REVIEW: ‘Alya Sometimes Hides Her Feelings In Russian’ Episode 2 — “So Much For Childhood Friends”

Alya Sometimes Hides Her Feelings in Russian Episode 2 started off by making viewers believe that it had very little differentiating it from other high school romance anime. The first episode includes the same tired tropes that are consistent in the genre. However, episode two shockingly breaks that structure by showing that the anime has much more depth than expected.

Episode one starts with Kuze helping Alya and Suou with their Student Council duties in the morning. Kuze and Suou display their closeness, and Alya displays her jealousy, throwing in flirtatious Russian words along with words of disapproval. The president arrives and thanks Kuze for helping and takes the group to a diner for dinner. There, they discuss how Suou wants to run for Council president next year, and she begs Kuze to join her so they can run together.

Kuze outright refuses and expresses his disinterest after his stressful experience as the Vice President in middle school. Before the scene ends, we also learn that Alya intends to run for president, throwing Kuze off. The next scene contains the shocking revelation that Suou is actually Kuze’s sister. She lies to others, saying that they are childhood friends. This would explain why both characters look like they would be siblings, as they are designed very similarly.

We also learn that while they are siblings, they don’t usually live together. Their noticeably different last names likely mean their parents are no longer together or they have a complicated family situation. This would also explain why they lie to others about being siblings, likely to avoid more complications.

As is almost tradition with ecchi anime, the episode features inappropriate jokes and actions between the two siblings almost immediately after the revelation. The next scene sees Suou wake her brother up by climbing on top of him, and she proceeds to tease him and make sexual jokes. Of course, Kuze is having none of it. The entire exchange between the two boils down to meta-inappropriate jokes that, while humorous, feel weird.

The last half of the episode sees the siblings go shopping together, but their outing is interrupted by Alya, who notices them at the mall and is shocked to see the two together. Later, Kuze asks Alya why she wants to run for Student Council President when she has no one to run with her as a Vice President. She responds by saying there’s nothing wrong with aiming for higher positions. The scene also shows a flashback seemingly related to the protagonists’ past, as Kuze contemplates whether or not he wants to help Alya run for president.

The rest of the episode sees the three hanging out, with Suou teasing the headstrong Alya, convincing her to try spicy food and making her feel embarrassed about trying on outfits for Kuze’s approval.

Narratively, episode two comes as a pleasant surprise. It proves the anime isn’t your usual ecchi anime with the bland and repetitive teasing structure. Instead, we’re given more details about the characters that make them more endearing and make the story more engaging. And as many of these details are left vague, it’s clear the narrative has the potential to be even better.

Production-wise, Alya Sometimes Hides Her Feelings in Russian Episode 2 still sports impeccable animation, fantastic aesthetics, and great character designs. This is especially apparent in this episode, as Alya’s many different outfit changes are showcased with great visual flair and extravagance. What’s more, the episode notably has a different ending from the previous one, with a very intense, pink, and pretty aesthetic and an admittedly catchy ending song.

Overall, while Alya Sometimes Hides Her Feelings in Russian Episode 2 still adheres to the painfully repetitive ecchi tropes, it proves it has the potential to be different from its counterparts. The episode maintains the quality of the first episode and gives viewers more to look forward to.

Alya Sometimes Hides Her Feelings in Russian Episode 2 is streaming now on Crunchyroll.