エピソードの概要
She found the book she wanted to read and when she flipped the pages, she couldn't read.
Right, right, right, right.
And then that happens to you in your dream?
Yes, it's exactly the way it is in my dreams.
And so I'm a little bit curious as to whether the generic Terra in the sky
is the thing that's doing the dreaming,
or whether there's some other way in which this is all somebody's dream.
Or you might be clone.
I had not considered that possibility.
Welcome back to 2AM OTTACK!
I am your host Mayu, a born and raised Japanese non-otaku, and...
I'm Cisco, an American otaku.
In this podcast, we share our reviews of anime and manga through our distinct perspectives
with commentary on Japanese culture, history, and language.
Cisco, what does absolute self mean to you?
Or are you fully being absolute self and living your life?
Another word, thriving?
You were so close.
What?
Yes, I'm...
Did you mean to say thriving?
Did you mean to say sliving?
Sliving, yes.
Sliving.
Sliving.
Sliving.
Sliving.
Sliving.
Yeah, I kind of am sliving though.
Low-key, I am sliving.
Yes.
I absolutely love this anime, and I'm super curious to know how the story ends
when the original manga is still going on.
The original manga is still going on?
It's still going on.
But the series is going to end in like three episodes.
Yes, so far, it's been great.
It's interesting.
Yeah, it's been good.
I love it.
エピソード9の考察
So today we are going to talk about...
Kowloon Generic Romance.
We will talk about episode 9, which we just watched, along with our thoughts on the story,
characters, and the original manga, which I highly recommend you to read.
Lastly, we will introduce the keyword related to Kowloon Generic Romance in Japanese on
Toei Motak Word of the Day.
So stay with us.
We actually talked about Kowloon Generic Romance, all about the history of Kowloon
World City.
If you're interested in the real history of Kowloon World City, we recorded an earlier
episode where we examined the historical Kowloon and how it got that way and what
happened to it afterwards.
So the link is in the description.
Before we start, we'd like to hear from you.
Share your thoughts, ideas, questions, or even suggestions what we should talk about.
Send us a message to the email in the description.
Or you can use Spotify and the YouTube comments section as well.
All right, let's do this.
So we watched episode 9, which is the newest episode out there at this point, and there
are only three episodes left.
They're not going to be able to end this story in three episodes.
That's not enough runway for this plane to land.
The story seems like going forward and getting close to reveal too many questions.
Yeah, they could, but are they going to get a second season?
Do you think they're like...
No, no, no.
It's going to end.
But are they going to get a second season?
I don't think so.
But the manga is still going though.
It's still going.
Then like, what the hell?
Why are they not going to get a second season?
It seems like one episode is per manga, tankobon.
Okay, one tankobon.
So there are 13 episodes.
So we're in like a George RR Martin Game of Thrones situation here.
Well, maybe she finished writing the manga artist, but the tankobon is not out yet.
Yeah, they do usually release tankobon like a couple of weeks or months after
the last episode has been serialized.
So like maybe...
Is it like a new kind of strategy?
Like nobody knows the ending.
I mean, that would be cool if it was true.
But I mean, it's not like they're working on animating it right now.
They're clearly done animating it.
And if the story's not over, that means they either had to write their own ending,
a la Game of Thrones, or they didn't get to the end.
Like one or the other.
When an adaptation, like a TV show version of a written story has to conclude before
the written story is over, the people making the show are forced into a decision.
Yes.
They can either write a brand new ending, sometimes based on like an author's sketch
of what the ending is supposed to be, or they can just only go up to as far as has
been revealed at the time that they're animating it or, you know, making it and then end there
and like wait for the rest of the source material to come out and then finish it.
What happened with Game of Thrones is they outstripped the original books.
They had to write their own ending and people hated it.
Yeah, I know.
So why would they make that same mistake here?
But then like, is she really going to let the anime beat her to the punch?
Maybe.
I don't know.
That's weird.
I don't know what the deal was.
Like...
Well, okay.
Anyway, I think it's a mistake.
Kowloonの謎
So in episode 9, again, there are so many questions and mysteries.
Like a new character, Xiaohei, but like a grown-up version of Xiaohei?
Or are they the same people?
Yeah, I mean, one of the things that we haven't really figured out yet is, you know,
Miyuki did that test.
They brought like the real guy there.
Was the real guy able to see the like generic Kowloon?
Or did he go like, why'd you make me come here?
Not clear.
Okay.
So like he came in and the other guy vanished.
But when he went back out, did that other guy reappear?
Miyuki's in somewhere with the generic version guy.
Right, right, right, right, right.
Yeah.
And he's on the phone with Gwen.
Gwen's like, I brought him.
Yes.
And then they walk into Kowloon.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I can't remember whether that guy can see the like generic version of Kowloon or not.
But as soon as he crosses the border, the other guy disappeared.
Now to me, the big question is, when that guy left again,
did the other dude, did the generic version come back?
I doubt it.
You think he's just gone permanently?
Yeah.
I feel like that's a really important question that we don't really have an answer to.
And like, was there a generic Gwen also?
Yes, I think so.
The generic Gwen no longer exists.
I mean, like the real Gwen is now constantly coming inside Kowloon.
So it's really hard to tell what happens when he's gone.
But does like generic Gwen exist when he's gone?
Or like once you come in, they can never reappear or something?
I was thinking once the real one comes in, like generic one is gone.
Never comes back.
Yeah.
So it's hard to tell.
And I think with Xiaohei, are they the same person?
There's a whole bunch of clues that say that they are.
The tooth, the bangs, the interest in dresses, the name.
And we haven't seen little girl Xiaohei in like a couple episodes now.
And we've got this other Xiaohei who's like a dude and like fully grown.
Is he the same person as little Xiaohei?
Will she like just never exist again because he's now entered the generic simulation?
It's really hard to know.
Yeah.
And then did she change the gender or was he always a boy or?
Yeah, yeah.
We can't tell whether like little Xiaohei, the generic version,
was actually a boy and just because they were so young, it was impossible to tell.
RekoponとKuroの関係
Or the two, you know, the generic version isn't the same gender as the real version.
Or did the person, you know, did Xiaohei transition
into being a boy like later after they left Kowloon?
Like none of those things are clear.
That's a big question.
And what else?
Rekopon and Kuro finally kind of got together.
Yeah, dude.
Yeah. She looked really happy.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You know, Rekopon is really into him, but Kuro is not fully into her.
Well, I think he feels really conflicted.
He wants old Reiko for sure.
Yeah. I mean, he seems clearly to have stayed in generic Kowloon to be able to be with her again,
because his life is so crushed by the fact that the original died.
And, you know, I think he's like, you know, he sort of can't live without her.
Right.
But he also can't live with her knowing she's a really different person.
Yeah.
You know, she's really not the same.
And like, I'm sure he has some feelings for the new one.
But I would guess that his feelings for the new one feel like he's cheating on the old one.
And like, you know, that she might blame him or not like that he's with her clone, you know?
And like, I think he feels complicated about wanting her to be the same person.
And like, she's not and cannot be.
He probably, he probably feels really torn about it.
Yeah.
Kowloonの死の概念
At the end of the episode, Yulong asks Xiaohei to kill Reiko.
Yeah.
Why?
Not clear.
Why he wants her to die?
Well, we haven't, have we seen anyone in Kowloon die?
Excuse me, in generic Kowloon die?
Because I don't think we have, right?
No.
No one's been murdered.
Nobody's committed suicide.
Like, I guess supposedly original Reiko died.
Right. But she died in the real Kowloon before it was demolished.
I mean, like in the simulated Kowloon, have we seen anyone die?
No.
I don't think so.
I don't think so.
And so, you know, and like, it's always summer.
There's no other season.
Like time doesn't really seem to be passing.
So there's also this sort of like question of like, you know, can people die?
Do people even age in Kowloon?
Right?
Unclear.
Unclear.
It's also clear that they are like testing some stuff out, right?
To try to see what like the limits of the simulation are.
And this is one of the things about the story that I don't understand.
Whoever made the generic Terra, like doesn't understand what it is and is not capable of doing.
And so they're like running all these tests to try to figure out what happens with like,
you know, can any of the replicas like leave, right?
Can you know, like, how does that work?
And it's not clear yet.
Yeah.
All right.
Miyukiのアイデンティティ
So there are some topics I'm interested to talk about from episode one to nine.
In one episode, Yomei had a sort of like a meltdown,
and she and Rekopon were talking about like absolute self.
Yep.
I think that can apply to some other characters, like not only Rekopon, Yomei, but also Miyuki.
Wait, why Gwen?
Seems so far pretty straightforward.
Miyuki, I totally agree with you.
Miyuki is such an interesting character.
Yeah.
Because until he met Gwen, he was not sure because like he is like intersex person.
Right.
And he was not sure what he was.
Yeah.
I mean, I don't even know like what pronouns Miyuki enjoys using, you know,
like Gwen calls Miyuki, Miyuki-chan.
Right.
Right.
I think usually Miyuki is for a girl.
Is more feminine than masculine.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
Miyukiの性別表現とアイデンティティ
But Gwen clearly perceives Miyuki as male and even says,
if you had looked like a woman, I wouldn't have wanted to talk to you.
Yeah.
Right.
And so, you know, but I think like in terms of gender performance,
Miyuki is somewhere in the middle.
Miyuki tends to wear male clothing.
Right.
But also lipstick on only their bottom lip.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Right.
Yeah.
Has a forked tongue, which is like not related to gender at all.
No.
And like has really unusually colored eyes, like snake-like eyes,
whereas glasses and has short hair.
So I'd say like in terms of Miyuki's gender performance,
there are more signals there that are a little bit more male than female.
And Miyuki doesn't have breasts, which is like, especially in anime,
like one of the most important secondary sex markers,
because you almost never see any pubic hair anyway.
You know, like there's all sorts of laws and stuff.
I think in most ways, Miyuki is coded more male than female,
but like is, you know, clearly like on that boundary,
but not necessarily comfortable with it.
Right.
Seems like torn about their own internal identity.
So yeah, Miyuki is one of them.
Well, and Miyuki seems to be living for revenge.
Right.
Which is a big question.
Again, we don't really know why.
But he doesn't like his dad.
Yeah, I mean, Miyuki seems to be an adopted heir.
Right.
And the actual child seems to be dead.
And Miyuki wants revenge against the adoptive father for some reason.
And I think to me, actually, that idea of living for revenge
probably also means you don't have a really strong sense of self.
Because if you did, you might have something else to live for.
That's about who you are and not this like mission or purpose that you're looking for.
Do you have any favorite characters?
I feel like you're not going to like this, but I really like Kudo.
Uh, why?
Why?
I think he's the most psychologically interesting of the characters in the show so far,
because he's grappling with this tremendous loss.
And he is clearly so torn about what he is doing,
where he wants to come off as this carefree, sort of playboy-ish guy.
But the more that you learn about him, the more you realize he's dealing,
he's hiding some very intense trauma.
And he's behaving in an enormously self-destructive way
by living in a fake city with the clone of his dead fiancée.
That is not a healthy lifestyle.
And other people around him seem to know this and be like,
dude, you have to get out of here.
And he doesn't even want to leave.
And to me, that's sort of like an addiction metaphor.
And so I am really curious about how he's going to react
to the stuff that happens next in the show.
I like a lot of characters.
I like Rikopon a lot.
But I also like Miyuki and Gwen.
Gwen's great.
Yeah, I didn't like Miyuki first, but he's such an interesting character.
Like, there's so many things he's carrying and like not showing.
But we don't know what they are.
We don't know what they are.
And there's a scene, I think, the first time Gwen and Miyuki met at the bar.
And then Miyuki says to Gwen, I destroyed something precious today.
Right.
So you think he's just...
Is that when Miyuki's just murdered the other person's child?
Who?
Do you think that's when the little kid died?
Or that Miyuki is destroying Kuron?
I have no idea.
That was like a simple phrase, but it just passed.
But there's gotta be some meaning to it.
No, for sure.
Yeah.
アニメとマンガの違い
And then after I started watching anime, I almost immediately started reading
the original manga, which is really good.
It has so many details about each story.
And I just don't understand why they didn't want to include those details in anime.
Because they decided they were going to make a 13-tongue volume
manga into a 13-episode anime.
So they had to take a lot of stuff out.
When Demon Slayer can stretch for many years, why are they cutting short?
I don't understand.
I mean, the show is pretty slow in the first couple episodes.
I didn't feel that way.
Oh.
You might feel that way reading manga.
There are so many dialogues.
I feel like you literally just explained why they cut it down then.
But I really enjoyed it.
There's so much more conversation between Gwen and Miyuki, which really shows their relationship.
Oh yeah, no doubt.
Or a story about Yomei, how it passed.
And then there's a lot longer stories.
I mean, it's the same story, but a longer version of it.
They might come out.
More of the details might come out in the future episodes or not.
But I really recommend reading manga if you like anime already.
All right.
Yeah.
Anyway, so I'm going to ask you a big question.
Okay.
Kowloonを見る理由
Who can see Kowloon?
Yeah, it's so not clear.
I think it's got to be something about who wants to see Kowloon.
Because the pizza delivery guy can't see it.
And it's clearly not just people who have lived there before.
Because Yomei in particular doesn't seem to have lived there before it was destroyed.
She just comes in, but she needs a place to go, right?
And so she wants to be able to see it.
And I think for their own reasons, Miyuki and Gwen and definitely Kudou want to be able to see it.
And that's why they're all able to see it.
I'm a little bit less clear about Xiaohei.
Again, there's so many questions about that character.
We don't really know who they are, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
I wonder whether they also have some sort of more deep reasons for wanting to be able to see Kowloon.
Excuse me, Kowloon.
And then what's the other guy's name?
The white-haired dude?
Yu Long.
Yu Long?
Can he see it?
He can't see it.
He can't see it.
He may not be interested.
He may fundamentally not care.
I think if he wants to see it.
Then I don't know.
That's the best I got, was it's about wanting to be there.
Because I really don't want the answer to be something like,
oh, you have to be genetically modified by heavy Pneumopharmaceuticals in order to see it.
Yeah.
名前の由来
Also, what's Gwen's name supposed to be?
I haven't met very many dudes named Gwen.
Is it an English name?
Well, Gwenevere is.
But Gwenevere is, I think, usually a female name.
There's some GW names that are probably Welsh or something that could be shortened, I suppose,
to Gwen.
But it's just not a name.
I associate Gwen with being Gwyneth, which is a female name.
Or Gwenevere, which is also a female name.
I think there is one of the Knights of the Round Table whose name starts with a GW,
and then it's pronounced weirdly.
So maybe.
But you know what?
I should look that up.
Hang on.
OK, I was thinking of Gawain, which is in English more often Gavin and not Gwen.
But it does have a G and a W.
There's just also an A in between.
I mean, the Wendiga of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnall.
So Gawain is pretty close to Gwen.
But in all the pronunciation guides that I'm seeing here,
キャラクターの多様性とアイデンティティ
at least there's always an A.
So anyway, that was my question about Gwen's name.
It's an unusual male name.
But Hong Kong was under British occupation for a really long time.
It's not unreasonable that Gwen is coming from some kind of English background.
But there's also a decent amount of gender bending going on in this anime anyway.
So I wondered whether there was some significance to it being a usually female name.
I also want to say Kowloon Generic Romance has diverse characters.
Sort of.
Not the race part.
No, not the race part.
Seems like they're all Asian.
Everybody's Asian.
Yeah, there's not even any white people so far.
Yeah, but Nekopon is not human.
Nekopon's a clone.
Probably.
They don't use clone.
They just keep saying they are not clone.
They keep calling her a...
a posterior generic.
Generic what?
They call her Zirconian.
Or Zirconian, yeah.
Or Generic Reiko.
Yeah.
Or something like that.
I do like the idea of Zirconian because, you know, cubic Zirconia is fake diamonds.
And so in the same way that those are sort of like, you know, lab-made diamonds or
quote-unquote fake diamonds, right?
The idea of like Zirconians as sort of fake people is like a pretty interesting metaphor.
Also Yomei.
Yomei had lots of plastic surgery.
That's true.
Gwen is gay.
Yep.
Miyuki is intersex.
Yeah.
What else?
Xiaohei could be...
had a transition.
Yeah, we don't know enough about that.
But Xiaohei the adult is clearly interested in like women's clothing.
Is like, seems to want to put it on, right?
And so like, could be what we, you know, I don't know whether transvestite is a word people
are still using.
Someone who enjoys dressing in the other gender's clothes.
Also like, it's not clear.
This is just my assumption.
But Yulong could be like albino.
I mean, I guess the fact that Yulong's hair is all white suggests that a little bit.
From top to bottom.
Yeah.
Yeah, maybe.
Yeah, he's very, very white.
Yeah.
Maybe.
And Kudo is a regular guy.
Kudo's just a regular dude.
Yeah.
Just another cishet man.
But like, I like those like, you know, Gwen, Miyuki couple, and then Yomei and Rekopon's
relationship.
And then, yeah, it's fun to watch.
Everyone's very attractive, though.
What do you mean?
Like, nobody's like old or like fat or like struggling with their self-image at all.
They're all like...
Good looking?
Yeah, I mean, they're all anime characters.
Literally, they're all anime characters.
But they're not like diverse in how they look.
I see.
You see what I'm saying?
Like, their identities are pretty diverse, especially like their, you know, gender identities
and sexual orientations.
But their, like, attractiveness is not diverse.
Okay.
Right?
You can say that.
I'm just putting that out there.
All right.
Okay, let's do today's word of the day.
All right.
Otaku.
Word of the day.
Today's word of the day is zettai no watashi.
Can you translate this?
We actually used it earlier.
This means, I think with watashi, I would actually maybe say this means the absolute
I rather than self.
But that would be like zettai no jibun, I think.
Right.
The translation on anime was absolute self.
Absolute self.
Yeah, I mean, it's the same thing, really.
Yeah, that's the idea.
It's something that Rekopon is very, very interested in because she is a clone.
So like, what does it mean to be her?
アイデンティティの探索
And especially because she's in a position where she's acting out somebody else's life,
but doesn't have that person's memories, but is forming some of the same emotional
connections as that person, which is making it really tricky for her to untangle which
emotions are actually hers and which are sort of the leftovers from the person she
was created from.
And for Yomei, the absolute self also seems to be about getting away from her mother's
expectations and deciding who she wants to be for herself without the burden of her
parentage and other things on her.
And for Miyuki, it seems to be about both like figuring out Miyuki's own identity and
like deciding what they are living for.
So zettai is a useful word.
Yeah.
I gotta say in Japanese, zettai yakusoku.
Zettai umemokushiroku.
Yeah, it means absolute, but it also means like definitely or absolutely.
It's often used as like a way to heighten somebody's like conviction in saying something.
And it shows up a lot in anime, actually, because of like the dramatic nature of the
shounen, you know.
All right, let's go to the ending.
夢と現実の境界
So what is your thought on Kowloon Generic Romance so far?
I really like it.
I think you like it even more than I do.
I do.
But I really enjoy the mystery elements of this and some of the sort of like thriller-ish
aspects of it, of like, you know, what's going on and who's trying to achieve what.
I like trying to work out those sort of mystery elements.
And I think the question of like, you know, if you could live in a simulation that was
potentially sort of dangerous or clearly not reality, but had people dear to you who
had died, or at least those people's images also living in it, would you choose to spend
time there, you know, instead of in the real world?
I think that's also like an interesting philosophical question and emotional question for people
to think about.
I wanted to bring this up before we end.
When we were watching episode five, when Leopold goes to a bookstore and she found
the book she wanted to read, and when she flipped the pages, she couldn't read.
Right, right, right, right.
And then that happens to you in your dream?
Yes.
It's exactly the way it is in my dreams, actually.
That like, when I'm dreaming and I try to read something in my dream, the first sentence is
actual English.
It'll be like, dear sir, we regret to inform you that.
And I get about that many words in, and then like the next sentence is still English words,
but it's nonsense.
It's like bird, sea, plane, fly, whale, you know, camel, etc.
And you're like, wait, wait, what is it?
And then if you keep looking down the letter, the rest of it is just scribbles.
Like, it's not even words.
And like, it's like really for me almost always like a, like, I don't remember.
I think I blow past it in the dream.
Like, I'm like, that's weird.
And then I'm like, whatever, right?
But it should be one of those triggers that lets you know you're in a dream.
And there's a couple of these, right?
Like in a dream, you can't turn the lights on or off.
Supposedly, this is according to that one movie from like the mid 2000s that was like
all about dreams.
Anyway, I don't ever try to turn the lights on or off in my dreams.
So like, that is not a trigger for me.
But attempting to read things, whether it's on a computer screen or like a book or a letter,
inevitably, the beginning is like normal.
And then it very quickly transitions to nonsense.
夢とクローンの考察
And so when I saw that happen, I was like, oh my, this is somebody's dream.
That's what's going on here.
Because that is when that type of thing happens.
And so I'm a little bit curious as to whether the generic Tara in the sky is the thing that's
doing the dreaming or whether there's some other way in which this is all somebody's
dream.
Or you might be a clone.
I had not considered that possibility.
What happens in your dreams when you try to read things?
I don't read in my dreams.
I think I'm not a clone then.
I'm just always so late for important stuff.
Yeah, that's my boring dream, which is so stressful.
All right.
Check your local library if you're interested in reading this week's manga for free.
Thank you so much for listening to this week's episode.
If you liked this week's episode, please give us good reviews on Spotify and Apple
Podcasts or like and leave a comment on YouTube.
Make sure to subscribe and follow 2AMOTAK and 3AMOTAK.
It'll keep us making more fun episodes.
I have to add this.
Spotify added a new function on podcasts.
Each podcast before I publish, I can add music.
So I started adding music related to each episode.
So like this one, I can add an opening theme song.
Or you could just add Akaneko because that's all I ever think of when I think of it.
Just kidding.
Yeah, yeah.
You can put the real...
What is it?
Natsu no Maboroshi or something?
No, that's a spit song.
Go straight and listen to the opening song from our podcast.
All right.
See you next time for more 2AMOTAK.
I'm a clone!
