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Sympathetic Inspector Antagonist: Difference between revisions
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** And Bob Copper from ''[[Mega Man Star Force]]'', who is an [[Expy]] of Zenigata.
* In ''[[Gunsmith Cats]]'' and its pilot of sorts, ''Riding Bean'', Percy is the head investigator, obsessed with catching Bean Bandit the legendary Road Buster. Bean finds him most amusing.
** At least until ''[[Gunsmith Cats]]: Burst'', where Percy tries to have him ''assassinated''.
** Percy has never been a ''good'' cop. He'll happily put innocent lives at risk, orders his men to near-suicidal manouvers and lets far more dangerous criminals get away if it brings him closer to catching Bean. Even before the whole assassination-thing in ''Burst'' he frames Bean for a murder so he can squeeze favours from the mobster who actually committed it.
* [[Sherlock Hound|Sherlock Hound's]] portrayal of [[Inspector Lestrade]] has elements of this, when chasing Moriarty. Ironically, [[Hayao Miyazaki]], one of the directors also directed ''[[The Castle of Cagliostro|The Castleof Cagliostro]]''.
* ''[[Kaitou Saint Tail]]'' has the [[Amateur Sleuth]] Asuka Jr constantly trying to foil Saint Tail. Of course, complications arise from Meimi's on-off crush on him outside her alter-ego, eventually leading into [[Dating Catwoman]].
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** Eventually, he gets ''yet another'' Sympathetic Inspector Antagonist... Conan from ''[[Detective Conan]]''.
* Detective Leon Orcott of ''[[Pet Shop of Horrors]]''. He finds Count D to be a threat to humanity. Count D finds him to be endearingly/irritatingly thick-headed. Both are correct in their assessment. [[Go-Karting with Bowser|This doesn't stop either of them from having tea with one another several times a month]].
** Leon also finds himself disturbingly attracted to D (disturbingly so because D is male - sort of), just as D finds himself disturbingly drawn to Leon (disturbingly so because Leon is human). Eventually, as Leon really begins to trust D, he lets his little brother live in the titular Petshop because he feels it would be ''the safest environment'' for the kid. ... And he still tries to arrest D occasionally after that.
* ''[[Seto no Hanayome]]'' has [[Shout-Out|Zenigata]] Mawari, a policeman's daughter obsessed with enforcing rules with all her might. Comes with a [[Catch Phrase]]: "Must Mawari teach you the rules of..."
* Another female example: Atsuko "Jambo" Jackson, from ''[[Michiko to Hatchin]]''.
* Inspector Saehara from ''[[D.N.Angel]]'' falls into the comic side of this trope due to Dark already having a rather more competent nemesis. He does realise it would be out of character for Dark to kidnap someone though.
* Captain, later Commodore, Smoker in ''[[One Piece]]''. He's a marine, and catching pirates is his job - not wrongly so, since a lot of Pirates really are terrible criminals in this world. It just so happens our hero is also a pirate, if a really nice one that [[The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything|never pillages or hurts innocents]]. He catches plenty of other, less nice pirates along the way and {{spoiler|actually helps foiling the plans of the [[Big Bad]] in the Alabasta arc}}. Also notable in that Luffy stands no chance against him in a fight and he probably could take the Straw Hat in, but dumb luck, circumstance or help of allies always gets him out of Smoker's grasp.
* L from ''[[Death Note]]'' would qualify as a more serious and less hands on example. As the worlds greatest detective, he early on (correctly) fingers out the main protagonist as the most likely candidate to be the notorious mass serial killer known as "Kira" and continues to pursue his hunch for the rest of the series, even when circumstances (orchestrated by Light of course) seem to disprove this. {{spoiler|It's also a rare example where the Sympathetic Inspector Antagonist's opponent ends up losing because of his hard work, albeit through his successor}}
** It should probably be noted that, though he does correctly finger Light as Kira ''and'' assert that he's never been more sure of a deduction in his life, he also asserts that he's only seven percent sure that Light is Kira, so he's kind of on the outer fringes of being a [[S Sympathetic]] Inspector Antagonist (most Sympathetic Inspector Antagonists have harder evidence and greater certainty of their convictions).
*** Note that L's tendency to put percentages on everything is at least 50% bullshit. When he says "7% certainty", [[Word of God]] asserts that he's actually ''very'' convinced of Light being Kira.
*** It's not even that. [[Word of God]] says that whenever L gives a percentage, it's actually over 90%. Near sums it up the best. To paraphrase:
{{quote|- '''Near:''' I'm 99.999% sure that Light is Kira. The final 0.001% is just the lack of decisive evidence.}}
* Misaki Kirihara of ''[[Darker
* ''[[Cat's Eye]]'': Inspector Utsumi will never, ever catch the three [[Classy Cat Burglar|Classy Cat Burglars]]. Because they're the protagonists, and because his girlfriend is [[Dating Catwoman|one of them]].
* Several police persons appear in [[Hana no Ko Lunlun]], ranging from this trope to [[Inspector Javert]]. The most archetypical Sympathetic Inspector Antagonists are the policeman who chased after Sayid and Scharo in the first part of the Morocco miniarc, and the inspector form the Egypt episode who pursues a [[Gentleman Thief]] that Lunlun has befriended {{spoiler|and actually ''succeeds'' in catching his target. Poor Lunlun never knew she was aiding an outlaw, tho.}}
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* Inspector Ginko in the Italian series ''[[Diabolik]]''.
* Finch in ''[[V for Vendetta]]'' is an effective and honorable detective, it's just that V, his opponent, is a master of [[Batman Gambit|Batman gambits]]. You could argue that this trope is subverted in the end, as Finch {{spoiler|manages to find and kill V}}, but the comic strongly implies that {{spoiler|V wanted this to happen}}, making it his ultimate [[Batman Gambit]].
* In [[The Incredible Hulk]] comic books, [[Genius Bruiser|Doc Samson]] kept trying to stop the Hulk when he was savage or grey. He ought to be good at it, since he's almost as strong as the Hulk, but as the grey Hulk put it: "You know what [being almost as strong as me] means? NOTHING!"
== Film ==
* Willem Dafoe's character in [[The Boondock Saints]] hits this trope. Perhaps averted later {{spoiler|when he attempts to imitate the Saints, and again when he flat out joins their cause.}}.
* Kenneth William's characters in the ''[[Carry On]]'' movies with Sid James as an outlaw (''Carry On Dick'' and ''Carry On Don't Lose Your Head''). Fits this trope rather amusingly, with Sid James as the [[Gentleman Thief]].
* Inspector Jacques Clouseau of ''[[The Pink Panther]]'' fame started out as this in the very first film pursuing [[Gentleman Thief|the Phantom]], who was the original protagonist. Clouseau became the [[Ensemble Darkhorse]] the subsequent films focused on, and he never gave up his determination to capture villains. This, combined with his chronic ineptitude, is what drove [[Da Chief|his superior]] Chief Inspector Dreyfus to madness. On the other hand, in ''Trail of the Pink Panther'', Charles Lytton (the Phantom himself) saw that determination as the secret to what success Clouseau had.
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* Charlie Weston in the [[Nick Velvet]] stories
* Ben Price in the short story ''A Retrieved Reformation''
* [[Jakub Wedrowycz]]'s wannabe nemesis, officer Birski, who rarely succeeds in arresting him, and even then only manages to do so on charges of producing moonshine (as opposed to [[Heroic Sociopath|a whole lot of other outrageous things]] [[Crazy Awesome|Jakub tends to do]]).
* Captain Quarterblood in the ''[[Roadside Picnic]]'' by the [[Strugatsky Brothers]].
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* The various Army commanders (of which there were five or six) who pursued the ''[[The A-Team]]'' flip-flopped between this and [[Inspector Javert]] depending on the script & characterizations.
** [[Colonel Badass|Colonel Decker]] managed to embody both tropes, being a [[Well-Intentioned Extremist]].
* Paul Ballard on ''[[Dollhouse]]'' spends most of the first season trying to uncover the titular operation.
** Many would consider him the true protagonist of the show, apart from Echo who is a victim he is trying to save.
* In ''[[Monty Python's Flying Circus]]'', Harry "Snapper" Organs's pursuit of the Piranha Brothers seems to be a spoof of this trope.
** Well, that and Inspector Leonard [[Aluminum Christmas Trees|"Nipper"]] Read, the guy who brought down [[London Gangster|the Kray Twins]] of whom the Piranhas were a parody.
* Jim Sterling on ''[[Leverage]]'', except he '''never''' looks foolish and the protagonists never manage to humiliate him, even when they get away, [[Magnificent Bastard|because he always manages somehow to get promoted after every encounter with them.]]
** Sterling is also an interesting example because he doesn't actually care all that much about capturing Team Leverage unless it somehow serves his own purposes and ambitions. Most of the time, he just leaves them alone.
* Hank Schrader of ''[[Breaking Bad]]'' is this to an elusive crystal-meth manufacturer known to him only as "Heisenberg." [[Dramatic Irony|Little does he know]] that "Heisenberg" is actually his brother-in-law Walter White, the [[Justified Criminal]] protagonist of the series.
* Doakes serves as the Sympathetic Inspector Antagonist in ''[[Dexter]]'' {{spoiler|until he dies in a fire.}}
* Seasoned detective Kwak in the [[Korean Series]] ''[[Bad Boy]]''.
* In the ''[[Doctor Who]]'' episode "Planet of the Dead", the detective pursuing [[Classy Cat Burglar|Lady Christina]] is mostly played for laughs, ignored by UNIT and other authorities, and in the end, the Doctor helps her escape as he watches in futility.
* Detective Carter in ''[[Person of Interest]]'' is a serious version, pursuing the vigilante protagonist. She does occasionally team up with Finch and Reese, {{spoiler|the frequency of such team ups increasing up until the season finale, where for the second time, she (along with her partner, Lionel Fusco, who was initially blackmailed into assisting them unbeknownst to Carter until she tracked him down) helped Reese evade the CIA.}} Finch will occasionally contact Carter for information that the NYPD may have on a POI.
* Chief Inspector Teal in ''[[The Saint (TV series)|The Saint]]''.
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* Robin in the ''[[Teen Titans (animation)|Teen Titans]]'' cartoon is a more serious version of this, with his obsession with finding Slade.
** In ''[[Teen Titans: Trouble in Tokyo]]'', Commander Daizo appears to be another serious form of this, sternly chasing Robin once he "kills" one of Brushogun's ink constructs. He even ''looks'' like [[Lupin III|Zenigata]]. However: {{spoiler|He's actually the villain of the piece, using Brushogun as a slave to create criminals for him to capture.}}
* Commander Ulysses Feral will not stop before he's caught those ''[[Swat Kats]]'' for the destruction they inflict on the city! ... Usually. His real sympathetic part is that more than once a bad guy he's captured will try to use his mutual hatred of the SWAT Kats to get favorable treatment, only to be promptly reminded that Feral does ''not'' make deals with criminal scum.
* Ganimard from ''[[Night Hood]]''.
* Ranger Smith from ''[[Yogi Bear]]''. Charged with the duty of keeping people's picnic baskets from being stolen.
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* The Sheriff from the Bunny and Claude ''[[Looney Tunes in the Sixties|Looney Tunes]]'' cartoons.
* Agent Li in ''[[The Zeta Project]]'', which frequently brings her into conflict with her boss, [[Inspector Javert|Agent Bennett]]. Eventually, {{spoiler|she seeks reassignment due to her belief that Zeta is not a threat to anyone.}}
* [[Fat Bastard|Rancid]] [[Fat Idiot|Rabbit]] from [[
* [[Stupid Boss|Principal Pixiefrog]] from ''[[My Gym Partner's a Monkey|My Gym Partners a Monkey]]''.
* Mr. Wilter and Principal Stringet from ''[[Chalk Zone]]''.
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