I won’t be the last person to say that Wong Kar Wai’s cinema is good kino, seamlessly transforming the ethereal essence of raw, intangible emotions into a vivid, dreamlike work of art. From the tender ache of In the Mood for Love to the bittersweet unraveling of profoundly connected yet deeply lonely lovers in Happy Together to the existential echoes of lost love in 2046, his films perform a kind of cinematic alchemy, unpacking the emotional weight of love and loss. Neon-drenched cityscapes become poetic reflections of yearning that feel both eternal and fleeting, captured through his hypnotic, slow-motion lens. In the words of Nicole Kidman, “Heartbreak feels good in a place likе this.”
Kowloon Generic Romance, a new anime this season, hums to a similar cadence as Kar Wai’s works, blending love, mystery, and nostalgia into its atmospheric tale set in the worn-down labyrinthine walled city, in what might just be the closest anime has come to evoking the legendary cinematographer’s films.
Kowloon Generic Romance is part mystery, part sci-fi, and all parts romance. Written and illustrated by After the Rain mangaka Jun Mayuzuki, it follows Reiko Kujirai and Hajime Kudo, two coworkers at Wang Lai Realty Company, whose office banter flirts with something more profound. As the name of the show bluntly suggests, their dynamic ticks all the familiar romcom boxes—lunch break debates over trying out new spots over old haunts; teasing that borders on being mean, like kids on a playground—but beneath the surface, something is off, hinting at a deeper mystery at play.
Spoilers for that.
Kujirai and Kudo’s conversations are drenched in nostalgia, from their musings on Kowloon’s inherent charm to the way memory and love intertwine for people inside the town. When Kujirai offhandedly mentions how watermelon tastes better with a cigarette—a line that feels right at home in a Wong Kar Wai work—Kudo hesitates before saying that habit reminds him of someone he once knew. That lingering theme of familiarity resurfaces again when a waiter mistakes Kujirai for Kudo’s girlfriend. Kudo, to Kujirai’s surprise, brushes her off when she wonders if it’d be awkward if he returned with his actual girlfriend, but adds, “That’s not something you should worry about.” By now, Spidey senses are tingling something fierce.
Their nostalgia talk moves on to romantic dialogue tree territory when Kujirai admits their hangouts feel strangely familiar, leading to a rooftop moment that would belong in the season finale of any other romance anime. Just when it looks like they might kiss in the first episode, speedrunning past the lewd handholding stage, Kudo deflects once again, teasing Kujirai about her crow’s feet. They do wind up kissing at the close of the first episode, but it's anything but generic. In a quiet office moment, Kujirai wakes Kudo with playful prodding, and in that drowsy haze, he kisses her—like full-on French kisses her like a husband and wife on the morning of their honeymoon—only to shove her away, say my bad, and leave with a cryptic “wrong person.” It's here where the anime’s mystery crystallizes when Kujirai finds a Polaroid of them together in his drawer—except she has no memory of it or their apparent engagement.
From here on, Kujirai grapples with feelings for Hajime that are undeniably hers, despite having no memory of the past they shared. Elsewhere, Kudo struggles with maintaining a healthy distance between them, which doesn’t help her romantic confusion. At the same time, the show cuts back to his meet-cute with a pre-amnesia version of Kujirai. Contrary to her current, bashful self, pre-amnesia Kujirai was a confident, captivating presence, putting Hajime on the romantic back foot as he wistfully yearned for her. Despite their current circumstance, Kudo doesn’t display any signs of wanting to recreate their old dynamic. Whenever things look like they’re about to heat up, he reliably breaks the tension with jokes, keeping their connection at a cautious platonic distance. However, his emotions slip when Kujirai cosplays as her former self, which only pisses him off instead of making sparks fly between them again. While the mystery of their amnesia storyline unfolds in the foreground of the anime, with both sides aware of the elephant in the room without outwardly addressing it to each other, the anime delves deeply into the weight of nostalgia.
Beneath the romance lies a sweeping sci-fi narrative, exploring humanity’s pursuit of innovation at the expense of its essence. Hebinuma, a pharmaceutical giant, is pulling an Altered Carbon advertising "eternal youth and immortality" by backing up memories for Generic Terra—a still-unfinished, gaudy Ramiel-looking polyhedron floating above Earth. Government-funded and branded as a "romance for humankind," it's the latest in a trend of future-flung conspiratorial pharmaceutical shows that posits the pros and cons of creating a fake Earth with fake people, set in a future that echoes a vanished past. Combine the fact that folks’ tax dollars are funding the knockoff Earth populated by backup versions of people, with the show being set in a futuristic version of a setting that no longer exists, and you’ve got the pretty nifty adult romance anime on your hands.
However, there is a caveat to recommending the show to those hoping to dive into it via the anime: the manga isn’t done yet, and the anime aims to cover the entire series. This has manga readers, myself included, side-eying the anime, hoping it doesn’t fumble the bag with a rushed original anime ending to coalesce with its annoyingly fast pacing.
So far, that has materialized in the show condensing each volume of the manga into 25-minute episodes. While it hasn't reached the level of car wreck anime adaptations of otherwise phenomenal manga, like The Promised Neverland’s second season where entire arcs were skipped in a blitz toward its finale, Kowloon Generic Romance’s trimmed-for-brevity approach to adapting the series into an anime does dampen the deliberate, atmospheric pacing that defined it. Apparently, viewers are meant to watch the anime and then the live-action show to get a whole mixed-media experience with its adaptation, so I’ll hold my reservations on whether the show sticks that landing or not. Regardless, we’ll always have the manga, now nearing its end, which makes it the perfect time to dive into Kowloon Generic Romance and soak in its magical realism and unmistakable Wong Kar Wai vibes.
