Zenless Zone Zero’s new A-rank has the entire world mad

You’ve no doubt seen him, met him in-game, perhaps even mourned the loss of his potential S-rank status. Zenless Zone Zero’s Komano Manato, the only male character among Spook Shack’s four female S-ranks, got official drip marketing recently – and nobody is happy about it.

It’s not often that the entire world comes together. That’s how you know Hoyoverse messed up by making Manato an A-rank – communities from China, Japan, the US, Europe, and everywhere in between are saddened that a miscellaneous female character came out of nowhere to take the S-rank spot, while Manato is relegated to A-rank.

The last A-rank release was ZZZ Pulchra back in March, so we were super overdue for a new one, but did it have to be the anticipated, story-relevant, male character? Why not Lucia or Yidhari, two previously unseen, unmentioned members of the Spook Shack? In fact, neither of them features in the 2.0 preview trailer, where Manato shows up.

They could have at least released him in the Zenless Zone Zero update that he featured in as a key member of the story. He would have made just as little sense on the banner with Alice and Yuzuha in terms of team comps, but at least interacted with them in the update.

We know that he’s officially a rupture agent using the fire element, which also begs the question – who on earth are we meant to use him with? Leaks of his kit show he gains a buff when used alongside another fire or rupture character. So, barely any of the Spook Shack, then, outside of Yidhari the rupture agent. Is he meant to work with ZZZ’s Orphie, who releases in the update before his debut? I’ll be shoehorning him in with ZZZ’s Lighter and/or ZZZ’s Burnice, just for fun, but I’m confused about his intended purpose.

Here’s hoping he’s on the same level as Genshin Impact’s Bennett, or Genshin Impact’s Ororon, in terms of viability as a lower-rank character. If you have terrible A-rank/four-star luck like I do, make sure to use the new Zenless Zone Zero codes for extra polychromes.