The high school teen romance anime gods have spoken, and Alya Sometimes Hides Her Feelings in Russian is their answer. Please allow me translate what’s going on here for you.
Alya (A.K.A Alisa) is a transfer student who can speak both Russian and Japanese. Deemed an overachiever ice princess for reasons that superficially relate to her tangential similarities to, say, Kaguya-sama from a certain love-war anime, Alya also happens to have a prickly back-and-forth with Kuze, the slacker who sits next to her in class. But her true feelings, as in her crush on Kuze, occasionally spills out in Russian. The twist? Well, unbeknownst to Alya, Kuze can actually understand everything she’s saying.
“It seems like you are a complete idiot.”
Alya Sometimes Hides Her Feelings in Russian (elsewhere known as Alya, Who Sits Next to Me, Sometimes Whispers Sweet Nothings in Russian and Sometimes Alya Suddenly Flirts in Russian) comes to us from author SunSunSun, whose light novel series of the same name actually started out as two short stories before Kadokawa Shoten Publishing acquired and published it in 2021. Soon after, Saho Tenamachi adapted it into a manga, and you can now check out much of the first season of its anime from studio Doga Kobo, right now on Crunchyroll.
Granted, this all probably doesn’t sound like a hefty enough premise to sustain more than a few episodes of a romance anime, let alone an entire season and then some (this did start out as a short story, after all). But while its introductory episodes do plenty to mine this wacky commentary on Japanese miscommunication to the bone, Alya Sometimes Hides Her Feelings in Russian also manages to hide its own true intentions until it doesn’t, blossoming into a far more layered and unpredictable saga about teen identity that is sure to sneak up on its unsuspecting fans.
“Why don’t you notice me?”
All that said, it’s not like this debut season manages to truly live up to the astronomical highs of its superior contemporary, Kaguya-sama Love is War, but that’s fine considering this show’s mostly humble aspirations. Think of it more like an enjoyable riff of a proven formula that manages to find its own voice by the time the novelty wears off, making it a suitable, complementary answer to the aforementioned anime’s lack of new seasons since a certain holiday movie from way back when.
And hey, this anime is also a chance for all of you Yuri on Ice fans to brush up on your Russian, if nothing else.
Alya Sometimes Hides Her Feelings in Russian is currently streaming on Crunchyroll. Check out the official trailer here.
Images courtesy of Crunchyroll. Read more articles by Jon Negroni here.
Jon is one of the co-founders of InBetweenDrafts. He hosts the podcasts Thank God for Movies, Mad Men Men, Rookie Pirate Radio, and Fantasy Writing for Barbarians. He doesn’t sleep, essentially.
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