Examples of Henshin Heroes in anime and manga.
- Akazukin Chacha. The anime more closely fits the trope than the manga, which was mostly just a Cute Witch series.
- Bleach: While a capable fighter regardless, Ichigo can only draw on his powers by expelling his soul from his physical body using Rukia's glove, Urahara's cane, Kon's mod soul pill, or his Substitute Soul Reaper Badge. The latter becomes the conduit for his Fullbring, which once complete manifests as a short sword and white-and-black armor that gives him access to some of his Soul Reaper powers as well as some new ones.
- Brave Beats features two characters, Hibiki and Kokone, who transform into music-powered superheroes named Flash Beat and Wink Beat with the help of two partners.
- The title character of Chainsaw Man has the ability to transform into a half-devil hybrid with chainsaws growing out of his head and arms by pulling a starter cord in his chest. As that description might suggest, it's something of a deconstruction of the genre, as the aforementioned transformation is quite painful and rather grotesque, and he can't transform all the way unless he has enough blood to heal from the damage he does to himself just by transforming. Additionally, he has enhanced strength and durability even when not transformed, to a lesser degree.
- Corrector Yui, whose main character was an Ascended Fangirl of the Magical Girl genre.
- Cutey Honey, whose primary power is transforming into different persona, though she has one form for fighting seriously.
- Dandadan: Turbo-Granny's possession of Okarun allows him to go into a Superpowered Evil Side twice a day, with superhuman speed, strength, and reflexes. Later on she's exorcised, but he gets to keep the powers. His "powered-up" form has More Teeth than the Osmond Family and barely resembles him at all.
- Devil Hunter Yohko, in which boy-crazy sixteen-year-old schoolgirl Yohko Mano can become a demon slayer to banish the forces of evil from Earth.
- Digimon Frontier has the kids transform into Digimon, instead of having Digimon partners like the other series. Supposedly they're bonding with the spirits of legendary Digimon warriors, but until the last three or so episodes (in which the original warriors speak to the kids), "spirit" was just a fancier name for Transformation Trinket.
- Great Saiyaman 1 (Gohan) and 2 (Videl) in Dragon Ball Z, whose Transformation Trinket consists of a wristwatch.
- Although Gohan doesn't need to transform to use his powers. It's just to hide his identity.
- Entaku No Kishi Monogatari Moero Arthur: In most episodes, Arthur usually hides his identity, but when the time calls, he transforms into a literal knight and kicks ass.
- Being a literal manga (later anime) sequel to Kamen Rider Double, Fuuto P.I. naturally falls into this trope. Shotaro and Philip transform into the titular Kamen Rider Double just as they did in the original tokusatsu series, fusing together into a single hero using the Cyclone and Joker Gaia Memories, along with mixing and matching any others they may have in their possession.
- The modern reimagining, of Science Ninja Team Gatchaman, Gatchaman Crowds, also falls under this but employs a twist on the previous show's formula. The members of Gatchaman instead use journal-like devices that manifest their soul, called NOTEs, to activate superpowered forms resembling Powered Armor, complete with the prerequisite bird motif.
- The Girl In Twilight has the girls transform tokusatsu-style when entering the alternate universe.
- Guyver is an interesting example, bordering on Deconstruction: while Sho gets off fairly light, other characters have transformations that cross straight into Body Horror; such as Aptom and the Zoanoids.
- Hurricane Polimar uses his helmet for transformation as opposed to wrist-worn gadgets or smaller devices. Said hero can also transform into a submarine, tank, etc. but he also runs around yelling and beating the crap out of people with his fighting style - Hariken, or Illusion Destruction Fist.
- Kaiju Girls features cute anime girls who possess the powers of the various monsters from Ultraman (and its many spinoffs, sequels, and remakes). The girls are only slightly stronger than ordinary humans and most of their powers (such as Super-Strength) are only active after transformation.
- Kamichama Karin, though a couple characters are able to use some of their abilities without transforming.
- The Karas of Karas require the "Will of the City" to unlock their powers.
- Kill la Kill technically is a Magical Girl series, and every major character has a set of clothes that grant them powers through a Transformation Sequence.
- Legend of Heavenly Sphere Shurato and Mystical Armor Legend: Samurai Troopers (aka Ronin Warriors), being more directly inspired by Saint Seiya, also do this with their respective armors.
- Lyrical Nanoha does something odd with this trope. Although Nanoha has a Transformation Sequence, all it does is summon her Barrier Jacket (combat uniform). She can use her magical powers without transforming. However, we only see her do it on a few occasions, and with relatively minor magic.
- MegaMan NT Warrior (2002), in which the operators can merge with their Navis in a process called Cross Fusion. Exclusive to the anime, this did not appear in Mega Man Battle Network, the video game it was based on, although Mega Man Star Force does feature a similar form of henshin.
- Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch is yet another Magical Girl example, this time with mermaids.
- All over the place in Miss Kuroitsu from the Monster Development Department, being an Affectionate Parody of the Toku genre. The titular character even gets in on the fun at the end, though her Transformation Trinket still has a few bugs in it.
- All Might in My Hero Academia has to consciously activate his powers of Super-Strength, Super-Speed and Super-Toughness. When they're turned on, he has a standard Heroic Build. When they're turned off, he looks like a scrawny guy who nobody would expect to be a superhero. There are hints this is because of his severe injuries during his first fight against All For One, which left his body severely impaired.
- My-Otome, in which the Otomes receive access to their Robes, which protect them and give them access to a powerful weapon, by receiving certification from their master (or in the Five Columns' case, from the Founder system).
- Nyaruko: Crawling with Love!'s title character does this voluntarily, possessing a Kamen Rider-esque combat form with a completely unnecessary Transformation Sequencenote entirely because she's a Toku fangirl and thinks it looks awesome. It does help that her "Full Force Form" is one of the few forms she has that doesn't run the risk of shattering her love interest's sanity. A short story (later adapted as an OVA) has her briefly becoming a Magical Girl, with all the associated trappings.
- In One Piece, Sanji has begrudgingly become this, with the use of a canister that contains a Raid Suit. He received it from the Vinsmokes AKA Germa 66, who are his estranged family. He didn't want to wear it at first, believing he should rely on his own strength and not technology, especially the same tech used by Germa 66. He later realizes that his pride could get in the way of helping others and decides to wear the suit, which enhances his already absurd strength, speed, and durability. It also grants him Invisibility. Sanji's official codename is "Stealth Black" while donning the suit, but doesn't want to be called that. He feels that it'll associate him with Germa 66. Instead, he gave himself the codename "Soba Mask", which just doesn't sound as cool.
- Powerpuff Girls Z gave this treatment to The Powerpuff Girls with Hyper Blossom, Rolling Bubbles, and Powered Buttercup.
- The Pretty Cure series, in which fairies bestow their powers onto ordinary schoolgirls to battle monsters and save both their world and that of the fairies.
- Pretty Sammy. She uses a different henshin call in each program where she makes an appearance to transfrom.
- Princess Tutu, in which the hero is a duck who is granted the power to become a magical princess.
- Puella Magi Madoka Magica: The Magical Girls use their Soul Gems to activate and fuel their powers, but it turns out that there's quite a bit more to the gems than they realize at first.
- In Ratman, the titular hero is one of these, turning from a short middle-schooler to a tall, lean and deadly super. It's unclear if the other heroes fall into this; at least a few have what seems to be Powered Armor instead.
- Sailor Moon is one of the best-known Magical Girl-based examples of the trope. Young schoolgirl Usagi Tsukino discovers she's the reincarnation of the titular ancient lunar warrior from the Moon Kingdom and uses her newfound powers to protect Earth from the forces of evil. It also had a live-action adaptation called Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon from the folks behind Kamen Rider and Super Sentai.
- Saint Seiya, which launched the armored warriors subgenre of shonen Fighting Series, as the main characters are granted constellation-themed sculptures that can become suits of armour for battle. Due to its first anime's running around the same timeframe as Sailor Moon, it's usually considered an honorary Magical Boy Warrior series.
- Science Ninja Team Gatchaman, if not the Trope Codifier, is an important early example, with the team members each having a wristband communicator that is also the Transformation Trinket for their Powered Armor.
- Shugo Chara!, again twisting it with minor magics being available otherwise — with a second, minor transformation that changes only the character's personality and physical capabilities, but leaves her or him looking the same.
- The superheroes in Shy use special wristbands that use their "heart energy" to transform their wielder into their hero self. This can include some visual differences like a change in haircolor, thereby averting Paper-Thin Disguise for those heroes who have secret identities. Most heroes can use their powers even in their untransformed state to some degree as long as they wear their wristbands.
- Tekkaman Blade II features a twist: Since many people were captured and partially transformed by the Radam at the end of the first series, a large part of the world's population can transform into a "Primary Tekkaman", who are armored, but have few if any powers otherwise: effectively Henshin Civilians.
- In Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki, Tenchi Maski gets two costume changes with a Juraian Battle Uniform when Tsunami unlocks his Juraian powers, and then the Light Hawk Wings trigger a special uniform that looks like a cross between the Battle Uniform and Jurai's holy robes.
- Tatsunoko's Time Bokan series features this, with each hero (or heroes, in some cases) using various transformation methods.
- Tokyo Mew Mew, which was a short manga series called Tokyo Black Catgirl and successfully brought the Magical Girl team into the 2000s.
- Pretenders, Headmaster Juniors, and Godmasters in Transformers: Super-God Masterforce are like this. The Pretenders are actually an inversion of the typical Henshin Hero, being robots that mass-shift and wear artificial Human skins to blend in to normal society.
- Uchuu no Kishi Tekkaman and Uchuu no Kishi Tekkaman Blade the former needs his mobile transport robot named Pegas to transform.
- The Viewtiful Joe anime expanded the henshin capabilities to include a sidekick, Captain Blue Jr. As his weapon was a Yo-yo, his phrase was "Henshin a-yo-yo!"
- Wedding Peach, whose Magical Girl heroines gain their powers from The Power of Love to battle monsters.
- World Trigger has entire armies of soldiers that can only fight by using items called "Triggers" to transform into "Trion Bodies" made of energy ("Trion" being the energy source that basically powers everything). Trion Bodies are superpowered and only vulnerable to attacks using Trion and also protect the real body from any damage as long as they are active. Though while the bodies look different (often featuring uniforms of their squad), they don't obscure the users identity, because the users mostly work for an official organization anyway (most prominently "Border", which defends Earth from invaders). The anime also features a fitting Transformation Sequence.
- The titular duo of Yatterman in particular has their costumes actually be their casual wear only flipped around!
- Yu-Gi-Oh!:
- Yugi Muto from the original Yu-Gi-Oh!, especially in the manga, courtesy of his Super-Powered Alter Ego. Without him, Yugi's basically helpless (at first).
- The manga of Yu-Gi-Oh! GX introduces the Masked Heroes, who utilize a new variation of Fusion Summoning called "Transformation Summoning", are based on Henshin Heroes especially Kamen Rider.
- In Yu-Gi-Oh! SEVENS, Luke drew his own manga as a very small child that stars a self-insert Henshin Hero called The Luke Man. The Luke Man was accidentally brought to life as a sapient AI by Luke's older sister and wants to live out the comic in the real world.
- Yuusha Gojo Kumiai Kouryuugata Keijiban has Veggievorn, a vegetable-themed hero whose entire outfit is made of vegetables.
