Eren, Mikasa, and Armin are noted to be such a potent team due to their friendship, which is later Invoked by a recap page as pivotal to humanity's chances of victory.
Invoked with the Special Operations Squad, which are stated to be such incredible fighters due to the deep bonds they share. But ultimately it ends up horribly subverted — Petra's request that Eren trust in his comrades and believe in their friendship results in him fleeing while they cover his escape. As a direct result, the Female Titan slaughters the entire team. Eren ultimately concludes he should have believed in himself, rather than his friends.
It plays a vital role in the defeat of all three Titan Shifters, as their attachment to the other cadets leads to them making huge mistakes. It even gets invoked by Jean and Connie, in an effort to talk down Reiner and Bertolt, appealing to the bonds of friendship formed between them all over the years.
In a sense, Berserk does this as well, as a lot of the story revolves around the importance of camaraderie, with Guts, who had been solitary for most of his life, having to rely on his comrades and other people even if he doesn't want to, but forming bonds so strong that he'll go off on a rampage when that bond is broken, specifically when his former charismatic leader/friend Griffith betrays the Band of the Hawk by making them sacrifices to the Godhand so that he could continue his selfish life dream, resulting in a nightmare-fueled bloodbath of unforgivable proportions.
In Black Clover, not only is friendship the catalyst for Noelle's Character Development, but her friendship with one of the mages from the Underwater Temple moves her to finally become an attack mage, capable of the devastating spell Sea Dragon's Roar, that is capable of rivaling the Fire Spirit Salamander.
Parodied in the Karakurizer fillers (anime Episodes 213-214). Tessai sells the Karakurizer in Episode 213 that they will defeat the hollows using the power of friendship, and they they actually do in Episode 214.
Played straight at the end of anime Episode 340. Kon tells Nozomi that Ichigo and his friends would save her by teaching the Big Bad Yushima "the power of friendship".
Buso Renkin: While defending his school from a homunculus army released by Doctor Butterfly, Stock Shōnen Hero Kazuki says that he's regaining strength by drawing on the spirits of his friends and classmates. What he (and the audience at this point) don't know at the time is exactly how literal that statement is, as it is later revealed that he's begun to draw on the Life Energy of the people in the school and begun his transformation into a Walking Wasteland.
Claymore: While it is a bit of a disservice to simplify as such, this is the general over arching theme surrounding the world of Claymore. The bonds and friendships that form between the characters highlight their humanity and the power of connecting with others, despite the Claymores themselves being half-monster.
Code Geass: Lelouch salvages a potentially disastrous situation by successfully pulling off a speech about friendship and The Power of Love. The most startling is probably when he tells the Chinese Empress that she can marry for love, instead of being forced into a political marriage with one of his Black Knights.
While the girls of Deadline Summoner are already pretty powerful by themselves, they can pretty much demolish anything that comes their way when Mamoru coordinates them with the help of his Desperation Attack.
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba: The eponymous Demon Slayers frequently work in teams, saving each others' lives many times. Their teamwork is partly forced on them by how powerful demons are compared to humans, but it always produces Fire-Forged Friends. Their demonic opponents even remark on how effective Slayers syncronizing their attacks are. The Slayers are motivated as much by the desire to protect their friends and loved ones as by hatred for demons. Meanwhile, demons almost never work together and generally have no affection for anyone, with the result that multiple high-ranking demons have been picked off by teams of Demon Slayers by the time the final arc begins.
Each character in Digimon Adventure has a "crest" that ties them to a particular virtue; Most of the characters had some kind of crisis related to their crests, where they started to doubt their own virtues only to pick up an Aesop just in time for a Big Damn Heroes moment. For example, Tai tried to force a digivolution and traded courage for recklessness and hubris, then ended up with the rampaging SkullGreymon, he learned to be somewhat less reckless before Agumon reached the true ultimate stage. Also, one of the Crests is the Crest of Friendship. so.. it's the power of friendship saving the day. The digimon CAN'T digivolve really without these kids...in a sense, these kids, the bond the Digimon share with their human partners, lets them grow in power.
In Digimon Adventure 02, the new team can "Armor Digivolve" their Digimon using digieggs with the crests of the original team on them. Davis, the new team leader, has the Digiegg of Friendship as one of the Digieggs he can use. Later, the team learns of the power of DNA Digivolution which allows the two Digimon to fuse together when their human partners achieve a strong bond.
In Digimon Tamers, Renamon was finally able to evolve after Ruki refused to leave her for dead. Later she explains that she was able to evolve because Ruki truly cared for her. Rika, Takato, Henry and Ryo all later gain the power of Biomerge Digivolution, merging with their Digimon to achieve Mega form. This is very much the ultimate expression of the bond between tamer and Digimon.
Digimon Frontier, meanwhile, is essentially the story of five (later six) lonely kids coming together as friends, and then their friendship saving the world in the form of the Zeta Hybrids and later Susasnoomon. This plus the Power of Love also manages to bring Kouichi back to life after his heroic sacrifice in the final battle.
Generally averted, making it an Unbuilt Trope for Shōnen series later to come. Although supporting characters can delay or subdue the villain, ultimately Goku is The Only One who can defeat them for good.
Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods both discusses and deconstructs this trope. Goku is able to reach Super Saiyan God level by gaining the power of five other Saiyans and he's really thankful for that. However, Goku is a guy who trains constantly and the fact that he didn't gain this form on his own upsets him because he didn't do it on his own.
In Dragon Ball Super, the Tournament of Power enforces this trope: Goku is part of a team of ten fighters (most of whom are former enemies / rivals of his), and the tournament rules mean that good teamwork is critical to success. It takes Goku a while to really understand this, and even then his tendency to go it alone puts his team at a disadvantage at several points in the competition. This is ultimately epitomised in the final fight between Goku and Universe 11's Jiren. Jiren is a being who became the World's Strongest Man, supposedly stronger than even a God of Destruction, by himself, and thus considers friendship or any bonds as pathetic due to his Dark and Troubled Past and uses his teammates within the Pride Troopers as tools to help obtain greater power. Goku is a man constantly striving to go further and further past his bounds, and treats friend and foe alike with kindness even if they don't deserve it. This is what allows Goku to awaken and master Ultra Instinct, a form not even Jiren can reach. This is ultimately proven when, in the second to last episode, Jiren attempts to destroy the stands holding Goku's Universe 7 friends and allies in anger and spite to prove that his ideal is the right one. Goku slaps away his attempt, tells him that what he just did is unforgivable, then beats Jiren into the ground, proving that friendship trumps his cynical views.
A lesson that Jiren himself finally accepts and understands after the events of the final battle. To eliminate Jiren an exhausted Goku works in perfect sync with Android 17 and Frieza of all people to win the Tournament of Power. The ability of two beings either modified specifically to, or obsessed with murdering Goku (the latter of whom is also a galactic tyrant who destroyed his race) to trust him and overcome Jiren's superior might at the cost of Goku and Frieza's chance at the wish cements the arc's theme of trusting in others to succeed. It's thanks to their sacrifice that 17 is able to restore the multiverse and prove to Zen'o that mortals are capable of selflessness. These actions in turn prompt Jiren to finally let go of his painful past and finally begin befriending his teammates, starting with Toppo.
Duel Masters, as mentioned above, used this a lot, with Shobu's friends constantly helping him build and rebuild his deck, and regain his dueling spirit, among other things. Shobu's not the only one to take advantage of this... Hakuoh, the aloof Dragon of the first season, was subjected to Defeat Means Friendship, breaking through his shell, and he manages to defeat Shobu in their next game.
Fairy Tail weaponizes this trope. In a series where the strength of a wizard's magic is tied to the strength of their feelings, the members of the titular guild gain a huge boost of magical adrenaline due to how strongly they feel about their True Companions, namely seeing them getting hurt. This also comes in a slightly different flavor as a Unison Raid, a Combination Attack where two wizards close enough to each other link their magic to each other to incredibly powerful effect.
My Hero Academia equally worships the trope as much as Fairy Tail. Seriously. This series is just Fairy Tail with a new coat of paint. Right down to the tropes commonly associated, with UA's constant team ups during the series, most notably in the anime.
My Hero is also one of the only shonen manga where the villains (some of them anyway) are capable of making use of this: the League Of Villains are a group of societal misfits whose shared desire to burn society to the ground has bound them together in a twisted but effective form of True Companions, and that shared loyalty is shown repeatedly to make them significantly more dangerous than other villain groups in the setting.
Fate/Zero: Rider's Noble Phantasm Ionioi Hetairoi: Army of the King is created by the ideals of Alexander the Great as collectively was cherished and experienced by the grand army of legendary heroes — his soldiers and comrades when he was alive — that is rallied to his call.
Fist of the North Star plays it straight in the final battle, where Kenshiro draws power from everyone he cares about, but it's used before that when Rei, preparing to attack Raoh, yells "Everyone, lend me your strength!" before hurling himself at Raoh and using his Dangerous Forbidden Technique... and Raoh not only point-blank counters it, but hits him with an attack that kills him over three agonizing days.
Flint the Time Detective has this in most if not all of the episodes with frienship not only being what is needed to void the effects of the Petra Stamp but also make the Great Clock move again and save the world.
A recurring theme in Fullmetal Alchemist (manga and Brotherhood anime), though most beautifully portrayed at the very end when Edward has his final confrontation with the Truth. He offers to exchange his ability to use alchemy in order to get his brother Alphonse's body back. When the Truth asks if he's sure he can manage without the ability, Ed replies that he knows he'll be okay because he has his friends to back him up. The Truth smiles, tells him that he's just given the right answer, and shows him how to get out with Al's body.
Another noteworthy example is that it leads to the redemption of Greed, and his subsequent Heroic Sacrifice which is instrumental in taking down Father. The only other Homunculus to reform is Pride, and this is only because he loses all his power and memories and is then raised as a human child completely unaware of who and what he used to be. Greed on the other hand realizes that for how he thought he was greedy for everything, including the whole world, what he really wanted all along was friends, and acknowledges Ed and Ling as such in his final moments.
Fushigi Yuugi. Specifically, Nakago scornfully mentioning it and declaiming that it won't defeat him. And then it does.
Shu: The power to use my friends as weapons. This is the sinful crown I shall accept.
In .hack//SIGN, Tsukasa is finally able to log out thanks only to the pushing, pulling, and eventual bonding of his/her in-game friends.
High School Of The Dead has a subversion. Toshimi and Misuzu's bid for BFF survivors of the apocalypse — complete with pinky promise — lasts about as long as it takes one of them to kick the other down a flight of stairs.
In the answer arcs, the protagonists believe the Power of Friendship to be the key to Screw Destiny. In that light, the question arcs can be seen as examples of what happens when the friends are broken up by suspicion and distrust.
The answer arcs of Higurashi do show that the power of friendship can help overcome anything...especially if one of your friends is the heiress to a family of Yakuza, a couple others are moles for the conspiracy, and a few more are cops who are incredibly skilled at hand-to-hand combat.
The tagline is even "Higurashi is a series about "friendship"! Friends help you move...Real friends help you move bodies!"
The iDOLM@STER — A good portion of the anime is about this.
Early in Inuyasha, it's suggested that the empathic sword Tessaiga's full power can only be unlocked if it's being used to protect a human. This quickly falls by the wayside as the plot progresses, in response to a general shift in the mindset of the title character from being only out for himself toward being more protective of others in general.
The titular character of Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple believes in this...which is odd, since in the beginning the closest thing he has to a friend is the blatantly self-serving Nijima. He's clearly aware of this too, since he uses Nijima's personality to make a point a few times.
The penultimate arc dealt with the "theft" of the heroes' Friendship Power with a number of cursed dolls. This resulted in everyone abandoning our hero when he needed a partner for the tag-team Tournament Arc. Thankfully, he manages to get some help from his unaffected mentor.
The final arc returns to the issue. Kinnikuman, stripped of the Kajiba Kuso no Djikara, his Heroic Resolve in a can, early on, is constantly shown unable to perform his old tried-and-true techniques simply because he's fighting at barely more than 1% power. His first major fight after losing the KKD is one he only starts winning when he taps into a similar, though inferior, force known as "Shin Yujo no Power", "Genuine Friendship Power."
Played with when Kinnikuman Soldier enters the picture. At first, he appears to be a rather cool-headed and stoic leader who constantly insists "This Is Something He's Got to Do Himself" whenever he's told to rush to a teammate's aid. After being called out for this attitude in the match between Team Super Phoenix and Team Soldier yet again, Kinnikuman Soldier fires back that the Justice Choujin's friendship is a rather weak one: sure, they're all pals, but they've become far too dependent and protective of one another, and that such a friendship is more of a detriment than an advantage. While everyone is skeptical at first, it's proven true twice, first when Buffaloman immediately demands to tag in Soldier when he sees the terrifying power of Mammothman's tusks because he's injured, and then when all of Kinnikuman's team wants to rush to Buffaloman's aid despite being on opposing teams. Soldier then goes on to show them "Genuine Friendship Power" in action.
The nature of Friendship Power becomes even more important in the 2012 reboot. Its emergence prompts the most elite of the Perfect Choujin, the Perfect Origin and the Perfect Large Numbers, to emerge and begin a purge of all "Inferior Choujin". Nearly every defeat or near-defeat the Perfect Choujin experience due to these battles is due to their opponent, be they Justice Choujin or Devil, channeling Friendship Power in some way, shape, or form. Even Akuma Shogun manages to tap into it ever so slightly in his fight with Choujin Enma, the one person aside from his brother that he was closest to. Almost immediately after this arc, another group, Omega Centauri's Six Spears, come to Earth and begin trying to discover how to utilize Friendship Power themselves.
The Law of Ueki does this nearly as often as Yu-Gi-Oh!, which gets pretty Anvilicious at times. At one point, the gang is fighting a team of soldiers, and the soldiers can't comprehend how helping each other out is so important — they even mention that a soldier should "follow orders and look out for himself." Which is what real-life soldiers are taught...plus one more thing: Watch your buddies' backs.
Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha is theorized to weaponize the Power of Friendship into giant energy beams, particularly in the first season where her motive is not to defeat Fate but to become her friend.
Magic Knight Rayearth is built entirely on this trope, but Hikaru in particular has it really bad. The OAV is even more explicit.
Compared to shows who emphasizes in mecha battles, the Mashin Hero Wataru Series focuses on the interactions between characters and how they overcome their differences to become friends with each other; their love and friendship with each other will bring miracles, and become the key elements to defeat evil.
In Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch, the Power Trio sticks together through sadness via pep talks and cake sharing, making it through everything thrown at them. In the series finale, Lucia and Seira reveal that, no matter what kind of pain Michal and Michel, respectively, have put them through, they still empathize with them and want to become their friends. The Power of Friendship is strong enough to actually make them waver, and Fuku panics and goes to try and take over their combined mind and body. He succeeds... but not for long, as the mermaids' friendship and forgiveness reach even him.
Mobile Fighter G Gundam has the Shuffle Alliance, five of the most powerful Gundam Fighters participating in the Gundam Fight. While they have to represent their individual nations during the tournament, they come together to fight the forces of the Devil Gundam. During the final battle, they combine their powers to defeat the Grand Master Gundam, before Domon can take on the Devil Gundam himself.
The Evil General Durahan in the anime Monster Rancher specifically references this trope in an episode where the bad guys betrayed each other no less than four times in under an hour. Friendship has its benefits it seems.
In a more straight use of this trope, the characters' courage, along with friendship, can be used to make themselves stronger. In the last episode Genki summoned the courage of every heroic character on the planet to use in a Combined Energy Attack. In contrast, when Moo goaded the heroes into hating him to make him stronger, the power of their hatred drove him insane.
In My-HiME, in the 25th special, Natsuki reflects on how she had once been a bitter loner, but meeting Shizuru, Mai and Mikoto enabled her to open up to others and realize that no one can live alone.
One can derive a considerable amount of strength from the mere fact that you're using it to protect someone important to you (chiefly Naruto himself, but there are others). This lesson is explained by one of the first villains in fact; a ninja's greatest strength comes when they are protecting someone they hold dear. (There are those in the Naruto fandom who call this phenomenon "Friendship no Jutsu" or an "Epic Battle of Friendship").
The philosophical conflict between this and The Power of Hate leads to Sasuke's split with the village.
In chapter 570, Naruto finally befriends the Nine-Tails himself!
In a twisted way, this is also the key to unlocking the potential of the Uchiha clan's Sharingan power. The upgraded Mangekyo Sharingan can only be achieved by losing someone with whom the user shares a close emotional bond (ie a best friend or beloved sibling). It's particularly twisted by the fact that the traditional way for an Uchiha to do this is to murder their closest friend, though that's not actually a requirement.
Taken literally, as Negi's artifact allows him to use all of his partner's artifacts, meaning that he gets stronger as he aquires more allies.
It's also deconstructed a bit, as Negi constantly goes through Training from Hell so that he won't have to rely on the Power of Friendship, and by extension, won't endanger his friends by forcing them to fight alongside him (not that it stops them). Makes his abovementioned artifact much more ironic.
Played straight when Negi's Black Magic causes his Superpowered Evil Side to manifest. It only stops because Chisame, Asakura, and Nodoka pull one of these.
This is ultimately what stops Cosmo Entelecheia's plans during the Magical World Arc when the whole of class 3-A (sans Eva and Chao) calls out to Asuna in order to separate her from the ritual destroying the Magical World.
Luffy: Of course I don't know how to use a sword! I don't know anything about navigation, either! I can't cook! I've never even told a lie! I know that I can't survive without people around me to help! Arlong: And you call yourself a Captain!? What are you capable of? Luffy: I can beat you to a pulp!
But the best part is when all the Straw Hats declare war against the "World Government" (a.k.a. 170 united nations) just to prove their friendship to a desperateandsuicidal Robin and save her from herself.
The Pretty Cure franchise has this as its premise. The power of every Pretty Cure is formed by their bonds with the others; some, such as the first two sets, can't even transform separately. Fans of the series' yuri subtext have popularized the notion of "the power of Pseudo-Romantic Friendship", which is sort of the same thing.
There are moments where this is evident: The Movie for Futari wa Pretty Cure Splash★Star has Saki and Mai arguing so much that it cancels out their transformation, Karen of Yes! Pretty Cure 5 being unable to become a Cure the first time around because of her doubts, and the beginning portion of Suite Pretty Cure ♪ focusing on Hibiki and Kanade trying to work together.
When Mami Tomoe gets hyped up on the Power of Friendship during the battle with Charlotte, it causes her to fight recklessly against the witch, as opposed to the cool, careful and methodical style of witch killing that she used from the second episode. This results in Mami freezing up when Charlotte goes One-Winged Angel, immediately followed by one of the most nightmarish and horrific deaths of the entire series as Mami is Eaten Alive.
Episode 10, where it is revealed that Homura's reason for going through many timelines' worth of witch fighting is because of her undying devotion to Madoka.
Most of the major battles in Sailor Moon are won via the power of forgiveness, and the friendship of the protagonists is a major source of power. (Marketing for The '90s Canadian dub of the anime emphasized this aspect of the series as much as it possibly could.) A VHS tape of the English dub has the words 'The Power of Friendship' on it.
In The Red Ranger Becomes an Adventurer in Another World, Tougo was the leader of the Kizuna Five, who literally derive their power from bonds and friendship. Tougo's weapons include the Handshake-Calibur, Marriage Beam Gun, and the Victory Kizuna Buster, all of which run on the bonds between himself and others. In fact, he can run out of power if people are infighting near him after he's already used up a lot of his energy, and he can't use his strongest weapons and attacks without the help of someone he feels he's forged a strong bond with (i.e. shared goals, worked and fought together with). On the same note, his power is recharged when people overcome their differences and work together.
In Act 2 of Sailor Moon Crystal, when Brainwashed shortly after making her first friend ever in Usagi, Ami's attachment to the pen from their first outing is so strong it renders her oblivious to orders from the Monster of the Week as she tries to retrieve it from across a room. When Usagi's Secret Identity Sailor Moon explicitly calls Ami "friend," she gradually shakes off the brainwashing just in time for her pen to be revealed as a Transformation Trinket.
Although the series is more focused on individual empowerment, Saint Seiya often indulges in the Power of Friendship. More often than not, combining everyone's Cosmo through their friendship is the only way to overcome the current arc's Big Bad.
Saiyuki's Genjyo Sanzo, a mortal man with no supernatural powers beyond his religious rank, is several times shown able to stop the rampages of Son Goku in all-out Seiten Taisei God Mode — usually with his bare hands. How? Because of the depth of the friendship they shared in their previous lives.
The villains aren't any weaker in this, because they actually tend to act much more like "conventional" True Companions than Sanzo and company, save for them formally being on the side of evil. Probably the best example of this is when Kougaiji is brainwashed by Nii Jienyi, and his friends pull off a feat typical for "conventional" hero teams: they refuse to leave his side, and instead start protecting him from Sanzo's team, which actually breaks his brainwashing.
Though subtle, the Power Of Friendship looks like the reason all the main characters survive the last few episodes of Samurai Champloo despite all odds.
Mentioned in Satou Kashi no Dangan wa Uchinukenai (A Lollipop or a Bullet), where the New Transfer Student and apparent Cloud Cuckoolander Umino states that she (who claims to be a mermaid), will die in one month's time unless she finds "true friendship", which supposedly will allow her to stay in human form.
Yoh Asakura in Shaman King manages to best the Tao family several times because they don't acknowledge The Power Of Friendship. Towards the end of the series, The Power of Friendship brings Tao Ren back to life and allows him to defeat half of the Quirky Miniboss Squad
Parodied when Black Star and Soul are fighting Kid. Despite their friendship, Black Star can't even wield Soul.
Black Star: Now you'll get a taste of our Power of Friendship! Soul: That's right! An unfathomable, endless power!
This also demonstrates the fact that being friends is not enough on its own. If soul wavelengths don't match, you're stuck no matter how much you want to win. An exception to this seems to be the black blood, which allows the power of insanity to over-ride bad soul resonance (Maka and Soul in London), albeit by causing injury and hallucinations into the bargain.
Black Star was for a time a Ineffectual Loner example. While he could beat teams in his class without Tsubaki, that tactic was getting him nowhere when it came to achieving what he actually wanted — to use the Nakatsukasa Purpose/fey blade mode. Typically for him, it took Kid beating him into the ground for the 'assassin' to see sense. In an uncharacteristic moment of reflection, Black Star acknowledges this when Spartoi set out to rescue the shinigami. Followed up on when he rescues Kid — the importance of the meister/Weapon relationship emphasized by the one who, originally, was least able to recognise it. Unfortunately, the relevance to Kid falls flat given that the majority of the arc has him separated from Liz and Patti, and that the end of the storyline involves not the trio but Kid and Black Star.
While it takes him a while to recognise it, this has a lot to do with why Stein didn't go completely mad. Stein ultimately tells Spirit that he, Marie and the students are the reason why he's not about to give up.
A big difference between the conclusions of the anime and the manga. The anime ends with Maka's 'punch of courage' that fitted the series themes from one angle. The manga goes for the broader, Power of Friendship approach by having Soul's 'musical' skill invoke the power/courage/support of all the True Companions to allow him and Maka to reach Crona within Asura's soul. Then Soul leaves a spot for Crona's 'note' to add to the tune.
Tamagotchi already has friendship as a major theme near the beginning, but starting from Season 5 it becomes the source of a Story Arc where the Tama-Friends create and collect Tama-Hearts that form from their acts of true friendship and love. At the end of Season 6, the Tama-Hearts become integral in saving everyone on Tamagotchi Planet, including the planet itself, from morphing into eggs devoid of any unique personality traits.
The Power of Friendship is also part of what is necessary for Gattai to work, although it is primarily Fighting Spirit. But then, as the great Kamina says, "a true combination isn't the combination of mecha. It's when the spirits of great men unite and become one! THAT'S A TRUE COMBINATION!"
Tiger & Bunny. Kotetsu tries to cure Barnaby's amnesia with the power of friendship, begging him to remember what a good team they are. It's the Embarrassing Nickname that does the trick, but only true friends can tease each other.
In Tokyo Mew Mew, Ichigo's Power of Friendship with Masha ups her Ribbon Stawberry Check to Ribbon Strawberry Surprise. More kickass sparkles, anyone?
Wonderfully parodied along with many other Shounen tropes in the first episode of The Tower of Druaga, where a Final Form Jil has been beaten by the Dark God Druaga... when the voice of a Goddess speaks in his ear, and every character shown so far, including the villains show up in spirit form to give support, including the Red Shirt who died early on of Retirony. Sadly, our hero cannot remember his name, despite remembering the correct names of all the enemies and bit persons he has encountered on his travels.
This is a major theme of the Headmasters and Powermasters in Transformers. In the American continuity, the Transformers and his/her organic pilot must cooperate extremely closely in order to be an effective fighting unit. Transformers: ★Headmasters has a technique called Head Formation, which allows the Autobot Headmasters to share energy between themselves and power up. The first time it is used, the narrator helpfully notes that we're seeing the power of friendship in action. They can use 'the power of friendship' to fire a great big DEATH RAY.
The greatest strength of Eita Touga's army in 12 Beast is their impeccable coordination, complementing each others' strengths, and covering for the others' weaknesses. He also states that he "fights for his friends," and it's implied that his soldiers are so loyal to him because of honour or a sense of personal debt.
The central plot of 20th Century Boys is more or less based on this trope.
Unico is an almost literal example; it seems he can only use his magical powers to help out those he considers his friends. In The Fantastic Adventures of Unico when Unico turns Katy back to a cat, he can't turn her into a human again because he's mad at her for ditching the old lady she was helping out and generally being selfish.
Jil: Fatina! Neeba! Kalli! And... I can't remember his name, but he's definitely one of my friends! Utu: It's Utu!
Yes! Precure 5: Inverted when Rin and Karen were forced to work together to save the others. They were particularly effective because they really rubbed each other the wrong way, and neither one of them wanted to get shown up by the other. Speaking of the power of Pseudo-Romantic Friendship, that's how you "turn on" a Simoun.
The central theme of the Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise (whose two main characters in the original series are named afterthe word for "friendship"). Let's count off what friendship can do: magically solve an extremely difficult puzzle, restore HP in a live-action fighting game, repel mystical mind-reading artifacts, magically write a name none of the characters remember, fuse dragons together, keep your soul from getting stolen by a magic circle, and summon an Egyptian God.
In fact, Word of God claims that this theme was originally supposed to be even more important than the card game that is used so much in the series. Unfortunately, it didn't turn out quite the way they planned it...
Used rather amusingly in the Japanese version of Yusei's duel against Taro. Yusei uses a card effect to power up a monster to attack for the win, and Taro claims that the effect shouldn't work because Taro's monster negates monster effects, prompting Yusei to give a long-winded friendship speech about how it works because 'the power came from his friends' and 'the power of the bond of friendship can never be negated!' Actually it's just because the win effect was from a trap card, not a monster effect.
Tea/Anzu displayed this so much (at one point even saying "the power of friendship") that it became a running gag in the Abridged Series. Tea managed to brainwash Johnny Steps by delivering him the "biggest friendship speech of her life" (which went on for several hours) and later, Joey recovered from being struck by lightning because of friendship.
Happily defied by YuujiYugami in Yugami-kun ni wa Tomodachi ga Inai. He neither wants nor needs friends and prides himself on being extremely self-sufficient. Being The Ace of the baseball team, his upperclassmen and underclassmen either find him a pain to deal with or are bossed around by him. Then there are Yugami's classmates, who ignore him after a few arguments (not that he cares). It's not until ChihiroWatanukitransfers into the class that it feels like someone is actually communicating with Yugami. Don't misunderstand, however, because Yugami and Chihiro will both deny being friends.
Zatch Bell! emphasizes this extremely strongly. Not only the good guys generally get stronger and find New Powers as the Plot Demands in themselves through desire to protect their friends, not only friendship serves as the main driving force for most of them, in the end of the manga Power Of Friendship becomes the Deus ex Machina that saves both worlds from the nearly unbeatable Big Bad.
