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’ve talked many times before about the stark contrast between the backstory of Masachika and Yuki and their family drama, the romantic plots with Alya and Maria both being in love with Masachika, and the wacky comedy shenanigans. The drama gets more attention this volume, and the shenanigans are confined to the middle of the book for the most part, and almost feel perfunctory. They read like the author watched a random anime and used that plot as the antics of the book. When I say “there’s a party with chocolates that have a small bit of alcohol in them”, the average fan could write the rest of that scene in their head and be 100% accurate except that it’s only one girl who gets drunk, not all of them. And there’s also an invented game that involves penalties, but since we already had the sexy antics earlier, these punishments are more just silly. The drama, though, is the main reason to get this.

The festival is over, but the aftermath of its events are still reverberating. Masachika’s mother was ill after his performance and had to go to the nurse’s office… and what’s more, Masachika found his father comforting her! Oh, and she’s also now sleepwalking. Masachika himself is filled with all-new self-loathing about his piano playing, which briefly impacts his ability to play until he gets some good advice which is basically “stop overthinking everything you do”. Oh, if only that advice would stick. As for Alya, well, she’s admitted that she’s in love with Masachika, at least to herself, and is briefly really, really happy. Can’t have that, of course. Enter Nonoa, who levels up here from minor supporting character to possibly the main antagonist of the entire series.

The big news here comes right at the cliffhanger for the book – Masachika is finally going to admit the truth about him and Yuki to Alya. This is good, because after overhearing him saying that Yuki will always be the most important person in his life, Alya has spent most of the volume dealing with agonizing unrequited love issues. These two are, frankly, very similar, which is why they’re such a good couple – or at least they will be, eventually, when the series is allowed to end. As for Yuki, she gets less to do here, but is also part of the cliffhanger. I’m not sure if her relapse will last longer than the next book, but it’s a reminder that she’s just as tied into the dark backstory as her brother, and is not simply about being a tease and making incest jokes. There is also a lot of Maria, of course, but even though she’s clearly deeply in love with Masachika, all her plots here are comedic. We know what that means.

And then there’s Nonoa, but let’s save her for another time. Till then, I enjoy wading through the most predictable comedy ever to get to the good bits.

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.

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 feel badly for Alya at times. This is, theoretically, her series. She’s the character on the cover art, she’s obviously going to be the winning girl, and she’s cute. But the overall plot of her arc is “I need to open up to others and not just rely on myself, and also I need to admit I’m in love with Masachika.” As arcs go, it’s simple. It’s not something that can carry a series. That’s Masachika and Yuki’s arc. Yuki’s not going to be the winning girl, for obvious reasons, but the screwed-up family she and Masachika are both in is what we’re going to be seeing more and more of. We get a bit of it here, and see that everyone is still carrying Expections, with a capital E, and that failing to meet them is worse than actually murdering someone. This has a lot of fluff in it, but the back half sets up darker things going forward.

The first half of this is pure fluff and fanservice, as we continue to have the school festival arc. We now see Alya dressed up as an elf, which frankly is perfect for her, and the sight blows everyone’s mind. Meanwhile, Masha is running a magician’s bar, and has some brilliant tricks… that she can’t perform in front of her sister because she’s always forced to be the goofy one in her presence. We get Ayano’s incredibly intimidating MAID SKILLS, which threaten to overwhelm Masachika when she maids a bit too hard at him. And, of course, the band get ready to perform. Unfortunately, it turns out that some mysterious person forged invitations to the festival, and there are now various pranksters, thugs, and bad guys there, who have been ordered to destroy it. Can the student council find out who’s responsible and save the day?

It’s really brought home here how this is a school for elites. Yuki, in an amusing takedown of one of the ringleaders, points out that his romantic angst would make a very poor subplot in a villainess book, and that’s kind of what we have here – not the villainess herself (though Yuki’s trying her best), but the “nobles rule the world” worldview. The elite families of many of the students are at the event – including Masachika and Yuki’s family – and they observe the chaos that’s been created with an amused eye, knowing that it will all come down to who controls the narrative and who can win the day. No great prizes for guessing who’s the man behind it all, but I did appreciate the ending, which does not revolve around Alya’s band performance (again, she’s not narratively important), but around Masachika’s, and his tendency once again to a) be miles ahead of everyone around him, and b) hate himself so much I worry he’ll end the series with a suicide attempt. Though I doubt it gets THAT dark.

The next book looks to be the athletics festival, and will no doubt once again be half otaku nerdery and half GRIPPING DRAMA.