I decided to retake the Official Mary Sue Litmus Test for Akio, not only to revise his answers, but because the test itself has changed since then, meaning that some character traits that wouldn't earn a character points before do now. Here's what I got.
- Part 1
- 27.His tearing into Maho without Maho giving a word of rebuttal counts.
- 27a.Miho doesn't like it, but her remarkably subdued reaction hardly counts as getting angry.
- 28: His yelling at Shiho was portrayed as justified
- 31.Kao Vamp, in his review, points out that Akio's rudeness toward Shiho, as an adult and a tankery authority, would not have been well received in Japanese culture.
- 35. He's not the only one, but he benefits from boys being included in tankery (although to this fic's credit, boys in tankery is treated as more unusual than other fics)
- 59.His ability to speak Japanese and English
- 64.Most of those who dislike the Sakais, such as Shiho, are rather unpleasant.
- 82a.Most people like Akio
- 88a and d.Akio's father's death in the plane crash, which Akio himself witnessed, is an example
- 99 and 99b. Shiho's antagonism with the Sakais, which seems mainly rooted in Saburo, counts.
- 104.Stellar has complained about people's "knee-jerk" reactions to Akio
Part 2
- 2 and 2b. The first two words of the story are Akio's name.
- 3. Since he's essentially the male lead, he counts for this.
- 8 and 9.He shares tankery with Miho, and notes that Miho doesn't have many hobbies outside of it. He also thinks of Miho as his coach.
- 18 and 20. Akio's eventual relationship with Miho fulfills both questions.
- 24.He spends most of his time with Miho, even telling Tsubasa that they haven't seen much of each other since the transfer. The same could go for Miho.
- 25.His living next door to Miho counts.
- 35.His existing to help Miho realize her own self worth is as good of an example of this as most things get.
- 36. Arguably, his making Miho more assertive wouldcount.
What he did not get
- 5-10.His phobia of flying hasn't gone away at a critical moment, and the worst he experiences is a high level of anxiety when traveling via plane (but he ultimately gets to his destination in spite of that).
- 5-19.The author says Akio will eventually realize that he was wrong about Maho, but we have yet to see it.
Akio thus gets a 37, which is an extremely high chance of being a Mary Sue. While he's not as competent as I first imagined, he makes up for that by being designated as Miho's primary source of emotional support. He may not be the key to winning every battle, but it's clear that the story largely moves because of who he is and what he does, while people important to Miho get shunted to the side.
Now let's do Miho, as the author suggested that he's a foil to Miho, whom he says scores high by herself.
- Part 1
- 46 and 46a. While tankery's popularity is said to be on the decline, it's still the main focus of the story.
- 48, 48a, 48b and 48d. Miho's skilled at tankery, and people know that she is, although she downplays her own skill.
- 61.Miho's generally good at strategy.
- 82, 82i.Miho's generally well-liked, although that's arguably a natural result of being nice, and being a highly skilled leader. Those who dislike her tend to respect her to some degree- Erika is a Graceful Loser, while Shiho claps for her, and Manga!Anchovy is the only notable exception.
De-Suifiers
- 1.This mainly happens in the spinoffs, but in Ribbon Warrior, Centipede Team doesn't even recognize Miho when they run into her, and Erika notes that Miho getting lost doesn't seem much like someone who won the tournament
- 11.One could argue that Miho's departure from Black Forest is for this reason, and Miho seems to see it that way.
- 16.Miho mentions in passing that she's not sure whether saving the tank was the right thing to do. I personally have my own interpretations regarding this, but the fact that she's not 100 percent sure warrants a check mark.
- 28.Miho muses that "everyone has a lot going on," in Episode 7, and Miho's problems aren't necessarily shown to be worse than everyone else's.
Miho gets a 6, which is just above the range at which the characters are considered not Sue-ish enough if they don't get several De-Sueifiers, as Miho does. While Miho is quite talented as a commander, she's not talented to an improbable degree, and doesn't have any supernatural gifts. Her kindness and meekness also ensure that she doesn't engage in any of the Jerkass behavior that would mark people as being Mary Sues; the one time she got angry enough to say something cruel, her friend Emi got realistically upset with her.
Essentially, characters need strengths and weaknesses to be able to work well, and a Mary Sue is generally the result when a character is unbelievably strong without any drawbacks, or able to overcome their weaknesses without having to struggle at all. Miho is a good case of a character who, while able to lead well, also has to overcome her own shortcomings, and while Akio is not without shortcomings, he drives the plot too much to be entirely believable, something that I hope is remedied over time.
That's all for now. Thank you for reading, and I hope to see you again when and if this fic is updated.
