Involuntary Shapeshifter: Difference between revisions

 

See also [[Animorphism]], which itself can be voluntary or otherwise.

 

== Anime and Manga ==

* The titular character from the one-shot 1989 OVA Baoh: The Visitor. Less a true shapeshifter than a being with amazing transformative abilities. While the protagonist, Ikurou Hashizawa, certaintly won't be winning any points for his looks any time soon (at least in his transformed state; in his [[Ordinary High School Student]] persona, he's not nearly so hideous) he ''is'' outfitted with a [[New Powers As the Plot Demands|veritable arsenal]] of [[Shapeshifter Weapon|biological weapons]] and is nigh-indestructible. And perhaps most importantly, he seems to retain most if not all of his awareness and reasoning abilities even when transformed.

* Most of the cast on ''[[Fruits Basket]]''.

* On ''[[Tokyo Mew Mew (Manga)|Tokyo Mew Mew]]'', Ichigo's cat ears and tail pop out whenever she's frightened or excited. This occurs most often in the presence of her love interest, but also inadvertently led to the discovery of the fourth Mew Mew.

* ''[[Fraggle Rock]]'' gives us Skinfred, a one-off [[Empathic Shapeshifter]] whose physical appearance changed depended on ''what other people thought about him''; it's impressive how upbeat his personality was given this form of being [[Blessed With Suck]]. Red and Wembly like him, think he's very cute and friendly...and that he sports goofy pigtails. Ma Gorge does ''not'' like him, thinks he's creepy and scary for living in her flooded basement, and wonders if he's actually a giant, fanged, two-headed monster. [[Clap Your Hands If You Believe|Guess what happens next.]] (Skinfred: "Aw, I '''hate''' having to be a monster!")

* ''Julia Jekyll and Harriet Hyde'' had this as the theme, the main character was a girl who uncontrollably turns into a furry yeti-like thing at inopportune moments.

* In one episode of ''[[Mystery Science Theater 3000]]'', "The Undead", a witch named Lydia (who transforms into a bat in the movie), appears on the Satellite of Love. As she tries to deliver a scary speech to Mike and the 'Bots, she starts shapeshifting into all sorts of things, uncontrollably. "I've never been a football before!" She ends the segment [[And I Must Scream|stuck]] as a bottle of drain cleaner. The funniest one is when she very briefly shifts into Pearl Forrester, who looks very confused at her new surroundings.

* ''[[Doctor Who (TV)|Doctor Who]]'' – Time Lords can "regenerate" when dying, an [[Emergency Transformation]] that revives their body with a new life (and a [[The Nth Doctor|new actor]]). It is unclear whether or not the regeneration process is voluntary or if it happens automatically; in one episode, the Master voluntarily refused to regenerate, choosing to let himself die.

<!-- %% Flute Cop from AxeCop is not an example -- he gets transformed into a variety of things as a RunningGag, but the reason for it is never explained. -->

* In ''[[El Goonish Shive (Webcomic)|El Goonish Shive]]'', there are multiple examples. Elliot, for example, has shapeshifting [[Gender Bender]] powers, but he's at a stage where his body doesn't know its limits, so basically, he needs to transform every day to burn off excess magical energy, or else it'll overload at some inopportune moment, causing him to involuntarily transform with barely any warning.

 

 

[[Category:Shapeshifting]]

[[Category:Involuntary Shapeshifter]]