What would Dragon Ball Z be without Super Saiyans? In fact, what would a lot of action anime be without awesome transformations? Transformations often mark a spike in power in Shonen anime, standing as a big staple of the genre. Sometimes these transformations mark the change from ordinary person to superhero, while at other times, it is the next level of a character's power. Sometimes it can be achieved through training, sometimes through a moment of desperation or sometimes it was bestowed upon the character for being worthy. Whatever the reason for the power given to them, a transformation is often required to activate it. There are all kinds of transformations in anime, as well as variations of the power types and levels that come with them.
So, as usual, we decided to look at some of the coolest transformations and power ups in anime, and rank them from weakest to strongest. There are a lot to choose from, so we took a good mix from classic and modern action anime for our ranking. As for how we are ranking them, we're keeping in mind the full potential of the power up and we're even taking into consideration how cool the transformation looks, since style is just as important in a visual medium. Furthermore, the power measurements may not be exact, since anime power isn't an exact science. If you have your own ranking as well, let us know what you came up with! But for now, enjoy our ranking of the strongest transformation power ups in anime.
15 PRISM POWER MAKE UP
Starting off at the bottom is the Sailor Scouts and their transformation sequences. The Sailor Scouts definitely get points for style, since their transformations are some of the best in all of anime, but in terms of the power that it comes with, their abilities are slightly lower tier. Don't get us wrong, the Sailor Scouts have defeated plenty of powerful enemies, but their elemental abilities are pretty much all they have.
The Sailor Scouts don't have crazy strength or anything resulting in intense action sequences, but they do have a lot of heart and determination, which is why their minimal abilities get them through the battle. But, in the larger scale, they still land at the bottom.
14 LIFE FIBER UNIFORMS
In the world of Kill La Kill, all clothes originate from the Life Fibers, parasitic alien beings that can be formed into clothing used to enhance a person's physical capabilities. There are quite a few different types of life fiber uniforms in the series, some coming with a transformation that activates their full potential, like Senketsu and Junketsu, which are among some of the strongest life fiber uniforms, as they are made entirely of the alien material rather than just partially.
As a whole, Life Fiber uniforms come in at the lower tier because not all of them are on the scale of Senketsu and Junketsu, so as an average, they rank a bit lower despite some being able to destroy buildings.
13 TITAN SHIFT
Titans are, without a doubt, the most powerful things in the world of Attack on Titan. The only ways to combat these beasts are with an elaborate grappling hook belt and swords or by being a Titan yourself. As the plot has unfolded in Attack on Titan, we have learned that several people have the ability to turn into Titans, some with additional abilities like being able to harden or being much larger than average titans.
Since this is a transformation, and since a Titan is much stronger than a human, shifting from human to Titan can definitely be considered a power up, but not the strongest one of all time, since, beyond hardening, Titans don't really have much going on beyond size and strength.
12 BANKAI
The Bankai featured in Bleach cover a wide variety of abilities of the Zanpakuto shown in the series. There are Bankai like Ichigo's that simply increase his speed, strength, stamina and durability while giving him a sleeker, more precise blade. Then there are Zanpaku like Byakuya Kuchki, who's blade can turn into hundreds of blades that in turn break apart into millions of petal-shaped blades that can attack in a swarm.
In short, there are so many varieties of Bankai that ranking them as an average can be a bit difficult. Almost all of them involve a transformation and every single one of them is a large-scale power up, but not all of them are as powerful as each other, so we are gonna put them in the lower tier
11 5TH GATE
The ninjas in Naruto are fast... really fast. There are times when a shinobi moves faster than the eye can see, speeding from one point to another instantaneously. The craziest part about this? That kind of speed is pretty standard amongst ninjas, and it's not even the fastest they can go. By opening the chakra gates in their bodies, Might Guy and his pupil, Rock Lee can increase their speed and strength.
Opening all eight gates will result in permanent injury, which is what end up putting Mighty Guy in a wheelchair, so we're going to rank the fifth gate opening — which doesn't risk as much and was used by both shinobi — in our list, putting it at the top of the bottom tier.
10 SATAN SOUL
In Fairy Tail, there is a form of magic called Take Over magic, a style of shapeshifting that allows the user to take over the power and form of anything from mythical beasts to animals and even demons. The eldest Strauss sibling, Mirijane, is capable of the latter style of Take Over magic, known as Satan Soul Take Over.
With this power, Mirijane can transform into one of four demons forms, each with their own specialties and strengths. These forms are powerful enough take on actual demons, striking fear into both enemies and allies, making Mirijane one of the strongest wizards in the guild.
9 GEAR CHANGE
One might think that the stretching abilities that Luffy got from the Gum-Gum fruit would only have so much application when it comes to battle, but as we've learned from his gear-change abilities, there is much more than extending his limbs. By stretching to increase blood flow and inflate his muscles, Luffy is able to increase his strength, his greatest gear-change being his Fourth Gear.
By combining his muscle and blood flow increase with Haki techniques, Luffy achieves his Fourth Gear, which hardens his arms so that he can hit with all his strength and take little to no damage.
8 ONE FOR ALL
We wanted to rank this one way up in the top five, but because the actual extent of All-Might's full strength is not super measurable — since we've only seen him fight after his injury and he mostly fights using the wind pressure from his punches and not the actual punches themselves — we are going to place his power somewhere around the middle.
Furthermore, since his attacks are purely physical, without any additional elemental or energy-based attacks, One-For-All and the muscled state is grants him are not the strongest power up in anime. That said, the wind pressure from his punches alone, as well as some of Deku's attacks, are enough to destroy concrete and buildings with ease, so One-For-All is not to be taken lightly.
7 DRAGON FORCE
No, we're not talking about the band, we're talking about the power up that users of Dragon Slayer magic in Fairy Tail can implememnt to drastically increase their abilities. Though the visible changes are different with every user, the Dragon Force is definitely a transformation, the user appearing more dragon-like as their power is unleashed.
For Natsu, this means his fire, strength, speed and durability are increased as he becomes what is essentially a humanoid fire-dragon. Natsu and the other Dragon Slayer magic users become almost unstoppable in this form, though the technique tends to only last for a short time.
6 DIGIVOLVING
Unlike the evolution of Pokémon, Digivolution is a temporary form change that allows a Digimon to turn into stronger versions of itself in order to take on whatever challenge they and their partner are facing. After their initial Baby form, Digimon go into their "In-Training" form, then their Rookie form, then Champion, then Ultimate and finally their Mega Form, which are essentially demi-gods.
Wargreymon in particular can create a supernova in his hands that can destroy whatever it touches. Yes, he can create a literal sun and chuck it at his opponents. And that's just one example, since every Digimon has different strengths and powers in each of their forms.
5 LIMITATION TRANSFORMATION
Imagine having access to all the strength you would ever have in your life all at once. Every time you might lift something heavy or get in a fight in the future, you could access that strength all at once. This is essentially what Gon Freecs from Hunter X Hunter did when he used Limitation Transformation.
This Nen-based ability allowed Gon to access all of his potential power at once, resulting in his body aging to adulthood so that it could handle said power. However, this technique came at a great price, Gon fell into a coma and his body started to decay, almost perishing as a result.
4 NINE TAILS CHAKRA MODE
When a nine-tails fox demon attacked the village hidden in the leaves, the only way to defeat it was to seal it away inside a baby. That baby was none other than Naruto Uzumaki, and the fact that there was a demon inside of him alienated him from the other young ninjas in the village.
But, the thing that made him feared by others is also the thing that provided him with immense power. When accessing the full power of the nine-tails demon's chakra, Naruto's body is surrounded by orange energy and his strength, speed, durability and stamina are increased to incredible superhuman levels.
3 TENGEN TOPPA GURREN LAGANN
In the latter half of Gurren Lagann, the titular robot gained additional forms that made it even bigger, even stronger, and even more awesome. After the initial form, there is Arc-Gurren Lagann, Super Galaxy Gurren Lagann and lastly, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, a robot that is so big it can literally throw galaxies like frisbees.
Now, this is definitely enough to consider Gurren Lagann's final form the strongest on this list, but because its a power up for a robot and not a person, we think number three is a good ranking, especially since Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann is just plain ridiculous, though in the best way possible.
2 ULTRA INSTINCT
We wanted to rank this one at number one, but upon further consideration, we think number two is more appropriate, partially because it was sort of a one-time deal and because it's not actually an increase in power. While it is still a transformation, Ultra Instinct is more of a perfected technique; when using it, Goku does not think, he simply relies on pure instinct.
Power is essentially not a factor in this transformation, since Goku was able to use it to fight Jiren, who was much more powerful, just based on the fighting skill it gave him along. It's a strong transformation, for sure, but not exactly a power up.
1 SUPER SAIYAN
Perhaps the most well-known transformation in all of anime is the Super Saiyan form, one reason being that it's so iconic, and another being that it comes from one of the most popular anime of all time. The Super Saiyan form and its subsequent iterations (Super Saiyan 2, 3, God and Blue) is a power up that can take the Saiyan's base form power and multiply it, so the stronger the base form is, the stronger the Super Saiyan.
This comes in at number one since it incorporates a number of other forms, each stronger than the last, and because it's one of the strongest and most iconic transformations ever, anime or otherwise. Plus, who doesn't want glowing spiky blonde hair?