>>264441139The two were not even comparable though, aside from their meme template beginning.
Asterisk is just a collection of character archtypes going through a collection of cliché melodramatic story beats. It's bad, I had to drop both the anime version and manga version fairly quickly and didn't even bother looking for the LN version.
Rakudai on the other hand does all of it right. The characters seemingly start off as archtypes but quickly break out of that mold and shine as their own individuals.
Stella as the sole actual love interest, has red hair and is seemingly a tsundere at first, but she actually turns out to be charming and acts like a genuine awkward teenager who fell in love for the first time.
Shizuku is seemingly the token "yandere imouto" at first, but she actually knows when she is a third-wheel and discretely stands down when things call for it, unlike actual yandere imouto archtypes that would have done the awkward "romance development cockblocker move" every time something seemingly advances for her brother. No such thing with her. She is genuinely concerned about the mental health of her brother who had been treated like trash by the rest of her family.
Even Arisu, the "tranny" friend of Shizuku has more nuance than any character from Asterisk, knows where to put the limit on jokes and doesn't preach about how you should either laugh at or worship trannies, but is rather a genuinely interesting character.
Then there's Ikki himself. People make fund of "the weakest is actually the strongest" but Ikki actually manages to pull it off. His limitations are very real and so it the strain it puts on him. If it wasn't all in a at-most-fighting-once-a-day tournament format he'd be fucked in most cases. He actually has to go to extremes and it's not just some "hurr hurr so strong powers, onee-chan must put a seal on you!", like in Asterisk. Ikki really has to work like a madman, even outright defy his fate.
Also very quick romance!