Ikoku Irokoi Romantan
A Foreign Love Affair

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i've read the manga and it does rush it really, like seriously you could have waited a little to sudicing your crew member, like i know your drunk but come on! it was like the tenth page when they started this stuff up. but i do have to say it was good. if you like a littl yaio sometimes like me than this is good. but to me this manga is like a one night stand kind of thing. na d why is the gay guy always blonde and some strong dude, like the gangster. But if you like yaio then this is good.

Trigger Warnings: one count of rape

A Foreign Love Affair is a one-volume manga following the story of a yakuza clan heir and a cruise ship captain. After a one night stand on the yakuza's wedding night, they meet once more in Italy and begin a whirlwind romance.

This was, surprisingly, an incredibly sweet read.

At first, I wasn't sure where I stood with it. It started off with rough artwork, a quick-paced storyline, and no discernible plot. I didn't know where it was going or what the author was planning to do with the story and I found myself very bored very quickly and left it overnight.

When ... morning came, I decided to come back to it. If I didn't like it, I didn't like it - it was just another one volume read towards my reading challenge.

However, I found myself glad I came back to it. Almost straight after the first two chapters of this manga, we go straight into the cute side of the story, the sweet affair and the characters developing a relationship. Of course, this was rushed within the book and we don't get to see much of it developing. I feel like perhaps doing this story as a two-volume piece would have suited it better and paced the storyline better than it was done. The characters' relationship changing and developing was something I was looking forward to, but we didn't get to see much of it. Rushing aside, the storyline is still enjoyable and smile-worthy.

The artwork seems to level out more and seems to get better after the first two chapters as well which is something I do love to see. It becomes much clearer rather than what seemed like a draft that hadn't been lined and the such, and it was a bit hard to focus on the story. Perhaps this was just the scan I read of it - however, I've noticed a few people have a complaint with this, so perhaps there is an issue with the original print.

--- Very mild spoiler, trigger warning ----


One of my main qualms was the use of rape in this. Understandably, it helped to move the story along slightly, but I feel like there could have been something different that Ayano Yamane could have used throughout this scene instead. One thing I found I did like through this scene, however, was that it was not between the two main characters. I've found the yaoi genre tends to use rape between the MCs as a form of messy romance, and she managed to stay away from this trope quite well.
It still would have been nice to have a sweet read such as this not using a trope such as rape for character/relationship developments.

--- End ---

A Foreign Love Affair has a lot of really good traits, but because of all those listed above, I can only give this six stars. It's not the best manga/yaoi that I have read and it never will be in my opinion.
The ending is well done, it closes up fairly well and it's not hard to try and guess what will happen after this book ends. The characters develop a little too fast, but it's still not as rushed as you would expect it to be within similar one-volume mangas. Both MCs were developed and almost seemed human, as though you could run into them on the street.
I do wish there was another volume to this, maybe even just a short one-shot giving us a little insight into how they get on after the volume. I would enjoy seeing more from these characters, but alas, the author seems to have completely shelved this.

With all said, I was glad to have chosen to read this despite my qualms with the first two chapters. It managed to surprise me, which doesn't often happen within yaoi with all of its tropes and problems. Even with said issues, listed throughout the review, I would definitely recommend this to other yaoi fans who enjoy plots this explores. It was fun; I did get a giggle throughout it with the chuckle worth humour.

Story: 5/10
First off I'm sure a lot of people are big fans of Ayano-sensei's work, to say the least after reading this and a couple other. I don't think I'll be adding to he fan base. I will say that the story had a lot of potential, it had a lot of good ideas worked into it. I liked a lot of the different ideas that she attempted to put into the work, but story-wise it fell apart. It felt rushed and hardly had any context to it, they talked a lot but said little of any real interest. It was a burden, more than ... anything, to read all the text because some of it was entirely unrelated. It just...failed to delivery anything satisfying, so it got a low score.

Art: 9/10
I will say the only good point to the whole manga was the intoxicating art style. Beautifully drawn men, and even some women. The sceneries were detailed and just breath taking, despite the lack of story, the art work was just stunning!

Character: 5/10
Bland and one dimensional, just your typical Yaoi uke and seme and typical supporting cast. They added little to brightly the story line as their development seems to be more sudden than it is subtle. They switch from being one way to another way in less than two pages, and it was just too much to handle.

Enjoyment: 5/10
The only thing I enjoyed was the art, everything else was just a real waste of time frankly. I feel sad that I wasted my time reading it, but I'm glad I at least gave it a chance, despite it being a real shot in the dark.

Overall: 6/10
I wouldn't recommend this to a friend who was hoping to read a good Yaoi manga with good plot and colorful characters. It just wasn't my speed, but just because it's not my speed doesn't mean it won't suit anyone else's. So if you just wanna give it a go, why not sit down and read it, it may be worth it for you, you never know till you read it.