Let me give you an idea of the kind of character Ikki is
One time, late at night, in the Angry section of the VSBWRP channel
I went into an entire shpeal about how Kirito is a character you can get behind and Ikki is just a cardboard cutout that can hold a knife effectively
I talked about how Kirito actually is somewhat hindered by his unwillingness to kill another person, and how shows weakness in the PTSD he experiences in light of killing members of laughing coffin, which is a group of serial killers that no rational person would allow to live. This ideology nearly costs him his one good chance to kill the big bad of Alicization, even if it turned out fine anyways.
In fact, Kirito is initially hated because he's considered a Beater, a beta tester that was just screwing everyone over to get an advantage, something that's illogical, but believable as far as someone finding a scapegoat for their problems, forcing Kirito to just be a loner and swallow the accusation. This does go away as he spends his time just doing good stuff and leveling up, but it's a challenge he has to come to terms with.
Then you have Ikki and ughhhh
I guess work hard equal character?
Despite the fact that
Rock Lee does that in a more endearing, badass, and cruelly realistic way that makes you consider him the protagonist for a time, as he fought tooth and nail against Gaara and eventually lost, simply because his own aptitude to work hard couldn't match up to the raw talent Gaara had? When has Ikki had to deal with that aspect of his so called hard work? When has he truly lost something and had to deal with that, simply because life said "Screw you" and stuck to it beyond him hitting a bag a few times?
When was Ikki really, harshly, and visibly knocked down, only for him to get up, spit the blood from his mouth, and overcome a real challenge he faces?
Or did he outskill that, too?
