Another breakout hit in the Summer 2024 anime season has been Tokidoki Bosotto Russia-go de Dereru Tonari no Alya-san, aka Alya Sometimes Hides Her Feelings in Russian. It’s the story of a half-Russian/half-Japanese angel with silver hair and a pure heart. Let’s explore what makes this anime so special!
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‘RoshiDere’ Will Make You Fall in Love With a Russian Girl
Alisa “Alya” Mikhailovna Kujou is a beautiful and intelligent student at a Private Seirei Academy. She’s half Russian and half Japanese and has become the “Madonna of the school” due to her great beauty. But Alya has a problem: she can be a perfectionist, obsessing over any task she undertakes. And when she gets frustrated, she often blurts out her true feelings in Russian.
Seated next to her is Masachika Kuze, an ordinary boy who seems to be something of a slacker…though he’s kind and tries to look out for Alya. But Mashichika has two secrets. The first is that he can secretly understand Russian because he knew a Russian girl growing up. The second is that the prim-and-proper Yuki Suou, the public relations officer of the student council, is secretly Masachika’s blood-related sister. Because…
Alya Sometimes Hides Her Feelings in Russian is a phenomenally clever school romance anime with some surprising twists and turns. Alya’s charm and clumsy personality have made her the “top waifu” of the anime season so far, and I’m really enjoying the humor. And Masachika’s sister Yuki is hilarious in every scene she’s in.
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How Do the Japanese Feel About Russians?
I’ve written before about why the Japanese seem to have a stylized view of Russians. Russia is extremely close to the Japanese islands, and there has always been some trade between the two countries even when Japan closed itself off to the outside world for 150 years. In popular culture today, Russian characters are always depicted as having silver or white hair and possessing mysterious abilities.
Although Japan has decent relations with Russia, the country has definitely taken Ukraine’s side in Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, and has donated millions in support to that country. Another big sticking point is Russia’s seizure of four islands off the coast of Hokkaido after Japan surrendered at the end of WWII. Japan has long sought the return of these islands, but Russia won’t discuss the topic.
How Do Japanese Feel About ‘Haafu’ Japanese?
In the Tokidoki Bosotto Russia-go de Dereru Tonari no Alya-san anime, the main character is placed on a pedestal because she is haafu, half Japanese and half Russian. Do Japanese really do this with people with mixed blood? Yes, up to a point.
If you watch television in Japan, you’ll see many famous models and singers who are of mixed race featured prominently. Like the Uruk-hai from Lord of the Rings, individuals who are of mixed race are seen as having the best of both worlds. They possess Japanese language skills and Japanese joshiki (common sense) about the world, yet are fluent in foreign languages. Because they’re not 100% Japanese, they’re often able to get away with following some of society’s more stringent rules, making them the envy of everyone. In addition to the entertainment world, mixed-race Japanese sports stars like Rui Hachimura, Yu Darvish, Aska Cambridge and Naomi Osaka have really brought the spotlight to a formerly unknown aspect Japanese society.
Of course, anime is a stylized world, and things might not always go so smoothly in real life. My wife and I took care to raise our haafu kids so they knew English and Japanese fluently and felt an emotional connection to both countries. I’ll never forgive my daughter’s teacher who, while on a class trip to Hawaii, told my daughter to “pretend she didn’t know English” so she wouldn’t stand out. Instead of encouraging my daughter to help make the trip a success, perhaps by allowing her to assist the tour guide, she was held down.
This Is a Lovey-Dovey ‘Dere’ Story
While many fans might think of this as a standard tsundere show, I’m finding that it’s a lot more dere than tsun. Classic tsundere shows might require a character to be angry and standoffish for 80% of the time, followed by a 20% romantic payoff for viewers. But the majority of RoshiDere features Alya either being openly lovey-dovey towards Masachika, or else sulking that he’s not paying enough attention to her.
RoshiDere: What’s In a Kanji Name?
Traditionally, Japanese has assigned kanji characters to various countries. These include 米 bei for America, meaning rice; 英 ei for England, meaning hero; 中 chuu for China, for the Middle Kingdom; 独 doku for Germany, meaning alone or unique; and 仏 fu for France, a character that means Buddhism but is used only for phonetic purposes. The character for Russia is 露 ro, found in words like 露天風呂 roten-buro or an outdoor bath. Or 露出 roshutsu, to expose one’s self in public.
I wonder if, growing up, Japanese children associate France with Buddhism and Russians with public exhibitionism because of what the kanji characters mean?
A Triumph Of Bilingual Voice Acting
A couple of years ago, voice actress Sally Amagi was celebrated for being the first seiyu to do both Japanese and English roles of the character Carol Olston from Tomo-chan is a Girl! She was born in America but had managed to carve out a niche in the industry in Japan doing foreign characters, and as a result, we got a “proper” foreign voice that felt natural, rather than the embarrassing performances most non-bilingual voice actors give.
Alya Sometimes Hides Her Feelings in Russian brings a similar breakthrough in the industry. Sumire Uesaka performs the role of Alya, and majored in Russian language at Sophia University in Tokyo. So the Russian words and phrases Alya speaks are natural-sounding. She’s doing a great job with this role!
Thanks for reading this blog about the Tokidoki Bosotto Russia-go de Dereru Tonari no Alya-san anime. Are you watching this adorable romance anime? What other shows should we cover in these posts? Tell us in the comments below!
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