Why Airs Blue was a Better Leader than Ikumi (Infinite Ryvius)

In my review of Shinseikai Yori I mentioned that selfish and unscrupulous Airs Blue was a better leader than paragon of virtue Ikumi. If you watch attentively enough you can see it yourself. However, some would miss the idea. So, I will elaborate on this actual reasons why Airs was better. in detail here.

The most important principle here is that good intentions often do not result in good outcomes. You might wish to do good, but cause problems instead due to lack of ability or poor understanding of the problem. In contrast bad intentions sometimes lead to unexpectedly good outcomes. Infinite Ryvius shows you one such example.

Airs Blue

It's not Airs intentions that made him a good leader. He is selfish and unscrupulous social outcast that leads the gang of similar people. Of all of them, Airs is the quietest and introverted. He is not only strong but also smart. That is why gang respects and obeys him. Airs also has strong sense of self-preservation, even when he was overthrown and the entire ship and his former gang went to hunt him down, he managed to hide in places and survived. 

Airs took power in a coup. One of Airs minions, Criff, seduced one of Zwei members, Charlie, and used him to sneak to the bridge of Ryvius. On the bridge Airs and his gang announced that they are in charge and will not hesitate to use violence to get their way. Zwei were not happy with that turn of events but did not dare to oppose intimidating Airs.

In power evil dictator Airs ended up not so evil. He kicked out incompetent former Capitan Luscon Houjou from the bridge for panicking loudly and preventing everyone from thinking out solutions. However, Airs was smart enough to keep the rest of the personnel with navigation skills on their jobs. In fact, he also promoted Aiba and Faina to the bridge to have some alternative opinion from someone who represents average person on board. Despite being intimidating he, did not fight anyone with exception of Yuki, who deliberately picked a fight with Airs on his own accord. In fact, violence was low on the ship.

Unlike Luscon who just panicked under pressure, Airs managed to make good rational decisions, that allow Ryvius and its crew to survive in challenging situations. He listened to technical advice from qualified personnel of Zwei but made final decisions himself. As much as Zwei knew how to pilot the ship, they lacked decisiveness to use weapons against enemies. Airs compensated for that.

Finally, being relatively selfish and self-protective, Airs did not mess with life of people on the ship. For the most time people were free to do what they want. Airs also spoiled personal on the bridge with special perks to keep them loyal. That did not work in the end. 

Overall Airs time at the helm was the freest and safest for most ordinary people on board. Hedonistic social outcast and outlaw with strong self-preservation skills became the most adequate leader the ship has known. His leadership managed to save the ship from many near-death situations.

Ikumi

Ikumi is a very virtuous persons who always does the right thing. He is willing to work for the sake of the ship and people on board.

However, he is also very protective of women. That became his downfall. After his girlfriend, Kozue became pregnant, he became obsesses with caring and protecting her. After some incident where someone on the ship attacked Kozue, Ikumi completely lost it. Even though Kozue was alright, he became obsessed with making sure it will never happen again.

Eventually Ikumi seized power but threatening to destroy the ship with the Vital Guarder if he does not get his way. In power he went on to enforce security with mad zeal. Ironically enough he employed former members of the Air's gang to do it. However, if Airs more or less kept them quiet, unless there was some emergency, Ikumi send them out to patrol the ship and enforce security.

The gang turned security force harassed people for with the sense of entitlement and undue zeal. They often picked at people who hardly did anything wrong. The ship became as illiberal as 1984. Ikumi and Heiger were proud of their Orwellian accomplishments.

As the final nail of Ikumi regime, Heiger compiled a list of undesirable people on board and decided to exterminate them. While Ikumi was partly oblivious to this plan, he did enable it by trusting Heiger implicitly and eliminating all checks and balances as well as trimming down number of people on the bridge. Ikumi demoted Aiba and Faina, despite being friends with Aiba. Heiger condemned Aiba to death.

A good guy Ikumi became an enabler of a genocide. Despite being nice and protective person, he showed no remorse or sympathy towards victims of his totalitarianism, believing it was them who are at fault for being a security threat.

Conclusion

Good intentions often do not result in good outcomes. In general, Infinite Ryvius is good and realistic show, that showcases how leadership works in society.

Of course, far not every social outcast is as capable as Airs Blue. Most of them are idiots.

However, I am wary of people who profess doing the "right thing". Some of them will not hesitate to punish people they perceive as wrong. I am not a paragon of virtue myself and I do not want to be hurt for not being one. Also, some of them are hypocrites and liars.

Shinseikai Yori is a good example how good intentions end up creating totalitarianism.