Though Akari Unryuu and Konatsu (no, his last name isn't Kenzan) were both pretty blatantly introduced late in the manga as "consolation prizes" for Ryouga and Ukyou, respectively, I've always liked Konatsu much better than Akari. Why? Largely, I would suspect it comes down to the fact that Konatsu is far more entertaining on his own merits - half of his intro story happened before Ukyou even showed up, whereas it's difficult to conceive of an Akari-centric story not involving Ryouga without adding massive new dimensions to her character that Takahashi never bothered to. Also, Akari is arguably a "perfect" matchup for Ryouga that is really too good to be true, whereas Konatsu is anything but. Finally, the Ukyou/Konatsu matchup is just not pushed nearly as much as the Ryouga/Akari one, even taking into account Akari appears five volumes earlier: a very legitimate argument could be made that it's a one-sided matchup that quite possibly will never go anywhere, whereas breaking up Ryouga and Akari would require a pretty extensive story.
For quite a long time, Konatsu was all but absent from fanfiction, or worse, replaced by one-shot Tsubasa (who didn't even have a crush on Ukyou by the end of his story; though you could certainly write a story where he falls for her again, few writers bothered). It's nice that since the manga finished, Konatsu's garnered fans and started being more frequently used by fanfiction.
Konatsu Pictures
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