Man, re-reading this now I'm appreciating Medaka as a character more. She a strong character that doesn't fall into the caveats of most female protagonists in shonen series. She remind me a lot of Onizuka from SKET Dance. She's also got these humanising attributes, and actually showed emotions rather than just being the 'stoic badass character'; they establish quickly that she clearly loves Zenkichi, and doesn't like him becoming too chummy with another girl.
She's a fun protagonist so far, and she's actually better than Zenkichi at this point.