Aika S. Granzchesta

Her relation with her teacher is very well built (similarly to Alicia's relation with Akari, though this one is much more one-sided and less interesting because less surprising). At first, one would find such a couple to be improbable, if not downright incompatible, but very solid reasons were given for Aika to appreciate Akira's authority, being Himeya's heir thus everyone's idol in the company, and equally strong reasons for Akira to get on so well with Aika, her pupil being, as revealed through the story, the person who inspired her moniker (Crimson Rose), which has a major importance in many chapters. Their 'hidden' chemistry was very well done.

Aika also had the best evolution in characterisation in the series. In fact, her development was fairly slight (inasmuch as one could expect even more substance from such a lengthy series), but what the story did, as little as it was, was very well carried out. At the beginning, Aika has an obsessive admiration towards Alicia. It was very impressing afterwards how the renunciation of this admiration was executed. It's never 'said' that Aika grew up, she never announces it, nor someone ever points it out after it happened, but it's made obvious by showing her cutting her hair, so precious to her because resemblant to Alicia's. It is not particularly hidden, but the daringly implicit method used is, to me, a brilliant piece of storytelling.

Moreover, her development was, in opposition to a lot of the other characters', thought on the very long run. Aika's obsession is widely depicted during the beginning, enough to be an affirmed trait of characterisation, and when she loses it, we can clearly see that she grew up, from that chapter onwards up to the end of the series: the chapter dedicated to her development wasn't simply written to shine as a standalone (unlike, among others, the two attempts at developing Alice, which were good chapters but added nothing to her character) but had a real impact on the story and Aika's personality.

Even if, admittedly, Aika (and the others) were overall rather lacklustre and displayed flaws in characterisation. A good character should react to a story's happenings and other characters' words according to his distinctive characterisation, supposedly boasting a large enough one to justify a great variety of behaviours so as to appear human to the reader, as well as, preferably, a backstory or evolution to understand why a character has these convictions. However, most of the time, Aria's characters' reactions and mindsets can be summarised as 'I don't know what to say, let's utter my favourite catchphrase and make a grimace'.