History Main / BishonenLine

Not to be confused with [[Anime/MiracleTrain Bishōnen Train Lines]] or {{Bishonen}}, though it's certainly possible to become a Bishōnen after crossing the Bishonen Line.

* Many ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' get more humanoid as they evolve:
** Abra to Alakazam, Torchic to Blaziken, Mareep to Ampharos, just to name a few examples. Some play this trope straight as possible such as Cyndaquill-Quilliva-Typhlosion. The Litten line is odd, because its first and second stages are regular four-legged cats, until its final evolution, Incineroar, which is a bipedal, muscle-bound BeastMan.

* ''Fanfic/NierAutomataREBirth'': Invoked and Justified with [[spoiler:Purple Athena, as her biped machine body can't handle the strain of using magic. To fix this, she creates a humanoid body akin to [[VideoGame/NierAutomata Adam and Eve]]]].

** Frieza's intermediate states are larger and more monstrous than his delicate-looking final form. While his second form is essentially a bigger and taller version of his first, his horns become bull-like (allowing them to gore an opponent, which he does in fact do), his third form, looks like an even freakier version of the [[Franchise/{{Alien}} Queen Alien]], except in Frieza's iconic two-tone purple and silver color scheme. His final form, though, looks almost human (aside from the tail, reptilian/alien ears and prehensile feet) and even seems downright unimpressive, even to the other characters, until he starts kicking ass. He then becomes progressively more muscular once he starts increasing his power to 100%.

** ''Anime/DigimonAdventure02'': The three new partnet digimon all have one more humanoid Armor Digivolved form (Flamedramon, Shurimon, and Digmon) and one less so (Raidramon, Halsemon, and Submarimon). Their Champion stages look more or less the same as their Rookie ones. While the DNA forms are notably more humanoid, Imperialdramon is not, until he switches to fighter mode.

** Hollows start out as large monsters, get bigger until they reach the size of a skyscraper (Gillian-class, Menos level). As they increase in power, they get smaller again (Adjuchas-class, Menos level), until they reach the size of normal humans (Vasto Lorde, Menos level). Hollows are created when the UnfinishedBusiness of a departed soul consumes them, transforming their hearts into the masks that hide their faces and making them monsters of unrelenting, insatiable negative hungers. Ripping off the mask of a sufficiently powerful Hollow creates an Arrancar, a Hollow whose ability to use human higher reasoning has been restored, allowing them to control their hungers and impulses, and bringing with it much greater power than they previously possessed. That makes Vasto Lorde Arrancar far more powerful than ordinary Vasto Lordes, but it also means they can potentially be reasoned with.

* ''Manga/ChainsawMan'': Played with. In terms of raw power, a devil's appearance doesn't seems to get more frightening and less human as it grows stronger. However, that says nothing about their intelligence. The more humanlike a devil is, the better it understands and is able to communicate with humans. The Four Horsemen are some of the most powerful devils short of the {{Primal Fear}}s, and they're also completely indistinguishable from human. Their incredible personal power often takes a backseat to their ability to manipulate and utilize humans. The first BigBad of the series, [[spoiler:the Control Devil]], rarely actually uses her supernatural abilities until the final battle, but still basically owns the country before she is defeated.

* ''Creature Court'' subverts this with the shapeshifted forms of the various levels of the Court: the sentinels look completely human, the courtesi transform into swarms of animals, and the Lords use the powerful, glowing Bishonen-style form . . . but the ''Kings'' are fanged, clawed [[AnimalisticAbomination Animalistic Abominations]].

* ''Literature/OtoXMaho'': [[TheDragon Discord Effect]] first appears similar to most "Noise" monsters, resembling [[HumanoidAbomination an intimidating humanoid silhouette]] with [[LivingShadow twisted shadow imagery]]. After barely surviving their battle with Kanata, reduced to a fading shadow before being discovered by and forming a partnership with [[spoiler:President]], they later reform as a more human-looking, dark-skinned androgyne, staying that way for the rest of the series, albeit still possessing their usual powers. [[AmbiguouslyHuman It's unclear if they actually ended up becoming genuinely human or if it's just a visage]], but either way, [[spoiler:Effect ends up doing a HeelFaceTurn and -- following the defeat of the BigBad -- [[RetiredMonster retires peacefully to become a school teacher of all things]], and is able to pass to the point that [[HotTeach many of Kanata's fellow students find them hot]].]]

* ''Literature/OtoXMaho'': [[TheDragon Discord Effect]] first appears similar to most "Noise" monsters, resembling [[HumanoidAbomination an intimidating humanoid silhouette]] with [[LivingShadow twisted shadow imagery]]. After barely surviving their battle with Kanata, reduced to a fading shadow before being discovered by and forming a partnership with [[spoiler:President]], they later reform as a more human-looking, dark-skinned androgyne, staying that way for the rest of the series, albeit still possessing their usual powers. [[AmbiguouslyHuman It's unclear if they actually ended up becoming genuinely human or not or if it's just a visage]], but either way, [[spoiler:Effect ends up doing a HeelFaceTurn and -- following the defeat of the BigBad -- [[RetiredMonster retires peacefully to become a school teacher of all things]], and is able to pass to the point that [[HotTeach many of Kanata's fellow students find them hot]].]]

* In ''VideoGame/ScottPilgrimVSTheWorldTheGame'', the final boss actually has three forms. The first of which is [[spoiler:Super Gideon Graves, which is Gideon grown to twice his normal size]], the second of which is [[spoiler:Gigadeon Graves, a giant mutated monstrosity fought within Gideon's own subspace]] and the last of which is [[spoiler:Gideon Graves, fighting unaugmented with only his pixel katana.]]

* In ''VideoGame/ScottPilgrimVsTheWorld'', the final boss actually has three forms. The first of which is [[spoiler:Super Gideon Graves, which is Gideon grown to twice his normal size]], the second of which is [[spoiler:Gigadeon Graves, a giant mutated monstrosity fought within Gideon's own subspace]] and the last of which is [[spoiler:Gideon Graves, fighting unaugmented with only his pixel katana.]]

** The eponymous mask from ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask'' becomes more humanoid the longer Link faces it in battle. First is merely the mask itself, the second, Majora's Incarnation, grows some spindly limbs and what vaguely looks like a face, and finally, the Majora's Wrath form enlarges those limbs and then grows an actual (if horrifying) face with an eye on the top.
** A variant with Bellum of ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaPhantomHourglass'', where it only became humanoid through DemonicPossession. Its first form ''is'' its true form, a giant squid-like creature; after that is defeated, Bellum takes control of the ship it uses to terrorize the World of the Ocean King, the Ghost Ship, engaging the heroes in a naval battle; after that is done, [[spoiler:Bellum possesses Linebeck, transforming him into a Phantom (those same knight-like enemies that torment Link in the Temple of the Ocean King) for the final battle.]]

* ''Franchise/{{RoboCop}}'' has a similar case to the ''Terminator'' example above. OCP's cybernetic enforcers (read: [=RoboCop=]'s enemies) evolve gradually throughout the series. The heavily armed but clunky ChickenWalker ED-209 is succeeded by the [[TopHeavyGuy metallic bodybuilder]] [=RoboCop=] 2, who is supplanted by Otomo, a robotic swordsman. Otomo [[DeceptivelyHumanRobot looks human]] but can cut through Murphy's armor like tissue paper.

This trope is also fueled by several out-of-universe factors. One, for example, is the RuleOfPerception: you can only add so much [[SculptedPhysique horrid detail]] to a monstrous creature before the design becomes busy and adding extra eyes, putrid tentacles, etc. just does not make that much of a visual impact anymore. The only possible way left to get the audience's attention and signal "major change" is, paradoxically, to take all the monstrous features away. Also, drawing or rendering an ever-expanding monster is taxing in terms of resources; this is a particularly important consideration in animation or sequential art, where the same thing must be drawn over and over again -- so much so that in those mediums, you can probably expect the humanoid form to appear in more episodes than the monstrous form.

* ComicBook/BlackCat in ''VideoGame/SpiderManWebOfShadows'', when first infected by a symbiote, looks frightening in appearance and power, but does not have control. When Franchise/SpiderMan [[spoiler:infects her with his own symbiote]], Black Cat retains her human appearance, and gains a {{Stripperiffic}} costume even more revealing than the costume before and has become more powerful to illustrate the complete control of her symbiote.