Akyuu isn't bad in the right hands -- but it takes not only the right hands but a player who is looking for the right things and has the right mindset while playing. A few things I'd like to point out in defense of Akyuu:
With proper EVing I had more SATK than my Alice did after a Nasty Plot.
I also had enough accuracy to match that of Alice's Mana Burst, which lets me attack pretty freely with Luster Purge. While I still have a ways to go, I feel that most puppets in this game are under my control even with a very low Defense index, while with an Alice, I deal like 20% less damage with my Mana Burst to Sanae and Sendai, and it just takes forever before stuff dies unless I stack a bunch of Calm Minds. I end up using Wish, stalling for a turn with Detect, Calm Minding again, firing off a Mana Burst, and getting angry when Advent Reisen comes out knowing a critical Signal Beam will KO my Alice anyway. My Akyuu can just run in and start dealing damage with Luster Purge without taking much damage. Not only is it more rewarding, but its more exciting and I actually deal more damage this way. The reason why I can't say this about Alice is that it's pretty obvious that Sanae has more bulk to spare for this kind of liberal play, Advent Reisen and Dark Alice get much, much more standalone mileage out of their dual STABs, and each of the other Reason-types deal more instant damage to opponents with something like Luster Purge (and they won't be stuck to Calm Mind like Alice will -- they can just fire off Nasty Plots as a substitute since they'll reach the damage threshold across the board while Alice might not).
EDIT: Don't get the wrong idea; I think that both of these puppets suck compared to other puppets I've mentioned here.
