Kaguya-sama: Love Is War: Miko Iino (ESTJ)

Te:

“Your days of playing dirty are numbered because I’m going to straighten you out myself! …So, we’ll join forces and bring order back to the halls of this school!”

“You know, you catch more flies with honey than vinegar. I don’t care if you’re a stickler for the rules or what. You need to grasp the concept that the people you’re cracking down on have feelings too. You should try being more empathetic…” – Ishigami about Miko Iino

Miko Iino values order and structure. She fears that the school’s morality is on the decline, and focuses all of her efforts on fixing this. In the process, Miko Iino becomes overbearing and demanding, often taking it upon her self to enforce the rules of the school or call out bad behavior. This leads to being extremely blunt and direct with others. As a result, people like, for instance, Ishigami, view her as an authoritarian and extremely annoying.

Miko works within the current school system to achieve her goal of bringing order back to the school. For instance, she joins school committee’s like the disciplinary committee and public moral’s committee. In addition, she runs for president in spite of her young age. Her plans for being president primarily involved imposing numerous new regulations and restrictions in order to bring back order. Her speech centers around reforming the school’s image to fix its declining reputation.

Miko is disciplined and determined. She’s believes in doing what’s right rather than what’s fun. Therefore, she works tirelessly, between keeping her grades up, and keeping up with duties. During the festival in season 3, she never actually gets to enjoy the bonfire that she helped plan, because she spends the entire time patrolling the grounds. In addition, she rebukes Shirogane, during the presidential elections, for becoming complacent.

Miko admires people for their external accomplishments, which is why she strives so hard to keep her own grades up and to achieve her goals. Her focus on accomplishments is abundantly clear right from her first appearance on the show. When Shirogane and Ishimigami scoff at her for requesting Chika to be her vice president, Miko immediately begins listing off all of Chika’s accomplishments.

Si:

“I had expectations of what it would be like. I could picture it so vividly in my mind.”

Miko has high expectations and very specific ideas of how things should be. She’s always dreamed of being on the school council, and thus forms a very vivid image in her mind of what it should be like. Unfortunately, once she gets on the council, Miko quickly gets exposed to the unusual or wild antics. She ends up deeply disappointed with the state of the council, wanting to just give up and quit. This is a classic Si struggle – forming high internal expectations which reality fails to live up to. Of course, her form of doing this specifically points to high Si, because although her standards are high, her expectations aren’t unrealistic.

When running for president, Miko advocates for numerous new regulations, which are hyper-specific and extremely strict. She believes that more rules will encourage good behavior. Some of these rules, which she lists on her flyer and readily recites to others, include restrictions on romance, all boys having shaved heads, no cell phones, weekly bag checks, etc. Similarly, when Miko declares that Kaguya and Shirogane will serve on her council, she begins listing of very specific duties and regulations, such as a uniform check every morning, trash duty after school, no touching, no romance, and they must be at least 50 centimeters apart at all times.

Ne:

“Miko tends to let her imagination run rampant, and because she mixes fact with fiction, she often jumps to the wrong conclusions.”

The most obvious way that Miko’s Ne manifests is through the odd conclusions that she leaps to, conclusions which she believes wholeheartedly. Miko is prone to paranoia, and letting her imagination run rampant. She notices strange behavior among the council members, and then jumps to wild and unrealistic conclusions, one after another, about what is secretly going on.

For example, she initially believes Shirogane to be a man whore, due to a misunderstanding. As the show progresses, she happens upon multiple, odd situations. Naturally, she interprets all of these in a way that supports that initial bad assumption. Once her friend rationalizes away her first assumption, Miko instantly jumps to another false conclusion, this time with the focus on Kaguya. She then acts on that assumption, by confronting Kaguya and asking her a very pointed question.

Fi:

“I refuse to back down on my ideals! With time, people will come to understand them the same way I do.”

“She’ll snap back at me like a yappy little dog with something to prove if I do.” – Yu Ishigami

Miko is actually in touch with her inferior Fi, when it comes to knowing her ideals. She stays true to her convictions, no matter what anyone thinks, and respects those who do the same. With her ideals as her guide, Miko strives to improve the school. In addition, she dreams of being the small girl with big ideals who reforms the student council. However, while she highly opposes degeneracy, she fails to identify her own. By extension, she projects her own degenerate thoughts upon others, assuming the situations she stumbles upon have a lewd context. This failure to realize her own depravity while harshly judging others for that perceived sin is another example of inferior Fi at play.  Her Fi also surfaces in the way she idealizes Chika, resulting in a willingness to listen to everything she says.

However, her Fi specifically appears to be inferior due to her constant need to prove herself and her worth via external means, like grades. (For instance, someone makes about how being top of the class validates Miko’s existence.) This is partly why she’s so incredibly hardworking and vocal. However, on the flip side, it’s also why she’s quick to get defensive or feel threatened by others. As a result, she often overreacts and snaps back in an unnecessarily harsh way.

Lastly, Miko is detached from emotions in general, resulting in her insensitive nature. Ishigami tries to tell her to be more sensitive, but she’s only willing to listen to Chika on the matter.