Kowloon Generic Romance

九龍ジェネリックロマンス

7.34(51K votes)

Ranked #2869Popularity #1731

episodes

Type

Status

Finished Airing

Aired

Apr 5, 2025 to Jun 28, 2025

Studios:Arvo Animation

MysteryRomanceSci-Fi

Synopsis

With its flickering streetlights, moldy back alleys, and noisy populace, the Second Kowloon Walled City, despite the squalor of its already-demolished predecessor, evokes a special kind of nostalgia that its residents find endearing. Amidst the walls of this fading yet beloved landscape lives Reiko Kujirai, a 32-year-old realtor deeply in love with her coworker, Hajime Kudou, who is two years her junior. Though they have their differences, the two get along well enough to experience the joys of the walled city together. However, everything starts to fall apart when Kudou, half-asleep, suddenly kisses Kujirai—seemingly reciprocating the feelings she has yet to confess. But when Kudou explains that he had mistaken her for someone else, Kujirai finds herself drawn into a series of events that lead her to a past she cannot remember. [Written by MAL Rewrite]

153,061 Members

Worth Watching? — Global Verdict

7.3/10

Average Review Score

65%

Recommend It

Reviews Worldwide

International Reviews

IWearClothes

RecommendedWell-written

What separates Kowloon Generic Romance from your typical romance anime is, somewhat by design, right there in the title. It’s generic, yet also marked by an insistently refreshing approach. Anime is a medium that often relies on exaggerated characters with hyperbolic personality traits. That’s what many actually love about anime characters—they’re compelling and fun to watch precisely because they’re make-believe, because they exist in a space where realism limiters aren’t unreasonably placed upon them. They can have traits found in real people, but you’d usually be hard-pressed to actually compare them to people. Kowloon’s characters are just that, though; rather than caricatures of people, theyfeel genuinely believable. Not in the way some anime characters have fragments of realism woven in, only to still betray a larger-than-life aura. No, Kowloon’s romantic leads, Reiko and Hajime, are simply ordinary—they’re everyday, imperfect people working away in the quiet stillness of a real estate office. They’re just people, and that trivial fact acts as the springboard for an off the beaten path, yet universally easy to appreciate adult romance. The setting of Kowloon Generic Romance is an imaginative one. An advanced technology called Generic Terra floats in the sky above the Kowloon Walled City of Hong Kong. Strictly speaking, this is a “second” Kowloon, considering the first iteration was demolished during the 1990s. Generic Terra can house human consciousness, enabling those who take advantage of it to “live” forever, depending on your perception. However, this amazing technology isn’t actually the plot’s crown jewel. With tech like that, bigger and badder machinations could have dictated the plot’s roadmap in the same vein as other sci-fi series like Psycho-Pass, but they don’t. Instead, Kowloon Generic Romance revolves around two regular people. Reiko isn’t the fast-rising, hotshot real estate agent she might have been in a more standard series; she’s an awkward klutz and surprisingly vain about her looks. Hajime isn’t the clean-cut, sparkly male lead you’d expect in a shoujo anime; he’s just a boorish, scruffy guy who wears his emotions on his sleeve. A world like this could take advantage of itself to tell a tale of exoteric, moral grandstanding. It could posit affirmations of how technology can jeopardize the integrity of human identity, like Ghost in the Shell. This kind of world could delve into a veritable kaleidoscope of digital and metaphysical possibilities, and that it sidesteps all this with such nonchalance might be the most respectable thing about it. Technically, Kowloon Generic Romance does exist in one of these dystopian settings, but here the dystopia acts more as a backdrop. Kowloon chooses not to hinge on its dystopian elements to establish an overall thematic essence, defying a usually synonymous combo in dystopian fiction. Despite the story’s unorthodox attitude, the main appeal of this anime is that it’s a mystery series first and foremost. Generic Terra is an undeniably cool idea on the surface, but there’s an ever-present, underlying notion that there indeed are dystopian schemes hidden in its shadow—even before Reiko’s perspective provides any sort of inkling. Like any mystery worth its salt, Kowloon tries to throw you off its trail. A seemingly obvious villain might not actually be so villainous as first implied. A shocking declaration, so dead serious that it doesn’t even deserve a captain’s log introduction, could end up as little more than an unflinching curveball. Massive revelations, rather than making all the answers clear, raise more questions, deepening the mystery while inching closer to a solution. However, those same conventional tricks—subverted villains, curveballs, and narrative smokescreens—are also why this aspect of Kowloon Generic Romance is perhaps its most lacking. While it does make use of time-tested ideas to keep the mystery engaging, it also doesn’t go out of its way to distinguish itself, settling for playing it safe instead of trying to innovate. New band, same old dependable tunes. So, while Kowloon Generic Romance may be a competent mystery anime, it would have benefitted from at least one X factor to spare it from the genre’s long shadow. That X factor never really comes from the mystery area, nor from the narrative foreground in general. Instead, it unexpectedly reveals itself within the soundtrack. As yet another upgrade of what’s expected from romance anime, Kowloon Generic Romance boasts a consistently remarkable soundtrack. The music is easily at its best during scenes where mystery is the main focus. It’s hypnotic and atmospheric in that recognizably dominating way which smothers and overwhelms the viewer with an intense, suspenseful tone. Many mystery series often try to take advantage of this “wall of sound” tactic for tonal effect, but few actually stick the landing so nicely. It’s ethereal and futuristic while maintaining a melodic vanguard, justifying the emphasis placed on it. When the show steers away from mysterious happenings to comedic or slice-of-life scenarios, the music tends to stick with exotic pentatonic variants to ensure a deliberately regional flavor, and it succeeds effortlessly. Reiko and Hajime may be from Japan, but this is still Hong Kong, after all. Thanks in no small part to the OST, Kowloon Walled City feels like a real-deal community you could wander around in—not the cheap knockoff the characters accuse it of being, since it isn’t the “original” Kowloon. The musical score is an unexpected but definitely welcome highlight of the series. It enhances the different moods while clearing the balancing act of sounding high-effort and memorable without being distracting. The colorful OST and ambient sound design help to enhance the mystery plotting in ways that really are innovative, making up for the story’s tendency to poke around in the all-too-familiar genre playbook. While the story toolbox can feel familiar in a slightly dull way, the visuals are familiar in an unmistakably beautiful and intentional style. It’s the style of a bygone era to which Kowloon is paying homage from the start—the lived-in, gritty, and vintage aesthetic of 90s and early 2000s anime. The city looks like it could have come right out of Trigun or Cowboy Bebop with how the buildings seem to envelop almost every angle, feeling claustrophobic yet comforting at the same time. This homage extends even more notably to the character designs, which feature a retro art style that impressively encapsulates 90s anime characters. Reiko especially stands out in this domain; she’s attractive, hard to look away from, and absolutely resplendent. If there is one area in which the characters aren’t ordinary, it’s this one, as Reiko is far from the only looker within the city’s walls. The opening is another clear tribute to 90s anime—it’s chock-full of direct inspirational mojo both visually and musically. Remarkable beyond belief is the fact that the anime achieves all this with just one cour. It’s 2025: we’re used to single cour anime lacking ambition, serving as little more than advertisements for their source material. It may seem arbitrary, but in a certain sense, the fact that Kowloon Generic Romance delivers this level of quality in just a 13-episode run harkens back to that earlier anime era where the same wasn’t so uncommon, which may ironically be the most nostalgic thing about it. Nostalgia abounds in this series as the most frequently recurring motif. It’s in the very air; the plot has deemed we must breathe it in before we even get a chance to decide, as the characters themselves frequently touch upon the idea. The authentic vibe of the city’s hum and thrum is surpassed only by that of real life. Shrouded in the urban haze of Kowloon, the people live carefree and uninhibited, reminding us of times and visions preceding our own. Now, what about the actual romance part of Kowloon Generic Romance? Truth be told, the characters are too busy navigating the maniacal playpen they’ve been placed in to lend their romance much dedicated focus. That’s only ostensibly, of course, as Cupid’s arrow has already found its mark by the beginning. The rest is simply watching it play out with twists and turns galore, an infectious dance of schmaltzy tenderness and dark tidings. This is a down-to-earth romance that unfolds naturally, not one guided by tropes. There is no dramatic confession scene with a swelling insert song at the end of an episode. No official first date to mark the start of Reiko and Hajime’s love. But the answers defining their relationship are still there; in the moments between the smoke breaks and shared laughter. In retrospect, Kowloon Generic Romance isn’t different for the sake of it, it’s different because it’s sincere. It chooses where to be bold and where to be ordinary. And it’s in that balance—in the quiet, unassuming spaces—that Kowloon shines brightest, proving that sometimes, less really is more.

Episodes (13)

Filler Recap

Click an episode to read its synopsis.

Community Discussion

Chuy_diazz

Not Recommended

The biggest sin of this anime is having the word "romance" in the title. Kowloon is anything but romantic; in fact, it doesn't have a hint of romance, which ends up hurting it quite a bit as the story progresses. The first episode has a balanced dose of a mystery that will develop into a romance. The problem is that they decided to eliminate any displays of affection and focus solely on a single mystery. The story didn't have enough groundwork to develop a mystery and ignore the romantic aspect. The mystery evolves three times throughout the anime, and none of those developments provide any satisfactoryanswers. In fact, halfway through, for three or four episodes, they dedicate themselves to explaining a single mystery in four different ways, leaving the dialogue unchanged but changing the speakers. This makes the story feel redundant because they're going in circles, and when they realize this, they try to make up for lost time by throwing information out there left and right. However, the story doesn't care whether the information is useful or not; it just wants to overload you with information so that in the end you convince yourself that the answers were always there when, in reality, the answers were never written in the first place. Anime has always focused on the mystery surrounding Kowloon Walled City and the phenomena that occur within it. The type of mystery they want to tell depends entirely on the emotional ties that people have with both the city's inhabitants and the city itself. Concepts like nostalgia, longing, and the search for the future are mentioned. These concepts depend entirely on the emotions of each character, but anime doesn't want to show emotions; it only wants to deepen the mystery. So, since there are no emotions, the mysteries feel empty because you don't feel the characters are emotionally connected to either the city or its inhabitants. Even the protagonists are victims of this poor decision, because their story is a romance, but since the anime decided to eliminate all displays of affection, it had to explore different characters to fill 13 episodes. At some point in the anime, you start to care about the supporting characters, and the protagonists exist; they're there, but they don't generate any kind of emotion. There are many scenes where the lack of romance and delicacy makes the protagonist seem more like a sly old man trying to take advantage of his coworker's vulnerable moments to get her into bed. The male protagonist, the one who's supposed to be the protagonist of a romance, ends up being the villain of a poorly told story. I think the final episode is a good standalone episode, but the problem is that the narrative of that episode doesn't fit with the rest of the anime. The ending ends up dealing with themes like mourning, grieving, and overcoming loss, but this offers zero answers to the mysteries raised. The anime always treated Kowloon City as just another character to center the mystery around it, but right at the end, the city becomes more of a conceptual representation than a place in itself. The ending leaves you feeling confused and angry because the theme of the ending—if that approach had been taken for the entire anime—would be something else being said today. All the questions raised in 12 episodes are left open in the final episode because the approach was completely different. The production decisions that were made were terrible for the show's reputation. Instead of promoting it, they buried it 4 meters underground. Kowloon was a story that fell victim to a production that had no idea how to tell it and ended up doing whatever they wanted.

53 found helpfulJun 29, 2025

Marinate1016

Recommended

“Generic” may be in the title, but Kowloon Generic Romance is anything but. This show had some of the best mystery plot-lines of the year and a pretty unique romance set-up. It’s one of those shows you enjoy speculating about before and after every episode and the weekly cliffhangers left me wanting more every week. There’s so many twists and turns in this story and I really appreciated how every episode advanced the plot. There’s no wasted time here, the pacing is very well done and surgical. This was a really fun sci-fi mystery with a nice touch of romance and some greatcharacters. Definitely worth a watch for people who want a show that makes you think and keeps you on your toes, and those who just want to watch two of the cutest girls this season in Yaomay and Reiko! Kowloon GR is the latest addition to my “summer time render-like” shows. What I mean by that is, shows that slowly pull you in over the course of a premiere, end with a mysterious cliffhanger and constantly leave you wanting more every week. They drip feed you answers slowly, just enough to keep you hooked on the show, all the while causing you to have more questions. It’s a feeling that I don’t quite know how to describe, but if you’ve seen Summer time render, Higurashi, etc., you’ll know that sort of viewing experience I’m describing and are probably excited to see something like it again. It’s such a good vibe when you truly get hooked on a story, and this show does it as well as any. I’m a huge fan of sci-fi stories that drop bombshells on you over the course of a season and cause your entire perception of a story to change. The mystery of how this new Kowloon came to be, the truth about Reiko’s identity and all the characters’ backstories in the show was meticulously crafted. Having only seen the live action version of After the rain, I didn’t know the author had this sort of story in his bag, but that’s why we go into things with an open mind! Now other than the mystery and lore drops, the other thing I really loved here was the characters! This whole cast is so good, Reiko is arguably the prettiest MC of the season, but she’s also got a really interesting character arc where we see her come into her own and embrace her self as an individual. Her relationship with Kudo is this nice mix of sexy co-worker romance mixed with some of your more traditional sweet anime romance vibes. All their scenes together are so good, but I must say I actually preferred the yuri route here with she and Yaomay. I felt like the two main girls had such a good thing going on together and in my opinion, Yaomay was clearly into Reiko as more than just a friend.. plus all the drama that goes down with Reiko and Kudo in this one kind of soured me on their relationship a bit. The other supporting characters are great too and everyone plays a very important role in the story. Big fan of authors who don’t waste time with superfluous story arcs and introducing characters who end up doing nothing in the story. Every little detail and character in here comes back to be relevant by the end of the cour. I’ve fallen in love with the word “surgical” to describe these sorts of stories and it’s such a good adjective because this type of storytelling doesn’t BS or waste time, every episode and character interaction serves a purpose and builds to the ultimate goal. It’s a very well written series. Also have to give a shoutout to Mayazuki-sensei having openly gay characters in this in such a loud and proud manner. Y’all should’ve seen the look on my face when one of these episodes started with two guys having sex and intimate moments. It’s done very tastefully too, never feels like the author’s making a spectacle of it. Always good to see well done representation in my seasonal anime. The show looks absolutely incredible too. I love Mayazuki-sensei’s art and the studio did a wonderful job of preserving it! Animation is decent, but the OST, character designs, pacing and direction were all great here. Some people have problems with cliffhangers, especially if they’re watching weekly, but I love that sort of thing. I don’t want all the answers at once every episode, give me something to speculate and think about throughout the week! If you like interesting and thought provoking sci-fi stories, adult casts who act like adults, and a nice mix of story and romance, look no further. Kowloon Generic Romance was one of my favourite shows of the season and an absolute joy to watch every week. I’ll certainly miss it. Kowloon Generic Romance gets 9 out of 10.

9 found helpfulJun 28, 2025