Kowloon Generic Romance

Episode 10

While Kowloon Generic Romance's source manga is well-renowned for its achingly slow pace; in contrast, the anime iteration has raced through the story at a rate of almost one episode per volume. Early episodes skipped many less “important” slice-of-life scenes, but later episodes have hewn much closer to the manga, with episode ten adapting almost the entirety of the ninth volume, without cutting anything of substance. While in some ways this is reassuring for those manga readers concerned about the adaptation becoming overly condensed, it does add a new problem: redundancy.

Kowloon Generic Romance keeps its secrets close to its chest, and releases new information only in a tightly-controlled, drip-fed trickle. Many central mysteries have been at least partly explained without specifics. Kowloon 3.0 is a facsimile of Second Kowloon that appeared some time after its demolition three years ago. While we assume it's got something to do with Generic Terra floating in the sky, we've received no concrete answers. Similarly, we've learned Kujirai B seemingly killed herself just before Second Kowloon's demolition, but specifics are again alarmingly vague. Over the past two or three episodes, we've seen characters like Yaomay, Gwen, and Kujirai A learn more about their ephemeral city, yet each time the viewer sees only a new iteration of old information. I can't help but feel the narrative is spinning its wheels just a little.

With only three episodes left in this season, and the promise the show will have a definitive ending, I'm starting to get a little anxious that we're running out of new manga chapters of a series that mangaka Jun Mayuzuki hasn't yet finished, and so many mysteries are left without satisfying solutions. Thankfully, Kowloon Generic Romance is about a lot more than just its still frustratingly opaque plot – its immaculate vibes remain fully intact, its art and design alluringly retro, and its characters complex, fascinating, and multilayered. Although the plot continues to only inch along little by little, I remain hypnotically engaged by every other aspect of the production.

I'm particularly intrigued by how Kujirai A and B seem so utterly different from one another. Apart from their obvious physical similarities and some of their likes (watermelon, smoking, Kudo), the way they act and the choices they make are diametrically opposed. In the flashback that opens this episode, Kujirai B thinks nothing of visiting a rough part of town alone, much to Kudo's consternation. Conversely, when Kujirai A follows in her predecessor's footsteps to the same area, she clings on to a frying pan-wielding Yaomay. While Yaomay is the best gal-pal in all of anime and manga, we've been told that Kujirai B probably would never have been friends with “someone like her.”

Other characters' perceptions of the two Kujirais are also markedly different, such as Gwen, who comments darkly that Kujirai B “always had a scent of death about her.” That's certainly not a phrase one could use to describe the anxious yet sunny Kujirai A, a woman who loves her friends, enjoys new things, and dreams of traveling beyond Kowloon's claustrophobic walls. Contrast that with Kujirai B, who, in her flashbacks, seems far more world-weary, guarded, and melancholy. What would she have thought of this new version of herself, free of emotional baggage and open to the future? Even with Kujirai B's more mysterious personality, I struggle to understand why she chose to take her own life, nor what link Hebinuma Pharmaceuticals had in regards to her death. Perhaps that mystery will remain until the very end? It's the relationship between Kudo and both Kujirais that makes the centerpiece of the show, however, with no scene more telling than Kujirai A's dual vision through the “magic glasses.” Present-day Kudo looks haunted, while old Kudo blushes and smiles with his eyes when standing before his beloved. A look that Kujirai A has never seen. Perhaps it's this realization that pushes her to the difficult, but extremely mature decision to break up with Kudo, realizing that if they continue their relationship, all she'll do is hurt him (something she tells him she refuses to do, unlike her predecessor). She also prioritizes her own life and goals, determined to find out the truth of her reality. I hope she can stick by her decision.

This episode's gimmick, Kujirai B's “magic glasses,” opens up a whole can of worms about how the whole Kowloon 3.0 thing works. (Kujirai A's stammering freakout when showing Yaomay the glasses is both hilarious and adorable.) If eyes are the mirrors of the soul, then what does that make eyeglasses? If Kowloon 3.0 is indeed reconstructed from the memories of former residents, then somehow Kujirai A has been granted access to the city's source code, or at least a hard drive or two, with her new ability to see fragments of Kujirai B's memories through the lenses. Her investigation of the talismans plastered around the city, many of which with computer error codes printed on the back, seems to only confirm the digital consciousness theory. Is there someone sending her messages via these codes, or is it merely part of an automated system? The final message she receives, “don't look for it anymore,” is that meant to be a warning of some kind? It's certainly a little on the chilling side.

Xiaohei continues to be one of the more intriguing characters, firstly because it looks like he may become a love interest for Yaomay! That girl deserves some happiness, I hope they can make things work together, even if his warning to her “not to eat stuff like that” suggests (wrongly) he's worried about her putting on weight! His interactions with Gwen suggest Xiaohei knows more about what's going on with Kowloon 3.0's generic residents, as he seems to comprehend why his generic, female-presenting, lolita-styled version of his younger self hasn't disappeared. Not that the audience gets to learn this information, though!

At least with Yaomay finally ingesting Yulong's chocolate and reversing her Kowloon food-and-drink-induced brainwashing, she might be able to confer with the other characters and get the plot moving along. I wonder what would happen if a Kowloon 3.0 generic person eats outside food? We enter into uncharted territory for English-language manga readers next time, maybe we'll find answers to this and other questions then? I sure hope so.

Rating:

Kowloon Generic Romance is currently streaming on Crunchyroll on Saturdays.