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

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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.

The manga is very epic and cool. Some stuff:
The manga with its title kind of presents itself as a romcom with its main gimmick being that the main girl speaks Russian occasionally, with main boy understanding. And so in a way, confesses her feelings kind of. Which honestly, isn't much of a gimmick and doesn't really impact the story. It's mostly just for the title or to have some distinguishing factor I guess. The story is mostly just pretty generic though. Not in a bad way though, just nothing crazy is going on, which I enjoy in romcoms. I think the art is very good, ... but honestly I'm not one to care about art that much in the first place. It is good art though, I do not mean to undermine that with my comment. The characters are nice, I guess. The girl is kind of the ice queen archetype, kind of. And the main boy is kind of a..."crouching moron, hidden badass" type of character. Not really actually. But he's like lazy and goofy and not really respected, but secretly a big shot. Pretty common romance dynamic, yeah. I think the average romcom enjoyer will like this, but if romcom isnt typically your thing, you may find it boring. However I will still rate it a 10. Thanks for reading. OH and last thing, I'm pretty sure there might be a love triangle, so if you hate love triangles like me, be cautious.

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?!”

This review may contain lite spoilers.

At first glance this looks like your typical Shonen rom-com with an awkward loner mc who is seated next to the most popular and beautiful tsundere girl in his school, but with the added gimmick that she speaks Russian, and he can understand it. While yes, it is a typical generic rom-com, it has a lot of redeeming factors despite of its generic plot. It has some protentional to become a great rom-com as it has a lot of foundations that if the author plays their cards right could become one of the few good rom-coms in the sea of ... never ending average, tasteless, copy paste, generic romances.

1) Story: 7.75
The story is nothing to write home about. It follows the usual tropes and narratives of any other in it's genre. While the story does follow the tropes of a typical rom-com, it differs with the fact that Alya the love interest, speaks Russian and uses this to tease and confess to the MC. This is the main draw of the manga, its gimmick. So far it's been well written and not too central to the plot, even though its the main draw. It seems that it hasn't really been tapped on so far in the story. While not bad, it's quite good, there's still a lot of interesting potential to be had. The backstory's of our characters have been a strong suit that give more insight into why our characters act the way they do. Often times backstory's are uninteresting, overbearing, or too long and don't make sense. However Alya Sometimes Hides Her Feelings in Russian's backstory's aren't like this. They have good pacing and keep the reader intrigued and interested in the character's without feeling too long despite the typical nature of the story and it being the longest (so far) arc. While nothing groundbreaking it has a lot of potential to turn an entertaining albeit pretty generic rom-com, into something that is more than what defines it's genre.

2) Character's: 9
Arguably the strongest part and most important part of any rom-com. Even with the faults of the story or art, if the character's aren't done right then no matter how good or bad the other aspects are, it will be bad and not enjoyable. This isn't the case though for Alya Sometimes Hides Her Feelings in Russian. The mc is a generic awkward, lazy, loner, oktaku, who is secretly a hard worker and badass. He is magically seated next to the prettiest and most popular tsundere, whos also an ice-queen that's on the student council at an ultra prestigious high school (sounds familiar). We've seen it many times before. The only thing to separate these two character's from the typical rom-com is the gimmick that Alya can speak Russian, and he can understand it. Even though the mc's are the typical generic rom-com mc's, you still mange to get sucked in and interested in their character's and their relationship. It feels natural and not forced. Instead of constantly throwing the mc into an accidental sexual situation that ends in him getting beat by the tsundere, the time when it did happen it felt more mature and grounded even while following the tropes of the genre. The feelings the mcs develop for each other are realistic and natural. We see why and can empathize why Alya gives the mc a hard time but also why she like him. We see why the mc likes Alya. Its all done naturally and believable (probably). While the romance is the high point, it'd be criminal to leave out the side character's. When I mentioned potential, I meant these guys. Normally in romcoms there are usually one man and multiple women, when there are multiple men they don't really get to shine and are extremely generic. However the three main supporting males have defined personalities and show up more than once times. They're interesting and add to the story and work well with the mcs. There are even minor supporting men who while are generic tropes still have personality to them. The other supporting character's and other love competition (its a romcom, its a given) whos also the generic childhood friend, are too well written and have interesting personalities. While the side character's are nowhere near the level of My Dress-Up Darling's side character's, they aren't bad and are quite interesting. There is a lot of potential that could make them even better.

3) Art: 8
There isn't much to say about the art. It's amazing - most of the time. It can be hit or miss. 80% of the time the art is some of the best even on par with h artists and other times it looks like SAO's manga and makes me want bleach my eyes. Okay, maybe not as bad as the SAO manga, but still not good at times. Overall the art is still great.

4) Conclusion: 8.5
So far (18 chapters), the manga has been really enjoyable. While held back in some regard because of the tropes of its genre its untapped potential, it makes up for it with its interesting yet typical character's and stunning art - most of the time. It's a great read for anybody who likes romcoms or lite-dramas or even if you just want something to read to pass time, I definitely recommend it. Cannot wait for an official English release.

Thanks for reading. This was my first review from a guy who failed English... multiple times. Maybe the books should have been on things I wish for but cant achieve. God I'm so dying alone. Towards the end I kind of just wanted to get review over with. Every time I type it takes like three seconds to pop up. I am also writing this at 3 am so that too. So no proof reading or reading what I wrote. Hope it makes sense and isn't incoherent rambling.