The Power Of Love / Anime & Manga

• The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You: Rentarou practically wields this as a superpower in order to satisfy his constantly growing polycule, frequently using this to justify his and his girlfriends’ ability to overcome impossible odds for each other’s sake. Well, we say "practically" - he's capable of Super-Speed, Super-Toughness, healing his broken spine in hours, ignoring mind control if a girlfriend's crying, pulling an Exorcist Head...
• In the Angel Eater arc of Ah! My Goddess, Keiichi is revealed to be the only human capable of supporting (and fighting alongside) one of the goddesses' angel symbiotes because of the love (including familial-type love and friendship as well as romantic love) he receives from the goddesses he lives with.
  • Every other arc in the series involves the power of love playing a role. In one chapter, Belldandy is on the brink of death after having all of her power drained out of her by a demonic machine. Fortunately, the power of love stored within the ring Keiichi gave her protects and re-energizes her.
  • The goddesses' powers also stem from love. The moment a goddess's powers begin to grow is the moment they first fall in love.
• This is a common, recurring theme in Tanaka Yutaka's works, such as Ai-Ren and My Lovely Ghost Kana. Love can help people overcome the worst things that life (or impending death) can throw at you, and as long as you face it head-long and together, you will persevere.
• Baka and Test: Summon the Beasts: Spoofed. The main boys of Class F each try Mizuki Himeji's cooking, only to suddenly collapse in horrible pain. Of course, they can't bring themselves to tell her how bad her cooking really is, so Yoshii tries to convince himself with Yuuji's help that his love for Himeji is the greatest spice of all. Then he takes a bite and promptly collapses.
  Yuuji: [still on the ground] Love doesn't protect against poison. Check.
• Zigzagged in Berserk. The lead character, Guts hacks off his own arm to free himself to try to save his lover Caska from his best-friend-turned-traitor-turned-demon-god Griffith. Then one of Griffith's minions tackles him, holds him down, and forces him to watch helplessly as Griffith rapes Caska. Then invoked by other characters since the end of the Retribution Arc where Caska becomes Guts's Morality Chain and also the one thing that prevents him from giving into his Enemy Within.
• In Black Clover, Vanessa's actions towards the younger members of the Black Bulls are driven out of the intense love she has for her friends. Her love for the Black Bulls as her true family and desire to save them unlocks her Red Thread of Fate spell, which only protects those dear to her.
• In Campione!, Perseus has the power to control any woman who has magical lineage. During his fight with Godou, he controls Liliana and makes her attack Godou. Liliana, not wanting to harm the man she loves, breaks free of the spell. Perseus comments that true love is one of the only ways to resist his ability.
• In A Certain Magical Index, fresh off a Heel–Face Turn, Shizuri Mugino says that she's become more powerful now that she's running on her love for Shiage Hamazura instead of her hate, anger, and pride.
• Subtly but constantly used in Chrono Crusade. Early in the series, Rosette stops Chrono from losing himself in demonic rage when he thinks she's dead. Joshua stops Fiore from becoming a mindless doll by mistaking her for his sister and reminding her of her own. Later, Rosette saves Joshua in a similar way. Rosette comes Back from the Dead partially because of her love for Chrono and partially through simple stubbornness. To top it off, she's aided in it from Chrono's former love. These are only some of the examples.
• The anime Claymore has female warriors, who are half human, the other half are man-eating creatures called yoma. Each of them may one day lose control of their demonic half, becoming a monstrous yoma, called an Awakend Being. As the protagonist Clare is about to transform, her friend Raki can keep her from transforming her with the power of love. At the end of the anime there is a similar situation, and again it is Raki whose love makes her human side stronger.
  • And at the end of the manga, it is the love Claire has for Teresa that allows her to awaken AS Teresa, and have that form awaken as well.
• The power base of most lead Magical Girls, going all the way back to Codename: Sailor V, the prequel to Sailor Moon.
• The Battle Lovers in Cute High Earth Defense Club LOVE! have this as their ultimate weapon.
• The Power of Love was defeated by the Giant Sakura Tree in Da Capo S.S. The tree actually successfully prevented two people from loving each other. Only Aisha's horror at the power she now wields convinces her to kill the tree again.
• Daimos runs on this trope. The reason why Kazuya continues to fight on and win is derived from his love for Erika. Sometimes, when Humongous Mecha is not enough to win, there's always this thing to make him win.
• DARLING in the FRANXX uses an almost literal take. The better the connection the pilots share, the stronger their mech becomes.
• Shidou in Date A Live can seal the power of a Spirit within himself, but this requires him to kiss the Spirit after they've fallen in love with him. It also works the other way; when he loses control of the multiple powers he's sealed, the Spirits have to make him fall in love with them to return him to normal.
• Destiny of the Shrine Maiden:
  • "No one" can overcome the brainwashing power of the Orochi, but Souma did through his love for their target, Himeko. Unfortunately he picked the wrong kind of series to love her in... though he's still happy.
  • A bigger example would be Himeko and Chikane, who invokes The Power Of Love to Screw Destiny and return to each other despite the will of the gods.
    Chikane: Even if the Gods of Death would block my way, they absolutely won't stop my love for you.
• In Devilman (as well as DEVILMAN crybaby), Akira Fudo's kind heart is the source of his power: it is that kindness that allows him to retain his humanity when he fuses with the demon Amon and becomes Devilman, allowing him to use his newfound demonic powers for the greater good. This is taken to its conclusion in the series's final moments: after his Love Interest Miki is murdered, he declares that he has no more tears to shed. Without his compassion, his death at Satan's hands is all but guaranteed.
• Sora's crest in Digimon Adventure. She's a quicker learner than Yamato (whose Crest of Friendship falls in the same general category), thankfully.
  • The crest passes onto Miyako after Sora in Digimon Adventure 02.
• This is how Daisuke of D.N.Angel transforms into his alter-ego, Dark. It's implied that Satoshi's transformation may be triggered similarly.
• Dragonaut: The Resonance has the day won because of this.
• A strange version happened in Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods and its section in the Dragon Ball Super series: Vegeta spends his time up to a certain point making a total fool of himself in front of Beerus in an attempt to appease the God of Destruction and not get the world destroyed. However, when Bulma yells at Beerus for ruining her birthday party and is slapped for it, Vegeta flips out and begins a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown on the god, with Master Roshi noting that, at that point, Vegeta was stronger than Goku. It's worth noting that numerous times throughout the series he did selfish things for personal power gain that ended up not being worth it. He still gets defeated by Beerus, but the sheer gain in power absolutely dwarfs anything he's received before and didn't require doing something drastic to gain it.
  • In Dragon Ball Super, Universe 2 is all about love. It shouldn't be surprising since their universe is a Shout-Out/parody of the Magical Girl genre and Pretty Cure as well. Their big (figurative and literal) hero, Ribrianne, is all about this as well. However, her version of love is superficial and mostly self centered, and this ends up being her Hoist by Her Own Petard moment: she utterly discards Android #18's love for Krillin because of his looks, but it's Krillin who ends up giving #18 the strength to break free and defeat Ribrianne. 18 and Krillin's genuine unselfish love is the real definition of the Power of Love.
  • Also from Super, Gohan gets a Heroic Second Wind from hearing the voices of Videl and Pan, his beloved wife and daughter, which enables him to defeat a Watagash-empowered Barry.
  • Vegeta's Character Development culminates in Super with this trope. During the Tournament of Power's final minutes, Toppo of Universe 11 decides to forsake his morals and pride in favor of embracing his power as a possible God of Destruction and begins running roughshod over Android #17 and Frieza. Vegeta steps up to the plate and starts to fight him, only to be beaten back. When Toppo admits that he cast aside "unnecessary" things like his devotion to justice in favor of the power of a God of Destruction, it angers Vegeta enough that he easily overpowers Toppo through his thoughts of his family back home and his promise to Cabba should he win, calling out Toppo for his foolishness.
• In Dragon Crisis!, Ryuji and Rose use the Power of Love to win the final battle with Onyx by kissing each other and creating a giant pink heart in the sky that disintegrates Onyx.
• Played for Drama in Durarara!!, with the Saika (demon blades that have a zombie-like effect upon the people they stab). They constantly claim to be powered by the love that they have for humanity, but their actions are obsessive and violent. After all, cutting and stabbing are the only things a sword can do, so there's no other way for Saika to express its "love".
  • Also Inverted by the fact that it's Anri's inability to feel love that allows her to keep control of Saika.
• Everything in Eureka Seven is powered by love... even some of the Humongous Mecha!
• Fist of the North Star mythos establishes that anyone who can see the Star of Death is fated to die: no exceptions. When Mamiya is the next person to be doomed, Rei, who is already dying from his wounds after fighting Raoh, uses his remaining time to fight his rival Yuda, the cause of Mamiya's misfortune, out of desire to do right with her and make his last moments count. Not only does Rei defeat Yuda, but as he dies, Mamiya realizes she cannot see the Star of Death, her fate changed by Rei's Heroic Sacrifice. It's one of the most awesome, heartwarming and tear-breaking moments in a series stuffed to the gills with them.
  • A slightly cynical variant comes in the final battle of the first series: Big Bad Raoh is able to learn the ultimate Hokuto Shinken technique Musou Tensei by this trope through his love for Yuria and sorrow over her impending death. It's an improvement over his original idea for how to learn the technique to defeat Kenshiro: learn/know sadness by killing Yuria.
  • Played straight in Kenshiro's case: when love meets tragedy, it becomes sadness. When sadness meets injustice, it becomes righteous rage... and when righteous rage meets Hokuto Shinken... "you are already dead". Also summed up perfectly here.
• Invoked in Food Wars!. In the very first chapter Souma's dad tries to tell him that the secret to becoming a good cook is to find one woman that you want to devote your cooking to and we see a picture of his wife, but Souma has already hung up the phone by that point and doesn't hear a thing. There's some ship tease regarding this statement with him trying to make the notoriously stubborn and elitist Erina accept him while Megumi thinks of him before cooking to prepare herself, but the story doesn't dwell on it often.
• Lampshaded in Franken Fran, when Fran and Veronica go see a movie very, very, very loosely based on a previous chapter, where a girl who had been sick with leukemia tells her man-dog (long story) "My leukemia has magically been cured, somehow! The doctors said it was the power of love!" This, among other things, causes Veronica to throw a chair at the screen, yelling that the movie was crap.
• Full Metal Panic!:
  • To a smaller extent. During his duel with Gauron in Khanka, Sousuke had trouble operating the Lambda Driver until Kaname told him exactly what will Gauron do to her if he loses (she was wrong about one thing: those are what Gauron would do to Sousuke, by the way). He won.
    Kaname: Just think of this! If you lose, the bad guys are gonna rip off all my clothes, play around with my body and KILL ME when they're done! Imagine those happening to me!... you'd hate it, right?
    Sousuke: Right...
    Kaname: Does it make you mad?
    Sousuke: I guess so...
    Kaname: He's trying to do these things to me! You can't let him do that, can you?
    Sousuke: NO!!!
  • Later, in The Second Raid, all it takes is Kaname's arrival (and her delivery of an epic Get A Hold Of Yourself Man) to snap Sousuke out of his half-a-season-long Heroic BSoD, giving him the wherewithal to not only immediately curbstomp five enemy mechs including the Big Bad, but then confront his ultimate superiors in Mithril to demand reinstatement as Kaname's bodyguard... informing them that he never sold his soul to them and if they don't like how he works then they can just pay him less.
  • In Invisible Victory, even after getting thrown across the room by a concussive blast and then taking an all but fatal shot in the stomach, Sousuke manages to shock Kurama by not only continuing to fight, but winning and remaining conscious long enough to interrogate him on Kaname's location. Kurama sarcastically asks if the Power of Love is keeping him alive. Sousuke, in complete dead seriousness, tells him yes.
• Fushigi Yuugi. Obvious considering Suzaku symbolizes love.
• The 7th Diary Holders of Future Diary are an Anti-Villain couple who fight with incredible teamwork thanks to their love for one another. The 2nd, Yuno Gasai, seems to run off of the power of creepy stalker love; she gets even stronger when it's reciprocated!
• The last episode of GaoGaiGar. Check the quotes under "Web Original" in the main page for more details.
• Played straight in the Ga-Rei manga, where Kensuke is flatly told that he needs the Power Of Love to draw out the true strength of his sword. Naturally, he only remembers this during the final battle of Kyubi arc, where his love gives the sword the power to cut dimensions, freeing the Love Interest Kagura.
  • It gets worse during the Naraku arc... this is what powers Kagura's abilities as the White Priestess, giving Byaukei and her "escorts" power. Kensuke once again uses the cutting dimensions power. Michael literally says, "Kagura! It's time to use the power of love!"
• Tsugumi from Genesis of Aquarion is guilty of this over the top. She calls this out "There is no limit to the power of the love that I feel!" before shooting forth a new move, Infinite Light of Explosive Love.
  • The Exploding Lesbian Beam
  • In the OVA, it was stated that Apollonius split Aquarion into 3 because the love between Celiane and Apollonius could destroy the world, a third person was needed to prevent that.
• Van from GUN×SWORD runs on this, and damn, is he a badass as a result. William Wo claims this is his motivation, but he is a massive subversion of this.
• In Haruhi Suzumiya, this is what saves the world from divine puberty. Kyon kisses Haruhi inside Closed Space, and it convinces her not to rewrite reality.
• In the Hayate the Combat Butler manga, Church Militant Sonia requests a kiss from Wataru if she rescues Saki, who had just been kidnapped. Wataru pays in advance. Next page, Hayate (on bike) catches up to the flaming wreck of the kidnappers' car: a giant cross driven through the hood, the men tied up nearby, and Saki unhurt but confused.
• In Hell Teacher Nube, it is repeatedly stated that Nube's love for his students (and theirs for him) is one of his greatest assets, and this allows him to survive attacks from and ultimately prevail against stronger and more experienced opponents such as Tamamo.
• In High School Dx D, Issei is usually running on The Power of Lust, even during his big fights. Directly threaten someone just to get to him, though, and he starts to run into this trope. Notably, this is NOT a good thing. Issei is usually a Technical Pacifist, but at one point, the measures he takes to be able to rescue Asia result in a berserk Issei eating Shalba alive.
• In I'm Gonna Be an Angel!, this is probably the reason why Yuusuke was able to catch Noelle's hand when she turned into a full angel in the final episode and stopped being able to touch him.
  • Also a reason why only Mikael can touch Raphael, who is an angel and is supposed to be untouchable to humans (well, Mikael isn't a human himself but he did lose his halo and yet still could see and touch him, while when Noelle lost hers she couldn't even see Raphael anymore). There's even an episode named like that — Episode 19.
• In Kashimashi: Girl Meets Girl Hazumu would have died if it weren't for the power of love. His, or her, heart had to link with someone she truly loves, or she would die..
• Shirogane from Kaguya-sama: Love Is War was originally a nobody, just some poor kid who was lucky enough to be accepted into a prestigious high school because he was on the wait list. Then he fell in love with Kaguya... Jump forward a year a half, he's the most popular guy in school, the two-time elected Student Council President, the second highest scoring student in the entire country, and set to graduate a year early so he can attend Stanford University.
• Kurau in Kurau Phantom Memory appears to gain a lot more strength with the help of Christmas, her Rynax-pair.
• Kyouran Kazoku Nikki is relying on this to placate one of the potential World Destroying Children of Enka into not doing it by letting them experience loving family life.
• Reversed and slightly subverted with Nova and Hikaru's relationship in the second season of Magic Knight Rayearth. Nova's hatred for Umi and Fuu is driven by the fact that Hikaru loves them so much, and her similar utter devotion and adoration of Hikaru is prompted by Hikaru's intense self-hatred that she's had since being forced to kill both Zagato and Princess Emeraude at the conclusion of the first season.
• One episode of Magical Project S has a group who gains their power from their devotion to their husbands ^note  well, five husbands and one husband-to-be, since one of them was in an Arranged Marriage. In order for them to be defeated, Sasami has to invoke the Power of Love between herself and Ryo-Ohki to free herself from their binds.
• In the last episode of Martian Successor Nadesico, the Official Couple finally getting over their Will They or Won't They? and sharing True Love's Kiss is what allows the crew to make their getaway with the series MacGuffin. Naturally, there's a Techno Babble reason for this, but one suspects Inez came up with it just to finally get the two of them together.
• Compared to shows who emphasizes in mecha battles, the Mashin Hero Wataru Series focuses on the interactions between characters and how they overcome their differences to become friends with each other; their love and friendship with each other will bring miracles, and become the key elements to defeat evil.
• In Mobile Fighter G Gundam, fighting alongside his girlfriend Rain, allows Domon to turn his ultimate attack, Sekiha Tenkyoken, into "Sekiha Love Love Tenkyoken," which is strong enough to obliterate the Devil Gundam. It summoned the King of Hearts to blast a heart shaped hole.
  • They changed their chant to include it: "These hands of ours are burning red! Their loud roar tells us to grasp happiness! ERUPTING!!! GOD!!! FINGER!!! SEKIHA LOVE LOVE TENKYOKEEEEEEEEEEN!!!!!!"
• Done literally in Mother Cosmos, in that humanity, before the apocalypse, had actually managed to find a way to turn a mother's love into electricity - and thus made various artificial "mothers" with their children and installed them into power plants.
• In Monster, Franz Bonaparta falls in love, and decides to give up on his experimentations with eugenics and brainwashing for the sake of his interest's children. How noble.
• Inverted in My Girlfriend Without Wasabi. Rino's latent demonic powers are fueled by her misery. They begin to fade when she falls in love with Nozomu, leading to the three living masks that acted as her surrogate family to disappear.
• My Hero Academia has a rather literal spin on this trope: La Brava, Gentle's assistant, has a Quirk that allows her to grant a massive power-up to the person she truly loves simply by saying the word "love". Doing so gives Gentle the strength to fight back against Deku using his 15% One For All Full Cowl. Much later, it gives Gentle enough power to keep the U.A. Flying Fortress airborne when the propulsion systems begin to fail. La Brava explains the increase in her Quirk's power with "absence makes the heart grow fonder"; because Gentle and La Brava spent several weeks apart after his arrest, her feelings for him have strengthened that much.
• My-HiME:
  • The show's Mons are powered by The Power Of Love. Literally. Toss in Synchronization, Anyone Can Die and There Can Only Be One and this begins to feel a lot less idealistic than you first thought...
  • In Special 25, Natsuki says that she realized that people cannot live alone after seeing Shizuru's love for her and Mai and Yuuichi's love for each other.
• In My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!, Katarina is afflicted with a dark magic sleeping curse that can only be lifted either by the person who cursed her in the first place or a light magician, but the only light magician they know disappeared a few days beforehand. Desperate to help her, her friends (all of whom are in love with her) go to her side to call out to her, waking her up with their love and affection.
• Naruto:
  • Double Subverted. Hinata finally, sincerely declares her love to Naruto, and charges Pain, winding up her best attack... only for Pain to knock down and stab her non-lethally. Naruto is so enraged by her apparent death that not only does he completely lose his will to live, but, for the first time ever, he transforms into his 6-tailed form and then his 8-tailed form (just one stage away from fully releasing the 9-tailed Beast), and overpowers Pain's seemingly invincible attack before his father reverts him to normal. This means that, in a very dark way, had Hinata not tried to help Naruto, he would not have gone berserk, which meant that he would not have been able to meet his father -- keep in mind that Minato planned for his spirit to visit his son specifically in case the Nine-Tails ever gained that much influence over him -- nor would he have learned some enlightening information about his parents, why he was made a jinchuriki, and what he was meant to do.
  • Played straight, with Kushina's love for her son saving Naruto from his own darkness. "You belong here" never sounded so wonderful. Then it's played straight when after meeting his mother's spirit, Naruto gains the determination to overcome the Kyuubi's psychic attack and steal its chakra.
  • Although Gaara's early role in the story was as an Ax-Crazy lunatic, after Naruto kicked his ass he mellowed out. In the Ultimate Weapon filler arc it's the Power of Love (in a small way) that lets Gaara kill the Big Bad of the Arc to save his apprentice, and later during the 4th Shinobi War it is revealed that it's his mother's love for him that been truly protecting him with his Sand Defense this whole time.
  • Played for Drama in Chapter 619 with The Reveal of the true nature of the Uchiha clan's "curse". The Uchiha as a whole are very sensitive and emotional people who feel love very intensely. When their loved ones are lost, the intense negative emotions they feel generate a special chakra that causes them to manifest the Sharingan. That special chakra in turn can warp their personality over time. The Power of Love and Love Makes You Evil make for a very scary combination.
  • Played straight when Obito, whose psyche has been so destroyed by the Juubi he can't even remember his name, manages to defeat it and regain his mind simply through his love for Rin.
  • Played straight in The Last: Naruto the Movie, considering how it not only helps its two main protagonists, Naruto and Hinata, fall in love and finally become an Official Couple, but it also helps them save the world.
• In Negima! Magister Negi Magi Ayaka's love for Negi was so great that it almost reversed the pactio ritual; she became the dominant partner despite her lack of magical power.
  Chamo: What The Hell Kind Of Power Of Love Is This?!
• Neon Genesis Evangelion: According to the manga, and implicitly within the TV series, "love" is the control medium for Evangelion units; specifically, the pilots synchronize via the A10 nerve in the brain, the one that's active when experiencing feelings of love and affection.
  Yoshiyuki Sadamoto: In other words, the power of love drives this weapon of mass destruction.
• One Piece:
  • Luffy wouldn't do half the shit he does if it wasn't for the love of his crew. The strength of it is shown after Ace's death. Even when faced with such an overwhelming tragedy, when he had seemingly lost everything, it's the love that he has for his crew and the love that his crew has for him that gives him the strength to move on with his life.
  • It's also how Garp can hurt Luffy: out of sheer love. Word of God is that Garp's punches hurt Luffy despite his rubber body because they hit his soul.
  • This literally the source of all Sanji's strength as his love for beautiful ladies (usually Nami) gives him power to run a mile, survive brutal beatings, bolts of lighting and in some situations fly. Love is also ties into Sanji's Diable Jamble as Oda explains While Sanji's flames burn hot, his heart burns hotter.
  • Boa Hancock both uses the power of love as a weapon and becomes a victim to it:
    • She uses her beauty and the power of her Mero-Mero no Mi (Love Love Fruit) to make anyone turn to stone just for lusting after her. Luffy's obliviousness to her looks, and later her love for him, keep him from turning to stone.
    • Hancock's love for Luffy is so strong that initially it makes her feverish and physically ill at the thought of parting ways with him. Elder Nyon recognizes it as Love Sickness, and recounts that several Empresses of Amazon Lily have died to it because they suppressed their own emotions, with herself and a scant few others surviving by virtue of embracing the love they felt and pursuing the target of their affections. Notably, Hancock's symptoms vanish the instant Luffy asks to speak with her, and disappear permanently after she becomes consciously aware of her own feelings.
      Elder Nyon: There is a saying in the eastern seas! "Love is always a hurricane!"
  • The love Donquixote Rosinante felt towards Law saved him from both his own hatred and Doflamingo's corruption. Once Law avenged Rosinante's death thirteen years later by destroying Doflamingo's criminal empire, he comes to believe Rosinante saved his life because he was a D., and as such was the only one who could fight Doflamingo's evil since he is a former World Noble. After learning of the circumstances behind Rosinante's death, Sengoku (Rosinante's adoptive father figure) tells Law that he's wrong: that Rosinante saved him for no other reason than because he loved him. He then advises Law to live on for Rosinante's sake. Law takes Sengoku's advice to heart, but remains curious about the Will of D.
• Penguin Musume Heart contains one of the more unusual uses of love power. When Sakura is losing her one-on-one sumo match with her rival, Marie, her little sister takes the initiative to shoot her in the head with a tranquilizer called the Love Drive that absorbs the love of everyone in the arena into her. Somehow this makes Sakura giant and half-naked. For fairness, Marie is given a Love Drive too, but since she doesn't get much love, she only grows a little. Then her Quirky Miniboss Squad says that they do love her. Giant naked catfights ensue.
• Pokémon: The Series:
  • Ash and his friends' love for Pokémon has them helping their own or others whenever they were endanger or mind controlled, which led them to risking their lives for them or fighting back anyone who mistreats them, although it was also their strong force of will.
  • When the other way around occurs, Ash and his friends Pokémon love towards their Trainers or caretakers have shown to be powerful as well and could't be broken no matter how toughed the situation was, although mind control has shown to be powerful at times.
    • In the XY and Z arc, this is the source behind Ash's Greninja's Super Mode.
  • Pokémon: The First Movie, Ash is apparently killed, by being turned to stone by a stray attack from Mewtwo and Mew. It is the tears of Pikachu and the other Pokémon that return Ash to normal. In the Mewtwo backstory Ambertwo says that Pokémon tears are said to be full of life.
    • Averted in Mewtwo's forgotten backstory. His tears did nothing to save his four best friends.
  • Also, Meowth, while usually a pitiful battler who loses to even the weakest Pokemon, romance seems to bring out a greater strength in him. With "Fury Swipes of Love", he singlehandedly took down Ash's Infernape and Staraptor, Jessie's Seviper and Yanmega, and Dawn's Togekiss... because he was in love with Glameow. He also defeated a Persian with a one-hit swipe to help his childhood girlfriend (even if it was all in vain).
  • In the Sun & Mood Ultra Adventures season, Lusamine's love for her children was shown to be strong enough to help her break free from Nihilego control, although it also took her willpower and hearing Lillie's voice.
• Pokémon Adventures: Ruby does this with Sapphire before the final confrontation with Kyogre and Groudon. He pushes Sapphire out of the way and traps her in a safe place just so she would be safe and prevent the risk of her being taken over by the Red and Blue Jewel used to control Kyogre and Groudon. Reason why: she's the girl of his dreams from so long ago.
• In Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea, this is what is tested in Sosuke.
• Though the Pretty Cure series runs on The Power of Friendship, there are times where The Power Of Love goes one step further.
  • In The Movie for Yes! Pretty Cure 5 GO!GO!, Nozomi's able to break the Big Bad's hold on Coco this way, to the point where they share the franchise's first on-screen kiss.
  • In The Movie for Fresh Pretty Cure!, it's children's love of toys that helps the Cures win the day.
  • HeartCatch Pretty Cure! takes this into overdrive in its final episodes. The team is able to defeat Big Bad Dune by not fighting him for vengeance or anything like that especially since the guy just murdered one of the four's father to the point where, when Dune takes up a massive size and attempts to destroy the world with his own fists, the team fuses into a singular giant being that runs of the idea of "Infinite Love, Infinite Power."
  • Being the Pretty Cure of Strength and Love, Akira/Cure Chocolat of Kirakira Precure A La Mode runs on this trope. All of her climactic power-ups and comebacks are fuelled by her love for her family, her friends, or Yukari.
• Used all over the place in Princess Tutu. From Fakir's "she changed me" epiphany to Rue's confession that frees Mytho's heart from the Raven's blood poisoning it, to the fact that the fate of the main character is supposed to be confessing her love and "turn into a speck of light and vanish" when she does.
• Puella Magi Madoka Magica The Movie: Rebellion plays with this trope. While Homura's love for Madoka is stated to be the source of her power, her love is emphasized as selfish and single-minded rather than the kind and unselfish love associated with Madoka herself. Homura's twisted desire ends up turning her into the devil of the setting, rebuilding the world into Madoka's prison.
• Rave Master: Shiba has been preserving and fighting for 50 years for one girl. Haru's doing the same thing, and for the very same girl. In fact, when the two of them duel over the final Rave stone, Haru is no match for Shiba's determination until he finally realises what — and more to the point, who — he's fighting for. Also Sieg Hart, who dedicated his life to guarding that same girl for 50 years and continued to do so even long after death.
• In Revolutionary Girl Utena, you can make swords out of love or something.
  • In the movie Anthy evidently needs to be kissed to activate her sword drawing powers at all.
• Rozen Maiden subverts this trope TWICE, when Suiseiseki tries to convince Souseiseki to stop fighting but instead is forced to see her die because of ignoring these arguments and later when Suiseiseki tries to win her Rosa Mystica back, but ends up getting killed trying to do so.
• Sailor Moon deserves an example entry all by itself. Let's see, the Power of Love...
  • Cures brainwashed boyfriends and daughters from the future.
  • Restores broken transformation brooches and creates the Spiral Heart Moon Rod (picture above).
  • Powers most of Sailor Venus' attacks (Venus Love Me Chain, Venus Love and Beauty Shock) and several of Sailor Moon's.
  • Redeems more than a few villains over the course of 5 arcs/seasons.
  • This is stated literally in the credits Theme Song from Sailor Moon R: The Movie (dubbed version), Promise of a Rose: "You've got to believe in the power of love..." In this case, "love" also includes friendship: "Take hold of my hand. And you'll understand What it truly means to be friends!"
• In Saint Beast, this is how Shin overcomes being brainwashed.
• One of the major themes of Sekirei, with the suggestion this is the true source of their power. Musubi's faith is such that she once made a bet with the Omnicidal Maniac Final Boss that she would triumph in the Final Battle using The Power Of Love. In one particular instance, she even invokes this trope as the reason for her victory in battle.
  Toyotama: We finished our training before them, so we should have the initiative. Yet why? Who is this girl? How is it that she's so strong?
  Musubi: It's love! The thing that Musubi has and you don't... that is love!
• In The Seven Deadly Sins, Escanor is one of the most powerful characters, but only during the day. At night, he becomes a scrawny wimp with no abilities. At one point, thinking of Merlin, the woman he loves, allowed him to briefly access his powers at night.
• In SHUFFLE!, Primula is saved via Lycoris/Nerine and Rin's love for her.
  • In the game, Primula's storyline includes her wiping Rin's mind so he won't miss her when she leaves. The next time he sees her, the memory is miraculously restored. The Devil King gives some elaborate theory as to why this could have happened, but in the end says they might just as well call it... that's right. Primula stays.
• Subtly played in Skip Beat!: The president of LMA Productions, Lory Takarada, firmly believes that the main force who drives artistes to the spotlight is the need of love and being loved, and runs his company under this belief with apparently astounding results. This is mostly seen in some of his decisions, e.g. creating the Love Me division for talents who lack that drive, like Kyouko (who is fueled by a mix of desire of revenge and sheer stubbornness) and Kanae (whose need of individual recognition is so strong it buries any love feelings, even the non-romantic ones). Lory even consistently refused to cast his best male actor, Ren Tsuruga, as a romantic lead, because he knows that Ren had never been in true love, and because of that he couldn't express it convincingly on screen. When Ren manages to get such a role over the president's objections, and finds himself with difficulties to act for the first time in his career, Lory shamelessly points it out. Good luck Ren realizes he is in love just in time to get his character.
• In the Sonic X, Chaos energy is defined as "the power enriched by the heart". So when Eggman or Chaos tried to use the power of the seven emeralds selfishly or cruelly, the effect was rather... disturbing. When Sonic used them, however, he used them out of the desire to help people (and his friends gave them to him specifically because they cared), which meant he was able to transform into Super Sonic.
• Taken to a new level in Space Pirate Mito: When Mito and her half-human son Aoi are locked in conflict over Aoi's rejection of Mito's true form, Mito takes Aoi to the place where his father proposed to her and explains how the power of love overcame their differences. Since their love lives on through him, he's essentially the power of love personified.
  Mito: You're our future.
• In the second season of The Story of Saiunkoku, Shusui is mind-controlled by Hyou Ruka, and Ryuuki and Jyuusanhime encourage Ran Shuuei to break her out of it through the power of his unrequited love for her. Shuuei acts on their advice by invoking Shusui's love for Kou Shouka instead. It works, but he is subsequently called out for having no shame.
• In Sword Art Online, it is implied that it is their love for each other that allows Kirito and Asuna to do the impossible: Asuna breaks out of GM-imposed paralysis to save Kirito from being impaled, and Kirito holds on after being reduced to 0 health points to give Kayaba the killing stab to win the fight and free everyone from Aincrad.
• Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann:
  • Simon and Nia's love for each other is what allows Simon to follow her to the dimension of the Anti-Spirals — and that's only the most blatant of this series' many examples of love giving the characters strength and determination. In fact, considering how much Spiral Power Simon unleashes any time Nia's in danger, it can be argued that the power of their love is THE SINGLE MOST POWERFUL FORCE IN THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE.
  • As Leeron once said, the Gunmen are literally powered by love, or rather humans' ability to reproduce if you wanna get technical. He's referring to the fact that sexual reproduction is one of the basis of human evolution and evolution is one of the biggest theme of the series. In Layman's Terms it's "Love makes the world go around."
    • In the finale it's controversially defied when Simon refuses to bring Nia back to life because it threatens the very integrity of the universe. He loves her so much that he won't bring her back. It's complicated. Then again... considering how her love for Simon, being a reason that she was able to not fade away until their wedding and that only her ring was left when the rest of her faded away, there's a chance that he wouldn't have to in order to see her again, somehow.
  • Combined with The Power of Friendship when Kinon and Simon use Perceptual Teleportation to keep Rossiu from committing suicide out of guilt for his attempts to Shoot the Dog. Kinon's Big "NO!" causes him to flinch up long enough for Simon to knock some sense into him.
• Touch (1981): For Minami, Katsuya and Tatsuya can and will do anything.
• Trigun: Probably worth noting that "Love and Peace!" is practically Vash the Stampede's battle cry.
• In Umi Monogatari, this is how Marin and Kanon save Urin from Sedna. Instead of defeating Sedna with a spear of light and killing Urin, her host, Marin and Kanon reach out to her. They hug her, and the power of Marin's love and Kanon's acceptance of darkness moves Sedna's heart and causes her to disappear peacefully.
• In Violinist of Hameln the only thing keeping Hamel from turning into a Mazoku and killing all is Flute.
• Played straight in The Vision of Escaflowne where the love between Van and Hitomi shatters Dornkirk's fate machine, thus ending the war in Gaia.
• Wedding Peach is based on this. The good guys are love angels, the Big Good is the goddess of love, and the Mid-Season Upgrade is based on a bride's accessories.
• The World God Only Knows subverts it. Evil spirits take up residence in girls through "gaps in the heart" (emotional issues they're going through), and Keima exorcises them by getting the girls to fall in love with him. But love isn't the only way to capture the spirits, and is in fact the most dangerous method of drawing them out, since screwing it up can cause the girl to get even worse and even if successful when the girl's memories fade with the extraction of the spirit they're likely to have the same gap open up again, meaning that the actual reasons things work out well is because Keima has been addressing the underlying causes of stress for the girls while he's at it, though he didn't realize this was important at the time.
  • However, the hosts of goddesses can only power up their goddess with strong feelings of love, so Keima has to first find out which girls remember and love him when they shouldn't remember him and then get them to fall more in love with him even though he doesn't feel the same way at all himself. Haqua lampshades how predatory this makes him sound without context.
• Your Name: Through the Red String of Fate, the two protagonists are capable of switching bodies with each other, time-travel and be reunited many years later even after their memories for each other have been erased.
• Yu-Gi-Oh!:
  • Considering Seto's history with Kisara, Kaiba's power to Screw Destiny in his duel with Isis comes from the Power of Love, even if he is unconscious of it. The Power of Love may also be what gathered the three Blue-Eyes White Dragons into his hand pre-series. Considering that Kisara's inner spirit was a White Dragon-God, a spirit stronger than the Pharaoh's three Egyptian Gods, and that the High Priest Seto had a relationship with Kisara, it wouldn't be surprising if she guided the cards to his descendent. However, while Priest Seto was noble, Seto Kaiba is only attached to it because it is one of the most powerful monsters in the game, and his only interest in the game is munchkin-calibre winning.
  • During Marik's duel with Mai, he erases her memories of someone each time she loses Life Points (and the ability to see or hear that person). However, her love interest Joey is able to reach her and get her to remember, see, and hear him again.
  • Parodied and used for evil, albeit with low stakes, in Rei's/Blair's first duel in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, where she plays a monster that uses the power of love to steal her opponent's monsters.
  • After Aki starts falling for Yusei on Yu Gi Oh 5Ds, he's able to wake her from a coma on one occasion and free her from Divine's mind control on another.
  • Jack's duel with the possessed Carly in 5Ds centers around this trope. Despite surrendering to the control of the Earthbound God, Carly's feelings for Jack are strong enough to stop her at one point from delivering a finishing blow and restore her fully to herself. Unfortunately, the God takes full control of her body as punishment. It's Jack confessing his love for her and the intensity of his desire to save her that allows him to tap into the power of the Crimson Dragon and draw Majestic Dragon. At the end, he's ready to ensure they're Together in Death, but the real Carly is able to take control one last time to play a card that causes only her to lose and spare him. During this duel and again in the Final Battle, Jack proudly declares how her love changed him and made him a better person.
  • Much later, in Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL, Kaito (who's sort of an Expy of Kaiba) managed to create Neo-Galaxy Eyes Photon Dragon using power given to him by his brother Haruto. (Like Kaiba, Kaito's brother was likely the one thing he truly loved, at least initially.)
• The first season of Yuri!!! on Ice deals with the various forms of love.
  • Yuri explores eros — passionate, sexual love — as well as the emotions he has for his friends and family. His theme for the figure skating season itself is "love", and he declares on national television that he'll win the Grand Prix Final with the power of love.
  • Yurio explores agape — selfless, unconditional love — and learns to recognize it in the people who care for him.
  • Mickey and Sara deals with storge and mania — sibling love and attachment that can turn destructive.
  • Similarly, Georgi struggles with his love/obsession over his ex and displays it in his routine. By the end, he is shown on a date, implying that he's at least trying to get over Anya.
  • The semi-canon Crack Fic of a special event, Yuri!!! on Festival, has Yuri possessed by a squid demon, and Victor managed to exorcise him with the power of love.
• YuYu Hakusho:
  • Messing with Yukina is a wonderful way to get your ass handed to you by Kuwabara. He was about to do a Heroic Sacrifice to take down his foe with him when Yukina arrived and called his name, prompting Kuwabara to either one-shot his foe (manga) or instantly recover all his strength and issue a very quick Curb-Stomp Battle.
  • Kuwabara was on the other end of this (platonically speaking) during Yusuke's fight with Younger Toguro. He faked his death by Toguro to inspire Yusuke to reach his true potential.
• In Zoids: Chaotic Century, Van Flyheight was down and about to be shot by his Rival's Geno Saurer's Wave-Motion Gun, which would instantly kill him. Then Fiona gets up, merges with the Team Pet, warps into Van's Humongous Mecha, and then a hologram of her kisses Van. Thus starts a full regeneration of Van's Humongous Mecha and activates its ability to disperse charged particles, thus rendering Raven's Wave-Motion Gun completely useless, and allows Van to stab the Geno Saurer in its mouth, causing it to explode.

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