Hero Antagonist / Anime & Manga

• Afro Samurai: Due to Afro's Anti-Hero bordering Villain Protagonist status, Shichigoro from Resurrection fits here.
• Angel, a.k.a. Tachibana Kanade, in Angel Beats!. The whole thing was a case of Poor Communication Kills, and when they actually sit down and talk to each other they find they have no reason to fight anymore.
• Bleach: The entire Seireitei (sans Aizen and company) in the Soul Society arc, if you look at it from their point of view — they're giving out lawful punishment to a criminal, and Ichigo and friends are the equivalent of an armed mob raiding the police station to break her out.
• Officer Kirihara of Darker than Black. She is good and hunting the protagonist for crimes he actually committed but also being misled by her evil superiors
• Death Note:
  • L, the world’s greatest detective, is a Pragmatic Hero Antagonist dedicated to catching the Serial-Killer Killer Kira (aka the Villain Protagonist Light Yagami), as are his successors.
  • Matsuda is a classic Idiot Hero — a slightly impulsive but very well-meaning everyman who's ultimately devoted to his True Companions in their quest to catch Kira — too bad one of his aforementioned friends is secretly Big Bad Light Yagami, AKA Kira.
  • Soichiro Yagami is a police chief who also wants to catch Kira (not knowing the perp is his own son), and he is described by the author as the only one-hundred-percent good character. However neither he nor Matsuda are Light's direct antagonist as such, while L and Near are.
• Dragon Ball Super:
  • In the Universe Survival Saga, Zen-Oh decided to hold a battle royale-style martial arts tournament, but declared that any universe that's eliminated will be erased from existence. Thus, everyone is literally fighting for survival, not just for themselves but for countless lives. Universe 11 and 2's teams are outright superheroes (the former a riff on Super Sentai and the latter consisting of a trio of Magical Girls and their supporters) and most of Universe 6's team make friends with Goku and company in previous arcs. Some of them antagonize Goku because they blame him for what's happening^note Goku suggested the tournament, but Zen-O decided to use it as an excuse to get rid of some of the universes. Several observers remark that since the tournament at least spares one universe (whereas before Zen-O was going to erase all eight no questions asked), people should be thanking Goku for giving them a fighting chance.; he's perfectly willing to be labeled the bad guy if it means people will fight him with everything they've got. In fact, he willingly admits that Universe 11's Pride Troopers have one up on him because they fight For Great Justice while he's just a martial artist looking for a challenge.
  • The manga version of Jiren, one of the aforementioned Pride Troopers, is probably the best example in the tournament: he's a selfless champion of justice who has saved his own universe countless times and is known as a great hero in it for his deeds. He devotes all his time to running around the universe, protecting civilians and righting wrongs, and won't even kill villains. He's a much more straightforwardly heroic character than anyone in the main cast, who are mostly martial artists who do very few heroic things unless essentially forced to. He's only against the main characters because of the circumstances of the tournament, and he initially wasn't even going to compete, saying that he'd rather be erased than take part in such an immoral display (Goku, on the other hand, didn't even blink at the idea). His anime self would count too if not for a huge dose of Adaptational Villainy.
  • The movie Dragon Ball Super: Broly actually turns the series main characters Son Goku and Vegeta into this, albeit of the Anti-Hero variety, due to the titular Broly being the main character. Broly is not a villainous character, he is tragically a good person who is blindly obedient to his cruel father Paragus and the victim of Frieza's manipulations. Both Broly and Paragus are recruited by Frieza, who wants to test Broly's power by sending him to Earth to fight Goku and Vegeta. This naturally puts them in conflict, as as far Vegeta knows, Broly is simply an evil warrior working for Frieza. Goku manages to deduce that Broly isn't evil and while he enjoys fighting him, he doesn't want to kill him but Broly's out of control power leaves him with little choice.
• Elfen Lied:
  • Shirakawa, initially a cold Girl Friday to Kurama, secretly she investigates the Director, and seeks to stop his experiments. Even after her death, her information informs her superiors, the Japanese Government of the experiments at the facility and they mobilize against the Director.
  • The Operatives hate Lucy, and they pilot the vector craft to attack the facility and kill any and all Diclonii, and retrieve the cure to the disease, which has just been used to infect everyone in the world. They still have no problems with lying and shooting unarmed people as long as they complete their task.
  • The Agent is initially just a replacement field operative after Bando and The Unknown man were indisposed. She wants to save the world from the diiclonius virus. She opposes the protagonists, but honestly does not care about them, as they're all small in the grand scheme of things. She rescues Arakawa, who has the cure, and risks her own life to get the scientist to safety. Her motivations are notably without the self interest that almost every other character has, she just wants to do the right thing.
• In Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, there are the soldiers who storm and arrest the members of Section 9 — they're very much aware of what they're doing, so they're not Inspector Javert, but they are approved by the city and they limit the use of lethal force.
• Hellsing: Father Alexander Anderson is a Noble Demon and Sociopathic Hero, sure, but he specifically targets vampires and heathens and attempts to keep civilians out of the line of fire, even forfeiting a chance to battle Alucard because of there being too many innocents in the museum. He despises rapists as well, and is willing to escort Integra back to Hellsing Manor "to protect her maiden virtue", which is quite telling after Villain Protagonist Alucard's encounter with Rip Van Winkle. Vatican Section XIII, the Iscariot Organization to which Anderson belongs meanwhile, goes well off the deep end in the manga and OVA by waging another crusade on both Millennium and all of Protestant England, swinging them into literal Knight Templar territory. This highlights Anderson's own moral compass because he assists in killing his own boss/surrogate son for his crimes.
• In The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel - Northern War, the protagonist of the Cold Steel saga from the Trails Series and a heroic individual, Rean Schwarzer, is this trope as the main point of view in the anime is from the cast of North Ambria. From their perspective, Rean is the biggest threat of the country thanks to his Humongous Mecha and if he's not stopped, North Ambria will ultimately get conquered.
• Inspector Zenigata from Lupin III. Our main character is a criminal, and Zenigata is attempting to bring him in for his crimes. Key word being attempting.
• Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's:
  • The Wolkenritter. So here we have a group of "villains" whose malicious goal for filling up the Artifact of Doom was so they can save an innocent ill girl from certain death, and they were doing it in a way so they wouldn't kill or severely maim anyone. Problem was, due to reasons beyond their control, it wouldn't have worked without Nanoha's help. Either the Book of Darkness would have killed the girl and reincarnated elsewhere, or Admiral Graham would have frozen them both forever.
  • Admiral Graham himself. He's a Well-Intentioned Extremist who wanted to stop the Book of Darkness forever. Most previous masters of the Book of Darkness abuses it for their evil ambitions and they used the Wolkenritter as killers.
• Gundam:
  • Zechs Merquise from Mobile Suit Gundam Wing; after achieving his initial goal of revenge for the destruction of his homeland and the murder of his parents, sets about trying to realize their goal of a peaceful world — the exact same goal his sister Relena, the show's female lead, is going for. The major difference is that Zechs is a Well-Intentioned Extremist more than willing to hold the Villain Ball in order to scare the planet towards peace — and his personal pride keeps drawing him into battles with protagonist Heero.
  • Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny is complicated (in this and many other areas) due to events that some fans consider signs of creator favoritism. Both Shinn Asuka (the show's initial protagonist) and Kira Yamato (protagonist of the previous series) want the same thing: to end the bloody, destructive war and protect the innocents caught in the crossfire. However, they're on different sides, have different methods, and eventually a few bodies between them so they come to blows all throughout the series. In the end, however, Shinn grabs the Villain Ball hard in his misguided and vengeful desire to destroy Orb and help Gilbert Durandal bring his Destiny Plan to fruition, leading Kira — and Shinn's failed mentor, Athrun — to stop him. Therefore, Shinn becomes a Villain Protagonist as Kira reassumes the role of The Hero (or if you prefer, Athrun being the true hero of Destiny).
  • Mobile Suit Gundam 00 has multiple examples:
    • Col. Sergei Smirnov, a.k.a. the "Wild Bear of Russia", is, far and away, the most sympathetic out of all of Celestial Being's antagonists in the first season. A Reasonable Authority Figure in the Human Reform League who believes in upholding the law, flawed as it may be, against an organization of terrorists (albeit, well intentioned ones), and helped give the first season its Grey-and-Gray Morality.
    • Graham Aker of the Union and later Earth Sphere Federation, with his sportsman-like qualities or rather Samurai-like hence his nickname "Mr. Bushido".
    • Kati Mannequin of AEU considers Celestial Being's commander Sumeragi to be a Worthy Opponent even if Kati initially views Sumeragi's goals to be unfeasible and too idealistic. not too surprising given how Sumeragi used to serve alongside Kati in the AEU.
  • Since Gundam Build Fighters is all about people building custom Gunpla^note Gundam model kits and battling them using a special machine, almost every single character is a Gundam fan and a modeller, giving them a few common interests right off the bat. Even the fact that they're participating in a tournament doesn't stop the characters from getting along, and in both this series and its sequel the main characters start off as or end up befriending almost every opponent they face, including having a strong Friendly Rivalry with their primary opponents. The rare few exceptions are characters who fit the Opposing Sports Team mold like the Renato brothers from the original series, or those who are just straight-up Jerkasses like Saga Adou from Try.
• Tres Magia in Gushing Over Magical Girls would be the protagonist team in any other traditional Magical Girl manga and anime, but that honor goes to Enormeeta, the villainous organization they oppose, and their devout fangirl Utena Hiiragi found herself fighting for.
• Monster: During Martin's flashback, Tenma and Martin are both trying to save Eva, but neither one knows or trusts the other. They're heroes of their own stories, Tenma not sure Martin isn't trying to kill Eva, and Martin believing he's protecting Eva from Tenma.
• The court in Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit. They only want to destroy the water demon that will cause a drought in the land, and none of them are very happy about the fact that the host has to die to do it. It's not really their fault that they don't know the true nature of the possession. They learn otherwise, which ends up aligning them with the heroes instead.
• Negima! Magister Negi Magi:
  • Chao Lingshen. The only reason the main character opposes her in the end is, basically, to avoid the Cool and Unusual Punishment he would incur from the authorities if he didn't. And because she absolutely refuses to explain her actions, despite the fact that he'd agree with her if she did. It turns out winning was actually her Plan B. Plan A was for Negi to defeat her, proving he could handle the rest without her help.
  • Cosmo Entelechia, though somewhat more dickish about it than necessary. Ultimate plan? Save over a billion lives.
• One Piece:
  • A few of the Marine Officers the main characters have to face are genuinely good guys who actually want to protect the public and don't view civilians and their own soldiers as being completely expendable. Notable examples are Smoker and Tashigi (who have practically achieved Friendly Enemy status with the Straw Hats), T-Bone (A Father to His Men), Coby (Luffy's old friend and rising Marine equal), Garp (Luffy's grandfather), Kuzan (a.k.a. Aokiji), and Issho (a.k.a. Fujitora, one of the new guys).
  • One filler arc included the presence of a rational, normal Marine captain, who had no strange abilities or quirks, but was led by some crazy, immensely fat admiral and his equally stupid lieutenant, who were on par with all the early, lighter One Piece villains.
  • Commander Jonathan of the G8 filler arc. While he pursues the Straw Hats after they literally drop into the middle of his fortress, he offers mercy to the crewmembers that don't yet have bounties, refuses to treat his men as expendable, and has nothing but disdain for the visiting commanding officer that wants the Straw Hats captured no matter the cost.
  • Magellan and Hannyabal, the chief warden and vice-chief warden of Impel Down. While the latter is a bit promotion-happy, he is genuine in doing his job to protect the outside world from the criminals in Impel Down, even saying this in his fight with Luffy, due to the latter inadvertently starting a prison breakout.
  • Former Fleet Admiral Sengoku has done some... questionable things in the past (Ohara), but there is no question that he only does those things for what he feels is for the good of the world. And some part of him has always been suffering for it. He finally retired when the World Government decided to cover up the breakout of several Level Six Impel Down prisoners in order to save their reputation, instead of sending out warnings and wanted posters like he wanted to do.
  • The Galley-La Shipwrights start out as this in the Water Seven arc. After Nico Robin participates in an assassination attempt on Iceberg alongside CP9, the shipwrights are convinced that the Straw Hats are responsible, and try to hunt them down. After realizing that they had been deceived, they fight alongside the Straw Hats and Franky Family in the raid on Enies Lobby.
• Oswald/Glen Baskerville of PandoraHearts only wants to reverse the effects of what he believes his own naivety caused one hundred years ago. By going through with his plan he would erase a good many characters from the timeline but would also prevent the deaths of countless innocents. Unsurprisingly, Grey-and-Gray Morality abounds.
• Phantom Thief Jeanne has Miyako, her best friend and pursuer, and Chiaki/Sinbad, who tries to stop her from helping the Devil because he is working for God all along.
• Ryuhou from s-CRY-ed is less evil and more concerned with the welfare of most people than the Jerk with a Heart of Gold protagonist, Kazuma. And since Ryuhou and Kazuma get about equal screen time, Ryuhou is a joint protagonist — several episodes focus on his perspective. He evolves into a protagonist in the episodes following his second battle with Kazuma, but up until then he's just painted as a semi-peaceful well-meaning villain.
• By the end of Shakugan no Shana, Yuji Sakai with Snake of the Festival get to save the world and make the Flame Haze the bad guys without them knowing it.
• The aliens in Tokyo Mew Mew are trying to kill humans and take the planet back, as their ancestors used to live on Earth, but at the end of the day, they are trying to save their loved ones as much as the mews (the anime itself lampshades this).
• Ultra Magnus (God Magnus) in Transformers: Robots in Disguise/Car Robots. He's arrogant and bitter about Optimus being chosen to carry the Matrix instead of him, but he's no friend of the Predacons or Decepticons, and at least once rebuffs Scourge/Black Convoy outright when the latter thinks that just because he's Optimus' rival that it somehow makes him a bad guy. He just really, really wants the Matrix, and isn't above roughing up Optimus to get it, making him a third-party antagonist for much of his early appearances. In spite of his superiority complex, he's also not above saving humans, either, meaning that while Magnus comes off as a dick, he's still got a good spark somewhere beneath all that ego.
• Team Unicorn and Team Ragnarok of Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds are Opposing Sports Teams competing against the protagonists, so the protagonists have to defeat them even though there's nothing evil or villainous about them — they believe in The Power of Friendship just like the heroes, they care about and protect each other, they fight fair, and they don't want to hurt anyone. If they weren't competing against the characters the story had been long been following already, they would be heroes.

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