Understanding に in ＡがＢに仕上がる


> 今回の二亜は、どちらかというと前者の要素多めの配合となりましたが、そのおかげか今まで『デート』にいなかったキャラ **に**
> 仕上がってくれたかと思います。なんだか妙に楽しく書けました。

I know 仕上がる means 完成する and is an intransitive verb. So what would be the
function of the bold に?

  1. Mark the result of some change, like 「〜になる」「〜に変わる」;
  2. Means something like として or “as”.

Which one would be the case here?




仕上がる and 完成する are not much interchangeable in Japanese, though you may cover
both with English "to complete". It may be better explained from its
transitive counterpart 仕上げる, which means "finalize", or in the A を B に仕上げる
formula to mean "put A [work] into B [a final form]". As the "final form"
meaning is already incorporated in the verb, the argument ～に is used to
describe what it is like.

Thus the intransitive one would mean like:

> 二亜は……今まで『デート』にいなかったキャラに仕上がってくれた  
>  "Nia is (desirably) shaped into a character that has never existed in
> 『デート』"  
>  "Nia has (finally) acquired a personality that has never existed in 『デート』"




仕上がる and 完成する are not much interchangeable in Japanese, though you may cover
both with English "to complete". It may be better explained from its
transitive counterpart 仕上げる, which means "finalize", or in the A を B に仕上げる
formula to mean "put A [work] into B [a final form]". As the "final form"
meaning is already incorporated in the verb, the argument ～に is used to
describe what it is like.

Thus the intransitive one would mean like:

> 二亜は……今まで『デート』にいなかったキャラに仕上がってくれた  
>  "Nia is (desirably) shaped into a character that has never existed in
> 『デート』"  
>  "Nia has (finally) acquired a personality that has never existed in 『デート』"

