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

The most generic rom com to rom com, but with a slight twist. I guess that's all that's needed to make it interesting.

Guy who's an otaku, and is "lazy" but actually gets shit done so the girls in his life are attracted to him? Check.

School beauty who hates everyone except the main guy? Check.

Elements of harem in the show? Check.

Now, that isn't necessarily a bad thing, generic shows can still be well written/enjoyable, and the show is pretty enjoyable, with it looking amazing, and being animated rather well for a rom com like this, but honestly, it's the kind of show people have seen before, ... and if you're tired of the formula, this show won't change your mind.

The element of Alya hiding her feelings in russian is okay, I'm not a native russian speaker, so I have no idea if she's absolutely butchering the russian, but what I can say is that it's not as funny as the show makes it out to be. I enjoy a lot of the other aspects, like how honest the main character is that reminds me of Sakuta from Bunny girl senpai, but he's barely? the focus, and I don't like how they try to make them all complex with this "tragic backstory" that follows a lot of main characters, instead of flushing them out and making their dynamics interesting. The MC at least manages to have somewhat interesting interactions with those around him, and him secretly knowing russian is somewhat interesting, but yeah, I think it's just a standard school rom com with a twist. But, like I said, that's all it needed to make it interesting to me.

I can't say this anime is recommended but at the same time, this anime is not as good as other people say. This anime is good if you are new to the romcom genre. But for me, Roshidere is good just because it has a great art style and "fan service". I'm not a novel reader, so this is just my opinion as an anime watcher only. Roshidere plot is really basic, I mean the plot is just a template that the author picks from average romcom anime, then makes a prompt from it and pastes it on Chat GPT. You will know what the ... ending will be. The dialogue also cringes and makes me laugh. It makes me think that the author never had a good experience in a relationship so he/she wrote this novel so that he can realize the best version of his/her love story in the form of a novel.

Having some Russian in my family, I gave this series a shot. I really liked the first ep, it was cute and funny and seemed the plot might be headed somewhere interesting. So I decided to do the 3 eps test. It passed 3 eps well enough. Decent if not inspired artwork. About average animation for a romcom, which means not very good, but not horrible either. The characters were sweet enough, if a little cookie cutter. The VA work was fine. Let's keep going.

Then we hit ep 5, and the first half just creeped me out. And while the series managed to avoid ... a lot of the usual tropes and cliches in the first 3 eps, they started to raise their ugly heads in ep 4, and were absolutely on parade in ep 5. Things have gone downhill fast. Same with the animation. While it was OK through the first 3 eps, last two it's seriously nosedived, where there were a couple cringe sections in ep 5. So disappointing. Smells of budget cuts.

I will likely stick around a couple more eps to see if things turn around, but may not last the season. I'm not feeling it. I don't have to speak any Russian to hide it. If I were to grade this, I'd say we've slipped from B territory down to 71/100, a very low C-, and not headed in the right direction. I'll update the review as things see fit.

A temporary review i will update at the end of the season

The good:
Solid characters and interactions. It's pretty. It's horny without it being overexagerated. It's pure drama.

The cons:
For a show about russian-speaking characters, the VAs chosen speak the language surprisingly poorly. Even someone not knowing a word of russian can tell the sentences are kinda mispronounced every time. The tone is very japanese, as if the actors started learning the language recently. Make the whole thing a little cringe-worthy.
I really wish the bigger budget shows start to hire foreigners to do foreigners lines instead of putting everything in the thighs animations :p

Main guy is getting ... hit a little too often by the girls around him. I really hoped we were past that trope, it's annoying and half the time it looked really really painful. Like i need to go to the infirmary painful.

Given they all have smartphones, why is the main girl assuming others can't understand what she said? Google translate is a thing. Voice apps too. If she talk to him in russian half the time, it's weird she assume he never checked what she really meant afterward. The whole premise of the show kinda doesn't work unless you completely turn your brain off. Which is a shame because it reinforces the cuteness of that tsundere and is the only thing differentiating this show from the other romcoms around.


It's still early but by ep3 you can more or less guess where it's going plotwise. If you can get past the cons, you will have a good time. Otherwise...well there's other romances animes this season. I could have given it a 7, it was a close thing. Will continue to watch.

Love the art and animation. FL is frankly difficult to like, and the main plot seems already predictable (after watching the 2nd, now 3rd, episode). You already know ML and FL will get together. I think the supporting characters and ML are interesting, so I'll keep watching. Please let this anime not be one that's about a "beautiful and entitled yet horribly misunderstood victim girl who is perfect in every way except nobody understands her" story. Besides it being a beautifully drawn anime, nothing is that memorable. I can imagine lots of hype for this though. I feel like most pretty anime are highly rated, ... despite same plot and overused dynamic. I predict the series is probably going to end with her opening up in school and letting her guard down. Please, unless the anime can do this tiresome formula really well, just don't. Music is okay, but nothing really stands out.

As in the name of the anime, it is about a Russian girl transferring a high school in Japan. I think the director of this anime has never seen a real Russian girl in his life. Especially Kujou is the most anime girl I have ever seen in my life. Just speaking Russian can't make you a Russian. It is a good anime anyway, but I think they ruined their potential. Also, the brother complex of Yuki is a little bit scary.

If you liked the series like Nisekoi or Kaguya-sama, this anime combines both. The student council and forgotten childhood love...

It is worth ... to watch if you don't have high expectations.

You will think by my rating that this is very good but no I have some issues in this show
But before that I will say what I like in this anime
# First .. the story ( yuki & kuze kun )
Don't not understand me , read first
The relationship between brothers in blood
That one of them has guilty feelings to his sister and want to help her, the hero boy that left his family because he hates them very much and left his sister a alone to take care and responsibility of the family
I like yuki because of that ... , and I hate kuze because of that too , this point has mix feelings between love and hate , but I like that he felt guilty for his weakness and want to help his sister by any way he can do
# Second .. the animation , great work on it
# Third .. society, I love this show because of society, how they are very active on it
Thanks for all of you , alya's university
** Now I will say what I hate on this show **
Fist .. story ( romantic kuze , alya , masha)
What is going on here , this is insane
Why ? First .. think of it , Do you think there is progress between alya and kuze, romantic way ? If you say yes
You are wrong, what , why ?
First.. he knows every thing about her , but she didn't know anything about him
How is this love, but he should told her first
OMG , you want from someone left his sister alone in her responsibility to their family told alya that he left yuki alone for his selfish
What do you think alya should say or think about him , coward,
But he left for a reason that he hates them , so everyone who hates his family leaves them and throws away his responsibility to his family , right ?
But she said she loves him
And she regret after that and said she didn't meant anything when she said that
And what happened after that between her and her sister and him in the school when alya drinks water , that's jealousy
Or not , but they have feelings
I will say yes , but when this feelings will be confirmed in their hearts and they will sure that this is real love
I am saying by this sequence too long
But in the next episode they will have indirect kiss
You think this is love , kiss without meaning , they don't know what they are feeling to each other , this indirect kiss is meaningless
But he chooses her on his sister, because of alya wants to prove something to the people around them that she can do it , and he wants to help her to prove her self to the people, not because he loves her
So what do you want to say
I want to say that , There is no romantic moments with real progress in this story till now
So wait for the next episodes
I am afraid to say that but , you will know that I am right In the next episodes
But I can't say anything about the story
I don't want to make this post spoiler
**
Second.. fan service
What? Why ? Wait a minute and understand me well
The fan service used to help the show not to be the show
See the ranking of the anime in anime corner when the fan service is not in it
Goes to second in week 3 and fourth in week 4 , so this show is fan service then story, not story then fan service
**
Third.. the music
I don't speak about the music usually, but I hate the different ending music , without one music that made original for the show
One trending, another one taking from another show , that's made me sad , good show without good ending , you can disagree with me , but you should respect my point , this mixed feelings, made me in a place , I will see it but not recommend it , but I will give him high score, that's it

The profound and INEFFABLE DISCONTENT with this animation must be articulated with due vehemence and clarity. It is absolutely INCONCEIVABLE the extent of the FOLLY and IMPRUDENCE present in this work. The premise of this anime is indeed interesting, despite being basic and common, and occasionally resorting to fan service. It could have offered an enhanced experience if it were not for the NARRATIVE DERAILMENT in episode four, wherein a character who could have become CRUCIAL was, in the same episode, ECLIPSED by an INCALCULABLE FIASCO in the subsequent minutes.

Additionally, any effort by the author to IMPRINT upon the viewer the belief that there exists, ... at any moment, a MINUSCULE probability that the protagonist might opt for any other romantic partner is IRREMEDIABLY OBLITERATED by the mere reading of the title of the said animation.

It is not as exceptional as some claim, but it is not terrible either. It remains a relatively good piece for passing the time, albeit quite generic, which unfortunately squandered much potential.

Not gonna sure if this is a popular opinion, but I think the anime adaptation of this series is not as good as I expected it would be.

Ofc I don't really judge about the anime too much, you cannot expect an anime to match what you would expect from the original series. But overall, as a fan of the series for a long time, I'm quite disappointed about this anime this season.

I don't know why people love it so much, it's clearly overrated. The character development is poor. The plot is not interesting at all. I mean, the flashback of Alya - which by the ... way is the best and the only moment that keeps me following this series until now - is the most disappointing part of all time. Ep3 was so raw, and I can feel, yeah ofc, nothing after that. No clear frustration, even the beautiful and candy art - which btw is one of the advantages of Doga Kobo - cannot hide the fact that that moment was just gone through so quickly, and it just feels like Alya is a weak girl who cannot even collab with others and just want to work alone, then a guy went and saved her, that's it, no such feelings like empathy or understanding her poor situation. I know, we cannot expect too much for a light romance, but if you have read the manga and loved it like me (I claimed it was, not the best, but very good series), this adaptation was rather very disappointing.

I just thought about that as a manga reader and also light novel reader for this series, and I think, although this is just a normal romance, Roshidere does have its uniqueness, not only the Russian thing, but also a lot of great stuff. Ofc, I do know Doga Kobo did a pretty good job, and I assume if I was the person who first watched this anime, like most of you, maybe I would like it as much as I did when I first read the first chapter of the manga. However, I AM a manga reader, so that's why for me, the anime adaptation is "disappointing", not "bad". I still love it, I still think it's a good anime, but honestly, if you asked me whether I really liked it, I would prefer to say "no". It's not the best anime I have watched this season, but it's not the worst of all time.

Overall, I would say this anime is a pretty good light "romcom" anime. If we compare to other animes in the same genre, maybe it's not the best (I would say, it's better that the Tenshi anime but worse than Bokuyabai, you can compare it to other animes if you want to) but it's enough good for you to enjoy this season. That's why I do understand why it's so popular until now with a pretty high rank in MAL. But for me, personally, for the romcom genre, I would give a solid 7 to 8, ofc it would be much more worse in the general scale, but I think it's fine for me to rank it like that. And because the original series was pretty good, I would prefer to give it an 8.

Bonus about the Russian thing: for those who know or don't know, Alya is dubbed (in Japanese) by Sumire Uesaka. She was learning Russian at the Sophia University, so that's why she is the seiyuu for the main protagonist Alya (glad she is). I mean, despite a lot of people saying that Alya's Russian is just so Japanese, or weird, or mispronounced, I think, vice versa, it's pretty good. Not close to native enough, for sure, but I did learn some basic Russian before so I know that her accent is acceptable, especially for a Japanese seiyuu. Or maybe we can assume that it's the Vladivostok accent or something (not sure about that).

I don't have much to say about it, I think that at first I applied the sono bisque doll, fan service to get attention and be in everyone's mouth, as a marketing medium that works and it's a fact, however narratively it leaves a lot to be said and it's only confirmed with the premiere of the third episode, the way in which the girl falls in love with the MC seems to me anticlimactic and unrealistic, it is a good concept but it was worked very fast and that makes it very monotonous to my taste, the cliche that I thought it avoided in ... the beginning was reborn again (love triangle) and that little by little is condemning this work, a shame because it has a good production and character design.

Even so, I want to believe that it will improve throughout the episodes and I hope with all my heart that they don't resort to excessive or very explicit fan service or incestuous morbidness like episode 2 to fill the huge narrative gap that left long, anyway not everything is bad and it seems that they will delve into the MC and the past with his family.

Most likely I will finish it and if that is the case, I will write a better worked review.