Alya Sometimes Hides Her Feelings In Russian Was Originally Envisioned As An Isekai Story

The currently airing anime adaptation of Alya Sometimes Hides Her Feelings In Russian is gaining positive reviews from fans for its characters and its setting.

However, if Sansan SUN (Sunsunsun), the author of the series’, had stuck to the originally conceived concept of the story, then we would have had an isekai story in our hands.

According to a 2021 interview, the author had originally conceived the story as an isekai novel.

In the interview, SUN shared that the original inspiration was to write about a “cute but disappointing heroine who gets all flustered and smug because she thinks the other person doesn’t understand her language, going ‘Hehe, you don’t get what I’m saying~’ and feeling superior“.

This idea led SUN to consider an isekai reincarnation plot.

In this version, the reincarnated heroine would speak Japanese to the protagonist, feeling confident that he couldn’t understand her.

The twist would be that the protagonist was also a reincarnated person who could understand Japanese perfectly. This humorous misunderstanding was meant to form the core of a short story.

However, the isekai genre’s need for extensive world-building and background explanation led SUN to simplify the story, setting it in the real world instead.

“…as I thought about it more, I realized, ‘Wait, couldn’t I just do this with a foreign language in a normal setting?’ The isekai setting required a lot of world-building and explanation, so I decided to keep it simple and set it in a real-world romance.

After considering various languages, the author chose Russian, drawn to the idea of a ‘fairy-like, mystical beauty’ often associated with Russian women.

“Then, when considering which country’s language to use, I thought English was out because too many people understand it. Since the heroine would have foreign blood, I wanted her to be a beautiful girl with a completely different appearance from Japanese people. When I thought about it, I intuitively felt that Russia would be a good choice. For some reason, I had this image that Russian beauties have a fairy-like, mystical beauty. That’s why I chose Russia.

Alya Sometimes Hides Her Feelings In Russian is a Japanese light novel series written by Sansan SUN and illustrated by Momoco.

Before the light novel’s publication on Kadokawa Sneaker Bunko imprint, two short stories were published on Shosetsuka ni Naro website.

However, the stories and characters in the web version are completely different from the published novel.

A manga adaptation by Saho Tenamachi began serialization online in Kodansha’s Magazine Pocket app and website in October 2022.

An anime television series adaptation produced by Doga Kobo premiered in July 2024.

Source: Da Vinci Web