Tokidoki Bosotto Russia-go de Dereru Tonari no Alya-san

Masachika Kuze, an unmotivated first-year student attending the prestigious Seirei Academy, mostly spends his time playing gacha games or dozing off during lectures. Despite his reputation as an undisciplined loafer, he attracts the interest of Alisa Mikhailovna "Alya" Kujou, the esteemed "solitary princess" who sits next to him in class.

Alya is deeply revered by her peers, and she captivates people everywhere she goes thanks to her entrancing looks and impeccable conduct. However, the beautiful half-Russian, half-Japanese girl has an adorable secret: while she constantly berates Masachika for his lax behavior, she conceals her true feelings with affectionate and flirtatious remarks in Russian.

Unbeknownst to Alya, Masachika picks up every single one of her comments—for he is fluent in Russian! Bewildered by her enigmatic actions, Masachika decides to act clueless and play along, sparking an unconventional and heartwarming relationship with the charming girl.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Tokidoki Bosotto Russia-go de Dereru Tonari no Alya-san has been published digitally in English as Alya Sometimes Hides Her Feelings in Russian by Kodansha USA through K Manga since June 30, 2024.

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Kujou, Alisa Mikhailovna

Main

Kuze, Masachika

Main

Suou, Yuki

Supporting

Kujou, Maria Mikhailovna

Supporting

Kujou, Akemi

Supporting

Kuze, Tomohisa

Supporting

Suou, Yumi

Supporting

Soccer Team Chief Manager

Supporting

Chemistry Teacher

Supporting

Suou, Gensei

Supporting

Reviews

Sep 20, 2023

Huang-Teizan

Recommended

Preliminary (18/? eps)

7.8/10

Before reading this, I thought I would like this manga much more; nevertheless, it’s still a solid read. There’s no question that this is a wholesome/satisfying read based on the concept itself, but I wished there was something more that would grab any reader’s full-blown attention.

As of now, there’s a clear plot line of the mc’s internal conflict, but that’s the only thing that separates this manga from the rest of rom-com, school stories. Besides for the mc and fmc, each character is surface-level as they serve their purpose, and there’s no expectation for them other than that. I do have expectations of them ...

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Nov 24, 2023

Bigaku

Mixed Feelings

Well-written

Preliminary (26/? eps)

The entire gimmick of this manga is that the heroine, and her sister as well for some reason (Does it run in the family??) are bilingual, and seem to switch to speaking in Russian whenever they are embarrassed, shy, bashful, recalling something, or thinking to themselves out loud.
My main issue with this manga is that... not a single bilingual person ever does this... As someone that has learned 5 different languages, is fluent in two of them, with varying levels in the other three, I have never caught myself switching to one language out of embarrassment or being bashful, or even accidentally.
The only instances it ... happens are with filler words, such as "like" or "basically"...

Hell, I could catch myself occasionally saying "fuck" or swearing, but definitely not going to my crush, calling them cute, expressing how madly in love I am with them, how we are actually childhood friends, and the fact that their Uncle Bobby died in a car crash (He was the one driving) in the 1990s in a different language and vanish like nothing ever happened just because I assumed that they don't understand that language.

My point -which should obviously go without saying, because it's a manga after all- is that it is not realistic. Which is not a sin in and of itself, it isn't like I was expecting anything realistic.
But it is a sin when it is doubly unrealistic because characters speak their "embarrassing" thoughts OUT LOUD for no reason.

At this point you are taking a detour to convey something that could be conveyed in two panels in a normal romcom, just for:
1. The novelty of having the heroine blush after murmuring something (THAT SHOULDN'T BE SAID OUT LOUD) in another language (A SANE PERSON DOESN'T CYCLE THROUGH THEIR LANGUAGES LIKE THAT) and,
2. The MC, that can speak Russian to go "E-EH? DOES SHE MEAN IT???" and having a cringe mini monologue about how he must pretend that he doesn't know Russian followed by him usually playing along with what she said in Russian anyway.
By the way, there is no reason for the MC to hide the fact that he can speak Russian to begin with...

Do you realize that there is a portion of this loop that could be completely cut out and the events would be the same? DO YOU REALIZE THAT THAT PORTION IS THE MANGA'S MAIN GIMMICK?
This manga would have been the same if instead of speaking in Russian, the heroine had a habit of saying what she thought out loud, or the MC overhearing the heroine talking about him, or the MC being able to read minds. I JUST DON'T GET WHY IT HAD TO BE RUSSIAN LMAO. Just give me the same things said in Russian but in thought bubbles instead and respect my intelligence and media literacy...

I am not criticizing this manga's lack of realism, I am criticizing the fact that despite it being unrealistic in the most boring ways possible, it still utilizes its gimmick in the worst conceivable way.

If you still have to resort to tropes such as constant misunderstandings, the heroine being "the school's idol", and the MC being secretly epic and cool and awesome and smart and handsome (No seriously when will this trope cease to exist?), then the main gimmick won't amount to anything other than being a sorry excuse of a way to progress the "story" if you could call it that.

Art is cool though, and the character designs are alright, some interactions are fun and there seems to be some mystery about the MC's past (I can not promise that it will end up being satisfying, in fact, I, personally, will most likely be disappointed), so if you can tolerate, or outright not mind the issues I have with the manga, it might be worth a try.
Otherwise, there is so much better manga out there it's hard to justify spending time on this one.

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Dec 28, 2024

OrigXin

Not Recommended

Preliminary (50/? eps)

Spoiler

A generic romance with nothing to show for it.

I feel like people are becoming too accustomed to this kind of slop. It's always pretty/amazing girl, ordinary guy, and gimick that tries to make this romance a unique one. Sadly, the gimick here can hardly be considered entertaining for the viewer. You can argue that 'the reveal would be worth it' if you're under the age of 18, but anyone with a formed frontal lobe isn't going to put up with... I'm guesssing 140 chps of this and call this a 'worthwhile read'.

Among my many complaints about this story, Ayla herself makes up half of them. ... While the story tries to convince you that she's a character worth paying attention to, if you actually just open your eyes slightly and remove the rose tinted glasses that the story puts on you, you're gonna find the entire premise of the romance flop and wish that this was some slice of light comedy instead of a romance.
She's a generic tsundere trope, 3 points instantly docked there, these creatures are the bane of all romance, I'm not sure why authors still think it's a good idea to make tsunderes without actually trying to expand upon them. Because if that's not going to be done, the trope itself only has to fend for itself, and it's a very shitty trope in the first place.
Second, she seems to think she's owed ome kind of affection. Jealousy would be one thing, but despite the fact that over the course of 51 chapters she hardly does anything on her own to win Maschika's affection. Yuki seems to do more in getting them together than Ayla herself does, and one of the things I hate even more than tsunderes are characters with no initiative. An interesting part of her character is the fact she apperently out of petty desires wants to make it to the top... i'd like this if the concept wasn't greatly exeggerated. The petty desires were caused because some school kids were too lazy to do their work project. Now, this is a thing that happends, this isn't surprising. The annoying thing is that these kids now INTENTIONALLY flunked their project because Ayla reprimanded them. I know people can be petty, but not that petty, the premise of her character motivation is grossly exeggerated.

I was only slightly intrigued in Maschika's character for a little while, first the cornerstone of his character is the fact he feels guilty over hurting some girl back in middle school. However, when he decides to betray his sister and support Ayla, he doesn't feel guilty? Gonna argue that this isn't the case cause of what the student council members said? I'd beg to differ, he should still feel guilty nontheless, especially since he's heavily self aware of what he intentionally put Yuki through by leaving the family and now what he might put her through by making her lose too.
The world bends itself around Ayla without showing us she deserves it. The other characters show to have more soul and depth than what Ayla has in the 50 total chapters of her apperances.

Very sad that people put up with this.

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Poll: Tokidoki Bosotto Russia-go de Dereru Tonari no Alya-san Chapter 52 Discussion Penguinu - Jan 11	0 replies	by Penguinu »» Jan 11, 7:59 AM
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Tokidoki Bosotto Russia-go de Dereru Tonari no Alya-san
Alya Sometimes Hides Her Feelings in Russian
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