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Miscellanea and Ephemeron
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05/12/2008 Archived Entry: "Yaoi Review: A Foreign Love Affair"
A Foreign Love Affair
Story and Art by Ayano Yamane
Published by 801 Media, Inc.
ISBN-10: 1-934129-18-6
ISBN-13: 978-1-934129-18-0
Review by Linda Yau
Ever since I had the opportunity to watch the OVA of A Foreign Love Affair and learned of the anime being inspired by the manga, I have been waiting impatiently for the manga to be translated and finally it is. I have read parts of Ayano-sensei’s other works like The Viewfinder or Crimson Spell and thought that this is a good side story while waiting for the other two to be finished.
Brief retelling of the plot, Ranmaru Ohmi the heir of a Japanese yakuza group is on board a cruise ship at Italy celebrating his marriage to Kaoru, daughter from a rival yakuza clan. Ranmaru insists on regularly wearing the Japanese kimono and in Italy, this makes a very strange sight. Eventually he gets fed up with the Italian’s pestering him and this was how he met Albero Valentiano. Unknown to Ranmaru until later, Al had fallen in love with him at first sight. Al kept Ranmaru company, during what was to be his first night with his wife, and they spent a night of passion together. Ranmaru, later realizes that Al was the captain of the ship. This is where the OVA actually concludes.
The manga adds more dimensions to the characters in the story that the anime didn’t cover as well. Not to spoil much for readers of this book, I can say that in the latter part of this one book story, there are actually scenes similar to The Viewfinder when Al goes to save Ranmaru.
The art for this manga is drawn with great detail and top of the line, as expected from Ayano-sensei. Since the graphic novel is also released by 801 media, I knew that I would be expecting steamy scenes and I was not disappointed at all. There are plenty of hot scenes in the book, well worth it for the price of $15.95. Quite sad to actually see it sold out at Amazon.com. Until the press and publisher prints out more books, then that means that not a lot of people at this time would know this excellent graphic novel.
The only thing that really disappointed me was how short the story actually was. Perhaps, and I am crossing my fingers here, if the mangaka is finished with her other series then she could go back to drawing a second book or so for this story.
Following A Foreign Love Affair is a delightful one-shot, titled The Love Guide. Professor Hirotaka Takaoka is an anti-social person whose mother tries to set him up in marriage interviews. Takaoka is a little fed up by the interviews, until he meets Tohru Serizawa, the matchmaker. Takaoka feels that any further interactions with Serizawa won’t be as boring as it was. They relationship takes off subtly until it ended sweetly with the couple in bed.
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