[Qilin]

I'd agree with the general sentiment that Eru really surprised everyone during the last stretch of the series, the Houtarou and Satoshi pair still stands out as the most complex characters in this series. I mean, it really is strange how two people that could be such opposites can be so similar to one another.

In one respect, they could be taken to represent two sides of society's spectrum: the talented and the non-talented. On one hand, Houtarou is an individual trapped in his personal bubble despite his own talent, desperate to handicap his own potential just to avoid the prospect of failure. On the other hand, Satoshi is an individual determined to avert his eyes from the reality of his own inferiority, even to the point of sacrificing his own chance at a happy future.

Even so, they handled their respective situations similarly. They each constructed their own personal realities with the goal of protecting their fragile self-esteem, even at the cost of stagnation. As such, much of the series was a journey for each of them to reach outside their territories to be able to grasp at a potential future.

All that said, I'd say that both of them progressed quite far since the series began.