Painful Transformations in Anime and Manga.
- No transformation fits this trope better than Tetsuo's mutation in AKIRA which also may be one of the most over-the-top examples of Body Horror ever depicted.
- A lot of this in Arc the Lad, as for chimera transformations. A lot.
- Transforming into a Hollow in Bleach seems to be an agonizing process, if the Pluses' reactions to it are to go by.
- In Blood+, the transition from human to chiropteran is not pleasant. For example, when Saya is forced to turn her little brother to save his life after her Psychopathic Manchild of a twin sister nearly kills him, Riku just convulses and screams his head off before falling into a coma for several days.
- Mamoru Kusanagi from Blue Seed bleeds green blood when he brings out his arm blades.
- In Case Closed, Shinichi's transformation to Conan is painful each time he goes through it. Understandable, as his body was literally undergoing apoptosis. To give some idea, he constantly describes his de-aging as feeling like his bones are melting and begins to sweat profusely while clutching the left side of his chest, like he's having a heart attack. The first time he re-aged, he ended up bedridden and thought he was actually dying. Both types of transformation also cause him to burn up so much that his body is literally smoking (or maybe steaming) as it happens. Poor guy.
- In Devil Man, when a person is infected with a demonic spirit they scream in pain as they are transformed into demons.
- Digimon:
- Digimon Frontier: The Beast Spirit Evolutions have a painful yell as the characters evolve. Kouji 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 Kouji alone. Adding to this, Kouji and Kouichi most likely go through the most painful transformations of them all. This may be because the Beast Spirits bend their bones, flesh, and bodies to match their evolution. Everyone else is rather human-shaped while these two have to suffer a complete bone re-structure.
- Although not quite as much, the evolution sequences in Digimon Tamers show the Digimon in slight pain as their skin is peeled off.
- D.N.Angel:
- Hiwatari's transformation into Krad is very painful, one of the factors being the fact that he usually fights it quite hard. Contrast with Daisuke's relatively easy transformation in to Dark, only experiencing pain for the first time and when he grows his own wings in the final episodes.
- In the manga, Daisuke feels pain when transforming after Risa was kidnapped off the Farris Wheel because he transformed with anger, not love. This could also explain why transforming is so painful for Satoshi. The one time he did transform with little-to-no pain was after diving to save Risa when she fell off the tower, transforming out of "love" (according to some fans).
- Dragon Ball Z:
- Freeza's transformations in particular tended to involve a lot of screaming and incredibly painful-looking contortions.
- Buu's de-transformation from Super Buu to Kid Buu 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 Ax-Crazy to a mindless Omnicidal Maniac.
- Ditto for Goku's first-time Super Saiyan 1 and 3 transformations. Goku's transformation into SSJ3 however is more exhausting than painful though.
- The Legendary Super Saiyan's first transformation of Broly (in his first movie) and Kale (in Dragon Ball Super) seems to be extremely painful.
- For Broly (DBS), the Wrath State causes him a great deal of physical pain due to his power erupting and his body expanding in muscle mass. He can be seen clutching his head in pain, and though it seems like it, the constant screaming is not entirely because he's angry, but due to the constant pain he's in. It only gets worse when Broly turns Super Saiyan, where he loses all trace of sanity.
- In Ergo Proxy, Ergo Proxy's first couple of on-screen transformations involve lots of painful screaming. The transition seems to become smoother later on.
- Various instances in Eto Rangers:
- While it's not explored much in the show, Hols's Super Mode, changing from an anthropomorphic bull into a much stronger feral one, is implied to cause him a lot of pain and distress in his Image Song. Understandable, considering that his Transformation Trinket — the color red — is, as he points out in the song, completely unavoidable.
- When under Jyuken the Gatekeeper's control, Pochiro, Pakaracchi, and Tart begin to come to their senses, only for Jyuken to stop it in its tracks by forcing the former two into hulking monstrosities. Tart successfully fights the transformation process, but judging from her cringing and inability to move, it certainly wasn't an easy fight, and she almost lost.
- Chocolat's transformation into Nyanma. Evil energy pulses around her, her eyes dilate, her muscles tighten, and she screams in agony the whole time.
- Eureka Seven: Eureka's wings growing from her back is not a pleasant experience.
- Tsubasa's first transformation into Figure 17 Tsubasa & Hikaru seems to cause her pain for unknown reasons, although as she's presented floating in some kind of Cyber Space environment, it might be purely mental.
- In Fullmetal Alchemist, Ling's transformation into Greed and Bradley's transformation into Wrath both have the transformees look like they're being torn apart and Bradley describes it as a continuous cycle of dying and being revived until he pulls through.
- The title haibane of Haibane Renmei are born looking like normal humans, until their wings grow during their first night in the town. Having a pair of wings explode out from one's shoulder blades is about as painful as it sounds.
- Not sure if it counts as a transformation, but in Hell Girl season 3, Yuzuki after being possessed by Ai goes through a surreal sequence where she convulses and screams as this egg-thing comes out of her back. The poor girl has to go through this every time Ai is contracted to send someone to Hell.
- A slightly different version in Howl's Moving Castle - Howl can turn into a giant bird-thing pretty easily. It's changing back that hurts.
- Late in Inuyasha, the title character is forced to use a Jewel Shard on the Tetsusaiga to give him a power boost; however, the jewel becomes corrupted and forces him to transform into a full demon. Given how much he is screaming, it's safe to assume the forced transformation is pretty damn painful.
- When Akatsuki from Log Horizon uses the shapeshifting potion to edit her character, the transformation is accompanied by bursts of light, sickening cracking sounds and a lot of screaming.
- Lyrical Nanoha:
- Vivio's forced transformation into her Sankt Kaiser form in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS involved a lot of convulsing and screaming in pain.
- Hayate's similar transformation at the end of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's appears similarly painful, but as her body is at this point being controlled by an A.I., it seems unlikely that she felt it.
- In Mahou no Mako-chan, Mako's transformation
from mermaid to human is pretty disturbing, complete with Deranged Animation, Mako screaming, and the ocean and moon turning red. - When the title character of Naruto releases his Demon Fox power at the four tails level, his skin peels off before burning into ash, and blood covers his entire body to form the Kyuubi's body. Also, he loses consciousness because of the injuries to his body, and the Demon Fox takes control of it. Changing back is also incredibly painful as he temporarily has no skin. Even the lesser forms are painful to an extent. The chakra is poisonous to Naruto and constantly burns his skin, only the accelerated healing it grants preventing him from succumbing to the damage.
- In Negima! Magister Negi Magi, the chronic soul pains that Negi suffers ever since learning Magia Erebea are a symptom of him being turned into a demon by overuse of the technique.
- Princess Kraehe of Princess Tutu goes through a painful, involuntary transformation to unlock her Superpowered Evil Side.
- Evangelion Unit 02's Beast Mode in Rebuild of Evangelion 2.0 requires of a painful realignment of the spine held in place by 10 pylons, all fed back to the pilot via Empathic Link. Mari was very visibly affected by this.
- While it is inconsistently portrayed (at least in the manga), the more extreme renditions of Chise's transformations into the Ultimate Weapon in Saikano are agonizingly painful for her.
- In s-CRY-ed, Kazuma and eventually Ryuho, Martin Zigmarl and Straight Cougar damage their bodies when they go into their alter forms. Usually, the scars appear where the armor does. For example Kazuma gets scars on his arm, then on his face and even part of his hair starts to change. By the end of the series, he doesn't even open his right eye unless he's in his alter form (which he might possibly not even have outside of his alter form). They look pretty scary during the last fight.
- Tiara and Leon's transformations in Shamanic Princess. At least those work like they're supposed to — it gets worse when her best friend forces the transformation.
- The victims of Stigma's rings in Shy are forced to relive their darkest emotions which materialize in the form of dark crystals, making them look like japanese oni. They also lose most of their self-control, leading to them attempting suicide or going on rampages.
- Valgaav from Slayers TRY is capable of a partial transformation into his dragon form. The transformation appears so painful to him that he never manages to transform fully.
- Even though Ichika's later transformations in Uta∽Kata are perhaps not physically painful as such (although she tends to become nauseous), they are extremely unwanted and emotionally scarring.
- Yu-Gi-Oh!:
- In Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, Yubel was originally a young child and a friend of a prince who would become Judai in a later life. He (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.
- Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V: Whenever any of the four boys Awaken, they are often mentally in pain, their bodies heat up and their chests tighten up.
