Kudo Hajime – Thorough Watch

Kowloon Generic Romance Episode 10 – Analysis + Important Details

Posted on June 11, 2025 | by anicritic | Leave a Comment

Well, I admit that I misgauged the story to not realize that it was a simulation all along. Episodes 3 and 4 suggested it wasn’t, and Episode 5 had a detail that indicated it was with how Yaomay reverted to her previous look, but I focused too much on the world likely having a direct connection to Kudo, which while probably correct, led to me not realizing soon enough that the world was a simulation. I’ll share why that’s the case later.

The episode leads with the mahjong players saying that somebody had fled from Bai Yuen Shan Tower, which is a notoriously dangerous neighbourhood in Kowloon with illegal gambling rings, prostitution, and a drug crisis. Kudo apparently messed up with the tenant he found and needs to apologize to the landlord, but Kujirai B goes in his place without him knowing. The landlord implies that the tenant did it, whatever that is, in the commotion around the upcoming demolition (the subs didn’t say upcoming, but since we know the demolition is coming, it’s clear that it is), and Kujirai B brought her a gift to as an apology to her. The landlord says that running from here is a gamble since it’s filled with people with nowhere else to go, meaning there better be a pretty damn good reason to do so, but she acknowledges that running is sometimes the winning bet, to go all or nothing, even spitting on the faces of the people who took care of you. She’s no gambler herself, but she finds that mindset admirable, leading to Kujirai B saying that she’s generous (given how the tenant clearly did her wrong). The landlord then remarks that she has heard that Kujirai B never loses at mahjong and asks her if she thinks she’ll win at the game of life with Kujirai B remarking that they’ll find out, and I believe it’s clear from this remark as well that she intends to commit suicide, so her plans haven’t changed. Kudo then shows up all protective saying that he’ll handle everything in this area from now since it’s dangerous.

Back to Xiaohei and Yulong, Xiaohei refuses to kill Reiko even though she’s a generic who shouldn’t exist after physically meeting her and seeing her live her life, saying that Yulong wouldn’t understand since he can’t see the generic Kowloon, and that leads Yulong to ask him to name his price. Yulong then pulls up footage of Xiaohei from three years ago when he used to wear tons of clothes with a lot of them being dresses, saying that Xiaohei has seen the generic Xiaohei, meaning that he has been spying on Xiaohei’s communications with Papa Hebinuma and knows that despite the original Xiaohei being in Kowloon that the generic version hasn’t disappeared. Yulong then puts it out there that using Generic Terra can allow Xiaohei to go back to the way he was back then, which has Xiaohei in turmoil.

We then see Yaomay eating some ice cream, saying it’s yet another hot night with her being unable to recall that it’s always summer in Kowloon. She then thinks back to Reiko looking in bliss for having consolidated her relationship with Kudo and wishes that something romantic would happen to her as well before she notices Xiaohei sulking at a stairway. He indicates he’s unwell when Yaomay asks him how he’s doing. Xiaohei then catches sight of Yaomay’s ice cream, which he most likely knows messes with your mind, and then he catches sight of the generic Xiaohei, which causes him to have a gagging reaction, possibly ’cause he desperately wants to go back to those times but the thought of murdering Reiko doesn’t sit well with him. When Yaomay suggests that the ice cream will help him cool off, he angrily responds that she shouldn’t eat that junk, and when we get a flash of Yulong in Xiaohei’s mind, Xiaohei says that he’ll never do anything that makes Yaomay sad before leaving and warning her not to eat too much. Yaomay then says she has never had a boy say that to her before and wonders whether there’s romance in the air, but that was definitely not Xiaohei’s intention. She then gets a call from Reiko, who is exasperated, repeating the same thing over and over.

Back at Reiko’s place, it’s revealed that Reiko sees footage of random segments of Kujirai B’s memories through her glasses. Back at work, Reiko thinks to herself that Kudo hasn’t come back from doing his rounds and wonders whether he’s avoiding her, which he likely is, and then he shows up and calls her name, leading to her saying that her wearing those glasses doesn’t mean anything, and she wonders why she’s making excuses so desperately given it’s not really that important. Kudo then asks her out for lunch, and she responds that she promised Yaomay that she’ll eat it with her. Reiko then said that a while back she felt happy seeing faces of Kudo that Kujirai B probably didn’t know, but now she’s pained since Kujirai B obviously saw sides of Kudo she never saw (a happy Kudo), and she wonders why she never realized something so obvious.

Back at Reiko’s place, Yaomay then writes down whatever Reiko sees from the glasses. She immediately sees Bai Yuen Shan Tower and notes that it’s not that safe of an area even though they manage some properties there. When Yaomay asks whether she’s been there, Reiko says Kudo handles everything there, continuing his decision to never let Kujirai B and in extension her, go there. They then go there together with Yaomay being armed with a frying pan and Reiko wondering whether they’ll find out why Kujirai B died. Reiko then wonders what all these talismans are since they’re everywhere, and Yaomay asks her who they’re doing this for, and of course it’s ’cause Reiko wanted to learn more about Kujirai B, which will help her learn more about Kudo and why she herself exists. Doing this doesn’t sit well with Yaomay even though she agrees to it, and she still believes she’s forgetting something important, and they then run into Xiaohei. Yaomay then asks Xiaohei to take them back to central Kowloon, and as she’s doing that, Reiko remembers the talisman that Kujirai B peeled, and she peels one off herself before they’re taken back home. Reiko sees that the talisman has a 403 error code, which reminds me of when Episode 2 had a 500 error code when Kudo searched for details on the history of the apartment he brokered for Gwen.

Reiko and Yaomay then meet with Gwen at a cafe, and Reiko shares how she can see Kujirai B’s memories through her glasses. When the topic of Bai Yuen Shan Tower is brought up, all Gwen says is that Kujirai B went there for her job, that he doesn’t know her true cause of death, and that he wasn’t all that fond of her to begin with since he couldn’t tell what she was thinking and ’cause she had a smell of death on her, so his initial negative impression of Reiko was ’cause he didn’t like Kujirai B to begin with and didn’t want Kudo to be hurt, not ’cause he didn’t felt like she was trampling on the memories of a dear friend. He regretted not being there for Kudo more when Kujirai B passed away. He did get to meet with Kudo again here, but if he could go back to that summer again, he would. He does admit that Reiko is nothing alike from Kujirai B aside from her looks and voice and puts it out there that her presence itself might be hurting him, leading to him thinking about who created this situation in Kowloon. Xiaohei then arrives to do an inspection, and he is unnerved to see Gwen there and pretends that it’s their first time meeting each other although this doesn’t fool Gwen. When Yaomay presses Gwen about not knowing the true cause of Kujirai B’s death, he says that it was just a figure of speech, meaning he probably knows that the ‘official’ cause of death is an overdose, but he doesn’t believe that that’s the case. It’s just frustrating that he doesn’t share that with them though. Gwen then motions to leave immediately ’cause he intends to pursue Xiaohei. Reiko then wonders whether she’s causing Kudo pain given what she heard from Gwen after thinking back to Kudo showing up at her place on the anniversary of her death, and Yaomay says that it’s not her fault with Reiko saying it’s not Kudo’s fault either. And of course Reiko answers that she doesn’t regret being in a relationship with Kudo after Yaomay asks whether she does, which is true to Reiko wanting to be her absolute self and not regretting her actions if she knows it was a decision that she herself made.

After Xiaohei has finished his inspection, Gwen pulls him into an alley and says that he’s gotten a lot taller. Xiaohei replies that it’s impossible to stay away knowing that Kowloon has reappeared when Gwen asks him what he’s doing here. When generic Xiaohei passes by, Gwen asks aloud why the generic hasn’t disappeared, and Xiaohei calls Gwen not that sharp after all (since it’s clear that that generic Xiaohei doesn’t represent the real Xiaohei but a fake misgendered Xiaohei who never existed) before saying that as former residents that they should help each other before he scurries away in pursuit of the generic Xiaohei.

At her workplace, Reiko sees that a 403 error code means “No permission to access”. She then goes on a smoke break, thinking of Gwen saying that her presence might be hurting Kudo, and then Kudo joins her too, commenting on her lack of glasses today since he’s obsessed by Kujirai B. She then says that they should just go back to being colleagues and that maybe that’s all she has been in his eyes with things being weird between them since they’ve had sex. Kudo is about to interject before Reiko immediately says assertively that she will not hurt him. Reiko, after she closes the door behind her, thinks that she can now focus and be herself absolute self without thinking of hurting him and goes out searching for talismans to peel, with the first one she peeled having a 202 error code, which means that the request has been completed, but processing hasn’t yet been completed.

During her search, she indicates there’s a lot she doesn’t know, such as why the Second Kowloon Walled City that was demolished re-appeared and why she has the same face as a deceased person with her being a person who shouldn’t exist in a place that shouldn’t exist either. At a restaurant, Reiko indicates she has peeled thirty talismans with twenty of them being blank, nine of them having the 403 error code, and one of them having the 202 error code. She then puts on her glasses and sees a smoking area filled with talismans. Outside, she thinks about why she’s at Kudo’s side, and it’s ’cause she absolutely wants to be there with her not being Kujirai B and affirming that she won’t hurt him. She then wonders why he’s by her side before she spots the smoking area seen from her glasses, and after she peels a talisman, it reads, “Don’t look for it anymore.” which shows that Reiko is being observed.

Now, here’s my speculation on how these error codes are relevant. The talismans existing not only in the past with Kujirai B but now along with the threat to Reiko to stop looking show that the world itself, not just Kowloon, is a simulation. How I came to this conclusion is that it was stated that real people observed the Second Kowloon Walled City’s demolition, but if that past Second Kowloon was part of a simulation based on the talismans, then that means none of the people who saw it’s demolition were real people either, which means that the base world we’ve observed in Kowloon Generic Romance is itself not real but a simulation. This could mean that the world is a Matrix-style simulation or something similar and that someone who wants the simulation to end is giving Reiko access to Kujirai B’s memories to help them defeat the evil agents of the simulation or just the system itself that want to keep people unaware of things on enforce the status quo. It being a simulation would also be why Yaomay reverted to her previous look despite her plastic surgery ’cause who you see yourself as can directly influence your physical appearance.

The last part of the episode perhaps backs this up with how Yaomay regains all her memories of her time in Hong Kong after eating Yulong’s chocolate from outside of Kowloon, and immediately after she does that, her eyes light up, as if her body isn’t truly real, implying it’s a simulation. I should’ve realized that it was a simulation sooner, but better late than never now that I have seen the light.

I wonder how the generic Kowloon factors into stopping the simulation. In the past with Kujirai B, Generic Terra wasn’t in the sky, which suggests that Generic Terra itself is a creation made in the simulation given the past was already a simulation. Miyuki and Yulong not being sure whether Miyuki’s Zirconian project can truly work out shows that Generic Terra itself is probably not the reason for why the simulation exists although Yulong’s theory about Generic Terra disturbing the energy could potentially be correct, meaning that the generic Kowloon could be a manifestation of feng shui since it’s a sci-fi story involving a simulation, so pretty much anything goes, but thus far, I still lean towards Generic Terra being closer to a red herring than the true reason for why we’re seeing what we’re seeing in Kowloon Generic Romance.

Kowloon Generic Romance Episode 9 – Analysis + Important Details

Posted on June 4, 2025 | by anicritic | Leave a Comment

This episode had a very intriguing detail in it. I have a theory regarding what might’ve happened although I’m not exactly sure if it’s correct, but it does sound right to me. The ending also promises to escalate the situation heavily judging by what one of the characters demands.

The episode leads with Kujirai B peeling a talisman/sticker marked with Kowloon off a wall in an alley. When she later runs into Kudo, who’s complaining about how his coffee order was messed up since he had specifically requested for no sugar, Kujirai B interjects that his timing is great ’cause her getting eggs from Hiyo means that they can make French toast with the sugar by sprinkling in the sugar on the bread after it is placed on the egg yolk. It’s a huge hit with Kudo with him loving the caramelized sugar. Apparently, it’s Kujirai B’s late mother’s recipe, and her parents decided in an accident when she was young. Everything from the taste to the recipe itself makes her think of her mother. When Kudo asks if thinking about that stuff doesn’t make her sad, she merely states that she’s not sad, and it’s that she’s weak that she’s not sad. She then says something about what she used to think about memories after telling him that she’s not the type to read a second volume of a book, and we’re not sure why she said that, but it seemed as if she was going to give an answer to why that’s the case until it was clear that the kettle was at boiling temperatures. I guess this is perhaps further foreshadowing of something to be saved for later.

We then see Kudo all by himself drinking beer, and he thinks back to him being in bed with Reiko with her reaching out to him, but we see with the dark figure of Kujirai B that the ghost of Kujirai B still clings to him, and viewers get a glimpse of sunflowers in the vicinity again, followed by Kudo stating, “I know”, which may be a sign that he’s aware that Kujirai B is the one who fills all the room in his heart, and he likely had sex with Reiko to give him the feeling of being close to Kujirai B again.

Reiko, Yaomay, and Gwen then have a meeting, and Yaomay shares that she met someone online who also wants to prove that Kowloon exists with her being about to reveal that it’s always summer in Kowloon until the drinks she and Reiko ordered arrive. ‘Cause she desperately wants to believe that Kowloon and the things in it are real, she immediately drinks all of her iced coffee and proceeded to forget all about what she had intended to say like a ditz, which got Gwen confirmation that he shouldn’t eat or drink anything in Kowloon. Yaomay then had an exchange with Yulong through text messages, and she had forgotten about what she had realized earlier, resulting in her replying in a really breezy way, answering the question correctly without realizing that that was indeed what she had come to realize the day before. Yulong then comes to the same conclusion I did regarding her consuming food she knows she shouldn’t ’cause of her desire to prove that her friend exists, and he concludes that merely taking an interest in the place is enough to get you swallowed up by Kowloon.

Miyuki then tries to have a basket of goodies sent to the Club Flower Garden he had been to in Episode 7, and the shop whose services he is using isn’t accepting electronic payments since the collapse the other day led to the machine being busted, and he got bailed out by Gwen. Miyuki quickly tries to get away from him, saying that they’ve broken up and knocks some things over in an alley that blocks Gwen’s way. Gwen told him that Kudo is real and to not consume anything made in Kowloon, which are things Miyuki already knew, and as he left, Gwen was screaming his name. At the same time, Yulong was pondering how the Second Kowloon is something no longer there, which led to him making a breakthrough in realizing that being stuck in the past is a key to figuring out the mysteries around Kowloon. Miyuki then found the path to Dr. Wong’s clinic, and he was about to enter it until he got a call from Yulong, who asked him why he was in Kowloon considering he’s supposed to be in Kowloon today, which prompted Miyuki to look at Dr. Wong’s clinic and then say he’s heading back, almost as if he forgot his intention to go in moments ago, which suggests that merely taking an interest in the place is enough to get you swallowed up by Kowloon as Yulong had speculated earlier.

Reiko and Yaomay then have lunch together with Yaomay being really busy since she’s preparing outfits for burlesque dancers, likely the ones from Club Flower Garden. Xiaohei then comes by to inspect their fire alarm, which is a pretext to spy on them, and Reiko and Yaomay ask him what’s his favourite dress since they think he’s big on fashion given the interest he showed in the dresses, saying it doesn’t matter that he’s a guy, which prompts Xiaohei to say he likes outfits with lots of frills and some bows, both big and small with babydoll being what he likes most silhouette-wise. When he goes overboard with it, they point that he is into this sort of stuff, but he interjects that he’s grown out of them due to his size. Before Xiaohei does his investigation, Yaomay asks for his vest, likely ’cause she plans to redesign it.

Then we’re back to Gwen, and he feels that he’s discovering new sides to Miyuki since coming to Kowloon, which leads him to think maybe he didn’t know Miyuki that well in the first place, which has me thinking back to when Kudo threw the question about how well do you know the guy back at Gwen when he had asked that to him about Reiko in the past and said that Gwen is here to make sure he (Gwen) doesn’t end up like him, possibly an allusion to him being a broken man after Kujirai B died. He then wonders why Kudo isn’t affected by the food and drink in Kowloon while Yaomay is but draws no conclusion about things, but I suspect it’s ’cause Kudo’s very existence is tied to this Kowloon’s existence. He then made a point that ’cause this Kowloon feels familiar he may’ve been unwittingly letting his guard down, which he comes to realize is the same as losing his grip, which had happened to Yaomay.

Xiaohei then talks to himself, thinking how he’ll report things to Papa Hebinuma since the fake Kujirai Reiko gives off a different impression than the original one with the original one not being the type to befriend Yaomay. He figures she’s been living here as her own person. And Yaomay did indeed redesign his vest to his liking. He then thought to himself that what would happen if things you’re not sure are real, things that are precious, and things you don’t want to disappear were to grow one by one.

His codename is Snakeberry, and he notes that the accuracy of the replica is quite high except with some roads that shouldn’t exist and some thing you wouldn’t expect being reproduced, so it’s not perfect. But if my feng shui theory is accurate, yin and yang could play into this as there’d be a mixture of new and old, so that could explain why there are roads that shouldn’t exist since this Kowloon could be trying to have some new things come into existence, and it could also be why the door of Yaomay’s apartment is high tech. He says that the dead being replicated proves inconsistencies, and the generic Reiko is also full of inconsistencies herself due to her behaviour and speech are like that of a different person. Even so, he wants to draw attention to a dead person being replicated as a living being, which leads to him concluding that the Zirconian project might be viable, strictly within the confines of the generic Kowloon though. He shared with Papa Hebinuma Miyuki’s test that found that the generic version and the original can’t coexist in Kowloon without sharing that young girl Xiaohei is a generic version that exists even though, he, the original version is around, so he’s not revealing all his cards. Papa Hebinuma then asks about an unspecified “that”, which Xiaohei confirms he has been finding and disposes of it inside Kowloon, and when Papa Hebinuma tells him to not let any get outside, Xiaohei reassures him that there’s nothing to fear since anything made in generic Kowloon will disappear once taken outside. What doesn’t disappear was either brought in from the outside, or it was here to begin with after Kowloon was demolished with many storefronts abandoning their stock during the eviction three years ago. Xiaohei believes that the generic Reiko will likely disappear if she leaves Kowloon, and Papa Hebinuma asks that even if the original no longer exists in the world, a generic disappears outside of Kowloon, and Xiaohei says he believes Miyuki believes the same and is waiting for him to act. Papa Hebinuma then orders Xiaohei to try taking a generic outside and see what happens with him being allowed to use Reiko if he can’t find one. When he starts protesting after what he learned about generics living their own lives, Papa Hebinuma says that he’s not interested in his opinion.

Yulong and Miyuki then have a meeting, and Yulong asks Miyuki whether he regrets his choice becoming part of the Hebinuma family, everything leading up to today, all of it. Yulong says Dr. Wong probably wouldn’t be opposed if he were the one after revenge since he’s not the type to regret things while Miyuki is, and Miyuki just says that he can’t turn back now. Yulong says that making a choice not knowing if you’ll regret it is how we learn but knowing you’ll regret it and choosing that path anyway is disgraceful, something only a fool would do. Miyuki then tells him to shut and help him like he always has and decides to take Dr. Wong for lunch after hearing that he’s feeling down, and when he asks Yulong whether he wants to come with, Yulong just says that he’s got things to do. Yulong then says that Miyuki is too obsessed with Kowloon and says that he’s going to go the route he won’t regret after showing he knows about the bug Xiaohei placed at his computer terminal. Miyuki, while at lunch with Dr. Wong, does think about what if he hadn’t contacted Hebinuma Group, if he hadn’t left his mom and had chosen Gwen instead, but there isn’t a lot of focus on it, and it’s clear he thinks he’s in too deep to considering changing course.

Kudo then shows up to Reiko’s apartment, and when he finds out that she doesn’t know how to make French toast, he leaves her since he doesn’t like being reminded of her differences from Kujirai B. He’s such a jerk given Reiko was looking forward to spending time with him. Reiko, in bed, then thinks back to Kudo’s promise to her to never go anyway, thinking that he feels so distant when he’s so close with it being implied she believes he’s still hung up over Kujirai B. She then takes out her box of things, such as her glasses, clip-on earings, and the outfit Kujirai B used to wear, and then the strangest thing happens when Reiko puts on her glasses… She sees what Kujirai B previously saw when she peeled a talisman/stick marked with Kowloon off a wall before being so started that she took them off quickly.

What I think happened with that scene in which Reiko saw what Kujirai previously did is that Kowloon Generic Romance might’ve included some karma element into the story in addition to feng shui (from Episode 6) with how the flashback had Kujirai B peeling off a talisman/sticker labeled Kowloon from a wall, only this time it was foreshadowed rather than lore-dropped onto viewers as was the case three episodes back. When Reiko put on her glasses, she was able to observe what Kujirai B saw in the moment when she peeled it away, possibly suggesting some weird interaction involving karma or something else, whatever it is.

Karma involves actions, which have consequences that shape future experiences and lives, which would fit if Reiko is intended to be Kujirai B’s next life. This may have actually been foreshadowed in Episode 6 when she said that her story won’t continue but won’t end either. At the time, I thought the only interpretation is that Kujirai B planned to commit suicide, but this episode suggests it had a double meaning with Kujirai B believing that life continues after death. If the mangaka had actually planned this, then all I can say is “Well played, Mangaka-san.” My main concern is adding yet another element to the story so late into it will make it hard to wrap up the story meaningfully.

The episode ends with Yulong and Xiaohei with the former being onto Xiaohei being a spy who listens to conversations with an earring in his left ear through a micro-listening device. Yulong tells Xiaohei to join his side with him being able to pay much more than Papa Hebinuma can and also dangling the prospects of being protected from Papa Hebinuma. When Xiaohei quickly asks Yulong what he wants to do, Yulong orders him to kill Reiko, probably either ’cause Yulong believes Miyuki’s revenge story will be over if Reiko is erased or ’cause he has figured out that Kudo is central to this generic Kowloon’s existence with him being stuck in the past with Reiko being at the center of things. While on the surface it seems like we’ll find out next episode whether Reiko will disappear if she leaves Kowloon, I believe it’s more likely that Xiaohei will out the detail that a girl version of him exists in Kowloon and push to have her leave Kowloon instead since that’d be the easiest way to test having a generic leave Kowloon while keeping Reiko safe. This discrepancy on why there’s a male and female Xiaohei is likely key to explaining why this Kowloon exists.

Kowloon Generic Romance Episode 8 – Analysis + Important Details

Posted on May 28, 2025 | by anicritic | Leave a Comment

This was a very interesting episode for its big reveals and for its use of using Yaomay to advance the plot.

At the start of this episode, Gwen rehashes much of what he had said in the previous episode again since Yaomay refused to believe his words that to certain people Reiko doesn’t exist and that she can’t exist outside of Kowloon. He notes that people he knows for a fact are living elsewhere have second versions in Kowloon and that the second versions of them disappear when the original enters Kowloon, leading him to come to the conclusion that the original and a second version cannot coexist at the same time although based on my theory about this illusory Kowloon being a construct of Kudo’s mind, I don’t believe that this is actually the case given what we see with the male confirmed to be Xiaohei in this episode, which I’ll get into later. Gwen also told in this same scene that Kudo cares for her although he’s not sure whether it’s the same as what he felt for Kujirai B.

Then there’s back-and-forth scenes between Kudo and Reiko and Gwen alone that touch upon how when you can physically touch something that shouldn’t exist the feeling of creepiness you should get eventually numbs, leading to you developing an attachment to it, which is him referring to both himself and others, in particular, Kudo, getting attached to Reiko, who is enjoying lunch with Kudo and notes to herself that the broth is tasty since she had just learned today that she’s an anomalous existence in the world who most people can’t see, which triggered feelings of insecurity. I happen to feel the same way. If I could physically feel someone who shouldn’t, and it wasn’t me hallucinating things due to schizophrenia, I would probably get attached in time too even if most others could never interact with that person.

We then get another flashback to when Kujirai B was alive, and she apparently had amazing luck even without Kudo around with her always winning at mahjong. Kudo found out at the time that she was taking pills for insomnia after a prescription slipped from her arm and that she had been doing so for a very long time, taking them after Kudo fell asleep whenever he spent the night over. Kudo then said he’ll show her a great time every night so that she can fall asleep even without pills, and when she indicated that she’s already enjoying herself on her own, he said that he’ll make things even better, which led to her making another point about her strong luck, which may have been her attempt to keep her distance from Kudo since she had been considering suicide due to the news about Kowloon getting demolished soon. She may have been considering sparing Kudo from extra grief.

By subtly hinting that she doesn’t need him to have a good time, she perhaps hoped Kudo would back away from her so that he wouldn’t be crushed after she died. As we know from previous episodes, Kujirai B said that she shouldn’t wish for anything more due to how good life is for her now, and it shows she had completely attached herself to living in Kowloon and was very vulnerable to a stressor like Kowloon being demolished. That’s why she said her story would neither continue nor end in Episode 6, ’cause she had intended to kill herself as I had speculated with Episode 6.

Then we get a scene with Miyuki and Papa Hebinuma, and when Miyuki suggests that Papa Hebinuma go out for a walk since it’s a nice day out, he replies, “Close the curtains, Haoran.” before Miyuki replies that he is Miyuki, and his father just says that that’s what he said. We then get a shot of the painting with Papa Hebinuma’s young son who had died, and that’s certainly who Haoran is. Miyuki then gets a call from Yulong, who reveals that Kujirai B died of an overdose, and Miyuki says that she wouldn’t have died from the pills Dr. Wong prescribed unless she took tens of thousands of them, but he can understand why Dr. Wong felt responsible nonetheless. Yulong then notes that all records of the pill that caused Kujirai B’s death was erased, and that’s when Miyuki said that he has a strange connection to Kujirai B since he believes the pill was made by the Hebinuma Group. Yulong then revealed that Papa Hebinuma had made Miyuki’s first job the successful demolition of the Second Kowloon Walled City, which had been done to erase all records of Miyuki’s birth and “you-know-what”, whatever that is.

We then see the male who resembles Xiaohei plug a machine into the computer interface that Yulong uses for his investigations and found absolutely no data ’cause Yulong doesn’t leave any traces of what he does. He then enters Kowloon and spies on the young girl Xiaohei before taking off his helmet ’cause of how hot it is in this version of Kowloon. He then gets a call from his master, who happens to be Papa Hebinuma, answering that he’s Xiaohei and that he’s now doing an investigation into Kowloon and will report back on his findings with Papa Hebinuma saying to not underestimate him as just being an old man. I’ll get into why this is relevant later.

We then get back to Kudo and Reiko, who is questioning her existence and looking sad. When Kudo points out that the most of the debris from the explosion at Hai Sing Tower had been cleared, he notes that Reiko has been awfully quiet. She asks him whether he remembers what he told her, that she shouldn’t go anywhere, and when she turns the question back onto him, saying she doesn’t know where she should go, he embraces her and confirms that he’ll always be here, even if this world is empty he thinks to himself.

Yaomay then gets a dose of reality when she finds out her bank account has no money with Gwen confirming to her that money earned in Kowloon disappears since it doesn’t exist. Nevertheless, he lets her borrow a large amount of money from him, saying his former job, which may have been the brief stint he had investigating Kowloon for Miyuki, paid outrageously well. Yaomay then gets shut down time after time again until she meets the original version of one of the elderly folks Kujirai B and Kudo used to play mahjong with, and when she talks about how Kowloon still exists, he thinks she’s into those online urban legends his grandkid is into that talk about the illusion of the Second Kowloon Walled City. He says there were a lot of rumours about it in the first place about how it was demolished as a cover-up by the Hebinuma Group, and when Yaomay pressed him for more info, he said that you never know who might be listening, so if she wants to know, she’ll have to ask those on the Internet.

Yaomay then goes to an Internet cafe and enters a chatroom with Yulong on the other end of it, who realizes that it’s her. They both want to prove the existence of the illusory Kowloon, but to do so they must find out why it exists. Yulong asks her if she has noticed anything strange, and after a lot of questions and answers, Yaomay realizes that it’s always midsummer in Kowloon since she had found Kowloon in March when it was cold out. They then exchange contact info after Yaomay explains she doesn’t know anything else, and he shares something he supposedly knows about a cover-up being involved in the demolition of Kowloon, which Yaomay intends to learn more about when she returns.

I love that Yaomay, who has the least connections with Kowloon compared to the rest of the cast, is advancing the plot as ecargmura at ArumJournal indicated. It’s boring when the protagonist does everything, which is why I hate most isekai power fantasies, since they’re just shallow wish-fulfilment and nothing more. I’m not against the protagonist being the most competent person in a story, but you have to give useful and fulfilling roles to side characters to make your story more interesting to make it go beyond a reader self-inserting into the protagonist, imagining that he/she/they are just as successful and smart as the protagonist, which is why I’m happy with Kowloon Generic Romance’s mangaka for giving the story’s side characters such a prominent role.

How this is relevant is that this shows that Papa Hebinuma is further along in his investigation than Miyuki and Yulong since the male Xiaohei had already indicated that it’s always hot in Kowloon with him saying his helmet isn’t right for “this Kowloon”, showing that he already knew it was always summer in Kowloon. Papa Hebinuma, seems to be conducting his own investigation into Kowloon by using that male Xiaohei, who was first seen in Hong Kong with Yulong in Episode 6 when he was described as a new assistant, which suggests that this male Xiaohei could be the original since he entered from outside of Kowloon.

If we accept that this current Kowloon is a product of Kudo’s existence and quite possibly a construct of Kudo’s mind or subconscious like I propose it is, then perhaps why two versions of Xiaohei can exist at the same time is that the male Xiaohei is the real Xiaohei and the young girl Xiaohei is simply who Kudo always perceived Xiaohei as being, meaning he misgendered Xiaohei all this time, and Xiaohei’s actually a male. Since the young girl Xiaohei would not be not a true stand-in for the apparent real Xiaohei since Kudo may have never knew Xiaohei’s gender, that would be how a real version and a fake version can exist at the same time as girl Xiaohei doesn’t represent the real Xiaohei. One way to test whether this theory is true would be to reveal to Kudo that Xiaohei has actually been a guy all this time. If the young girl Xiaohei disappears, it’d show that Kudo is central to the existence of this current Kowloon. Papa Hebinuma may have already figured out that the mystery around why there can be two versions of Xiaohei is crucial to understanding why this Kowloon exists.

I personally believe this Kowloon exists ’cause Kudo was crushed by Kujirai B’s death, and for some reason, it manifested partially or entirely as a construct of his mind or subconscious in an effort to get him to move on from Kujirai B. That’s why I speculated in my write-up of Episodes 3 and 4 that the question Kudo asked to Kujirai B in Episode 2 could hint at the ending of the story in the story. “Wouldn’t it be painful to be in love, knowing it’d be gone someday?” could end up being THE central question to the story since it’s clear he’s still reeling from Kujirai B’s death and given him placing a huge emphasis on nostalgia. I believe the most important lesson Kudo must learn is that the joy and connection of love, even if temporary, outweigh the absence of such experiences and heartbreak. I believe that the last few episodes will likely have Kudo realizing the truth of this unnatural world and choosing to fall for Reiko despite her differences from Kujirai B, fully knowing that it won’t last due to the world in Kowloon Generic Romance not being real. My hunch is that this work is meant to be a serious lesson about how it’s okay to fall in love even if that love isn’t permanent ’cause love is very much worth it as there’s nothing more beautiful in the world.

At the end of the episode, Yaomay texts Reiko about wanting to see her and that Gwen is with her when Reiko was in bed with Kudo, and obviously Kudo and Reiko rushed to intimacy when they don’t really know each other that well, meaning they acted out of pure passion in the moment. It’s not like with Kudo’s previous relationship with Kujirai B in which he was in love. I do think it will get to a point where Kudo genuinely loves her though, if only for the final episode. It’s certainly an interesting point at which to end the episode. I did catch that it’s now July 1st with it being July 23rd in the first episode, meaning time resets before it becomes August 31 but I completely forgot to point that out in my blog post. My theory is that this the timeframe leading up to Kujirai B’s death is important, and Kowloon, if it’s a construct of Kudo’s mind, is trying to make Kudo get closure over losing her, and thus, it is giving him time to fall for Reiko before realizing that she’ll be gone, which will give him the chance to say goodbye to her, which he couldn’t do for Kujirai B.

Kowloon Generic Romance Episode 7 – Analysis + Important Details

Posted on May 21, 2025 | by anicritic | 2 Comments

This episode had a very interesting reveal at the end, which backs up my theory on the current Kowloon being a special manifestation of Kowloon based on feng shui.

Before I cover the events of Episode 7, there’s something I need to go over about the previous episode. ecargmura at ArumJournal pointed out that the janitor Yulong greeted had his hair drawn and coloured exactly the same way as Xiaohei, and I’ve reached a conclusion that given Kudo’s connection to Kowloon, it may be based partially on how he saw things from back then before Kowloon was destroyed, so maybe the older male Xiaohei is who Xiaohei actually is in the present day, and Kudo just misgendered Xiaohei all this time without realizing it, which is why there’s a younger girl Xiaohei coexisting as the same time as the male Xiaohei. It wouldn’t be that they’re clones but that the young female Xiaohei is who Kudo always saw Xiaohei as being, which is how a fake and a real version can exist at the same time.

It opened with a flashback of Kudo sharing with Gwen that he wants to propose to Kujirai B since Kowloon is being demolished soon to make it as special for her as possible. Gwen asked him whether he really knew her, which made Kudo doubt for a moment whether he should propose to her, but Gwen clarified he didn’t want to put a damper on his plans.

Back in the present, Kudo catches sight of Gwen close to the site of the explosion, and they meet up in a secluded area with both of them confirming that they’re the real versions of themselves. Gwen also shared that he’s staying around ’cause there’s someone precious to him, and Kudo throws the question Gwen asked him in the past back at him about whether he really knows that person, leading to Gwen saying he’s getting a better sense of what that person is like now, prompting Kudo to say that Gwen is sticking around to make sure he doesn’t end like him, probably in the sense that Kudo lost his fiancée and became jaded. Gwen also shared that he intends to take Kudo away as well, but Kudo has no intention of leaving Kowloon, and the shot of the sunflowers shows that he’s still haunted by Kujirai B’s death and intends to live and die in Kowloon.

We then have Miyuki on a call with Yulong saying he intends to reach Dr. Wong’s clinic, and he doesn’t know whether the second fake version of Dr. Wrong will be there. Miyuki hangs up when Yulong says that he has a bad habit of keeping things to himself with him not sharing with Gwen that he grew up in Kowloon, showing that Kudo was right to throw the question Gwen asked him right back at him since Gwen thought that Miyuki was also an outsider to Kowloon. As Miyuki continues walking, he then feels unwell, attributing it not to heatstroke but to him being too conscious of this special manifestation of Kowloon.

We then get a flashback of Gwen meeting Miyuki for the first time at a bar after the Hebinuma Group demolished the Second Kowloon Walled City, which Miyuki wasn’t happy about, which is why he wanted a drink. Gwen almost immediately hit on him and asked him to accompany him to a better place. As they’re walking outside, Miyuki lays into Gwen, saying that his spiel back at the bar about him being a jack-of-all-trades living hand-to-mouth is insincere and an act meant to avoid people getting jealous about his excellence and that it’s no way to live, which gets Gwen flustered to the point that he admits that he’s kind of broke right now but doesn’t want to lose Miyuki, and that’s why he wants to treat him for a drink for now. Miyuki kissed Gwen during this interaction, revealing his snake tongue, saying that he’s not as well-bred as he thought he is. When they’re in bed together, Gwen reveals he doesn’t care about whether Miyuki is a man or woman, and even though he wouldn’t have initially hit on Miyuki if he had revealed himself to be a woman, he now believes he’d love him even if Miyuki presented as a woman, which takes Miyuki by surprise given he had never met anyone who wasn’t interested in what sex he is. He, much like Reiko and Yaomay are, just want to live his life as his absolute self. We know his father wants him to live one way, but he has his own ideas of how he should live his life.

Back to the present, Miyuki wakes up in Club Flower Garden, a burlesque club run by a Ms. Rose. He asks her whether she knows of a half-Japanese woman named Sihan, who may or may not be his mom, and Ms. Rose answers no. Miyuki then suddenly felt unwell again, maybe ’cause he was conscious about how fake this Kowloon is, and Ms. Rose suggests that he sees Dr. Wong. The lights then go out ’cause of the collapse/explosion from yesterday, and it turns out Reiko had come to investigate since they had a work order here. She then spots Miyuki, and when she mentions his name, Ms. Rose says that you’re not supposed to reveal the names of people you recognize in places like this. Miyuki and Reiko then both indicate they had some business with each other.

Back at Hebinuma Pharmaceutical, Reiko asks Miyuki about Zirconians, which she reveals she heard about from someone who saw something online and that his company was involved. He asks about her memories, and she reasons that she never had them to begin with since she’s a different person, but she nonetheless indicated her desire to be her absolute self, which got a reaction from Miyuki since he feels the same way. She believes there are things only she can choose, and she will become her absolute self, not someone else, leading to Miyuki asking who compares her with someone else, to which she responded Kudo. He then thinks that living with someone who has the same face as somebody you loved is exactly the revenge he has planned for his father, but Kudo accepts the current situation and chooses to be here, which he cannot understand at all. After Reiko notes that she has friends who accept her as her, Miyuki puts it out there that what’s bothering her is that Kudo hasn’t acknowledged, which she believes needs to happen for her to be her absolute self. He then answers that she is neither a Zirconian nor a clone, so they don’t know what to call her, and he comes up with the term “Generic” to describe her based on his knowledge of generic substitutions of brand-name substances.

Yulong then finds Kujirai B’s file at Dr. Wong’s clinic in Hong Kong, and when Dr. Wong catches him in the act saying he wouldn’t cooperate with them, Yulong says that he wanted to use Kujirai B as a reference for the Zirconian project since the current Kowloon has replicated many dead people. Kujirai B apparently had insomnia died from suicide.

We then got a shot of Kudo watching for it to turn 14:00 or 2:00 PM, pulling out his “faat” mahjong good luck trinket, and in mahjong, the 14th tile is crucial to complete a winning hand, and Kudo saying he wishes it was a scam was probably him cursing his good luck that he was able to find the tricket in the rubble of the mess of Sai Hing Tower since it makes him remember Kujirai B that much more even though it’s painful for him given she was the one to say that his name sounded like ‘faat’, which is a sign of good luck in Kowloon.

Reiko then revealed to Yaomay that she intends to move out of her apartment unit with her moving out allowing her to proudly say that she is herself and that she shouldn’t shoulder the burden of Kujirai B’s life. When Yaomay suggests that she throw out everything, Reiko says Kudo should be the one to decide what happens to that apartment unit. At night, Kudo knocks on Reiko’s door and says at midnight that it’ll be the anniversary of Kujirai B’s death. Yaomay is pissed that Reiko changed her mind ’cause of Kudo, but she admits that the anniversary of Kujirai B’s death is a huge thing, and so she’s happy when Reiko says that she wants patterned curtains. Yaomay then says that there’s a fabric store in Hong Kong she has really wanted to go to, and they make plans to do.

Back to Gwen, Miyuki apparently told him not to eat Kowloon’s food, perhaps due to fear that he’d get stuck in Kowloon or something, which gets him the idea to order some fresh food from outside of Kowloon. Just as Reiko is about to step outside of Kowloon for her shopping trip with Yaomay, Gwen stops her saying that she cannot leave Kowloon or she’ll disappear, which is backed up by how the guy who delivered the pizza he had ordered being unable to see him. Consistent with what we saw in Episode 5 with the guy who drove Gwen to Kowloon saying that there was nothing there, the man with the pizza could not see the re-creation of Kowloon or Reiko, and Yaomay herself looked up at the sky when Gwen stopped Reiko and said that something feels wrong, showing that she may have felt Kowloon not wanting Reiko to leave. Gwen then reveals that Kowloon was demolished three years ago, but Yaomay reacts in disbelief while Reiko believes everything Gwen has told them since she’s a logical person.

I believe at this point that my theory about the current Kowloon being a special manifestation of Kowloon based on feng shui could very well be on the right track. While Yulong believed that people need to resonate with something to see this Kowloon, I think it’s moreso the case that the current Kowloon has a laundry list of people, real people or second versions of them, from Kudo’s time in Kowloon living out their lives with their yin and yang counterparts. It makes sense that Reiko can’t be seen by those who can’t see Kowloon if we accept that feng shui exists in this story even though we can’t prove that it exists in real life.

Kowloon Generic Romance Episode 6 – Analysis + Important Details

Posted on May 14, 2025 | by anicritic | Leave a Comment

This episode begins to reveal the inner workings of the Kowloon we see. From the words of the characters themselves, they believe Kowloon’s existence may be based on feng shui, and I’ll reveal my cursory research on feng shui and how I believe it applies to Kowloon.

The episodes starts with Hebinuma Miyuki meeting with his father, who voices his disapproval for not acting like a Hebinuma with his outburst on TV. His father asked for an update on the Generic Terra project and the Zirconian project, and Miyuki replies that they’re still gathering information, which prompts his father to say he knows that Miyuki has already acquired vessels for orthodox clones in the event that the project fails, threatening retaliation since he’s not just a lonely old man. His father also says he has a new pet dog, as in Gwen, and I’m guessing he doesn’t approve of the relationship.

When Miyuki has returned, he looks sullen and tired, and he and Gwen have sex, after which we see Miyuki reach out high with his hand, showing that a life with Gwen is not what he has in mind, and that he wants to work towards his desired future with his own two hands.

The morning after, the maids alert Gwen to how Miyuki has made preparations for Gwen to leave with a suitcase full of his belongings and a large bag. Gwen then confronts Miyuki and with Miyuki being aloof, Gwen asks him whether he really intends to live for revenge, and Miyuki says that he alone will decide what he lives for. Gwen then tells Miyuki to choose him and says he’ll go wherever he goes, prompting Miyuki to say he wouldn’t be able to go anywhere, probably since Miyuki intends to stay in Kowloon forever. Gwen then kisses Miyuki forcefully to the point of biting him until he bleeds, putting it out there that pain helps him remember, like the other pains carved into his body, such as the tattoos. He then declares that he loves Miyuki before leaving.

In a flashback with Kujirai B, Kudo wonders whether Kujirai B likes goldfish and whether she used to have one since she’s always staring at them, and she replies that she can never have a pet ’cause then she’d never be free to go anywhere. Thus, the subtext is that Kudo wants the current Reiko to have a pet goldfish so that she won’t spend too much time away from work and home, to keep her in a box. Whereas Yaomay wants Reiko to be more free and her own person, Kudo wants to hold her back and keep her from changing. Kudo then got Kujirai B the second volume of The Landing Case Files, and she has no interest in reading it as the first volume was good, and she doesn’t want her good memories of the first volume to be ruined if the continuation isn’t as good. She said that right now it’s in the perfect spot, and she won’t wish for anything more, which contrasts with the current Reiko very nicely since she said in the previous episode that life is about wanting more. Kujirai B was adamant about her world not changing, much like the current Kudo is, and Kudo at the time pushed back on that saying he never regrets things even when he loses.

Gwen then puts it out there that Kowloon is set to be demolished. Kudo says he’ll go back to Japan or work in Hong Kong depending what the higher-ups say. Gwen says he’s a drifter, so he’ll live hand-to-mouth in Hong Kong. Before they ask Kujirai B what she’s going to do, Kudo says he has an apartment he has to find for Xiaohei since she wanted a new apartment in Kowloon, but now, that’s out of the question due to Kowloon being demolished. This shows my speculation from Episode 3 that what flashed into Reiko’s mind that Xiaohei supposedly said was either one of Kudo’s memories or an implied continuation of one of Kudo’s memories from when he was younger was the right thing to think about at the time. When Gwen asked Reiko whether she really isn’t going to read the book, she said that her story will neither end nor continue, which is chilling, as one way for her story to not end but not continue would be to commit suicide since her story would never continue if that happened while it also wouldn’t end due to its effect on others close to her.

Gwen as a delivery worker then came with a package for Yaomay’s workplace, and Yaomay is smitten and finds him so hot, managing to get his full name by being very forceful when asking for his name. She then remembers what Reiko told her about the server at the Goldfish Teahouse and connects the dots. She then managed to arrange a meeting between her and Reiko with Gwen. At a cafe, Reiko then mentions he knew Kujirai B, and he confirms that and shoots her down when she calls herself a clone as there was also a second version of him that no longer exists, and he explains he doesn’t know what’s exactly happening. When she brought up that Kujirai B’s dead, Gwen was surprised that she came to that conclusion, and she revealed that Kudo said that he killed her, which he confirmed is false since they had just gotten engaged. Yaomay then asks him how Kujirai B died, and Gwen tries to scare Reiko by saying that finding out the cause of Kujirai B’s death could lead to her dying the same way considering she has feelings for Kudo just like Kujirai B did. Reiko then enthusiastically and forcefully says she doesn’t love Kudo ’cause Kujirai B did and that she genuinely loves him, much to his surprise, leading to Yaomay saying that they’re their absolute selves, which Gwen actually responds well to that Reiko looks like herself rather than a copy of someone else, probably based on her demeanor and confidence, and Reiko was very happy to hear that with her smiling after she left the cafe.

Gwen then notes to himself he had never seen someone as eye-catching as Yaomay when he was in Kowloon, and when he asks her when she first came to Kowloon and whether she knew about Kowloon beforehand, she says she came six months back and that she did know about it beforehand. He then told her that this city is a lot more dangerous than she thinks and asked her whether she feels okay. Yaomay replied that she didn’t always look like this and that a while back she reverted back to her former appearance and that it wasn’t a hallucination, which he confirms he believes since there was a second version of him. When he asked her how she fixed it, she says that it was thanks to Reko-pon that she believes in her absolute self, which is to believe in yourself and choosing what your heart desires. She says that people tend to tell small lies to themselves, and that if you do that for too long that you end up as a fake self, but if you start doing what is true to yourself again that you’ll become your absolute self again. This caused Gwen to think back to Miyuki’s words and thought it might’ve been the same sort of thing for him. Yaomay then asks Gwen to see whether Kudo is real ’cause there’s something off about him, and Gwen thinks to himself that of course Kudo is real, as who else could’ve done something so cruel, and we’re not sure what he means by that.

Then back to the realty firm, Kudo is watching one of Miyuki’s TV commercials on Generic Terra, and Miyuki says that for immortality, concrete memories matter more than a lasting body. He says that if you lose your memories due to an accident or sickness, you can be restored to yourself by syncing to the memories in Generic Terra. His sales pitch was preserving precious memories for yourself or someone you know. Reiko then ate his cup ramen, and Kudo gets in a tizzy with how he was saving those for when he works late with Reiko apologizing since she hadn’t eaten lunch today. Kudo notes somewhat unhappily that she seems to be enjoying herself lately, leading to him saying her crow’s feet have gotten worse, and Reiko proudly states that wrinkles are the proof of what kind of life a person has had so far, so she considers it proof of her existence. She says eating good food with friends, enjoying herself, and feeling happy about things people say to her are proof of her existence with her resoundingly saying that she has become herself. Then she thought about Kudo, who lost his fiancé and also longs for nostalgia while despising change, being forced to work with her, a stranger who looks like his fiancé, and wonders that his days look like from his point of view, showing Reiko is a deeply understanding person.

Miyuki then walks in for his appointment with Dr. Wong asking whether he can get pregnant, and Dr. Wong says that he has both male and female genitalia but neither of them have reproductive function. Then he asks whether he can become a vessel, to which Dr. Wong asks whether he means using in vitro fertilization to transfer an embryo to his uterus, which he also notes is impossible as it wouldn’t develop. Dr. Wong then asks Miyuki whether it has to do with the Generic Terra project, and Miyuki asks whether he’s against the project. They’re then interrupted by Yulong, and Miyuki informs him that Dr. Wong is against the Generic Terra project. Yulong says the project can be used for treatment, but Dr. Wong says that’s not its true purpose, and Dr. Wong is about to mention something regarding Miyuki’s intentions before Miyuki says that he’s out of time since he’s hoping to speak with Yulong. Dr. Wong’s parting words are that it’s not commendable to live for revenge.

Yulong and Miyuki then meet somewhere in Hong Kong, and Yulong mentions that Miyuki’s dad wants to resurrect his dead son and believes that’s possible with Generic Terra’s memory back-up function, but Miyuki has no intention in helping him do that. Miyuki says that he’ll restore his son without any memories with his looks, voice, and warmth being just as they used to be, only his son wouldn’t have any of his memories, and that would be his revenge by getting his dad’s hopes up only to kick him down hard. Yulong indicates that place as in Kowloon has dead people living there just like they used to be, which happens to be exactly what they’re trying to create, the Zirconians. Miyuki indicates that it’s not just the dead as it’s as if the Second Kowloon Walled City was replicated and that they need to know how that works to move forward. It’s note that some can see the restored Kowloon while others can’t with him being frustrated that he can’t see Kowloon while Miyuki can’t. Yulong speculates that there must be a condition for why some can see it, and others can’t with the length of residency not being it since Gwen lived in Kowloon for a shorter period of time than Miyuki did, but Miyuki can still see it. Miyuki says that Gwen lived in Kowloon up until it was destroyed and that the current re-creation of Kowloon is not like how it was at the time of its destruction.

Yulong then notes that Yaomay, a celebrity is living in Kowloon, despite not having lived there before, which broadens the criteria of who can be there to them, which means they’ll have to broaden their thinking too. He says Hong Kong as a place attracts incredibly strong energies with Kowloon’s share of it being massive, so if you make something like Generic Terra right above Hong Kong, it’s natural that things be affected somehow, leading to Miyuki saying that they’re talking feng shui now and that anti-Generic Terra people talking about how it’ll disturb the climate doesn’t mean anything as feng shui is a superstition. Yulong says that feng shui at heart is very scientific with it influencing, environmental engineering, geography, architecture, and astronomy, all of which help people better navigate their lives, which is what feng shui is. His hypothesis is that Generic Terra disturbed the flow of cosmic energy, which resonated with something and materialized a re-creation of the Second Kowloon, and only those who resonated with it can see it. When Miyuki asks what on Earth he would be resonating with, Yulong says that human beings can’t help but see what they want to see and that his pitch for Generic Terra exploits that too with him saying it’s whatever they want it to be and hope the masses feel positively about it. When Miyuki asks whether Kowloon is the same ’cause he wants to see it, Yulong shuts it down since he can’t see it despite yearning for it so hard, and they then conclude that Kowloon isn’t the common denominator. Miyuki then gets ready to leave with Yulong saying that there’s only so much he can come up with due to the lack of information, and Miyuki says that he’ll look into it. As they’re leaving the building, Yulong then shares that the person in a mask is a new assistant he hired, who’s an interesting one who wears all sort of outfits. Yulong then says that he’s counting on Miyuki to get him more information on Kowloon and to keep his eye out for anything unnatural as stuff like that will give them a clearer picture on how this Kowloon works.

And then the last part of the episode comes down to Kudo and Reiko doing shopping with her suggesting maybe she should get a taste of genuine Chinese cuisine at its source since a lot of meals in Kowloon are Chinese-style, and Kudo says that she can find world cuisine right here. And when he points to all the different versions of cup ramen, Reiko angrily says that they can all be found in Japan and says that she’ll find some detergent since they ran out of it. Kudo then finds her reading a magazine on travelling, and she’s thinking of visiting different places and potentially moving away from Kowloon, and the reason for these thoughts is that the only thing fake in Kudo’s life is herself. She says that it might be better for her to not be around him since if he hangs around someone with the same as her he’ll never be able to move on. Kudo then puts his arm on her shoulder and says to not go anywhere and stay with him forever. Then an explosion happens, and he tells Reiko to go back to the office while he checks it out.

I had a cursory look at feng shui concepts since I felt with it being mentioned in Episode 6 that it was necessary to understand the story. Qi is believed to be a vital energy that flows through every living being, and feng shui is big on promoting balance in all things. What stood out to me is that a fundamental element of feng shui is polarity as in the interplay between yin and yang. Copying something I got from a Google search, if qi is what toggles people’s internal balance, the polarity of yin and yang is the fulcrum against which it is placed. The complementary aspects and interdependence between opposites is argued to be important as one cannot exist without the other.

How this may factor into Kowloon Generic Romance is that Kudo is a guy who’s very set in the past and is adamant about keeping things the same whereas Reiko is a forward-thinking person who has no past. Reiko also exudes warmth, positivity, and a clear idea of what she wants (Kudo) whereas Kudo is moreso cold, negative, and denies what he actually wants (Reiko). This dynamic is also seen with Miyuki and Guen in that Miyuki wants to live for revenge ’cause he’s stuck in the past whereas Guen wants to live for the future and is a more warm person in contrast to Miyuki’s colder, less caring nature and decision to cut off Guen ’cause he cares about him. Whereas Reiko has no past and has some desire to know more about Kujirai B, Yaomay fears her past and runs from it, showing a similar dynamic between opposites.

Thus, I believe Episode 6 shows that to exist in this re-creation of Kowloon that you need someone to oppose you thematically in some way. The reason Yulong can’t enter this re-creation of Kowloon is that he doesn’t have someone who is his counterpart. Xiaohei probably has a counterpart in someone who hates working and merely works so that he/she can make ends meet while also disliking Kowloon whereas Xiaohei really enjoys working and loves Kowloon. This would explain why the Branch Manager of the reality firm indicated that the population of the current Kowloon is constant, and it’s ’cause this version of Kowloon, whatever it is, keeps it that way to maintain a semblance of balance. Maybe Xiaohei’s counterpart would be the Branch Manager of the Kowloon branch of the realty firm Kudo and Reiko work at who always clocks out right on time and doesn’t love Kowloon based on how he said the Second Kowloon is an uncomfortable place to live in Episode 1. I believe that the common denominator, as Miyuki indicated, is not Kowloon, but Kudo himself, and that’s why the world was so pointed in its direction to force Kudo to come to terms with the current Reiko not being Kujirai B, how Kudo appeared to have some control of the world in Episode 4, and why Kowloon shakes when he is in turmoil ’cause the world itself is dependent on its connection to him. I believe Kowloon is moreso based on feng shui than a real sci-fi concept.

Kowloon Generic Romance Episode 5 – Analysis + Important Details

Posted on May 9, 2025 | by anicritic | Leave a Comment

This episode supports that the world of Kowloon Generic Romance is a dream world that involves Kudo. There was also some pretty interesting content that I don’t know what to think of, which I’ll get into later.

Firstly, it seems Kudo was faking Reiko out when he said he killed Kujirai B given he asked her what she’d do if he told her that, and she asked him what is he talking about, sounding incredulous about that. Kudo then laughed it off saying it’s true that she no longer exists in the world. It’s at this point I believe Kudo’s irreverence towards Reiko might be ’cause he’s trying to stop her from getting closer to him, and that’s why he tried to scare her like that. Reiko, understanding him well, says that she’s sure he doesn’t want to forget her, noting that she didn’t mean to speak for him, and I feel Kudo’s face at that moment showed his sadness and why he didn’t know how to react to Reiko understanding him so well, which is why he suggested that they go home.

Of course Yaomay is convinced that Kudo killed Kujirai B, saying that the face one normally shows isn’t necessarily who they really are with Kowloon being filled with people who have secrets. She feels that him mentioning it feels like a culprit returning to the scene of a crime, but I believe he just meant to scare Reiko a bit with a joke but was at a loss when Reiko appeared to understand him so well, and that seems to be how Reiko perceived that event as well.

After Reiko left Yaomay’s apartment, she thinks that the face Kudo made at that moment is something she has seen before when she showed up to work with clip-on earrings. She says she knows it’s not something to be happy about, but she wants to know things about Kudo that not even Kujirai B knew, even if they’re unpleasant.

At home, Reiko seemed to have trouble sleeping and got up to check out Kujirai B’s books and found one that interested her. She then read it until Yaomay sent her a text, and when she was in the midst of putting it back, she saw something that caught her eye, a ring that she believes was Kujirai B’s wedding ring, but given this world is likely fake, it’s probably not her actual ring. Then there was a brief earthquake. After possibly multiple days with it being impossible to determine how many days have passed, Reiko and Kudo both show up to work with dark circles under their eyes. Kudo has been struggling to go to sleep recently, and Reiko stayed up late last night to read a mystery book. She then asked Kudo if he knows any bookstores in Japan that carry Japanese books as the book she read has two volumes, but she only finished the first volume.

They met up at a bookstore Xiaohei also works at, and Reiko found that there’s a huge error in this copy she picked up since after a certain point, it’s just all question marks, making it unreadable. I don’t know what to make of this, and I don’t believe viewers are meant to know yet. Kudo said that he had read it before and nearly spoiled her before she said that she’d decide whether it’s interesting or not. Yaomay is of course not happy that Kudo is trying to control what Reiko wants, and he backs off. Reiko then says that she wants to buy something while she’s here and buys a book about travelling, and Kudo, thinking back to how Kujirai B had no interests outside of Kowloon, of course tries to talk Reiko out of it saying it’s an old edition of the book, and Yaomay forces him to back off once again.

At a bar, Yaomay kicks up a fuss about her reading one of Kujirai B’s books, and Reiko says she can’t unread what she previously read and wants to know what happens next, leading to Yaomay saying Reiko’s kind to Kujirai B, her love rival, and Reiko just says that she wanted to know what kind of person she was, which makes sense given how she looks identical to her. Who wouldn’t want to know more about the person you look identical to if you had the chance? Reiko says she want to learn more about herself, Kujirai B, and Kudo, and when Yaomay remarks that that’s greedy, Reiko asks if Yaomay’s any different since life is about wanting more, and that gives clarity to why she became interested in a book on travelling.

As Original Gwen and the maids see Dr. Hebinuma off as he’s headed to his variety show, the maids say Dr. Hebinuma has soft facial expressions these days and has become friendly ever since Gwen arrived. On the variety show, a woman is wondering whether cosmetic surgery will improve her look, and Dr. Hebinuma explains what they can do for her, and when that woman also wants her mouth to be pointed upwards, he explains that one’s heart can fix a smile more than plastic surgery will. Sean, the other personality next to Dr. Hebinuma, says that what he just said was all platitudes given he was blessed to be given everything he now has, which leads to Dr. Hebinuma giving Sean a kick, saying that being given things isn’t the same as being blessed as some things you’re given can lead to other things being taken away. They then go to a commercial break, and we see the reactions of Original Gwen and the maids, and then Kudo, Reiko, and Yaomay with Yaomay understanding what Dr. Hebinuma meant as when you’re given something you can lose yourself as living the life someone prepared for you means you’re giving up the life you could have otherwise had. Reiko believes Yaomay is talking about her and Kujirai B, but it seems more personal. One of the staff members at this establishment give them tickets to a screening of “The Butterfly Dream”, an old film with a huge national star, and Yaomay clearly recognizes the lead actress, and she rejects going to it with Reiko.

After watching the film, when Reiko is out with Yaomay again, she says that Yangli, the lead actress, was absolutely fabulous. After Yaomay picked out fabric with a particular pattern, Reiko mentions that there was a pattern like that in the movie with many costumes she would’ve liked, and Yaomay responds while clearly being upset that what she’s holding now is what she likes. Yaomay then indignantly throws out there whether Reiko even has time to be watching movies given she’s trying to learn about Kujirai B. Just the other day, she was worried that Kujirai B’s presence would be erased from the world and asks her whether she’s worried that she might be the one who gets erased and that she has been scared all this time. Yaomay says that Reiko can be so carefree ’cause she has never had a past and says that Reiko can never understand her before leaving the shop.

Yaomay then rushes back to her apartment, thinking she thought she left her past behind, but they’re coming for her. She then thinks back to her youth when her mother wanted to live vicariously through her daughter by controlling what she wore and having her look as much like herself when she was young as possible. Yaomay thought to herself that she loved the other earrings more than what her mom chose for her when the photoshoot was ongoing, but she stuck with it since her mom must know best. She thought to herself that her sense of self is being taken away.

Reiko then thinks that everyone has a present ’cause they have a past, and when she passes by a store, she thinks back to Yaomay saying that she’ll be the one who decides who is and isn’t her, that there are those who see genuine sparkle in a fake, and that when you’re given something that other things are taken away. Reiko only knows the present, so she doesn’t know how it feels to suffer from or long for the past and thinks about what she can give to her best friend.

When Reiko is having lunch with Kudo, she asks him whether he remembers what Yaomay said about having your sense of self taken, and he responded that he did. Reiko wondered if someone was scared of having something taken would giving that person something be a bother, and Kudo says it depends on what the gift is. Kudo then tells her to talk to Yaomay after Reiko feels wishy-washy due to not having experienced some of the things Yaomay has, which is nice of him considering how Yaomay treats him a lot of the time.

With some egg tarts in hand, Reiko visits Yaomay, who doesn’t want to see her ’cause the confident self she projects is not her real self, and she’s constantly worrying about what her parents think, not even being able to share what she actually likes with them. Reiko says that she understands and that Yaomay was probably trying to have her fake persona become the person she wanted to be with her not considering something like that fake. Since she doesn’t have a past, she doesn’t understand what it means to have an old self but that she understands very well the desire for an ideal self and that she saw genuine sparkle in fakes. She pressed Yaomao on whether that was also a lie, leading to Yaomay rushing out saying she’ll be her absolute self too, calling back to when Reiko said she would be okay with all of her decisions if she was sure that they were her decisions. At an earring store, Reiko has Yaomay pick out what she likes, which closely resembles what she picked out for herself in the past, and after Yaomay leaves to try them on, Reiko points to Kudo as being what she herself likes.

Dr. Hebinuma then gets a call from his father asking him what happened during that commercial.

Back to the flashback with Kujirai B at the Golfish Teahouse, she rates the place highly, which Kudo is ecstatic about, and then he brings out watermelon for her, which is apparently something he does for everyone, not just Reiko, and that’s when Kudo learned of her quirk of smoking and eating watermelons at the same time. She asks whether he himself has a quirk, and he responds isn’t that sort of thing someone close to you points out, leading to her saying she’ll find one and point it out to her, which gets a reaction from him since he longs to be close to her. When he first heard he was being transferred to Kowloon, he cursed his fate, but he’s finding he’s liking everything here, leading to Gwen saying he’s fallen in love with Kowloon. He then wakes up, and him being in turmoil coincides perfectly with the onset of an earthquake, which Xiaohei says there have been a lot of lately.

We then see Gwen arrive at Kowloon, and we don’t know from which point in time this is happening, whether we’re seeing Original Gwen arrive at Kowloon, or whether this is a completely different Gwen, and the kicker is that Kowloon has already been destroyed. With this recent episode depicting Kowloon having been destroyed and an earthquake’s onset coinciding with Kudo’s turmoil, it’s clear Kudo’s turmoil causes the world itself to shake, demonstrating the connection between his mind and the world’s existence and that this is indeed a dream world that involves Kudo in some way.

It’s not Kudo’s lingering feelings for Kujirai B that ’cause the world to shake but his refusal to let go conflicting with the knowledge that she’s dead that he’s trying to suppress. That’s why the earthquakes started after Reiko said Gwen told her that Kujirai B no longer exists in the world, ’cause he was trying hard to deny it, which was why he was feeding Kujirai B’s words back to Reiko and shit ’cause he hoped he could bring her back through that and why he put his hand over his face in distress in Episode 4. The world also pointedly made the case to viewers and Kudo in Episode 3 that Reiko is not Kujirai B with the sunflower shit, possibly ’cause it is trying to get him to address his issues properly instead of being in denial.

People that come to Kowloon erase the previous version there, and when those people leave, a new version emerges, as shown by how Kudo got a message on his computer in Episode 4 about there already being an existing item at “Sai On Tower” right after a Mr. Chan entered and then left, showing that Kowloon must always have a baseline number of people as the Branch Manager indicated in Episode 1 and that the computer was likely asking Kudo whether to replace the previous Mr. Chan from before the one that came from outside Kowloon entered Kowloon in Episode 4, showing Kudo has some level of control over the world.

The mystery continues to deepen with this episode, but some things, such as Kudo’s direct connection to the world, is becoming increasingly apparent, which is a good thing since the show at this point shouldn’t only be raising questions.

Kowloon Generic Romance Episodes 1-2 – Analysis and Important Details

Posted on April 16, 2025 | by anicritic | 2 Comments

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.