shows do. After Hajime leaves, she then puts the photo back in the drawer and gives Kujirai B a flick before closing the drawer, showing she hopes Hajime would see her instead of Kujirai B.
Back at home, there’s a TV commercial on Hebinuma General Medical Centre, a beauty and health facility that opened just the other day with it offering free health check-ups starting today, and obviously Reiko and Yaomay both show up, as does Xaiohei. Yaomay wants to see Dr. Hebinuma, who is apparently so popular that it’s nearly impossible to book consultations with him. Xaiohei has heard of Yaomay from Reiko, so she knows she was the source of the ghost noises, and she seems to not be upset anymore. They go through a number of tests, and the last one is the barium swallow test. Normally, I would take no interest in a random mention of a particular test, but this appears to be one of those series in which Chekhov’s gun applies, so I’m assuming this is an important detail. Then an employee talking about them offering free cosmetic surgery consults catches Reiko’s eyes since she’s self-conscious about her crow’s feet, and she and Yaomay each get an appointment.
Hajime then looks for Gwen, which is the name of the waiter from Episode 1, at the Goldfish Teahouse only to learn that he had suddenly quit with the new waiter having no idea why since he started working there today. Later, Reiko and Yaomay also enter that same teahouse only to find that Gwen had quit, leaving them wondering why he would quit now of all times. As they’re walking away, Yaomay asks Reiko to tell her what the waiter looks like she might run into him somewhere. Reiko then sees some accessories for sale, and since she’s clearly thinking of Kujirai B, Yaomay suggests the clip-ons that are most similar to what Kujirai B wore.
Back at the realty firm, Hajime tries to find info on Gwen since he brokered his apartment only to fail since he comes across an error he had never seen before. Reiko then comes in, and Hajime calls her Reiko for the first time, probably since Kujirai B is his Reiko, but he tells Reiko to knock it off when he learns that they’re clip-ons, which has Reiko crestfallen. This possibly suggests that Reiko doing that was considered an insult to Kujirai B’s memory to Hajime, indicating that Kujirai B has passed away, and I’ll be taking a detour to do some theorycrafting now although I have to note that Hajime can be a real jerk at times.
I noted earlier that when Kudo met Kujirai B, he was thirty, and she thirty-two, and now, she is still the same age despite this being The Second Kowloon as the manager of the real estate company stated in Episode 1. So the place was rebuilt, and she hasn’t aged at all, which shouldn’t be possible under normal circumstances, and as such, there must still be a huge twist coming as the world they’re in is clearly unnatural. Although I’m not confident about this, it could be a simulation with people plugging into the simulation, which is why Yaomay could say, “It’s been a while, Reko-pon!” despite having seen her yesterday ’cause Yaomay spent a lot of time in the living world and then came back. Maybe The Second Kowloon is not a real world but a simulated world, and that could be why nobody ages. I lean towards Kujirai B being dead based on the way Kudo reacts, so the current Reiko may only exist in the simulation. But a simulation isn’t the only plausible explanation, just what most easily comes to mind assuming no other twists. The bottom line is that whatever the truth is, it’s basically guaranteed to involve the world being unnatural, whether it be a simulation, magic, a dream state in one or more people induced by experimentation, or something I haven’t yet mentioned but can still conceivably happen. Hajime notably said that they’re making a fake Earth in Episode 1, so that potentially backs up this theory of the world in Kowloon Generic Romance being unnatural.
Reiko then shows up at Yaomay’s door, crying, and says that she was stupid as that wasn’t the look she was hoping to see on his face and that it’s pointless to draw his attention like this. Yaomay then invites her inside for some sweets to help her move on from that interaction. And outside, Hajime himself is sitting down and miserable, and it even starts raining down hard on him. Back at Reiko’s apartment, Reiko is suffering, and it shows glimpses of how Kujirai B lived her life with shadow copies of her everywhere. Reiko then, as a strong woman, shows that she is shelving the glasses and earrings look, which I’m happy to see since she should strive to be her new self rather than try to fit the mold of Hajime’s past lover.
Back at work, Reiko’s taking a smoke break, and Hajime does so too, and he actually ends up apologizing, and instead of merely going along with the apology and forgiving him, she rips into him and guilts him into taking her out to a place of her choosing since he owed her for hurting her so deeply, which I love since she won’t accept bad behaviour like many women from bad harem anime. At the restaurant, Hajime notes that the lemon chicken’s delicious, much to Reiko’s delight, who’s beaming and has a wonderful smile on her face, which shocks him, leading to him acting tsundere and saying it’s not as good as the boiled dumplings. When he asks her whether she comes here alone, she says she eats here often with her friend, Yaomay, and he seems perplexed and somewhat curious about it judging by his reaction even though he didn’t say more. When they’re finished, Reiko remarks that it has stopped raining, and she steps into a puddle, resulting in Hajime catching her by the hand, and the romantic music that always plays during a romantic moment between them plays, not that I’m complaining since I like it a lot as it’s catchy and captures the feeling of the moment. She moves to move away her hand, and his grasp on her only gets firmer, leading to her asking if he’s confusing her with someone else, and he says he’s looking at her, which has her face go completely red before he finally lets go and tells us to watch her step. He notes that Generic Terra is shining extra bright today, and for some reason, he isn’t negative about it tonight, maybe he’s in a good mood ’cause of Reiko.
Reiko and Yaomay are now ready for their appointments, and Yaomay makes a point about how Reiko can’t just show up with her normal make-up, so Reiko puts on the same shade of lipstick as Kujirai B. When it’s time, Reiko is booked with Dr. Hebinuma, and she says she’s self-conscious about her crow’s feet, leading Dr. Hebinuma to look at her “Compatible Person Medical Record”. Yes, you saw that right, compatible person, as in it isn’t Reiko’s actual medical record. He then asks to have a look at her face, and he caresses it in a really creepy way, talking up her skin’s glow and feel and that it even has warmth. When he asks her if she’s married and what her family structure is, she answers that she doesn’t know as her memories are missing. After hearing that, Dr. Hebinuma, with a creepy smile on his face, says that’s outside his area of expertise as her wrinkles have no medical history, meaning she was born with them instead of having them form slowly over life. In light of her not having memories along with her wrinkles, he says that it’s possible that those memories never existed in the first place, leading to him saying what’s important is that she exists right here, right now. He then asks for her to tell him more about herself, only to see that his tongue is a snake tongue, and he wipes the lipstick off her face. She then leaves the room abruptly, and when Yaomay asks how it went, Reiko just grabs her and forces her to leave, missing her appointment in the process since she was majorly creeped out by him. As Dr. Hebinuma watches them leave the premises, he says that the lipstick didn’t suit Reiko, leading to him putting the lipstick he wiped off of her on himself and saying that that’s so wonderful that he might go crazy.
My theory regarding this is that the current Reiko is a cyborg recreation of Kujirai B. That would be why Reiko was born with wrinkles rather than developing them over time assuming Hebinuma’s word can be trusted. All the diagnostic tests done as part of a free health check-up could be a means of physically recreating someone, and this current Reiko could be a biological and mechanical proximation of the original one. Maybe the ‘barium test’ itself is meant to inject nanoparticles into your body for observation/research purposes.
Episode 1 notably had them talking through TV about Generic Terra backing up people’s memories, making the concept of immortality possible, suggesting that perhaps the reason Reiko still likes watermelons is ’cause they backed up Kujirai-B’s consciousness and memories and then recreated Reiko, wiping her memories after doing so, which is why she still loves watermelons ’cause she in fact did love them. While part of the reason we like the foods we do is genetic, the other part is acquired tastes in that things that tastes bad to you at first can eventually taste good if you build a tolerance to them, but since Reiko apparently suddenly came into being, that cannot be it, and that’s why I lean towards her having had memories when she was created before they were wiped to have that preference for watermelons.
As for Dr. Hebinuma, he’s either a person who has experimented on himself to have the properties of a snake or an alien. “Hebi” means snake, so I guess it’s no surprise his name has “Hebi” in it, but I’m wondering where they’re going in the story with him since they made him so cartoonishly evil in this episode.
As readers of my blog know, I am a huge fan of Re:Zero, and it was my inspiration to even start a blog given how it is one in which Chekhov’s gun applies with excellent character writing and foreshadowing, and I get a sense that Hajime’s question to Kujirai B, “Wouldn’t it be painful to be in love, knowing it’d be gone someday?” could end up being really important to the story since it’s clear Hajime is still reeling from what was probably Kujirai B’s death and given him placing a huge emphasis on nostalgia. Of note is that I personally feel that Subaru will have to kill Emilia at the end of Re:Zero based on all that has been presented up until Season 3, so two of my favourite stories potentially making use of that question in different ways tickles my fancy. I’m really looking forward to seeing what Kowloon Generic Romance having in store for viewers, especially since it’s a 1-cour show that will have to wrap up everything instead of going on for tons of years.