At first glance this looks like your typical Shonen rom-com with an awkward loner mc who is seated next to the most popular and beautiful tsundere girl in his school, but with the added gimmick that she speaks Russian, and he can understand it. While yes, it is a typical generic rom-com, it has a lot of redeeming factors despite of its generic plot. It has some protentional to become a great rom-com as it has a lot of foundations that if the author plays their cards right could become one of the few good rom-coms in the sea of never ending average, tasteless, copy paste, generic romances.
1) Story: 7.75
The story is nothing to write home about. It follows the usual tropes and narratives of any other in it's genre. While the story does follow the tropes of a typical rom-com, it differs with the fact that Alya the love interest, speaks Russian and uses this to tease and confess to the MC. This is the main draw of the manga, its gimmick. So far it's been well written and not too central to the plot, even though its the main draw. It seems that it hasn't really been tapped on so far in the story. While not bad, it's quite good, there's still a lot of interesting potential to be had. The backstory's of our characters have been a strong suit that give more insight into why our characters act the way they do. Often times backstory's are uninteresting, overbearing, or too long and don't make sense. However Alya Sometimes Hides Her Feelings in Russian's backstory's aren't like this. They have good pacing and keep the reader intrigued and interested in the character's without feeling too long despite the typical nature of the story and it being the longest (so far) arc. While nothing groundbreaking it has a lot of potential to turn an entertaining albeit pretty generic rom-com, into something that is more than what defines it's genre.
2) Character's: 9
Arguably the strongest part and most important part of any rom-com. Even with the faults of the story or art, if the character's aren't done right then no matter how good or bad the other aspects are, it will be bad and not enjoyable. This isn't the case though for Alya Sometimes Hides Her Feelings in Russian. The mc is a generic awkward, lazy, loner, oktaku, who is secretly a hard worker and badass. He is magically seated next to the prettiest and most popular tsundere, whos also an ice-queen that's on the student council at an ultra prestigious high school (sounds familiar). We've seen it many times before. The only thing to separate these two character's from the typical rom-com is the gimmick that Alya can speak Russian, and he can understand it. Even though the mc's are the typical generic rom-com mc's, you still mange to get sucked in and interested in their character's and their relationship. It feels natural and not forced. Instead of constantly throwing the mc into an accidental sexual situation that ends in him getting beat by the tsundere, the time when it did happen it felt more mature and grounded even while following the tropes of the genre. The feelings the mcs develop for each other are realistic and natural. We see why and can empathize why Alya gives the mc a hard time but also why she like him. We see why the mc likes Alya. Its all done naturally and believable (probably). While the romance is the high point, it'd be criminal to leave out the side character's. When I mentioned potential, I meant these guys. Normally in romcoms there are usually one man and multiple women, when there are multiple men they don't really get to shine and are extremely generic. However the three main supporting males have defined personalities and show up more than once times. They're interesting and add to the story and work well with the mcs. There are even minor supporting men who while are generic tropes still have personality to them. The other supporting character's and other love competition (its a romcom, its a given) whos also the generic childhood friend, are too well written and have interesting personalities. While the side character's are nowhere near the level of My Dress-Up Darling's side character's, they aren't bad and are quite interesting. There is a lot of potential that could make them even better.
3) Art: 8
There isn't much to say about the art. It's amazing - most of the time. It can be hit or miss. 80% of the time the art is some of the best even on par with h artists and other times it looks like SAO's manga and makes me want bleach my eyes. Okay, maybe not as bad as the SAO manga, but still not good at times. Overall the art is still great.
4) Conclusion: 8.5
So far (18 chapters), the manga has been really enjoyable. While held back in some regard because of the tropes of its genre its untapped potential, it makes up for it with its interesting yet typical character's and stunning art - most of the time. It's a great read for anybody who likes romcoms or lite-dramas or even if you just want something to read to pass time, I definitely recommend it. Cannot wait for an official English release.
Thanks for reading. This was my first review from a guy who failed English... multiple times. Maybe the books should have been on things I wish for but cant achieve. God I'm so dying alone. Towards the end I kind of just wanted to get review over with. Every time I type it takes like three seconds to pop up. I am also writing this at 3 am so that too. So no proof reading or reading what I wrote. Hope it makes sense and isn't incoherent rambling.
