Web Animation / My Student Spirit

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My Student Spirit (Дух моей общаги^rom.Duh mojej obšćagi) is an animated web series from Phoenix Animation created by Leena Kilevaya. It's about the ghost of a student and his living friend who must help each other to achieve their shared goal of leaving the university.

Elijah Douchnov was a straight-A student who died unexpectedly just before graduating. Although some have ruled his death as a suicide or, more charitably, a freak accident, the circumstances surrounding it still remain a mystery, so the story doesn't end there — he is now a ghost, inextricably linked to the dormitory and unable to move on. Meanwhile, Dmitry "Kebab" Bratsky, a slacker and somewhat of a brutish young man, is the latest student to be offered Elijah's old dorm, confirmations of Elijah's ghostly presence notwithstanding. Dmitry learns of Elijah's existence after suffering a clinical death due to a caffeine overdose and later discovers that Elijah was tied to an old notebook full of past lectures from professors, making it possible for Elijah to literally tag alongside Dmitry as long as the object is in somebody else's possession. It's also within this notebook where Elijah had written down a list of things he wanted to do before graduating, none of which he was able to fulfill due to his untimely passing. Elijah concludes that finishing the list might allow him to cross over, and Dmitry agrees to help him if Elijah helps Dmitry with his studies to keep him from getting expelled and eventually graduate.

The series premiered on March 13, 2020, on Phoenix Animation's official YouTube channel. In addition to the animated episodes, tie-in comic books and one illustrated mini-novel also exist (only three books so far have been translated into English), featuring new stories that fit-in with the series proper's canon events. The playlist for the original Russian-language episodes (including shorts and "videocomics") can be found here. The English version premiered on May 24, 2022, and the playlist for the English-dubbed episodes (and shorts) can be found here.

Season 1 concluded with five episodes. Season 2 premiered on August 21, 2025 for Okko TV. Since then, a separate channel for the cartoon can be found here, and the first episode of Season 2 was uploaded a month after its Okko TV premiere. The English version of Season 2 premiered on October 31, 2025 (November 1 for some due to timezones).

My Student Spirit provides examples of:

• Aerith and Bob: This mostly applies to the Russian version. There's Olegsey (a.k.a., Olezha), a very uncommon name in Russia with an equally unique diminutive, especially when compared to Dmitry (a.k.a., Dima), whose name is incredibly ubiquitous in Russia, diminutive included.
• Affectionate Parody: "Shooting Stars" heavily parodies a paranormal reality TV show called Battle of the Psychics (one of the many foreign remakes of Britain's Psychic Challenge), from its opening sequence to the dubiousness of the "psychics" (though one of them may be legit if Elijah's reaction to her reading is anything to go by).
• All There in the Manual: A large amount of supplementary information, such as character histories, family names, parents and what kind of relationship they have with them, childhood incidents, etc. comes from either Leena's VK/Telegram posts, official zines, or the 3-hour livestreams on YouTube. In the latter's case, due to the fact that these are only available in Russian (since said information was being shared on the fly as an answer to a viewer's question), the only way to decipher them is to consult a Russian wiki fan page that lists them down and translate them along the way, and that is if the editor had managed to list them down at all. Tie-in comics also exist — the "First Issue", for instance, serves as a prologue to the actual show, "Sleepless Paralysis" shows what happens to Elijah's ghost when he decides to forego sleeping (as well as Dmitry meeting Elisa for the first time), and "Game Over" mentions the fact that Dmitry grew up with seven older sisters, among others.
  • In the case of Diplomator, an oppositionist alter ego of Anthony Stellar, most of the information we know about him is through the sources listed above. One of the posters bears a yellow folding chair, which is explained to be what he uses to knock out a conversation partner so they'll finally listen before sitting down on it himself to try and talk to them again. Ironic for someone whose name comes from "diplomat".
• Animation Evolution: Starting with Episode 3, the animation becomes more polished and fluid, with instances of Off-Model becoming less and less noticeable.
• Bland-Name Product: The energy drink Dmitry likes to binge on is clearly inspired by the design of Red Bull's cans.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: A ghost's color and shade depends on how they died.
  • Green means they've been poisoned.
  • Blue means they've been murdered. Elijah is specifically skyblue.
  • Grey is suicide.
  • Purple is accidental death.
• Destination Defenestration: Downplayed, since the window was open. This is how Elijah died, with the very first frame of the series showing Elijah plummeting to his death from a great height in slow motion.
• Dub Name Change: Quite a handful of characters have their names changed, presumably for ease of pronunciation. Interestingly, the show does not hide the fact that it's still set in Moscow, Russia, meaning the names could've been kept as is.
  • Dmitry is a downplayed case. He's known as Dima (a common nickname for Dmitry) in the original dub but the English dub calls him Dmitry more often, and his surname, Pobratsky, was changed to Bratsky.
  • Olegsey "Olezha" Dushnov, is Elijah Douchnov.
  • Olga "Olya" Dushnova, Dmitry's girlfriend and Elijah's sister, is Elisa Douchnov.
  • Anton Zvyozdochkin, Dmitry's rival and Elijah's friend, is Anthony Stellar. His original surname is derived from "zvezda," which means "star" in Russian, hence "stellar".
  • Vasily "Vasya" Dulin, a wannabe ghost hunter, is Vincent.
  • One of the other ghosts featured in "Forever Alone", Pavel "Pasha" Mishutochkin, is Peeta.
  • Two of the psychics featured in "Shooting Stars", Svetlana and Tyoma, are Britaney and Derek, respectively.
  • During "Dead Outside", when Elijah was pointing to graves of his relatives who have since passed on, he mentions them by names that are vastly different from what was written on their gravestones. It's only egregious if one is able to read Cyrillic and pays enough attention to them.
• Embarrassing Nickname: Subverted. Dmitry doesn't seem to find his nickname "Kebab" embarrassing because of the name itself, but because of how he earned it. In the "Freshman Initiation" short, he's in charge of grilling kebabs at a party. When a drunk Dmitry is warned by Anthony that they're burning, he challenges him to a kebab sword fight, unaware that Anthony used to fence. Anthony gains the upper hand and accidentally stabs Dmitry in the chest. The final shot reveals the scene as Dmitry's flashback while riding in Anthony's car, with overlapping student chatter: one jokes that "he (Dmitry) liked kebabs so much he became one", while another calls for a medic. Regardless, when some of his bandmates refer to him as such in Episode 2, he's not visually annoyed.
• Instant Drama: Just Add Tracheotomy!: Dmitry becomes a target of this when he suffers a cardiac arrest from downing too many energy drinks in a span of a few days. After becoming a ghost as a result, Elijah tries to help him by driving a pen into his neck, mistakenly believing him to have choked. He's revived via chest compressions instead by Anthony, whom he fiercely dislikes and Elijah has unresolved issues with. This incident leaves a stitch scar on his neck that becomes a part of Dmitry's design.
• Officially Shortened Title: DMO (ДМО), which is derived from the original Russian title. The acronym for the English title, MSS, is less commonly used among fans.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: By virtue of it being Russian, there are diminutives aplenty (most of which weren't carried over in the English dub). Dmitry is mostly referred to as Dima, or "Kebab" to a select few, with Anton/Anthony being the only one to call him Dmitry, indicating that they are not well-acquainted with one another, but other nicknames such as Dimon, Dimas, and Mitya (seen in text used by his mother in the Russian version of "Freshman Initiation") are also used In-Universe. Olezha/Elijah's real name, Olegsey (in Russian only), is rarely uttered by anyone and is mostly seen in writing, with Anton/Anthony preferring to call him Oleg (rendered in English as "Eliyah") for some reason, despite Dmitry's attempt to correct him.
• Only Mostly Dead: In the pilot, Dmitry overdoses on energy drinks and briefly dies, allowing him to see Elijah's ghost while momentarily becoming one himself. He's revived by Anthony — who happens to be passing by — and afterward gains the ability to see, hear, and speak with Elijah. Episode 2 clarifies that this ability is limited to Elijah alone, as Dmitry can't see other ghosts, though the reason behind this remains unexplained.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni:
  • The main duo, which consists of the short-tempered, stubborn, and somewhat thickheaded Dmitry (red) and the soft-spoken, reticent, and intellectual Elijah (blue). Their outfits further compound this, with Dmitry's red sweater (as well as a red letterman jacket in one episode) and Elijah, even before becoming a blue-tinted ghost, often being seen in blue clothing when he was alive.
  • Prior to properly meeting Dmitry, it's implied Elijah also had this sort of dynamic with Anthony, who seems to be the Big Man on Campus and was shown throwing a party in a mini-episode while Elijah himself quietly slips away.
• Reincarnation: In "Forever Alone", it's shown that, once a ghost fulfills what they needed to do, they are instead reborn. As Nyura ascends into a ray of light, her form gradually changes from an old woman — the age in which she died — to that of a woman that gets gradually younger until she becomes a little girl, and sees a faint outline of a person in a mask that looks like a doctor. Before she disappears completely, her silhouette can be discerned as taking shape of a fetus in a womb. Other than brief mentions by Dmitry and Elijah in the first episode of not wanting to go to Hell, it's not known if any form of afterlife still exists or not with this in mind.
• Sickbed Slaying: Implied. At the end of "Shooting Stars", Elijah says he remembers an ambulance, meaning he was still conscious after he fell. Though Dmitry proposes the idea that Elijah could still be alive out there, Elijah is still a blue-colored ghost, indicating that someone had murdered him during his hospital stay rather than eventually succumbing to his injuries.
• Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: Anthony Stellar for Dmitry, who he views as Always Someone Better academics-wise, in addition to pegging him as some insufferable rich boy since Dmitry himself comes from a poor family. As implied in Episode 2 by a Catapult Nightmare, Dmitry may also be slightly intimidated by Anthony, which may or may not be caused by Dmitry drunkenly challenging Anthony to a sparring session using kebab skewers and ended up getting stabbed in the chest, as seen in "Freshman Initiation".
• Too Dumb to Live: Dmitry, especially in the first episode. He already technically died after drinking too many energy drinks, despite them being infamous for their Nutritional Nightmare, and he would've been hit by a speeding car if not for Elijah's ghost stopping him from crossing the road without looking both ways. He almost gets hit by a car again in the next episode when he takes too long to cross a road, grumbling how "no one looks where they're going these days."
• Unfinished Business: Elijah's checklist of things to do before graduation becomes his ghostly mission after his death. In Episode 2, it's revealed that ghost colors reflect cause of death. Elijah's blue hue confirms he was murdered, adding the search for his killer to his unfinished goals. In the same episode at the train station, Elijah meets three other ghosts — Alexey, Peeta, and Nyura — each with their own lingering regrets: Alexey wants to buy a dollhouse for his daughter, Peeta hopes to apologize to his mother, and Nyura, after a moment of empathy with Elijah, becomes the first ghost shown to peacefully pass on and Disappears into Light.