Kowloon Generic Romance Ep 1 [First Impression]

Eva’s First Impression

Man this is so trippy, I love it! The importance of quirks, the value of nostalgia, and the memory of a goldfish!

At first it seemed like Kujirai was leading a simple and mundane life working of Won Loi Realty Company in Kowloon. She seemed content with just chilling and enjoying eating watermelons while having a smoke, and following her typical routine– that is until things started getting weird. Her vision had suddenly been restored to a perfect 20/20, (was it the eyedrops? Hebinuma Pharmaceutical advertised to clear up vision- perhaps they meant literally…) and then when her co-worker Kudo takes her to the Goldfish Teahouse, the bartender said she was his girlfriend. She thought it was weird, but what struck her odd was that Kudo made no comment about correcting it. Instead, he passed it off as something she didn’t need to be concerned about.

And I’m not going to lie, Kudo didn’t really appeal to me at first. I found him to be a bit obnoxious with the way he butt the line and dragged Kujirai to places he wanted to go rather than really caring what she was interested in. But that started to gradually change over the course of the episode as we increasingly began to see that clearly, something is amiss.

It was when Kudo first took Kujirai to the Goldfish Teahouse and mentioned he remembers someone who used to say, finding a person with a familiar quirk helps you remember. At that moment I was like: “Hold up, don’t tell me she was actually dead, and used to be his girlfriend. Is that why nostalgia is so important?!” Suddenly all of Kudo’s comment on how he doesn’t like how the new replaces the old, and his preference of Kujirai’s glasses over no glasses all seemingly started to click.

One of the things that really stood out to me in this episode is the way Kudo seemingly is constantly hiding his true feelings and expressions. There’s a lot of scenes where we only see facing his back, and when he does turn around, it’s often an exaggerated face of a clown. But we did see some more solemn moments from him, and instances of weakness when he thought he was dreaming when he dragged Kujirai into a passionate deep kiss.

Not only that, but Kudo made a dropped a couple of interesting hints this episode. One, he doesn’t like Hebinuma Pharmaceutical,not only he doesn’t trust the one running it, he also doesn’t like how they use the public’s tax money to create a “fake-earth”, the octahedron-ship that hovers over their domain. Two, he doesn’t like change per say, replacing the old with the new. Three, he apologized and said his kiss was with the “‘wrong person”. And four, the reason why he likes Kowloon is because it’s a neighbourhood of nostalgia. Though run down and battered, it’s stills something he hold cherished and dear to his heart, and he cares about the people in their community too.

Meanwhile we saw that Kujirai doesn’t quite feel that same nostalgia to the town though, but clearly there’s a reason for it. The only thing she does feel any nostalgia towards is Kudo himself (and that triggered a strong response from him). She thought she loved him, but it appears it may not be that simple. Her world was flipped upside-down when she discovered a picture in Kudo’s files that consist the two of them together. And if that wasn’t enough of a shocker, when she finally happened across Goldfish Teahouse (that previously she couldn’t find when she actively sought it out), the bartender drops two huge bombshells on her saying: Not only is “she” Kudo’s girlfriend, but the two of them are also said to be engaged! Holy shit. So is she and the woman in the picture truly the same person, or is she some sort of vassal container that possesses the memories?! Or is it something else entirely?!

With all the talk about Generic Terra being capable of backing up the memories of all Human Beings, to the point they romanticize it as a way to attain immortality and eternal youth, the real question we’re left asking is: Is the Kujirai that Kudo knows is actually dead (ie: the dead goldfish), or she did she have an amnesia of a sort?

And that’s not the only thing that’s seriously trippy! There’s a lot of mysterious things going on, like Kujirai being unable to find the Goldfish Teahouse when she wanted to, the visions of a city in post-apocalyptic ruins, or Kudo’s quirk of a habitual routine of touching “eights” on the wall around Kowloon, there’s clearly reasons for these things to be happening. It makes makes me wonder if maybe Kowloon isn’t actually there anymore, and  it only exists in the simulations of their memories, or something along the lines of the sorts. It would be wild if it turns out they are already the octahedron-ship!

Either way, I’m very intrigued, this is way wilder than I expected but I’m here for it! I’ll absolutely be watching this show this season, but I’m not sure whether I’ll commit to covering this one just yet. In the mean time, I’m going to see if I can try giving it up to three episodes! Also I’m considering setting my routine to releasing the entries of this series on Sundays so I don’t have to cover two shows on Saturdays, but I’m going to see whether I can do two in one day first!

Possibility of Blogging: Moderate – Giving up to three episodes!
Possibility of Watching: Guaranteed