Alya Sometimes Hides Her Feelings in Russian

Episode 4

This was the most well-paced episode of the show thus far. Technically, a lot of things happened, like Kuze joining the student council, and we got a direct confession scene. Still, I feel like there's a lot of information missing from this episode that made it hard for some of the emotional moments to hit as hard as they could have. Some stuff is acting as a setup for later, like Kuze's reasons for being hesitant to join the student council in the first place. We know it has something to do with how things were handled at his middle school, and if I had to guess, there would probably be a direct link between that and his parents' divorce. The show parallels how Kuze failed to be by his sister's side when she needed it most and how he's now trying to be preemptive there for Alya when she needs it the most. It'd be nice if the show explored whether or not he's doing this for Alya because he genuinely likes her or if it's done out of guilt. It could be both, but I want to know where that guilt comes from when Kuze seems to have a good relationship with his sister.

I might be a heartless bastard, but I found it hard to sympathize with Alya in this episode. While it is nice that she blatantly and directly monologues her flaws, I'm not sure why she was in this position in the first place. Her backstory established that she's a loner by choice. She pushes everyone away because she does things better alone. That said, I'm curious why she wants to be the student council president. That job is about community and working together with established people skills that you can utilize to de-escalate stressful situations. This episode affirmed that she is completely outside of her element, so instead of feeling bad for her, I'm just wondering why she's here. She ruined the confession scene by slapping Kuze across the face because the confession reminded him of somebody else. So I'm sorry, but as of right now, Alya isn't doing a lot for me as a character. I hope the show can win me over to her side in time for the big student council president race, which will probably make up the main crux of the show.

I checked the dub for Alya Sometimes Hides Her Feelings in Russian, and it's very enjoyable. It's been a while since I've heard Aaron Dismuke in a role like this, and he captures that sort of everyman feeling that embodies Kuze as a character. I was completely caught off guard by Sarah Natochenny as Alya, but considering that her native tongue is Russian, that makes sense. At first, I thought her diction could feel awkward, but I think that's just her leaning toward Alya's more proper and overly formal attitude. Everyone can play up the comedy a lot more by episode two, and it sounds great. The dubbing team is redoing the Russian scenes and seemingly going for more proper pronunciations. Overall, it's good, and I could see myself watching it if it weren't two weeks behind the Japanese version.

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Alya Sometimes Hides Her Feelings in Russian is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.