It looks like each season I take an opportunity on a number of LN variations, hoping they’re going to be the exceptions to my common dislike of them. Typically they’re (however not too usually). With Tokidoki Bosotto Russia-go the Dereru Tonari no Alya-san It comes down to a couple elements. First, it has a staff that positively is aware of deal with this sort of materials, specifically Doga Kobo and director Itoh Ryota. It additionally generated a really robust response total at its premiere. That is not a lot to go on for me, but it surely’s definitely higher than the choice.
In the case of flyers, I definitely don’t remorse this one. The primary episode was fairly enjoyable. Formulaic, sure, however with simply sufficient slant to supply the likelihood that it received’t be fully cookie-cutter. A fairly Russian-Japanese (I imply, I assume) woman named Alya Kujou sits subsequent to a seemingly unremarkable boy named Kuze Masachika of their freshman class of highschool. She’s on the scholar council and is glamorous and unique. He’s an otaku and a slacker who typically exudes a disinterest at school and schooling. She hurls disdain at him in Russian (although it by no means appears overly imply, even earlier than the massive reveal).
The twist is that Masachika truly understands Russian. And so he is aware of that Alya-san is just not making enjoyable of him (principally), however expressing her common opinion that he’s cute. He doesn’t reveal this, after all, and the longer he waits, the extra untenable the thought turns into. This premise is definitely extra fascinating with that twist added to the shaker. Why does the boy perceive russian? As a baby he was mates with a little bit russian woman and realized it to impress her.
Why does it by no means happen to Masachika that the blonde, blue-eyed woman who now speaks Russian might be the identical woman? Or her older sister Masha, who’s a yr older than her? I am unable to reply that – it would not actually make sense to me, particularly since blonde-haired, blue-eyed Russian-speaking women do not precisely develop on bushes right here. However he would not, and I suppose if Alya items it’s best to ask that woman why she would not keep in mind him (after which you recognize he’ll perceive her candy phrases).
Alya is sort of a traditional tsundere, clearly (I imply, the title). And the comedy violence stuff is an ordinary LN romcom cliché. However the vibe between the 2 works for me, to this point. I particularly just like the half the place he refers to them as mates, and appears shocked that she didn’t assume that herself. Masachika additionally has an osananajimi named Suou-san who’s on the scholar council with Alya (Masha too), and there appears to be a small spark of one thing. She retains attempting to persuade him to hitch the scholar council himself, since he was her VP in highschool, however he appears unwilling to budge.
I’ve realized to be very cautious with robust begins with LNs, as a result of they’re so much simpler to hook me than to maintain me . To be blunt, most of them simply don’t have legs (though Alya-san – the character – definitely does). However hey, we’ll cross that bridge after we get to it. There’s sufficient chemistry between the results in make this work, and a few fascinating questions – like why Masachika tries so arduous to cover the truth that he’s a pure excessive achiever. I’m invested sufficient that I’m coming again for at the very least another episode (and I’ll give additional credit score for utilizing “Gakuen Tengoku”, probably the greatest J-pop songs ever, because the ED – even when Takahashi Rie did it higher), and we’ll see the place it goes from there.
