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As a curiosity I did the quiz for Laxt Exile: Fam of the Wilver Wing, skipping the 'Your Character and You' part because I didn't follow the interviews. Fam scored 21 and Milia 37, in other words Milia is almost a Mary-Sue and Fam is not. It fits my own estimation, and isn't in contradiction with anything. A Mary-Sue is usually an annoying character, but a good author should and will be able to turn in into something fine, because the term does not necessarily mean contrived or badly written; it originally meant a self-insertion of the author (as a mouthpiece or avatar, or as a fantasy of what he/she wants to be), or of a person dear to the author. Because this term originated in fanfiction, it translated to characters like, a random example from me, Princess Syl'ver Ravenstarr, the main character's twin sister who has a perfect figure, a magical pendant, rainbow hair and moodring eyes but a traaaaaaaagical past. Well, something like that. Of course, for original fiction it's not nearly as clear.

Try the test for a couple of characters, although consider what the test tells you as 'Mary-Sue' as borderline.

To the other question, I was bothered by the character. Both the story and the writing were good (it's a well liked manga), but I can't get over that character's actions (so not really about his stereotype).

Well, at least for my part I can never identify with those kind of characters. Probably because I only had such a level of naivety when I was like, 6 or something, while those characters are usually in their early teens.
Though of course, at best I can still watch something like Gundam Unicorn just fine, that's just a question of ignoring the dull characters and paying attention only to the action, but that's not to say I wouldn't have switched him with a more mature and realistic character at the first chance.

Naive characters are fun when their ideals get spat on and they finally break under the pressure of reality, though..

Absolutely. That's what I was hoping for all throughout Ima, Soko ni Iru Boku, but alas. So in the end it was almost offensive how it showed so much misery but yet marginalised it like that by having the MC completely ignoring it.

The kind of character described in the OP is a personification of the lessons in ethics and etiquette that virtually all children, of any background, are ingrained with in school.

You're right, people who fully abide by this creed are considerably less common but that's because the risk versus reward is too great. The dilemmas under discussion, on the other hand, are often false in that the consequences for being moral are rarely lasting, serious, or believable. It's hard to fawn over a character's purity if the event used to establish it would summon the same kind of nobility from anyone.

Im guessing you hated Shirou from FSN?

It doesn't matter what age you supposedly were. The point is whether or not a fictional character can be related to in their specific story and situations. You can't begrudge a character's personality and logic when the writer crafted them that way for a purpose. And if that purpose is to tell a story where a character's ideals of good triumph over evil, well then that's what it is going to be. Surely some other writer will do a multiple shades of grey story elsewhere.

These characters are made to work within their stores because of their shortcomings not in spite of them.

I like thos type och characters because they usually have a dark side to them.

Dude, have you ever seen a Gundam series? If so, you'd know plenty well that they are not even the least about some shallow good vs evil stuff, but yet we still see terribly naive protagonists. Hell, pretty much no stories today except for fairytales for children have a completely black and white morality, which is why it's silly when the characters act that way and never realise their errors.
I obviously wouldn't be annoyed if it was some kiddy story with good vs evil, then it would be my own fault for watching it in the first place.He was pretty terrible in the anime, but from what little I played of the VN he was better. Plus he gets better in the end anyways if Archer is any indication.

@baman I think you would enjoy the heavens feel route of the FSN VN immensely, just to watch what happens to shirou and his 'ideals' lol.

Well Gundam 00 pretty much lacked this naive/idealistic character trope. Setsuna was a guy who was a child of war. The other 3 had their own share of problems. Neither did they always went for the save people no matter the cost either, although their faction is a bit more humanitarian than others. Their motto to eliminate war by violence intervention was both kinda hilarious and interesting at the same time. Although you can argue this is probably naively ideological at its core.

They did butcher the ending though, which is disappointing. And they didn't really differ much from the usual gundam formula, which could be another disappointment.

I never called Gundam stories shallow nor did I imply that a standard good v evil story is fine only for kiddy stories, that's what you're trying to do with all your derisiveness and leading statements.

All I've said is that a fictional character's mistakes and shortcomings are created and used by the writer in order to illustrate whatever point they are trying to get across. Simply following around a mature and realistic character would not allow the writer to tell a story the way they see fit.

Even if a character never learns from their mistakes that in and of itself can send a message to the viewer. Other than the writer's desire there's no reason for any character to be fully realized.

As long as he turns out to be a well-written character down the road, I'm fine with it.

Those are two separate issues.
An idealistic character can be well-written from the start and be just as idealistic by the time the story ends. You can change idealistic to any adjective you'd like but the point is a character can have any combination of personality traits and be well-written, or not.

Definitely. Only seen the first ep so far, but from what I hear they won't be taking that silly ideal in a realistic turn.Do you really don't understand what I'm writing? Here I'll explain it to you, I used Gundam as an example of a morally grey story that is yet usually plagued by naively idealistic characters, thus creating a friction between the setting and the characters, that in turn make them seem stupid in their own setting. Thus meaning the character can be begrudged for acting naively compared to the setting he is in no matter what the intentions of the writer were.

True but for most animes that have a main character start with as a young boy there isn't any more optimal option. It's how kids are. I'd rather have this than a dark boy with a terrible past, who's heart is filled with hatred and bla bla

However if an anime offers something completely different then I'd prefer that over anything else so...

I find them exceedingly annoying.
What's more, I know a few such people in real life and I don't find them any less annoying than I do the anime characters.
Ironically, they happen to be the one type of person I can never seem to get along with.

I understand plenty. This is you stating something objective and then throwing in your opinion of it as if it is fact.

Let me state my point again. A writer can make a character as naive as they please in order to make their story and get their point across. A character acting naive, regardless of the setting or what you'd like to see, is not a problem when the character is supposed to be naive and idealistic for the sake of the story.

You can call characters like that stupid, retarded, bad, or whatever negative garbage you like but at the end of the day whatever problems those characters have it is by design.

@Anime_Name You have absolutely no basis in fact for saying that its by design, you know. I dont really agree with Baman, but saying that all naive characters are naive to prove a point or achieve something is just silly. Some are, and some are just naive because that happens to be how they were written, not by a greater design.