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| Episode Details | |
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| 04, 05, 06 | |
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| Unevaluated |
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[series:4888#628] | ||||||
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(Five episodes watched): This is clearly going to be more than just a romance, which was good news to me. Why does a semi-cubic device--the 'Gene Terra'--hover over the city? There are ads from Generic Terra which speak of immortality and eternal youth. Why has this part of the city been left behind by the pace of progress in the rest? Could it all be an artificial reality created for people who treasure the 'nostalgia' of this district? At first it seemed that nothing really odd was going to happen in this first episode, but after the credits Kujirai comes across a disconnect between what she remembers and what others do. From her perspective, she has fallen in love with co-worker Kudo (who likes nostalgia) but he has not shown much interest in her. But from the perspective of Gwen, a friend of Kudo, the two of them are already engaged! What's going on here? I want to know. Episode two reveals that Kujirai doesn't just remember a certain event differently than someone else does; she has a sort of amnesia. As she puts it, she 'doesn't have memories' and 'can't remember anything about my past'. While talking to her new friend, Yaomay, she says "I had work done on my entire body. I threw away my entire past". Plastic surgery is mentioned. There's a flashback to when Kujirai and Kudo first met--she had a different personality then, she was the experienced and self-confident worker at the company while he was the newcomer. Since then their roles seem to have reversed. Apparently they got engaged before she lost her memories and he hasn't forgotten it but feels it would be best to keep it to himself. Sure enough, Kudo is "in love with Kowloon". We learn that for years there had been talk of the district being demolished. Could it be that it has been, and this is a simulation, but some people have had their memories of that erased? Or has the Generic Terra corporation taken control of Kowloon and is using it for some sort of experiment? Kujirai makes use of a free health examination that GT is offering, and the highly suspicious Dr. Hebinuma is intrigued by her: "It's too wonderful. I might go crazy" he remarks to himself. Most of the time when I watch the first episode of a new show I take fairly extensive notes but in succeeding ones I don't and just remember the couple of most significant events. It would seem that with KGR I may need to write things down during each episode--it's worth it. Dr Hebinuma is transfixed by Kujirai for some reason; he may be bisexual as well. He has a forked tongue for some reason and snake tatoos all over the hidden parts of his body. "It really was her" he remarks after meeting Kujirai again--which implies that they've met before. He has a Green-haired man (his lover?) conducting an investigation of her, including searching for Gwen, the bartender, who has gone missing. Kudo is looking for Gwen, too. "What is happening in Kowloon?" Kudo asks himself, indicating that something strange is afoot. Later, Green-haired man remarks to Kujirai that "The Reiko Kujirai I knew no longer exists in this world", causing her to wonder if she really is the woman that Kudo was once engaged to. Later Kudo says something similar to her: "You're the one who doesn't know her, right?". He insists that her current feelings for him are nothing but an 'illusion'. She suddenly collapses. What happened to wipe out Kujirai's memories? And did she want it to happen? And what's the deal with this Kowloon 'nostalgia'? So much happens in episode four that I created an episode review for it (see above). Last updated Saturday, May 17 2025. Created Monday, April 21 2025. | ||||||||
