History Main / ClimacticBattleResurrection

* ''ComicBook/AvengersForever'' begins with Kang The Conqueror battling his future-self, Immortus. Immortus sends armies from throughout history against Kang. Kang's reaction is, in so many words, "a trillion-strong army? Just bring it, bitch!" And ends with every version of every Avengers, from every alternate universe, ''ever'', fighting their [[Main/ForWantOfANail evil counterparts]], for the fate of the multiverse. It's like ComicBook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths, with a bonus helping of awesome!

!!'''As a DeathTrope, all Spoilers will be unmarked ahead. Beware.'''

* Final arc of ''Manga/ZatchBell''. While the basic rule of the battle to decide Mamodo king is that Mamodo simply return to their world when their book is burnt, a book being burnt and a Mamodo returning to the Mamodo world [[NeverSayDie is nevertheless treated like death]] on this show. This is made even more serious when there are only 10 Mamodo left in the human world, as it is announced that during this final stage of the battle, every single Mamodo in the Mamodo world loses their body and becomes spirits. Remaining competitors will also lose their body as soon as they return to the Mamodo world, and only the new king will have the right to return them their bodies (or ''not'' return their bodies and simply make them disappear from the Mamodo world). During the arc, most of Gash's friends end up returning to the Mamodo world from [[HeroicSacrifice HeroicSacrifices]] or [[HeroicRROD HeroicRRODs]]. However, when the last battle with Clear Note turns out to be almost impossible to win with the protagonist's power alone, Gash's book turns golden, and Mamodo Gash has befriended throughout the whole series appear and help Gash out by letting him use their ultimate spells.

** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV'' also has a less traditional version before the final boss: After a cutscene wherein said boss nearly kills the entire party, apparitions of all of the past party members (only one of which was dead) give the heroes words of encouragement, fully restoring health and mana.

* Series/KamenRiderStronger: Delza’s Great Leader resurrects an army of past kaijin from the season (only one of which was actually a Delza kaijin) when he knows the Seven Riders are coming to rescue [[TheMentor Tachibana]] and [[DwindlingParty there are only 3 Delza kaijin and several Mooks left.

** In the Buu arc, King Yenma allows Vegeta to be brought back to life for as long as he likes just so that he can have another shot at fighting Buu, who at this point [[GodzillaThreshold presents a massive threat to all life, including the afterlife]].

* ''Anime/SailorMoon'' did this in its first and [[WeAreTeamCannonFodder last season]].
** In the first example, Episode 45 spent its ''entirety'' killing off the four Guardian Senshi. Episode 46 kills off Mamoru. Sailor Moon has to face down Beryl/Metallia alone, but eventually her power revives her fallen friends (sans Mamoru) long enough to destroy Beryl/Metallia at the cost of Sailor Moon's life. End of the episode, everyone has revived with no memory of the last year of their lives or the battles they fought.
** The second example spends its final ''five episodes'' on killing off the main cast. In a subversion, they don't revive and help - Usagi has to fight Galaxia essentially alone and her allies revive after the fight is over.
* The finale of ''Anime/MyHime'' has everyone that was killed restored to deliver the final blow to the villain, though the massive resurrection had nothing to do with the actions of the main character.
* In ''Anime/{{Vandread}}'', only one main character dies, Gascone, and comes back. The other characters that died stay dead.
* Subverted in ''Anime/MartianSuccessorNadesico'': After teasing the audience in the PostEpisodeTrailer for the last episode, the old Admiral who had [[NoOneCouldSurviveThat made a last stand to save our heroes]] in the first half of the series makes a gratuitous return from the dead. Since the ShowWithinAShow, ''Anime/Gekiganger3'' had featured the gratuitous return of of its [[TheLancer Lancer]] in this episode, the audience had been teased -- ''again'' -- with the return of ''Nadesico'''s poster boy for KilledOffForReal, Gai Daigouji.
* ''Manga/SgtFrog'':
** Episode 8 of the anime parodies this. Tamama, Giroro, and Moa seem to go up against the Nyororo beast invading their new ElaborateUndergroundBase and get swallowed by it... but in reality, the "beast" is just Fuyuki and Momoka, and the other characters are following them. Keroro even gets a "memory of those who sacrificed themselves" scene.
** Played straight in the battle against the Garuru Platoon at the end of season 2. Just when things look dark, Keroro's seemingly-defeated squad-mates return to the battle and turn the tide.
* The second season of ''Manga/RozenMaiden'' ends much like this, except that the final victory of the BigBad is what triggers the resurrection of most of the dead characters, and a few stay dead. This is only done because most of the dead characters had been killed by the 'fake' Maiden, making this incident a somewhat unexplained use of a ResetButton. One of the two 'still dead' characters died because she'd already met the requirements for being killed much earlier, but still managed to stick around via a loophole, and the other one had been killed by the AxCrazy member of the Rozen lineup, making her...an officially sanctioned kill?.

* ''Manga/SaintSeiya'' did that more than once, but a special mention must go for when all of the Gold Saints (including several that actually [[DeathIsCheap rose from the dead to come to help]]) joined forces to open up the way so the Bronze Saints can defeat Hades, [[HeroicSacrifice dying in the process]].
* ''Franchise/YuGiOh'':
** Season 3 of ''Anime/YuGiOhGX'' apparently kills off Asuka, Manjyome, Fubuki, Tyranno, Ryo, Edo, Amon, Echo, O'Brien, and Jim, but all of them (except, apparently, Amon and Echo) turn out to be NotQuiteDead.
** Speaking of ''Anime/YuGiOh'', Yugi defeats Marik's [[InfinityPlusOneSword Winged Dragon of Ra]] in the Battle City Finals with an anime-exclusive card called Ragnarok. Ragnarok removes from play all monsters in the player's hand, deck, and graveyard, in order to remove all cards on the opponent's side of the field. This, quite frankly, [[AwesomeButImpractical would]] '''[[AwesomeButImpractical not]]''' [[AwesomeButImpractical be a good tradeoff]] in most cases, but most viewers didn't notice because it was represented by [[RuleOfCool having all of Yugi's monsters appear to carry the Winged Dragon of Ra away]]. Even then, it only really worked because Marik fused himself to the Winged Dragon of Ra, so ''he'' [[HoistByHisOwnPetard was carried away as well]]. [[spoiler:This allowed the better side of Marik to finally reclaim his body, and he then surrendered, ending the duel]].
** Anime/YuGiOhArcV has Crow and Moon Shadow, both victims of being turned into cards earlier in the season, show up to help in the final battle with Z-ARC.

* In the anime ending of ''Manga/{{MAR}}'', everybody except Ginta and Jack is killed by The King. Interestingly, this actually ends up biting The King in the ass, because killing Snow allowed her to fuse with her Earth Counterpart, Koyuki, thus becoming a single being and allowing Ginta to use the magic stone that was sealed inside of her. Said Magic Stone is used to being back everyone who died, aside from Snow who now lives as a part of Koyuki. It also lets Ginta gather enough power to destroy the King.

* Final arc of ''Manga/ZatchBell''. While the basic rule of the battle to decide Mamodo king is that Mamodo simply return to their world when their book is burnt, a book being burnt and a Mamodo returning to the Mamodo world [[NeverSayDie is nevertheless treated like death]] on this show. This is made even more serious when there are only 10 Mamodo left in the human world, as it is announced that during this final stage of the battle, every single Mamodo in the Mamodo world loses their body and becomes spirits. Remaining competitors will also lose their body as soon as they return to the Mamodo world, and only the new king will have the right to return them their bodies (or ''not'' return their bodies and simply make them disappear from the Mamodo world). During the arc, most of Gash's friends end up returning to the Mamodo world from [[HeroicSacrifice HeroicSacrifices]] or [[HeroicRROD HeroicRRODs]]. However, when the last battle with Clear Note turns out to be almost impossible to win with the protagonist's power alone, Gash's book turns golden, and Mamodo Gash has befriended throughout the whole series appear and help Gash out by letting him use their ultimate spells.

* ''Franchise/DragonBall'': Most cases don't qualify as the resurrections are done ''after'' the final battle. There are a few exceptions, however:
** In the Namek arc, Piccolo is brought back from the dead and warped to planet Namek to help in the battle against Frieza, after having been killed in the Saiyan Arc (which the Namek arc is a continuation of). This ultimately doesn't help as much as intended because Frieza has such a titanic amount of power which he gradually reveals over the course of the fight, but it does help play for time until Goku is fully healed.
** In the Buu arc, King Yenma allows Vegeta to be brought back to life for as long as he likes just so that he can have another shot at fighting Buu, who at this point [[GodzillaThreshold presents a massive threat to all life, including the afterlife]].
** Goku manages to [[ZigZaggedTrope Zig-Zag]] this trope: while he ''did'' participate in the conflict with Buu, he was only brought back temporarily, and did so before Buu was known about. [[ItMakesSenseInContext He was also still technically dead]], with his original death being at the end of the previous arc seven years prior, not during the fight with Buu. Also zig-zagged are the people of Earth: while they were brought back to help with Goku's [[CombinedEnergyAttack Spirit Bomb]] and some ''did'' die fighting Buu as part of an army, everyone else was killed by Buu without having participated before then.
* In ''Anime/DGrayMan'''s Ark Arc, we are led to believe that being 'downloaded' (standing on an area of the ark as it disappears) is the equivalent of being killed. Throughout the many battles on the arc, many characters (Kanda, Krory, and eventually ''everyone else but Allen, Lenalee and General Cross'') are left behind and lost, but at the end when Allen stops the download, the ark is restored, including the lost exorcists. The people who actually died stayed dead though.

* Happens in ''Manga/OutlawStar'', as members of all factions run into each other on the way to the Galactic Leyline, and promptly eliminate each other in one-on-one combat.
* Done ''twice'' in ''Anime/AngelBeats''. Enhanced by the fact that all involved ''[[ImmortalLifeIsCheap know ]]''[[ImmortalLifeIsCheap that they will come back]].

* ''Anime/MacrossFrontier'': It happens in ''Sayonara no Tsubasa'' film after having thought to have died by having been sucked into space, Sheryl and Ozma are revealed to have been saved by [[RidiculouslyCuteCritter Ai-kun]]. The former then proceeds to sing, bringing everyone back from their DespairEventHorizon and taking the final battle/sing-off up a notch.

* Played straight in ''Anime/DigimonFusion'' on the second arc the Bagramon has killed Shoutmon, and several characters have died along the way. But later Taiki gains control of the [[MacGuffin Code Crown]] and bring back to life several dead characters, and also revives the digimon in the [=DigiMemories=].
* The ''[[Anime/DevilMayCryTheAnimatedSeries Devil May Cry]]'' anime had Dante pulling this off. Normally, [[InvincibleHero no one should be surprised in the least]] - Dante finds ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice [[CrucifiedHeroShot Crucified Hero Shots]] routine, and he's got a HealingFactor that lets him [[CheshireCatGrin laugh at them]]. But the episode leading up to his reappearance does it's ''damnedest'' to make you think that the writers really [[KilledOffForReal killed him off for real]], up to and including a pull-your-heartstrings-out plea speech from [[AdorablyPrecociousChild Patty]] set to a reprisal of the [[NostalgicMusicBox music box theme]] from the original game (the one that plays alongside the picture of Dante's [[DeathByOriginStory dead mother]] and the pendant he inherited from his dead father and brother) that provokes no reaction from Dante's seemingly lifeless body at all. As a way to make the audience actually cheer when Dante ''does'' come back to make with the CurbStompBattle victory, it succeeds.
* In ''Anime/DayBreakIllusion'', Ginka dies dramatically, but suddenly reappears to help fight the BigBad at the end. They didn't get around to explaining ''how'' she came back to life until the next episode, leading many viewers to complain that it was an arbitrary UnexplainedRecovery.
* ''Franchise/OnePiece'' had a variation in Chapter 743 during the Dressrosa arc: [[spoiler:Usopp knocks out Sugar, returning all the toys to their original forms, whom then proceed to wreak havoc against Doflamingo's regime.]]

* ''Manga/BusoRenkin'': Towards the end of the final arc, Tokiko, Gouta and the Hayasaka twins go to face Papillon [[spoiler:in Kazuki's place]], they find that he has used Alexandria's cloning technology to recreate his [[OurHomunculiAreDifferent animal and plant type homunculi]] minions from the first arc.

Compare BackupFromOtherworld, in which the the people returning are not exactly alive.

* In ''Literature/TheInfiniteAndTheDivine'', TheAgeless [[Franchise/Warhammer40000ExpandedUniverse Necron]] Trazyn the Infinite keeps coming back to the same planet over a period of several thousands of years, and he keeps collecting samples of the different armies of different races that fight there at different ages including [[spoiler: Aeldari Exodites, Destroyer Necrons, Orks, Tyranid Genestealers, Tyranid cultists, and Imperial humans.]] He prefers to preserve these in temporal stasis in his museum, but he can also carry them with him in a pocket dimension and make them fight for him under mind control. In the FinalBattle, he brings back a squad from each army to fight the forces of the BigBad.

* In ''Literature/TheInfiniteAndTheDivine'', TheAgeless Necron Trazyn the Infinite keeps coming back to the same planet over a period of several thousands of years, and he keeps collecting samples of the different armies of different races that fight there at different ages including [[spoiler: Aeldari Exodites, Destroyer Necrons, Orks, Tyranid Genestealers, Tyranid cultists, and Imperial humans.]] He prefers to preserve these in temporal stasis in his museum, but he can also carry them with him in a pocket dimension and make them fight for him under mind control. In the FinalBattle, he brings back a squad from each army to fight the forces of the BigBad.

* In ''Literature/TheInfiniteAndTheDivine'', TheAgeless Necron Trazyn the Infinite keeps coming back to the same planet over a period of several thousands of years, and he keeps collecting samples of the different armies of different races that fight there at different ages including [[spoiler: Aeldari Exodites, Destroyer Necrons, Orks, Tyranid Genestealers, Tyranid cultists, and Imperial humans.]] He prefers to keep these in temporal stasis in his museum, but he can also carry them with him in a pocket dimension and make them fight for him under mind control. In the FinalBattle, he brings back a squad from each army to fight the forces of the BigBad. (Normal Necrons are missing from the list of armies he summons, but those are present anyway for unsurprising reasons.)

* {{Subverted|Trope}} in ''[[VisualNovel/HigurashiWhenTheyCry Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni Kai]]'', where the conclusion to the second-last arc in the series has the members of the club sacrifice themselves so the others can go on and save Hinamizawa. However, since this is Higurashi, [[DownerEnding all of them are shot to death]], and the villain ends up [[KillEmAll killing the entire village]]. ''Also'' because this is Higurashi, they're all sent back with the series' [[ResetButton time loop]], and [[EarnYourHappyEnding overcome the BigBad in the final arc.]]

* ''VideoGame/DigitalDevilSaga 2'' initially looks like it's going to KillEmAll as your comrades get picked off one by one in the latter half of the game, finally culminating with Sera and Serph's apparent deaths. Then it reunites everyone's "data" at the VeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon, even including characters that were killed off ''in the first game''. This isn't just the heroic characters, either - four major antagonists from the first game, as well as Meganada, serve as bosses guarding certain areas, with Meganada guarding the Final Boss. This is a bit of a subversion though, since you're all still technically ''dead'', but everyone is still together again and able [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu punch out Cthulhu.]]

* In ''VideoGame/SakuraWars1996'', each member of your crew (except your LoveInterest) dies while [[HeroicSacrifice killing a member of the Knights of the twilight.]] The traitor, Ayame severely wounds your LI (she gets better), then [[BigBad Aoi Satan]] came and either tempts you to kill Ayame or kills her himself. Yoneda rams the ''Mikasa'' towards Seima Castle and after defeating Satan the first time, Ayame comes in her true form, Michael, and resurrect all your friends for one final battle against Satan.

* In ''Literature/WarriorCats'', the Last Hope, which was originally intended to end the series, [[spoiler: the Dark Forest, effectively Cat-Hell, invades the world of the living, and the clans are only saved when Star Clan and the Tribe of Endless Hunting, the Cat-Heavens, join the fray]]. Every cat who has died over the course of the series is fighting either for Cat-Heaven or Cat-Hell in the final battle. However, given the LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters trope, most go unmentioned aside from the most prominent personal encounters.

* ''Anime/MacrossFrontier'': It happens in ''Sayonara no Tsubasa'' film after having thought to have died by having been sucked into space, Sheryl and Ozma are revealed to have been saved by [[RidiculouslyCuteCritter Ai-kun]]. The former then proceeds to sing, bringing everyone back from their DespairEventHorizon and taking the final battle/sing-off UpToEleven.

* In ''Franchise/DragonBall'' (mostly in ''Anime/DragonBallZ''), most cases don't qualify as the resurrections are done ''after'' the final battle. There are a few exceptions, however:

*** Goku manages to [[ZigZaggedTrope Zig-Zag]] this trope: while he ''did'' participate in the conflict with Buu, he was only brought back temporarily, and did so before Buu was known about. [[ItMakesSenseInContext He was also still technically dead]], with his original death being at the end of the previous arc seven years prior, not during the fight with Buu. Also zig-zagged are the people of Earth: while they were brought back to help with Goku's [[CombinedEnergyAttack Spirit Bomb]] and some ''did'' die fighting Buu as part of an army, everyone else was killed by Buu without having participated before then.

* ''Anime/{{Naruto}}'': Thanks to Kabuto using Orochimmaru's techniques, nearly every character that has died prior to the Shinobi World War arc, plus most of the old kages and other legendary ninjas, is fighting the rest of the ninja world.

* Happens in ''Anime/MacrossFrontier [[TheMovie Sayonara no Tsubasa]]'' after having thought to have died by having been sucked into space, Sheryl and Ozma are revealed to have been saved by [[RidiculouslyCuteCritter Ai-kun]]. The former then proceeds to sing, bringing everyone back from their DespairEventHorizon and taking the final battle/sing-off UpToEleven.
* Sort of happens at the end of the ''Roleplay/RecordOfLodossWar'' OVA. Each of the surviving members of the Heroes of Lodoss end up getting picked off, one-by-one, as they stay behind to hold off various nasty critters that are coming out of the woodwork as the ceremony to resurrect the GodOfEvil continues.

* ''ComicBook/TheTransformers'' has two examples:

* ''Anime/SenkiZesshouSymphogear'' used this trope at the climax of the first season. [[HeelFaceTurn Chris]] had used her [[SuicideAttack Superb Song]] to prevent the [[WaveMotionGun Kadingir]] from destroying the Moon. [[TheAce Tsubasa]] had sacrificed her life to use [[RammingAlwaysWorks Soaring Phoenix]] to destroy the Kadingir. [[TheHero Hibiki]] has been pushed dangerously close to the DespairEventHorizon [[CurbStompBattle and was being manhandled]] by [[BigBad Finé]]. Then Hibiki's friends started singing the school anthem, giving Hibiki a HeroicSecondWind and reviving Tsubasa and Chris. Finé was shocked, asking what they were using. Hibiki's response? [[BigWordShout SYMPHOGEAR!]]

* In ''Anime/IlSolePenetraLeIllusioni'', Ginka dies dramatically, but suddenly reappears to help fight the BigBad at the end. They didn't get around to explaining ''how'' she came back to life until the next episode, leading many viewers to complain that it was an arbitrary UnexplainedRecovery.

* Part of the appeal of fighting in the Colosseo Purgatorio in the UpdatedRerelease of ''VideoGame/{{Persona 3}}'' is that instead of dying, the losers simply turn into flames while the rest of the matches continue, to be restored when the victor is decided. [[SubvertedTrope But...]]the flames are also ordinary fires, in that they burn fuel. [[DeadForReal And if that fuel is exhausted...]]

* Ironically ''VideoGame/TheWorldEndsWithYou'' manages to use this trope despite the fact that all the characters start off dead. They bump into Shiki (who was Neku's week two entry fee) at the Shibuya River , Joshua was proved to fake his HeroicSacrifice, and you finally gain access to Rhyme's Noise. Doubly ironic because the FinalBoss is the only battle where none of your partners fight.

* The finale of ''Anime/MaiHime'' has everyone that was killed restored to deliver the final blow to the villain, though the massive resurrection had nothing to do with the actions of the main character.

* Played straight in ''Anime/DigimonXrosWars'' on the second arc the Bagramon has killed Shoutmon, and several characters have died along the way. But later Taiki gains control of the [[MacGuffin Code Crown]] and bring back to life several dead characters, and also revives the digimon in the [=DigiMemories=].

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* Nearly all of ''ComicBook/SecretWars'' is a Climactic Battle Resurrection.

* The ''[[Anime/DevilMayCryTheAnimatedSeries Devil May Cry]]'' anime had Dante pulling this off. Normally, [[BoringInvincibleHero no one should be surprised in the least]] - Dante finds ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice [[CrucifiedHeroShot Crucified Hero Shots]] routine, and he's got a HealingFactor that lets him [[CheshireCatGrin laugh at them]]. But the episode leading up to his reappearance does it's ''damnedest'' to make you think that the writers really [[KilledOffForReal killed him off for real]], up to and including a pull-your-heartstrings-out plea speech from [[AdorablyPrecociousChild Patty]] set to a reprisal of the [[NostalgicMusicBox music box theme]] from the original game (the one that plays alongside the picture of Dante's [[DeathByOriginStory dead mother]] and the pendant he inherited from his dead father and brother) that provokes no reaction from Dante's seemingly lifeless body at all. As a way to make the audience actually cheer when Dante ''does'' come back to make with the CurbStompBattle victory, it succeeds.