Basic Trope: A character receives an upgrade to their capabilities, such as improved skills or better technology/items, midway through the story, usually to stand a chance against stronger enemies.
- Straight: The Fighter Kaiser gets damaged, and repaired into the physically superior Lord Kaiser.
- Exaggerated: Fighter Kaiser, a Cool, but Inefficient Real Robot gets upgraded into the insanely powerful Heaven Kaiser a Super Robot capable of effortlessly destroying every unit it comes across.
- Downplayed: The Fighter Kaiser gains more fluid motion, though otherwise functions the same.
- Justified:
- The upgrade was always intended, and was only just recently finished.
- The damage to Fighter Kaiser convinces the designers that they need something stronger.
- One of Bob's fiercest rivals shows up with the Spectral Malice, a mech specifically designed to handle the Fighter Kaiser. Bob's CO realizes that if Bob had a different mech, the Spectral Malice wouldn't be any sort of threat.
- Bob has just been promoted from Second Lieutenant to First Lieutenant, the upgrades (which are prohibited to seconders) are part of the parcel.
- Inverted: The Lord Kaiser is downgraded into the Fighter Kaiser as the situational functions required a massive resource input in order to keep maintained.
- Subverted:
- The Lord Kaiser is simply a regal version of the Fighter Kaiser
- Bob keeps on getting new mechs, but he quickly trashes them afterwards.
- Double Subverted: ...Until Bob realizes you need to be royalty to access the Heaven's Arbiter, a weapon so powerful you need to prove you're responsible enough to use it.
- Parodied: Bob, fully expecting a bunch of badass new features, is left in confusion and puzzlement over the ridiculous additions like a cockpit disco ball & overly macho man paint job.
- Zig Zagged: The Fighter Kaiser is upgraded into the Lord Kaiser, which is upgraded into the Heaven Kaiser... Which actually removes all the offensive capabilities. However, the Heaven Kaiser is insanely tough, and can easily win by outlasting the enemy. Bob, though, can't handle waiting that long so he switches to the combat capable Angel Driver which is a purely ranged yet better performing unit compared to his original Fighter Kaiser.
- Averted: Bob rejects the Lord Kaiser upgrade, stating it would just be even harder to properly maintain.
- Enforced:
- "We need to sell more models, so let's give Bob's Fighter Kaiser an upgrade!"
- Grizzled Warrior Fighter Kaiser and Blooded Warrior Heaven Kaiser (where Fighter Kaiser was So Last Season) had just enough episodes combined to make one season of Great Warrior Fighter Kaiser (as it's known in the USA).
- Lampshaded: "So, instead of just starting out with the upgrade, you've been fighting all this time with an inferior machine? I don't even..."
- Invoked: Bob, wanting to strike more fear into his enemies, orders his already impressive Fighter Kaiser upgraded into the Lord Kaiser.
- Exploited: Emperor Evulz, needing a new unit for Drake but lacking the technology to upgrade the Devil Tiamat, decides to get Bob's Fighter Kaiser wrecked so he can steal the inevitable upgrade.
- Defied: Bob loves his Fighter Kaiser the way it is, and strives to prove he's skilled enough to render upgrades unnecessary for it.
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: ???
- Deconstructed:
- Bob is Genre Savvy, and knows that he is in a mech anime where he'll get a mid-season upgrade, so he lets his foes escape believing that the upgrade will be strong enough that when he fights them again, he'll win for sure. When he does get his upgrade, it turns out that it's not as powerful as Bob thought it would be, and he has a mental breakdown.
- Bob gets his new mech, and discovers that it only performs a little better than his old one, and realizes that he could have just as easily asked his mechanic to upgrade his previous mech instead of switching to a new one.
- Reconstructed:
- However, because Bob's enemies AREN'T Genre Savvy, they think that he's gone soft, and let their guard down, not knowing he has a new mech. As a result, while Bob's mech isn't much stronger than the mechs his enemies use, because his opponents aren't going all out against Bob, he has a major advantage in combat.
- Turns out that while said mech normally only performs a little better than the previous one Bob had, his new mech has a Super Mode that the old one didn't which results in said mech performing twice as well as the previous one.
- Implied: The Fighter Kaiser, around the halfway mark, seems to be winning easier. Though, given there's also more fights with degraded "boss" units it seems probable Bob is just using his experience and knowledge.
Back to Mid-Season Upgrade
