Ikoku Irokoi Romantan is the anime adapted from Ayano Yamane's A Foreign Love Affair. It's a two-part series and differs from the manga in a couple of respects.The story in the anime is somewhat compressed, concerning itself solely with the first meeting of Ranmaru and Al aboard the Costa Altista on Ranmaru's wedding day, and going on to Al's rescue of Ranmaru on the road to Rome, and the rescue aboard the cruise ship when Ranmaru is abducted. Some -- perhaps most -- of the transitional scenes and background have been cut, such as Ranmaru's meeting with his eventual kidnappers on the road to Rome, and there are additional scenes at the beginning of Kaoru and Ranmaru on shipboard, including a nice scene of Al's first sight of Ranmaru which helps set up the romance.
If you're familiar with the manga and love Yamane's drawing, you're going to be a bit disappointed in the graphics on this one. It's just not as appealing as Yamane's original, especially the character renderings, which fall back into a "standard" manga portraiture. Nor are they as sensuous as the original drawings: faces, in particular, seem heavy-featured and not as expressive.
On the upside, the story's much clearer, and the ending is much neater. Ranmaru's motivations, in particular, benefit greatly by a few periods of introspection and the further development that's provided in the anime: I was never quite convinced that he was a willing participant in the manga version, especially since Al is such a masterful seme, but here it seems a lot more plausible. Characterizations of the major characters are more fully developed -- we get a lot more basis for Al's attraction to Ranmaru, Kaoru is also allowed to become a more human character -- she's not just a self-absorbed shrew -- and Ranmaru seems the be a little more on the ball, but only a little: Yamane's ukes tend to be a bit slow on the uptake. The casting is creditable, but not particularly remarkable, although Kentarou Itou as Ranmaru is quite apt.
It's a nice hour or so spent viewing. The first half is pure romantic comedy in the vein of a 1950's Doris Day/Rock Hudson romance -- even the soundtrack fits right in to that mold. The adventure in the second episode -- the kidnapping and rescue -- are for some reason not quite so gripping -- it's just a little too relaxed. The sex scenes are fairly graphic, but nowhere near as explicit as the manga.
It's a 2007 release from Prime Time.
Director: Hajime Ohtani
Storyboard: Hajime Ohtani
Original creator: Ayano Yamane
Character Design: Shuhei Tamura
Background Art: Nobuyuki Shiogama
Color design: Chiharu Tanaka
Cast:
Junichi Suwabe as Alberto Valentiano
Kentarou Itou as Ranmaru Ōmi
Ryotaro Okiayu as Ryūji Gondō
Tomoko Kawakami as Kaoru Ōmi (OVA 1)
Yuki Kaida as Kaoru Ōmi (OVA 2)
Hiromi Sugino as Ōmi's Father
Kazuyoshi Hayashi as Ōmi Member 2
Ken Narita as Al's Colleague
Naoki Kinoshita as Ōmi Member 1
Shounosuke Horikoshi as Foreigner 1
Yasuhiro as Foreigner 2
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