I'm pessimistic that Leifang will ever be written out of the purgatory that is her rivalry with Jann Lee :') Here are my takes on your questions, but I could use some clarity myself on certain story beats.
Do you see any signs that Leifang for sure improved since DOA1-6? What are some feats and accomplishments has she accomplished that will make her the fan favorite to win future DOA tournaments?
So, we know Leifang doesn't advance past Jann Lee--wherever he stands--in the first three tournaments. She has interesting matchups with others like Tina, Gen Fu, Helena, etc., but it's hard to say how much she improved between those tournaments since the story formatting doesn't make it entirely clear (to me) who wins or loses after each fight. Maybe someone else has a better understanding.
DOA4 shows progress for her. While Hitomi beats Leifang in the Battle of the Cabbage outside of the tournament, future games go on to imply that they're pretty evenly matched, and Hitomi herself is a finalist in DOA5. Leifang does finally overcome Jann Lee in the DOATEC tritower, but Jann Lee comes to her rescue against Alpha-152 immediately following that, so it kind of puts Leifang back to where she started. Plus, I genuinely can't tell if that whole sequence is even canon.
You could argue she regresses in DOA5. To get distracted in a fight like she did is, like, really bad.
And then DOA6 is just more of the same. She puts up a better fight in the tournament than she did in DOA5, but I don't think it's a testament to her improvement as a fighter, and she places the same besides. I think she's just in a better headspace.
Will she have more room for improvement in DOA7? How far will she ever reach in the DOA tournament to at least the semis and the finals if she doesn't win the tournament due to the odds of other competitors like Kasumi, Ayane, Ryu, Hayate, Helena, Hitomi, Jann Lee, and Diego.
It's hard for me to measure Leifang's progress as a fighter in relation to the cast when the same wall she keeps hitting in the quarterfinals is the champion of the past two tournaments. Is Leifang only as good as a quarterfinalist, or could she have advanced to the semis if she'd been bracketed against someone like Eliot, Kokoro, or Bass in the quarters? (And this is all assuming the ninjas, Helena, and Zack are not participating.)
Personally, I think she's overdue to
at least get to the semis... based on nothing other than "I like her," lol. Because again, it's just hard to measure her against the rest of the cast when she keeps getting eliminated early on to the best competitor.
This is Itagaki and Post Itagaki era speaking.
I'm not sure how this impacts Leifang's standing in the cast, but I'd like to hear some ideas. I remember reading somewhere that Leifang was a favorite for one of the creators design-wise, and that her design transition from 4 to 5 took a very long time to get right, but that's all.
