Why Ayanokojis character is mediocre at best.

( I Replied to a comment, it turned into this tangent, figured it would make a good discussion post)

His character just completely changed around Y2V4-5 after that it continuously went downhill. Kinu just decided to up the edginess, making Ayanokoji act like robot instead of a traumatized genius.

I would even go as far as to say that he got retconned. The Ayanokoji in Y1 and Y2 are vastly different. In Y1 he was a boy that tried to make an effort to connect with people and learn about the outside world. He still had the whiteroom mindset of course but it was for self preservation since these methods were all he has ever known.

Despite all that he managed to help others in his own ways and even form some connections with people. They were so many heartfelt moments between him and other characters like him and Hirata on the bench, him rejecting Sato, his interactions with Kei, his dynamic with his friend group, his admiration for Manabu. Those are all things we will probably never see again.

Back then he felt human and grounded, you could see why he acts the way he does but also that at his core he isn't a "bad" guy. Now the author did a complete 180 and made him a total dick with no empathy, who enjoys manipulating people, apparently all those interactions and meaningful moments never mattered, not having once moved his heart, which just isn't true all of this happened but the author decided to act like they didn't and no he is not in denial the author makes it very clear that, that is how he feels now. Only focusing on making Ayanokoji as "cool" as possible, to me it is not cool at all but incredibly cringe (like how in the anime they always have Ayanokoji close his eyes and say stuff like "you are not worthy of my smile" bro that shit is corny).

Now he is neither compelling nor entertaining he basically turned into those self insert protagonist who never struggle and are assholes but still are beloved by everyone. Objectively Ayanokoji is a jerk but literally everybody, (except maybe Ibuki, which I hope stays this way) no matter what he does either adores him or is intrigued by him, never disgusted by his behavior just because he is capable and handsome, which makes other characters especially the female ones come off as shallow looking at you Ichinose, Horikita, Arisu even Ryuen started to fall victim to this, the glazing became excessive.

I ask myself why so many people want Horikita to end up with him. Kinu already set the ground works for Horikita to fall for him when she doesnt even know half the shit he pulled like what he did to Kei. It wouldn't feel romantic at all.

PS: Little side tangent: If you think about it Arisu probably has some mental problems, she saw this dude play chess once through a window and became obsessed literally counting the days since she last saw him. Imagine if the genders were reversed everybody would call her a fucking creep.