My choice is Guts from Berserk, him and Onizuka Eiikichi are my favorites, naruto would be too, but like a previous poster said, they ruined the character, being the son of the hokage was the last shot, i liked his atitude, how he fought harder and harder, it was like he was saying that everone can win if they work hard, the problem is, not everone is the son of a hokage.( maybe this sound weird, but I guess I made my point)
About ichigo,(Bleach) well, i like him, i like how he "kick ass"( well, almost 90% of male leads in anime Kick ass, so what makes ichigo different from the others? nothing), but to tell the truth, in terms of development, well, the ichigo from the new arc(after aizen defeat) is the same ichigo from chapter 1, he didn't develop at all, the problem with ichigo(and many male leads in anime) is that he lives in a black and white world, he is always right (at least for 99% of the time) and almost never make mistakes, and go on lecturing people like is "nothing", i was inclined to give him some respect after he chose to give up his power to stop aizen, but now his power will be restored, well, then what was the price he paid to stop aizen? nothing, he never pay any price for his power, his hollow never go out of control and kill someone (just hurting a little don't count), nothing ever happen to him, is like his choices don't have consequences, he never make a "morally wrong" choice, and this make me feel disgust for the character, also the getsuga tenshou is already over used, I was expecting a mind blowing strategy to kill aizen, something that makes me think for weeks after " that thing was epic, why i never didn't think of something epic like that? ", but what i get? a bigger getsuga tenshou, he didn't grow mentally, if the next villain is defeat by a "bigger getsuga tenshou" i quiting bleach.
Don't get me wrong, I like ichigo, the fights in bleach are epic, but as a person who is growing, ichigo appear to be like he is still five year old, someone who Isn't ready to handle a situation that demands a person with a mature mind, capable of making hard choices.
I know we are talking about characters from anime here, but there two character who i consider my best male leads, one is Taichi from Cross channel( a eroge), and the other is jon snow from a song of fire and ice(a book).
Lately when i begin to read a book/mangá, or watch anime, most of the time i begin to fell sympathy for the sidekick or the villain, and to feel disgust for the lead character, at lest the sidekick/villain have to work hard(most of the time) to reach the place where he is now, some animes make me feel sad for the villain, who (surprisingly is a ok guy) worked hard to gain his power, only to have a kid come out from nowhere, receiving help from almost all the planet, and kill him, they say hard work pay off, guess not.
I find funny how some of the male leads say they never cheat in a fight, but five(heroes) against one villain sound suspicios like cheating for me.