By Sunsunsun and Momoco. Released in Japan as “Tokidoki Bosotto Russia-go de Dereru Tonari no Alya-san” by Kadokawa Sneaker Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Matthew Rutsohn.
I think I’ve mentioned before about how, when I saw that this series was licensed, I called it “The Angel Next Door Spoils Me Russian”. As it turns out, after seven volumes, the two series are not all that comparable except in the shallowest way. Alisa and Masachika could only wish their life was as easy as the couple in that series. Instead, we have a series where the tragic backstory is just not going away, and cannot be easily resolved with a trip back to the old hometown. Masachika still despises himself, Alya doesn’t know what love is and is hoping to be handed the answer in an easy to understand form, Maria suddenly realizes that the boy she fell in love with all those years ago is a young man with a libido, and for all that Yuki wants to show off she’s healthier now, if she overdoes it, not only does she feel worse, but everyone around her overreacts. There is so much drama.
If you know how anime and manga romantic comedies work, you knew this was coming. We’ve had the cultural festival, and so now it’s time for the sports festival. Which, of course, means another dramatic competition between the two student council rivals. Alya and Yuki have to participate in a cavalry battle, which might actually favor Alya provided Yuki doesn’t stack the deck and also be far more clever than her brother. But what are the chances of that happening? There’s also the problem of Masachika getting more popular after the events of the last book – in particular, his piano talent is now public, which just fills him with more despair as he feels that being good at something requires caring and working hard to achieve it. And Alya is starting to realize that there is something very, very wrong with Masachika’s family, but he won’t tell her what it is yet. However, most of this is the last quarter of the book.
If you’re familiar with this series, you know what the first 3/4 of this book is. Otaku references, in jokes, and fanservice. To be fair, they’re all handled pretty well here. I enjoyed the character of Elena, who is the classic “pervert girl who overdoes it because she’s secretly not”, and who gets along very well with Masachika because, unlike Masha or Alya, he can be himself around her. And yes, Yuki hops naked into the tub with her brother, which made me sigh. Honestly, I’d be more annoyed if I thought she was part of the romantic rivals, but I know she’s not, so it’s just a mild irritant. The best parts of the book involve Alya and Masha, who are both falling harder and harder for Masachika, and the collision when that comes out is going to be epic, and hopefully not as explosive as the collision involving Masachika and Yuki’s family.
So good stuff, even if it does feel a bit as if the author is pushing the inevitable resolution of this plot further and further away as the series gets more and more popular. Ah well. At least there are boob jokes. SO MANY boob jokes.
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