WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Season 1 of Godzilla Singular Point, now streaming on Netflix.
Godzilla Singular Point's Mei is shaped as a scientific prodigy by the Misakioku Corporation bringing her in to dissect mysterious radio waves. She eventually finds a way to team up with Professor Li after her work on extra-dimensional lifeforms gets published, with the teacher realizing Mei's genius could help save the world.
Sadly, Season 1 makes a fatal mistake by killing off Li when it's clear her relationship with Mei had so much potential that will now go unexplored. Here's why the brilliant mentor should've been kept alive.
Mei is bright, but rough around the edges. Li knows this but gives Mei ample time to work out her own plans and come up with her own theories. It's why she's so impressed to see Mei discovering the secrets of the Archetype cube and other dimensions that Li couldn't unlock, crafting effective, practical solutions. This type of work takes Li years, but Mei is on point in days.
This is why Li considers Mei the key to cracking the work left behind by Ashihara, one of the most brilliant minds ever. She knows Mei can help them unlock what he wanted to do in terms of creating a better future, advancing technology and evolving mankind beyond their wildest dreams. However, that gets destroyed when they're caught in the midst of a Rodan attack.
As they swarm down, Li is seemingly smacked by a Rodan and killed while rescuing a cat. The fact that we see a funeral and so many tributes confirms this, providing a weird moment of horror for Mei. Li's kind, gentle and, seeing as we don't get much of Mei's family, a mother-like figure. She's been challenging, educating and inspiring Mei, so this comes off as a shock value death that Godzilla Singular Point has forced.
Even Mei's mourning doesn't feel genuine and is quickly glossed over to advance the plot. She really should have been feeling the loss of that emotional connection. Li doesn't return later on so it's clear she's gone, but the thing is, she was positioned perfectly to help Mei in Season 2. With Ashihara returning, Li could have helped Mei unlock the secrets of the other singular points, why kaiju are rushing over to Earth and how they could build new Super Dimensional Computers.
Given that Ashihara and Shiva Consortium are now up to no good, Li would have been the antithesis to them. It's clear corporate espionage is occurring in Godzilla Singular Point, so Li could also have taken up the reins on that end. She wouldn't let Mei be exploited when it comes to weapons, wormholes and such, and seeing them forming their own unit -- realizing so many organizations have sinister agendas -- would have been powerful.
Li could also have collaborated with other science experts such as Goro and Yun from Otaki, working on the code sent from the singular point to upgrade Jet Jaguar. Her tactless death ultimately feels like fridging when Mei, as well as allies like BB, really could have done with a strong woman such as Li pushing back. She'd have been the ideal tour de force against big businesses who have no problem risking Earth's safety in the name of development and defense.