Ikoku Irokoi Romantan
Reviewer: amanda [email]Overall Rating: A
Media Reviewed: Digital fansub
Creator: Ayano Yamane
U.S. Licensed: No
Released by: Prime Time
Run time: 2 30-minute episodes
BL Content: Hard (nudity, sexual situations)
Genre:? Comedy, Explicit, Romance
Warnings:? Explicit sex
Other media: English-licensed manga A Foreign Love Affair
I'm not sure if this is based on a game or a manga, as I've never heard of it before watching it. (Webmaster note: The anime is based off the manga of the same name by Ayano Yamane.) It's the story of a romance that takes place in Italy with the possiblity of a love triangle. Though don't let the fact that one corner of that triangle may be a woman get to you.
This anime starts out with a lovely woman staring morosely off the deck of a cruise ship. She's upset about her upcoming marriage to in her words "that idiot." Not exactly the usual start of a yaoi, in my experience. A tall blond Italian walks by her and she wonders why she can't marry a man like that. We the viewers get to follow the blonde Italian.
Al finds himself captivated by all things Japanese, especially the young Japanese yakuza man walking around in his kinegashi. The young man, Ranmaru, starts calling for his finance, Kaoru, the woman from the beginning. Who promptly beats the crap out of him for walking around half naked in decent winds. They are married that day, but both despairing at being paired up with the other, she throws him out of the room.
Ranmaru ends up in a bar drowning his woes until another yakuza member, one in love with Kaoru, picks a fight. He's joined by Al, and they waste no time in dispatching the yakuza bodyguards and their underboss. The culmination of the fight is a great scene of exposition with Ranmaru kicking the underboss into the pool, exposing part of his fundoshi. To Al's delight. They end up drinking the rest of the night, and then back at Al's cabin. Of course.
Naturally, things progress, since Al can't keep his hands off of Ranmaru. Though it's slightly spoiled for me that Ranmaru cries out "it hurts, dad" towards the end. I'm expecting further episodes to clear this up. Ranmaru wakes up alone, since Al's duties required him to leave early. As Ranmaru and his new bride disembark, however, we get to see Al again. In his captain's uniform. Ranmaru is understandably surprised. Al takes his hands and says that he unfortunately can't keep him, since Al is a man of the sea. This ends the first episode.
It is an interesting anime, I will give it that. I was highly entertained. I did cringe quite a bit at a certain point where Ranmaru encounters other Englishmen and Italians that are speaking very bad English. And I cringed even further at Al's intercession and his English. The sex scene was tasteful but didn't show much detail, and the art is beautiful. The transitions are smooth, and in my version the subtitles were very well done.
It was a great beginning, I thought, especially with the dynamics between Ranmaru and Kaoru. I'm very interested in what's going to happen with their marriage, and especially if and when we'll get to see Ranmaru and Al reunited. I very much look forward to the second episode.