User blog:DeltaHorizon020/PE Proposal Drafts: Alexis Kerib

What's The Work
SSSS.Gridman is a 2018 anime by Studio Trigger that is a homage of the tokusatsu show. The story? I'll let the TV Tropes summary speak for itself:

"Yuta Hibiki wakes up in his classmate Rikka Takarada's room with no memories of his life up until that point. After getting him checked out and having their classmate Sho Utsumi help him out the next day, Yuta is only sure of two things. He can see a bunch of Kaiju hidden in the clouds. And someone calling himself Gridman is talking to him through an old Junk computer in Rikka's mother's junk shop, telling him that he has a mission to complete. That mission it turns out is fighting Kaiju his classmate Akane Shinjo is sending out to take revenge on people who have slighted her, with the help of her own computer-bound companion Alexis Kerib. With the help of Rikka, Sho, and a group of alleged middle school students wearing business suits, Yuta and Gridman save the city from Akane's Kaiju creations, otherwise, people get written out of history and they're the only ones to know about it."

Yeah, that's about it. Now, Akane, despite showing some potential in earlier episodes due to her violent outbursts and her Bad Boss tendencies, she doesn't count for plenty of reasons especially in the latest three episodes. But the sponsor of her doing? Is a different story... Meet Alexis Kerib everyone!

Who is He/What Has He Done
Okay, long story short, Alexis Kerib is a mysterious cloaked being from Akane's computer that supported on what Akane had done and is essentially behind the bad things that happened in the show. He was portrayed as an Affably Evil and the Only Sane Man counterpart towards Akane at first but as the series progressed, unsurprisingly his worst side came to surfaced.

In Episode 7, when one of Akane's humanoid kaiju, Anti, made a kaiju in order to defeat Gridman and co and failed miserably, Alexis then tries to found Anti in order to "discipline" him and when he was found, Alexis brutally slashes Anti's face with a motor-saw. Fortunately, Anti survived but his eyes is missing despite the fact that Alexis was the one who gave a permission on Anti to make the kaiju in the first place.

Near the end of story, when Akane crossed the Despair Event Horizon to the point that she lost motivation to make a kaiju, Alexis still encourages her to make other kaijus in order to destroy Gridman once and for all and when Akane simply refuses, Alexis took this matter into his own hands and tries to make his own kaijus in order to destroy the Virtual City that Akane had made.

In the penultimate to last episode, when one of the heroes, Takarada Rikka, tries to comfort Akane, Alexis came out from nowhere and turns Akane into Kaiju in order to satiate his penchant of destruction. When Anti tries to turn Akane into normal, Alexis appears behind Anti and impales him in the back.

Fortunately, the Gridman squad comes to stop Alexis once and for all and during the fight, Alexis revealed towards the Gridman crew that he had done his worse deeds towards other people who are truly depressed in their lives just like Akane in order to feed their negative emotions and simply because he was bored and is willing to do this again on countless and countless of innocents to satiate his boredom. Fortunately, after the heated fight, Alexis is defeated and he was sealed into the Hyper Cube by Gridman and takes him to the Hyper World and is never seen again since.

Freudian Excuse/Mitigating Factors
Alright, this is the tricky one. So in the series finale, it was revealed that the show is set in a dream of a certain girl in a last minute. But this doesn't mitigate Alexis at all and doesn't affect Alexis's agency. The reason why I said this is that the dream got a LOT more focus just like Are You Afraid of the Dark or Danganronpa's cases. And like I said, while some people can argue that Alexis is a personification of severe depression that plague some people's minds, this doesn't affect his agency as he is a sadistic being that disguise himself as an Affable person or the Only Sane Man towards the other depressed people and he got some kicks while committing his atrocities so yeah...

Heinous Standard
Alright, I'm not going to sugarcoat it. Akane in the first episode initially appears to be a lot nastier than Alexis due to her penchant of creating Kaiju in order to kill some people who annoy or offend her which causes severe destruction in the city and thus she rebuild it again from the scratch, being a horribly Bad Boss towards Anti by throwing some stuff towards him once she failed her and let's not forget the stunt that she pulls in Episode 10 where she stabs the main protagonist, Yuta Hibiki, with a cutter and destroy the computer that let Yuta communicate with Gridman.

Unfortunately, she doesn't count due to plenty of reasons. Mainly because at the end of the day? She is revealed to be a truly depressed and tragic figure on the inside and become a damsel in distress in the end of the day that needs to be saved by Gridman and co. Especially on Rikka and Anti's case who truly pity on Akane's condition. That and she is a mere pawn of Alexis.

But even with that being said, I'm inclined to say that Alexis truly passes the heinous standard with a truly nasty MOs I've ever seen in the media despite having a modest bodycount. Slowly corrupting a depressed person in order to become the god of their virtual cities while got a kicks regarding their virtual cities being destroyed when said person tries to vent their anger is inherently awful. And Alexis's admittedly low victim count is offset by the fact that he had done this to other depressed people just like Akane before and will do it again on countless and countless more innocents once Akane is no longer further use of him. And yes, without Alexis, Akane won't be as powerful as she is in the series.

Final Verdict
At the end of the day, despite his low bodycount. Honestly I'd say keep on Alexis because the low bodycount is offset by the fact on his sadistic motivation that lies beneath his atrocities and he truly has a nasty MOs I've ever seen in the anime history by targeting other people who are truly depressed and slowly corrupt them inside out for kicks and lulz and he has done this before and do it again in the future once Akane is no further use on him so yeah... Keeper.