Kowloon Generic Romance, Vol. 1

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MAYUZUKI: I actually started feeling attracted to the structural appeal of the walled city in my elementary school years. I saw movies, documentaries, and photo books, and I really liked the concept and structure. I had this feeling of “I really love Kowloon City” in my heart. That led to this desire of one day drawing a manga that's set in Kowloon. I had this desire for a long time, but I couldn't come up with a story that I thought would fit the setting. I kept my love for Kowloon deep inside of me and just figured that one day, I'll come up with a story that matches this. “It'll come to me.” And it did! Either way, it has been completely demolished since 1994, just three years before Hong Kong’s handover from Great Britain to China. Apparently not so in Kowloon Generic Romance. Your works regularly focus on older characters, like both the leads of Kowloon Generic Romance and Masami in After the Rain. Can you describe any reasons for your interest in following these kinds of characters?

Kowloon Generic Romance, Vol. 2". Yen Press. Archived from the original on August 30, 2022 . Retrieved August 8, 2022.

SHUEISHA EDITORIAL STAFF: Maybe it's not "SF" like science-fiction. Maybe it's the way the manga artist Fujiko described "SF," which is ‘sukoshi fushigi’ in Japanese. So, "a little mysterious." MAYUZUKI: Kowloon doesn't exist anymore, as previously mentioned, so it makes it difficult to draw it in today's world. I decided to make it a story about the not-so-distant future since I'm setting it in Kowloon, which is a place that no longer exists. There are some mysterious elements, such as people who aren't supposed to exist, yet they're alive in the story, but I don't think of my work as science fiction. I do think about the timeline of it, setting it in the near future. Hermaphrodite: Albeit his body is mostly male and he identifies as male, he has both male and female genitalia. The resulting element of that making him unable to have children does upset him a little.

Sinister Geometry: The Generic Terra. It's a floating and brilliant octahedron that looks exactly like Ramiel from Neon Genesis Evangelion (the trope image for this trope) and hoovers in the sky of Kowloon. The manga builds a subtle sense of dread surrounding it as the viewer and the characters are kept in the dark regarding its true purpose, but are constantly reminded of its presence with scenes of the Kowloon sky. Central Theme: The Old vs The New. A conflict that is symbolized by Kujirai and Kudou's tensions over her desire to try new things and Kudou's resistance and reliance in habits. Even more so in regards to Kujirai wanting a new relationship with Kudou, while he is still hung up on the previous Kujirai.

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Friend to All Children: He shows to genuinely care for children and when seeing a young boy in trouble, he stops to help him. It may be because he can't have children of his own.

Watermelon. She eats them daily, and believes that the mix of eating watermelon and smoking is one of the best things she has. Some conflict and tension gets too easily bypassed or resolved for the sake of returning things to status quo and to keep a steady breezy tone, even in situations where some developments should have been questioned and pondered far more. Of course, I keep in mind that this could be intentional to make for thematic exploration and a tone shift on later chapters, but by all means this persistence of keeping status quo intact can feel jarring despite all the wholesome and interesting moments involved.One thing they do seem to agree on is Kowloon itself. Kudou waxes lyrical when they’re having a smoke on the top of their building, saying as the two gaze out over the city, “The people who live here – they’re all in love with Kowloon. This nostalgic Kowloon. So Kowloon will never change. It shouldn’t change. ‘Cos it doesn’t need anything new.” Kowloon Generic Romance is a Seinen romance manga by Jun Mayuzuki. The manga has run in Shueisha's Weekly Young Jump since February 2020. Yen Press publishes the series in English.

MAYUZUKI: I used to draw everything analog. I never used digital, but then COVID hit, and I changed to brushing up my manga with digital tools. Even now, if I really feel like I want to do it with pen and paper, then I will. When I was starting the serialization for Kowloon Generic Romance, I had this vague idea of possibly switching to digital or incorporating some digital tools. I decided to go with analog, but then COVID happened, and I bought all these expensive tools and equipment for digital work. Now I incorporate it, but I really only just use it for brushing up screentone. I still draw the basics by hand. All of the covers of Kowloon Generic Romance are drawn by hand - the line art, the colors, all of it. So basically, it's still mostly analog, with a little bit of digital sprinkled here and there.Jun Mayuzuki: I get asked about how I became a manga artist or how I got into manga a lot. My parents really loved manga, so we had a ton of manga in the house. I was just in the right environment for both reading and enjoying manga and for creating manga. Instead of getting angry at me for reading manga, my parents were like, “Oh, you're reading that? Well, then you should read this one too.” They'd keep recommending me different series. I've also loved drawing ever since I was small. You add that to the fact that I was in a household full of manga, and it was sort of an inevitable outcome.