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Bishonen Line
alt title(s): Bishounen Line
From back to front, Cell's 1st, 2nd & final forms.
Karn: Actually, leading powerfoligists theorize that as you become more powerful, you become more monstrous, and then sharply become humanoid again. They call it the Bishonen Line.
Karashi: 'Powerfoligists'?
—Adventurers!

The step beyond One Winged Angel. Describes the tendency of monster creatures (especially evil ones) to become big and disfigured as they increase their power, then suddenly shrink back down to human proportions. Kinda like a human neutron star.

This can be used to indicate that the character has reached a point where he has "full control" of his powers, and therefore can access them selectively - taking the ass-kicking abilities while leaving the giant-scary-monster abilities.

The cold hard truth is probably just that this is what happens when the character has become so monstrous that they are no longer physically capable of doing the visually impressive martial arts stuff that the series is built around, so the character needs to become more humanoid again to participate properly in the Kung Fu Fighting - hence the Evil Makeover back into humanoid form.

There is also a point at which one can't keep adding things to a monster without making it look too "busy." If the beast already has three horns, adding a fourth won't make it look too much scarier. This would also make it harder to draw; the sheer detail and scale of an ever expanding monster would be taxing in a visual medium. This is particularly important in media, such as animation or sequential art, where the same thing must be drawn over and over again. Look for the form after the Bishounen line is crossed to appear in more episodes than the monstrous forms.

It can also be argued that the Bishonen Line makes for more interesting fights. After all, if the villain looks more human, the audience assumes certain things about them, such as cunning and sentience (see the Uncanny Valley).

The name for this trope (and the quote above) comes from Mark Shallow's Adventurers, though video game villains usually stop at the One Winged Angel phase. Those few who manage to go even further will occasionally walk further down the Bishonen Line, but after that, or sometimes even instead of it, often have more One Winged Angel forms before, in extreme cases, Crossing The Bishonen Line Twice.

Also see Monstrosity Equals Weakness, a Super Trope of this, where part of the mentality behind this trope is applied large scale; more monstrous characters will be inherently weaker / less important than humanoid ones. See also Sculpted Physique, which may be applied to "cosmetically" or grotesquely.

Examples

Anime and Manga
  • In Seimaden, the ruler of the demon world is Laures, an impossibly beautiful man. Demons lower in rank than himself are attractive but more bestial. Mid-rank demons are horrible monsters. But Laures' assistant and servant Tetiyus, a low-rank demon, is almost as beautiful as his master.
  • Dragonball Z features countless examples:
    • Saiyans initially reach their highest power by transforming into mindless giant apes, but later reach a power level where they just turn blonde (Super-Saiyan 1).
    • Frieza's intermediate states are larger and more monstrous than his boyish final form.
    • Cell's initial form is reptilian. His second form is even more monstrous. His ultimate form looks a lot like a very chiseled bishounen wearing reptile armor.
    • This troper thinks Cell simply gets more humanoid with each transformation. The second form is definitely less monstrous (though much bulkier and uglier) than the freaky reptilian/insectoid creature that was his first form. (Look at the evolution of the face, eyes, hands, feet and even mouth.) Also, when future Cell reverted to an egg to travel back in time, as he grew up he left behind a husk or skin that looked like a beetle/lizard hybrid or something. Certainly not human.
    • Majin Buu's final form is that of a boy ("Kid Buu"), as opposed to the hulking Fat Buu and the muscular Super Buu. This transformation actually makes him have less restraints, as Super Buu was content to wipe out humanity, now that Kid Buu was pure evil, his power was in its rawest form, and with no sanity, he was prepared to use it on the entire universe.
      • Furthermore, Super Buu turns more human as he absorbs more fighters.
    • Janemba of the post-buu movie originally was a giant yellow marshmellow man, but became a sleek, muscled demon of human shape and size in his powered-up form.
    • In Dragonball GT, the Super-Saiyan 4 transformation initially turns Goku into a giant gold ape (the same as before but in Super-Saiyan mode), but when he reaches full power, he reverts to a very buff humanoid with some fur.
      • Arguably, SSJ 4 could be considered the Bishopunen Line of super Saiyan transformations. Super Saiyan mostly gets spikier hair Super Saiyan 2 gets really spiky hair and bigger muscles, SS 3 gets bigger miscles, huge hair, and the face tends to get less human (emotionally, but it changes physically as well), then Super Saiyan 4 goes to the same as the normal saiyan but with red body fur and marks under the eyes. Super Saiyan 2 also has a Bishounen Mode effect with False SS 2: Vegeta and Trunks get more and more buff until they're too slow and can;t quite focus their power, then Gohan breaks through to true SS 2, which is spiky hair and muscle tone instead of bulk.
  • In Bleach, Hollows start out as 7-10 foot monsters, get bigger until they reach the size of a skyscraper (Gillian-class, Menos level), then get smaller (past Adjuchas-class, Menos level), until they are the size of normal humans. At this point, the Vasto Lorde-class Menos — who are so powerful they are basically humans with masks — are only speculated on, but the shinigami are rightfully terrified of the idea of one deciding to attack.
    • What's more, by turning any of these types of Hollows into Arrancar (breaking their boundary between Hollow and Shinigami, which hugely increases their power), all but a small part of their mask is broken off, and they basically look like humans with a hole in their chest (or stomach, or neck). Some actually◊ ARE bishonen.◊
      • ... and then the Arrancar go right ahead and subvert it. When they release their Zanpakuto, accessing their full power, they get bigger and more monstrous again, crossing the line in the opposite directions. For example, this◊ becomes THIS.◊
      • *However*, there is a clear tendency for Arrancar to have more humanoid released forms depending on how powerful they are. Notably, everyone from Grimmjow and up have been more or less humanoid thus far.
    • Taken further with shinigami. Swords from both hollows and shinigami represent the power level of the users, it is explained that after a certain level, shinigami (and presumably hollows too) consciously keep their swords a normal size, otherwise shinigami of captain level would be using swords the size of skyscrapers.
    • Even more so with the main character. He starts off with a huge sword because he doesn't do the above but it isn't concentrated so it is like a sword made of marshmallow to high level characters. His next level involves getting a larger sword that can hold its own to higher level characters. And his ultimate levels involves getting a mostly normal sized sword that has his huge power focused into a small form (inverted from just about every other character whose ultimate form is usually a One Winged Angel)
  • The Mazoku and dragon gods in Slayers all have monstrous forms which tend to get larger the more powerful they are. However, it is only the high-ranking ones which have the power to assume human form as well as their original forms.
  • Digimon does this quite often. In fact, a pretty good way to tell if a digimon'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 > 7ft-ish semi-reptilian knight).
    • Lalamon is similar to the Palmon example above, but more so. She crosses the line when turning into Lilamon, and her Transformation Sequence for the next stage, Rosemon, was so Fanservicey (observe) it got edited for the US.
      • Interestingly, Wargreymon can fuse with his parter to make a 18ftish white knight.
      • Interestingly refernce in season 3. Guilmon/growlmon does the Small Dino/Big Dino/Mecha Dino thing, then has an evil mega form that is a huge montourous dinosaur. But then he has a more powerful, non evil final form that is roughly human sized knight. Impmon may have followed this trope, but we only see his final form, which is human like.
  • The Akuma from 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 level 4, they resemble a freaky angel-like child with three halos and fairy wings.
  • The demons of Inu Yasha 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 titular 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.
  • Soul Eater has Mosquito as the twofer troper for both this and Vamps. His four-hundred year form is the 'bishounen' one. Generally preceeds each of his transformations with a speech along the lines of: "x hundred years ago I was my most *insert superlative*".
  • Gundam 00 Alvatore, the monstrous mobile armour piloted by Big Bad Alejandro Corner, has a "true form" of sorts in the Alvaaron, an angel-like mobile suit hidden in said armor.
  • Bishojo line: When a Claymore overuses her Yoma power, she becomes an ugly monstrous inhuman drooling creature that likes to eat guts. Then when she awakens, she becomes a somewhat glamorous insect-human hybrid... that still likes to eat guts.
    • that's just with Priscilla all other awakenings result in disturbing looking monsters(though Priscilla is the strongest awakened one)
  • After sixteen monstrosities that get weirder with each new one, the 17th Angel of Neon Genesis Evangelion, Tabris, is revealed to be a White Haired Pretty Boy who also goes by the name of Kaworu Nagisa.
    • Of course the 18th Angel is humanity as a whole. You don't get any more humanoid than that.

Literature
  • In Terry Pratchett's Carpe Jugulum, the villainous vampire family Magpyrs are shown to have evolved from uglier harpy and then nosferatu-like forms to their attractive human appearance simultaneously to their increase in power.

  • In Master Of The Five Magics by Lyndon Hardy, the Demons have a hierarchy of power. The least powerful are near human, but they grow larger and more bizarrely monstrous as they become more potent. The Archdemon, however, has the form of a lightly built human male.

  • In an example that would be an inversion if it weren't centuries older than absolutely everything else on this page, souls become less and less human in appearance as Dante makes his tour of the afterlife, going from Hell to Heaven, in his Divine Comedy- from physically human in appearance in Hell and Purgatory(though the damned often have their human forms disfigured and transformed in horrific ways) to ethereal faces in the first sphere of Heaven, shining balls of light with discernable eyes in the second sphere, and beautiful but featureless balls of light in the third through ninth spheres- but when he reaches the Heavenly realm entirely beyond physical existence, the Empyrean, everyone is entirely human again.

Live Action TV
  • Mayor Wilkins on Buffy became totally invincible while still human, but with a 100-day time limit - after that, he steps backward across the Line to become a huge, powerful, but destructible snake demon.
  • In the series finale of Power Rangers Jungle Fury, the restored Pai Zhua masters summon a higher level of the powers that the Rangers use. It turns them into furries. At the climax, however, the Rangers summon the highest level of power, reaching a level never seen before. This involves unmorphing and throwing CGI fireballs.

Tabletop RPGs
  • Variation: In the Dungeons And Dragons multiverse, Asmodeus, king of the Nine Hells and most powerful Archdevil of all, is most commonly encountered looking like "an unprepossessing humanoid with red eyes, horns, and well-tailored robes." Recent sourcebooks have increased his height to thirteen feet, though. (But it is mentionned in a few books that his true form is some kind of monstruous, serpent-like beast)
    • Dn D also has the slaadi, extradimensional spirits of Chaos which, as they get more powerful, get bigger and scarier- until you get to the Death Slaad. Although vastly more powerful than all the others and the only slaad that's naturally evil, death slaadi are human-sized and shaped. Sorta this trope without the "Bishonen" part. And then they leave the trope with the Epic Level Handbook White and Black Slaad - the white are gigantic and the black are vaguely froglike... things made of pure darkness.
    • However, White and Black Slaadi both have the ability to turn into a humanoid at will... So, yeah.
    • This example is pretty clearly based on certain depictions of Satan. Lucifer was traditionally both the most powerful and the most beautiful of angels, at least prior to his Fall. (And, in some versions, he retains both qualities even afterward.)
    • Daelkyr of Eberron, the ultimate rulers of the plane of madness, lords and creators of monstrosities such as beholders and mind flayers, resemble "perfectly formed athletic human males, possessing unearthly beauty."

Video Games
  • Omega from the Mega Man Zero games starts off huge in his first form, then becomes even bigger in his second, and finally reverts to a much smaller form... which just happens to be Zero's original body. As the trope states, he is infinitely more powerful in this form than he is in his others.
    • Albert from ZX Advent goes from a massive three-headed dragon to a much smaller angel-thing.
      • These two are actually departures from series form, which tends to a small, agile humanoid form followed by a giant monstrous form. However, in early games, the humanoid is more dangerous than the monster, since Zero's most powerful weapons are close-range, which is harder with the boss's speed. Later final bosses show greater damage and reach on their attacks. (Compare Ragnarok-Weil to Copy X or Elpizo.)
  • Nintendo realised in The Legend Of Zelda: Wind Waker that the human (well, Gerudo) Ganondorf was a far more compelling character and thus a better arch-enemy than his boarlike bestial form Ganon, so saved the duel with Ganondorf for last, following a battle with a giant transforming puppet version of Ganon. In Twilight Princess they did it all over again, giving the big man two human phases after you'd already dealt with his bestial form.
  • Furthermore in both games they have the bosses start out odd and monstrous and get weirder, going from the semi boss monkey in Twilight Princess to a giant spider who shoots out eye beams composed of tons of eyes that you kill by controlling giant statues. Then comes Zant, who is humanoid.
  • In Final Fantasy VII, mad scientist Hojo seems mostly normal in his weakest form, except for strange movements and a slightly greenish tint to his skin. Defeating him in this form allows you to fight Helletic Hojo, a huge and ugly mutant. When Hellectic Hojo is defeated, he becomes Lifeform Hojo N/A, an eerily-beautiful humanlike creature draped in white.
  • The final boss of Kingdom Hearts 2 first fights in his original black-cloaked form, then changes into an armored knight on a throne which is itself on the head of a robot dragon; after several fights against said dragon and knight, the final fight is against him in a recolored version of his original outfit, with an upgraded version of his original fighting style.
    • That's not the only example of the Bishonen Line in Kingdom Hearts. The standard Heartless Mooks start as (admittedly kind of cute) monsters that grow larger and more terrifyingly bestial, and then the most powerful of them all, Ansem/Xehanort's Heartless, is visually indistinguishable from a White Haired Pretty Boy normal human. Likewise, the usual Nobody Mooks of the PS 2 sequel are somewhat-inhuman beasts, with the few inhuman Nobody bosses being gargantuan creatures—and the frighteningly powerful Nobodies that make up Organization XIII are visually indistinguishable from normal human beings.
    • Before Xemnas however, was Marluxia. The first fight is straight up against him, using his own flower magic and wielding a Sinister Scythe. The second has him on a sinister, large, floating mech with scythes for arms. The third fight takes place on top of the remains of said mech, only this time Marluxia has a creepily beautiful angel-like familiar wielding a gigantic scythe backing him up and basically doing all the fighting for him. The man likes his scythes, you see.
  • Ryu, the protagonist of Breath Of Fire 3, can transform into various dragon forms. His strongest form, Kaiser, is identical to his human form, except recolored gold. When you use that form's Kaiser Breath attack, however, he temporarily changes further into a gigantic dragon.
  • In Brave Fencer Musashi, the Wizard of Darkness is originally a massive, horned demon-man; he changes into an even more monstrous green beast, then finally into a white-skinned humanoid slightly larger than Musashi.
  • Eve's final form in Parasite Eve is a rare Bishoujo Line example, having gone (over the entire game's course) from normal actress to 8-foot pale seductress with a serpentine lower body to taking up a good-sized room while preggers with the Ultimate Being to 20-foot floating monstrosity covered in grasping arms to functionally naked Fragile Speedster harpy-thing.
  • The characters of Bloody Roar tend to avoid this trope, since turning into animals is the whole point, but a few characters get past that point.
    • Cronos, one of the potential final fighters, turns into a very nonhuman penguin when he powers up a little. Turn on the Ominous Latin Chanting, however, and he can transform into a phoenix that looks like a human with a beak and feathers before he kills you.
    • Uranus is an even better example, as she first turns into a fearsome chimeric beast with her normal powerup, but her strongest form looks like her normal one, just glowing.
    • Uriko is also exhibits a degree of this. In the original game, as the Final Boss, her beast transformation consisted of going from a little girl to a full-grown woman, sprouting cat ears, and her hair turning green. Later, when she's less powerful, her beast form, although still less animalistic than the others, is noticeably more feline. She also exhibits going to the One Winged Angel again, as in the first game, her ultimate form is a grotesque chimera.
  • The original Shadow Hearts features this. Although Yuri's fusion souls are all roughly human-sized, they generally get more bizarre or monstrous as they get more powerful, with the second-most-powerful, Amon, being a hulking, monstrous demon with a blade on one arm. However, his most powerful, the Seraphic Radiance, is just him, glowing white, with black wings and mystic-looking tattoos.
  • If you count the Despair Embodied of Devil May Cry 2 as a second form of the immediately preceding boss, as some Fan Fic writers do (it's not made clear in canon), this would apply. This does not occur in the other games of the series.
  • In Viewtiful Joe, it is revealed that Captain Blue, Joe's movie hero, is in fact the true villain of the piece. He transforms into his monstrous "King Blue" form that is so large, Joe must face him in his Humongous Mecha "Six Majin". After the battle, Joe jumps to the nearby platform to commence the final battle; Blue appears again, much younger and more muscular than he ever was before. After being defeated, he reverts back to his older, overweight form.
  • Dhaos from Tales Of Phantasia fights you as is, then turns into his presumably true alien form. After beating that, though, he returns to being a humanoid, albeit very tall, suited in white, and sporting angel wings.
    • The final boss of Tales Of Hearts fuses with the core of a giant planet-eating parasite to fight you, has a big magical lump of flesh for an ally, and can summon monsters, walls, and spikes from the room itself to attack you with. After beating that, you enter his mind and fight his "true self", which is him with a bunch of power crystals, a silly collar... and powerful spells, a tough defense, and a Limit Break.
  • In Baten Kaitos, the final boss fight is against Malpercio, whose body is a hideous frankenstein made up of the body parts of various dead gods. After he's beaten, though, Melodia combines with him, turning him into a more humanoid figure with wings on his head.
  • In the original PC Engine version of Castlevania: Rondo of Blood (and the prologue sequence to its sequel, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night), Dracula's second - and final - form is a giant, fire-breathing, bat-winged reptile, which you fight in an Amazing Technicolor Battlefield. In the PSP remake featured in The Dracula X Chronicles, however, he assumes his human form again for the final round after you've defeated the lizard.
  • At the end of Metroid Prime, the titular chracter turns from a demonic giant black arachnoid into what appears to be the mixture of an octopus, a normal Metroid, and a human face. While practically easier than its previous form, it cannot be hurt by weaponry not based on the substance it feeds on and produces (Phazon). Samus did have the ability to use that material, but anyone else would have been doomed.
    • The trope is played even straighter with what happens after you defeat Metroid Prime's second form though: it turns into a Phazon clone of Samus.
    • Also, at the end in Metroid Prime 2, the Emperor Ing goes from being what resembles a giant eye to a much larger version of the basic Warrior Ing.
  • In the episodic computer game Time Runners, the main character (a teenager from Earth) travels through time and dimensions to fight monstruous "Chronodemons": a robot, a cyborg, a sentient spider, a necromancer, a mutated human and a zombie pharaoh. For the final duel, is pitted against the creator of the Chronodemons: an exact lookalike of him.
  • Used in, of all things, the DS version of Nicktoons: Globs of Doom with Big Bad Globulous Maximus, who goes from a gooey cyclops meteor taking up the entire screen to a flying slime man the size of SpongeBob SquarePants.
  • Metal Gear Solid 4: In the boss fight against Ocelot, he slowly regresses in his mind to his Bishonen younger days. However, since this is only in his mind, he remains looking like an old man, and only his movements become more 'bishounen'. Note also that the Life Bars change as well!
  • The fianl boss of Castle Crashers is an evil wizard who first fights you by controlling crystals on a throne, then fights you on foot with a magic wand, then bloats up like a balloon and drops magical bombs, and finally becomes an enormous bat creature. When you defeat that, he regresses back through his balloon form to his normal form, where he summons a gigantic sword for one final battle.
  • In Fallout 3, the basic Mirelurks are bipedal mutant crabs. Mirelurk Hunters are bigger and spikier, and have more limbs. Mirelurk Kings, the "leaders" of a particular brood of Mirelurks, look more like gillmen.
  • In Zone Of The Enders there are gigantic battleship-sized Orbital Frames, but the most powerful Orbital Frames ever made are comparatively small and bipedal. They get more powerful when they lose a lot of their armor and look even more human-like.
  • Wesker and Krauser in the Resident Evil series.
  • In Chrono Trigger, Big Bad Lavos appears first as a gigantic rock-monster◊, then as a huge armored robot-thing◊, and finally as a little floating guy with flipper-hands◊. Actually, he's not even that guy—he's a little floating blob to the right of the floating guy with flipper-hands.
  • In Phantasy Star IV, the Dark Force appears multiple times. First, as a monstrous head and shoulders attached to the satellite, and second in the form of a giant spider with the same head. Then it hides inside the form of a human archaeologist with dark magical powers, allowing it to hunt for the Aeroprism. When the party finds the Aeroprism, he transforms into the third Dark Force, which is a humanoid demon much smaller than either of the others.
    • Even more the case with the Profound Darkness. First form: a collection of mouths and red eyes on a blob of purple flesh. Second form, it's got green-gray armor, plenty of appendages, but only one mouth and not as many eyes. The third form? A giant gray human female with bony wings and seven eyes in symmetrical positions on the thighs, wings and forehead; if you hadn't seen the prior forms, you'd probably take them as gems.

Western Animation
  • Following his transformation into a genie, Jafar from Disney's Aladdin briefly becomes a huge, red, menacing figure before Aladdin commands him to return to his lamp. In the beginning of the sequel, The Return of Jafar, Jafar is briefly seen in this world-annihilating form before reverting to his original human form (but retaining his genie powers). And then goes back to his genie form when he decides to kill Aladdin et al personally.
    • He chose his original human form because there was no way he'd be able to talk to/persuade/order around Abis Mal without the latter freaking out. He even lampshades it with the line. "I trust you find me a little less overwhelming now?"

Other
  • An interesting real-life variation of this trope concerns supercars. specifically: as cars move up in speed, power, and handling, they become more bizarre-looking with overdesigned, sculpted bodies, and bringing them to the edge of their power makes them feel like they're going to shake themselves apart. at the very very top of the charts, however, are cars like the Bugatti Veyron - they look like very elegantly designed normal cars, and handle just as smoothly as a luxury car.
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