Alya Sometimes: Hides Her Feelings in Russian Already Receives Criticism

When we talk about romantic comedies, definitely the anime adaptation of "Alya Sometimes Hides Her Feelings in Russian" is one of the most anticipated premieres for the Summer-2024 season (July-September). The story of the Russian tsundere who believes that her love interest doesn't understand her when she says cute things to her in Russian (although the guy actually does speak the language), has definitely captured the interest of netizens, especially since the design of the main girl is totally appealing to most.

However, with the most recent promotional video, the franchise has started to receive rather particular criticism. Sumire Uesaka, who we've already heard as Hayase Nagatoro in "Ijiranaide, Nagatoro-san" and Shalltear Bloodfallen in "Overlord," will be in charge of voicing this new waifu. In fact, it seems like there was no one more perfect for this role than her.

Sumire Uesaka is a big fan of Russia, its culture and traditions. In April 2010, she enrolled in the Faculty of Foreign Studies at Sophia University, majored in Russian language, and announced that she had graduated in March 2014.

However, the most recent promotional video has received negative comments from alleged netizens in Russia, who criticize that Sumire Uesaka's accent is so bad that they don't understand anything he says when he speaks in Russian inside his character:

"As a speaker, it's quite painful to hear Alya's accent. According to the story, she was half-Russian and had lived in Russia so long that, at worst, she must have had a minimal accent. Yes, as my compatriots have already noticed, Jenya Davidyuk, who voiced Zoya in "Akiba Maid War," would have been perfect for the role. After all, it's not for me to judge. I'm interested to see Alya's words translated into Russian, although I'll wait for the well-known unofficial translation and narration. Good luck to everyone and look forward to the premiere!"
"I was wondering if the writers (or, usually, at least someone on the crew) talked about this with any native Russians. Half of what is said in 'Russian' makes no sense at all!"
"They could have even hired a Russian actress to do the voice-over. Her accent sounds like the girl has some kind of illness."
"They just needed a Russian voice actress to oversee all of this, was it that hard?"
"I wish the voice actresses would improve their accent a little bit. Without the extra subtitles, I couldn't even hear their sentences in Russian, let alone understand what they were saying!"
"The accent gave me goosebumps and drove me crazy, all in the worst possible way. The only thing more disgusting is all the commentators and the assholes who celebrate this with their comments."
"I can't believe it, the accent is terrible."
"What a shitty accent, I don't understand anything."
"Too bad he didn't have time to fix his accent for all these years."
"Damn, was it that hard to get a Russian voice actress? She looks like a child learning to speak the language."
"To be honest, it's hard to understand her speaking Russian. I'll have to resort to subtitles."
"What the hell did I see?"
"Wow, what the hell is that accent?"
"Why not put at least one real Russian speaker in the lead? Was it that complicated?"
"This accent is very funny. It's hard for me to understand half of what he's supposedly saying."

Many people around the world, including the Japanese, don't speak foreign languages because they don't have the motivation to do so. In Japan, mainly due to the fact that it is an insular and therefore very homogeneous country, with almost all its native Japanese inhabitants, speaking only Japanese is enough to function not only in one's personal life, but also in one's personal life. but also in the professional career.

Japanese people are required to take English courses in school, but once they graduate and enter the job market, they are hardly encouraged to maintain the English skills they acquired before graduating. Much less are they encouraged to learn an additional language, and perhaps this is why it really must have been difficult for the production to get a Japanese voice actress who spoke "decent Russian", based on the comments.

Source: Yaraon!