renaissance poisson

watched ikoku irokoi romantan today. ranmaru, a yakuza clan heir got married on a cruise ship, but he neither loves his new wife, nor does she love him. they argue a lot, and he ends up getting drunk and spending the night with albert valentino, the sexy captain of the ship, who has a thing not just for everything japanese, but especially for ranmaru in his traditional clothes, which al finds beyond sensuous. ranmaru gets into trouble at every opportunity, especially with a rival yakuza, and al always comes to the rescue.

the story is very lightweight in its manga version, and the anime makes it even lighter with the usual problem of BL OVAs which have to rush through their material to get away with the fewest episodes. the plot is preposterous, and i don't feel the love between the two here at all (while in the manga there was at least a little time for it to develop). but the translation to anime hasn't hurt yamano ayane's art much, the boys are pretty, and the voice talent is good (suwabe junichi and itou kentarou with okiayu ryoutaro as support). the sex is ... well, as much sex as we get in BL anime, which is to say, more implied than shown, but at least they don't fade to black like in gravitation, and it's mildly erotic.

eye candy to kill an hour, only worth buying for BL anime completists IMO.