I did O'Brien propaganda before and I'll do it again.
Underrated means a character gets less attention or appreciation THAN THEY DESERVE by the FANDOM. Not the show, the fandom. The audience. A character just not showing up much in a show, or not doing much in a show, does not make them underrated, it makes them underused on the side of the creators.
Underrated is an audience response, not a creator behavior, and not a character behavior.
I don't know if there is any character this is true about more than O'Brien.
O Brien deserves attention and appreciation because:
He was the main protagonist in season 3 for several extremely important and plot dependent episodes
He got an emotional arc while being the protagonist that involved him losing his bravery and learning how to be brave again
He saved Judai from his inner darkness/rescued him from being a genocidal antagonist.
He has a very sweet thing going on with Jim and calls him aibou.
He is consistently one of the most dependable and capable characters
Frankly he has more character development/growth than Johan who is beloved by the fandom (i support Johan being loved, just pointing this out)
However despite his importance to the plot and being made central by the creators for a chunk of the show:
I don't see people talk about him
I don't see fanart about him
I don't see fanvideos about him
Of the 111 fics on Ao3 he's tagged in, only about 20 are actually about him, and most of those are written by 2 people.
Outside of if one plays duel links, if you only know GX from osmosis/fandom exposure, you will not know O'Brien exists despite him being an important character
That, my friends, is being underrated. I am fairly sure if he was not black and was drawn with typical anime features, he would be much more popular.
As for Rei? Sure, she's not given enough attention or story by the creators, but given how little she gets, I think she has the fan appreciation to match what was given about her. She is tagged in 151 fanfics to O'brien's 111 despite O'brien doing much more in the show. So Rei's not underrated. If her fandom attention is low, it's because her role is low and she's not particularly important.
Y'all. Vote O'Brien. He deserves to win this competition.
