Alisa Mikhailovna Kujou, or Alya, is half-Russian and considered a top school idol, but is nigh unapproachable to most. Even her guy counterpart is shot down faster than you can say Спасибо. The one guy who has her attention is her desk neighbor Kuza Masachika, who is an otherwise ordinary guy.
As a student council treasurer, she can be strict and teasing with him, and even mutters things in Russian under her breath … things like милашка (cutie) that she assumes he can’t understand. But here’s the thing: he can. When he was little he knew a girl who spoke Russian and learned how to converse with her.
And that’s how anime’s latest “[Name] is [Something]” rom-com mirrors a Seinfeld episode where George’s father Frank overhears women shit-talking him in Korean. Frank calls them out, but Masachika keeps the fact he knows what she’s actually saying to himself.
The reasons for this are complex. There’s a thrill in knowing what she’s saying, while also knowing she doesn’t know he knows. But it’s also, in part, to spare her embarrassment. Of course, the longer this goes on, the more embarrassed she’s likely to get if she does learn he’s been able to understand her all this time, whether he chooses to tell her or it comes to light on accident.
One thing is certain: Alya likes Masachika. That’s clear both from her Russian comments and the way she reacts when his pretty childhood friend Suou Yuki interacts (and flirts) with him. This is also a vehicle for Russophile seiyu Uesaka Sumire, AKA Sumipe, to speak Russian, while also portraying a, shall we say less hyper character than Nagatoro-san.
This episode has a lot going for it. Both Sumipe and Masachika’s seiyu Amasaki Kohei have great vocal chemistry, as do their characters. Masachika isn’t some shut-in or wallflower; he’s a normally-adjusted guy, who like most teenagers stays up too late watching anime and talking about it.
I especially like how Alya says she’s surprised any girl (especially one liky Saki) would be friends with him, Masachika points out that they’re friends too, and she walks away in a very good mood. Will there be romance on the horizon? Sure, but it’s nice to see them start out on good terms.
When Masachika does a solid and does all the morning duties before Alya even comes in, she gives him a “reward” in the form of letting him put on a fresh stocking to replace the one that had mud splashed on it on her walk to school. Kudos to the pervert who animated the absolute shit out of this sequence. It ends with a pantsu flash and Alya delivering a swift kick to Masachika’s chin, then shuffling around him and out of the room with one of her shoe’s not quite on.
Another sign that these two care about each other is that they let neither grudges nor awkwardness persist for too long. Alya refuses to forgive Masachika simply because she’s no longer mad. What happened happened, and she wasn’t blameless. It’s only when Masachika is super-honest and tells her he got a peek that she gets angry at him again, resulting in a breathless (and also well-animated) chase across the school.
When they both run out of breath, Masachika again reiterates his contriteness, Alya accepts the apology, and he presents her with a peace offering of her favorite drink: a can of shiruko porridge. Alya is placed on a pedestal and revered as an idol by most of the rest of the school, so I believe a large part of Masachika’s appeal to her is that he treats her like an equal. She even calls out when he’s putting on an act of unnecessarily florid deference.
This first episode did a great job making both sides of this couple extremely likeable and relatable, while also providing a little competition for Alya that will push her to be more forward if her Russian utteranaces represent her true feelings (and I don’t see why they wouldn’t). At the same time, there’s a lovely little time-bomby tension to the fact she’s unaware Masachika can understand Russian.
I’m actually looking forward to the moment Masachika slips up and responds to her in Russian, which will mean the кот will be out of the сумка. There’s also the matter of him not remembering the name of the Russian girl he befriended, and the reason he learned Russian. Could it be that Alya’s hair simply changed color from blonde to silver, or was that a different girl who may show back up in his life and compliacate matters?
All that conjecture is fun, but it’s also fun watching Alya and Masachika simply exist beside each other and interact. And that, combined with the impressively solid production values and voice work, is why I’m definitely going to keep watching this.
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