Crunchyroll is great at streaming a variety of anime each season. This summer, two romantic comedies, Pseudo Harem and Alya Sometimes Hides Her Feelings in Russian, share a common theme: female protagonists openly express their feelings but hide their true intentions.
In many anime romantic comedies, characters have difficulty communicating or misunderstand each other, often leading to misunderstandings. However, in these two shows, the female protagonists—Alya and Rin—actually express their feelings clearly. Alya speaks in Russian, while Rin pretends to be someone else.
The main difference between the two is that Masachika, who hears Alya's feelings in Russian, can understand her, while Eiji in Pseudo Harem can't tell when Rin is being serious. This setup is rare in anime, where a character doesn't know how the person they love really feels.
In the work Alya sometimes hides her emotions in Russian, the story often revolves around Masachika keeping a secret about how he understands Alya's Russian expressions while encouraging her and enjoying her reactions.
Alya sometimes hides her feelings in Russian teasing about conflict, while the faux Harem offers fresh perspectives on classic stories
The only downside is that the anime follows this formula for a while without adding anything new or surprising. However, Alya Sometimes Hides Her Feelings in Russian builds tension with a potential conflict that keeps the viewer guessing.
A girl from Masachika's past who taught him Russian may appear in the story soon. When this happens, Alya may find out that Masachika knew what she said all along, which may make her feel betrayed.
Pseudo Harem, on the other hand, explores its unique setting more effectively from the get-go. While anime characters often avoid expressing their emotions directly, Pseudo Harem stands out for its interesting approach to the subject. It also offers a fresh look at the various “dere” characters and highlights how Eiji reacts to Rin imitating different characters.
The faux harem innovates classic tropes by skipping the typical romantic comedy tropes, echoed by My Clueless First Friend
While Rin's true nature is the main theme in Pseudo Harem, experienced viewers may appreciate how the anime plays with classic stereotypes. For example, in episode 2, Rin takes care of Eiji when he's sick—a typical romantic comedy scenario. Instead of showing Rin's reactions and possible confessions while Eiji is sleeping, the anime cuts straight to when he wakes up.
The reason the original manga author was able to avoid showing those scenes was because Pseudo Harem relied on the characters being awake to interact with each other and react to Rin's “dere” impression. Skipping the usual scenes when a character is sick allowed the show to stay true to its formula.
A similar approach was used recently in My Clueless First Friend. In that anime, the characters were very young, and the naive nature of the show made for a twist on this trope. At the time, there was no other anime on Crunchyroll like it. However, Pseudo Harem and Alya Sometimes Hides Her Feelings in Russian were not unique in this regard.
