Kowloon Generic Romance
Entry updated 4 August 2025. Tagged: TV.
Japanese animated tv series (2025). Arvo Animation. Based on the Manga by Jun Mayuzuki. Directed by Yoshiaki Iwasaki. Written by Jin Tanaka. Voice cast include: Taito Ban, Aoi Koga, Ryōtarō Okiayu, Haruka Shiraishi, Tomokazu Sugita and Yuriko Yamaguchi. Thirteen 25-minute episodes. Colour.
In the Near Future, as 32 year old real estate agent Reiko Kujirai (Shiraishi) walks to work through Kowloon Walled City in Hong Kong (see Cities): a glowing octahedron can be seen floating in the sky – this is Generic Terra (see Technology), created by Hebinuma Pharmaceutical. A news broadcast explains "it is said that Generic Terra is capable of backing up the memories of all human beings, making even eternal youth and Immortality a reality" (see Upload). Reiko is close friends with fellow employee Hajime Kudo (Sugita), who seems reticent about his girlfriend; on finding a photo of the engaged couple, Reiko is baffled to see herself, leading to the realization that she has no memories of her past (see Amnesia). Meeting Tao Gwen (Ban), a former friend of the couple, he tells her "the Reiko Kujirai I knew no longer exists in this world". Discussing her Identity crisis with Yaomay (Koga), a new friend, the latter mentions rumours that Generic Terra had been working on Clones, calling them "zirconians". Reiko, helped by Yaomay and Gwen, attempts to find out the truth about herself and Kowloon.
Kowloon Walled City was a densely packed slum (in the late 1980s it held 35,000 residents within its 2.6 hectares), that was demolished in 1994. Here it was rebuilt by the former residents, but three years ago that too was demolished: to the rest of Hong Kong it is a deserted ruin. Yaomay is unusual as she moved into the city after its second demolition but sees it as the residents do; she too is having an identity crisis, having left her actress mother and undergone plastic surgery so she no longer resembles her overbearing parent. Gwen is the ex-boyfriend of hermaphrodite Miyuki Hebinuma (Okiayu), President of Hebinuma Pharmaceutical, a Kowloon child adopted by the company's owner after his son died and who created Generic Terra so the son's memories could be uploaded into a clone. Miyuki resents his adopted father's treatment of his mother and, aided by a childhood friend, plots revenge (though the owner's dementia eventually frustrates this).
After Reiko's original (voiced by Yamaguchi in the flashbacks) died of a drugs overdose – which might or might not have been Suicide due to depression – it appears Kudo somehow recreated Kowloon as it was just before her death: as a real estate agent he is familiar with its geography, though the layout changes as he learns new things about the place. It is suggested that the overhead Generic Terra – which turns out to have been defective – resonated with Kudo's regrets; with its stored memories of the populace, an unchanging Kowloon of three years ago was rendered, locked in a type of Time Loop (Yaomay eventually notices it is always summer there).
Reiko discovers most non-residents cannot see her, whilst Gwen suspects she might cease to exist if she leaves Kowloon – also mentioning how, if the original of someone who has a copy (or "generic") living in the city enters, then the copy vanishes (which happened to his). They discover an exception – Xiaohei, an investigator sent by Miyuki's adopted father – whose younger, Kowloon version is a transvestite who Kudo did not realize was biologically male – when he does the copy disappears. Reiko efforts to establish her "absolute self", to not be the copy of her original that Kudo wants, succeeds (Gwen remarks on how different she is) but makes Kowloon increasingly unstable. In the end Reiko, no longer a reflection of Kudo's regret, is able to leave Kowloon (which reverts to its ruined state) and not disappear, to start a new life in Hong Kong. She meets Kudo again a couple of years later; Miyuki and Gwen get back together, whilst Yaomay and Xiaohei become close.
Based on an incomplete manga that had eleven volumes (95 chapters) as of April 2025, this Anime compresses a long story without an official ending into thirteen 25-minute segments: it is thus a little rushed and the ending lacks solidity (Kudo reappearing with minimal explanation), whilst the means by which Generic Terra recreated Kowloon Walled City through Kudo is somewhat vague: a number of stickers attached to walls have HTTP Status Codes on them suggesting a Computer-generated simulation (see Virtual Reality), though other suggestions are made, which the manga's final story arc may clarify. As it stands, Kowloon Generic Romance is an impressive but flawed series, whose setting and characters are interesting, with themes centring on identity, regret and nostalgia. A live action movie is to be released in 2025. [SP]
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