I feel like Mel's story with Liz was the pinnacle of his character development.
Yup. It was a great point where he could've developed into an interesting character, but he basically reverted to how he was.
I would say I'm mixed on Mel as of late, but it leans more towards the negatives. I don't hate him as I did a couple years or so ago, but now I just find him generally unlikable and boring. And that's a shame because he actually has a lot of elements in his backstory and characterization that could have made him into a great protagonist. But all of that is wasted because Nakaba makes his character infallible in the majority of his actions and motives.
Hell, I don't even mind that he's OP. Toriko was extremely OP and wanked by the time his series ended, yet I still enjoyed him as a main character. He had his flaws and he had some great development over the course of the series. Mel has been the most static Sin in terms of development.
If he was allowed to develop and learn from his flaws, rather than them being swept under the rug as a misunderstanding or forgiven for "reasons", he'd be much more tolerable character to me. Look at King. He's always given crap for his mistakes, both in story and by fans, but he learned and developed from them. Which is why he's my favorite Sin. I hated Elizabeth early on because she was a naive character who pined for Mel. Now, while she's not a favorite of mine, I'm cool with her and her story because she changed into a decent character after Mel's death. She still acts naive, but I'm more tolerant if it.
There is a manga I read called Jigokuraku or Hell's Paradise, who's main character who has a situation that's very similar to Mel's. Simply put, he was a vicious shinobi who fell in love but both he and his wife were punished for trying to leave the clan. Read the first few chapters of this manga and you'll see why I think he's what Mel should've been on the hundreds of chapters of NNT.
