[cyth]

Well, it's not like Mutta comes directly out of the mold of perfect characters, such as Tokuchi Toua from One Outs, where we get to enjoy in his empathic intellect without any explanation why it is so. Mutta has his childhood flashbacks to back him up. The flashbacks are important because they illustrate just what kind of a child he was (curious, different, and competitive by nature) and what kind of support he received (Sharon, visiting JAXA etc.). I mean, you look at his past and you can't really argue why he turned out the way he did. The show made Mutta's skill set believable. He has to succeed to a certain degree, that much the audience expects from him, but it's not like he wasn't an underdog compared to other candidates at the beginning. His odds just got better as he cleared exams, that's why maybe there's an illusion of him being too perfect now. As Irenicus says, the score between candidates is still pretty fucking close.