History Main / FrillyUpgrade

* “Anime/PrettyCure”:

* ''Animation/FlowerFairy'': It becomes a once-per-season trend starting with the Season 1 finale for the main magical girls' costumes to become frillier and more over-the-top in their appearances with each subsequent upgrade. It happens to Xia An'an's outfit in the season finale after a darkest hour of sorts.

* ''Franchise/SailorMoon'', as mentioned above.
** The Super forms added heart buttons, wingy skirt details, gauzy shoulder pads and humongous back bows for all, as well as extra skirt colours, brooch details and hair accessories for the lead. Eternal Sailor Moon was the frilliest of all, with flying ribbons and wings everywhere. An episode of the first [[Anime/SailorMoon anime]] actually plays with it, when Usagi is unable to navigate a small room with many people (The Inners, Uranus, Neptune, The Starlights, two members of the QuirkyMiniBossSquad and the MonsterOfTheWeek for a total of 13 people) without knocking things over. The sounds of objects breaking [[LampshadeHanging can be heard]] as she does her InTheNameOfTheMoon speech (Though not seen due to stock footage). Thankfully the room in question is her family's dining room.
** In addition to giving a MessianicArchetype [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotSymbolic the power to save the world from evil]], the [[MacGuffin Holy Grail]] causes new hairclips to appear in Sailor Chibi Moon's hair upon its first use by Sailor Moon. Only in the Anime though, she had those clips since her first appearance in the manga.
** In a twist, everyone on the team (except Moon and Chibi Moon) gets more and more uniform as time goes by. Their super form takes away their (semi) unique chokers, brooches, and sleeves. Their [[Manga/SailorMoon manga]]-only third form (Which goes unnamed in the manga) finishes the job by getting rid of their unique earrings and shoes, and makes their back bows all a lighter shade of their primary colors. Although each solider still has her own color scheme, their uniforms in the Stars manga are otherwise identical.
** Chibi Moon matched Moon except for colors in her first two uniforms... then the 3rd made her identical to the other Senshi.
** There ''does'' appear to be an upper limit, however, as Sailor Moon's final power-up illustrates; in the finale her costume crosses something akin to the BishounenLine and she spends the episode [[BarbieDollAnatomy naked]] save for [[PerpetualMolt great feathered wings]] and the Ginzuishou over her heart.
** Interestingly, her implied final form in the manga, Sailor Cosmos, has a much simpler costume, dropping many of the excess ribbons, bows, jewels, and colors for an almost completely white uniform with simpler adornments and replaces the wings with a simple white cape.
* ''Franchise/LyricalNanoha'' has a variation due to the target audience: the upgrades showcase additional metal pieces on the uniform and occasional sharp additions of fabric trim, and after the timeskip, shorter skirts. Though Fate Testarossa's initial upgrades add frills to her outfit as well, her last-resort Sonic Form reverses it, leaving her with nothing but skin-tight clothing "to make her faster".
** Upgrades between the end of the anime and ''Force'' run away with the Mecha aspect of the show instead, having largely technological aesthetics.

* ''Anime/FutariWaPrettyCure Max Heart'' gave them more frills, and also covered up Black's stomach -- the consensus is that parents had probably complained, as it wasn't until ''Anime/YesPrettyCure5'' that Dream wore another midriff-baring costume.
** Both ''Max Heart'' movies also had super forms. The Golden Power from the first movie just [[GoldenSuperMode colored their clothes gold]], but the Power of the Phoenix from the second movie fits this trope to a tee.

* ''Anime/TwinPrincessOfWonderPlanet'' powers up its titular twins all through the two-season series, ending with a mess of lace and cute accessories.
* ''Anime/OjamajoDoremi'': The uniforms in ''Sharp'' bear some resemblance to the ''S1'' uniforms and their [[MidSeasonUpgrade Royal Patraine]] uniform resembles the uniforms in ''Sharp''. This is averted starting with ''Motto''.

* ''Manga/CardcaptorSakura'': Despite the fact that Sakura's battle costumes changed constantly, it still managed to do this by moving the Fly card wings from the staff to Sakura's back during the Sakura Card arc.
* Akazukin from ''Anime/FairyMusketeers'' has Princess Mode, which creates cuffs of lace before it creates the sword.
* In the ''Anime/PrettySammy'' OAV, Pretty Sammy transforms into Hyper Sammy before casting her Pretty Coquettish Bomber.
* ''Manga/SaintSeiya'': Another unusual ''male'' example: Seiya. At first, Bronze Cloths were fairly utilitarian pieces of armor: a chestplate here, shoulderguards there, shinguards over there, maybe asymmetrical gauntlets for style or protection. But as the Cloths were consecutively damaged, destroyed, repaired, and revived, they steadily became flashier and prettier. Most full-head helmets became tiaras, for instance. It all culminated in their transformation into "Divine Cloths" that came with wings, intricate (and pointless) decorative engravings on continuous surfaces, and curvy loops at the end of what used to be spikes or sharp edges.
* Parodied in ''Literature/IsThisAZombie'', where Ayumu's Masou Shoujo outfit keeps sprouting more ribbons and bows as he (yes, [[DraggedIntoDrag he]]) powers up, eventually prompting Haruna to scream, "Stop! You mustn't get any cuter!"
* The heroine of ''Anime/HyperSpeedGranDoll'' gets the PoweredArmor versions of this trope for her two power-ups.
* Subverted in ''Anime/KillLaKill''. Ryuko's an [[DarkerAndEdgier edgy piss take]] of the typical MagicalGirlWarrior, so Senketsu (her [[ClothesMakeTheSuperman power-granting]] LivingClothes) gets skimpier and spikier as they synchronize and get stronger.
* In ''Anime/CuteyHoney Flash'', Honey unlocks her upgraded "Hyper Honey" form after the power of her device combines with Seira's. In this form, her costume becomes white and red, the opening in the chest becomes wider, and a pair of ribbons extend from her choker.

* ''WesternAnimation/WinxClub'' added brooches and purses to the fairy outfits for their first power up (Charmix). In season 3, however, they [[SoLastSeason completely abandoned the Charmix]] and gave the girls totally new Enchantix outfits and powers, which meant a fresh start for the uniform. And in season 4, they once again abandon the Enchantix, replacing it with the Believix. There are also 2 sub-transformations, Sophix and Lovix. Starting from season 5, each new season brings two new power ups, and with them, more frills and intricate details. Season 5 has Harmonix and Sirenix, season 6 Bloomix and Mythix, and season 7 Butterflix and Tynix. ''WesternAnimation/WorldOfWinx'', meanwhile, has Dreamix and Onyrix.

* Parodied in ''LightNovel/IsThisAZombie'', where Ayumu's Masou Shoujo outfit keeps sprouting more ribbons and bows as he (yes, [[DraggedIntoDrag he]]) powers up, eventually prompting Haruna to scream, "Stop! You mustn't get any cuter!"

* ''Anime/FutariWaPrettyCure Max Heart'' gave them more frills, and also covered up Black's stomach -- the consensus is that parents had probably complained, as it wasn't until ''Anime/YesPrecure5'' that Dream wore another midriff-baring costume.

** In the ''Anime/YesPrecure5'' movie, the team becomes butterfly-winged Super Cures, and true to form, they have too many frills to count. Dream, of course, has her own "special" touches as team leader. And in ''Yes! Precure [=5GoGo!=]'', the wings are gone, but they get jackets instead. Cure Dream's stomach goes the way of Cure Black, but parents probably didn't complain, since Milky Rose fills the niche there instead.

** And to disturbing levels in ''Anime/SmilePrettyCure'' with their Princess form and the upcoming "Hyper Princess" form.

* ''VideoGame/FateGrandOrder'' has Elizabeth Bathory's third ascension outfit as Lancer, taken UpToEleven that it's almost a parody.

* ''ComicBook/{{WITCH}}'': When the title girls get new powers in the erm... '[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin New Powers]]' arc of the show, they get new outfits, with neat gloves, their own personal symbols on the costumes, bigger wings and RapunzelHair. As a bonus feature the new uniforms can actually defend the girls from attack by moving their many [[CombatTentacles strips of cloth]]. Heck, they even accessorize with new weapons later on.

* ''Fanfic/ICantBeAMagicalGirlYouAMagicalGirlSay'': [[Manga/MyHeroAcademia Izuku]]'s upgraded MagicalGirl outfit consists of new shoes, a pink dress with a scooping neck cut collar, a corset-type apron, a bright yellow bow, gloves with cuffs, bright red ankle boots and a white frilly maid headband.

[[folder:Asian Animation]]

[[folder: Comic Books ]]

[[folder: Video Games ]]

[[folder: Webcomics ]]

* ''Webcomic/{{Megatokyo}}'': Defied in strip [[http://www.megatokyo.com/strip/1074 #1074]]: after becoming a MagicalGirl, [[http://megatokyo.com/strip/1041 Yuki]] puts on a {{Meido}} dress and a pair of cute {{Meganekko}} glasses; later, Largo gets her a combat outfit and a pair of CoolShades. Yuki then responds like this: