Xiaohei – Thorough Watch

Kowloon Generic Romance Episode 11 – Analysis + Important Details

Posted on June 18, 2025 | by anicritic | Leave a Comment

This episode confirmed something I had been speculating for a long time, and I’m glad that the anime has finally confirmed it to be the case.

The episode leads with Yulong going over what he thinks is required to see the generic Kowloon, which he believes is a sense of attachment, which doesn’t apply to Yaomay, and then after seeing the flashback of what happened after Miyuki joined the Hebinuma family with his full-body snake tattoo and his forked tongue, Yulong realizes that it’s actually regret that allows you to see the generic Kowloon given he regretted not stopping Miyuki from pursuing revenge sooner with it coming to him that Miyuki’s regret over his mother dying is why Miyuki can see the generic Kowloon, and that’s why he can now enter the generic Kowloon.

Next, Yaomay meets with Gwen, sharing that she remembers everything from her time in Hong Kong now and will pay him back later since the money she earns in the illusion of Kowloon isn’t real. She still wants to prove that Reiko exists, and Gwen says that he can’t feel empathetic to the residents of the generic Kowloon and tells her to leave since she’s a real person. This leads to a talk about Yaomay wanting to be her absolute self, and after Gwen suggests she shouldn’t be here for someone else’s sake, she turns it back on him asking if it isn’t the same for him with him answering that he’s there for his own sake, and even if it’s egotistical, he doesn’t regret it, which was how Reiko described being your absolute self, so viewers are meant to see that Gwen is also being his absolute self. He then asks her what she personally wants to do and get done, and she does consider his words. She also revealed that she learned in Kowloon that the reason Kowloon was demolished was that the Hebinuma Group wanted to cover up something and that the talismans have something to do with it before revealing that she remembers that it’s always summer in Kowloon. Gwen then gets a call from Kudo as he leaves the area.

Yaomay then thinks about whether Gwen is right that the mystery isn’t hers to solve and that she should think about she wants to do, and when she thinks back to the screening of her mom’s movie and how her mom told her what earrings to wear, she began to have an idea of what she should be doing.

And as Reiko continues using her glasses to peer through Kujirai B’s memories, she sees Kujirai B head to a particular place where she traded in the Kowloon talismans for a bag with red pills and a death tarot card. This leads me to believe that perhaps Kujirai B didn’t die after she was given these red pills from this episode. In The Matrix movie, choosing the red pill means learning about the truth and accepting it whereas the blue pill is about choosing to be ignorant and going back to before you knew about the Matrix. Maybe what happened to Kujirai B is that the pills she took removed her from the simulation, freeing her from this fake world. Papa Hebinuma said to not let any of “that” get out of Kowloon in Episode 9, and I wonder if that was the red pills. The pills having the infinity sign on the front and an I on the back or vice-versa along with the bag coming with a death tarot card could mean that by accepting the pills that Kujirai B’s ending her infinite life in the simulation and choosing to live in the real world. After that, as Yaomay looks at the earrings her mother chose for her in the past, she got a call from Reiko saying that she’s going back to the north of Kowloon one more time since she believes she’s close to finding out why Kujirai B died. Yaomay figures that she must protect Reiko from the Hebinuma Group given its involvement here, and they plan to meet up after she leaves work early.

Xiaohei then thinks back to Yulong promising that he can go back to his old self with Generic Terra. He remembers him suggesting to kill Reiko in order to make that a reality, and he thinks there’s no way he can do it. Reiko then spots him at the top of a stairway, and when she asked him what’s wrong, he had a crazed look and seriously did think of pushing her down the stairs, killing her in the process. She then gets a call from the generic Xiaohei, who tells her that there’s device buzzing on the ceiling which won’t stop, and Reiko gets the idea to have the real Xiaohei fix it, which is extremely convenient and telling that this is a simulation. As they’re on the way to Xiaohei’s place, Reiko then gets a call from Yaomay, and she tells her to also go to the generic Xiaohei’s place since they’re on their way there.

Gwen and Kudo then meet at the Goldfish Teahouse, and Gwen asks Kudo how much he knows about the generic Kowloon, and he reveals what they thought was true with the original and the generic version not being able to coexist in the generic Kowloon. Gwen is surprised that Kudo can eat the food, and Kudo responds by saying that he eats if he wants to, and if he doesn’t, he doesn’t, and if Gwen were smarter, he’d realize at this point that this Kowloon is at least partially a construct of Kudo’s mind. Gwen then shares that he doesn’t know what is and isn’t replicated in Kowloon since he had built a shelter for stray cats by the back entrance here, describing how the hut was constructed in the process, and that shelter wasn’t replicated. Kudo then revealed he didn’t know that Gwen had did that. Gwen then spots an advertisement for the Generic Terra project with a formerly deceased cat having been cloned for her owner with the cat having many of the same tendencies and quirks, which apparently makes the owner happy, and he thinks such a thing happening would bother him and that it’d be unhealthy with it being implied that death is natural, and people need to learn to move on, and who we know this hasn’t happened to is Kudo, who is still obsessed with Kujirai B.

At the generic Xiaohei’s place, after Xiaohei fixes the generic version’s fire alarm, he stares at the clothes, and Yaomay shares with the generic version that he likes those sorts of clothes, resulting in him sharing the frills Yaomay sewed into his vest, and the generic version’s joy over seeing them makes him tear up and feel accepted. He states that looking at his past used to be painful, which is almost certainly why he threw away all his own clothes, but he’s now happy.

Kudo and Gwen’s chat then concludes with him sharing that there are two Xiaohei’s in this generic Kowloon, which complicates their theory about a generic being unable to coexist with an original at the same time, and he also shares that Xiaohei is a he, which they kept secret from Kudo ’cause they thought it was funny. Upon seeing his shelter for the cats finally having been replicated, Gwen then realizes there’s a direct connection between the generic Kowloon and Kudo.

Back at the generic Xiaohei’s place, the generic Xiaohei disappears since Kudo now knows that Xiaohei is a guy, meaning that the generic disappears since previously she was a stand-in for a person who never truly existed, but now that Kudo knows the truth, what happens to all the generic versions of people happens to her as well. Xiaohei then reveals to Reiko and Yaomay that the generic Kowloon is Kudo’s creation based on what he remembered of Kowloon three years ago with only things Kudo recognized being replicated, and since he thought that Xiaohei was a girl, that’s why he was able to coexist with her up until now. He came here to investigate Kowloon at the request of a particular corporation, the Hebinuma Group, and to kill Reiko since he had been told he could go back to being his old self if he saved his memories up until today in Generic Terra, and they’ll download those memories not into a clone grown from scratch but into a vessel that has already been replicated. When Yaomay asks him why he’s sharing this info with him, he says that seeing Reiko and Yaomay make him not want to cling to this generic version of Kowloon. He then motions to leave believes his client will go after him since he knows too much, so he needs to get as far away from Hong Kong as possible. Yaomay then tells him to bring some of his old clothes with him since as long as he doesn’t voluntarily abandon them, what matters to him will never disappear. She shares that her mom is a very-connected individual, so even the Hebinuma Group wouldn’t be able to mess with her easily, so she intends to go with Xiaohei to protect him. Yaomay then reveals to Reiko that she has been averting her eyes to something that matters to her and that she needs to face it head-on with that being her mother. She says that she wanted to change herself with how she changed her looks, and in doing so, she took advantage of Reiko’s life, so she wants to throw away her negative self and become a positive self since she doesn’t want to lose in her race to be her absolute self, swearing to return after she becomes her absolute self. She’s wearing the earring her mother chose for her on her left ear and the one she chose for herself on her right ear to show that she accepts both parts of herself. Xiaohei believes it has to mean something that Reiko is the only one not replicated from Kudo’s memories and believes that that has to mean something, and he believes that she can become who she wants to be. After he and Yaomay leave Kowloon, the clothes he brought from the generic Kowloon start to disappear, but he doesn’t fret ’cause he learned from her that he can continue to love something in a new form, which would be things such as the frills Yaomay sewed into his vest, when he previously thought life was about losing what you had. He said that even if they’re gone, he’ll carry their feelings for them with him, and the frills in his vest didn’t disappear, which again points to it being a simulation since the frills were made from materials from Kowloon and shouldn’t be able to leave Kowloon unless the base world is also a simulation. But then when both Yaomay and Xiaohei look back at Kowloon, all they see is rubble since their past regret is gone now that they fully want to look to the future. The episode ends with Reiko not being able to see the outside of Kowloon anymore, which seems ominous.

Last episode, I believe it was implied that the entire world is a simulation, and it may exist to help Kudo get over Kujirai B, which is why Reiko came into existence despite the world being replicated from Kudo’s memories. Maybe that is why she got a warning from the talismans to not look for it anymore since the ones who created the simulation want Reiko to stay firmly where she is and help Kudo get over Kujirai B, which would be her purpose for being born, instead of leaving the simulation.

As for the world we live in, generally, I don’t believe the idea of simulation theory to be a good scientific theory with practical benefits since it’s unfalsifiable. Falsification as a matter of scientific practice, rather than logic, is very significant because people, or at least humans, like to be right. Humans are inclined to seek out evidence which supports rather than challenges their existing opinions, a well-known phenomenon that is often referred to as confirmation bias. Science fights against confirmation bias by encouraging individual scientists to think critically about their work and for the broader scientific community to be skeptical of each other as a means of accountability. Although it’s possible to reason out why we might be in a simulation and even think of possible scientific observations that could hint at a simulation, there is no way to actively disprove it as far I know, which limits the usefulness of pursuing such a theory in my opinion. I believe simulation theory is popular among people who want to believe that they shouldn’t be held accountable for their actions, such as Elon Musk, who believes laws shouldn’t apply to him, and this applies to many billionaires in general, not just Musk. I admit than an unfalsifiable theory could be useful for driving progress towards better falsifiable theories, even if the original theory itself is ultimately thrown out, but nonetheless, I am currently thoroughly unconvinced of simulation theory and believe that every living person’s actions has weight and shouldn’t be carelessly dismissed ’cause nothing really matters. As TCrow from Crow’s World of Anime has indicated, in some games the world is based on a moral simulation, which I believe is more palatable to me than a world where there is no weight to people’s actions given there should ideally be consequences, but I am still very skeptical of this theory in general.

As far as how this subject matter applies to Kowloon Generic Romance, I believe this focus on one’s absolute self is good writing and shows that the characters have agency despite them all probably being part of a simulation. Even in spite of them being in a simulation, they can say that if they were confident that their actions were made by themselves, not others, they are who they are. This shows that people can have agency even within a simulation even if they aren’t real humans, which is important in showing off how there can be agency even within a controlled environment. As I indicated earlier, it was extremely convenient that Reiko got a call from the generic Xiaohei right as the real Xiaohei was about to push her down the stairs, but the simulation itself or the operators of the simulation clearly has/have a intended directive/goal in mind, which is why Reiko was saved and why Xiaohei visiting his generic version led to him becoming happy in accepting what he enjoys/like as being an essential part of him, which also led to Yaomay moving forward in her own life as well. Even if there’s an external force guiding the characters, if they’re making decisions of their own free will, one cannot deny that they have agency.

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 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 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 3 and 4 – Analysis + Series Ending Speculation

Posted on April 29, 2025 | by anicritic | Leave a Comment

Kowloon Generic Romance continues to be a very intriguing show. There is a lot of content to go through every episode, everything which appears to serve the story in some way. I’ll start off with my series ending speculation first. It is not unusual for me to speculate on the secrets of a story with a strong mystery aspect. I made a series ending prediction for Re:Zero after Episode 24 of Season 1 and expanded my prediction after Season 2 and successfully predicted a far in the future secret (I was told by someone who read the light novel) in Kumo Desu ga, Nanika? after Episode 17 of the only season the anime got.

It’s clear based on how the current Reiko is still 32 whereas Kudo has aged and is her senior even though they’re in what is supposedly “The Second Kowloon”, which came straight through the Branch Manager of the realty firm’s mouth, that the world in Kowloon Generic Romance is unnatural. With that out of the way, I can talk about what I really want to delve into.

I am a very detailed-oriented person, and from what I’ve seen from the first four episodes of Kowloon Generic Romance, Kudo has an extreme fixation on Kujirai B to the point of the spectre of her has an all-powerful hold on him even though she most likely no longer exists based on these first few episodes. He might even regret falling for her on some level ’cause her death was so painful for him or for another reason that has yet to be determined (given how he claims to hate the current Reiko after Episode 3 hammered to viewers and to Kudo especially that the current Reiko isn’t Kujirai B), which is why he is so fixated on things never changing. Thus, I get a sense that Kudo’s question to Kujirai B in Episode 2, “Wouldn’t it be painful to be in love, knowing it’d be gone someday?” could end up being really important or even THE central question to the story since it’s clear he’s still reeling from what was probably 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.

I expect an ending where Kudo can magically be with the current Reiko pure fantasy and not likely to happen unless the mangaka is actually a poor writer, but from what I’ve seen of the first three episodes, she is very talented.

Episode 3 starts with a flashback of Kudo helping out an elderly man fix up animal pens, which was a favour Kujirai B requested of Kudo. That man notably said that it must be rough for Kudo to have a senior coworker who works you so hard, and there is somewhat of a callback to that later in the episode, which I will get into. After they left the area, Kujirai B notes that Kudo is getting along with the older members of community through mahjong and that he’s the one who’s well-loved by his elders, and given the elderly man highlighted Kujirai B being a senior coworker and what we know of her age, she was most likely referring to herself as well, which would her continuing the flirting she did with him in Episode 2 when she was playing mahjong wherein she associated her great luck to Kudo being around. He then gets dizzy ’cause of heatstroke, which is similar to what the current Reiko experienced in Episode 1 when she worked on repainting the walls of a vacant apartment unit, no doubt to show a parallel between them.

Kujirai B then takes Kudo to her apartment, which is close by, and he gets bashful about going inside, probably ’cause he has a huge crush on her, and she probably not only knows how he feels but also wants him inside personally since a lot of women are better on picking up social cues than men and given her flirting with him these last two episodes. Inside, he stares at her taking in the feeling of a breeze, and after washing up his face, he takes in her personal likes regarding where she places items and loves that she keeps a glass of water in the fridge, no doubt things he will never forget. He also remarks that there no plushies or anything, and this would probably be something never again brought up in most series, but I believe Kudo probably knew someone who had a lot of plushies when he was younger since it seems he’s used to thinking of an apartment of a woman having plushies.

As he stares at her from behind once again, Kujirai B asks Kudo how he’s finding Kowloon after having been here for a week, and he says that it’s an interesting place and that sense of nostalgia for things he’s never experienced or seen before is something he’s been getting a lot, most likely ’cause he feels like she is the one for him. When he wonders what nostalgia is, highlighting that she compared it to being the same as in love, she responds that she has also never lived in a place like this and that nostalgia isn’t just about memories and experiences but a feeling of elation as if you’ve known something all along. In her opinion, nostalgia’s a feeling of wanting to lock something up in your heart, and that’s why she considers it the same as being in love. That’s actually the feeling I got when I first met a certain girl in elementary school during our open house in the fourth grade. I felt so excited meeting her that I decided to attend the open house events at that school when I was in fifth and sixth grade, but it was not that open houses are inherently fun but that that girl was why I found the moment fun.

Back to the present, Reiko puts on new lipstick and thought about getting her goldfish a new vase since its current space is cramped. At work, she greets Kudo when he arrives only to find that Dr. Hebinuma and an associate of his had also snuck up on Kudo. Kudo was very pissed as Dr. Hebinuma’s entire attention was on Reiko even though he was apparently there due to him having found another location he wants to open a clinic at, and he even forcibly kissed Reiko, asking her why she doesn’t choose him instead of a man who didn’t even notice her new lipstick, which led to Kudo flying into a rage with the Branch Manager holding him back from following Dr. Hebinuma as he was on his way out. Reiko also noted that his Dr. Hebinuma lips tasted like apple, and I wonder whether this is to tie the snake man to worms and consequently apples, continuing the association of Dr. Hebinuma with snakes and snakelike things or whether the apple taste is meant to be future foreshadowing.

Then later Kudo offers to help carry a larger vase that caught Reiko’s eye at an elderly man’s shop to her apartment, leading to Reiko saying she’ll get a broom as well, which led to the elderly man saying that it must be rough to have a junior coworker who works you so hard, which is the inverse of what happened before when Kujirai B had Kudo working hard when she was his senior, and Kudo noticeably remembered that interaction from the past with Kujirai B based on his reaction. It’s at this point that I’m beginning to doubt that this is a simulation as no normal simulation would set up so many parallel and contrasting situations for Kudo to remember. Kudo obviously notes what’s similar about Reiko with how she told him to leave the inner door open, that there are slippers he can use along with how she loves the breeze from outside just like Kujirai B, as well as how she keeps her toothpaste and toothbrush at the sink, which got a smile out of him since it’s Kujirai B he loves, but when he saw that the current Reiko didn’t keep a glass of water in her fridge, that her kettle had a more feminine design, and that she had a plushie, that killed the mood for him since he was reminded that the current Reiko isn’t Kujirai B. After leaving, Kudo then touched the number 8 outside, which was the unit number for Reiko’s apartment, and it’s clear he is mourning Kujirai B since he didn’t use to do that and touching this number is his attempt at burning his memories of her into his mind. Reiko wishes that he’ll come to her apartment again since she fancies him, but I wish she wasn’t in love with such a jerk since he was upset with her naming her goldfish “Success” judging by his reaction.

At work, Kudo says her gifting him a sunflower is harassment, and she replies that it’s a thank you for carrying Success’s fish tank, and she tells him he’ll need to water it every two days after he says he can’t let it die on him. Xiaohei then waltzes in and asks Reiko whether she has found nice apartments for her since she needs more space for her clothing, none of which she’ll throw out since she bought them all with her hard-earned money. When Kudo offers the sunflower Reiko gave him to Xiaohei, Xiaohei asks him whether he’s in love with her since a sunflower in the language of flowers means “I only have eyes for you”. Of note is that in the flashback at the start of the episode, Kujirai B had a vase of roses on the same surface as her make-up while in the present with Reiko, she has a sunflower in a smaller vase. This is meant to show the difference in what Kudo feels for Kujirai B compared to the current Reiko since red roses in the language of flowers stand for passion, desire, and romance while we learned what a sunflower means with this episode. While I believe Kudo will fall for the current Reiko near the end of the story after he makes an attempt to get over his issues, I believe these two scenes are meant to highlight the very different relationship Kudo has with the current Reiko compared to Kujirai B if it wasn’t obvious by how hard the end of this episode got this point across.

After it is implied that Xiaohei shot down all of the apartments Reiko suggested for her, Reiko asks Xiaohei whether she’d be okay with living in downtown Hong Kong, and then Reiko has a flashback in her mind about Xiaohei saying that she doesn’t want to leave Kowloon and that that’s how she felt back then as well, and when Reiko came back to the reality of that world and tried to continue the conversation from back then, Xiaohei showed no realization of having said whatever it is Reiko thought she said. This shows that Xiaohei likely thought about how she didn’t want to leave Kowloon after the plans to destroy it were confirmed in the real world and that someone, probably Kudo since he was the junior coworker back then, had attempted to help her find an apartment in the past, asking that very same question.

Kudo then has Reiko and Xiaohei meet him at an apartment unit he thinks will be much more to Xiaohei’s liking, and Xiaohei loves it despite it being cramped ’cause it has a lot of storage, and the access to the roof made her love it even more. Kudo then tells Reiko that the rooms she proposed are all good options for a renter who isn’t Xiaohei, which I feel could be something Kujirai B directly told him back when he was a newer employee. Xiaohei then has Reiko and Kudo come over to where she was as she spotted a cluster of sunflowers. And as Reiko wonders whose gaze did Kudo find when he looked through the sunflowers, we see that it’s clearly Kujirai B. This world is clearly forcing Kudo to come to terms with him having loved Kujirai B and how the current Reiko is not her, and this very pointed direction the world is pushing Kudo towards makes it increasingly unlikely to be a simulation in my opinion.

After a masked man met Reiko when she was buying watermelon juice, it turns out that that man is actually Dr. Hebinuma’s lover, and he met Reiko to confirm that she existed even though something was off about her in his eyes. He also went to Gwen’s workplace and found out that the Gwen we saw in Episode 1 worked there up until two weeks ago. Apparently, Dr. Hebinuma is adopted, and the real son of the previous owner died in an accident with the father’s wife. Over the phone, Dr. Hebinuma has someone investigating Reiko. On the phone earlier in the episode, there was a Yulong he connected with, and I don’t know if this is that same person. We also learn that Dr. Hebinuma has full-body snake tattoos, fitting of his name.

Meanwhile, Kudo is looking for Gwen, and asked a man working for a company that did business with the Goldfish Teahouse whether he knows anything about what happened to Gwen, which led to the man suggesting that he ask his neighbour, and Kudo wasn’t happy with that answer as he couldn’t reach Gwen’s apartment, prompting him to ask if there has been a land adjustment, which the man scoffed at after hearing Kudo utter that. When Kudo goes out looking again, there’s a dead end in the path to where Gwen’s apartment should be, which is very interesting, and I have a theory for this too later after I get through the rest of the content of this episode.

The man in the mask then visited Reiko as she was still on the rooftop of the apartment building Xiaohei had moved into, saying her existence is an insult to a dear friend’s memory since she’s living her life while not being her since Kujirai B no longer exists in this world. She sulked as night approached, and it seems in a couple of days she found that the sunflower she gifted to Kudo had died due to him not watering it, telling her quite rudely that he dislikes her.

This led to days of her not sleeping to the point she was having trouble seeing and wondering about her place in the world. On the rooftop when they’re trying to incinerate the trash for confidentiality purposes, Reiko obviously can’t see well, leading to Kudo suggesting that she wear her glasses, which she refused to do. She then straight up asks him whether she isn’t the Reiko he knows, and the wind starts blowing harshly, as if the world didn’t want her to bring that up. She says a lot of her life might belong to that of someone else, but there are things that are proof of her own existence such as that fish tank she picked out, her love for lemon chicken, and her being in love with Kudo. Kudo, sometimes being a huge dick as like now, says that her love for him is an illusion, and Reiko pointedly shares how she yearns for his acknowledgement and crave his touch before passing out.

At the start of Episode 4, there’s a flashback with Kujirai B and a younger Kudo celebrating his addition to the team even though it’s two months late, and the Branch Manager conveniently can’t attend, or it’s actually like more likely that she wants to be alone with him. She treats him to shelled shrimp, and she has a lot to drink. Kudo mentions during their date that there’s apparently a plan to demolish Kowloon with her dismissing it as that had already happened before in 1994, making this the Second Kowloon Walled City, a re-creation of the original Kowloon. When Kudo wonders why it was remade since it wouldn’t hurt if it were gone, she says that somewhere deep down everyone wants to go back to those times and feel the nostalgia, so that’s why it can’t be erased even if you want it to be, although she qualifies that last part after a pause with “Maybe”. After they head into an alley, Kujirai B suggests that he take her to his go-to spot since she clearly wants more from this date, and like a gentleman, far from what we see in how he treats the current Reiko, he says that she has had too much to drink. The bra strap on her left side then falls over to her arm, and he points it out, leading her to grab his tie and pull him for a kiss, which is obvious what she has been craving for the whole time, especially since she noted that Kudo is the type to be well-liked by his elders with her being an older woman. This leads to the start of an implied passionate make-out scene.

Back in Kowloon Generic Romance’s world, Reiko wakes up after lying in a bed that’s not her own, and Kudo reveals she’s been out cold since yesterday. He then offers to reveal the truth about Kujirai B to her, and her inner self tells her not to do it, leading to her refusing the offer. He then says he’ll go in for work and tells her to get more rest with him promising to explain the situation to the Branch Manager. When she panics about her apartment key, Kudo shows her a spare key to her apartment, asking her if she really doesn’t want to know why he has that, which she confirms. He also notes that he left the spare key to this unit on the table and instructs her to use it to lock up when she leaves, leaving the key in the mailbox when she’s done with it.

Out in town as Dr. Hebinuma and the Masked Gwen are investigating things, Masked Gwen doesn’t want Dr. Hebinuma bumping into the server Gwen since if the fake Reiko loves Kudo then the server Gwen will also love Dr. Hebinuma. Dr. Hebinuma just brushes it off saying he’d get more samples for data if he runs into server Gwen. When they’ve arrived at the Goldfish Teahouse, Masked Gwen notes that the exterior is the same as back then and checks the alleyway where a shelter for stray cats he had made is not present, not even a trace of it. He says something is definitely up with Kowloon and pointed to some Hebinuma Pharmaceutical products that were being sold as new at a shop, but Dr. Hebinuma dismissed that as being due to the logistical quirks due to the peculiarities of Kowloon. Masked Gwen also notes that Kowloon feels shabbier now compared to when he lived here. He also brought up that Reiko has the same beauty mark where Kujirai B did, which Dr. Hebinuma found tantalizing as a clone don’t gestate like the original, leading to beauty marks either not being in the same spot or not existing at all in a clone since things like beauty marks and fingerprints are formed due to external processes. He astutely notes that Kudo must be despairing due to the current Reiko’s resemblance to Kujirai B despite not being her.

At Reiko’s place, Reiko and Yaomay are celebrating Yaomay’s new job as a seamstress that Xiaohei got for her. Reiko then shares that she and Kujirai B are different people and that Kujirai B has already passed away. She shares that Kudo seemed to know that, and when Yaomay asks why she didn’t ask him for confirmation, Reiko says she feels she’d disappear if she did, and I’m inclined to agree since either her inner self or the world itself told her not to find out more. She then tells Yaomay she wants to be her absolute self in that if she’s sure it’s a decision she fully wanted to make herself then even if she regretted that decision it wouldn’t be a mistake since absolute refers to trusting herself and seeing things though. Even if just for a second, she wants to be able to say she is herself and no one else.

Then Yaomay brought up the mystery regarding her looking identical to someone from the past and having no memories. Reiko says she doesn’t remember when she started living here, but she remembers where everything is. It’s as if she had been created to match the life of Kujirai B, prompting Yaomay to wonder if Reiko is a clone. Yaomay saw a post online about Generic Terra project involving clone research, only they didn’t call them clones but Zirconians, which prompted Reiko to wonder if the name comes from zirconia, a synthetic gemstone. Yaomay notes that her earrings today are also made of zirconia. This leads to Reiko thinking she was created to be a fake from the beginning and wonders if it’s too much to ask to be the real thing. Then Yaomay had Reiko join her on top of her bed showing her the beauty of zirconia. Even though it’s not a real diamond, Yaomay loves it. Perhaps she feels an affinity for it due to her being a result of plastic surgery, but it encourages her that even a fake can sparkle so brilliantly. She says there are a lot of people in the world who say a fake is nothing but a fake, but there are people like her who see genuine sparkle in a fake and wanted Reiko not to forget that since she was feeling down.

At work, Kudo punches in late, and Reiko tells him she’ll be going for lunch with Yaomay again. Kudo then hides after finishing lunch when he hears Reiko’s voice. Yaomay then indicated they were planning a party on the rooftop of Xiaohei’s apartment and also suggested to Reiko that she move out of her apartment unit. She suggests she throw away all her old stuff and buy new stuff, much like she did for herself. Reiko wants to keep the unit as is for Kujirai B’s sake, and when Yaomay asks why since Kujirai B no longer exists, Reiko insists that’s exactly why she wants to keep it as she feels that unit is a fragment of her, and if it goes away she feels like her presence itself will be completely erased from the world. Reiko understands how scary that is given the feeling she gets about what would happen if she were to learn the truth about Kujirai B.

Outside on his smoke break, Kudo asks Reiko if the new place she ate at was any good when she also comes out, and she told him about Xiaohei’s housewarming party, inviting him to go to it. When he asks who’s going with them, he lost interest when he heard Yaomay would be there, but he gave them a lot of money to spend for the party. Reiko then remembers she has a showing she needs to go to, and closes the door behind her, but she stops and feels the door as she longs for Kudo’s touch. It feels like Kudo also senses Reiko, but due to his feelings for Kujirai B, he finds himself unable to touch the door. At work, Yaomay thinks back to Reiko saying that she’s not moving and not throwing anything away, and she says quietly, but then it’s like your life is being bound by Kujirai B, and this may even be the truth in more than one way. On the rooftop at work, Kudo is singing a song about a girl being alive and breathing, which is probably his hope for Kujirai B being alive through Reiko.

At the housewarming party, Kudo turns up after all, apparently ’cause Xiaohei forced him to show up. Yaomay then shows how much she hates Kudo by serving a dish with mostly lemon and very little chicken. She then brings up that she found a nice place for Reiko to live in, and Reiko reaffirms that she’s not moving, which upsets Yaomay, who then angrily asks Kudo what he thinks after explaining her reasoning for Reiko moving, and he replies that if Reiko hates that apartment unit and wants to move out then she should go for it with Reiko replying immediately that she doesn’t hate it.

After having finished the party, they split into two teams with Kudo and Reiko throwing out the trash before going for a smoke. Unfortunately, Reiko doesn’t have any cigarettes, but Kudo is smoking his last one and can’t lend her one. Reiko then brings up that Dr. Hebinuma mentioned wanting to open another clinic, and she wonders what happened with that. When she mentioned his visit last time, Kudo brought up that Dr. Hebinuma kissed her that day, and then did a fake wall slam on the ledge of the rooftop and pretended he was about to kiss her before blowing smoke into her face, saying that she leaves herself too open. He then brings up that the moon shines ’cause it reflects sunlight, so he asks Reiko what light does Generic Terra reflect to shine, and she answers that Generic Terra looks like it’s shining ’cause they have high hopes for it, and that’s why it looks so appealing and shines so brightly. Afterwards, Kudo is wandering around making up songs like earlier and scoffs at the idea of him having high hopes. He then notes there’s something definitely wrong about Kowloon this summer.

The next day, Kudo dominates at mahjong, and Reiko talks about going to lunch with Kudo for once since Yaomay is off, and she notes that there’s no Mr. Chan today with one of the men saying that he’s absent without notice. At Dr. Hebinuma’s main clinic, we find out that Dr. Hebinuma had invited Mr. Chan for a non-descript health check-up. Dr. Hebinuma then gets a call from an associate that has found another Mr. Chan from outside of Kowloon and plans to bring him into Kowloon, and after he has done that, the Mr. Chan that was him Dr. Hebinuma disappears, showing only one version of someone can exist in Kowloon at any given time. Back at the realty firm, Kudo got a notification on his computer that there’s an existing item named “Sai On Tower” at this location which asked him whether he wanted to replace it, and I’m guessing this could be where Mr. Chan works given he just disappeared. Dr. Hebinuma then notes that they’re contacting the Japan branch of Wong Loi Realty about Kudo and asks Masked Gwen what was the cause of death for Kujirai B, and he said that he prefers not to talk about it with both him and Kudo saying it must’ve been a mistake. He gave an answer to Dr. Hebinuma off screen, which led to the snake responding he understands why he would believe it to be incomprehensible and why he’s angry at the second Reiko. Flashing back to Kudo and Reiko, Reiko is concerned about Mr. Chan given he lives alone, and Kudo randomly throws it out there that Reiko may have thought he just dropped dead. He then says in a disturbing fashion that people die so easily and asks her how much she knows, and Reiko says that Gwen told her that Kujirai B no longer exists in the world, which prompted Kudo to put his hand on his face as if the reality of that is so painful for him, and then his expression changes, leading to him saying that he killed her.

After thinking about it, Episodes 3 and 4 somewhat reduced the likelihood of the world being a simulation, which is what I thought the world in Kowloon Romance was after Episode 2. I believe the random recalling/flashback in Reiko’s mind of Xiaohei saying that she doesn’t want to leave Kowloon and that that’s what she thought back then as well is actually not one of Reiko’s memories since the story has established that Reiko doesn’t have any of Kujirai B’s memories by Reiko herself and Dr. Hebinuma.

Thus, it’s possible that what flashed into Reiko’s mind is either one of Kudo’s memories or a construct of a plausible thing Xiaohei would say as an implied continuation of one of Kudo’s memories from when he was Kujirai B’s junior coworker and failed to find a suitable apartment for Xiaohei back in the real world. This show often draws parallels/contrasts between the past and present, so it wouldn’t surprise me if later down the road there is a flashback to Kujirai B teaching Kudo the very lesson he taught Reiko in Episode 3.

I believe whether the world is a dream world induced from experimentation or something else that involves Kudo the world in Kowloon Generic Romance is formed in part from Kudo’s mind, which is the why the world hammered so hard into viewers’ and Kudo’s minds in Episode 3 that the current Reiko is not Kujirai B ’cause the world was forcibly trying to make that point to him with the sunflowers and shit, which led to him saying he dislikes her. No normal simulation would be this pointed in its direction. This would also explain why his feelings on Generic Terra can be positive depending on his mood as shown in Episode 2 when he seemed happy about Generic Terra shining brightly.

This would also explain how there can be more than one version of the same person with one version disappearing as soon as the second version enters Kowloon and why Reiko believes she will disappear if she learns the truth as the world probably partially exists ’cause Kudo doesn’t want to let of his nostalgia from before Kujirai B died and partially to teach Kudo a lesson with Reiko being part of the lesson, that it’s okay to fall in love knowing that it won’t last since love is worth it and change is a part of life.

This is backed by how in Episode 4 pointedly had Kujirai B say in a flashback/dream that people will always want to go back to the nostalgia, which is why you can’t erase Kowloon, and this could tie into the Branch Manager of the realty firm mentioning in Episode 1 that the Second Kowloon is an uncomfortable place to live, yet the population always stays the same, and whatever the true nature of Kowloon Generic Romance’s unnatural world is it could have to do with nostalgia itself, which I speculate to possibly be Kudo’s nostalgia for the past given we can have multiple version of the same person with a Gwen that remembered that Kujirai B died and one that didn’t know of Kujirai B dying and why the world is so Reiko-centric given we know Kujirai B was Kudo’s former lover. The reason the Second Kowloon Walled City always has the same number of people is possibly ’cause it contains all the people Kudo knew during a specific period of time there, and the world is molded by that preference.

I suspect that from these events that the Second Kowloon Walled City has actually been destroyed in the real world, and Kudo just doesn’t want to let go of his memories and nostalgia, and that the Generic Terra project is his way of rationalizing how Reiko can continue to exist despite having died. This could explain how there is a Gwen and Mr. Chan who came from outside of Kowloon ’cause they actually left Kowloon at some point in the real world. This would mean Generic Terra is just a red herring and isn’t real with it mainly being used as an avenue of telling the mangaka’s story and by forcing Kudo to acknowledge that change is inevitable, and it’s how you adjust to it that matters.

That notification Kudo got on “Sai On Tower” on his computer might have been due to the world changing due to Mr. Chan suddenly being replaced by yet another Mr. Chan if Kowloon must always have the same population as the Branch Manager of the realty firm, and that was the way the world could determine whether Kudo approves of a change or not. Masked Gwen, who I will call Original Gwen from now on, noted that Kowloon feels shabbier than when he lived there, which shows that this Kowloon is fabricated given how he apparently existed in a more up-to-date Kowloon when he lived there. It would also explain why the shelter for cats he built is gone since that was from a more up-to-date Kowloon. These different versions of people, or Zirconians as they call it, could be an attempt from the world to force Kudo to embrace change, much like I believe this current Reiko exists to teach Kudo a lesson. Yaomay being upset about the current Reiko being bound by Kujirai B is noteworthy, but Reiko’s instincts are probably on the mark, and she would most likely disappear if she lost all her connections to Kujirai B if her purpose is to help Kudo move on from Kujirai B. And the dead end which obstructed Gwen’s apartment might be ’cause Kudo didn’t want to come to grips with the reality of Kujirai B being dead as shown by his hand on his face reaction at the end of Episode 4, and the dead end was meant to delay him grappling with the issue.