Audience reviews
20 · Sample from the first available page, separate from the total number of ratings.
RaiYou
I had expectations for this when I first heard about the show with a fairly unique premise, but now it's obvious the show is just a generic romcom with a lot of overused cliches which makes it more boring to watch than wet paint.
Roshidere had a great start in 4 episodes that could make for a solid romcom if they explored the idea of this Russian gimmick deeply, but it didn't happen - as such the show piles on side characters, school antics and teasing scenes with no consistent tone in general. Serious plotline isn't bad, but come up with something else other than election plot because I genuinely found it so boring to watch as if the show wanted to become like "Classroom of The Elite" or something. The characters are completely flat except for the sister, most people watched it for her b…
Read at the sourceblackbunshin
I'll try to be nice here: This is bad. Really, really bad. It was supposed to be a fun romcom about a high schooler who only expresses her real feelings in Russian, but this focuses mostly on the student council eletion, which is as boring as it sounds. The anime tries to make it seem like it's a big deal, but fails to convince. I don't know how those elections go in Japan, but I don't think it matters cause the work doesn't answer the question "why does this character need to have this so much?". Without understanding Alya's motivation, it's hard to identify, connect with and cheer for her. Actually, the antagonist showed better reasons, despite the fact that she was super annoying.
This is another aspect that was badly written: the characters most of the time look like they are making…
Read at the sourceAeroGunz
“Alya Sometimes Hides Her Feelings in Russian” is what happens when an interesting shtick is destroyed by bad writing.
This show surprised me in to major ways:
1. That it destroyed its own shtick right from the get to in favour of… practically nothing because nothing comes of it.
2. How boring and devoid of story this show is
Before we start I would like to explain something. I will be talking about “plot” and “story”. Many people use those terms interchangeably. I’m not one of those people, so to make sure everyone is on the same page…
I use the definitions for “plot” and “story” as Lisa Cron describes them:
“What happens in the story is the PLOT, the surface events.”
“STORY is about how the things that happen affect someone in pursuit of a difficult goal, and how that person changes…
Read at the sourceAShortbuskid
Cute and fluffy. The election thing does feel like it drags, but the show is cute enough to stave off this issue.
The Russian thing does get slightly old near the end, however, I hope the future season fixes this issue and the whole trope gets
dropped.
The entire arc surrounding the school election does tire a bit, as obviously the stakes are faked and shallow. I did struggle to watch around this part, but it's my only real complaint. And it's minor enough that I feel the show doesn't suffer too much from it.
The MC and his sister are cringy and lame, however, I actually feel that it's a rare case where it's in the benefit of the show.
The art style is pretty and cute.
Read at the source_HellBent_
~~ A HellBent Half Arsed Review™ ~~
Overall Rating: 9/10
----- Reason for watching? -----
The art style caught my eye, and I figured I'd give romance anime another shot after the disastrous last few attempts
----- Reason for finishing? -----
Surprisingly cute and cosy, far more so than I was expecting
----- Story: 6/10 -----
I'll be completely honest, I'm not super well versed in the "high school romcom" genre of things, it's not really my go to. That being said, it did exactly what it said on the tin; There is indeed a girl called Alya who does in fact sometimes hide her feelings in Russian. Premise be damned, it was clear very early on that story was not gonna be the thing to keep me watching which frankly I'm okay with as long as other aspects hold up to scrutiny. Also to be fair, as…
Read at the sourceecktt
TLDR: Potential wasted.
The whole premise of the series; speaking Russian while the boy secretly understands, is basically underutilized while the rest of the show is an almost standard romcom, hence the 5 rating. The all-too-common tropes are in there. Honestly, there is nothing fresh beyond the first episode. The sound, voice acting, and animation is fine. The story is uninteresting because...it's been done a million times before. The characters are boring, so you don't get invested, again because it's been done a million times before. I kept watching because I was hoping something fresh would happen, but it didn't. If you're a romcom fan, I guess it's worth a watch to get your fix but it is not worth the time imho.
Read at the sourcebambooo_ooo
I won't recommend this show. What started interesting ended up quite boring to me and turned into a fast-forward race to the end solely to see what came out and be done with it. I was disappointed.
The premise is, as the title says it, Alya sometimes says things in russian. Like confessions and stuff. To the MC. So here's a kick in the balls, he understands her. Even if not, it wouldn't be implausible for him to remember the sentence and like, use internet.. or ask someone what it means ? The whole thing is just ridiculous. Not to mention, russia these days is uhh.. something evil, so why go with that ??
What's more, the reason he understands her is quite unbelievable and what's worse, nothing is done with it. So the main thing is no-thing.
As the first ep was kinda interesting and funny,…
Read at the sourceOsamu2497
Honestly? This show is what I like in Rom Coms. Yeah Alya comes off as boring at first, but her development is actually pretty endearing. Yuki is obviously the star of the show, but even if she's the best character, I think Alya and Kuzo are a great duo. As for the political stuff with the student council, it's pretty generic, but still interesting solely because of the characters involved. This show won't rock your socks off, but for a rom com it's very enjoyable.
The humour is the best part. It's hard to get me to laugh, so if it got me laughing so hard, I'd at least say check it out just for the comedy alone.
Read at the sourceChuy_diazz
A premise of a tsundere who speaks Russian, where in the end that was her only grace, speaking Russian.
Roshidere is a typical school romance where, what is intended to be a breath of fresh air to the genre, ends up being the anchor that ends up sinking it. It focuses so much on giving a spotlight to Alya that it ends up showing all the deficiencies that the character has, and unfortunately she does not have what it takes to carry the work as a protagonist should. Any character that appears within the story is more interesting and more charismatic than its female protagonist. Even the episodic characters like the grandfather or Masachika's friends stole the scene when they appeared. If the episodic characters overshadowed Alya, the secondary ones constantly buried her. Yuki and Masha have…
Read at the sourceEllenya
The amount of undeveloped and unifinished plot is over 8000. His childhood friend plot, his romance plot, his family plot... none of those plots got anywhere. I can only say that watching this anime was frustrating.
Animation: 10/10.
Character development: 5/10 at best... Can't develop characters if you don't develop plot.
Story: 2/10. It had such potential!! But didn't focus to fully develop any of the plots.
Enjoyment: 7/10. Since we are always left waiting for something that is never explained...
Overall rating: 6/10.
I think the main issue is that it fails at any genre... It's not a proper romance anime, nor a family anime, it's a slice of life with some "drama" that got nowhere, and it ended up focusing more on the competition for the Student Council, but also failed at that because…
Read at the sourceRudeRedis
Watching a show about "a cute Russian girl" (I know she's ハーフ (hafu), now what?) when you're living in the Donbas under you-know-whose jurisdiction for over 2 years is not funny at all, so this review will be filled with personal bias.
Ok, I don't think I have to explain that Russian girls can be pretty looking but are far away from being cute – I mean, they can meow in the Discord VC, but does that make them cute? However, this is an anime – a fictional story, so we'll ignore that fact for now.
It's said that Kuze used to watch Russian movies with his grandpa. Well, there's an average Brat 2/Zhmurki/Brigada/Bumer enjoyer for you, huh? Honestly, I don't know how that works, because literally nobody cares about Russian movies except for the Russians themselves, the countries under the Rus…
Read at the sourceYeetomfg2
YOU ARE NOT IMMUNE TO PROPAGANDA
Time to talk about a random rom-com. Surely there isn't any arguing going out on social media about it... Oh...
Anyway, I believe that people have been blessed recently with good romance after good romance. It only seems that yesterday people were still talking about "The dangers of my heart". And "Alya-san conveys her feelings in Russian" seems to be the big rom-com of the summer 2024 season. But is it worth to watch? I believe so.
The story starts with a black haired, unmotivated high-school boy (where have I seen that before) sitting next to a Russian girl by the name of Alya-san. Now, let me get this out of the way. The people who are mad that there isn't enough Russian in this show are very stupid. I cannot understand being mad that the gimmicky roma…
Read at the sourceOrkusReOrca
Average rom-com, A bit too much drama, Useless gimmick, and Damaging Unnecessary Plot line
Ever wonder why most form of "election" (in this case student council) plot/arc is kept to the minimal in most shows? especially in rom-com? You can now see in this show because it've been the one and only single major downside of this show.
Recommend for: Character, Fan service
Not Recommend for: Drama, Plot, Gimmick, and especially one single plot point (election)
Mid: Comedy, Romance
FULL REVIEW:
First of all lets get the goods out of the way first, I can't deny that characters in this anime, albeit ranged from smart to very dumb sometime, is something. Not just the design is very appealing, but personality depth wise is pretty wel as well, altough can lead to too much drama (will talk more late…
Read at the sourceogblynz
"Alya Sometimes Hides Her Feelings in Russian" is an okay at best romance, but nothing that truly makes it stand out from the crowd. While I enjoyed the chemistry between Kuze and Alya, the central gimmick lost its charm fairly quickly—by episode 4, it already felt stale. The series is filled with cute characters, but most of them lack depth and fail to leave a lasting impression. Kuze ends up carrying much of the show on his own, especially during the second half, which focuses on an underwhelming student council plot. The drama is overly serious for such trivial stakes, making it feel more tedious than engaging. Ultimately, the show fizzles out and crashes hard. I seriously considered dropping it, but the occasional cute moments and flirty interactions were just enough to keep me watchin…
Read at the sourceGsarthotegga
This awkwardly titled adaptation of a light novel is a standard well-produced romcom with quite a few tropes and a slight twist using the Russian language. The concept seems weird at first, since the main understands the language, and you'd think he'd let on that he understood, but he'd look like a bigger cuck than he already is if he revealed that he didn't follow through with Alya's "secret" flirting all that time. For the Russian lines, she mostly compliments the MC, confesses her love to him, or calls for help when she's in trouble. The whole point of a tsundere is basically for the love interest to act like they're in kindergarten and do or say mean things to the crush whom he or she secretly likes. Tsunderes have a hard time directly expressing their feelings, but they give a lot of…
Read at the sourceBeetleR19d
Calling 'Summer 2024' a "rare" season for anime might be an understatement. The overwhelming number of romance-centric shows made it truly exceptional. Two of these new romance shows even overshadowed the well-established popularity of "Oshi no Ko" to some extent. One of them was "Alya Sometimes Hides Her Feelings In Russian."
So, where does this show stand compared to classic rom-coms? Does it have enough substance to be a top recommendation? Or is it just another generic romance that tries to do everything but fails to deliver convincingly?
Art and Animation (8.5/10):
Let's begin with the animation and art style, areas that likely won't significantly alter public opinion. While the art style and character design were great, Alya, in particular, stands out as one of the most visually a…
Read at the sourceStark700
Taking on a somewhat unique gimmick for a rom-com show, Alya Sometimes Hides Her Feelings in Russian is exactly how it sounds like. Alisa Mikhailovna Kujou (aka the "solitary princess") is a difficult girl to approach because she sometimes hides her true feelings in Russian. As strange as that might sound, she doesn't realize that her fellow classmate Masachika Kuze understands her.
Delivering on the promise of a rom-com, it should be obvious to the audience that Alya harbors feelings for Kuze. Expressed sometimes in Russian, she builds a wall around herself whenever her feelings surfaces. From day one, the anime wants us to understand Alya's personality. It's no surprise that she loves to tease Kuze without knowledge that he understands Russian. Kuze plays along and sometimes feigns igor…
Read at the sourceMarinate1016
I wish I could say I liked Roshidere as much as other people did, but sadly at this stage in my life goonerbait doesn’t move me. The anime’s over-reliance on incest bait, sexualisation and fanservice just turned me off at times from what was otherwise an actually decent romcom. I want to be clear, I don’t hate the Roshidere anime. As a light novel reader, I felt it did a lot right and even surpassed the LN in some regards such as Sumipe’s amazing portrayal of Alya which really elevated those Russian speaking moments from the books, Fuze and Alya’s relationship, the student council stuff, the DG art and visuals, etc. But there were quite a few things I didn’t like as well, such as the focus on the brocon gimmick and just how degenerate the show gets at times. Don’t get me wrong, if you’re a…
Read at the sourceIonliosite2
Tokidoki Bosotto Russia-go de Dereru Tonari no Alya-san is a series that could be a fun romcom, but due to bad decisions from the author after the first episodes, it just doesn’t work. Simply put, the gimmick of this series doesn’t do anything, sure Alya is Russian and she sometimes speaks it, but this doesn’t really change much, it’s like a different kind of tsundere-ism which would be okay, the problem here is that the series obviously breaks what should be the logical use of its premise by making the MC being able to understand Russian, which is stupid, there’s no point in making a character talk a different language so no one can get her just to make the MC being able to get her, and the justification about why he can speak Russian is also pretty dumb in itself. I sometimes wonder why…
Read at the sourceZeroMajor12
I'm not going to sugarcoat this, I really liked Roshidere. An anime that has vibrant production and character designs doesn't come often, paired up with actual witty dialogue and some good characters. With these strengths, Roshidere could have easily been a recommendation for everyone to take as a fan-favorite rom-com. However, as every episode came later, it couldn't stand to the height of what new romcoms have already achieved. I hoped for it to live up to the qualities of post-modern rom-coms, but sadly it has come to an end.
When you hear a studio like Doga Kobo especially if the anime has a cast filled with female characters, Doga Kobo will surely deliver that level of expectation in creating the cutest waifu material you could find in this Summer arsenal. It's bright, but nowhere to…
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