Bishonen Line: Difference between revisions

Fixed typos, capitalized "Digimon"
(Rescuing 2 sources and tagging 0 as dead.) #IABot (v2.0)
(Fixed typos, capitalized "Digimon")
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** Averted with Yammy, who never seems to cross the Bishonen Line. He just keeps getting bigger and bigger with each power level. This is probably the reason why {{spoiler|he's so weak even if he's deemed the strongest espada #0, as Byakuya and Kenpachi were able to beat him without too much effort, both of which were given quite a bit of trouble with espada #7 and #5.}}
* ''[[Yu Yu Hakusho]]'' has an interesting take on this trope. Most of the antagonists on the show are in a human form but the ones that are fought during the Saint Beast and Dark Tournament arc seem to follow this. During the Saint Beast arc, the four leads have to fight the Four Saint beasts and each one looks more human than the last going from Genbu (the giant talking rock), Byakko (the giant white tiger), Seiryu (the giant blue humanoid dragon) and finally their leader Suzaku the most human looking out of the four and the absolute strongest and most sadistic. Then in the Dark Tournament most of the more humaniod opponents are shown with varied levels of strength. Take the very first round against the Rokuyokai team. Roto who fought the Bishonen Kurama was the weakest and looked much less human than the stronger Rinku, Zeru and Chu who was the strongest. This is somewhat averted though with the Younger Togoro who gets less human as his power increases. Also based on the [[Random Power Ranking]] of demons, we start from very animalistic and brutish E and D Class demons to the semi-humanoid C Class with all shorts of [[You Gotta Have Blue Hair|technicolor hair]] then taking a huge jump in [[Bishonen]] with the B Classes who's only differences from humanity is their height or a hair of a different color, leading to a downgrade where the A Classes look like grotesque alien freaks, and finally ending with S Classes which could be best described as humans with the occasional horn, extra ears or different hair/skin tone.
* ''[[Digimon]]'' does this quite often. In fact, a pretty good way to tell if a digimonDigimon's reached their perfect or ultimate form is by how human they look.
** Palmon/Lilymon is a perfect example of the trope, going from short, cute plant-monster to giant cactus with boxing gloves to beautiful, pink humanoid.
** Or just compare either Agumon line (Small Dinosaur > Big Dinosaur > Even Bigger Cybernetic Dinosaur > 7 ft-ish semi-reptilian knight).
** Zig-Zagged in ''[[Digimon Frontier]]'', however. In this series, the characters turn into the digimonDigimon, and start out with the "Human" spirits, which... well, are generally all humanoid-looking. However, then they attain their ''"Beast"'' spirits, which are generally more powerful, harder to control, and... look more primal and animalistic. However, then two of them gain higher forms by combining several of the spirits together, all of which are back to being humanoid. It should be noted, however, that several of the "combined" spirits created for the card game, which never appeared at all in the anime, were more animal-like than humanoid, making the results varied.
** More Zig-Zagging in ''[[Digimon Savers]]'', Agumon and Gaomon's ultimate/mega forms are by far their largest, but also most humaniodhumanoid.
** Most series will subvert this if villains have an evolved form. MyoistimonMyotismon's in ''[[Digimon Adventure]]'' has him go from a human-sized vampire to kaiju-sized demon. Similar with Lucemon in ''Frontier'', whose final form is a giant dragon controlled by an insect-like creature.
** It's actually discussed in ''[[Digimon Tamers]]'', as the Four Holy Beasts and the Devas, wanting to differentiate themselves from their human creators as much as possible, took on giant animal forms. VajiramonVajramon is scornful when Renamon crosses the line as Taomon, and ZhqiaomonZhuqiaomon is disgusted by the partner's Ultimate forms (though that's also because they actually merge with humans).
* The Akuma from ''[[D.Gray-man|D Gray Man]]'' start off looking like round things with cannons; by level two they could look like pretty much anything; by level 3, they resemble humanoid armored creatures. When they reach {{spoiler|level 4, they resemble a freaky angel-like child with three halos and fairy wings}}. Straight out of the [[Uncanny Valley]].
* The demons of ''[[Inuyasha]]'' don't transform in stages, but there is a visible progression in power; small demons, larger demons, monstrously huge demons, and then the most powerful, who can generally assume a human-like form, much as the title half-demon hero's father (as shown in the third movie), as well as his full-demon brother. Another example would be the referenced father of a monstrous-looking half-demon named Jinenji, a horse-demon, who was said to be a handsome man. Exceptions exist, but size is a general indicator of power, with the most powerful obviously able to hop the Bishonen Line at will. One character notes that while many demons are huge and horrific, the ones that take human form are often far more dangerous.