Anime Review: Kowloon Generic Romance

Sometimes I will look through the seasonal list and not pick up a show because it didn’t look all too interesting, only to get it recommended to me later. Kowloon Generic Romance was one of those shows because, honestly, the premise didn’t seem all that interesting. Something about romance and real estate made for an unenticing synopsis; however, I was told that this would be the sleeper hit of the season. Now that I am at the end of the series, did it turn out that my first assumptions were misplaced?

Let’s Jam!

The Story

Kujirai and Kudou work at a real estate office in the walled city of Kowloon. Kowloon is, for lack of a better term, a slum; however, people call it home, and many feel that there is something nostalgic about the city. Despite that, things take a bit of a weird turn when these floating devices seem to be keeping tabs on everything and everyone. A news broadcast refers to it as Generic Terra, which can back up the memories of all human beings, making even eternal youth and immortality a reality.

Remember that because this is important.

After the little dose of sci-fi, the episode becomes a standard slice-of-life romance. Kudou is pretty forward and outgoing, albeit incompetent at his job. He even pushes Kujirai aside to clock in before her, making her late! As an apology, he invites her out to lunch, and this is where the two of them begin to talk and get to know each other a little more. The more they hang out, the more Kujirai begins to realize that she’s falling in love with Kudou.

He takes her to a little hole-in-the-wall café to get some tea. It makes a great impression on Kujirai (despite being accidentally referred to as Kudou’s girlfriend) that she wants to come back; however, she can’t find it again. Later, Kudou has to go take care of something and leaves in a hurry. Kujirai finds a photograph of him and his old girlfriend, but there’s something awfully strange about the photograph. Suddenly, she remembers where the café is and heads back there, but when she does, the waiter talks about Kujirai already being engaged to Kudou. We see the background glitching out as it hits us… Generic Terra rewrote her memories, or was it something else entirely?

As the show goes on, we dive deep into Kujirai as a character as she tries to understand what is happening around her. As she digs deeper into things, more and more of the truth opens up. She isn’t someone who had her memories replaced, but someone who was created because her true self, whom she refers to as Kujiari B, has died. With this new information, he continues to unravel the mystery; however, more forces are at play than she realizes, namely the Hebinuma Corporation, along with the mysterious Gene Terra technology that is floating above the city.

It isn’t until the final episodes where everything gets revealed, and when it does, it hits hard! Refraining from spoilers, I will say that while it didn’t take me by complete surprise, the impact and everything that happened during the show made perfect sense, even if the resolution that was needed was bittersweet!

The Characters

Reiko Kujirai

For a main character, she is going to be difficult to talk about without spoiling a lot of things; however, I will tell you that she works as a real estate agent in the walled city of Kowloon alongside Kudou. As mentioned in the story section, she is a copy of the real Kujirai, who passed away. The circumstances of her death were largely unknown, and it is this curiosity that prompted this version of Kujirai to look into things so that she can find her “absolute self.” Along the way, she grows as a character and goes through many phases from being curious to insecure to frightened to bold, and finally, to accepting. While she does understand what it means to become her absolute self in the end, it is symbolized as receiving a gift, and even though you can pull the bow and have the gift change the world, you still do it because you don’t know if the world on the other side will be better than the one you’re currently in. In other words, it’s a risk that might pay off, but if it doesn’t, then you won’t have any regrets over not trying.

As for her attitude, Kujirai and Kujrai B seem like opposites of one another. Whenever we saw flashbacks of Kujirai B, she seemed more outgoing and sassy, while Kujirai is more reserved and timid. This gave us the clue (and later confirmed) that she was not a perfect recreation of Kujirai B. The reasons for this are revealed in the final episode, and they are a lot simpler than you would think; however, the fact that she’s a different version of Kujrai says so much about the original and makes a lot of sense once the mystery is unraveled. It’s a unique property to add layers to a character by having the same character exist as two different entities. In fact, to differentiate the two, they hired two different seiyuus to play the character. Haruka Shiraishi played Kujirai while Yuriko Yamaguchi played Kujirai B. That was a pretty brilliant move to help bring both versions of the character to life! Kujirai is probably one of the most diverse main characters I’ve seen in a while!

Hajime Kudou

On the other end of the spectrum, we have Kudou. Honestly? Outside of his secretive nature, there isn’t much to say about his personality. He just seems like a child trapped inside a man’s body. One minute, he’s serious and offering adult-like advice, and the next minute, he’s playing childish tricks on you, or spouting some off-the-cuff stuff that comes across as rude, but in an obvious joking manner. He also doesn’t seem to take his job at the real estate office too seriously as he’s always coming in late; however, when he’s actually at the residence of someone who wants to view an apartment, or a tenant who needs help with something, he often acts professional, giving them good service. The way he performs his job is a direct reflection of his personality. I found that to be a nice touch as it truly showed that he put himself into his work.

Despite all of that, as I said, there was a secretive nature to Kudou, as if he were always hiding something. There was a moment when Kujirai discovered that she was a replication of the version that died, and when she tried to confront Kudou about it, he simply blew it off, but not before the air between them got rather silent and tense. It was this moment when you suspected that Kudou was the key to unraveling the mystery. Just the fact alone that he kept everything to himself spoke to things in many different ways. It made the viewer be wary of him, it made the viewer try and guess everything that was happening, and it also showed that Kudou, himself, was completely unsure of things, as if he didn’t have all of the answers. That uncertainty added even more mystique to the show, and I thought it was handled perfectly.

Miyuki Hebinuma

At first, I thought this guy was a creep and a pervert. And then he proved that he was, indeed, a creep and a pervert! Then, we got to dive deep into his character, and he didn’t seem as creepy and perverted anymore (albeit, let’s be honest, he was still pretty creepy and perverted).

The lengths he went to for his mother showed the kind of love a son would have for one. What he did to his body just to prove his worth, all for the sake of revenge against his father, and how he manipulated things all to his advantage, was quite the tale. Regardless of his… eccentric… personality, you actually felt sympathy for him as time went on. In fact, his character development was so deep, it could have been an entire anime on its own. Imagine if his story was expanded upon, and you were taken through the events of his past and present at a slower pace and let it play out… You could legitimately have another 12 to 13-episode series on your hands. Very rarely is a side character fleshed out that deeply, but that was the case here with Miyuki… and what’s better… is that there were other supporting characters directly tied to him that could have been in that show as well. Miyuki is probably one of the best supporting characters in recent times, hands down. Phenomenal job turning a creepy and perverted character like that into something extraordinary!

Tao Gwen

Speaking of those supporting characters, here is one that played a dual role… as the lover of Miyuki, and one of Kudou’s best friends. Starting off as a bartender at a place that Kudou frequented, he has unique knowledge of both Kudou/Kujirai and Miyuki’s situations. I won’t go much further as it will start to open up into spoiler territory, but Gwen is kind of a floater type of character. By that, I mean when the story calls for him to be there, he’s there. He helps unravel some of the mysteries for both Kujirai and Miyuki, so to say that he has his hands full playing support for both sides says a lot!

Youmei

Another supporting character who is friends with Kujirai. She is, well, I’ll just say it… She’s about 10 lbs of air in about 1 lb of headspace. Yeah, she’s the epitome of ditzy, but she means well. Despite her often annoying dialogue, she does serve herself up as a major clue to the mysteries of Kowloon. Before she gets to that point, we learn a little bit about her and how her mother was a famous actress who wanted her to follow in her footsteps; however, she did so in a bit of a forceful way. She wasn’t abusive, but she made Youmei feel as if she wasn’t allowed to think independently or be her true self, so she ran away to Kowloon to have that independence. Even though she wasn’t my favorite character, she did have a deep backstory, and she does play a vital role later on when it comes time to unravel everything.

Yulong

Another person who is involved with Miyuki. Without revealing too much, he is responsible for one of the biggest pieces of the puzzle in the series. While his parts were minor in the show, whenever he was on screen, it was made sure that his impact was felt!

Xiohei

Yeah, this one is also going to be a spoiler discussion if I continue, but let’s see if you can figure it out from this. Big: The Anime. You’re welcome.

Art, Animation, and Sound

One of the first things you’ll notice straight away is the artwork. If you longed for that ’90s style of anime, Kowloon Generic Romance will give you that in spades! Arvo Animation did an incredible job of giving you a major dose of nostalgia! While the background art is more modern in style than anything, the character designs were straight from over thirty years ago. This clash of classic and modern paints a unique picture that serves as something nostalgic, yet fresh at the same time. Even the coloring style of using flat, yet muted, pastel colors for the character’s designs was well done. The combination of pale blue, white, and black for Kujirai made her stand out, while something simpler, like a white dress shirt for Kudou and Gwen, was simplistic, but worked well.

Despite some of the plainness of the designs, I didn’t feel as if it made them blend in as it would with any other show. You can attribute that to the way their heads/faces were drawn, as it gave similarly designed characters a unique personality that allowed them to stand out and become instantly recognizable. Just an incredible job all around.

The animation, however, wasn’t much to write home about. Then again, most of the show featured characters just walking around lazily, or sitting at a booth at the café, smoking a cigarette, or what have you. This wasn’t the type of show that required heavy animation, but despite its plainness, it still worked, and I didn’t have much of an issue with it. Although seeing Success, Kujirai’s goldfish, in constant CGI was a bit jarring. You mean to tell me that you could traditionally animate every single character, but you need to blow your CGI budget on a goldfish that received about 10 minutes of total screen time in 13 episodes? Okay… weird choice, but it is what it is. (Well, Gene Terra was also CGI, but the floating 3D double-sided pyramid was stationary the entire time, so it’s not like it needed much animation outside of some cool After Effects particles)

Now, some people might complain about my statement about the average animation because the first episode had a glorious opening scene complete with amazing pans, angles, and everything else you would expect from a bit of sakuga. It was quite impressive, but you don’t really see much more of that throughout the remainder of the show. It’s another example of a studio upping the budget for the first episode and then pulling back for the rest.

The soundtrack was pretty atmospheric. Every track fit perfectly and helped enhance the nostalgic feeling of the show. The opening and ending also added to the nostalgia flavor by being something you would have heard over thirty years ago, but it didn’t seem “classic,” if that makes sense. It still sounded fresh and new, thus again, giving a nice mixture of offering something classic-feeling, but still modern and fresh.

Overall Thoughts

There is a lot of good with this show outside of the nostalgic feel. When you start to dive into the show, you begin to understand the meaning behind the title of Kowloon Generic Romance. Then, as you dive deeper into the show, the meaning behind the title continues to change until the very last episode, when everything falls into place. That’s when you realize that Kowloon Generic Romance is THE PERFECT title to describe this show, not just at the beginning, but at the middle, and at the end, as it takes on a different meaning at each phase of the series.

What I also like is how they gave you the answer in the first episode with Gene Terra, but despite you getting that answer up front, you have no idea what it means until the mystery gets solved in the final episodes of the series… and even when the mystery gets solved, you’re still wondering what role Gene Terra truly plays in all of it. Not only that, but even with Gene Terra being revealed, the show tucks it away in a corner somewhere and focuses on the characters, their stories, and Kujirai’s journey of discovering her true self and how it all ties into the mysteries surrounding Kowloon.

The stores are so well told that you forget multiple times that Gene Terra exists, and even when they show little clips of it, you say “Ah, yeah… Gene Terra’s still there,” but you don’t think about it any more than that. You forget about its ability to record memories because the rest of the storytelling is so good that its importance overrides that piece of information in your head until it’s time to recall it. When it does get recalled, you’re left shaking your head because you realize you knew about this all along, but still, you never truly understood it fully.

The writing is simply masterful. I would say that my only complaint is that the mystery was unraveled a little too quickly… especially in the final episode, where things were thrown at you at a lightning-fast pace, and while I’m sure the lingering questions were answered, I feel as if they weren’t. I think if it had just one more episode, or it chose to reveal things a little sooner, the ending could have made us understand things a bit better.

Nevertheless, this was an incredibly solid anime from start to finish that absorbed you into its story. So, if you thought this was just a nostalgic-looking anime about two people in love at a real estate company, do what I did, and smack yourself for thinking that’s all there was to this show. Probably the sleeper hit of the season!

Overall Score: 4.5 / 5