Colonel Badass / Anime & Manga

• Col. Roy Mustang from Fullmetal Alchemist. There's a reason why he's the page image. He BURNS HIS OWN WOUNDS SHUT and by the end of the series, he manages to personally take down two of the seven Homunculi, which is REALLY impressive in that universe. He also plays several of the defining bits of the trope incredibly straight - he's only thirty years old, rose through the ranks incredibly fast (partly due to being a State Alchemist, which automatically starts you off at the rank of Major), he's extremely high-minded and has tremendous ideals for the country, and he will throw himself into danger in a heartbeat rather than risk losing one of his comrades, particularly his five dearest and most loyal subordinates.
  • In Fullmetal Alchemist (2003), he even beats the Führer, another example of him taking down a Homunculus.
  • Credit must also be given to his best friend, Lt. Col. Maes Hughes, who, despite not being an alchemist, is an investigative genius who also knows how to kick ass with throwing knives. He even gets double promoted to Brigadier General for dying in the line of duty, though that was in part to cover up the conspiracy.
  • Basque Grand. He's A Father to His Men who leads from the front, transmutes entire buildings into weapons while delivering hamtastic lines, accepts the surrender of Ishval's high clerics and shoots Brigadier Fiessler (an actual General Ripper) when the latter orders the troops to kill the cleric and continue the genocide. Also has one of the best mustaches known to man.
    • What makes it more impressive is that he had been firmly entrenched in the minds of the fans as a General Ripper by the 2003 anime's portrayal.
  • While Major Armstrong is never promoted due to his compassion for the enemy, in the 2003 anime version he eventually gets promoted to Lt. Col.
  • Also in the 2003 anime, Lt. Col. Frank Archer thinks he's one of these; whether he counts is really up to the viewer. While he is quite cool and collected under fire, he's also a sociopathic Smug Snake and General Ripper.
• Standartenführer Rudol von Stroheim from Jojos Bizarre Adventure, after he was resurrected from the dead and brought back to life as a cyborg. While initially introduced as callous and cruel, he reveals a powerful sense of bravery when the going gets tough, even going as far as cutting off his leg and blowing himself up with a grenade in order to bring Santana out to the light. His new body lets him stand against the Pillar Man, Kars, and he even pulls a Big Damn Heroes near the end of the arc. His nationalism and military strength show for the rest of his life before finally falling in 1943 at the battle of Stalingrad.
• Lt.Col. Hayate Yagami in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS. This is in sharp contrast, for example, to the local General Ripper who fails to qualify even as a Badass Normal and the three Admirals who only appear on TV screens. Possibly the only Colonel Magical Girl ever.
  • To make the point clear: the few times she takes the field and uses her powers, everyone on her side is told to evacuate and get the hell out of there. Even Nanoha gets out of the way.
• Col. Richard Burton in Madlax single-handedly prevented a worldwide supernatural catastrophe despite having no supernatural powers himself.
• Col. Sanders is the preferred nickname of one of the most powerful fighters in Negima! Magister Negi Magi that we've seen so far.
  • That's Ku:Nel Sanders thank you.
• Great General of Darkness/Ankoku Daishogun from Mazinger Z and Great Mazinger, The Dragon of the Emperor of Darkness and commander of the seven armies of the Mykene Empire. He wields a BFS, sports a Badass Cape and a Manly Facial Hair, and he can kick the butt of nearly any Humongous Mecha invented by Go Nagai. He led the army of Mykene Empire, personally or delegating on his generals, and he was A Father to His Men considered unforgivable default intelligence costed the lives of his troops. He fought Great Mazinger because he knew he could win, slicing it with his blade mercilessly as he laughed its attacks off. And he fought Mazinkaiser quite evenly.
• Col. Shikishima from AKIRA has several traits of a General Ripper but remains a Badass Normal to the very end.
• The commander of the Umibozu, a Navy special forces team that goes up against Section Nine at the end of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex's first season, is addressed as Taisa: Colonel, though since he's Navy, his rank proper would be Captain. (In Japan, the same word is used to refer to both Colonel (Army) and Captain (Navy).
• Col. Dewey Novak is not only the Big Bad of Eureka Seven but he also pulls off a fully functional My Death Is Just the Beginning scheme triggered by shooting himself in the head. What's more badass than that?
• The Rose of Versailles: Oscar de Jarjeyes holds the rank of colonel as commander of the Royal Guards.
• Gundam saga has a few:
  • Col. Sergei Smirnov from Mobile Suit Gundam 00, a Badass Normal Ace Pilot. He is able to, despite having woefully inferior equipment, nearly bag two Gundams in a single battle through sheer cunning and guile the like of which makes CB's own resident strategic genius honestly afraid. The show also contains Colonel Kati Mannequin, who is more The Strategist than a bloodletter, but has gone into battle alongside the troops, directly in harms way, and her strategies have scored her several Moments Of Awesome, the capstone of which was her epic screwjob on the ALAWS in Episode 22.
  • A captain (from the navy, whose ranks Zeon uses for all branches of military service, which is equivalent to a colonel), Norris Packard of Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team definitely counts. He takes on three Gundams, all piloted by the main characters, and three Guntanks, at the same time, alone, in an inferior machine, and wins. And on top of all that he finds time to be a father figure to one of the main characters.
    • Inferior mech? This is no Zaku boy, No Zaku!
  • In Mobile Suit Gundam Wing all notable officers in OZ save Noin are colonels, Treize in particular seems aware of this, maintaining the rank of colonel even after conquering the Earth twice.
    • Wing uses an unorthodox rank structure based more around courtly titles than military rank. Treize is actually comparable to a Major General; Lady Une is a Colonel, as is Zechs Merquise after he earns his two-rank promotion for his actions in Operation Nova, OZ's coup d'état to overthrow the Earth Sphere Alliance.
  • Naturally, most of these guys all have the Colonel Badass-in name Ramba Ral to thank for all of this. Only a lieutenant, he was still awesome and has often been paired with Norris as a dynamic duo of doom.
• Col. Paya Livingston from Magical Witch Punie-chan. Boy, is he badass.
• The Colonel, head of God's Army, in Fist of the North Star. His weapon of choice is a Precision-Guided Boomerang, controlled with Psychic Powers. He manages to be a threat to Kenshiro without some form of superpowerful martial arts.
• Col. Todou of Code Geass. He's one of the higher-ranked members of the Japanese Liberation Front, and leader of their most elite squad, the Four Heavenly Swords. Later, he joins the Black Knights and becomes Zero's third-in-command.
  • Also Todou is (based on ratings made by C.C, so take them with salt) the highest rated Black Knight, and second only to the Ace Pilots of the series in his combat abilities.
• Neon Genesis Evangelion:
  • Well, not Colonel Badass but more Major Badass, Major Misato Katsuragi. Especially in End of Evangelion.
  • She's referred to as Lt. Col. Katsuragi in Rebuild of Evangelion, however. So this trope qualifies.
    • This particular differentiation between Major and Lieutenant Colonel is significant in the Rebuild continuity. Unlike the Misato in the original series, who is only ranked as a major and is therefore frequently excluded from the confidential intel available to the highest personnel (Gendo, Ritsuko, and Fuyutsuki), the Rebuild Misato is considerably more informed due to her higher rank. As opposed to how series!Misato searches futilely for answers and only later is revealed the truth about Lilith along with Shinji, the Rebuild makes this change in order to allow Misato herself to try to convince Shinji to pilot the Eva by showing him the top-secret Lilith.
• Maiden Rose: Taki's high rank combined with his general military badassness puts him squarely in this trope.
• Captain Smoker from One Piece. He is stationed at some crappy station outside the grand line and considering his logia power he is ranked to low in the marines. He also cares deeply for Tashgi and his marine subordinates. Furthermore he smokes and uses the smoke power.
  • It's highly implied that Smoker's been offered promotions before, but turned them down. Either that or the higher ups considered him too much of a loose cannon to risk on the Grand Line. Then Smoker met Luffy and started to chase after him INTO the Grand Line. Post-Time Skip, Smoker is now a Vice-Admiral, the third highest rank of the entire organization, and is still chasing after Luffy, this time in the New World, the second half of the Grand Line and the most dangerous sea in the world.
• Over time, Tanya von Degurachaff of The Saga of Tanya the Evil gets promoted to Lt. Colonel. Being that she signed up when she was nine years old, Tanya has spent nearly half her life in the army, and has the skills to match. She has, for good reason, accrued many Red Baron titles, such as The Devil of Rhine, White Silver, and Mad Dog of General Staff. The standard response other nations have to recognizing her mana signature is to panic.