History Main / PainfulTransformation

* The Beast Spirit Evolutions in ''DigimonFrontier'' have a painful yell as the characters evolve. Ko(u)ji in particular will sometimes suffer pain and/or weakness after ''de''-transforming, whether the transformation was painful or not, leading to {{Fanwank}} about what just what it is that makes it so hard on Koji alone.

** And that's only if your puberty is "normal." If you're a girl with PCOS or endometriosis, puberty is only the gateway to a lifelong struggle with pain and health problems. If you're a boy with androgen-sensitive epilepsy, you'll soon have your first seizure. If you're spectacularly unlucky, you can develop ovarian or testicular cancer even before you're fully developed. If you're intersex or transgender, it will be an uncomfortable, embarrassing, and potentially mentally scarring tp the degree of hellish experience if you're still unsure and/or you are being raised by parents that don't believe people can be intersex or transgender.

* [[spoiler: Naoki's (Main Character), and Chiaki]]'s Transformation in ''ShinMegamiTenseiNocturne''.

* In ''[[Manga/DragonBall Dragon Ball Z]]'', Frieza's transformations in particular tended to involve a lot of screaming and incredibly painful-looking contortions. Buu's final transformation consisted of nothing ''but'' standing around and screaming for a very long time, but that may have been less physical pain and more that he was devolving from a fairly intelligent AxCrazy to a mindless EldritchAbomination.

* ''Dr. Franklin's Island'' by Ann Halam, two girls get turned into a fish and a bird. The narrator describes this as being really uncomfortable. The bird-girl's sternum goes clean through the skin of her chest, [[BodyHorror not a pretty picture]].
** The transformation back is over in almost one day and completely painless.

** Adding to this, Koji and Koichi most likely go through the most painful transformations of them all. This is because the beast spirits do bend their bones, flesh, and bodies to match their evolution. Everyone else is human shaped while they have to suffer a complete bone re-structure.

* In ''Film/OzTheGreatAndPowerful'', poor [[spoiler: Theodora]] undergoes this when tricked into consuming a sort of PsychoSerum. It's both a case of physical and mental pain, the latter relating to [[spoiler: a supposed betrayal]], and the final result is [[spoiler: The Wicked Witch of the West]].

* ''MageTheAwakening'' features a spell whereby one can force a person to transform by forcing their new form ''to claw its way out of their normal body''.
* Infernal {{Exalted}} have the Charm Inner Devils Unchained, which turns the target into a demon. Painfully.

* The {{Underworld}} universe has a variation of this (implied in the films, outright stated in the novelization of the first movie). The first transformation into a Lycan is EXTREMELY painful, but it becomes much less so over time, and each individual adapts.

[[folder:Film]]

* The 1986 version of ''TheFly'', after a ''slow, humiliating and painful'' metamorphosis from a healthy man into a sickly decaying half-insect wretch, Jeff Goldblum's gruesome and [[{{Tearjerker}} heartbreaking]] final transformation into "Brundlefly" has his skin peels off in chunks, joints crack audibly into reverse position, and his skull '''splits open''' to reveal its new insect shape.
* In Disney's ''Disney/TheLittleMermaid'', Ariel's tail is literally torn in half as she is changed into a human. The facts that it occurs in silhouette and the two ragged halves become shapely legs almost instantly does little to ease the horror of the scene.
** And of course, [[{{Disneyfication}} Disney being what it is]] this is actually ''toned down'' from the original fairy tale; not only was the transformation excruciating, but afterward she felt like she was walking on knives the entire time she was transformed.

* The poor title character of the dark and edgy ''KamenRider'' {{deconstruction}} film ''Film/ShinKamenRiderPrologue'' suffers from this. Rather than simply having the 'armor' appear over his body, Shin's body actually changes, distorts and morphs into the Shin Kamen Rider. This is only done twice in the film, and is extremely painful for the guy (also leaving him naked for some reason); specific super-creepy examples include his forehead splitting open four ways at once, and his jaw ''splitting in half''. They had to tone the costume down a bit for his appearance in ''KamenRiderDecade'', and even then he was pretty scary-looking.

* In ''HocusPocus'', we don't actually see Thackeray Binks' transformation into a cat, but we can ''hear'' his body changing shape, as well as the poor guy screaming as it happens. It doesn't sound comfortable ''at all''.

* ''{{Garfield}}: His 9 Lives'', [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6vdg2ytDy0 life 7]] (about 3 minutes in, and be grateful [[ShadowDiscretionShot the final takes aren't shown]]).
* ''DannyPhantom'' actually has ''five'' instances, all Danny. The first and last sets of two are all seen as excrutiating agony. The middle one is NightmareFuel and what follows is just as disturbing and ''really'' should have earned a higher rating.
* The evil queen's from ''Disney/SnowWhite'' becoming an [[VainSorceress ugly witch]].

* In ''StreetSharks'', getting turned into a mutant always involves a good bit of screaming. Makes sense, considering that occasional extra limbs are grown and all of them gain a good amount of extra muscle mass.

* The ''Disney/BeautyAndTheBeast'' midquel ''Disney/BeautyAndTheBeastTheEnchantedChristmas'' has a flashback to the night the Beast encountered the Enchantress and was cursed for his [[SacredHospitality inhospitality]]. The KarmicTransformation leaves him screaming.

* In ''Anime/YuGiOhGX'', [[spoiler:Yubel was [[OnceAMan originally a young child]] and a friend of a prince who would become Judai in a later life. He ([[AmbiguousGender or maybe she, it's hard to tell) volunteered to become Judai's spiritual guardian, and became the demonic Duel Spirit that was first seen in the third season. The process - which seemed to combine alchemy with surgery - was only seen briefly, but given what we did see - and hear - it likely was ''very'' painful for Yubel.]]

* In ''VideoGame/QuakeIV'', the player character gets "Stroggified" into one of the enemy zombie-cyborgs, but is rescued before brainwashing and becomes a PhlebotinumRebel. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3clVvh5gbGE The Stroggification involves]] getting his legs cut off on a ConveyorBeltODoom. Made all the worse by the player still having some control during the transformation but are unable to free them, as well as having to see (and especially ''hear'') one the fellow Marines undergo the treatment first.

* ''TheVelociPastor'', [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDNzzhCpqxA full stop]].

* The poor title character of the dark and edgy ''KamenRider'' {{deconstruction}} film ''ShinKamenRiderPrologue'' suffers from this. Rather than simply having the 'armor' appear over his body, Shin's body actually changes, distorts and morphs into the Shin Kamen Rider. This is only done twice in the film, and is extremely painful for the guy (also leaving him naked for some reason); specific super-creepy examples include his forehead splitting open four ways at once, and his jaw ''splitting in half''. They had to tone the costume down a bit for his appearance in ''KamenRiderDecade'', and even then he was pretty scary-looking.

* [[DarkMagicalGirl Princess Kraehe]] of ''PrincessTutu'' goes through a painful, involuntary transformation to unlock her SuperpoweredEvilSide.

* Spoony to Dr Insano in ''Kickassia'' on ThatGuyWithTheGlasses.

* The Avengers endured some painful transformations in the ''[[WesternAnimation/AvengersEarthsMightiestHeroes Earth's Mightiest Heroes]]'' episode "Gamma World", as part of The Leader's plan to turn everyone in the world into Gamma-irritated monsters. IronMan's pain received particular emphasis, as the animators showed the toll the gamma blast took on his shrapnel-embedded heart.
** Simon Williams' transformation into WonderMan, in another episode, seemed unbearable as well. The other characters mention that Simon became the only person to survive the process.