When it comes to a thematic analysis of why Akio is merely the Acting Chairman of Ohtori Academy when he is for all intent and purposes the King (Prince?) of that World, I think it’s important to highlight the reason he even got to be in that position in the first place.
Because for all of Akio’s posturing of power and prestige it is important to remember that it is kind of an illusion. Akio is not some powerful mastermind, he is just preying on extremely emotionally vulnerable teenagers, he is not singularly powerful and influential, he just lives in a society that is very quick to hand out power and influence to men, and for all of his talk about how good women should be princesses protected by strong men like him he the one constantly protected by and leeching off the women he exploits.
The only reason Akio Ohtori is in charge of Ohtori Academy, the only reason he has his position of ultimate power, the only reason why he’s even Akio Ohtori in the first place is because he is Kanae Ohtori’s fiancé.
The actual chairman is Kanae’s father, who is ‘sick’ (actually poisoned by Kanae’s mother) and therefore out of commission - and, y’know, obviously Kanae’s like 18 and still going to school so she probably shouldn’t be appointed the principal just because her dad was. But it’s still notable that the idea of her having any part in managing Ohtori Academy after she graduates is not mentioned at all, and it’s just as notable that control of the academy didn’t go to the guy’s actual wife… The Chairman Position instead went to the only man that is considered even remotely part of the family… even though he’s not even technically part of the family yet.
The patriarchal standards of the world of RGU basically just handed over to Akio a position of power he only ‘deserves’ because of his connection to Kanae and the actions of her mom (who got her hands dirty for Akio’s sake), but as a man he is the one to benefit from it. It actually puts him in a position of power above Kanae (as the Chairman of the school she goes to) and one that allows him to more effectively exploit her.
And this is just… also basically his situation with Anthy. With the power of Dios locked away, it seems like she is the one sibling with more ‘substantial’ supernatural power left, she is the one doing the more subtle and clever manipulations in most of his schemes, she is the one thing that allows him to even walk around freely instead of being Stabbed With All of the Swords All the Time. Anthy is the true source of a lot of Akio’s power, and it is a power that Akio uses to build up a system where Anthy is at the bottom - constantly tormented and undervalued. And it is bigger than Akio, it is the patriarchal system itself that makes the power he steals from women into a power only men can use. After all, Akio didn’t make the Swords of Hatred stab Anthy instead of him, they did that on their own. Akio just sits back and lets them do it cause he can reap the benefits.
And it really just goes to show… how Anthy and Kanae are like two sides of the same coin. One is probably the most ‘classic’ Princess archetype in the whole show, and the other is our ‘Witch’. One is almost entirely oblivious to the strange and supernatural going-ons in the story and the other is probably the most aware person in the entire academy. One is Akio’s public-facing and respectable relationship that allows him to keep up the image of a devoted and princely young man, and the other is his most shameful and most disgusting secret. But both are capable of hurting the other; Kanae is just one more person who hates Anthy for being off-putting and strange, part of the millions of little stabs that reinforce Akio’s narrative that Anthy is unlovable and Akio’s abuse is the best she’s ever gonna get, and meanwhile Anthy probably helped Akio straight-up murder Kanae.
Either way, Akio is the only one who truly benefits from the harm.
And both are used by Akio, who steals their power and turns it into his own. With Anthy being the source of his hidden, supernatural and manipulative power as End of the World, and Kanae being the source of his public-facing visible social power as the Chairman of Ohtori Academy. And also the source of some of his ‘supernatural’ influence considering the whole ‘the Dueling Arena and the Castle are both an illusion cast using the Planetarium that’s installed in the Chairman’s Office’ thing, I guess.
Either way it’s his female victims who are the true ‘source’ of Akio’s power, and it’s not just him but the whole of society that channels their power into him. The biggest difference is that Kanae is someone he was quite happy to ignore and discard as soon as he got everything he wanted out of her.
And Anthy is something he can’t/doesn’t want to ever let go of.
