Why Mikleo is Best Boy - A tales of zestiria character analysis

One of the most important questions ever to be asked in popular media, stemming from a long anime tradition, is one which constantly sparks debate in fandom: Who is best boy/girl? This is a question which, every few years, Bandai Namco try to answer by hosting the esteemed Tales of Festival Popularity Poll, in which they pit characters from every game (except for Yuri and Leon, who are too powerful and must be cast out) against each other in a battle to see who they need to make more merch for in the coming years. And in 2017, the burning question was answered once more, letting the fandom know that the true Tales of Best Boy is in fact… Mikleo. In all seriousness, Mikleo is a great character – certainly one of my top three favourites from Tales of Zestiria – but even I have to ask myself why it is that he is such a popular character. After all, it surprised me to no end when I heard the results of last year’s popularity poll, especially considering the backlash I had heard about the game in my short time in the fandom. Thus, I decided to dedicate my first analytical video to Mikleo, in the hopes of discovering why exactly he is Best Boy. Before I start, I just want to put it out there that this video will contain minor Tales of Zestiria spoilers, so please tread carefully if you want to avoid those. I think it’s important to acknowledge the less in-depth reasons as to why he’s a popular character, both in Japan and in the west, before we get into more analytical terms. So first of all, he’s pretty. He is a good looking male character, the bishonen which female audiences love so much, which automatically makes people like him to at least some extent. Even I can admit that I was drawn to him from my very first sighting of him, if only because of his aesthetic. But if this popularity poll was founded only on looks, then Luke fon Fabre would not have made the top four for the last six character polls, only getting anywhere below that in the year of his first appearance on the poll, where he still made the top ten (barely). Like, I love him and his character development is great, but… he looks like that annoying brat in high school who always talks way too loudly and you want to throw him out of a window. By aesthetics, he’s not the most attractive character. I can think of way more than four characters who I would place higher than him on the attractiveness scale. No offense Luke. Naturally, part of what makes him rank so highly in the popularity poll also has to do with how recently Tales of Zestiria came out, but that still begs two questions: a) why does he rank higher than any character from Tales of Berseria, which was far more recent? b) why does he rank higher than Sorey, the main character of Tales of Zestiria? The first question can be answered pretty easily – whilst Tales of Berseria has received a bit of marketing by way of a light novel and comics, Tales of Zestiria has received the bulk of Bandai Namco’s marketing in the past few years. With a manga, light novel and anime adaptation amongst other things, it has managed to stay in the limelight despite having come out three years ago. Besides, most of the merchandise and marketing for Tales of Zestiria, since the game’s release at least, has focused very much on not only Sorey, but Mikleo, and the two of them together. Which leads to the obvious conclusion that, though Sorey is the main protagonist, it is his relationship with Mikleo which is the selling point of the game. And to be fair, their relationship is great, perhaps one of the best ones to come out of the Tales games which I’ve played (and to be fair, I’ve only played four of them, though I’ve watched Tales of Symphonia’s anime OVAs). The way in which Sorey and Mikleo bounce off each other, their history together, the way their fates are intertwined throughout the game and beyond – it’s a huge selling point. People like seeing relationships like this, where two characters support each other wholly and care about each other more than anything. It’s probably the closest actual intimate chemistry that we’ll get out of the Tales games. Mikleo’s actions within the game are all based on Sorey, as well – though he has his own dreams and does things for himself, his dreams and wishes are all correlated with what Sorey wants. Every decision he makes, every step he takes, he wants to be at Sorey’s side, because they’ve always shared the same dream. There’s something romantic about seeing two young people so passionate about following a dream together and staying by each other’s side, no matter how their relationship dynamic is labelled within canon and fanon. I think this is the reason why many people are drawn to the game at all – not because of the traditional Hero’s Journey plotline, but because of the characters and their relationships, particularly with our two main heroes. But that doesn’t explain why Mikleo is the popular one, and not Sorey. After all, Sorey placed sixth on the popularity poll (though his voice actor Kimura Ryohei didn’t seem to mind – in fact, he was way happier that Mikleo got first place than he was at his own sixth place). This must mean that there’s something about Mikleo which Sorey doesn’t have, or which makes him more attractive as a character than Sorey is. So maybe we should actually talk about his personality now, since that’s kind of the point of this video. Mikleo is a young water seraph, known for being the voice of reason to Sorey’s impulsive actions. He’s cool-headed and rational, whilst still concerning himself with what is best for those he cares about (mainly Sorey). From the first time we see him, we can glean so much about his character, even from a few shots: his intelligence, his stubbornness, his competitive side, as well as his more caring side. You could say he’s a typical tsundere, and you wouldn’t be wrong… but you wouldn’t really be right, either. What differentiates Mikleo from many typical male characters is his emotive side, which he shows a lot of, particularly when he’s comfortable around the people he’s speaking with. Though he’s initially distrustful of strangers, once he warms up to someone, he becomes far more expressive than one might imagine, opening up and speaking candidly, with care for the person he’s speaking to. He’s empathetic, trying to understand people in the best way that he can as well as wishing the best for them - - except, perhaps, when he has a grudge against them. This caring side is most particularly obvious when it comes to Sorey, but I want to make a whole video on their relationship at some point, so I won’t go into too much detail on them for now. But I think Mikleo’s relationships with other characters are also incredibly important, perhaps more so once you consider that Sorey is the reason why any of these relationships occur in the first place. Take, for example, Alisha. When they find Alisha in the ruins, Mikleo is wary, but Sorey insists on taking her back to Elysia. If he was warier of this human – a race of people he’s been warned against bringing home – he would surely have put his foot down. After all, we’ve already established his stubborn side. It would be easy enough for him to argue with Sorey about this. However, it doesn’t take much convincing for him to give in to Sorey and let the girl go back to Elysia with them. Maybe this is because he doesn’t want to hurt Sorey’s feelings, but I think he doesn’t want to hurt Alisha’s feelings, either. Despite having only just met her, he doesn’t want to upset her. This might be because he doesn’t want her to turn against them, or it might be his compassion coming through. I’m more inclined to believe the latter, particularly since he soon warms up to Alisha, and is grateful for her being at Sorey’s side. After all, she provides a companionship which Sorey can relate to more easily, both of them being human. (Though that’s a topic for another day.) It’s similar with Rose, too. She’s another human companion who he thinks should join their party for the benefit of Sorey, but I think Mikleo truly wants her to calm down and understand them when he speaks to her in the Tintagel Ruins for the first time. Throughout the story, too, he warms up to Rose and offers to help her where he can, though I suppose trust between them is more necessary given that Rose can now armatize with him, too. Not to mention the care he holds for the other characters – making sure they’re alright, and that they know they can talk to him if they need to, that they shouldn’t hold anything back. His compassion for other people is what makes him work all the harder, because he knows he can’t slack off if he wants to help his friends to achieve the goal they’re heading towards. Mikleo’s hardworking nature is also something to admire, though it also ties into how stubborn he is, in that he’ll work at something until he gets it perfect, no matter what. But I think his stubbornness also alludes to another trait of his which is endearing, as well as a flaw which I love about him: Mikleo is childish. He’s young, so this makes sense, but we don’t see this childishness in mature characters like him very often. He argues about the smallest things, he’s easily riled up and he fears silly things like dogs. It gives him an air of youth and vivacity which I feel is incredibly important in creating a good character. Though he can be rational most of the time, he does have times where he slips into childishness, which is a nice break from his serious nature. His vivacity, however, is also powered by the passion which he feels. With passion being a key theme in Zestiria – hinted not-so-subtly at in the title, which pretty much screams about the ZEST which they all hold within them – it’s no surprise that our main characters should have things which they care deeply about. When Mikleo gets interested in something, just like Sorey, he gets very interested in it. He’s a pretty all-or-nothing guy, so it makes sense that he would get obsessed in things like ruins to the degree which is shown in his discussions with Sorey. Though he’s perhaps not as obsessed as Sorey is in The Celestial Record, it’s safe to say that it’s still a key book in his life, and he finds interest in analyzing the ruins which they explore as well as any artifacts they might find along their journey. For me, personally, my favourite Mikleo Moment is in a skit for a discovery point in Lohgrin. His interest in analyzing the symbolism in the matryoshka dolls is something which was both incredibly endearing in his naivety, but also far too relatable for me, as someone who also analyses things quite deeply. It’s the fact that you can tell just how passionate he is about what he loves, how he gets so interested in looking into the smallest of details. For me, that is what really brings him alive as a character. One last point I wanted to make is that Mikleo is the second character you meet in the game, pretty much immediately after you meet Sorey. You have only marginal seconds to get acquainted with your main playable character before Mikleo pops up, and he stays with you for the majority of the game afterward. As such, he can really be seen as a- a second protagonist who we grow to care about just as much as Sorey, who you’re playing as. The fact that he stays with you for so long is certainly part of the reason why he grows on you so quickly, however I have a theory. Bear with me. If the audience of the game is playing as Sorey, then it’s fair to assume he is the character whose emotions and choices we are expected to relate with the most. We play as Sorey without a break throughout the entire game, even when the rest of the party leaves for short times. We follow him as he goes on his first journey around the world, fighting as him even at times when he is alone – the game even goes as far as to force you to run around as him all the time; unlike in previous games, you have no choice to change to having a different character running around on-screen. (Though given the nature of the human-vessel relationship in this game, that kind of makes sense.) As such, if we are to relate most deeply with Sorey, then perhaps the way we see Mikleo – why he is so popular as a character, more so than Sorey is – says something about how Sorey sees Mikleo, too. Maybe, along the way, those of us who see Mikleo as one of our favourite characters inherited the feelings which Sorey has about him, making us love him all the more. Just like Sorey, though we as the audience want to save the world and learn about it, it’s our relationship with Mikleo which is the strongest. But that’s just my opinion. I would love to hear your thoughts and opinions on why Mikleo is Best Boy down below. If he’s not your Best Boy, let me know who you think should be Best Boy too. And whilst you’re down there, feel free to comment with any suggestions for future analysis videos. For now, I’d like to thank you for watching, and thank you so much for your support thus far! If you didn’t already know, I have a Let’s Play of Tales of Zestiria here on this channel, with new episodes going up every Monday and Friday. I try my best to do some on the spot analysis in those videos as well, so feel free to check those out if you like. I'll link them in the description and in a card up in the corner. Thanks again for watching, I hope you all have a great day, night or whatever other time it is for you, and I will see you… next time. Thus, I have turned a video about why Mikleo is Best Boy into sormik propaganda. You're welcome.