Kowloon Generic Romance Volumes 6, 7 and 8 Review
“Dang! This Kowloon is bruuutal…!” Yulong (Volume 8)
Spoilers!! The story so far…
Reiko Kujirai, Japanese realtor based in the bustling walled city of Kowloon, has come to realize that she is living someone else’s life. She is an exact copy of the dead fiancée of her co-worker, Hajime Kudou. Kujirai is at first deeply unsettled by these revelations and then she gradually comes to terms with this strange truth, determining to be her ‘absolute self’. She has no memories of any life before she started working in Kowloon but, encouraged by her friend Yaomay, she sets out to make her own decisions and distinguish herself from the original Kujirai ‘B’ (as she calls her). It’s difficult, though, as she’s fallen for Kudou, who doesn’t know how to behave around her and oscillates between detached bonhomie and aggressive teasing.
High in the skies about Kowloon floats Generic Terra, the mysterious futuristic ongoing project developed by the wealthy Hebinuma Pharmaceuticals Group. Kujirai has already had several encounters with the charismatic young aesthetician and doctor, Miyuki Hebinuma, and he seems to know a great deal about her. Miyuki has problems of his own: he’s the son and heir but his father is still mourning the loss of his legitimate son in an accident years ago and there’s little love lost between them. What is Generic Terra for? Is Kujirai linked in any way to the project?
Then there’s Kowloon Walled City. Something’s far from right but we don’t get our first true hint until Gwen (Miyuki’s ex-lover and friend of Kudou and the first Kujirai ‘B’) returns to Kowloon from Hong Kong and we see his taxi driver dropping him off at a wasteland where once the densely populated city stood. It seems that some people can see and enter Kowloon ‘as it was’ – but others see the reality of the bulldozed tower blocks and tenements.
Volume 6 (186 pages)
Kujirai determines to be her absolute self but nevertheless can’t resist looking up clones on the internet. The focus shifts to Miyuki Hebinuma and goes to some quite dark places as he consults Doctor Wong in Hong Kong about his own unique physiology. This volume also introduces IT genius (and snoop), laid-back Yulong who, it seems, is heavily involved in the Hebinuma Group’s Generic Terra project. Yulong and Miyuki have known each other a long time and their discussion as they speculate about this ‘phantom Kowloon’ and Generic Terra is fascinating.
Kujirai has been looking at books and brochures about faraway places. She tells Kudou that perhaps it would be better for him if she wasn’t in Kowloon as a constant reminder of his dead fiancée. But just as Kudou insists that he wants her to stay by his side forever, there’s a sudden loud noise: an explosion? A building has collapsed and Kudou rushes off to see if he can help.
Volume 7 (186 pages) begins with the first of three major plot reveals – and it’s about the death of Kujirai ‘B’. We learn that Kujirai ‘B’ was one of the doctor’s patients and that he regularly prescribed sleeping pills for her insomnia. Did she take an overdose? It seems not, given the type of pills prescribed, but the cause of her death is still unknown (or not divulged) as the doctor says that by the time he arrived at her apartment, it was too late; she was already dead.
However, it’s in a highly significant three-year flashback that Jun Mayuzuki explains that the action has been taking place in Kowloon Walled City #2, a rebuild illegally constructed by the residents of the original Kowloon (demolished in 1994) and also subsequently demolished by the Hebinuma Group. We see how Miyuki and Gwen first met and fell in love (Gwen’s hair was much shorter then). We learn why Miyuki wants to become his ‘absolute self’, the life philosophy that he has shared with Kujirai and which has given her a way forward when everything else has become so confusing.
Fast forward to the story’s present-day. Miyuki has broken up with Gwen although they are still in touch. Gwen, acting on Miyuki’s warning not to eat or drink anything while in Kowloon #2, has ordered a pizza to be delivered from Hong Kong and is on his way to pick it up. He bumps into Yaomay and Kujirai who have decided to go on a day-trip to Hong Kong together. Gwen tells Kujirai not to try to leave Kowloon #2 – but it’s not until the pizza delivery guy appears and ignores Kujirai, even when she speaks to him, that the horrible truth sinks in. He can’t see or hear her – although he can see Yaomay and Gwen. Kujirai realizes that she can’t leave: outside the city, she doesn’t exist.
Volume 8 (170 pages)
Yaomay returns to Hong Kong and discovers that she has no money in her account (because the wages she has earned in Kowloon #2 don’t exist outside the city). Distressed, she rings Gwen who sends funds – but then, deeply troubled about everything she’s learned, she ends up in a cyber-café, asking questions on the internet about Kowloon #2. It turns out that the one answering her questions is none other than Yulong. And Yulong, for all his laid-back, easy-going manner, is dangerous. Then there are the two versions of Xiaohei: one, the petite Lolita-loving enterprising young woman of Kowloon #2; the other, a young man with a love of fashion who’s secretly working for Hebinuma, Miyuki’s father, and who’s able to travel between Hong Kong and Kowloon #2. Yaomay and male Xiaohei get talking and start bonding over a mutual interest in fashion… But by the end of this volume, the stakes have been raised: after Kujirai and Kudou have made love, Kudou retreats from the relationship – until her suggestion to make French toast brings up too many memories for him. Left alone, Kujirai desultorily takes out the glasses she used to wear because Kujirai ‘B’ wore them (even though her vision was found to be 20/20). But when she puts them on… what does she see?!
The first chapters of each of these volumes begin with the original Kujirai and Kudou hanging out together. How can we tell it’s the original (‘Kujirai B’)? There’s something in her smile which seems a little too bright, a little too wordly-wise – and the inescapable feeling that she’s hiding something. And this underlying mystery (among other tantalising mysteries within the manga) is what makes this such an addictive read. Jun Mayuzuki has a gift for creating believable, cherishable characters and bringing them to vivid life with her wonderfully detailed art. Kowloon Walled City is a character in its own right too (you can almost smell the cooking, feel the humidity and hear the noise rising from the crowded streets).
Then there are the conversations which delve deep into the issues of identity, memory, and sentience. What use is an exact copy if it has no recollections of the person it has been reproduced to resemble? The observations recorded by the spy ‘False Strawberry’, revealed at the end of Volume 8 and relayed back to Miyuki’s father, are fascinating – and chilling.
The characters’ relationships are very convincing too: it’s always fun to spend time with Yaomay and Kujirai on one of their girls’ days out – or to feel sympathy for Kujirai silently pining for Kudou when his back is turned. There are more hints as to the science-fictional nature of this manga: the taxi delivering Gwen to the wasteland in an earlier volume, is not running on wheels but in a cushion of air, as is the pizza delivery man’s scooter. Everything points to some major revelations to come and it will be fascinating to see how Jun Mayuzuki (a writer of considerable originality) decides to bring this story and these people we’ve come to care about to a conclusion.
The Yen Press editions are very ably translated by Amanda Hailey, brought to life by Abigail Blackman’s lettering, and each volume comes shrink-wrapped (because they all still have a Mature rating). A colour page is included at the front, there are bonus pages, including the mangaka’s afterwords (I especially like the Characters’ Heights Chart in #7) and impactful double-page trailers for the following volume. Volume 9 is due out in January 2025.
An Afterthought on Adapting Manga to Anime/Live Action and the Unforeseen Consequences
For those readers – like me – who have followed Kowloon Generic Romance since the start, the announcement that the manga is being made into an anime TV series and a live action film is more than a little bitter-sweet. If you’ve been around anime adaptations of ongoing manga as long as I have, you’ll know that the making of a TV series can kill – or at least stunt the development of the title. There’s something very final about the ending of an anime series (often with a false ending because the mangaka hasn’t yet written a conclusion) and I’ve seen too many manga limp to an indefinite hiatus or an unsatisfactory conclusion when the longed-for TV series comes to an end. The creative impetus seems to flag, then to peter out, perhaps because after so many other people have been working on their material, it no longer feels like their own series. My advice to readers picking up this unique series is to read as much as you can of the original manga before the animated and live versions are screened. That way you can enjoy it in its purest and unadulterated form: the way the mangaka originally envisioned it. Let’s hope that anything else is a bonus!
Our review copies from Yen Press were supplied by Diamond Book Distributors UK.
