Powerup Full-Color Change



So, our heroes are fighting with The Dragon. The Action Girl activates her Limit Break and starts glowing violet. The Smart Guy unleash his Dangerous Forbidden Technique and becomes all covered in green light. Their combined attack badly damages The Dragon, but in response, he Turns Red - literally, as his transformation changes all his colors to red. But fear not! The Hero enters Super Mode with his body turning all gold from awesome power and is ready to unleash it all to deliver the final blow...

It's a quite common way to indicate that somebody is getting suddenly stronger by covering him in one color, which is supposed to symbolize the power. Sometimes, character is just shining with one-colored aura and sometimes, all his color temporary changes into that one. It's clear indicator for the audience that, that character is now getting stronger. And it looks damn cool.

It very often overlaps with Power Glows, especially in Super Robot shows, but there are cases of one that does not require the another.

May be a visual indication of Heroic RROD, Super Mode, or Turns Red. Compare with Volcanic Veins, Tron Lines, Power Tattoo, Mark of the Beast, and Marked Change. See also Colour-Coded for Your Convenience and Convenient Color Change.

Anime & Manga

 * Gao Gai Gar turns green whenever it uses Hell And Heaven and gold when using Goldion Hammer. Mechas affected by THE POWER shine orange. Gai himself has Hyper Mode, which turns all his body armor, as well as his hair, gold.
 * Heroman turns red whenever he enters Rage Mode..
 * When Canti combines with Naota, it turns red..
 * In G Gundam, powerful warriors turn themselves and their mecha gold when they use their most powerful attacks.
 * And Gundam 00 has the Trans-Am system, which triples the machine's abilities while also turning it bright red.
 * Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann uses it too, a few times.
 * When Subaru synchronizes her Power Fists in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS (by slamming them against each other, no less), allowing her to use both at the same time, the right gauntlet (originally her sister's) turns from purple to her native blue.
 * In One Piece, when Luffy uses Gear 2nd, his skin color becomes pink.
 * Naruto's eponymous character has three (so far, anyway). His eyes are blue in the normal mode, turn red in Super Mode No. 1, and Orange in Super Mode No. 2..
 * Unit 01 in Rebuild of Evangelion 2.0 has its eyes and neon lights (both green) turning red when it goes berserk against Zeruel. Its mouth also emits a red glow and when the chest armor is torn off, it's skin actually has a yellowish glow. Even for those who didn't see the series, these signs (and the BGM) make it clear that the Godzilla Threshold has just been crossed. Taken even further a few minutes later when Unit 01 powers up again and turns into a purple-white glowing Energy Being.
 * Dragon Ball Z: Kai-O-Ken turns the user's body flush with red, with a red aura, and Super Saiyan at the very least turns the fighter's hair gold with a gold aura.
 * In Yu-Gi-Oh 5 Ds,
 * In Yu Yu Hakusho, Toguro turns dark purple when he uses 100% of his power.
 * In Saint Seiya, after the Asgard arc, the Bronze Saints experience this with their Cloths turning an awesome shade of Gold (most of the time with a Theme Music Power-Up) when they properly use their full powers. Doubles as a Crowning Moment of Heartwarming and Taking Up the Mantle for The Atoner Gold Saints.

Comic Books

 * The Incredible Hulk, of course - when Banner turns into the Hulk, his body changes color to green, or sometimes gray. In She Hulk, Savage She Hulk turn green too, while Rick Jones as A-Bomb turns blue, Hulk's son Skaar turns into a gray shade of green (so he is often gray or green, depending on the colorist), and Red Hulk and Red She-Hulk turn...red.

Live Action Television

 * Very common with modern Kamen Riders. Here's just a few, and many follow the Law of Chromatic Superiority.
 * Kamen Rider Kuuga started it. Kamen Rider Black RX may have begun form-changing in its current form, but he got total redesigns. Kuuga gets a rainbow of colors and only a few small design changes.
 * With Kamen Rider Kiva, only his chest and the limb that holds the weapon change color.
 * Kamen Rider Hibiki becomes red in his Hibiki Kurenai form.
 * The red-and-black Kamen Rider Faiz goes all-black with white accents for Accel Form and all-red with black accents for Blaster Form.
 * From Kamen Rider Double, half of Double's suit changes, as he's made of two guys and each has access to (initially) three forms. The different forms affect each other so that the same power will be wielded in different ways (for example, Joker makes it so that a power is applied to the body. Trigger has a gun. Luna Joker has stretchy limbs. Luna Trigger does not, but the shots from the Trigger Magnum will bend to hunt down targets.)
 * Kamen Rider Accel from the same series starts out as red and then changes to first yellow and then blue for its power-up forms. He eventually gets another form-change, which is... staying in yellow instead of going all the way to blue.
 * Kamen Rider OOO has different forms for head, body, and legs, seeming to be the writers saying "if two was cool, three is better!" However, Eiji's leg form won't do something different depending on his head form. He must still decide which three powers complement each other best and are right for the job. Three of the same color is extremely powerful, but extremely taxing.

Video Games

 * Super Sonic and the other Super Mode characters from Sonic the Hedgehog.
 * Biotics in the Mass Effect saga tend to glow blue when using powers or using amazing Asari biotic acrobatics.
 * In Super Robot Wars J, Akito and Gai's mechas turn gold when they use their team-up attack.
 * When consuming a star, Mario flashes in all different colours.
 * Several powerups include this: Fire (red on white), Ice (red on light blue), Soar (black on red)
 * A variation of this: in Caster, the protagonist appears in a certain colour depending on the currently selected spell.
 * In The Legend of Zelda, there is a magic ring that reduces damage. It also changes Link's clothes from green to light blue. An even better ring makes them red.
 * And due to a programming quirk, the merchant's clothes also change color to match.
 * In Zelda II the Adventure of Link, the shield spell turns you red. As above, anything that's the same shade of green as your tunic will change with you, even undergoing the very same flicker!
 * In The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time, you get the Zora Tunic that lets you breathe underwater and the Goron Tunic that lets you withstand heat (though super-hot things like standing in lava will just hurt you less.) And again, other things of the same color are subject to the glitch (Aveil's clothes and lipstick will change with your tunic. Her Majoras Mask appearance and remakes of OOT for more modern systems have her tunic and lipstick as always red.)
 * In The Legend of Zelda Majoras Mask, when Link becomes the Fierce Deity, he doesn't just get a new color scheme, but an elaborate new outfit, a BFS, and Facial Markings. This has been Link's strongest transformation so far.
 * The Trance ability in Final Fantasy IX. Zidane's skin (or fur, since he looks like a monkey) changes to pink. Vivi's clothes change to white. Steiner's armor gets green details. Freya's clothes change to purple. Quina's skin color changes to black. Eiko gets white clothing and yellow hair. Scarlet Head Amarant becomes Purple Head Amarant. Garnet gets pink skin and yellow hair and clothes. Kuja's purple robes and silver hair both turn red. Unlike the other examples, this is not a good thing.
 * The bosses in The Simpsons arcade game, after enough hits.
 * In Kid Icarus, Pit changes colors as he levels up.
 * Princess Shroob from Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time literally turns red halfway through the battle.
 * Dante and Firebrand do this as Hypers in Marvel vs. Capcom 3.

Web Original

 * In the MSF High Forum, Kim Turns Red, literally and figuratively, when she is beaten at dodgeball. And starts Round 2.

Western Animation

 * In WITCH's second season finale,, it comes with a change of their appearance, including colors.
 * Happens in the climax of the Grand Finale in Avatar: The Last Airbender when Aang starts spiritbending.
 * Happens in a rather creepy fashion in season 2 of Wakfu when

Real Life

 * Humboldt squid turn red when angry.