Guts does this for Casca early in the series taking multiple arrows and a stab wound for her in battle, (despite her and Guts always bickering). This selfless protection of her causes Casca to start harbor feelings for Guts igniting a romance between them where Casca kisses and even licks his scars he protecting her in thanks.
Casca: You once bleed so much for me.
Judeau also protects Casca from a demon set on killing and eating them as everything is literally going to Hell for them and the rest of the Hawks. He throws himself right on top of her and takes multiple blows from the demon's whiplike tentacles followed by two spikes right through his body for her before putting its eye out with his last throwing knife, setting it up to be finished off by Casca. The wounds are fatal and he dies soon after.
Takashiro of Betrayal Knows My Name does this in episode 13, taking some ice spears that Reiga had thrown at Yuki.
Grimmjow, during a fight with Ichigo, fires five darts which can knock down buildings at Orihime, which Ichigo has to block with his body. Counts as an Invoked Trope, as Grimmjow did it specifically because he knew how Ichigo would react and was trying to get him to stop holding back.
In a straighter example, Byakuya does this for Rukia when Gin tries to kill her with his shikai.
In the manga, Ginjo does this for Ichigo. A somewhat unusual example, as taking the stab reverted Ginjo's memories back. In the following chapter, Ginjo stabs Ichigo himself.
Riruka took a slash to the shoulder and a Close-Call Haircut from a maddened Tsukishima to protect Ichigo (and Rukia, whose body she was temporarily inhabiting until then on) and get the attacker to listen to her as well. She's later healed by Orihime.
Blood+: David does this for Julia when Professor Collins attempts to kill her, which is a key factor in Julia's decision to return to the Red Shield.
Jessie throws herself in front of Killy's blade when Killy attempts to stab her own father. Jessie doesn't even know the victim personally — the only thing she knows about him is that he's a drunkard who beats his daughter and refuses to pay for his desperately ill son's medical treatment — but Jessie is an All-Loving Heroine who can't stand aside when she sees someone in danger. Even if that someone is a bad person.
When Tisuodo tries to kill Jessie with his prehensile Whip SwordBadass Transplant, Rowan throws himself in front of the blow and winds up stabbed through the chest.
In Blue Seed, Momiji receives her mitama when she attempts to shield Kusanagi from Orochi's attack, complete with a Big "NO!" and stuff.
In Brave10, the Head Priest of Izumo takes a Flechette Storm to save Isanami at the opening of the series.
Captain Tsubasa: A non-lethal variant of this occurs during the Japan vs. Sweden match in the World Youth arc. Stefan Levin has developed a special shot that sacrifices speed for power, and it's made specifically to injure enemy goalkeepers. After Genzo Wakabayashi suffers the effects of Levin's shots, Tomeya Akai, one of the Japanese defenders, jumps in repeatedly to block the subsequent ones at point blank range to prevent Levin from injuring Genzo.
During the first Osaka mini-arc Conan takes a knife to the gut for Ran when a lunatic with a knife attacks them. He gets better because the blade hit a metal amulet he was wearing, thus he got just a bruise on his chest. Though this was actually a double Taking The Bullet: Heiji lent Conan that amulet because he had a nightmare where they both died, and the amulet is a good luck charm that seems to work. So the knife bounces off the amulet and Conan is relatively unharmed, but while confronting the real murderer Heiji is shot.
Just before the Desperate Revival arc, while the Shounen Tantei are trapped in a cave by a group of murderous bankrobbers, Conan takes a bullet for Genta and nearly bleeds to death.
In the 13th movie, Inspector Megure took a knife wound on the belly from a charging woman who then realized her mistake. Good thing Megure is overweight. And in the proper series/manga Megure took a metal pipe to the head to protect Sonoko from a Serial Killer targetting girls who wore special footwear, since one of them accidentally ran his son over due to said footwear. (Sonoko had purchased similar shoes, so that made her a target). Her's so Made of Iron that he doesn't get knocked out (though to be fair, he was wearing his hat), and even manages to deal a "The Reason You Suck" Speech to the killer.
In the fourth movie, the reason for Ran's Laser-Guided Amnesia is that her mind was temporarily broken when Sato took at least four shots for her to save her from the movie's Big Bad. They both get better: Sato survived, and when Ran saw the killer threaten Conan similarly, Ran got her memories back and kicked his ass.
In the first episode, C.C. takes a headshot meant for Lelouch. She gets better since she's pretty much immortal.
A random soldier did this to save Cornelia from Tohdoh during the Battle of Narita.
In R2, Kaname Ohgi takes several kunais to the chest in an attempt to save his ex-girlfriend Villetta from Sayoko's attack.
Suzaku arguably tries to invoke this trope in Episode 43 (Turn 18) by firing his Lancelot Conquista's Hadron Blaster at Zero while telling Kallen to move out of the way, apparently having hoped that she'd take the shot for him and be knocked out of the fight. Boy is he surprised when her Guren S.E.I.T.E.N. blocks it and isn't even scratched.
Marianne vi Britannia, the mother of Lelouch and Nunnally, protected the latter during a terrorist attack on their mansion. This saved the girl's life but left her blind and bound to a wheelchair, in part fueling Lelouch's thirst for revenge.
R2, however, reveals this is not the truth behind what happened. Marianne was gunned down by her brother-in-law V.V, who was jealous of her influence in Emperor Charles' life. Then, the about-to-die Marianne used the opportunity to put her Grand Theft Me Geass to good use, switch into the body of Innocent Bystander Anya Alstreim and remain in the game, so to say. Also, Nunnally is blinded because her father used a Mind Control spell to force her to keep her eyes shut. The "crime scene" was then altered to make everyone believe Marianne had died protecting Nunnally from assassins targeting her and Lelouch.
In Count Cain Riff takes bullets (and other things that would have the same effect) for Cain quite frequently (well to a point where antagonists are annoyed he keeps getting in the way).
Claymore:Jean sacrifices her life to prevent Awakened Clare from killing defenseless Priscila on behalf of Raki.
Cross Ange: Princess Angelise Ikaruga Misurugi, after being outed as a Norma, ends up being held at gunpoint by a police force, who warn her that they will shoot if she resists arrest. Angelise, refusing to acceptthat she is a Norma, angrily attacks the head officer, and he shoots in self-defense. But Angelise's mother, Empress Sophia, immediately jumps in front of Angelise and erects a barrier of Mana to protect her daughter from the bullet. Sadly, the bullet penetrates the barrier and Sophia takes the shot directly to the heart. She dies, but not before imploring her daughter to survive for her sake. The whole incident is looked upon as further proof by everyone in the Misurugi Empire that Normas are dangerous and violent creatures that have no place in the Society of Mana, and the fact that Angelise got her own mother killed causes everyone to turn on her as she is dragged away to Arzenal.
In Darker than Black, Hei takes bullets (he's armored) to shield a girl he assumed to be the assassins' target. It sort of backfired. Later the girl jumped before him, intercepting a Tele-Frag power aimed to tear his heart out. Another time he knocked prone his partner and covered her with himself from falling rubble. Which, yes, looked not like what it was.
In Date A Live, Shido Itsuka seems to love doing this. He did this for Tohka in Volume 1 (he got better), attempted this for Kurumi in Volume 4 (the targeter's aim shifted at the absolute last possible moment and missed; worth pointing out in this instance it would've been a genuine Heroic Sacrifice on his part if it hit, no healing or cheating death from this one), and in Volume 11 when he does this for Origami's parents.
Myotismon aims his deadly Grisly Wing attack at Kari and Gatomon, but Wizardmon gets in the way, and is killed instead.
This happens a few more times in Adventure first when Chuumon takes a dagger from Piedmon who was going to kill Mimi and when SabreLeomon takes a hit from MetalEtemon meant for Mimi and Joe. As a bit of a partial subversion, he manages to kill MetalEtemon before expiring.
Another example is when DemiDevimon fires a toxic dart at Sora and Biyomon takes it for her. In this case, Biyomon is actually not in danger of directly dying from the attack, as it's only fatal to humans (though it makes Digimon extremely sick.) Still, she did save Sora's life in the process and probably didn't care rather it'd kill her or not.
In the 2011 Doraemon movie, Doraemon: Nobita and the Steel Troops, Nobita is trying to detain Riruru, the Robot Girl who escaped custody, and after an intense standoff Riruru then fires her energy beam at Nobita. Pipopo, who had tailed behind Nobita the whole time, reveals himself all of a sudden by taking the shot meant for Nobita, causing Riruru to suddenly have a My God, What Have I Done? moment.
Piccolo's switch from villain to Anti-Hero happens when he takes a lethal blast for his pupil Gohan. The scene gets lampooned in Dragon Ball Abridged.
Piccolo: Wait a second... why don't I just grab him? I could probably still do that now actually! Yeah, that's it! I'll grab him and throw him out of the waAAAAAAAGH!
He also does this for Goku in the anime version of Frieza saganote In the manga, Frieza intentionally fired at Piccolo, taking a Death Beam from him; he survives, but he comes close to dying.
Piccolo does it again for Gohan in Dragon Ball Z: Lord Slug when Medamatcha fires on him, it's pretty egregious this time as Piccolo was at full health and was throughly curb stomping the invading villains prior to deciding to be a martyr.
Goku himself does this◊ for Gohan in a pure Papa Wolf moment during Dragon Ball Z: Cooler's Revenge and still has strength to fire a Ki Blast at the titular antagonist. Unfortunately Goku is weakened for the majority of the movie as a result, but for his son Goku clearly thought it was Worth It.
In the Cell saga after Vegeta has been knocked unconscious trying to avenge Trunks, Cell is about to shoot him with a huge Kamehameha. Gohan jumps in the way of the blast and takes the hit; he survives, but it costs him the use of one of his arms.
In Durarara!!, volume 9 reveals that Izaya didn't stab Shinra like a lot of people think he did. Shinra took a knife wound for him when a student named Nakura demanded that Izaya give his money back in a bet he lost. Naturally, this incident seems to start something inside of Izaya as he declares that Nakura will suffer for hurting Shinra. Many years later, it comes off as Izaya stalking Nakura and then declaring to him at the end of volume 9 that he framed him for two major incidents that had been going on in that volume and that those people will hunt him down.
Almost happens twice in Eyeshield 21 when a psycho's about to start attacking everyone in the stands. Mamori steps forward to shield Suzuna from any prospect harm — shortly followed by Hiruma stepping up to shield Mamori as well. Luckily the situation is soon defused.
Laxus shoots a lightning bolt at Levi that probably would have killed her had Gajeel not jumped in front of her to take it. He does something similar at the end of the final battle to stop Laxus from finishing Natsu off; he turns his arm into iron and uses himself as a lightning rod.
Simon takes a bullet for Natsu and Erza, dying as a result. About fifty chapters later Jellal, who shot the first "bullet" takes a bullet for Natsu as well in the same pose, complete with a brief flashback to Simon, though he survives.
Lucy ends up doing this for Lucy. Specifically, the Lucy from a Bad Future throws herself in front of her present self to save her from being killed by the evil Rogue from anotherBad Future, dying in the process.
And in chapter 334, Gray shoves Juvia out of the way of a laser beam and gets shot multiple times in the chest and head as a result. He got better thanks to time-travel clairvoyance warning him the next go-around.
Played with in the FAKE OAV: when Ryo is cornered by a Serial KillerKnight Templar Parent who kills Japanese people in revenge for the rape and murder of his daughter at the hands of Japanese tourists, the one who stands between killer and victim is the dead girl's ghost, which has been seen intermitently around.
In the Fatal Fury first animated special, Joe Higashi is gravely wounded when he takes a bullet for Terry Bogard.
Terry himself protects Suila from a explosion, she repays him with Intimate Healing.
Sure, in Freezing, none of the readers liked Smug Snake Atia Simmons for being such an unlikable bitch, but you gotta feel something for her when her battle partner sacrificed himself for her. Cue Berserker Tears and Roaring Rampage of Revenge.
Scar does this in Fullmetal Alchemist (2003). When military troops notice Lust and open fire on her, Scar instinctively leaps in front of her and takes the hits, despite knowing fully well that Lust wouldn't have died. She gently reprimands him for this afterward.
Lust: You fool. You know it takes more than bullets to stop me. Scar: It wasn't for you. This damn body has a will of its own.
Played straight with Ginga Densetsu Weed when Jerome manages to alert the other dogs of the humans shooting at them. Poor Jerome literally takes a bullet for the pack. Heroic dog, indeed
Previous to that, in Mobile Suit Gundam SEED, Mu La Flaga takes a Wave-Motion Gun blast to save the Archangel. He gets better, and as Neo Roanoke does the exact same thing in Destiny, but is not even scratched thanks to his superior Humongous Mecha.
And before that (production-wise) at the tail end of Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz, as Dekim prepares to shoot Relena for attempting to persuade Mariemeia to stop obeying him, Mariemeia pushes Relena out of the way, causing Dekim to accidentally shoot her.
In the actual series, Trowa takes the blast meant for Heero in episode 25, causing his mech to blow up... but not before he gives a heartfelt 'I Know You're in There Somewhere' speech.
Triela does the literal version for Roberta during vol 7 of the manga. Later she takes a smoke grenade to the head while shielding fellow cyborg Beatrice. She survives both, as does Roberta (though still wounded), Beatrice however..
In Harukanaru Toki no Naka de 2 - Shiroki Ryuu no Miko OAV, Yoritada shields Karin from a flying sword — although because of the way he does this, he only gets a non-fatal arm injury. Nevertheless, still dramatic.
In the Hachiyou Shou TV series, Yorihisa protects Tenma from a sword-wielding mook this way, mirroring an incident from his past where his brother Sanehisa did the same to him. Unlike Sanehisa, Yorihisa survives, although the wound makes the subsequent battle significantly more difficult (at least until they get a power-up).
Harukanaru Toki no Naka de 3 - Owarinaki Unmei has Masaomi taking an arrow for Nozomi; at first, it looks like he might have simply pushed her away without getting shot, but no...
Sabahku does one himself in the end, saving Yuri and Tsubomi from Dune.
A non-fatal version occurs in The Movie "Fashion Show in the City of Flowers?!" as Cure Blossom takes a shot from her own partner, Cure Marine to save the Brainwashed and Crazy Olivier. She loses her hairbow, her now-loose hair waking him up as he recognizes Cure Blossom as Tsubomi.
Hellsing: At his first meeting with Integra, Alucard protects her from a gunshot with his own hand. Of course, for him, it's not that big a deal.
In the second movie, the villain deflects an arrow at an incapacitated Inuyasha, but Kagome throws herself in front of him and takes the arrow to the back.
Kagome: I'm so thankful... you're alright... Inuyasha...
Soten, the younger sister of the two Thunder Brothers defeated by Inuyasha earlier, sends her dragon minion to incapacitate Kagome and Inuyasha using Kagome's arrows. When Inuyasha jumps in front of Kagome in order to save her, it's revealed the arrows don't even harm anyone.
During his time as a cop, Leone Abbacchio runs into a crook he had previously accepted a bribe from robbing a store one night. He threatens to expose Abbacchio's corruption if he arrests him, and pulls his gun out to shoot him, leading to the hesitant Abbachio's partner jumping in front of him to save his life, at the cost of his own.
Tiziano shields his teammate Squalo from Aerosmith's gunfire barrage.
And Tiz takes a bullet for Zagi of all people, and dies, resulting in Face Death with Dignity for him, as he also ends up dying with her in his arms.
In one of the old The King of Fighters mangas (the one by Tatsuya Shinjyouji), the deaths of Sandra and Clara Heidern happened because of this trope. Rugal had kidnapped them and beaten Heidern to near death (including putting out one of his eyes), and when he moved for the final hit both of them shielded Heidern with their own bodies.
Similarly, in the KOF: G manga's third volume an already injured Kensou shields Athena from Goenitz. He lives to tell, but barely.
In Last Order: Final Fantasy VII Zack takes a sniper bullet that was aimed at Cloud before it cuts to black... some fans dispute this as it messes up the continuity of the games where Zack was shot by three soldiers. Though since it's 30 minute adaptation and played off as Rule of Drama it can be forgiven.
The Lupin III special Memories of the Flame ~Tokyo Crisis~ plays it straight in Maria's flashbacks. Zenigata also does this later on to protect her, but instead of killing him, the bullet only injured his leg.
In Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS, Nanoha does this to protect the helicopter carrying Shamal, Vice, and Vivio from a massive beam. Of course, since Nanoha's Exceed Mode is a lot tougher than a helicopter, she survives, much to the shock of the Cold Sniper that fired the shot.
In Mamotte! Lollipop, Zero gets in the way of an attack meant for Nina.
The Misfit of Demon King Academy: Despite having tried to kill Izabella before, the now half-demon Emilia Ludowell takes a blast of fire that was aimed at the former, leaving her with a scorched back. Not only does Izabella help her recover from these injuries, Emilia also gets redeemed.
Monster Rancher: The main plot of "Run, Tiger, Run!" is kicked off when Holly jumps between Tiger and a Black Worm attempting to snipe him with his poisonous stinger.
My Bride is a Mermaid plays this for laughs, as Nagasumi constantly has to "take the bullet" for various mermaids whenever something threatens to splash them with water (they revert to mermaid form if they get wet, and he has to maintain The Masquerade). It's played seriously in the series finale when he takes a literal bullet for Sun. Fortunately, he's also capable of catching the bullet.
While not exactly a bullet, Mirio does this for Eri in My Hero Academia during the Shie Hassaikai Arc when Nemoto points a revolver loaded with poison darts that erase Quirks at her, knowing he'd jump in front of it to save her. However even without superpowers he's still more than capable of continuing his beatdown on Overhaul.
Iruka has a Taking the Shuriken moment in the first episode when he jumps in front of Naruto to save him from Mizuki's giant shuriken. This was mirrored later in the series when Mizuki throws a giant shuriken at Iruka and Naruto protects him the same way.
In Shippuuden, Chouza Akimichi is nearly killed after taking a hit from Pain to protect Chouji. He later turned out to have survived. Which was proceeded by one of Pain bodies taking the Raikiri for the other. And Kakashi's sacrifice with the whole using his Kamui to save Chouji straight afterwards, and dying from the efforts himself.
Chouza does it again against zombie Asuma, jumping in front of a giant burning ash cloud and getting badly burned.
And then there's poor little Haku, who was impaled through the chest protecting Zabuza.
Tsuande imitates Kushina and lets herself get impaled and badly slashed protecting Naruto from Orochimaru, since she know he's Worth It. Oh and what even more awesome? (A Tsunade was ironically Afraid of Blood at the time and (B her Medical Jutsu activated because of it allowing her to kick Orochimaru's ass.
Obito does this for Kakashi pushing him out of the way of a falling boulder and getting crushed as a result. But this actually doesn't kill him as Big Bad Mandra saves him and makes him his right hand man.
Suigetsu takes a giant ass chakra blast from a transformed Killer Bee to protect his team. Naturally, this only renders him unconscious, since Suigetsu was a lake at the time.
One truly tragic example is Naruto's parents Minato and Kushina jump in front the nine tails's attack aimed for baby Naruto and get impaled as a result. as if this wasn't sad enough, Minato and Kushina then tearfully say goodbye to their baby boy and give him advice for the future and apologize for not being in it.
And in what is probably one of the most Tear Jerker example of them all, there's somewhat of a subversion. Hinata was ready to pull this trope on Naruto to protect him from the Ten-tails' fatal Mokuton -Sashiki no Jutsu... but the one who does it in the end is actually Neji, shielding the other two. He ends up Impaled with Extreme Prejudice... and very much dead, much to the sadness of both Hinata and Naruto.
Kakashi and Obito do this for Naruto and Sasuke respectively, using their bodies to block Kaguya's All-Killing Ash Bones. Kakashi's is immediately subverted when Obito uses the last of his strength to teleport away the bone heading for Kakashi.
Asuna makes use of the 'bulletproof' variant in the next volume. Having learned that their enemy's petrification spells only cause her public embarrassment (she is largely immune to magic, her clothes aren't) she puts herself between Negi and an impressive beam of power at the cost of yet another top.
Later in the same arc Negi tried to do this for one of his students. She swatted him aside upon spotting the danger and took the incoming stone spear through the midsection rather messily, but that merely irritatedEvangeline... as the attacker promptly regretted.
Also, near the very beginning of the manga, in a game of dodgeball Asuna catches a ball aimed (with enough force to hurt) at Negi, and he does the same for a fallen Asuna later.
Next Arc Nodoka gets to do this for Negi with a bullet that sends the person hit forward in time by 3 hours. However before Chamo reminds Negi and Yue of this, they do the standard grief sequence.
In later chapters, Aisha, Mama (the bear woman), Tosaka, and Emily all do this; Taking the Bullet for Nodoka, Natsumi, Ako, and Yue, respectively. Although it turns out that all of them would actually have been just fine if they hadn't done it. Well, it's the thought that counts. They are revived later, too.
In Onegai My Melody, Hiiragi grabbed Uta and tried to give her a Forceful Kiss, which would have severed her spiritual connection to My Melody and taken away most of My Melody's power. Kakeru tries to save her and lunges, intending to tackle Hiiragi away, but ends up between them and gets kissed instead. Both men are disgusted and Hiiragi retreats.
At the start of the series Shanks did this for Luffy at the cost of his arm. It's even implied he could've avoided this outcome, but Shanks sacrificed his arm as he "made a bet on the new age" i.e Luffy becoming Pirate King.
Later exploited by Wapol's Quirky Miniboss Squad member Chess, who shoots three arrows (very large ones at that) at a group of innocent bystanders, causing Dalton to hurl himself into their path. It works, but, like almost every other non-flashback character, he gets better later.
Franky pulls it off spectacular fashion when Spandam orders the Marines to open fire on Robin. Being a Cyborghelps dissuade bullets from hurting him or Robin. When Funkfreed, which can hurt Franky, aims at Robin, Franky also takes that attack as well and stops it with some effort.
Later in Thriller Bark, Sanji keeps Nami out of Absalom's reach and lets the latter just wail on him to protect her. Sanji only drops Nami so he doesn't get his blood on her wedding dress.
In the Whole Cake Island arc when rescuing Luffy, Sanji lets himself get smashed into the ground and even shot in the arm all while shielding his captain from harm, yeah Sanji is a real fan of this trope.
Jinbe also gets himself badly burned protecting Luffy from Akainu though he survives.
Happened also with Queen Otohime, who jumps to save a Tenryuubito at the Fishmen Arc.
Subverted villainous example with the Vinsmoke family, as they have their Clone Army jump in and block attacks on their command. This results in death of said clones who are dispensable to the family.
One-Punch Man: During his battle with the Deep Sea King, Genos saves a little girl by leaping in the way of the King's acidic spit.
In Orange MarmaladeMa-ri and Soo-ri have a conversation under a group of pipes badly tied up, it snaps and Ma-ri pushes Soo-ri out of the way, taking the entire lot herself. While badly hurt, Ma-ri's fast acting healing kicks in which reveals her to be a vampire.
Phantom of Inferno: In Requiem for the Phantom, Zwei's assassination run on Scythe Master ends in failure when Ein takes a bullet for Scythe, who responds by shooting a despondent Zwei in the back and leaving him for dead.
Ash Ketchum actually does this at the end of Pokémon: The First Movie as an attempt to end Mew and Mewtwo's battle.
Ash's already injured Fletchinder gets between him and an angry Moltres's Fire Blast. Instead of getting trashed, it evolves into Talonflame and gains Brave Bird, dueling Moltres long enough for it to calm down.
Ash does this a lot. If he's afraid an attack could really hurt a Pokemon, he'll jump in and take the attack instead.
Though literal bullets are rarely used, Tsukune is very notable for his habit of throwing himself in front of attacks to protect his friends. He is (or was) technically the weakest among them, leading to his Emergency Transformation.
Ginei did this once as well... damn near killed him.
Tomoe steps in to try and wrestle the knife out of an enemy's hands, but thanks to Kenshin being blinded earlier in the fight he can't see her and accidentally kills them both.
There's a sort-of nonlethal example inh the episode that introduced Sanosuke. Kenshin, Kaoru and Yahiko are in Tae's restaurant and a bunch of drunkards on a nearby table start fighting, then Kenshin tenses up without reason as they try to just eat their meal. The following moment, one of the drunkards tosses a pot and hits Kenshin on the back of his head, almost knocking him out cold...
Sanosuke: "You knew this would happen. And had you moved, this girl [Kaoru] would be covered in her own blood"
It happens once more in the end of the Shishio battle where Yumi steps in front of Shishio to shield him from Kenshin's attack only for Shishio to stab Kenshin through her, resulting in Yumi's death in Shishio's arms.
Also happens again at the end of the fight with Enishi, where Kaoru tries to take a bullet for Kenshin, but is stopped by Enishi himself, who delivers a blow to the person firing, knocking the gun out of his hands. In the Seishouhen OAV, it's played differently: Enishi and Kenshin are fighting alone, Enishi is about to stab Kenshin when he's on the ground but Kaoru throws herself on top of Kenshin and Enishi stops attacking.
Aoshi Shinomori took a bullet for one of his followers in the Anime. (In the manga it was already aimed at him) Aoshi's followers later took several bullets to save Aoshi and allow Kenshin to defeat the shooter.
Tuxedo Mask does this for Sailor Moon at least once in each season, and it usually results in his death/capture, eliciting from Sailor Moon a Big "NO!". Also, in the Marine Cathedral episode, Neptune sees Eudial threatening Uranus with a gun and proceeds to run towards them while being shot from all directions and ultimately takes the shot intended for Uranus, who goes on to kill herself anyway. Also, Neptune was captured previously in the same episode by taking a hit from a stone that would have hit Uranus otherwise.
DiC apparently disapproves of this trope, as they recut the first season example (where he gets between Sailor Moon and Zoisite's ice crystal) to look as though Tuxedo Mask was the intended target all along; though it's possible that they only did this for established heroes, since they don't edit out Prince Diamond doing the exact same thing as mentioned below.
In the R movie, Usagi saves Chibiusa from a plant this way, and Tuxedo Mask does the same thing when Fiore tries to stab Sailor Moon.
Similarly, in the series Neo Queen Serenity does this to protect Chibi-Usa during the Black Moon invasion. She's severely injured and thus must be frozen into crystal for her own sake; Chibi-Usa goes to the past to seek Sailor Moon's help and the Silver Crystal unaware that she is Usagi's Kid from the Future, as the Neo Queen is Usagi's adult self.
All four inner scouts die in this way in the last season when they take hits from Galaxia in order to protect Sailor Moon, Chibi Chibi and the Starlights. Sailor Mars in particular managed to get ahead of Jupiter, Venus and Mercury to shield Sailor Moon and Chibi Chibi.
An also does this, throwing herself in the path of one of the Makaiju's branches to save Ail.
Prince Diamond does this for Sailor Moon when Wiseman fires an attack at her.
Hawk's Eye in the fourth season does this for Fish Eye, when Mr. Magic Pierrot tries to kill him with a projectile from his hat. We even see the smoking hole where it hit. And then he gets better about several minutes later.
Pegasus Seiya will do this for Saori every chance he gets. Most notable of all: stopping Aiolia's special technique with his hands when Saori actually demands for Aiolia to gang up on her so she can block his attack and gain his favor; taking Poseidon's Trident to the chest for her (he waved it off by claiming it was the will of the Sagittarius Cloth he was wearing, but no one was fooled); and then taking Hades' Sword in the heart. It didn't kill him, but it destroyed his Cosmo and left him as little more than a vegetable for more than a while.
Sometimes, Seiya's best friend and partner Dragon Shiryu will do this for his friends, but he has the advantage of wielding the Dragon Shield (said to be one of the strongest shields ever) on his forearm, making it a much more reasonable act.
In the final episode of Sands of Destruction, Kyrie shields an unconscious Morte from falling rocks using his back. It smarts a bit, but he quickly brushes it off.
Uesugi Kenshin of Sengoku Basara goes one step further and takes three bullets in order to save his Ninja love interest. And she's meant to the bodyguard!
In Snow White with the Red Hair Tariga takes an arrow intended for his brother Tsuruba when Kiki's suitors start being attacked. It ends up in his arm which greatly reduces his abilty to fight later on. In an interesting twist their family is behind the attacks on Kiki's suitors and the framing of Mitsuhide for them in order for Tariga and Tsuruba to replace Kiki and Mitsuhide as Zen's retainers. They didn't realize beforehand that their brother was going to have Tsuruba attacked to divert suspicion though.
Crona ends up taking the bullet for Maka during a battle with Medusa.
Later on, Asura uses this to his benefit during a battle with Shinigami-sama and intentionally aims for bystanders during the fight to make his opponent take the bullet.
Earlier than both those examples, and not technically a bullet, but Soul puts himself between Maka and Ragnarok after Maka can't bring herself to use him to defend against the sword (Ragnarok at the time being the vastly superior Weapon).
Fridge Logic in the Shinigami example, because while the bystanders — and Asura appears to be aiming specifically for Kid — obviously would be harmed by the Kishin's attack, what Asura does doesn't look much different from his other attacks which Shinigami avoided or blocked with Spirit. And yet on that occasion he threw himself into the path of the "bullet", also placing his Weapon out of the way of a direct hit.
In Tiger & Bunny, Kotetsu takes a superheated crossbow bolt to the chest for Barnaby. Seeing the lengths the other hero is willing to go in order to protect him, Barnaby begins to drop the Jerkass act and let himself trust Kotetsu.
In the manga version of Tokyo Mew Mew, immediately before the final battle with Deep Blue, Pie and Tart aim a powerful attack at Ichigo — all four other girls jump in the way and take the huge bullet themselves. Mint actually manages a laugh about how "we're all thinking the same thing," and they send Ichigo aheadwhile they stay and fight.
In Tower of God, to protect Miseng, who just jumped into the fray between Viole and Urek, Viole grabbed her and took Urek's One-Hit KO technique to the back, causing a bloody mess.
Semi-minor character Brad does this for Vash in episode 21 of Trigun, and dies in front of him and his friends. Vash is, understandably, horrified.
In the episode 72 from UFO Robo Grendizer (one of the Mazinger Z sequels), during an aerial duel between Grendizer and another starship, Rubina flies her own ship between Grendizer and an energy beam to save Duke. She dies shortly after. Her Heroic Sacrifice is done more tragic because Duke had accused her of betraying him shortly before. The whole episode was a Tear Jerker.
In the 9th episode of The Vision of Escaflowne when one of Dilandau's spike's goes out of control on his Guymelef, one of them heads straight for Hitomi, Allen dives in front with his Guymelef and takes the hit, he survives but he's seriously injured.
Wolf Guy - Wolfen Crest during the school shooting, Inugami saves Noriko from Kuro by blocking his shotgun rounds with his body, since he's a badass Werewolf with Nigh-Invulnerability the shotgun blast has no effect and it scares the shit out of psychotic slimeball.
Wolf's Rain has a particularly cruel twist on this trope: Toboe sees Quent and Darcia pulling guns on each other and leaps between them in an attempt to take the bullet for Quent — but ends up taking Quent's bullet instead. Especially ironic since Quent has previously tried to shoot Toboe on several occasions. The irony is compounded because the shock of having shot the wolf who tried to save him causes him to drop his guard and get shot anyway. The only small consolation is that the wolf and wolf-hunter share a brief moment of reconciliation before they die.
In its prequel Tokyo Babylon Seishirou gets between Subaru and a desperate mother with a knife needing a healthy kidney for her severely ill son and loses one of his eyes (or at least goes blind in it) in the process
In Voltes V, Tako the robot octopus gets between Hiyoshi and a bullet from Evil Robot!Kentaro's gun. As a Mechanical Animal, they can be rebuilt.
Much earlier, When Mai is trapped and about to be attacked Yami Marik's Winged Dragon of Ra, Joey jumps in tries to free her from the chains. Marik then decides to attack them both. Just when the attack is about to connect, Yugi jumps in front of them in time and takes the brunt of the attack. He's temporarily knocked unconscious.
The poses for that scene neatly mirror My Body as a Shield, an actual card that sacrifices some of the player's life points to protect monsters from a Spell or Trap that would otherwise destroy them.
In Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, one of Asuka/Alexis's signature cards is the Trap Card Doble Passe, an anime-only card (at the time) that is activated when her monster is attacked, protecting the monster by letting the attack hit her. In return for that, the monster is then able to make a direct attack against the opponent. Asuka used this Trap frequently, and in the Series Finale it was a symbolic card that she used to escape the World of Darkness.
In Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL, after Yuma and Astral used their Zexal II form to defeat Number 96 to prevent the three worlds from being destroyed, Number 96 decides to try to take control of Astral. As Number 96 charges at them as a spear-shaped bolt of energy, Astral quickly undoes Zexal so that Yuma wouldn't get hit by the attack too.
In Yu-Gi-Oh!: Capsule Monsters, Yami does this for Tea and Joey when they're targeted by the Five-Headed Dragon, though he's just badly hurt rather than killed. In the final battle, Baby Dragon, Thunder Kid, and Happy Lover do a fatal example to save Solomon Muto.
The entire plot of YuYu Hakusho kicks off when protagonist Yusuke pushes a kid he was playing with out of the way and ends up killed by a car, in the very first episode.
In Macross Delta, Makina does this for Freyja when a Windermerian sniper aims for her in Episode 24.
◊ for Gohan in a pure Papa Wolf moment during Dragon Ball Z: Cooler's Revenge and still has strength to fire a Ki Blast at the titular antagonist. Unfortunately Goku is weakened for the majority of the movie as a result, but for his son Goku clearly thought it was Worth It.
