Talk:Rito Yuuki/@comment-26804024-20151231023311/@comment-7948498-20151231110409

My problem with Rito is his lack of initiative.

If you were to compare him to, say, Keitaro from Love Hina (the only anime/manga you listed that I watched and read), you might see a big difference. For Keitaro, you have a character who has something that he wants and tries to achieve (getting into Tokyo U and reuniting with his childhood love), and along the way, he has to cope with his own weaknesses and adapt around the wacky secondary characters, and by the end of the story (especially in the manga), he becomes even more likeable, more competent and responsible, and still retains some of his clumsiness.

So what do we know about Rito now? We know that he is very courageous when girls need him. He was great when he traveled to another planet to get a cure for Celine, when he connected with Rin's mind to free her from the alien sword's control, when he saved Yami and Nemesis, when he hugged Nana to console her, etc. But how has he changed as a character by any of these? He's still shy and clumsy, he's not doing anything about it, and he's basically just waiting around for the next thing to happen, fix the problem, and then move on to the next day.

What else do we know about his character development? We know he's after Haruna, but still hasn't gotten to her yet, because with Lala in the picture, his biggest character development is becoming indecisive between the two girls, which is actually not bad, because he clearly wants to make the most honest and responsible choice, but it's still very little development. We know that by the end of the original series, he's no longer terrified of being around girls, but still terrified of ecchiness. And we know that all he wants now and all he's doing now is waiting around for the next day to happen, hopefully with as little incident as possible. He's simply not taking any initiatives to make things happen, get what he wants, and become someone better than himself.

And yes, he does need to become better than himself. All main characters need to. That's character development, and Rito lacks that when he's mostly the same person as he was from beginning to end, despite his accomplishments. Passively making girls he doesn't want fall in love with him isn't development. Advancing the relationships he wants is development. Is he indecisive between two girls? Fine. Date them. Get to know them better. Do something to get what he wants.

Rito needs initiative. Ever since the end of the original series, he has become stagnant.