Leeroy Jenkins behaviour in anime and manga.
- Deconstructed in Aquarion Evol. Zessica Wong's actions in episode 18 end up getting Mix kidnapped.
- Attack on Titan deconstructs this trope whenever it appears, with tragic consequences whenever a soldier charges off half-cocked. In particular, during his first battle Eren Yeager charges after an enemy in a blind rage and this leads to him being seriously injured as well as getting his entire squad Eaten Alive. The second time he charges off without thinking, it gets him soundly beaten and nearly kidnapped. Levi is injured in the process of rescuing him at a time when the military cannot afford the loss of their best soldier on the front lines.
- Ironically, in the Female Titan arc, Eren not pulling this for once leads to the death of Squad Levi. His squadmates had asked him to trust in them and allow the Survey Corps to proceed with the plan to trap the Female Titan, which succeeded until the Female Titan summoned mindless titans to eat her body, then proceeded to kill the rest of Squad Levi. By the time Eren transformed into a Titan, all he could do was fight the Female Titan until he was defeated.
- After the Time Skip, Eren infiltrates the Libero internment zone as a wounded Eldian soldier, informing his allies after he had left so they would be forced to rescue him. His goal was to make contact with and retrieve Zeke, steal the power of the War Hammer Titan, and start a war between Eldia and Marley.
- Bleach:
- Ichigo Kurosaki does it, but not for the sake of idiocy itself.
- While he and Uryu were facing down the first Menos Grande to appear in the story. Uryu tries to formulate a plan, while Ichigo simply charges in with the intent of cutting it down, despite the damn thing being twice the size of a skyscraper. His plan was to chop the Menos apart piece by piece until its head was low enough to the ground that he could chop it. So it's less "no plan at all", and instead "there is a plan, but it's insanely stupid".
- When Orihime goes to Hueco Mundo, Ichigo is told by the Soul Society to stand by and for now consider her to be defecting, but at least they won't specifically mark her death for awhile. Being the
Chaotic Good personified he is, Ichigo gleefully ignored that order and bum rushes to Hueco Mundo to save Orihime, accompanied with his friends (later Rukia and Renji follows). This screws up the Soul Society's former plan to get all the Captains together and sent Byakuya, Kenpachi, Unohana, Mayuri and their respective squads to Hueco Mundo, which enables Aizen to lock them there. - Then there's when Ichigo charges blindly at Ulquiorra, who he thought was the top Espada at the time, just because Ulquiorra said he brought Orihime to Hueco Mundo. It ended badly.
- In a fight against Ginjo, Uryu tries to tell Ichigo what he figured out about Ginjo's powers, but Ichigo gets bored, comes out of their hiding place and attacks Ginjo head-on. Ichigo is knocked back, and Uryu berates Ichigo for not listening to him. Though this time, Ichigo at least asked beforehand if Uryu had a plan, and only rushed in after he said he didn't.
- After a heart to heart talk with his father Isshin where he learns about Isshin's past and some important info about hollows and quincies, Ichigo looks to charge into action against the Vandenreich... until Isshin asks him if he even knows where he's supposed to go and how to get there. Ichigo gets embarrassed.
- Maki Ichinose serves as a Leeroy Jenkins in the Bount Arc, as he decides to fight Kenpachi and settle his grudge against him for killing the previous captain of Squad 11 rather than preventing Ichigo and the others from pursuing the Bounts into the Seireitei.
- In the Hueco Mundo arc, Grimmjow disrupts Aizen's plans by disobeying the order to stay in his chambers and going to save Orihime from two jealous Arrancar, having her heal Ichigo (whom Ulquiorra had left for dead), and sealing Ulquiorra away in another dimension, just so that he can fight Ichigo again. Defied during the infamous "Tea With Aizen" scene. Aizen was instructing the Espada about the invasion by Ichigo and his friends. In the middle, Grimmjow gets up and makes to leave, stating his intention to kill them outright, even though Aizen was not done discussing his plan. He rudely rebuffs an order to sit back down, and is then cowed into obedience by Aizen.
- Yammy arrives at Ichigo's fight with Ulquiorra, smashing through the floor like the Kool-Aid man, and kills Loly and Menoly on a whim, thus releasing Orihime. He leaves almost as quickly as he arrives because of Uryu's landmine, then apparently kills Rudobon in the middle of his fight with Rukia. The damage his impulsiveness does to the villains' plans may not be all that significant in light of his being the 0 Espada.
- Hiyori Sarugaki at one point charges Sosuke Aizen, only to be cut in half by Gin Ichimaru's Shikai (changed to her being Impaled with Extreme Prejudice in the anime.)
- Kenpachi's battle plan usually goes as follows (comes with his insane Blood Knight tendencies).
- Allow enemy to strike you.
- Attack until they die.
- Find new enemy, repeat steps until bored or dead.
- Candice Catnipp refuses to listen to her comrades and keeps charging at Ichigo even after he demonstrates he's much more powerful than her.
- Ichigo Kurosaki does it, but not for the sake of idiocy itself.
- In both A Certain Magical Index and A Certain Scientific Railgun, Gunha Sogiita's philosophy is to charge into situations without hesitation and punch any bad guys in sight, relying on guts to power through. He even brushes off people trying to explain the situation to him.
- This isn't even the worst of the characters — Mikoto tends to charge in headfirst and expect to win (justified, she's one of the most powerful characters in Academy City), Accelerator didn't even bother learning how to fight, and the main character Touma's plans usually either start out as "punch it until it agrees with me" or boil down to such. Honestly, half the characters rely on their power and Leeroy right into battle. Granted, they usually win, but when they don't it ends about as well as the original.
- Code Geass:
- Jeremiah Gottwald, upon hearing where Zero is during the battle of Narita, charges off to fight him, resulting in him being defeated and almost killed by Kallen's Radiant Wave Surger. In the Nightmare of Nunnally version of the battle, Alice goes after Zero, hoping to defeat him and be rewarded with a military or knight rank so that she can protect Nunnally.
- Suzaku Kururugi also qualifies for this trope, in so much as military command structure will allow him to practice it. He always runs head-first at the enemy in order to defeat them. However, he is a Deconstruction of this trope because he knows damn well the likely result of it, and wants it to happen.
- The titular protagonist of Cross Ange has one plan: charge right in towards the fray, much to the frustration of her allies. She's skilled enough that it works for her, but their source of income is from the number of kills the individual makes. Tusk comments on her lack of stealth while monitoring her during her rescue mission in Episode 9, and Julio, who ends up capturing her, criticizes her for being too predictable.
- Marika, a Norma recruit, abandons her fellow recruits to try and back Hilda and Rosalie up as they fight their rather pissed and dejected friend, Chris. This results in her awful death as Chris tosses her Ragnamail's sword at her and shears her in half.
- DARLING in the FRANXX: Zero Two/Strelizia gets notorious for this. It's particularly pronounced during a Heroic BSoD but she still verges on The Berserker at the best of times and Hiro isn't always able to keep her in formation. It gets to the point that Ichigo, their squad leader, starts quietly assuming Strelizia will run headlong into battle and basing everyone else's battleplans around this.
- Death Note:
- Matsuda, wanting to be of some use to the investigation, goes off to investigate Yotsuba on his own. Unfortunately, at that time, L is in the process of formulating a plan to investigate them that he repeatedly stresses has no room for error or independent action. Matsuda hears a vague reference to killing people, gets caught, and forces L and the others to bail him out. L is annoyed by Matsuda's stupidity, but manages to turn this to his advantage in his longer-term strategy, especially when the time comes to trap Higuchi and Matsuda is chosen to appear on TV to lure him out.
- In the climax to the series, Mikami deviates from the plan and takes out his notebook to kill Takada before the task force can find her, resulting in Near finding out where the real notebook is and making a copy of that, too, thus preventing Mikami from killing the SPK and task force in the climax. This was brought on by a spur-of-the-moment strategy that Mello used.
- This tactic proves successful earlier in the series when Soichiro Yagami sneaks out of the hospital despite recovering from a (non-Kira-induced) heart attack, drives a police bus through the doors of Sakura TV's headquarters, and manages to stop the broadcast of the Second Kira's messages, despite L and the task force holding back after the second Kira kills Ukita.
- Delicious in Dungeon: Chilchack discovers a trap-laden shortcut, and asks to go first to scout out the safest path for the party to walk. Senshi impatiently tries to walk across the floor and triggers several traps that almost get him and Chilchack killed.
- Digimon:
- Digimon V-Tamer 01 sees Zeromaru refuse to even let Yagami Taichi come up with a plan on two occasions. For the most part though, Zero fully expects Taichi to have a plan and follows them to letter. Daisuke and Takuya are worse. The former has to be saved by Taichi and Zero after picking a fight with a strange monster his friends said to avoid, the latter jumps into battle with an opponent he's told can't be defeated one on one.
- Digimon Adventure: Taichi has always been an Idiot Hero, but he went through only a brief phase of this trope. Eventually the group came to the observation that a partner Digimon's tamer has to be in danger for them to evolve. So, as part of his increasingly desperate attempts to get Agumon to evolve to Perfect, he runs straight into the battlefield. It works and he quickly learns not to do it again for a DAMN good reason.
- Daisuke is like this as well. It's notable in an early episode where Takeru and the others are thinking their strategy through, but Daisuke wants to charge in.
- He is an association football (soccer) player and thus understands the importance of teamwork and sticking to roles to an extent, but Tsurugi Tatsuno of Digimon Next has an open disdain for "plans". This leaves the all of strategics to Yuu.
- Masaru of Digimon Data Squad is an outright example, to the point of leaping off highrise buildings to punch giant mons. Apparently, that's how a man lives.
- Dragon Ball:
- Son Goku typically works in this fashion, at least in the original Dragon Ball, where his plan usually consists of going off after an enemy that's hurt his friends on his own without any care in the world to whatever plan they might have set up, or in other words to simply pound people's faces in. This is most notably seen in the Red Ribbon Arc and especially the King Piccolo Arc, where Goku ignores a direct order from Master Roshi of all people to not rush off after the enemy.
- In Dragon Ball Z, he (and Piccolo) take this tack with Frieza, ignoring King Kai's warning against going off against him. Though it's not as if they had the option of not fighting Frieza.
- In the Cell Saga, after Cell becomes even more powerful than before, he kills Vegeta's son, Trunks. Gohan is the only person able to stand up to Cell's power... but Vegeta suddenly unleashes a vicious attack on Cell without warning. Cell promptly retaliates, beating Vegeta senseless, and Gohan has to save him from being killed; in the process, Gohan becomes severely wounded.
- In one episode of Durarara!!, Izaya and Shizuo, the latter known as Ikebukuro's "God of Destruction" were facing off with one another when a gang of thugs that Izaya had ticked off earlier come running into the middle of things. Upon recognizing Shizuo, they all immediately freak out, not knowing what to do. That all ends when one thug, out of pure fear, screams like a maniac and runs up to crack Shizuo over the head with an improvised bat. Cut to Shizuo punching the guy out of his clothes, then proceeding to Curb Stomp everyone else in sight.
- Natsu from Fairy Tail almost never pays attention to mission briefings and will rush off to confront the enemy alone. He also seems to have no concept of stealth. This attitude nearly gets him killed in the Edolas arc because he keeps forgetting that his powers don't work AND he almost gets the Allied Forces in trouble when he refuses to let the Magic Council arrest Jellal in the Oración Seis arc. What makes it worse is that the Tartarus Arc proves that he didn't learn his lesson from the Edolas Arc. Silver reminds him of why this is a bad idea.
- After the second time-skup Natsu decides to try this again with the Avatar Cult... Granted he managed to put down 3 cultists, but once Gray showed up the others came back up and Natsu's in chains and cuffs.
- In Fullmetal Alchemist (2003), Wrath uses his alchemic powers to fuse with Sloth wanting to protect her. The problem? Wrath had also fused Sloth's weakness into himself. This allows Ed to finish off Sloth.
- Futari wa Pretty Cure Splash★Star: This is essentially Moerumba's Fatal Flaw; he's too impatient to attack strategically (even Kintolesky is better at this than him), using two Uzaina at once to overwhelm the girls in his arc's last episode. As warriors of Dark Fall die from using up all their Miracle Drops to make Uzainas and taking too much damage, this is an incredibly stupid move as the Cures' finisher is Twin Stream Splash... and this happens again when Gohyan resurrects all the generals. He's such a glory seeker that he ignores Kintolesky's warning and charges head on to his seemingly defeated opponents, only to get blasted at point blank twice.
- In Girls und Panzer, this trope can easily describe all the girls of Chi-Ha-Tan Academy, whose whole theme is a Shout-Out to the war ethos of the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II. Even when they get better, their commander has to frame their tactics as "charges" of some kind just so the rest of the team can wrap their heads around them."I've considered multiple possibilities and I feel like charging is the best option!"
- The Greatest Magicmaster's Retirement Plan: In the second volume, the students of Alpha's Second Institute are supposed to hunt weaker Fiends near the barrier as practice, but some overestimate their ability and attempt to exit the designated area to hunt stronger Fiends. The principal, Sisty, predicted this and organized squads of more experienced students and Magicmasters to reign in the new students. While no one dies, some of the students got traumatized from nearly being killed by stronger fiends and lost the ability to use magic.
- Haruhi Suzumiya: In the Deep-Immersion Gaming episode, Haruhi is exactly like this. Kyon manages to talk her out of it until the middle of the battle, though.
- The Hero is Overpowered but Overly Cautious:
- Rosalie Roseguard marches herself and her soldiers into the nest of powerful fly demons without any strategy, resulting in many of her soldiers getting killed. The Hero, Seiya, is not impressed with her disregard for the safety of herself and her soldiers in her pursuit of honor.
- Seiya himself was once an example of this trope and chafes with Rosalie because she reminds him of his past failures. During his journey to save Ixphoria, he pushed himself and his party to defeat the demon army as quickly as possible without caring about strategies or training. He ignores Aria's advice to take the time to research about the Demon Lord, and subsequently gets killed when he has no way to deal with the Demon Lord's self-revival skill. When he's summoned to save Gaeabrande, he uses more cautious methods in order to avoid repeating his mistake.
- Hoshin Engi: Nataku, especially early-on. He picks the strongest opponent and attacks head-on. No strategy, no battle plan, and he keeps attacking head-on even when it doesn't seem to work. He not only doesn't wait to listen to the plan before attacking but will even try to blast Taikobo if he tries to come at him to tell him the plan because he doesn't want anyone interfering in his fight. He can go through with it because he is freakishly strong, and able to survive anything, including losing limbs or being crushed into pieces, as long as his core is not damaged. Taikobo still had to trick him into following a plan on one or two occasions, though.
- JoJo's Bizarre Adventure:
- Battle Tendency: After learning Kars is hiding in a old abandoned mansion, Caesar decides it's best to attack while there's daylight. Joseph disagrees, believing Kars wouldn't just stay put and advises to go at a later time, prompting Caesar to storm off and face Kars alone. Joseph turned out to be right, as Wamuu was waiting inside to ambush whoever approaches, and Caesar ended up dying.
- Stardust Crusaders: Polnareff puts Revenge Before Reason when the man who murdered his sister appears and breaks off from the team to settle the matter himself, and nearly gets killed for it.
- Diamond is Unbreakable: After coming within inches of learning Yoshikage Kira's name, Jotaro and Koichi end up trapped in a tailor shop after Kira kills the owner and makes off with the jacket containing his name tag. Koichi gets ready to pursue him, but the more experienced Jotaro urges caution and insists that they stay on the defensive since Kira has just unleashed Sheer Heart Attack, which appears to be an autonomous ability and therefore an unknown quantity. Koichi argues that his Echoes has a greater range and therefore he can reach Kira, who could still be in the building, but Jotaro insists that he keep his Stand close in case he has to defend himself. Koichi somehow takes this to mean that Jotaro is underestimating him even though he has recently grown in skill, and sends Echoes after Kira, only to realize to his horror that not only is Kira walking away from the building, he is now well beyond Echoes' range. Because he gets nervous from learning this, his increased body temperature causes SHA to target Koichi instead of Jotaro while Echoes is too far away to defend him in time. The latter is forced to lure SHA back to himself using a source of greater heat, which causes an even larger explosion that nearly gets him killed and leaves Koichi to fend for himself.
- Golden Wind: Abbacchio ignores Giorno's warning while fighting Illuso to search for the hidden key in the area, leading Illuso straight to it and attacking Abbacchio off-guard, who begrudgingly realizes how right Giorno was.
- Stone Ocean: Ermes attempts to handle her vendetta against Sports Maxx by herself, not taking into consideration that Sports Maxx could also be a Stand User.
- JoJolion: Josuke, Yasuho, and Rai take charge after Satoru Akefu, prompting his Stand, Wonder of U, to attack them from all angles for just the act of pursuing him.
- Misaki Yata from K, on several occasions.
- Episode 2: Kusanagi tells him to avoid the Black Dog, because Misaki's no match for him. What does Misaki do?... yeah.
- Episode 4: When they find out that the guy they're chasing is on the school island, Kusanagi remarks that it'll be difficult to get into there, and they'll have to "play it safe". At that point, Misaki's practically out the door already. Fushimi remarks in the next episode that he knows Misaki must have done this, because Kusanagi isn't stupid enough to send in just him and Rikio.
- Then in the movie, Kuroh and Neko are surveying the tower where Anna is being held. Kuroh observes the guards in and around, and says "Only a fool would try to break in through the front." Cue Misaki.
- Kimba the White Lion: Kimba can be a good planner when he tries to be and is usually successful when it comes to fighting, but it's a safe bet that he would rush out and attack/attempt to befriend the Villain of the Week and ignore the advice of his friends; this method cost him a few battles.
- Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha:
- In the first season, Fate tries to extract the six unclaimed Jewel Seeds from the ocean using a spell. When there's a considerable reaction and the ocean itself seems to be attacking her, Admiral Lindy plans to stay back until Fate finishes and then go in and capture her, but Nanoha, who places higher priority on befriending Fate, intervenes with Yuuno to help against orders and leaves with half the Jewel Seeds. Lindy reprimands the two, but lets them off without punishment because things turned out well.
- During the hotel attack in StrikerS, Shamal orders the forwards to hold the line against the gadget drones until Vita returns. Teana decides to go on the offensive and destroy the drones with a large Cross Fire Shoot, which almost hits Subaru. Vita saves her, but she yells at Teana for her reckless behaviour and at Subaru for trying to cover her up, ordering the Forwards to go back.
- Signum, of all people, was guilty of doing this in the early chapters of the FORCE manga. Rushing into an opponent whose abilities are very dangerous against magical warriors such as her, without waiting for backup, without any upgrades (even worse by the fact that her abilities had weakened since the end of StrikerS, which takes place six years before Force) and without considering that the little info and measures she had about said opponent's abilities can be a bit inaccurate. She got horribly trashed for her troubles.
- Mazinger series:
- Kouji Kabuto from Mazinger Z is a mild case of this. In one hand, he never listens when someone tells him "Don't go", he is impulsive and hard-headed, falls into utterly DUMB, anybody-could-have-seen-it traps because he is too hasty and eager (a fiact Kouji himself lampshades), and he is a determinator who doesn't know when to quit. On the other hand, he IS capable of listening and following instructions and plans, he is a Genius Ditz who is good at devising strategies on the fly, he is capable of deceiving the enemy and he understands that sometimes stealth is necessary and even good (although he is not very good at it, but at least he makes the attempt), and the wisdom of making a tactical retreat. And he is capable of acknowledging his mistakes (once he was forced to retreat. He was angry, but after The Professor Yumi explained the situation to him, he admitted he was wrong and apologized). In a nutshell, he shows some traits of the trope, but he has not let them get him killed.
- General Scarabeth from Great Mazinger somehow manages to combine this trope with The Chessmaster. He is the best tactician of the Mykene Empire, capable of creating brilliant strategies and completing missions others had previously thought impossible. However he is also the more battle-thirsty commander, and he is prone to charging the enemy headfirst without waiting for his troops.
- This is what kicks off the events to Mobile Suit Gundam: three Zaku pilots are told to investigate rumblings in Side 7, but they get it in their heads to start wrecking things once they find out what's going on. End result is getting their asses kicked by a 14-year-old.
- In My Hero Academia, Bakugo starts out as one. It's not so much that he's dumb as that for most of his childhood he'd been a Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond, and when coming to UA, he began facing off against students who were capable of defending themselves against him and using his reckless thinking against him. He gets over it and starts thinking tactically after Izuku gives him a hard reality check by beating him in a teamwork exercise by exploiting his running off and abandoning his partner.
- Deku himself, surprisingly for one as strategically-minded as him, will Leeroy up against anyone or anything if it means protecting others. Notable example include attacking the sludge villain who was holding off multiple Pro Heroes (before he had powers, mind) to save Bakugo, and against Muscular to save Kota. Apparently this attitude is common among Hero origins.
- Naruto:
- Naruto gets called out on this when he runs off after Yukimaru by himself in the Three-Tails arc, with Kakashi and Yamato reminding him of the impact his actions could have had on the mission, and Sakura punching Naruto into the ground so hard he makes a crater. He gets the very description of a Leeroy Jenkins by Akatsuki, especially when Sasori asks Itachi to describe Naruto to him.Itachi: (to Sasori) The Nine-Tails is the one who screams and charges headfirst.
- Eventually he learns to take advantage of the enemy assuming this to be the case. Even better than having a plan is having a plan while the enemy thinks you're too stupid or cowardly to have a plan, or it's so insanely reckless that it's Crazy Enough to Work.
- Sasuke Uchiha, as the series progresses, also falls into this habit as ambition overrides normal thought and he begins to rely more on inherent ability than skill or strategy.
- Sasuke's immediate response to seeing Itachi in Part I was charge at him with a Chidori, and he spends the rest of the fight furiously rushing at Itachi only to get beaten down repeatedly. The first time they meet in Part II, Itachi (who turns out to be a genjutsu) mockingly asks if Sasuke is going to run at him screaming like last time.
- He spent two pages explaining The Plan for fighting Killer Bee, and no one followed it. Not even him! Then he got about twenty times worse when he rushed the freakin' Raikage, a giant of a man who's basically a ninja in a wrestler's body.
- Despite learning first-hand from Itachi the price of overusing the Mangekyo Sharingan (total blindness and the loss of said eyes), Sasuke insists on repeatedly spamming its techniques during his battles against Killer B, the assault on the Kage Summit and the high-level combatants there, and finally against Danzo despite suffering the pain and worsening eyesight even when it wasn't necessary. By the time he's confronted by Sakura, Kakashi, and Naruto shortly after that, his angered attempt to use Susanoo almost instantly fails and he's practically all but blinded to the point he can't even manifest his Sharingan.
- Hidan notes that when a target angers him enough, he goes berserk, forgets about the plan, and kills everyone in sight. For obvious reasons this usually works. Usually.
- Shino follows Sasuke (who's pursuing Gaara in a Leeroy Jenkins move of his own, albeit in a loose interpretation of Genma's suggestion to make himself useful) in the Invasion of Konoha arc and ends up fighting Kankuro, whom he was disappointed to not be able to face in his official match.
- In the Five Kage Summit arc, Sakura put her teammates to sleep with a special gas to face Sasuke alone, which did not work well and required Kakashi to save her. She later charged into Kakashi's fight against Sasuke to kill Sasuke herself, only to hesitate at the worst possible time because she still loves him and caused Naruto to rescue her from Sasuke...which resulted in Naruto getting cut by Sakura's poisoned kunai.
- Naruto gets called out on this when he runs off after Yukimaru by himself in the Three-Tails arc, with Kakashi and Yamato reminding him of the impact his actions could have had on the mission, and Sakura punching Naruto into the ground so hard he makes a crater. He gets the very description of a Leeroy Jenkins by Akatsuki, especially when Sasori asks Itachi to describe Naruto to him.
- In Negima! Magister Negi Magi, Nagi Springfield turns out to have acted like this all the damn time; his first reaction to just about any threat is to charge blindly at it. As he's quite possibly the strongest person alive, it almost always works.
- Neon Genesis Evangelion. Shinji and Asuka are repeat offenders:
- Shinji charged straight at Samshiel despite his sliced off power cord, he was running out of power and out of ammo, and Misato was ordering him to retreat back to the base. He completely acted on impulse. Later he got arrogant and reckless and got himself imprisoned inside a 2-D Angel until Unit 01 went nuts and ripped itself out of its 3-D shadow.
- Asuka jumped into battle with Gaghiel without equipment suitable for aquatic combat, although Misato took her side anyway (circumstances forced her hand). In the next episode, she tried to get the battle with Israfel over with early by slicing it in half, but it split into twins and trounced both her and Shinji. Finally, several episodes later, she launched herself out to shoot down Arael, only to fall victim to the Trope Namer of Mind Rape instead.
- Given the circumstances however, Asuka can largely be argued as being exempt from this. In the aquatic battle, hers was the only EVA around and the only weapon effective against the Angel. With Israfel, she did the thing that would have worked on all previous Angels with no info regarding any changes. Finally, in her last battle, she was sent out by her superiors to yet again combat an Angel with unknown capabilities, resulting in said Mind Rape occurring near instantly.
- One Piece:
- Luffy pulls this stunt rather frequently. It works for him because he is easily the strongest member of the Straw Hats, and to his credit freestyle fights against the Arc Villains rather well. That being said, it ends up working against him on occasion:
- He pulls it off effectively at the start of the raid on Enies Lobby. The plan had been to allow the Straw Hats' allies to take on the enemy foot soldiers in order to allow the Straw Hats to fight the Cipher Pol 9 agents, since the Straw Hats were the only ones capable of defeating the World Government's most elite assassins. With Luffy charging ahead on his own, the Marines and government agents stationed on the main island are too distracted trying to capture him, and as a result the Galley-La foremen and the Franky Family have a vastly easier time picking off the soldiers scattered across the island and reaching the Courthouse with minimal casualties, where they then open the drawbridge leading to the Tower of Justice and help the Straw Hats reach Robin.
- It backfires in the Punk Hazard arc. Luffy charges in and challenges the Arc Villain despite his ally Trafalgar Law's warnings and plans, resulting in the crew's defeat and almost everyone being captured. Though to be fair, he was winning that fight. Caesar just pulled out a rather creative application of his Devil Fruit powers that took out everyone with even a modicum of significant strength in the vicinity. Once Luffy becomes aware of it Caesar doesn't stand a chance.
- It backfires against him during his first few fights with Crocodile and his one fight against Magellan, both of whom were far above his level at the time of their encounter. Only sheer luck and his drive to survive allowed him to come away from those fights alive, and he only beats Crocodile because the latter throws away strategy in rage at seeing him come back yet again.
- Subverted in two specific cases. Even Luffy knows that attacking Mihawk and Magellan (after he nearly died the first time) head-on is a very bad idea.
- Badly backfires against him when he decides to take on Kaido even after Law implores him to do anything other than what he ends up doing: Luffy whales on him in Gear Fourth (something that was sufficient to absolutely crush Doflamingo), and the most he is able to do is to sober him up. Once Kaido is stone sober, he knocks Luffy's ass out in one hit while he's still in Gear Fourth.
- Law wises up to Luffy's tendency to disregard plans and uses it as part of his strategy for the Onigashima Raid, where he allows Luffy and Eustass Kid to charge into the island alone so that they can distract the Beast Pirates while the rest of the rebel force sneaks into Onigashima undetected.
- Sanji pulls a Leeroy Jenkins in the Water 7 arc, when he goes off on his own to look for Robin and does it again when he decides to rescue her from the CP9 after boarding the Sea Train, despite Zoro warning him over the Den Den Mushi about the CP9's strength; he says that he would not obey any order given to hold back now that Robin needs to be saved. Incidentally, Luffy approved of this approach, and told Zoro he would have done the same thing as Sanji and proceeded to do so as soon as they arrived at Enies Lobby.
- Zoro does it too, much later in the Wano arc. Prior to their arrival, traveling Wano native Kinemon tells the Straw Hat Pirates to keep a low profile and try to blend in so as not to catch Kaido's attention. It does not take long for Zoro to get in trouble (for an unspecified reason) and sentenced to an execution, upon which he makes a break for it and slices everything and everyone in his way. Luffy arrives on the island later and meets Zoro — as both feel the need to pummel some enemies, they agree that they will cause trouble and apologize to Kinemon later. Luffy's ally Trafalgar Law happens to be on the island too, and upon hearing Luffy is on the island and charging headfirst into a nobility district, he has this exchange with his first mate Bepo:Bepo: Captain! We got trouble, captain! It's Straw Hat [Luffy] and Roronoa [Zoro]!! They're heading into Bakura Town!!
Trafalgar Law: Straw Hat's in Wano?! Hey, wait! He's going to cause nothing BUT trouble!!! - Generally speaking, this seems to be the Straw Hats' standard unspoken battle strategy: let Luffy go after the leader/the strongest/the most important, etc etc. and while the top brass is busy with him, the rest of the crew split up and go on to tackle the underlings as well as take care of any smaller objectives during the battle. As noted above however, the success rate of this tactic varies; usually dependent on how cunning their current enemy is.
- According to Garp, Gol D. Roger was incredibly impulsive and reckless and would happily start fights with minimal provocation, especially if it involved defending the honor of his friends or allies. Garp even expressed bemusement at the fact that he lived long enough to become Pirate King to begin with, stating that it happened in spite of his best efforts to get himself killed at every opportunity.
- Like father, like son, as Portgas D. Ace inherited Roger's impulsive aggression and bellicose personality, and he was at least as reckless and foolhardy as his father and brother, if not even more so. Unlike Roger and Luffy, however, this tendency ultimately got him killed.
- In a villainous example, Kaido's underling Jack has a well-established reputation for extreme and frankly suicidal impulsivity that never seems to net him anything good. His fondness for blind headlong charges and a complete refusal to back down even when he has literally no chance of winning has cost him, in chronological order, five days of valuable time and a very rare weapon (because he picked a fight that turned into a hopeless stalemate that ended solely because of said weapon), a good deal of his fleet and his physical wellbeing (because he got the shit beaten out of him by people who probably could have given his boss problems), and what little of his fleet remained after the last defeat plus his freedom (because he tried to fight an elephant the size of a country and naturally got sunk, trapped undersea but not drowning).
- Rob Lucci, of all people, throws away any semblance of strategy when he goes against orders in Egghead and engages Luffy in combat, mere days after he defeated Kaido and became an Emperor of the Sea, all because he couldn't wait to settle the score. Awakened Zoan or not, Lucci's no longer as strong as Luffy, who takes him down with ease.
- Luffy pulls this stunt rather frequently. It works for him because he is easily the strongest member of the Straw Hats, and to his credit freestyle fights against the Arc Villains rather well. That being said, it ends up working against him on occasion:
- Panzer World Galient: Jordy is too Hot-Blooded, rash and loud for his own good, he's unable to be stealthy, and he feels more comfortable charging the enemy head-on than infiltrating an enemy base.
- Ash Ketchum from Pokémon: The Series is guilty of this. Despite having Pokémon to fight his battles for him, his solution to most problems upon first encountering them is to let out a Battle Cry and launch himself at them headfirst. This is especially true in the movies. For instance, he ran at Mewtwo and tried to punch him (twice) in the first movie,note threw himself at the cage holding Moltres captive in the second, charged at Entei in the third, threw himself at the cage holding Latios in the fifth... and no matter how many times Ash tries to use Take Down, it always has no effect. In genuine Pokemon battles he often orders his Pokemon to take their opponents head-on instead of assessing what they can do (mostly in older seasons, as he's since developed his own brand of strategies that take advantage of the battlefield geography). Basically, Ash can be summed up with "way more guts than brains".
- Some of his Pokemon end up like this, too. Not Pikachu — Pikachu's a lot more likely to think things through than Ash. Froakie, however, has even less regard for his own safety than Ash. He did get a bit better after evolving, but still tends to throw himself at things.
- Puella Magi Madoka Magica: Mami Tomoe of all people proves to be this, as she dies minutes within announcing she would "finish this Witch off quickly", taking up a more reckless, up-close approach to fighting, rather than from a safe distance as before. Also counts as Too Happy to Live, as all of this is on the heels of she and Madoka pledging to become partners in Witch-hunting, and a monologue about how great she feels knowing she won't be alone any more.
- It's observed in Pumpkin Scissors that no sane infantryman would attack a tank head-on, and much of the plot revolves around a project to create anti-tank infantry by removing soldiers' fear of pain and death. Yet Alice, who has no such conditioning, attacks a tank with a sword because she refuses to surrender to bandits and mercenaries.
- Rebuild World: Drankam is a Private Military Contractors company plagued by Boisterous Weakling Spoiled Brat teenaged hunters due to Armchair Military nonsense. When Elena and Sara take an advisory role for their battle against a snake Kaiju, the two warn them to keep their distance, but they don't listen and charge ahead, taking many avoidable casualties. Elena and Sara end up being The Scapegoat for this to preserve the incompetent commander Katsuya's Propaganda Hero image.
- The Rising of the Shield Hero: The "Three Cardinal Stooges" have multiple occasions of this, but a MASSIVE one happens when they think that they can defeat a Gigantic island-mountain-shelled turtle called the "Spirit Tortoise" in order to make them look better to the Shield Hero's gradually-growing support/attention after he goes about correcting a lot of bullshit, 45-50% of it due to their idiotic, half-assed "quests" that they didn't conclude very properly, much to Naofumi's dismay later. They unseal it, thinking they can defeat it. They fail... miserably... And it goes on a major rampage, leaving death and destruction in its wake, and once it gets revealed to the public that the "Three Cardinal Stooges" were responsible for unsealing this nightmarish beast, they are effectively dead in the hearts and minds of the people of the land as "heroes" anymore, leaving Naofumi the only "Cardinal Hero" left known to truly live up to said namesake, and then they get a small dose of what the Shield Hero had to endure and suffer through near the beginning, but unlike him, they didn't have true, reliable party members like Naofumi did after he started out after Malty/Bitch's False Rape Accusation, with the exception of Ren, but unfortunately all of his party members died trying to support him. And like Naofumi, they unlock their Curse Series due to the aforementioned gargantuan failure. And they literally have no one to blame but themselves for it.
- Sailor Moon:
- Usagi tends to be a bit Jenkins in some of her actions whenever her family and/or friends are in trouble, though many times, she ends up becoming successful:
- In particular, her "I MUST SAVE MAMORU" first actions in the first season finale towards an enemy, even after it was shown that 'Mamoru' was very clearly an enemy and needed to be stopped, ends up causing her and her allies a lot of problems afterward.
- Oh, and when he gets captured by both Fiore and Queen Nehelenia. The latter, especially: she's willing to just go into a blizzard, barefoot in a foot of snow, to save him from her (without transforming, even).
- Seeing, or knowing that, Naru is in danger also sends Usagi into Leeroy mode.
- Minako can be this at times too (fittingly, Usagi is her Expy), with the difference she could get away with it, and anyway quickly turned in a cunning planner capable of getting the drop on her enemies before charging at them during her solo series. Her charging in a Black Moon Circus trap in the Dream arc of the manga is rightly taken as a sign something is seriously off with her-more than usual, at least.
- Usagi tends to be a bit Jenkins in some of her actions whenever her family and/or friends are in trouble, though many times, she ends up becoming successful:
- Science Ninja Team Gatchaman. Although G-2 is supposed to be the team hothead, it's G-1, the Mighty Leader, who frequently rushes into a situation without thinking (or waiting for backup), particularly if something else is bothering him that day. It's particularly sad because when he really stops and thinks, he's very good with strategy and tactics.
- Naoe Kanatsugu from the Sengoku Basara. This is a guy who, upon discovering that the opposing side has deployed Honda Tadakatsu (aka the army's frickin' Gundam), decided that the best course of action was to take it/him on single-handedly with no more than a standard issue katana — and naturally gets curb stomped. Maybe he thought katanas really could cut through tanks.
- Shana from Shakugan no Shana has great skill in fighting but poor skill in strategy. As a Flame Haze her plan to rush forward and cut the denizens to pieces. If not for Yuuji's support from the sidelines, she would have likely died a few times over.
- Black Star in Soul Eater, frequently as his direct approach (he is ostensibly an assassin) worked for minor threats, but not for big ones. He doesn't so much grow out of it as he becomes better able to face the situations he rushes headlong into. The recklessness and obstinate insistence on his own greatness remain.
- In Super Dimension Fortress Macross, Hayao Kakizaki brags about how great he is during his first meeting with Hikaru Ichijo. But in combat, he turns out to be a Leeroy Jenkins, who rushes into battle leaving himself wide open. He ends up dying on a mission as a result. While Maximillian Jenius, who acts scared at first, ends up being a genius pilot.
- Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann:
- Every Ganmen pilot is one of these, and Leeron and Attenborough also display some characteristics of the trope ("HASHAAAAAAA") but when you're in a universe where everything, especially physics, is subservient to the Rule of Cool, this is the best tactic.
- Kamina was the most prevalent example of this trope, and the other characters tried to make it clear that this was a very bad idea. Sure, he inspired everyone, but if Simon wasn't there to level things out, Kamina would've been dead by the end of the second episode (a fact Kamina reiterates several times). Granted, Kamina later tells Yoko that this show of bravado was simply a show to inspire Simon, so in that respect, it may have been the most brilliant tactic of all. Unfortunately, the one time he plans out a strategy to capture Thymilph's Dai-Gunzan, it ends up being the death of him. The rest of the Gunmen pilots are marginally more level-headed, but still incredibly bold.
- In one episode of Tokyo Mew Mew, Masha tries attacking the Monster of the Week in an attempt to prove useful, getting captured as a result and causing the Mew Mews to spend the rest of the episode trying to get him back.
- Rak from Tower of God. The test in question was designed so that one picked the right door. Khun is trying to work with what little clues they have been given, whereas Rak gathers that the scarcity of of clues was just another way of saying "Gamble!", so he kicked a random door down. This just proves how much of a fuck Rak doesn't give, since choosing the wrong door is penalized by death. Luckily, EVERY SINGLE DOOR was correct.
- Trapped in a Dating Sim: The World of Otome Games is Tough for Mobs: In the Marie Route Alternate Timeline. When a huge Epic Ship-on-Ship Action is about to begin, instead of staying in formation, Glory Hound Allen Beaudon takes his glorified luxury liner in a headlong charge of the enemy and gets himself killed, severely hurting the Kingdom's morale, which becomes as issue as it eliminates the Kingdom's sole advantage of numbers.
- Two big ones in Utawarerumono. The first is Oboro, and in being a Leeroy he kicks off the events of the plot. He more or less grows out of this but is still very rash. The other is the emperor, who felt it would be a good idea to completely ignore his brilliant and highly paid general Benawi and start burning down random neutral villages, forcing them to side with Hakuoro. He doesn't get better, because this gets his country taken over and also gets an "assisted seppuku" for himself, courtesy of Benawi.
- Variable Geo: This is played with and averted, when Manami deliberately invokes it by pretending to charge blindly at Chihou to draw her fire. Manami sheds her dress at the last second to avoid being punctured, which creates an opening Jun to clothesline Chihou. Thus, ending the fight.
- Yu-Gi-Oh!:
- Yu-Gi-Oh!: Yugi himself did this once in a very early episode, where the Evil Spirit that had possessed Bakura first made his presence known, and it was a rather bad time to have done something so foolish; Bakura had sealed the souls of Yugi and his friends in their favorite cards, forcing Yami to use them as pieces in a Shadow Duel; Yugi got angry eventually, both from Bakura's taunting and Joey calling him "puny" (compared to Yami) and recklessly directed an attack towards Bakura's set monster, which turned out to be an Electric Lizard. (Fortunately, he and the others wised up after that.)
- Judai Yuki from Yu-Gi-Oh! GX ends up pulling a couple of reckless moves in Seasons 2 and 3 as his status as Indy Ploy-pulling ace is steadily deconstructed.
- In an episode of Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds, Jack Atlas was confronted by Ushio (who was Brainwashed and Crazy due to Rudger's spell), and because his arm was broken, needed Carly's help to duel him. Unfortunately, Carly became too excited, and quickly became somewhat of a Leeroy Jenkins, ordering Jack's monster to attack without asking him (which, as it turned out, was a bad idea). Fortunately, she quickly learned from that mistake — for the most part.
- In YuYu Hakusho, Yomi was a Leeroy Jenkins back when he worked for Kurama, often going on unauthorized and dangerous raids of his own, until he was eventually blinded in an attack that Kurama set up for him in an attempt to get him out of the way. He learned his lesson after that and developed into a calm, patient Magnificent Bastard.
