Man, you are so right about how effective Alya's Russian asides were, and something else that really impressed me was the distinctiveness of all the characters, very much like two of my other favorite rom-coms: season 1 of Nagatoro-san (s2 was a bit mid) and every season of Kaguya-sama. That said, I somewhat struggled accepting the backstory behind Masachika knowing Russian, and I really struggled with Youki and Masachika hiding that they are siblings (again, the backstory wasn't terribly convincing). But these were minor quibbles as I thoroughly enjoyed every episode, and that ending scene - when Alya tells Masachika, "face forward," in Russian and he does just that - was a cliffhanger I didn't hate for a change (i.e. - "Did Alya notice that Masachika understood what she said? Find out in the next season of...") Otherwise, I also really liked My Deer Friend Nokotan - it was absurd, hilarious and just plain weird. Definitely not the usual shonen or isekai anime, in other words. It's wasn't perfect - a few of the sketches were a bit wobbly or fell flat - but most of them were "don't try drinking while watching" funny and the 4th wall breaks and even the weird CGI deer worked well. Highly recommended both for its comedy and creativity. In contrast, cour 2 of NieR: Automata turned relentlessly bleak, in stark contrast to the first cour, which employed comic relief to good effect despite the apocalyptic storyline. I'm not saying it's bad, however, just that it's a real Debbie Downer. Kinda like Oshi no Ko, except worse. And in contrast to the contrast, Dungeon People deserves an honorable mention for its unique take on the adventurer genre and deserves a way better score than the Philistines on MAL are giving it so far (6.70 as of the time I am writing this).
For the backstories, I think it has to be said that as it stands, the first season didn't really delve into them as much, which is why you might feel they weren't 'convincing,' though given that a Season 2 is confirmed, it makes sense that they're taking the lore drops in a slower fashion. As for Masachika 'low-key' admitting that he knows Russian in the last scene, it's not really an admission. Do take note: Alya slowly crept up on him while he was looking away, and when she spoke Russian, it's less of Masachika following it and more of being surprised that her voice is louder due to her being so close already. I can't comment much on the other shows you've mentioned as I haven't seen them, though I did see Nokotan, and yeah, not really my kind of comedy, hence why I never made any videos about it.
I think the second half of this video highlights exactly why this anime is so popular, for the degen because, was it not for the degen or semi-sexualization of some character or another with heavy heavy sexual innuendo, it would fall flat on its nose. If you take take the degen away however, I honestly still believe it lacks a lot of romance elements to make it either stand out or engaging. While yes, you get to know how the main cast is thinking and feeling, it's still lacks...that it's it lacks anything and everything to be engaging I mean you know how Alya feels so?, is this any better than a regular girl blushing and trying to get her crush's attention by not saying it out loud? trying her best to standout or pout when feeling dejected? Honestly it's a shtick that's not all that bad but it's not enough and it doesn't help that the main guy is a robot that can do anything but act like teen The manga isn't different either, you could replace the guy with a talking broom and it would be the exact same, I don't care that he has no flaws and can do anything because bla bla tragic past, there's no character or the feeling of human in him to be engaging And that's why it's not engaging, both characters are not entertaining enough, most rom-coms rarely are so the dumb ecchi sexualization is sprinkled in to hope you don't realize the boring and not buy the posters and the body pillows
I find it interesting how 'initial mindsets' really affect how an anime is going to be perceived. From what you wrote, clearly you did more work in analyzing the show than I ever did. Though what you did is exactly why I originally didn't want to watch this in the first place: I already knew beforehand that it wasn't going to be anything special, writing-wise (and no, I didn't read the source material nor do I plan to) hence why I simply focused on its actual selling point, the one thing it has that NO OTHER high school romcom has: A female lead who code switches from JP to RU whenever things get emotional (I mean seriously, it's already in the title, what else should I think about for this show? Also, as a Filipino who is bilingual (getting to trilingual as I'm stuyding Italian), what Alya does (the code switching) is normal to us and is just an adorable thing when it happens). If you're monolingual then I can see why such a concept might seem novel to you. And honestly? I just viewed this anime as a 'series of events building up to each instance of Alya speaking Russian' and it did work in that end, didn't bore me as it did for you (with the degeneracy being the show's saving grace for some). If I wanted degeneracy, I'll rather watch something like High School DXD or Nande Koko ni Sensei Ga because the degeneracy is the actual selling point there.
![Felix "Unfair" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Oswujxm2Ag0/mqdefault.jpg)
Man, you are so right about how effective Alya's Russian asides were, and something else that really impressed me was the distinctiveness of all the characters, very much like two of my other favorite rom-coms: season 1 of Nagatoro-san (s2 was a bit mid) and every season of Kaguya-sama. That said, I somewhat struggled accepting the backstory behind Masachika knowing Russian, and I really struggled with Youki and Masachika hiding that they are siblings (again, the backstory wasn't terribly convincing). But these were minor quibbles as I thoroughly enjoyed every episode, and that ending scene - when Alya tells Masachika, "face forward," in Russian and he does just that - was a cliffhanger I didn't hate for a change (i.e. - "Did Alya notice that Masachika understood what she said? Find out in the next season of...")
Otherwise, I also really liked My Deer Friend Nokotan - it was absurd, hilarious and just plain weird. Definitely not the usual shonen or isekai anime, in other words. It's wasn't perfect - a few of the sketches were a bit wobbly or fell flat - but most of them were "don't try drinking while watching" funny and the 4th wall breaks and even the weird CGI deer worked well. Highly recommended both for its comedy and creativity.
In contrast, cour 2 of NieR: Automata turned relentlessly bleak, in stark contrast to the first cour, which employed comic relief to good effect despite the apocalyptic storyline. I'm not saying it's bad, however, just that it's a real Debbie Downer. Kinda like Oshi no Ko, except worse.
And in contrast to the contrast, Dungeon People deserves an honorable mention for its unique take on the adventurer genre and deserves a way better score than the Philistines on MAL are giving it so far (6.70 as of the time I am writing this).
For the backstories, I think it has to be said that as it stands, the first season didn't really delve into them as much, which is why you might feel they weren't 'convincing,' though given that a Season 2 is confirmed, it makes sense that they're taking the lore drops in a slower fashion. As for Masachika 'low-key' admitting that he knows Russian in the last scene, it's not really an admission. Do take note: Alya slowly crept up on him while he was looking away, and when she spoke Russian, it's less of Masachika following it and more of being surprised that her voice is louder due to her being so close already.
I can't comment much on the other shows you've mentioned as I haven't seen them, though I did see Nokotan, and yeah, not really my kind of comedy, hence why I never made any videos about it.
What is The series called?
"Alya Sometimes Hides Her Feelings in Russian"
@@AngeHikari i feel so dumb now😭 but tysm🙏🙏
@@emiliawiding4616 no worries, that's just how brainfarts are (happens when we least expect it) haha
I think the second half of this video highlights exactly why this anime is so popular, for the degen because, was it not for the degen or semi-sexualization of some character or another with heavy heavy sexual innuendo, it would fall flat on its nose.
If you take take the degen away however, I honestly still believe it lacks a lot of romance elements to make it either stand out or engaging.
While yes, you get to know how the main cast is thinking and feeling, it's still lacks...that it's it lacks anything and everything to be engaging
I mean you know how Alya feels so?, is this any better than a regular girl blushing and trying to get her crush's attention by not saying it out loud? trying her best to standout or pout when feeling dejected?
Honestly it's a shtick that's not all that bad but it's not enough and it doesn't help that the main guy is a robot that can do anything but act like teen
The manga isn't different either, you could replace the guy with a talking broom and it would be the exact same, I don't care that he has no flaws and can do anything because bla bla tragic past, there's no character or the feeling of human in him to be engaging
And that's why it's not engaging, both characters are not entertaining enough, most rom-coms rarely are so the dumb ecchi sexualization is sprinkled in to hope you don't realize the boring and not buy the posters and the body pillows
I find it interesting how 'initial mindsets' really affect how an anime is going to be perceived. From what you wrote, clearly you did more work in analyzing the show than I ever did. Though what you did is exactly why I originally didn't want to watch this in the first place:
I already knew beforehand that it wasn't going to be anything special, writing-wise (and no, I didn't read the source material nor do I plan to)
hence why I simply focused on its actual selling point, the one thing it has that NO OTHER high school romcom has: A female lead who code switches from JP to RU whenever things get emotional (I mean seriously, it's already in the title, what else should I think about for this show? Also, as a Filipino who is bilingual (getting to trilingual as I'm stuyding Italian), what Alya does (the code switching) is normal to us and is just an adorable thing when it happens). If you're monolingual then I can see why such a concept might seem novel to you.
And honestly? I just viewed this anime as a 'series of events building up to each instance of Alya speaking Russian' and it did work in that end, didn't bore me as it did for you (with the degeneracy being the show's saving grace for some). If I wanted degeneracy, I'll rather watch something like High School DXD or Nande Koko ni Sensei Ga because the degeneracy is the actual selling point there.