I read somewhere - I’ll have to find it again, damn - that one of the creators felt that Kanuka was ‘too perfect’ as a character. At the time, I had only seen the original OVA…but I did agree with this. Now that I’ve gone through a majority of the franchise, I’ve come to agree with this even more.
I’ll note that there isn’t anything really wrong with having a character with few flaws, it’s just hard to make it interesting. Kanuka seems to be an example of such a poorly-handled character.
The manga comes in as the superior version again, presenting her in the best possible way. There she’s presented as a cool character from abroad. Kanuka’s minimal presence in the manga also helps. —- I realized recently that I did not really elaborate on what I meant by her being poorly-handled. Depending on my mood, I may or may not do that soon.