Tokidoki Bosotto Russia-go de Dereru Tonari no Alya-san
Alya Sometimes Hides Her Feelings in Russian

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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 ... being developed further, but as of now, they are lacking.

Better side characters and more satisfying moments in the manga would unquestionably elevate this to the upper echelon of rom-coms as it possesses every aspect of an incredibly engaging romance story. Either way, it still has a lot of going for itself, but falls a tad bit short from other departments.

Reading Rankings (Portnoy inspired & A Huang Teizan Original)
10 – God’s penmanship
9 – Must-read. Drop everything else.
8 – Instant bookmark
7 – Entertaining
6 – Good to pass time
5 – Why are you reading this?
4 – Bad.
3 – Typical garbage.
2 – My head hurts.
1 – Retirement is a thought.
0 – “Did they even give you a story?!”

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.

WARNING: CERTAIN SECTIONS OF THIS REVIEW ARE FUELED BY PURE RAGE. PROCEED WITH CAUTION.

"A shit poetry with good handwriting is still a shit poetry" -DinoNo1

This is the summary which you can derive from the review I am gonna write. I read this because of a recommendation from a Youtube channel "Kito Senpai" a long time ago. And while I wholeheartedly like him as a content creator, goddamn did he give a shit recommendation. I don't understand how an author can take a decent gimmick and attach it to the most useless story ever written in the 6 millions years of human existence. I wasn't able ... to get this fact down my throat and I am still not able to.

Firstly lets talk about everything except story first because I don't want to ruin my mood from the get go.

About the art, IT IS GOOD. As much as I hate this manga, even my myopic eyes can see that it has got drawings which look good, by the standards and the art style this genre entails. It has got the drawings, the gloss, the effects, the finish, which you strive to find in a romance manga. So it is clear in this department. Now onto the character designs I liked Alya for a decent amount of time, like 2 chapters. Her whole gimmick is she occasionally speaks in Russian and while I may have liked it in the first few chapters, it became my most hated aspect of this manga later on cause of the way the author decided to handled that, which I will talk in a bit. Characters were very banal to say the least, our MC who appears to be lazy, was apparently a child prodigy who is perfect in almost every way.

Now about the story, and god it was awful. The starting of the manga was fine, I mean a cute gimmick decently implemented. I read till 16 chapters or so and cause I had caught up with the manga I put it on hold. I found it average, but it was alright, I could probably read it again.

And yesterday I decided to pick up this manga once more and it was the worst decision of my life. It was a completely different manga. I don't know if I changed or the manga did, but it changed for the worse. Like author can write a chapter with half of it filled with fucking blush-faced main characters. He could have started a serialization of a completely new manga from the compilations of main characters blushing alone. And also, we don't need a fucking eyes-twinkling baby-faced shot every time a female character talks to the MC. LIKE WHAT THE FUUUUUUCK. Make characters have a decent conversation for a change.

It had the most useless arc I have seen in all my lifetime, that school council arc. It should have been a source material for a chapter or two, not for more than half of the manga currently published. And goddamn the MC is a unlikeable to say the least. Like bro she literally hinted you what, like 100 times, that she fucking likes you, but MC is "Oh no she must be playing with me, it must be her new way of teasing me". Like bro do you have any noodles in that skull of yours, or did Alya eat that too for the sake of "teasing"? A side character (the student council president) got literal more character development in a panel or two than the MC would gain in 100 chapters which are to come.

Also the author should give literal guidance to other manga authors how to drag a manga. Like bro, in the recent chapters she legit confessed to him, and even kissed him on the cheeks to drive that hint home, but fucking shitface really thought that it was a prank. And as a way to transition to dragging the manga, he dropped two chapters of pure fanservice, like how anime have their own beach episode, it got the bathing chapters. AND HE EXPECTED US TO LICK THAT SHIT OFF THE PLATE CLEAN. And now the manga has come a full circle in terms of romantic development and is in a position where it was at the starting of the manga. It reminded me of the diagram of the three R's which I used to draw in school.

Reduce, Reuse and Recycle

Now you would expect me to not read this anymore, but sadly I don't drop anything. The mangas you are seeing on the dropped list are the ones I have put on hold and not caught up with. But I would definitely try to forget it for as long as I can.

But hey, maybe its just a me problem and this manga is actually deserving of the 7.79 rating it has currently.