Ichigo Kurosaki from Bleach. He wished for the power to protect ever since a Hollow killed his mother, as he felt it was his fault she died. Naturally, he accepts Rukia's suggestion to become a Shinigami. Furthermore, feeling it was more his fault than hers that Rukia was to be executed, he sets to Soul Society and fights the elite Shinigami to rescue her. And he turns out to be the only one capable to defeat the firstBig Bad of the story...
Aoba Watase from Buddy Complex. Certainly more heroic than his buddy Dio. His story involves him saving a princess (Hina) from an evil king (Bizon).
Buso Renkin: Kazuki Muto is the central protagonist of the series. He is a Nice Guy, if a little naive, and is determined to do the right thing no matter what. He is turns out to be the only one who can stand a chance against the Big Bad.
Sakura Kinomoto/Avalon of Cardcaptor Sakura, albeit with Syaoran Li as a heavy Deuteragonist. Despite Executive Meddling's best attempts to make them co-Heroes, she is still obviously this in the Cardcaptors dub as well.
White Blood Cell / Neutrophil (U-1146) in Cells at Work! appears in every chapter and fits the traditionally heroic role that involves saving and protecting other cells and defeating invading harmful organisms.
Chrono Crusade: Rosette Christopher is front-and-center in The Team and the one that holds most of the group together.
Shido Itsuka from Date A Live. Despite his desire for a normal life, Shido will risk life and limb to save the Spirits and allow them to experience happiness.
Son Goku from Dragon Ball. He always takes down the Big Bad of the arc (with the one exception of Gohan defeating Cell in which case he was a supporting role), and never ceases to continually get stronger. Many of his enemies become his friends after he defeats them. He's also very naive, qualifying him for Idiot Hero. He says that he does not want to be continually defending Earth, hence why he first trains Gohan to be the one to protect earth, and when that fails, he later trains Uub.
Natsu from Fairy Tail. An interesting variation — Erza actually leads the team, and Lucy can be argued to be The Protagonist but Natsu is the traditional heroic figure.
Kenshiro from Fist of the North Star. His nickname is "The End-of-Century Savior", and with good reason: he serves as the champion for the weak in the Crapsack World where the physically stronger rule, all while searching for his love, Yuria.
In High School D×D, Issei Hyoudou is the hero of the group and the one guy who holds everybody together despite the fact that he's an Idiot Hero who is only capable of thinking perverted things.
Tatsuya Shiba from The Irregular at Magic High School. He's the leader of his group of friends, more powerful than his peers, protects his sister with intense devotion and defeats the bad guys with little difficulty.
Phantom Blood: Jonathan Joestar is the most notably heroic of the JoJos, and it's his need to protect the people he loves that kickstarts the series plot.
Steel Ball Run: While Johnny may be the JoJo of this Part, the title of The Hero instead goes to Gyro Zeppeli, as his goal to save Marco from being executed is much more heroic than Johnny's goal to get his ability to walk back. It isn't until after Gyro's death that Johnny gains this role.
Kazuma Shudo of Kagerou-Nostalgia steps into this role as the story progresses, shifting from a bitter, disillusioned, and nearly psychotic Anti-Hero, to The Leader of the reincarinated heroes, and a more or less altruistic (if still incredibly cynical) character.
The Macross series feature Love Triangles, usually involving two girls and one guy. That particular guy is usually the primary hero of the story. Unusually for a mecha anime, the hero is not necesarily the resident Ace Pilot.
Nike from Magical Circle Guru-Guru, whether he likes it or not as his parents trained him for it since birth. "Hero" is the only thing Kukuri calls him.
Maoyu discusses this in the first chapter. Even if the Hero genuinely wants to save the human world by taking down the Demon King, she tears that down by stating that killing her would not end the war and would be the same as assassinating a sovereign, so she proposses the hero to join her and help ending the war in a stalemate for both humans and demons as it would be like what lies in the other side of a hill, and the Hero commentss the Demon King is more than a hero that he is.
Monster: Tenma spends the show hunting down a monster of a child to prevent him from hurting others.
Izuku Midoriya in My Hero Academia. In an world where Everyone Is a Super, Izuku was born a Muggle and desperately wants to be a hero. Turns out, he is chosen and fated to become the biggest of them all.
While there are many characters in Negima! Magister Negi Magi and several people for every other position in The Team, there is only one hero — Negi Springfield, who also doubles as their ten-year-old teacher.
Monkey D. Luffy of One Piece fits this perfectly. He's an Idiot Hero, The Captain and The Leader of the Strawhat Pirates, and is always the one to take on the Big Bad in the end of every big story arc. His normal outfit, before and after the Timeskip, is even Red and Blue. In his own opinionnote chapter 634 of the manga Luffy has explicitly stated that he isn't, and doesn't want to be, a hero. In fact, he only agrees to save Fishman Island by being bribed with food. Then again, Luffy has never been a 'traditional' hero....
Saitama from One-Punch Man. He became a hero after his childhood dream to be able to beat bad guys with one punch. It turns out limitless power is "kinda boring actually". The intro theme for the anime is even titled 'The Hero!!'
Exaggerated during the XY Saga, where Ash seems to be at his most heroic representation yet due to many reasons: the first two episodes set up his courage that he ends up diving from the top of the Prism Tower to save Pikachu from crashing down (though he really didn't have a plan to get ouf ot that suicidal jump), the group dynamic only works if he's around as otherwise Serena can't even have a conversation with Clemont or Bonnie without talking about Ash, Serena being the Implied Love Interest for Ash, Clemont looking up to him because of his courage, Bonnie thinking he's amazing, getting the exclusive Ash-Greninja of legend (with said legend detailing how said Ash-Greninja was also a hero), the two rivals he gets greatly admire him with one of them (Alain) barely knowing him other than witnessing Ash-Greninja owning Sawyer's (the other rival) Sceptile that endeared him to Ash, nearly getting the better of Champion Diantha's Mega Gardevoir, Lysandre taking an interest on Ash unlike when previous times when previous team leaders barely cared about him, and most glaringly the XY movies sidelining everyone but Ash as the main hero (far more glaring in the Hoopa movie). And yet, despite all this, Ash still loses to Alain at the league, though Alain later notes that Ash is a better person than himself.
Pretty Cure has one for every series. However, because of the Wonder Twin Powers concept of the firsttwo series, the hero role is more presented by the leaders of the following teams. While both Nagisa Misumi/Cure Black and Saki Hyuuga/Cure Bloom/Cure Bright have respectively more screentime than their partner, they alone and without their partners are not important enough for the plot itself. Both needs their partners to drive the plot. However, every successor can drive the plot alone.
Re:CREATORS presents a variation. The story happens from Sota's point of view, but Selesia is the show's primary heroic character. As the show features fictional characters coming to life in real life, Selesia's story of origin is a straightforward heroic fantasy.
Kenshin Himura from Rurouni Kenshin. Kenshin is The Protagonist of the story, a former sword wielding assassin and has taken a vow never to kill again, and in repentance he wields his sword to save the lives of those around him and to protect the peace of Japan.
Seiya "Pegasus" Kido from Saint Seiya. He's one of Athena's Knights, and thus, he's tasked to protect her current incarnation, Saori Kido. Although he is the Knight of Pegasus, he gets choosen by the Sagittarius cloth, the cloth protected by Saori and her late Grandfather which triggered his and his True Companions' assembly. He's also the Determinator who seems to have a policy of never losing for he protects Saori.
Shaman King: Yoh Asakura is the main good guy shaman. At one point, Anna compares him to a traditional knight hero going to defeat the evil king and save the princess. Except the princess is his evil Big Bad brother Hao and the evil king is called "'Hao's hatred".
Yoh actually takes this trope so far that he's practically a messianic character. He's so good-hearted, selfless and kind that his example is able to change even the most evil people over to the good side. As a matter of fact, he does actually change almost every single villain in the series over to the side of good, except Hao in the 2001 anime, because Hao in said seriesis just that evil, though Yoh and his friends eventually have Hao see an epiphany in the manga and 2021 anime.
Shimoneta: Ayame Kajou uses her 'Blue Snow' persona to rebel against the oppressive censorship laws enforced by the Public Morals Committee. She initially acts on her own, by spreading ecchi leaflets and publicly shouting obscenities. However, she soon realizes it isn't enough. So she co-founds the ero terrorist group, SOX, to spread awareness about lewd material and sex education in general — to the masses who no longer understand what any of it means.
Maka Albarn from Soul Eater fits this role well, and largely above all the other characters in the anime/manga. She is the only character of the main cast to have very noble and heroic personality traits, in addition to having the strong desire to help others and defeat evil.(She's also The Leader.)
Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann Kamina styles himself as the bold and charsimatc hero that will save the world from Beastmen. In a private moment with Youko, he says his dream is to create a world where children can look up at the stars without fear. Then he dies and Simon takes up the hero role after a Heroic BSoD. He slays the Physical God with a giant energy drill to save his princess.
Abel Nightroad in Trinity Blood is the most powerful Vatican agent as an Crusnik vampire and hopes to atone for his past by performing heroic and noble deeds.
Lux Arcadia from Undefeated Bahamut Chronicle is defined by his righteousness and benevolence, to the point he destroyed the very kingdom he was supposed to inherit, simply because his father was an evil bastard.
D in Vampire Hunter D may appear like a dark and cold figure that slays monsters for money, but for most of the time he saves people and does the right thing without expecting a reward in return.
Variable Geo centers on Yuka Takeuchi, a part-time waitress/full-time martial artist. She goes on a search once she learns that her childhood friend, Satomi Yajima, has gone missing and eventually learns she's being manipulated by The Jahana Group.
Vividred Operation: Akane Isshiki is the series' main protagonist, being a cheerful, hardworking and athletic girl.
Yusei Fudo from Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds and Yugi Moto from Yu-Gi-Oh! fit this role well. The main protagonists of the other two series', Yuma Tsukumo and Jaden Yuki didn't quite have the heroic or noble traits to fit the role, though. They were more closer related to the Idiot Hero. Though Jaden showed a bit stronger of this role during the fourth season.
