Ikoku Irokoi Romantan
Posted on May 7th, 2009
Ikoku Irokoi Romantan
[6/10]
Genre: Yaoi, Ramance
Ranmaru is the young successor of the Omi clan who is stuck having to marry the daughter of a rival yakuza clan. However while on his wedding cruise he meets the charming ship’s captain, Albert. Albert has an odd fascination with Japanese culture and is attracted to the kimono-clad Ranmaru at first sight. He shows up to help Ranmaru in a few shifty situations, and in turn Ranmaru finds himself becoming more interested in the mysterious Al.
Nice character designs (probably the best I’ve seen in a bl anime) and Kaoru is a strong and likeable person for a female character in a yaoi show, considering female characters in shounen-ai tend to be annoying and often the antagonist, plus she had a surprising amount of airtime. She complains but not without good reason. I’d be pretty annoyed if I were forced into marrying an uninterested man too. Despite this she seems to chatise and worry over him like an older sister. Actually from the first half of the first ep, it looks more like a shoujo show. I’d love to have seen Kaoru and Ranmaru end up together though they’d be an extremely stubborn pair full of spit-fiery agruments. Story-wise it’s nothing unique, and gets a little slow-moving at times but at least there’s development in the characters and plot and it not all ‘I want you let’s have lots of sex!’. And and… What’s with the Ranmaru man-panty flashes… once or twice is okay, but that was overdoing it =.= Albert seemed rather extra. It was a little disappointing to see headstrong Ranmaru from the beginning becoming totally submissive to Albert… granted he was intoxicated but still… Al would’ve made a more convincing Italian if he had darker looks, here he looked American. And how knight in shining armour was he? Otherwise Albert had a very cardboard seme role, a little bland at times.
Filed under: ** anime, shounen-ai