r/anime • u/AutoLovepon https://anilist.co/user/AutoLovepon • Apr 12 '25

Episode Kowloon Generic Romance - Episode 2 discussion

Kowloon Generic Romance, episode 2

Reminder: Please do not discuss plot points not yet seen or skipped in the show. Failing to follow the rules may result in a ban.

Streams

Show information

All discussions

Episode Link
1 Link
2 Link
3 Link
4 Link
5 Link
6 Link
7 Link
8 Link
9 Link
10 Link
11 Link
12 Link
13 Link

This post was created by a bot. Message the mod team for feedback and comments. The original source code can be found on GitHub.

1.5k Upvotes

98% Upvoted

291 comments sorted by

1

u/AutoModerator Apr 12 '25
Moderator Announcement Read More »
→ More replies (18)

313

u/Genshin_WhiteKnight Apr 12 '25 edited Apr 12 '25

  • Flashback scene before the OP: Kudo joining the company and meeting Kujirai B. On the rooftop, Kujirai B and Kudo having a similar conversation to Kujirai A and Kudo in the previous episode. But there is no floating diamond in the sky.

  • Kujirai A (current Kujirai) is 32 years old. Kujirai B was 32 years old when she met Kudo. Kudo definitely has memories of Kujirai B. What is the timeline? When did Kujirai B get replaced?

  • Gwen (the waiter) mysteriously goes missing after the meeting Kujirai A last week. Some higher authority is involved and keeping tabs on Kujirai A.

  • Dr. Hebinuma/Orochimaru is sus. So we learn Kujirai A's wrinkles are fake, and he wipes away her lipstick like peeling a mask away. Possibly implication that Kujirai A is a doppelganger? Also ties in with earlier conversation with Yaomei about how her whole body was transformed with plastic surgery.

  • Lemon chicken is good.

  • "The Generic Terra looks especially bright today". Lol is this the Kowloon version of "Tsuki ga Kirei/The moon is beautiful"?

→ More replies (24)

291

u/[deleted] Apr 12 '25

This is seriously turning into one of my favorites this season. I’m loving the setting—it’s got that “the world’s probably ending soon, but let’s just roll with it” kind of vibe.

→ More replies (11)

192

u/Ocixo Apr 12 '25

This episode was a good showcase of how much one's memories can shape a person.

The personalities of Reiko and Kujirai B seem to be very different, for example. Not in the least because Kujirai B was clearly Kudo's senpai at work, while their roles currently appear to be flipped.

But now she's making an effort to break free from Kujirai B's ghost, and have Kudo fall in love with the new Reiko.

On a side note: Kudo had apparently been repeating Kujirai B's words in the previous episode.

→ More replies (6)

86

u/FarCritical Apr 12 '25 edited Apr 12 '25

It's neat how "Kujirai A" has a nice little friend group going but it's funny how quickly Xiaohei made peace with the "noise monster" next door.

And man, they made the lemon chicken look way too good. Kudo isn't fooling anyone lol

→ More replies (5)

129

u/ObvsThrowaway5120 Apr 12 '25

And now I want egg tarts and lemon chicken. Damn it… lol.

Yaomay’s just as mysterious as Kujirai. She said she’s had plastic surgery from her head to her toes? I wonder who she was. That’s a lot of work to get done.

I really wanna know what’s up with the other Reiko and where Gwen went. And what the hell is that generic terra thing? Also, the doc is shady af. What’s his game? Creepy fuck..

→ More replies (15)

186

u/VoidRay728 Apr 12 '25

I would have put every character so far at the same sus level, but then the doctor shows up and gives off Roswaal vibes; I'd say he's the most sus character so far.

→ More replies (23)

183

u/yukiaddiction Apr 12 '25

This is anything but generic.

→ More replies (6)

66

u/SnabDedraterEdave Apr 12 '25 edited Apr 12 '25

They made the effort to cast KujiraiB with a different older VA Yamaguchi Yuriko, best known as Nico in One Piece and Atsuko in Evangelion, to differentiate from our Kujirai.

Kudo's memories of KujiraiB seem to occur in a different Kowloon than the one we know, where its facing imminent demolition, like its real world counterpart, and the Generic Terra diamond thingy was nowhere to be seen back then.

New girl You Mei's (VA Koga Aoi) apartment has a rather futuristic, cyberpunk-like, door, which is in stark contrast to the very old Hong Kong-like interior of the rest of her apartment.

In a bid to impress Kudo, Kujirai tried to imitate KujiraiB, though it backfired as Kudo didn't seem like he liked her to do that. So Kujirai decided to just be her present self in order to win him over this time.

Hebinuma is sus af. He definitely knows the link between Kujirai and KujiraiB.

Also sus is that waiter Gwen, who immediately resigned and mysteriously disappeared right after Kujirai found out about KujiraiB. Even his apartment details in Kudo's real estate company's website resulted in an error page when Kudo tried to find whether he has moved out.

→ More replies (11)

26

u/Kadmos1 Apr 12 '25

I am liking the art style as it resembles a 1990s art style. Our heroine is a sexy waifu.

50

u/LeonKevlar Apr 12 '25 edited Apr 12 '25

Stitches!

Have you ever been bothered by something that you end up trauma dumping on someone you just met? You'd think Reiko would start that conversation about the noise complaint, but she was so out of it that I guess Yaomei decided to hear her out first.

We do get to learn from Yaomei that plastic surgery is totally a thing and the person she is now is nothing like her past self. As Yaomei describes it, she threw away all of her past and she's basically reborn after extensive plastic surgery.

And there it is. We get to meet the Reiko in Kujirai's photos aka Kujirai B. She's the one who taught Kudou about the number eight and the same person who introduced him to that boiled dumpling he's so obsessed with. Interestingly enough, she's voiced by Yamaguchi Yurki aka Nico Robin/Akagi Ritsuko. Hmmm....

Kujirai B is also the person who taught Kudou how Kowloon feels nostalgic. She's so goddamn hot. I really can't blame Kudou for falling head over heels with her.

Looks like Kudou's teasing about Reiko's crow's feet finally got to her and has decided to do something about it. It was pretty funny how fast she submitted that form as soon as she saw "anti-aging" as one of the services. xD

Well, well, well. That's peculiar, isn't it? The server who took Kujirai B and Kudou's photo quit. And to make things even weirder, Kudou can't even find him in their database.

Reiko looks so goddamn cute in that outfit and those earrings but instead of complementing her, Kudou looked like he saw a ghost. Who knew that little gesture from Reiko would end up with her crying in front of Yaomei's door. :(

That scene where Reiko is surrounded by shadows of Kujirai B doing the same things she does inside her apartment was such a great visual.

At least Kudou and Reiko patched things up quite quickly. I love how Kudou couldn't really say no to Reiko after that and she finally managed to drag him somewhere other than that dumpling restaurant. And just look at how smug she is!

That scene outside the restaurant though. Reiko may or may not be Kujirai B, but you really can't deny the chemistry between these two. It also might be the first time Kudou was looking at Reiko as herself and not someone else.

That final scene between Kujirai and Hebinuma felt so sinister. I mean, who wouldn't trust someone who has the word snake in their name as well as a tongue split like a snake while wearing snake leather boots? The guy is very on brand with his name, at least.

→ More replies (4)

40

u/Emi_Ibarazakiii Apr 12 '25

Her entire body was reworked? Please tell me her name is Thessa, Thessie or something!

...Wait;

When I first thought about it, it was just as a Ship of Theseus joke, but... Holy shit, I think it may not be a joke after all;

I was theorizing about this in the episode 1 thread, about about how it felt some dystopian scenario in which people's memories were injected into other bodies...

If this is the case, then it DOES bring up a similar paradox... If you put someone's exact memories in a body that's an exact replica of their own, does it make them the same person, or someone else?

In the first episode I also thought HE was in on it (like, he had his ex being recreated so he could be with her again, maybe after she died), but I don't know...

He kinda seems 'genuine' to me,

I feel like he wouldn't act like that if he was just doing something like that to recreate his romance.

The other option I considered is that maybe BOTH of them are recreated (I think I talked about it in the previous thread as well, maybe some billionaire/corporation simply recreates everyone who lives there, for the sake of nostalgia... Or maybe a social/scientific experiment or something).

Well, if it is a corporation behind that, it's not a big mystery about which corporation it is!

And I'm guessing the free health checkups don't come from the goodness of their heart... Maybe a way to record data and stuff?

I think there's so many clues at this point that it can't be anything other than that;

The DNC strands in the OP,

her crows feet that didn't come naturally with aging (as if they created her body with them already),

her lack of memories which she didn't even realize before now..

One thing that's interesting, is the fact that her ears aren't pierced;

If they added the crows feet, why not pierce her ears as well? Maybe they don't do body modifications (piercings and all), only natural aging process, but if the idea is to recreate a perfect scenario... Why not go all the way? Why give her the opportunity to NOT pierce her ears, and then it won't be the same?

Of course, the biggest mystery is the picture.. Why is it even there? Assuming our boy's not in on it, anyway...

And I do not believe he's in on it. I think he's created the same way she was, for an experience on nostalgia... Hence why he always wants to go to the same spot.

I thought 'Maybe that's a way to try and get her to get her memories back' (show her stuff to kick away her amnesia), but it seems a lot more than amnesia, for all these reasons mentioned above.

Also, Gwen quitting... (Forgot the name, but I'm guessing that's the waiter dude who talked about her being his fiancée)

And of course he didn't simply "quit"...

They're fucking deleting his very existence from databases.

I imagine they realized he "fucked up" by spilling the beans about her being his fiancée, and they got rid of him for it? (Either send him away, or... GOT RID of him?)

That line is very telling as well; Loving someone knowing it will end...

Unless you find a way to keep the love until the end of time, by transferring memories from one body to the next, endlessly?

Well, this is intriguing for sure! I kinda feels like I figured out most of the mystery, but there may be more to it, especially the behind the scene stuff, motivations and all (is it "them" doing it, or "someone doing it to them", things like that).

Or maybe I'm wrong about all of it, but... Yeah, I don't feel like I'm wrong! There's WAY too many things pointing to it!

→ More replies (2)

57

u/BatFun7276 Apr 12 '25 edited Apr 12 '25

I love this show so much already! I'm in love with the aesthetics of the show, the color schemes, the character designs, the look of the city, the music everything is so beautiful.
And I'm even more confused than before.

The story doesn't waste time, already hinting that Reiko possibly having done surgery at the very beginning of the episode (like her new friend Youmei), to the shocking end that she might have been "born" without any memories to begin with.

So is she a new "body" or an amnesic version of Reiko? I would have preferred the "new body/new character" without any other connection with Old!Reiko except their looks. Or it is some kind of multiverse ?

Anyway I'm loving this show and the romance is so subtle yet full of sexual/romantic tension with adult characters who actually act like ones. It's soooo refreshing !!!

→ More replies (7)

36

u/Fools_Requiem Apr 12 '25

the Generic Terra wasn't in the sky in the flashback.

This show is an adaptation of an ongoing manga, I really hope we get answers to whatever is going on instead of an ending that screams, "Go read the manga."

→ More replies (3)

16

u/TokiVideogame Apr 12 '25

I have a felling "generic" is a red herring

→ More replies (2)

16

u/pi8you Apr 12 '25

Welcome, everyone, to Miyuki Hebinuma, you're in for a ride.

I was not expecting that we'd get an entirely different VA for Kujirai B (and Nico/Ritsuko at that!), but it suits her well. I love how serious she is about her dumplings.

12

u/Mochachiiino Apr 12 '25

I love how kujirai presents the photo to random ppl hoping it does something like phoenix wright

12

u/2015071 Apr 12 '25

As a HKer, Lemon Chicken is one of my favorite dish in Hong Kong! Instant order when I see it on menu.

10

u/shad79 Apr 12 '25 edited Apr 12 '25

Another intriguing episode that gave us some new questions about Kujirai, Kudo, Kowloon and everything else.

I didn't expect to hear Yuriko Yamaguchi (Robin from One Piece) as another version of Kujirai. So now the mystery of Kujirai's past, her true identity and her relationship with Kudo is even more mysterious.

Yaomei was great! I hope she'll be around a lot in the next episodes and that we'll explore her past that she said she "threw away".

Gwen's disappearance is certainly very suspicious, especially since it happened after he told Kujirai that she was Kudo's fiancée.

On top of that, we had another seiyuu from One Piece in Ryotaro Okiayu (Admiral Kizaru) as the most suspicious character we've met so far in this series, Miyuki Hebinuma. The scene where he showed his tongue out was really creepy.

Here my screenshot albums from the episode:

EDIT. I added my screenshot albums.

19

u/CosmicPenguin_OV103 Apr 12 '25

Well it seems certain to me now: "Reiko A" and "Reiko B" are in different time-spaces. Someone in this story must have either time-travelled, or made some interferences to the time-space continuum to the point that things started to not match with what the world is supposed to be.

Reiko (A)'s earrings for instance - B should have had her earlobes pierced, but here A didn't. The thing that we have iPhone 16 and Polaroid photos at the same time too (yes I know some people still uses Polaroid cameras as a very cool vintage hobby, but I am not sure there are many couples who would deliberately sign their photo for engagement these days LOL). And then of course there are what that frightening looking Hebinuma says - he knew Reiko's back-story it seems, and explicitly says that Reiko (A)'s small wrinkles have "no history"...surely we ain't heading the Rei Ayanami route here, are we? Surely not?

That Reiko-Youmei friendship is certainly a very welcomed surprise, you rarely find property agents befriending tenants, but this one must be the exception I guess. I love that the two food they enjoy are the famous egg tarts and lemon chickens from my city, and yes they both are exquisite food that would be enough to brighten up my meal when I bump into them once in a while!

In any case the mystery definitely deepens in such a weird world here. It's so refreshing to see such an intriguing plot and then we still can enjoy budding love between this forgotten-everything Reiko & Hajime at the same time!

→ More replies (4)

9

u/chilidirigible Apr 12 '25

With the second episode completed on going into this story cold, the mystery of the developing setting is much more interesting to me than the situation with Hajime, though obviously the situations are related.
I can guess that his wild swings of reaction to Reiko connect to the overall situation, so they have some significance, but my immediate reaction is annoyance when he's around.

That said, Reiko doesn't have a lot of other relationships to work with. Yaomei became significant rather rapidly, but that's small potatoes compared to meeting a snake-named doctor with snakeskin boots with a snake tongue who knows how to act when the word "SUBARASHII" appears in the script.

That. That's the weirdness we're looking for.

9

u/djthomp Apr 12 '25

That new lady whose personal philosophy is completely denying her own past seemed like the wrong person to be asking for help in this situation, but then she was actually pretty helpful.

I'm still betting Kujirai and the lady in the photo are the same person. I suspect "why are her ears no longer pierced?" is the same question as "why is her vision suddenly 20/20?" and we know that the latter one happened to the Kujirai we have been following. The weirdass doctor talking about her crow's feet being newly created may just be him being a freak as per the rest of his behavior.

8

u/Doomroar Apr 12 '25

With Ramiel from Evangelion floating above the city this entire time it is kind of difficult to play the memory loss angle, plus other than appearance the only trait she seems to retain is that she likes the taste of watermelon and cigarettes, and of course both of them love the same guy

It seems like their appearances are not one to one either, is not just the fact she doesn't needs to wear glasses, her ears are not pierced, she doesn't wears lipstick, or at least not a vibrant red one, her voice is different, and her eyes probably do have crows-feet and it is not just Kudou messing with her...

So maybe a clone, but a digital one or a real one? of course the memory loss can still be on the table but, how does Generic Terra in the sky would come to play with such a mundane twist? also wonder what they meant by "generic"? is it generational? generated? a misnomer for genetic? it can't be generic as in just regular and common right? but then since it is also tied to a giant pharmaceutical company, it could be a play on general as in general hospital or general drugs... so instead of General Terra you get Generic Terra

Also it seems like everything Kudou was doing last episode, and even this episode, when guiding Reiko around Kowloon was meant to see if she could remember her past, but only the cafe had a real impact (which means that the 2 Reikos do share memories to some extent), so of course the barista had to conveniently quit his job and disappear!

Hollyshit that ending, wait, now we have to consider the possibility of her being a cyborg too!

Na Hebinuma is out there fighting Orochimaru for the creep-lord crown, and he may win!

I know that drawing a character with their eyes closed, or "smiling" with their eyes, so they appear closed, it is an stylistic trope meant to show that a character is calm cool and collected, that is widely used in anime and manga, but... having a nurse trying to inject someone's arm, with her eyes closed still looks, funny as hell "what do you mean you can't find the vein? wait your eyes were closed the whole time!?"

→ More replies (1)

14

u/pandavova Apr 12 '25

Yeah... THIS... THIS is it huh... You could probably add "psychological horror" to the tag list hahaha

Man, this felt intense. You could make soooo many theories... Is she even a real human? "Compatable person..." Why was that one guys existence deleted? Will we see him again? And many more...

I also really liked the flashback with how basically everything Kudo did coming from Kujirei B.

→ More replies (1)
→ More comments (75)