The romance genre is incredibly malleable, especially in anime. Romance stories have been blended with almost every other genre and sub-genre, from sports to isekai and even military moe. More often than not, a romance plot or sub-plot is the positive heart of an anime, and gives the protagonist light when they’re faced with darkness (or some other cringy love metaphor), or it takes centre stage in a cute slice-of-life series. The 2025 Spring anime season brought with it a new romance anime that looks like a throwback to the classic ’90s era of anime — cue the obligatory, “they don’t make ’em like they used to” comments. But the vibey marketing hides something far more sinister.
Spring 2025 has been a great season for new manga adaptations. As well as original shows like To Be Hero X and Lazarus, adaptations like Witch Watch, Sword of the Demon Hunter, and the most original romance anime in years, Kowloon Generic Romance, were released. Don’t let the ironic latter title fool you, as underneath the aesthetically pleasing exterior (that will be a mainstay of lo-fi compilations for decades to come), sits an incredibly dark and twisting story.
Kowloon Generic Romance Is Far From A, Well… Generic Romance
Kowloon Generic Romance is based on the titular manga by Jun Mayuaki (After the Rain), which was first published in Shueisha’s seinen magazine, Weekly Young Jump, in 2019 and is still ongoing. Arvo Animation oversees the new anime, which premiered on April 5th, and is also ongoing. Despite being a relatively new studio, Arvo has proven itself with its work on Kowloon.
WARNING! The following contains spoilers for Episode 1 of Kowloon Generic Romance. But, don’t worry, you can still enjoy the show even with these plot points spoiled.
The series starts out by including all the trappings of a classic romance. We follow Reiko Kujirai, a realtor at a small property management company in the rundown city of Kowloon. Reiko has feelings for her co-worker, the charming but aloof Hajime Kudou. The show breaks from romance convention early, as it doesn’t take Reiko 3 seasons and over 60 episodes to confess her feelings to Hajime, as she does so in the very first episode. When she does, she is shot down, but not before Hajime takes her out to eat after work… this is where things get really weird.
From its first moments, there’s already something off about Kowloon Generic Romance. Even if you overlook the weird Evangelion-esque floating cube above the city, there’s an atmosphere to the city that feels both immediately nostalgic and comfortable, while being paradoxically unnerving in equal measure.
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Kowloon Generic Romance Puts a Dark Spin on the Romance Genre
We promised things would get weird, so here goes. While at dinner, the waiter comes up to the pair of them and says it’s been a long time since he’s seen them together. Hajime looks immediately flustered, while Reiko doesn’t know what he means, as it’s their first time at that tea house. Not thinking too much of it, she brushes it off, and they enjoy their tea and dinner. The next day, Reiko finds a photo at Hajime’s desk of him with a woman who looks exactly like her. When she takes it back to the waiter, he says that he took the photo of Hajime and Reiko together… and it’s on the day they got engaged!
Episode 1’s ending pulls the rug out from underneath the audience’s feet with the shocking twist. But, without diving into spoilers for the subsequent episodes, things only get more complicated. Reiko is now on a mission to discover if the woman in the photo is a doppelganger, or if she has lost her memory and Hajime is manipulating her. All the while, she still struggles to let her feelings for Hajime go dormant, even after knowing there is something wrong and potentially sinister about him.
Kowloon Generic Romance bounces back and forth between its sci-fi/mystery A-plot, while still leaving room for the complicated romantic subplot that many viewers came for. At the time of writing, nine episodes have been released so far. Season 1 will run for a total of 13 episodes.
Kowloon Generic Romance is streaming on Crunchyroll.
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