Cowboy Cop / Anime & Manga

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• Leon from Bubblegum Crisis.
  • Spinoffs give him a reason: he was in a SWAT team before and had to face rogue boomers with just a riot shield and (maybe) a shotgun. One can get a little iffy in such situations.
• City Hunter has inspector (later superintendent) Saeko Nogami, who is willing to hire a professional killer offering her own body as payment to take down the worst criminals, only to refuse to actually pay. Due a combination of being very smart and the daughter of the superintendent-general (the chief of the whole police in Tokyo), she not only gets away with it but manages to pass herself as a By-the-Book Cop.
• Juna in Earth Maiden Arjuna starts out as a Cowboy Magical Girl, mowing down through Raajers until Da Chief Chris tells her to stop.
• In Gunslinger Girl, this is what got Hillshire thrown out of Europol.
• Dominion Tank Police is what happens when you get an entire battalion of guys like this. And in a humorous twist, the most cowboy of the cowboy cops in the squad is the only girl in the squad: Action Girl and Cargo Shipper Leona.
• Batou in Ghost in the Shell is a good example for an actually heroic cowboy cop, but the whole Section 9 could fit this trope as well. Even Aramaki and the Major, who are much more sophisticated and less hot-blooded don't have the law very high on their list of priorities. Given the nature of their work, this is to be expected: Being Secret Police rather than regular cops, they have little effective oversight, don't usually need to worry about making a collar that will stand up in court, and are often actively fighting against other branches of the corrupt Japanese military and security apparatus.
• Bill Coleman in the Gunsmith Cats OVA is an A.T.F. agent and Jerk with a Heart of Gold who blackmails Rally and May into helping him with his investigation, but doesn't hesitate to throw himself in the line of fire to protect them when things go south and frequently launches his own investigations when his superiors stonewall him. He often compares himself to Eliot Ness.
• Daisuke Aurora in Heat Guy J.
• i tell c: Risa Aioi is an All-Loving Heroine who has the tendency to fall in love with criminals and pursues them by behaving as a Stalker with a Crush on the suspects, and breaks numerous laws to get to her "blight in shining armour". She's pretty much a criminal, and the police considers her a liability who can be discarded at a moment's notice.
• "Sleepy" John Estes, the titular Mad Bull 34, always acts in the interest of justice first and foremost. He does this by killing every violent criminal he meets — it's very rare for him to make an actual arrest. His chief thinks he' a disgrace to the uniform and keeps trying to curtail his exploits or get him fired, but Internal Affairs says he's clean (he's not).
• One Piece has Captain Smoker, the main protagonist's primary Inspector Javert / Sympathetic Inspector Antagonist. In fact, his tendency for this is implied to be the main reason why he had his rank during the start of the series — Smoker's strength was well beyond that of a captain at the time. Eventually, he gets promoted to Commodore, and then Vice-Admiral, and is still chasing after Luffy. Fortunately for Luffy, Smoker is a good man who's an example of the fairly rare heroic Cowboy Cop.
  • Smoker is also a commander of a Marine unit of the 5th Grand Line Marine base, or G5 for short. It's where HQ sends all the cowboy cops and other overly violent Marines, meaning the Cowboy Cop of the series is now Da Chief of a unit composed out of cowboy cops. And much like their boss, they too are ultimately good men.
• One Officer Jenny in Pokémon: The Series. She'll attack you with a bowling ball before sending out her Chatot, buddy.
• Hibari in Speed Grapher is a justified version: She gets away with being a Cowboy Cop because her chief is terrified of her. Besides, she doesn't attack people; she self-defenses them.
• You're Under Arrest!: Natsumi Tsujimoto has some shades of this, due to her brashness, though for the most part she's generally rule-abiding. She obviously contrasts with her By-the-Book Cop partner, Miyuki (who actually doesn't lack her moments of this every once in a while).
• In Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds, pretty much any cop that isn't a Corrupt Cop is like this. Even Tetsu Ushio qualified after his Heel–Face Turn. (Considering that the card game is Serious Business even to the police, and with motorcycles in this one, it's no surprise.)

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