Watched: Sub
Covers: Season 1
This was consistently one of the most popular shows of the summer season, and I was regularly seeing clips or screenshots before getting caught up. I was immediately delighted with the cast and basic premise. Alya is a half-Russian girl who is seen as very cold, but often reveals her true feelings in Russian. She has a crush on Masachika, a guy who is generally slacking, and turns out he understands Russian. He gets flustered as he understands Alya and the way she secretly flirts with him.
Rounding out the cast we have Alya’s sister Masha, Alya’s rival Yuki, along with a few others who contribute but are overall less present. Now both Masha and Yuki seem like more interesting characters than Alya, unfortunately their names aren’t in the title so apologies to anyone rooting for either of them. Basically everyone we meet is involved in the student council in some way, which makes this kind of feel like Kaguya-sama. Indeed, apparently the author actually drew inspiration from that masterpiece. Unfortunately, this anime does not quite reach the heights of Kaguya.
The show generally has good pacing and moments to start. Indeed, there’s more than a few sweet or funny scenes to satisfy both the rom and com. However, the show gets a little bogged down in the second half as the main thing driving the plot is the student council election, with Alya and Yuki both vying to be president. Generally this didn’t lead to many good character interactions or demonstrating the skills of any character, even if they’re all supposed to be pretty smart.
I think overall this first season is pretty good, and unsurprisingly season 2 was immediately announced. There are improvements to be made, with characters being unexplored and some of the drama only being hinted at. Season 1 delivers a fine ending, but it certainly is setting up more rather than standing on its own. So while I recommend it, you might be better off waiting to watch until the next season releases.
As a final note, make sure to watch the ED of every episode. They do a cover of a classic song from other anime every episode, so for those with more knowledge than me it could be a fun trivia game.