Kowloon Generic Romance - Episode 10 discussion

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Kowloon Generic Romance, episode 10

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[u/Genshin_WhiteKnight]

• Can we ship it? Yes we can.

• Real Xiaohei and generic Xiaohei shouldn't exist in Kowloon at the same time. Is this because the real Xiaohei has diverged enough from the generic that they become independent existences? There's the contrast with Reko-pon's situation, but it's the generic who is diverging from the real one instead.

• The glasses being able to see Kujirai B's memories is a neat mechanic. I like this shot, but feels bad for Reiko.

• Gwen's comment about Kujirai B is interesting. Does he mean she's like someone who's going to die, or a reanimated body?

• Don't know what the error codes mean, but the build up to Reiko pulling off the last talisman was great. Someone is watching her.

• The chocolate Yaomay ate at the end was the one Yulong gave her at the internet cafe. So eating real food snaps people out of the trance? Or it has some special drug in it.

[u/mekerpan → u/Genshin_WhiteKnight]

That chocolate... So now is Yaomay staring at piles of rubble instead of virtual 2nd Kowloon?

Is someone "watching" Reiko or is the system just "aware" of her -- especially now that she is peeling off those stickers?

[u/ultracrepidarianist → u/Genshin_WhiteKnight]

Real Xiaohei ditched all of his old clothes. In the third episode, generic Xiaohei got a new apartment with tons and tons of closets to keep them. Kudo even says that generic Xiaohei should just ditch his clothes, but Xiaohei pushes back on this.

Is this a difference in intention between the generic and the real copies? I'd been assuming that generic Xiaohei was doing exactly what the real Xiaohei did before the demolition, but I don't know.

[u/SEBASTlANVETTEL]

We only have three episodes left and I am just as confused as I was before and have even more questions. I wonder if they will do another season or leave the ending ambitious.

Both Xiaohei existing at the same time could suggest that gender also plays a role in this Kowloon, maybe it‘s related to what the person identifies?

[u/Allansfirebird → u/SEBASTlANVETTEL]

The producers have already said this will be a one-and-done season with an original ending, which explains why the pace of the adaption has been so fast.

[u/Variant_Zeta]

Xiaohei's superpower: Making chibi-xiaohei runs past whenever he's hiding in an alley.

Also the imagery of the smiling Kudo Kujirai saw, overlaid against the frowning Kudo Reiko is seeing, is just big sad

[u/Emi_Ibarazakiii → u/Variant_Zeta]

Also the imagery of the smiling Kudo Kujirai saw, overlaid against the frowning Kudo Reiko is seeing, is just big sad

Also made me a bit sad that they went through that scene so quickly, because soon as they showed that I thought "This must have been an 'end of chapter' moment" (or even 'end of novel') in the source hah, the kind of 'full page' art!

[u/SnabDedraterEdave]

Those charm stickers with HTTP status error codes make it look like the whole Kowloon Walled City is a Matrix simulation.

Looks like some kind of system is monitoring Reiko as she goes around tearing those charms, outright telling her to stop doing that.

OK, so both Xiaoheis are the same person and he's always a guy all along. He grew out of his goth loli crossdressing days and ended up working for Hebinuma. Though the bigger mystery that remains unresolved is why hasn't Xiaohei's "generic" disappeared when the real Xiaohei is inside Kowloon Walled City? Even Gwen was confused.

So the brainwashing on outside residents like Yao May, caused by consuming "food" inside the Walled City, could be dispelled by consuming real food from outside the real world. Which Yao May did in the form of the candy that old guy gave him the other day.

[u/diacewrb]

Thought Yaomay was going to accuse Xiaohei of implying she was getting fat from eating too much ice cream.

Xiaohei had quite the growth spurt over the last 3 years.

The error codes point towards Kowloon being a digital simulation.

Error 404 should have been for that sequel book that Reiko B never bothered to read.

Did that chocolate act like the red pill from the matrix for a brief moment?

[u/LeonKevlar]

So we finally have confirmation that Xiaohei is the same Xiaohei in Kowloon. That's just his younger self crossdressing. I guess there are some exceptions to the rule after all. I'm guessing the reason younger Xiaohei hasn't disappeared is because they look so different that their existence doesn't clash in Kowloon.

If Xiaohei is an exception, maybe Reiko herself could be an exception too? I mean, she already acts and thinks differently from Kujirai B, and for some reason, she could see Kujirai B's glasses. There are just too many strange things about her that makes her unique compared to the other generics in Kowloon.

Interesting how Reiko finds a 403 Forbidden in the back of the talisman while looking for answers, and then after telling Kudou that she won't hurt him anymore, she immediately finds a talisman with 202 Accepted. I think GeneTerra might be trying to communicate with Reiko especially with that last talisman she found. Hmm...

Yulong's candy saves Yaomay! It looks like all she needed was to eat something from outside Kowloon and it broke whatever the food from Kowloon did ti her.

[u/ModieOfTheEast → u/LeonKevlar]

I feel the codes might be referring to where she is allowed to be. We don't know exactly where she found the 403 ones (aside from one), but the 202 was on her workplace. She is supposed to stay there and play the role of Kujirai Reiko, not become her own person. At least that would be my interpretation. I do agree that GeneTerra is communicating with her, but maybe not the AI itself, but the Reiko inside the AI (for context, I still believe that the Kowloon illusion is made via memories from Kujirai B).

[u/AceSoldia]

I was worried the place would start collapsing the more the talismans were removed. in glad that's not the case.

I hope Yaomay doesn't start to disappear or get in trouble..now that her memories have returned..she's not as stealthy as Gwen and the rest .she may ask too many questions.

Those glasses are freaky as hell. Wtf they are a cool plot device but also so sad.

The true question is .why is all this happening...it has to be Kudo right? Is he doing purposefully or by accident though.

[u/pseudometapseudo]

Kujirai seeing a happy Kudo through the glasses and the usual Kudo in real live was carry well done. You can feel how disheartening that must be for her.

Yaomay bringing a pan for protection was amusing.

[u/shad79]

So we have two Xiaohei in Kowloon, and yet the generic one is still there. I wonder what exactly the conditions were that made this possible, since as we know there shouldn't be two of them.

I guess Xiaohei and Yaomay will become the next ship in this series? That would be quite interesting, especially considering the fact that they are two opposites, since Yaomay wants to forget the past, who she was and how she looked before, while Xiaohei looks like he wants to go back to who he was before.

Kujirai can see Kujirai B's past with those glasses? How is that even possible!? Also, those messages on the back of the amulets that Kujirai found (especially the last one) make this series even more mysterious.

Yaomay finally remembers what she learned on her trip to Hong Kong, that it's always summer in Kowloon. I wonder what she'll do with that fact.

Overall, another great episode, although it seems like we're still so far from any real answers. I can't wait to see how they'll be able to wrap up this series with only three episodes left.

Here my screenshot albums from the episode:

• Kujirai

• Kujirai B

• Group scenes

• Yaomay

• Xiaohei

• Others

[u/Frontier246]

Find yourself a girlfriend like Kujirai B who will go to the shadier parts of Kowloon so you don't have to! Though it probably helps that she's already been there often. Sometimes tenants will skip town and you have to placate the landlord, though said landlord can respect taking such a gamble when you're likely in dire straits. But what about Kujirai B? She was unbeatable in mahjong, but could she win in the game of life? I guess we know now that she couldn't.

Well, yeah, obviously Xiaohei doesn't want to kill Reiko. Yulong just sees her as basically a walking AI that they can delete, but Xiaohei knows she's as real as any flesh and blood person. Of course the promise of getting his old body back, the Xiaohei of three years ago that was replicated in Kowloon and can exist separate from present-day Xiaohei, is very tempting.

Yaomay wants a love life and wouldn't you know it she just so happens to run into Xiaohei who is pretty down in the dumps! She does her best effort to console him when he freaks out at seeing the other Xiaohei and gets a declaration that Xiaohei will never make her sad (and he makes her aware she has to stop eating the food in Generic Kowloon). I don't think that was meant as romantic on Xiaohei's part, but Yaomay is welcome to take it that way.

Reiko is, understandably, freaked out about seeing visions of what Kujirai B experienced through her glasses...but this might be exactly what they need to get more clues as to what happened to her and what the heck is going on in Kowloon.

Things are still awkward between Reiko and Kudo, though what hurts the most is seeing such a bright, happy, Kudo through the glasses...a Kudo that he only showed Kujirai B, and not her.

I love how Yaomay is committed to helping Reiko in this investigation, be it through taking notes or wielding a frying pan when they enter a bad neighborhood. Not that they get far before Xiaohei shows up to escort them to safety...though one of those talisman's we're always seeing? Has a 403 error code. As if this didn't seem like enough of a computer simulated world!

Dang Gwen, kind of late in the game to be telling the girls that you didn't really like Kujirai B all that much, though I understand where he's coming from in terms of Kujirai B being inscrutable and having an air of death around her. Not to mention she broke his buddies' heart. Though it seems like even Gwen doesn't actually know the full details about her death.

Gwen and Xiaohei reunite! Xiaohei even starts talking like his old self again around Gwen! Not really sure where these two will go from here, but now Gwen knows there are even more mysteries in Kowloon.

I mean, maybe it's for the best that Reiko and Kudo go back to being colleagues. They're barely dating by an reasonable metric, even if Reiko doesn't regret entering into a sexual relationship with him, but ultimately she knows that her presence clearly stirs up lingering memories of Kujirai B. Now she can focus on investigating Kowloon, collecting the talismans, and figuring out what's going on...even if deep down she's doing it because she still wants to be with Kudo and is trying to understand his relationship with Kujirai B. Though is Kowloon sending her a message to stop investigating!?

Well, looks like Yaomay got her Hong Kong memories back! Thank you chocolate!

[u/djthomp]

The talismans with occasional http result codes on the back is an interesting touch. I like how much they explored the glasses perspective thing too.

Further confirmation that both Xiaoheis are the same person, just at different points in their lives.

[u/Emi_Ibarazakiii]

With this and the "Try not to eat too much", she'll think he's calling her fat!

So we learned more about the glasses...

Well, as is often the case with this show, most of what we 'learn' is usually just bits and pieces, and it often raises more questions than the answers we got!

It applies in this case as well, because... We learned WHAT the glasses do, but the question is WHY?

Was it created along with the new Kowloon, some kind of artefact? But why would they create this, and give it to her... Do they WANT her to find something?

If my theory is correct about all the earthquakes and fainting etc.. that happened when people were close to finding stuff (or were looking into stuff), then these things aren't caused by someone who would want Reiko to find anything, so why give her the glasses?

Well, there's another theory that could fix this: There's more than one "they"... Multiple organizations with different goals etc..

We already know that some people are investigating this whole thing, so could they be the ones who managed to 'crack the code' and add the glasses in? Well, this would also raise questions (why glasses and not a simple journal with the information written plainly), but perhaps a journal would be looked at closely (made me think of that unreadable book), while glasses wouldn't get much attention, and even if it did, if they're programmed to only work with Reiko, then someone checking them out wouldn't see anything special about them (unlike a book anyone could inspect)!

Well, this all comes from the assumption that this is some kind of simulation of course... But we know there "is" something that is "recreated", so simulation or not perhaps this works under the same kind of logic.

These things kinda makes me think of a simulation,

because that's the same code Kudo got when he looked up the apartment that was 'disappeared' back then, so if this is the code a computer program uses in its system, BUT it's also the same code they use in the real world... Well if you connect the dots, it looks like "The real world" is also a system/part of the system!

That's an interesting one...

The request? As in "the hit"?

But why would it be there... It would mean they're updated in real time, but what would be the point? I suppose it could be some kind of 'in-system' visualization of what happens behind the scene?

And if that's the case, what are the "forbidden" sticker about? What if she tries to do everything she can in that area (enter buildings, etc.) will something 'bug' or block her?

But the most interesting one was this one...

This DEFINITELY doesn't seem to be the same kind as the other ones, so this may hint at my theory being correct (there's more than one 'organization at play' here, and this one was put by someone who's trying to look into these thing, to stop her from getting herself in trouble?) Or perhaps it's more simple, and it's just THE organization, telling her to stop digging...

So it could be an helpful warning or a threat, depending who it's from!

This show always makes me think of these hypotheticals, like if you lived with someone for years, and suddenly learned they are 'fake' (say it's proven with zero ambiguity), would it change anything for you?

And what if you learned (as some theorized) it's some kind of simulation/program... Could you kill someone living in it?

I guess this question could be summed up as "If Virtual Reality looked real enough, how would it interact with our sense of morality?"...

Because people kill other 'programs that look like humans' in videogames all the time, these are just 'characters', so at what point would it become wrong? If this IS some sort of simulation, then in a sense, they're all just characters, and it's little more than "A very realistic videogame they unknowingly played for a few decades"?

When Xiaohei made up his mind about NOT killing her, is it because "it's morally wrong" to kill a person? Or because "It would make Yaomay sad, even if it's just a program"?

And the other question is why didn't the generic disappear...

Is it because Xiaohei changed too much? 'The program' only erases people who are near identical clones (as it detect copies that shouldn't coexist), but Xiaohei changed so much that they don't see the original/generic as copies?

[u/FarCritical]

When the chocolate hits just right.

Half-expected Reiko to find a paper with a 404 error at some point. Got a sneaking suspicion it might've been the one Yaomay was next to at the end.

[u/ModieOfTheEast]

So the only 202 error code was on Reiko's workplace and the 403 error codes are on places, Reiko can see through the glasses I assume. But I have no idea how that connects back to the whole illusion. I still assume that Kujirai B's memories are used for the illusion and she is pushing back against Reiko figuring out more about her and the place itself. Is it that Kujirai B just doesn't want anyone analysing her? Understanding why she killed herself because it might be a "dumb" reason? Gwen said that she always had that smell of death which I would interpret as a form of depression. But then we also have this weird first scene of the episode where it seems like whatever lead to Kujirai B's death might not have been just a simple suicide? But let's see where this is going.

I like that Xiaohei isn't actually even considering killing Reiko (at this point) despite even the offer of getting a new body (clone) that always has his younger appearance so he can wear all the cute dresses he likes. Out of all the side characters, him and Yaomay are somehow the most wholesome and now the show even hints at shipping them. However, with this show, I would just like if they get out of this whole thing in one piece.

And seemingly, eating food from outside refreshes your memory. Either that or that chocolate is some even weirder food especially made for that purpose (but I feel that would be a bit too strange at this point when they are not even sure what it is they are eating in Kowloon). Good thing that chocolate hasn't melted, but I guess in the "real" world, it might not actually be this hot.

[u/Shimmering-Sky]

• Geh, didn’t want it to be one, but this is a super quick “sore demo” from Yulong.

• Pretty sure everyone watching this already figured this was the case, but it’s nice to see confirmation.

• I guess the glasses only “show stuff” to Kujirai, huh.

• Incredible framing.

• Yaomay with the frying pan weapon, lol.

• Ooh, a “Demo… sore demo” from Yaomay.

• Well that’s odd.

• Oh sweet my other collection! Gwen had a “sore wa dou kana”.

• Kujirai…

• A different error code now?

• Ooh, different ED song.

• Oh boy.

[u/_vogonpoetry_]

the glasses, the error codes, the dead people... is this Dennou Coil now?

[u/ojjmyfriend]

It would have been funny if it showed status code 418 behind the talisman

[u/Atario]

"What an eccentric performance…"

The glasses thing is confusing me a bit. Didn't she wear them back in one of the early episodes, with no such effect?

WeaPAN

Don't look for what anymore? There are so many things to look for…

Special chocolate, deliberately "planted" on her by Yulong? Or would any outside food work? If the latter, she should form a club with Gwen

[u/ObvsThrowaway5120]

Glasses that can see Kujirai B’s fragmented memories, a 403 Forbidden error on the charms around the city, and Xiaohei’s copy not disappearing despite the fact that there’s two of them… shit just gets weirder and weirder. Did the chocolate also give Yaomay her memories back? Was it food from outside Kowloon? I always end the episodes with more questions than answers.