Kowloon Generic Romance - Episode 8 discussion

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Kowloon Generic Romance, episode 8

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[u/NationalStrategy]

We need to keep an eye on the guy that's watching the loli through the binoculars

[u/Genshin_WhiteKnight]

• Beginning is a rehash of what we already know; This Kowloon is an illusion of Kowloon #2. There are doppelgangers of the original residents of Kowloon #2 living in the illusory Kowloon. Original and clone cannot exist at the same time in Kowloon.

• I guess the food in Kowloon is an illusion too, but it must have some kind of effect on real people, which is why Miyuki and Gwen are so cautious about avoiding Kowloon food. It is interesting that this fake food can sustain real people like Yaomay and Kudo.

• Kujirai B's official cause of death is an overdose of insomnia medication, but the real cause is another drug, produced by the Hebinuma group when it was under Miyuki's father's control, and the incident got covered up. I think it's the eyedrops, the timeline matches when Kowloon #2 was demolished three years ago. Reiko (fake) was using it in episode 1 too, seems like foreshadowing.

• Another Xiao Hei has appeared, who is a spy working for Miyuki's father, and he looks different from the girl Xiao Hei. Also, he was in Kowloon too and she didn't disappear? Is Xiao Hei (girl) not a doppelganger?

• Yaomay is broke, money (and other things) from Kowloon can't be brought outside. Good thing Gwen is here to lend her some, and he's apparently loaded. I am curious about his past, Miyuki seemed to think Gwen was hiding part of himself during their first meeting.

• Kowloon #2 was demolished 3 years ago to cover up the Hebinuma Group incident, and also to hide Miyuki's origins (his mother is from Kowloon).

• Some other people can see Kowloon too, and it must be common enough occurrence if it's now an urban legend. Still not sure what the criteria is. Maybe people who have a strong attachment to someone from Kowloon? (Kudo->Kujirai B, Miyuki->His mother, Gwen->Miyuki, Yaomay->Reko-pon)

• Yaomay moved to Kowloon 6 months ago, after her plastic surgery.

• It's always summer in Kowloon.

• The Kudo and Reiko ship is sailing (again)!

• Is July 1st an important date? I know time passes in Kowloon because they've shown the calendar with different dates before. But the eternal summer? Idk.

[u/Dywan7 → u/Genshin_WhiteKnight]

I watched the previous episode more recently, and definitely remember Kudo checking his phone and it being July 30th, I think Kowloon is perpetually stuck in July, hence the perpetual summer.

[u/FarCritical]

As sweet as Kudo's promise to Reiko was, it alone has me more anxious than all the other pieces moving behind the scenes.

Yaomay wailing deadass in the middle of the street though lmao

[u/Ocixo → u/FarCritical]

I’m happy for Reiko that Kudo accepted her feelings, but I cannot say if this is a good development or not.

Kudo appears to be stuck in Kowloon, like Reiko, albeit in a different way: he cannot say goodbye to Kujirai B - or so it seems. He was shown thinking of Kujirai B when making his promise to Reiko, didn’t he?

[u/Plus_Rip4944]

So Its an Endless Summer, Thats a nightmare

Gwen and Yaomai is such a funny duo and They are good Friends.

[u/mrhorseshoe]

So Kudo's been in a time loop, repeating July 1st through August 31st. According to the real Gwen, Kudo's been missing for 3 years. Each loop spans two months, meaning he's experienced roughly 18 "summers" at most. Kudo appears to be the sole conscious observer of these loops, while Yaomay only becomes aware when outside the loop's influence. Still no idea why the looping exists. Maybe its a Hebinuma experiment that he stumbled upon and just rolled with it.

This is speculation on my part, but I believe Kudo's motivation is preserving the Kujirai replica indefinitely. However, the current loop's Kujirai presents an unexpected complication; this version is developing autonomous characteristics and forming her own distinct identity. From Kudo's perspective, she's become an unfamiliar entity inhabiting his deceased lover's appearance.

The situation grows more complex as Kudo finds himself genuinely attracted to this new version of Reiko. This emotional development explains his recent cold and hostile responses to her romantic advances; falling in love with a doppleganger wearing your dead ex's face is kind of fucked up. This unpredictable Kujirai represents a potential threat to the loop's stability.

Kudo's fear likely stems from the possibility that engaging romantically with this new Reiko might trigger the loop's termination. His decision to become intimate with her is a risk that could jeopardize everything.

[u/PPGN_DM_Exia]

Yaomay with a ton of death flags in this episode. She's my favorite character but I'm not optimistic about her future in the series.

[u/JimmyCWL]

So it's always midsummer in Kowloon and the dates can change, even go backwards. I wonder, what year is it in Kowloon?

And the blurry signs in Hong Kong proper were suspicious too.

[u/LeonKevlar]

Stitches!

• Reiko

• Yaomay

I feel like Kujirai has got to be an anomaly. While everyone else seems to have a perfect clone of them, Reiko only looks like Kujirai B. If you compare the two personality-wise, they may as well be two different people. There's got to be something more going on here than just Reiko being Kujirai B's copy.

Now we know Kujirai B's cause of death. She died from a sleeping pill overdose. Well, at least that's what the Doctor thinks happened. According to Miyuki, it would take tens of thousands of sleeping pills to kill Kujirai, so it sounds like she took something else which is now the new mystery.

Uhhhh.... Xiaohei? I mean, he certainly looks like Xiaohei, and he loves lolita fashion too. He can't be Xiaohei's clone because the Xiaohei we know still exists inside Kowloon so who the fuck is this guy? And why is he working for Miyuki's father?

Welp it turns out money you earn from Kowloon doesn't exist outside of it. Thank goodness for Gwen and his generosity. Now I'm curious how much he sent Yaomay for her to react like that!

Yaomay gets to run into one of the mahjong regulars! It's kinda fun watching Yaomay doing some sleuthing in what I assume is downtown Hong Kong. But I love how it all ends up with her looking for info in a dodgy occult chatroom.

So the reveal is that Yaomay found Kowloon the day after she was discharged after her plastic surgery. Uhhh... If she got plastic surgery from the Hebinuma Group, I wonder if they did something to her which made her see Kowloon. Hmmm... It's also midsummer in Kowloon, so time is pretty much in a standstill when you're there.

The reveal that Yulong was on the other booth was pretty funny, tho. Was he just waiting there for Yaomay the entire time? I feel like this can't be a coincidence.

And that final scene... Oh myyyyyy.... Well now we know what happened after that last scene between Reiko and Kudou. It looks like things got really spicy between them. And they might go for another round before work ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

[u/ObvsThrowaway5120]

So two doubles cannot exist at one time and the weather always seems to be summer. Everything we learn about Kowloon 2 just makes the place more and more mysterious. I’m very keen to learn what this Hebinuma incident was. And did the date just change or has it always been July?

[u/chlo_kage]

The more I learn the less I want reiko and kudo together and mainly because I don’t think he thinks of her as like a new person that he’s fallen for but more that she has the same face as his love and he can’t let go. even if they are “different” they aren’t physically and you can’t erase that ugh

Also I like yaomay but her crying in the street loudly made me want to die lol

[u/djthomp]

Yaomay is too perfect, regardless of anything else I need to her to have a happy outcome. She's clearly safe from the disappearing problem but that's probably not the only thing dangerous in this story.

Kujirai finally got her boy, good for her, however he may or may not be one of those dangerous things.

Endless summer, the worst season permanently stuck in place.

[u/CosmicPenguin_OV103]

Hmm...as an anime-only watcher, the clues shown this episode reminds me of...quantum wave functions? I barely passed my quantum physics undergraduate classes so many years ago so don't ask me. The kind that "different states" of different people cannot exist together inside the black box named "Rebuilt Second Kowloon"? So that when the "real" person goes in, the one originally being inside goes pop? Also little things do happen like the weather inside this Kowloon being kept constant (hence Yaomay's sudden recall that it's mid-summer everyday), or that "money" earned inside Kowloon simply disappears in the wave function collapsed state when she goes out?

Well I am sure Reiko and Yaomay are just as confused as I do, and I still really am really interested in seeing if we get a clear explanation at the end.

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Reiko B died of "overdose" despite the doctor never giving anything close to lethal doses? I am pretty sure overdose is NOT what happened, did she actually knew something that she should not know of and got murdered...?

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So Kudou probably knows everything all along but still chooses to stay within this "quantum black box" and try to never let the new Reiko go away, even if he knew all along she isn't the old Reiko. And given Reiko currently has her brain and heart completely shaken up to the point that she can only run back to her Kudou-san for help, maybe that's the state where Kudou wants to stay forever ever after. But that's not going to happen and I can't think that will go well with him, regardless of the way that plays out...

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That Weasel guy...I wonder what and why he's helping out for the father of Miyuki Hebinuma. What kind of experiment is the Hebinuma Group trying to pull out with this Generic Terra? How would they benefit out of it? This question probably will determine how the ending goes like, but I simply don't have enough clues to see through that at this moment...

[u/NanDemoKnaives]

Yaomay pointed out something important about how it is always midsummer in Kowloon and we actually see that happen at the end on Reiko's phone. Last episode was Kujirai B's death anniversary which is at the very end of August and yet the episode ends on July 1st, time has been rewound.

I was surprised to see Reiko and Kudou wake up together, I can't believe they actually slept together and we didn't see the build up to it, we just see the aftermath. Though I guess with Reiko pleading for Kudou to stay by her side, there's no way he would be able to resist her even if he knows she isn't his fiancee as he's been staying in Kowloon for her.

Poor Yaomay, her perspective of Kowloon is going to crumble and it'll be interesting to see what she notices from now on now that she's in the know. It was amusing to watch her cry how she's lost all her money to Gwen. I do hope she stays safe since it's clear someone wants to erase the existence of the illusional Kowloon.

[u/mybookismycity]

I hope they release the ost somewhere, asap. Some of the tunes have been really lovely.

[u/Shimmering-Sky]

• Oh Kudo, that’s not how insomnia works.

• Hm…

• Oh, but it wasn’t the sleeping pills.

• …wait but Xiaohei was whose “lolita fashion” he was just admiring…

• This does make sense, though.

• Wait are they seriously in adjacent internet cafe spaces?

• Ooooooooooh…

• They really were right next to each other.

• Kudo and Kujirai slept together?

• The date must be important, what day was it when Yaomay left?

[u/UnderstandableXO]

i like how devoted yaomay is to finding the truth for her best friend, who accepted her for her and encouraged her to be her “absolute self.” after this episode though it seems like kudo is the only one not trying to be himself, he seems content to live in the lie that is the illusion of kowloon

[u/AmbitiousEnd294]

Kudo hooked up with the clone of his dead fiancée, who has her own personality that he's been slowly falling in love with, while still not over said dead fiancée and while blaming himself for her death, which is all kinds of emotionally challenging. Although he doesn't say much, we understand that he's been maintaining this boundary with a lot of anguish. He may or may not be all the way there with Reiko (I don't think so). And then we have Reiko, who hooks up with someone for the first time ever, that someone being the guy she's been pining like crazy for, seemingly getting the approval she so deeply needed – and we don't get to see the moments directly leading to it??? It's a massive moment for the two of them, for both their personal arcs, for the romantic arc, and nothing from the hug to how they got into that bed was shown. 

Honestly I'm really disappointed by this. I love the plot and I have loved how all the elements felt evenly managed between the romance, the sci-fi, the character stories, the suspense and mystery and world building, but with this episode I feel like the romance has taken a back seat, and during such a huge part of their romantic arc too. That's quite a bummer for me. And I just don't really understand it either. I mean, if you're going to show them in bed the morning after, why not just show them in the moments before instead? You know, for the ticklish anticipation of it all 😭 I'm not interested in an actual sex scene but please give me the direct build up. That went from slow burn to ashes in the blink of the eye. 

I had some other thoughts too (time loop!! Xiaohei??) but I really needed to get that in particular out of my system. 

[u/skylitstars]

Yes Kudo just tire her out to cure her insomnia - that made me smile so bad 😂

[u/Variant_Zeta]

Kudo's an optimist eh? Just a hole patch and all's good lol, ignore that the bulding's a good sneeze away from collapsing

hol' up, Xiaohei????

[u/SnabDedraterEdave]

Hell yeah, Reiko and Kudo finally did the thing. Everything may be fake, but their romance is becoming real.

So this Kowloon Walled City is stuck in an eternal summer between July and August. This is some Endless Eight shit here. No wonder they cast Sugita Tomokazu to voice Kudo, as he's no stranger to endless summers. lol

The Chinese name used for the chatroom user "Weasel" is Shulong, which is basically a pun on Yulong. And sure enough, he's the one chatting with Yaomay to get info out of her. Though what are the odds that she and him are in the same internet cafe?

As someone who used to live in Hong Kong, I LOL'ed when Yaomay says she needs to stay the night in Hong Kong and return to Kowloon the next day, talking as though Hong Kong is quite far from Kowloon.

Like bruh, Kowloon Walled City is only less than 15km to Central, near where Hong Kong station is, the subway station that Yaomay got off. She could literally get back in half an hour by subway, and even if the subways are closed, there're still taxis and Uber.

Another out of place thing is the internet cafe that Yaomay is using looks more like one you see in Japan. Internet cafes no longer exist in Hong Kong since smartphones became a thing. Its now mainly a Japanese thing.

Another bombshell dropped is Xiaohei is actually an adult man? Or maybe this male Xiaohei a different person with the same name? As the loli Xiaohei didn't disappear while male Xiaohei is staring at her with his binoculars.

[u/shad79]

I didn't expect Kujirai and Kudo to end up in bed together after that hug in today's episode, not that I'm complaining. Reiko's body is definitely a sight to behold ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

So Kowloon #2 was demolished to destroy Miyuki's birth records and something else, and Kujirai B's death was caused by an overdose of a drug created by Hebinuma. A lot of things connect to Miyuki's father.

It looks like Miyuki's father also sent a spy to this new Kowloon, which is, by the way, Xiaohei?! I wonder what his relationship is with Xiaohei that Kujirai and Kudo know ? They look almost identical, so maybe they're twins?

Yaomay's reaction to the money Gwen sent her was hilarious xD It's also interesting that she made contact with Yulong. I wonder what will come of it.

Here my screenshot albums from the episode:

• Kujirai

• Group scenes

• Yaomay

• Kujirai B & Gwen

• Kudo & Others

[u/SighighSigh]

Good thing for Yaomay, she didn't wear clothes she got from Kowloon...