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Theme Music Power Up / Anime & Manga

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  • Hiroyuki Sawano & Mika Kobayashi have made an art form out of this trope:
  • In the finale of Active Raid, the first opening theme "Golden Life" plays as Takeru is launched into space for the Final Battle.
  • Basquash! doesn't show the usual title card or play the theme song at the start of episode seven, with the reason why being revealed at the end. It was being saved for Dan showing Rollingtown, for real this time, how hotblooded basketball is played. The theme song shows him the way.
  • Berserk
  • Black Butler has a discordant version of "London Bridges Falling Down" play during Sebastian's final battle with Ash/Angela at the end of the first season. Seriously. And in context it was awesome.
  • The first opening "Haruka Mirai" plays in Black Clover when a character is about to do something badass. Most notably, when Asta defeats Vetto, Asta and Yuno fight Licht, and Yami, Yuno, Asta, and Nero work together to finally defeat Zagred.
  • In the Black Lagoon anime, various rock songs inevitably start up whenever awesomeness is about to come down. The most notable is the song "Peach Headz Addiction", which only plays when Revy lapses into Whitman Fever.
  • Bleach: Whenever Ichigo is about to kick some serious ass, "Number One" kicks in. The song title is a pun on one of the meanings of Ichigo's name and accompanies his activities in one of several variants. When Aizen defeated Ichigo with a single finger, his theme music power-up was instantly defeated as well. Reversed during their final battle, when he does a casual Barehanded Blade Block on Aizen and cuts off Aizen's theme music in the process.
  • Burst Angel only has this happen in the last episode, when textbook Damsel in Distress Meg, Percussively Prevented by her partner Jo from suicidally Storming the Castle, finally starts to stand on her own, taking the first steps toward Taking A Level In Badass.
  • The final battle (against The Rival Papillion) in Buso Renkin is accompanied by the title theme. It is, like their first fight, fast paced and impressively choreographed, even if it is more down to earth than the fights involving gravity manipulation and Humongous Mecha.
  • Cardcaptor Sakura seems to have a leitmotif that appears on the soundtrack whenever she finally joins battle with a particularly powerful enemy. (If you've seen the show, you'll recognize it as a disco-style instrumental with oddly majestic sweeping strings playing the melody).
  • A Certain Magical Index has "Jellyfish" by Mami Kawada. This plays when Index is alone and Sherry Cromwell's Golem attacks her. Index then goes on to show that even in her normal mode she is able to call upon the power of the 103,000 grimores she has memorized and easily repels the Golem's attacks until Touma comes along and cancels the whole summoning.
  • A Certain Scientific Railgun:
    • We have "only my railgun", which plays when Misaka faces the AIM Dispersion Field beast by giving a pep talk to the part of Saten's consciousness inside the beast. Kiyama-sensei even expressed awe at how much more powerful Misaka could be when fighting seriously. "This is...Level 5..."
    • Also at the end when they defeat Telestina and save Kiyama-sensei's kids. The same Saten-san who needed the pep talk before became the big hero by delivering a Shut Up, Hannibal! to Telestina and smashing the Capacity Down with her baseball bat.
    • From the same episode, the second OP "LEVEL5 -judgelight-" plays during Misaka vs. Telestina's Humongous Mecha during the highway chase.
    • Episode 24 of Railgun S hasfour instances. The first one is "Sister's Noise", which plays when Judgement engages an army of powered suits. Then, "Eternal Reality" kicks in when, just as things were starting to look bad, Yomikawa appears out of nowhere in a Humongous Mecha. After that, when a large missile capable of destroying the city is fired, "Future Gazer" begins playing when, with some help from the Sisters, they make a plan to intercept it. And, last but not least, "LEVEL 5 -judgelight-" kicks in as the aforementioned mecha (with Misaka and Kuroko in the cockpit) is launched into orbit, and Misaka uses it as ammo for a super-powered railgun attack to destroy the missile.
  • Corpse Princess played the Opening Theme over Makina and Yamagami's first fight with Akasha to let them fight his horrible evilness.
  • Cowboy Bebop has an example of this trope in nearly every episode whenever there is a scene featuring hand-to-hand combat or an action sequence involving spacecraft. Although it is never the theme song Tank!, it is always a frantic, chaotic, up-tempo jazz track of the same style, like Rush.
    • In the final episode as Spike goes on a rampage against Vicious and his former crime syndicate, the next five minutes of awesome are shown with "See You Space Cowboy", an arrangement of "The Real Folk Blues", playing in the background.
  • Played straight in Crush Gear Turbo. Interestingly, being a shonen show, the Theme Music Power-Up also applies to the rivals.
  • Death Note:
    • Whenever Light reveals how soundly he Out-Gambitted someone, just in case we had forgotten what a Magnificent Bastard he is.
    • Likewise, whenever L really gets going, his guitar theme music flares up to match.
    • Near also gets one at the very end of the series.
  • The Devil May Cry anime has a pretty cool theme song, which plays during the final episode when Dante activates his Devil Trigger to finish off the Big Bad. We don't see the full Devil Trigger and the fight is over in a few seconds, but the music makes the scene an odd combination of anticlimax and moment of awesome.
  • Digimon:
    • Pretty much every evolution sequence in every season adheres to this trope. The more absurdly powerful the evolved form is, the more upbeat the theme music will be, whereas less impressive evolutions (compared to the one available to the main character's partner at any given point in the series) often go by without music altogether. Also, true to this trope, evolution music invariably stops as soon as the evolved Digimon is hit hard by its enemy and/or the battle doesn't go well for the good guys.
    • A good example occurs in the Adventure movie, Bokura No War Game. The evolution song, 'Brave Heart', plays throughout one of the battle scenes, and when Patamon tries to digivolve to his Adult/Champion level, he is attacked, at which point the music cuts out suddenly. It resumes around 30 seconds later when Taichi and Yamato's Digimon charge to counter attack. And then, before the computer crashes on Taichi, the line 'SHOW ME YOUR BRAVE HEART!' skips and replays several times, cutting out when the computer gets the BSoD.
    • Another example of the above happens in the episode where Greymon dark digivolves into SkullGreymon. During the battle scene, Brave Heart plays as normal, but a few seconds into the evolution scene, the song fades into a really dark and sinister piece of BGM.
    • Digimon Data Squad adheres doubly so. There's a set of leitmotifs for various stages of evolution, but whenever the J-Rock theme tune "Believer" cues up, you know the Monster of the Week is about to get beaten in a spectacularly flashy, Hot-Blooded manner. Sadly, due to the song being Japanese and the dubbing company having a music budget of about a nickel, it was cut in the domestic release, replaced with the more standard evolution leitmotifs.
    • And in Adventure, we have "Hey Digimon". It plays, then you're screwed.
    • The American Digimon movie had a fairly good example in the first half. after the swarm of Diaboromons blast Wargreymon and Metalgarurumon into submission, the scene where the two digimon fuse into Omnimon was accompanied with a rendition of the Digimon theme. However, the movie took a different route with the actual fight scene, which was treated to a very different song that still fits with the Curb-Stomp Battle being shown.note 
      • Another The Movie dub example: the fight between Parrotmon and Greymon. 15 minutes in and with only a narmy rap remix of the theme heard so far, Greymon introduces himself to Tai. The distant sound of records scratching echoes across the 5.1, and three glorious almost-words, despite being only whispered, are still louder than the biggest explosion: "DI- DI- DI-..."
      • From the same fight, after Greymon blacks out (Parrotmon is a level higher than Greymon, so he's having some trouble), Tai uses the whistle to wake him up for round two. We don't hear too much of the song, as round two is much shorter.
    • Four words: We Are Xros Heart! (even a version X7!), Evolution and DigiXros Taiki (or Kiriha)! When that music plays, you know someone is going to curbstomp something.
    • In Digimon Adventure: (2020), each evolutionary stage has its own leitmotif, just like in Digimon Savers. We have Be The Winners for evolving to Adultnote , X-treme Fight for evolving to Perfectnote  and Break the Chain for evolving to Ultimatenote .
  • Dokkoida?!?! hangs a Lampshade on this; the hero's power suit is able to induce this state by playing a heroic theme song. At least if the company that made the suit actually got that feature working before they released it. But the hero doesn't know that, and he manages to get the same effect just from suggestion and enjoying the Hot-Blooded music.
  • Dragon Ball Z: The original Japanese score by Shunsuke Kikuchi, Bruce Faulconer's replacement score for the 1998 Funimation dub, Mark Menza for some of the Funimation dub movies and GT and Norihito Sumitomo for Super.
    • In any of the soundtracks, almost every member of the main cast has this during either powering up, laying the beatdown on an enemy, being revealed to still be alive after being on the receiving end of a huge explosion, or really achieving anything. Here's the list of the most notable themes:
    • Gohan:
      • In the Funimation dub of Namek Gohan gets the adrenaline pumping theme "Gohan vs Frieza", which plays (well at least in some versions) when Gohan delivers a glorious Extreme Mêlée Revenge on Freiza.
      • In the Japanese OST, when Cell goads and torments Gohan to transcend his Super Saiyan power, Gohan does exactly that, to a tune called "Demon vs. Demon" (in some translations). A fitting name, considering what Gohan basically becomes in this state. An alternate translation is "Spirit vs. Spirit"; the concepts aren't as different in Japanese as in English, but both translations fit the scene pretty well.
      • Faulconer gifts Gohan the spine-chillingly beautiful "Gohan's Anger" theme which plays during his newly awaken SSJ2 state, while Cell Too Dumb to Live goads him. "Gohan Anger" interestingly returns in the Buu Saga rechristened "Mystic Gohan" for his potential unleashed "ultimate" form.
      • Speaking of Gohan in Buu saga, he gets an excellent score when pulling out the Z-Sword and powering up to Ultimate.
      • Can't forget Great Saiyaman's theme Japanese or American.
    • Piccolo:
      • It would be a crime not to mention The Demon King Piccolo theme by Kikuchi since it stayed with the character (or his reincarnation for a long time) always playing when the mean green alien is ready to kick some ass and only stopped in the later parts of DBZ. If you want to hear Piccolo's entirety of Japanese's themes, here they are.
      • Later in Funimation's dub, Piccolo is given a pretty hardcore character theme when he fuses with Kami and fights Cell titled "Super Namek"; this theme is also used for a few villains.
      • Piccolo's last character theme, which is titled Piccolo's Angry is even better, though the title is little misleading because when it first plays Piccolo isn't enraged at all but doing a confident Badass Boast against Android 17.
    • Trunks:
    • Vegeta:
    • Goku:
    • The villains have many great themes:
    • All Out Battle in Super plays when it's time to get serious.
    • A lot Western fans will also fondly remember the Heavy Metal that Funimation dub used for Lord Slug, Cooler's Revenge and Broly with bands such as Disturbed, Finger Eleven, Boy Hits Car and Gravity Pool being just as effective as the Japanese soundtrack when it came to the action.
    • Dragon Ball Z: Bardock - The Father of Goku, has "Solid Scouter" which plays during the titular Saiyan warrior's fight against Dodoria's men who killed his entire squad.
    • Gotenks (Trunks and Goten) gets a sweet theme when Goten and Trunks finally fuse correctly after two failed attempts this Falconer theme blazes.
    • Speaking of Fusions, Gogeta is lucky enough to get two of the best tracks in the franchise, first in the English dub of his uncanon movie "Fusion Reborn" when he first appears to curb stomp Janemba it's very haunting. Then in second canon appearance in Dragon Ball Super: Broly he gets the best recent song (by Bizzard) in Dragon Ball history during the fight against the titular berserker, the vocals yelling "GOGETA" and "SUPER BROLY" are the icing on the cake.
  • Many of the tracks of Eureka Seven are meant just as a theme music power up, be it for the heroes or the villains. Whenever Renton achieves something, a song insert, "Storywriter" begins playing.
    • The first opening song, "Days", also lends itself to a Theme Music Power-Up for Renton and Eureka in Episode 32.
  • Eyeshield 21 also has some examples of the "with lyrics" variety. The first appearance of "Be Survivor" comes to mind and, later "Chain of Power."
  • "Little Busters" fills this role several times in FLCL, usually when it plays during a Naota/Canti gattai.
  • The Meaning Of Truth, the theme of the F-Zero anime, starts up during that famous scene at the end, where Captain Falcon jumps out of his Blue Falcon and FALCON PUNCHES Black Shadow to his death.
  • When Fairy Tail's "Dragon Slayer" starts playing, expect much ass kicking and property damage to ensue. This theme tends to be reserved for the seriously close fights; for more standard epic beatdowns, they use Natsu's Theme. Don't forget "Fairy Tail Main Theme" and "Dragon Force". Whenever those two play, major ass-kicking is about to ensue. There's also "Fairy Law / Makarov's Theme" for when a character decides to take Magic badassery up to eleven, usually Makarov but also notably Gildarts.
  • Several characters in Final Fantasy: Unlimited are subject to this.
  • Fist of the North Star: Once Ai Wo Torimodose's battle remix starts playing (or for that matter, the fight alteration of "Silent Survivor" or "Tough Boy"), then there's no doubt Kenshiro will bring the ultimate form of pain on the bad guy of the day. Then, after the beat down, they are already dead.
    • The climax of Kenshiro's fight against Kaioh, Raoh's brother and the main antagonist in the second season. Almost defeated, Kaioh tries to use a jet of lava to launch himself into the air, only for Kenshiro to deliver one final punch as Kaioh falls toward him... and then, Ai Wo Torimodose begins to play triumphantly.
    • One aversion, however, is Jackal, a powerless dynamite-spamming mook, who manages to live all through that music. And Ken was just fucking with him all that time anyway... up until Jackal calls upon Devil Rebirth.
  • The second anime of Fullmetal Alchemist has the fight against Sloth, where Olivier Armstrong is cornered and her brother gloriously saves her with his supreme manliness complete with an epic theme song that could only be described as the Armstrong national anthem. The exact same thing happens a few moments later when Izumi's husband and aforementioned brother meet for the first time.
    • The final and final opening song "Rain" gets played during the final battle, when Father's transmutation is reversed and all the souls in Amestris are returned to their bodies. The moment the baby begins to cry, it's a sure indication that the tide has turned.
  • In Gaiking: Legend of Daiku Maryu, the Anime Theme Song plays whenever a fight goes on, more often than not one that the heroes win. A separate theme is used for the Next Tier Power-Up.
  • Both played straight, and played very straight by GaoGaiGar. When Masaaki Endoh shouts "GA-GA-GA GA-GA-GA-GAOGAIGAR!", it's fair warning that Guy's power of raw courage is about to rip you apart. Meanwhile, Mic Sounders the 13th has a couple of songs on Disc P that literally power up any protagonist robot in earshot, restoring their energy and galvanizing their fighting spirit.
    • Also, there are separate themes for the titular mecha's two big finishers, Hell and Heaven and the Goldion Hammer. Also, the rest of GGG's mecha get a hot-blooded theme of their own.
      • The latter is heard most notably when they assault the Contra Fall, and is titled after the entire Mobile Unit: "Strongest Brave Robo Corps". There's also the J-Ark's save-the-day tune "Beautiful Wings Of Light", and the ominous guitar riffs during the opening of the Zonuda battle where it pretty much wipes the floor with GaoGaiGar.
    • GaoGaiGar FINAL has this in spades, when Chouryujin and Gekiryujin are preparing to fight against their respective Soul Master counterparts the theme Saikyo Yuusha Robo-Gundan plays.
      • Mic Sounders 13 gets this as well as when he first fights his Soul Master counter part he invokes Disk F playing Let's Final Fusion to attack with a Golden GaoFighGar MADE OF ROCK, when this didn't work he used the London's Tower Bridge to play the Guitar solo from Power of Desire and cracks the enemy's Loud G-Stone
      • Koryu and Anryu also get a similar moment when they Combine into Tenryujin for the first time ever to take on their Soul Master Counterpart, the song, Saikyou Yuusha Robo Gundan Ladies
      • Don't forget Yuuki aru Tatakai. When this piece starts, no one will survive from Guy's attacks. NO EXCEPTIONS. Example.Sure, Palparepa gets better, but we will have another TMPU for him shortly after (starting from 2:28).
  • The Garden of Sinners has Shiki's unofficial theme "Seventh Heaven" played several dozen times over the course of the series, but it gets kicked up a notch or two for her fight scenes.
    • Whenever Yuki Kajiura and the strings and chimes strike up, the unkillable's going to be killed.
  • Genesis of Aquarion has a Theme Music Power-Up in nearly every episode (along with the usual subversion with stopping the song when the attack fails), and the last episode gets an awesome, gospel style version of the first theme song.
  • Getter Robo: When Shin Getter Robo uses Stoner Sunshine against Shin Dragon]], a badass Theme Music Power-Up starts up raising the level of epicness in the scene.
  • Girls und Panzer: Whenever a particular school starts dominating, a song associated with the nationality of their school's theme starts playing (for example, "Marching Grenadiers" for English-themed St Glorianna or "Panzerleid" for German-themed Koramorimuni). The protagonists's school, Oarai, is the only one that lacks this: the show's opening or ending themes are not used in this way.
  • Whenever Goblin Slayer's hard rocking main theme starts up, a lot of little green bastards - or whatever big green bastard he's currently fighting - are about to get their asses thoroughly kicked. This is especially pronounced during the Water Town arc when Goblin Slayer comes back from near death in order to completely mess up the Goblin Champion and save his friends.
  • Gravion has a theme song that plays when it combines, in one episode Sandman and the maids powered the robot up by singing karaoke!!!
    • Sol Gravion has its own theme towards the end of Gravion Zwei. The names are Gasshin! God Gravion and Enou Gasshin! Sol Gravion, respectively.
  • In Guardian Fairy Michel, the opening theme plays whenever Michel is about to win, so expect to hear it a lot.
  • Gunbuster plays it straight when the Buster Machine rises from Exelion while the Gunbuster March plays. And then, in Diebuster this is played with when Nono begins singing the original show's theme song prior to her transformation sequence, subverted when the space monster erupts from Titan and the Gunbuster March begins playing prior to changing to a more sinister theme, and finally played completely straight when the real Gunbuster March plays as Buster Machine 7 warps in to save the day.
  • Gundam:
    • Whenever "Meteor" or "Vestige" play in Gundam SEED or Gundam SEED Destiny, expect Kira Yamato to appear and disable the entire opposition without a scratch.
    • When Cagalli shows up in the Akatsuki to help defend ORB from the ZAFT attack in Destiny and the song "Honoo no Tobira" plays. Basically, the ORB forces go from on the ropes to fighting chance, to winning the day when Kira and Lacus show up.
    • G Gundam had two themes dedicated to Domon's Finishing Moves, "Moegare Toushi" for the Shining Finger and the other "Waga Kokoro, Meikyo Shisui" for just about anything God Gundam did.
    • 00 Gundam from Mobile Suit Gundam 00 initially failed to reach optimal operating conditions in light of an impending attack on the Gundam Meister's ship (Season 2, Episode 2). 00 Gundam gets its own semi-acoustic version of the soundtrack by the same name as Setsuna activates Trans-Am, thereby forcing the Gundam to reach a stable operating state. This results in all parties present pausing to admire the flash of emerald light and marvel at the Twin Drive system. The music starts up in earnest and 00 Gundam proceeds to annihilate the attacking "Ahead" mechs.
    • Also in season two, "Trans-Am Raiser", and the movie had "FINAL MISSION! QUANTUM BURST!" Whenever those two start playing, lots of stuff blows up at a constantly increasing rate.
    • In SD Gundam Force Episode 52, the 3rd opening theme Taiyou Ni Kougarate plays when the heroes begin their ultimate attack on the Big Bad
    • Also, in just about every episode, the battle is resolved by the kid getting excited, which activates the Soul Drive, which starts the trumpet solo, which gives the Gundams the power they need to save the day.
    • Gundam Build Fighters Try has done this twice so far: once, in the first episode, with the spectacular reveal of the Build Burning Gundam. The second is in the fifth episode, when main character and Build Burning pilot Sekai Kamiki shows what he's learned in an attempt to better himself at Gunpla Battle. And it is awesome on both counts.
  • The first season theme of Hajime no Ippo often plays during Ippo's final drive to victory in a given match.
    • Subverted in one episode where during Ippo's first match against Japan Featherweight Champion Eiji Date, it is suddenly interrupted by Eiji's counter punch.
    • The song Inner Light, the opening for that season, begins to play in full Ippo begins his final counterattack against Sendou during the Japanese Featherweight Championship, when he pulls off his newly completed Dempsey Roll for the first time.
  • Heavy Metal L-Gaim does it in the very first episode, when during the second half of Shingeki L-Gaim an instrumental version of Time for L-Gaim kicks in. By the time it ends, the fight is over.
  • In Hellsing, Seras Victoria transforms into a Draculina and tears through her enemies as Suilen's beautiful, haunting 'Zakuro' plays in the background.
  • In High School D×D's final episode of the first season, the show's theme plays to accompany Issei finally taking the gloves off and breaking Raiser.
    • The light novels have several times used Issei's In-Universe theme song to get him pumped up or pulled back from the brink of insanity. Said song is a horrifyingly embarrassing serenade to his love of tits, set to the tune of a children's TV show (no, really), leading to some intense Bathos either way.
  • Hilariously subverted in Hitoribocchi no OO Seikatsu. Aru's Image Song plays while she's in the middle of a tennis match with Nako. Aru hopes that she, a member of the tennis club, will easily beat the nonathletic Nako, but Aru repeatedly fails to even make a serve to Nako. By the time Aru succeeds, she's down 7-1 (the match is to 10 points), and only "wins" because Nako decides to forfeit.
  • In episode 13 of Hyperdimension Neptunia the Animation, Peashy's Transformation Sequence and subsequent Big Damn Heroes moment are accompanied by a remix of her theme from the games.
  • Irresponsible Captain Tylor likes to play with this. Whenever Straight Man Lieutenant Yamamoto tries to do something awesome and profound, his theme song starts up—a militaristic, Music to Invade Poland to-ish piece that brings to mind Toshiro Mifune's samurai-era masterpieces. Only for it to, inevitably, be interrupted by Tylor's easygoing comedy-movie-style theme when Tylor interrupts his badassery with something utterly stupid that nonetheless somehow manages to save the day. He even manages to throw down the occasional Record Needle Scratch, usually followed by a few seconds of complete silence while everybody in the area stares at him in gobsmacked disbelief.
  • The 2012 JoJo's Bizarre Adventure anime:
    • For Part 2, Battle Tendency, "Sono Chi no Sadame", the very manly intro theme for Part one, Phantom Blood, plays during the climactic battle against Kars. At all other times "I'm In Control" plays whenever Joseph gets a Heroic Second Wind. There's also "Awaken", a villainous example for the Pillar Men.
    • Part 3, Stardust Crusaders:
      • When "Stardust Crusaders" (or a variation thereof) starts playing, it's usually accompanied by Jotaro "doing the "ORA ORA" thing."
      • Kakyoin and Polnareff generally use Kakyoin's theme "Virtuous Pope" whenever one or both of them achieve something... but when Kakyoin's 20m Radius Emerald Splash comes up against Dio and his The World...let's just say it doesn't end well for Kakyoin OR his music. Polnareff actually has his own theme, "Ken" (Japanese for 'sword'), but it's generally not found to be as strong a piece of music. However, When he shows up again in Vento Aureo, it's remixed into the version named "Cavaliere" (Italian for 'knight'), a theme more fitting for both him, and his moment there.
    • Part 4, Diamond is Unbreakable has a theme known as "Breakdown", which plays to correspond with Josuke's achievements. For Koichi, "Courage" starts playing when he decides to get serious and engage the enemy.
    • Part 5, Golden Wind:
      • Giorno's theme, "il vento d'oro" (the actual Italian wording for the arc's name 'Golden Wind'), usually comes in when he or his comrade is about to kick some ass. The iconic piano part midway through the piece has provided the reason for an image for this trope.
      • The Big Good Bruno Bucciarati has two theme songs, "Furious Fight" and "Nella Cerniera" (Italian for 'in the zipper'), both of which contain samples of the Big Bad's theme, as most of their key moments are against each other. "Furious Fight" generally plays against the Big Bad, while "Nella Cerniera" plays against anyone else.
  • In KonoSuba, the final fight with The Destroyer at the end of the anime's first season kicks off with the show's theme music playing.
    • The end of Season 2 kicks off Kazuma putting into action a plan to defeat the Demon General Hans with the Season 2 opening theme.
  • Most fights in The Law of Ueki start the opening theme as the final attack is used, which then continues through the whole opening, even if the fight has already ended.
  • Lyrical Nanoha:
    • When you hear Fate's voice actress, Nana Mizuki, start to sing her insert song for that season, expect every villain currently on screen to have their asses handed to them within the next five minutes. Fate gets a particularly big one of these in the form of "Pray" during the final showdown with Jail Scaglietti and the Numbers in Season 3.
      • In season 1, it's "Take a Shot". In season two, it's "BRAVE PHOENIX". Mentioned above, in season 3, it's "Pray". In The Movie 1st, it's "Don't be long". In The Movie 2nd A's, it's "Sacred Force -Extended Mix-".
    • Similarly, Nanoha gets a variation during her fight with Quattro. As Nanoha's Wide Area Search finds Quattro, the Background Music shifts from Quattro's synth-organ Leitmotif to Nanoha's "Ace of Aces" battle theme.
    • The aptly named "Shooting Action" signals when a hero gets up, sometimes after a memory or speech, and lays the smackdown on one of the villans, preferably with a Wave-Motion Gun.
  • Macross:
    • One of the most iconic moments in the original Super Dimension Fortress Macross is the SDF-1's assault on the Zentrandi fleet, outnumbered somewhere around a hundred million to one. The music was basically all the previous songs put back to back. Then Macross: Do You Remember Love? came around and presented "Do You Remember Love?" the track that is all but synonymous with the series.
      • And don't forget about the final episode where Kamjin attacks Macross City... then the show's opening theme song starts to play as the Macross takes off one last time and blows the offender out of the sky with its main cannon.
    • Macross Plus featured an interesting variation. The music that powers up is not the fast paced songs but Myung's song, the slow tempo "Voices", which she uses to snap Isamu out of Sharon's illusions.
    • Macross 7 puts this to the limit with The Power of Rock. Literally, listening to Basara's singing causes people to regenerate Spiritia, something the villains have been sucking out, causes their victims to go comatose. In the Grand Finale, his power up overrides the Big Bad's effect of draining spiritia and helps all his teammates recover. It also featured the song "Try Again", which had been first used for this trope when Basara blasted his song THROUGH A METEOR without damaging it to save Gamlin, with it also being used for an subversion when the heroes tried (and failed) to defeat a Brainwashed and Crazy Gamlin.
    • Macross Zero inverts this. The Song of Ruin is not a good thing for people since it involves a somewhat Brainwashed and Crazy version of Sara controlling the Bird Human, a massive thing that promptly begins to raise total hell.
    • Macross Frontier does this a lot, especially Episode 7. In Episode 14, it's subverted—"Sagittarius 9PM Don't Be Late" plays as Sheryl goes into combat for the first time... only for her to be immediately shot down.
      • Episode 4 featured "My Boyfriend is a Pilot" (from the original series) over Alto's "final exam" in his dual with Klan Klan. What happens next is an awesome fight sequence with choreography to the music.
      • Episode 16 features an extremely cruel parody of this trope as Ranka sings a corrupted version of "Aimo" which glorifies war instead of love and peace. The powerup does seem to work... at first. The Vajra don't even flinch at the later uses of that version of "Aimo" in episodes 18 and 20.
      • In Episode 24, it is inverted horrifically for the Frontier fleet, as Ranka sings "Do You Remember Love?" for the Vajra, who proceed to overpower the human forces.
      • The entirety of Episode 25 is pretty much THE defining example of Macross Theme Music Power Ups, combining almost every song in Frontier plus "Do You Remember Love?"
      • And in the Grand Finale of The Movie adaptations, Alto is once again literally powered up by the two female leads singing "Sayonara no Tsubasa" ("Wings of Goodbye").
    • In Macross Delta, Delta Squadron act as bodyguards for Girl Group Walkure, meaning that this trope is in play in virtually every battle. Hayate's piloting skills receive a literal power up every time Freyja sings for him, due to how well the two sync together.
  • In the Mazinkaiser OVAs, whenever Kouji lays the pain down his opponents, the song Mazinkaiser's Theme starts playing, though it's the short version. In the final episode, "Decisive Battle! Burning Hell Castle", the full version of it is played the moment Mazinkaiser unleashes Kaiser Blade and doesn't stop until he delivers the final blow onto Hell King Gorgon.
    • Shin Mazinger manages to pack three one after the other in the final episode, as the second opening, second ending, and finally first ending play in sequence over the final battle.* In My Bride is a Mermaid, San's "Song of Heroes" is a Theme Music Power-Up, thanks to the Mermaid's Ancient Lyrics. Any time San starts singing it, Nagasumi is about to do something impossibly badass. And then there's the time that Nagasumi pulls it off before San starts singing, because he's just that pissed off. The "Song of Heroes" starts picking up just as the asskicking begins.
  • You Say Run and its variants are used to punctuate several awesome moments in My Hero Academia, but special mentions go to Izuku using One for All during the Entrance Exam, the USJ Arc when All Might is facing down the Nomu, and the Sports Festival Arc when Izuku breaks through to Todoroki and convinces his to accept and use the powerful fire half of his quirk.
    • A variant is used to chilling but no less awesome effect in the Overhaul Arc. You Say Run is present, but cuts out suddenly when Izuku (who can temporaily use 100% of his power without having to worry about injuring himself thanks to Eri's quirk) lands a solid kick against Overhaul and launches him into the sky. When we cut back to their fight, Izuku begins demolishing Overhaul, complete with theme music, but it's not You Say Run this time - It's All For One's theme.
  • Plenty of instances in Naruto:
    • In Part I, the titular character had several "commence recovery and ass-kicking" tunes. "The Raising Fighting Spirit" was the most common, but several were held in reserve for really stand-out occasions. To beat Neji, Naruto had to bust out three of these in a row ("Avenger" followed immediately by "Heavy Violence" followed immediately by "Strong and Strike").
    • Rock Lee has "Utsukishi Aoi Yajuu" (Beautiful Green Beast), which starts up every time it seems like he is going to win a battle.
    • Shikamaru has the techno song "Fake" which starts up whenever it turns out things have gone All According to Plan.
    • In Part I, whenever Orochimaru's theme music started playing the other guy was screwed. The normal version meant they were merely scared half to death and weren't going to dare stand up to him; the "fight" version was reserved for horrible Curb Stomping.
    • Part II is not lacking in this department either. Two of the most notable ones are: Heaven-Shaking Event and Reverse Situation.
      • A reprise of the latter is used in Boruto: Naruto the Movie when Naruto and Sasuke team up in an over-the-top climatic fight with the movie's main villain.
    • Naruto unlocks a new one upon entering Tailed Beast Mode for the first time. He then proceeds to curb-stop 5 other tailed beasts with ease.
  • This was also done by Neon Genesis Evangelion. Whenever EVA-01 is about to kick some ass and tear some unfortunate Angel a new one, either The Beast or The Beast II plays. The Beast II is even used for such moments in the crossover Super Robot Wars games. Also, in the series' original Mind Screw happy ending, when Shinji realizes his whole life doesn't need to revolve around piloting EVA-01 and he can live a happy life without it, two versions of the show's theme "A Cruel Angel's Thesis" are played, a strings version, The Heady Feeling of Freedom, and a piano and guitar version, Good, or Don't Be, in succession.
    • Rebuild gives Shinji his own Theme Music Power up with Sin From Genesis, a remix of Beast II that plays over his epic beatdown of Zeruel.
      • In End of Evangelion, it's not enough that Asuka triggers a giant cross shaped explosion when she breaks out of her coma and starts tearing the Geo Front apart in Unit-02, the music shifts accordingly. The previous scenes had a dark musical score to accompany the scenes the JSSDF invading Nerv HQ. This changes suddenly to a loud and triumphant music that plays as Asuka comes to term with her past, overcomes it, and finally just starts tearing things apart. The director of the English dub even calls Asuka the brightest, happiest character in the entire movie during this particular scene. The music that plays when Asuka is fighting the Mass Production Eva Units can count as well, depending on the viewer.
  • In Nerima Daikon Brothers, the titular band often sings a revised version of their theme song with lyrics adjust for the villain whose butt they're about to kick. It's basically a show rule that if the theme song's not playing, they're not about to win.
  • Kirika and Mireille of Noir. ''SALVA NOS, DEUUUUUS!''
    • One shot even has Kirika wait to shoot the guy until the music finishes.
    • Similarly, anytime you start to hear Yanmaani (the song's title is "Nowhere") in the background in Madlax, the titular character is about to kick serious amounts of ass with inhuman skill. It's so prevalent that The Other Wiki even mentions it. It is a joke among fans that the word gives Madlax super powers.
  • One Piece has many examples of this.
    • In general main them song "We Are!" (The show's first song) plays whenever something awesome happens. "Believe" the second song is also used to great effect.
    • "Overtaken" is The Straw Hats, "time to kick ass" music see the walk to Arlong Park or the big entrance in One Piece Film: Strong World
    • "Greeting Swordsmen" is used more rarely but when it's awesome e.g Zoro and Sanji's Heroic Second Wind in the Groggy Ring.
    • One Piece Film: Gold adds the truly badass score "Daigyakuten" by Yuki Hayashi when the whole crew gets ready to rumble.
    • In Wano arc, pretty much every exciting moment that happens in is accompanied by this wonderful shamisen score. Also Leaning on the Fourth Wall as Komurasaki aka Hiyori strums it out In-Universe while fights and events she has nothing to do with are going on.
    • Luffy:
      • "Gomu Gomu no Bazooka!" which often plays when Luffy finishes off the villains.
      • Luffy's main theme is pretty cheery and always plays after you think all hope is lost, then things start getting better.
      • Luffy gets a tougher theme for his "Second Gear" power up.
      • The secondary theme during the fight with Blueno is awesome.
      • Luffy's latest transformations, Gear 4 and Snake Man get epic music to accompany them.
    • Zoro:
      • His first theme is very edgy, best played in whiskey Peak when bounty hunters are planning to kill the crew. Zoro alerts them to his presence and says that he will beat all hundred of them...
      • A second, more endearing, and triumphant theme is given to Zoro, playing whenever he talks about his ambition to be the strongest or survives a horrific beating.
      • Zoro's third theme in the Strong World movie, a jazzed up version of his own theme, leaves his other themes in the dust and is used to great effect when slicing up a Monster Clown.
    • Sanji:
      • His jazzy "causal theme" is fit for a secret agent and played whenever he doing something cool, putting on the charm for a lady or just cooking.
      • Sanji gets a more action packed jazz theme called "Fight back Sanji" best played when he delivers a beatdown on a karate asshole fishman.
      • Sanji also has a sneaky Bond-style theme when he goes under cover as "Mr Prince", funny to note lots of the villains in One Piece share this theme too.
      • In Strong World, Sanji, like Zoro is given his best theme yet played when kicking the ass of a giant Killer Gorilla.
      • In Wano literally every time Sanji appears as Soba Mask, his hero theme music blazes throughout.
    • Franky's theme music is a strong contender for the trio above best played when he's bashing the crap out of a Giant Spider Monkey, he tends to shouts "SUPER" whenever it's playing. Interestingly Usopp has this theme earlier on.
    • Trafalgar Law, a Breakout Character, of course, gets his own theme.
    • During the Impel Down Arc, Hannyabal attempted to invoke this by having soldiers play music at the beginning of his fight against Luffy. It didn't take.
    • Even the understandably silent written Manga made a spoof reference to this. When Usopp reinvented himself as Sogeking, he quickly made up and sung his own little theme tune, which was a joke at the time. Later, he turns up to save the day, and happily sings the theme tune to himself as he shoots at the crucial group of marines. Except the change of circumstances makes readers see the song in a whole new awesome light. It came back later when Usopp "transformed" to fight with Perona.
    • The Germa 66 Henshin Hero theme. Nuff said.
    • The villains eventually get in on this trope:
  • In One-Punch Man's Season 1 finale, the show's opening theme song plays while Saitama fights Boros.
  • In the final episode of Ouran High School Host Club the ending theme starts early as Haruhi goes after Tamaki on the carriage on her own, even using the soft guitar opening to the song which signals the end of the episode to tease a Downer Ending, and the episode had a special ending to avoid repeating.
  • Outlaw Star has CRASH!
  • Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt plays "Fly Away (Now)" during pretty much any scene which tops the awesomeness of the previous scene in which "Fly Away (Now)" was played.
    • It is fairly common before Episode 5, but afterward becomes less and less common until the Climactic Battle Resurrection at which point you will cheer and applaud when it plays.
    • Panty and Stocking aren't the only ones who get this treatment. In Episode 6, their Evil Counterparts, Scanty and Kneesocks get their own power up with the song "I Want You".
  • When they made Super Robot Wars: Original Generation into an anime, this was guaranteed to be in effect. The most notable occurrence is in the second series The Inspector when Latooni and Princess Shine debut their Fairlions to the tune of a vocal version of ''Dancing Faeries'', their shared theme. That said, the first season is no slouch, as The Divine Wars showcases the anime's first theme, Break Out during, appropriately enough, the episode 14 "Operation Breakout".
  • Inverted in Paranoia Agent, where the Theme Music belongs to Big Bad Lil' Slugger. If it starts playing, you're extremely screwed—Slugger gets the powerup.
  • Persona 4: The Animation. It is the dead of night. All hope seems lost. Yu is alone, beaten but not defeated. All his efforts have been in vain, and it seems nothing he can do will help him overcome. But then he stands, determination burning in his heart. He rallies his strength and summons the original game's battle Theme Tune, "Reach Out To The Truth," and he faces out, he holds out, he casts his fishing line and finally catches the Guardian.
    • The final (brodcast) episode has the same song play when Yu turns the tide against Adachi after previously struggling against him.
    • Persona 4 Golden: The Animation goes for a comedic subversion on Valentines Day, when Nanako attempts to make chocolate while following contradicting advice from the girls who were all previously established as rather poor at cooking. As in the game, it’s a But Thou Must! moment for Yu, as he doesn’t want to let down his little cousin, and as such, he declares he’ll do it for her, and "Reach Out To The Truth" starts blasting, only for it to cut out with a Smash to Black as soon as he takes one bite. Cut to Yu heading to the hospital to deal with a sickness the chocolate gave him.
  • Pokémon: The Series usually has one of the openings or upbeat endings accompany a sudden comeback (maybe even a whole battle) or evolution. "Pokémon Symphonic Medley" has been common recently, as there is no full version of the song.
    • In older seasons, they'd use this electric guitar remix of the Gym theme.
    • Late in the Japanese version of the Advanced Generation series, Battle Frontier would usually start playing when Ash begins to make a comeback. Late Diamond & Pearl episodes were fond of throwing in "Saikou - Everyday!" in the same situation.
    • The dub did this a couple of times, as well. In the match against Roark, the English Diamond & Pearl theme played. During a Contest with Dawn's rival Ursula, they played Battle Frontier (replacing the line "It's the Battle Frontier!" with "Let the battle begin!"), and the final DP episode had We Will Carry On! syncing up to the Flint vs. Cynthia battle.
    • In the Japanese XY Anime arc, the theme, the epic themes "Volt" and "Mega Volt" are used whenever something happens, whether it be an evolution, a last minute turnaround of the battle, or just our heroes rocking out.
    • The XY and Z arc had the main opening theme, aptly titled ""XY and Z'', serve as the Leitmotif for Ash's Greninja every time it trnsformed into Ash-Greninja. And rightfully so, as not even the Regional Champion herself is safe from an ass-kicking when Greninja pulls out the stops.
    • In the Japanese Pokemon Journeys arc, the original theme song, "Mezase Pokemon Master", plays as Pikachu prepares and launches his final attack on Leon's Charizard, landing the final blow and finally making Ash Ketchum the World Champion. In the English dub, a re-recorded version of the very first dub theme song is used instead for this scene.
  • Pretty Cure:
    • Futari wa Pretty Cure: Nagisa and Honoka are undefeatable when the instrumental version of the theme song is playing. And if the Background Music has lyrics, they can accomplish miracles like defeating Jaaku King or getting Kiriya to turn good. At the end of Futari Wa Pretty Cure Max Heart, the theme song was played with lyrics, which was both at once and thus gave Pretty Cure the ability to defeat the Jaaku King for real this time.
    • The All Stars Deluxe movie does this a total of four times. It happens once for each of the teams that had already finished their seasons, and after this, the main theme of the movie plays for the final group attack.
    • Heart Catch Pretty Cure has "Heart Goes On" for its big moments. However, the first time it was played, it was rather tame - a combined musical concert and fashion show. The next two times it's played (after Cure Blossom passes the Final Test and helps bring about the Heartcatch Orchestra for the first time and the final battle between the Precures and Big Bad Dune) it's played straight.
  • Princess Tutu. Admittedly, all combat is to ballet music, but you could always kind of tell who exactly was getting the power up.
  • In Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Mami has a pretty awesome one when transforming into her magical girl outfit.
    • This trope gets zigzagged in general. Mami was a rare exception to the actual rule in the show, fitting with her "stereotypical magical girl" image. Usually, in this show, the melody of the music that is already playing changes or pauses to highlight the transformation, resuming when it's done. Or nothing happens at all, because the transformation is not important. Or fight music starts playing because shit's about to go down.
  • In Rental Magica, when Itsuki removes his eye-patch, the music starts, and he says a variant of, "This is an order from the President!" asskicking will commence. Except that one time in the last chronological episode, where he abused it just to get them to listen.
  • The James Bond-ish opening theme tune in Read or Die kicks up at the end of the first episode of the OVA, when Yomiko and Nancy square off against Otto Lilienthal and his transforming glider.
    • And whenever you hear it fire up during the sequel, strap in tight, because someone's about to kick some major ass.
  • In Reborn! (2004), there is separate theme music for "Look, someone (usually Tsuna) is no longer failing at life!" and "Oh, by the way, I acquired some new way to kick your butt. SORRY FOR NOT TELLING YOU!"...as well as everything else, to the extent that it's possible to tell what's going on just by listening to the Background Music.
    • To be more precise, the songs are called "Shinuki Time!", "Succession", "Hibari's Theme" and "Tsuna Awakens", respectively.
  • Red Baron: Whenever the opening theme begins to play, you can bet the titular robot is about to kick some ass. One of the most notable examples being when the Gold Baron has seemingly won, the Red Baron almost literally comes back to life, powers up and defeats the Gold Baron with a single Megaton Punch through its chest.
  • Adolescence of Utena: "Let's go, Utena. To the outside world." ~Oooohhhh, yeeeaahhhh...~
  • Rurouni Kenshin has an unusual example of this trope. Kenshin's personal kick-ass music is an acoustic guitar theme that plays whenever he does something badass. Which is very fitting considering the character.
  • In SSSS.GRIDMAN, when Gridman's true form is revealed in the final episode, the 1993 opening starts playing. Gridman, BABY DAN DAN! He then gets another one in the form of the anime's own opening when he uses Fixer Beam to weaken Alexis, leading to his defeat.
    • SSSS.DYNɅZENON would typically start playing All This Metal when the heroes were taking the fight to the episode's Kaiju. The finale, like in the prequel series, takes it a step further by following up with the anime's opening immediately afterwards.
  • Usagi of Sailor Moon had several theme songs based on The Power of Friendship. The Outer Senshi have their own Rule of Cool music.
    • A bit different in the final season, in which the new addition to the cast—the Sailor Starlights—had an appearance theme very different to the traditional "sudden and loud" ones: starting quiet and subtle and then getting louder during the close-up on them.
    • The season 1 finale features a full-length version of the opening song "Moonlight Densetsu") during the Beam-O-War with Queen Metallia, the DiC dubbed version of the scene used entitled "Carry On". Other songs featured are "Ai no Senshi", "La Soldier" (from the Sailor Moon R finale), and "Moon Revenge" (from the R movie). The last episode of Sailor Stars uses the season's opening "Sailor Star Song" in this manner.
  • Whenever Athena's Saints in Saint Seiya mustered their courage and burned their Cosmo beyond its limits, they'd receive either a full-on brass fanfare or a gorgeous orchestral arrangement of "Pegasus Fantasy". Asskicking of Olympian proportions would ensue.
  • Saiyuki has the OP theme "For Real"; it's not surprising that the rockin' guitar version brings the pain to you, but what's more interesting is that the gentle, tinkling piano version can either be the theme to character growth and introspection... or the warning that Genjo Sanzo is about to deliver a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown on whoever's in his way—complete with some snarky deconstruction of whatever BS the poor yutz was trying to spout at the time.
  • Sgt. Frog: in episode 103, just as the Garuru platoon has utterly defeated the Keroro platoon, Natsumi is down and Keroro himself has been transformed into a psycopathic frogchild version of himself, Fuyuki snaps him out of it...cue the first opening theme as Keroro rallies the troops. 3! 2! 1! FIRE!
  • In Shakugan no Shana's anime adaptation, the cast gets one in the climax of the fight against Sabrac in the form of "JOINT" in Season 2.
  • The 2001 anime of Shaman King poses a subversion in the final fight, where all main characters are fighting the villain Hao/Zeke, and the main theme starts playing. Everyone is sure Hao is going to get his powered-up rear kicked, when the song suddenly stops and the tide is turned, changing the song to Hao's fighting theme.
  • Slayers: In the anime, Lina has the same music anytime she casts Dragon Slave (and Giga Slave and Laguna Blade). Also somewhat distorted on the Battle Music (same every time—ikinashi oodate) and totally distorted for Amelia and Gourry (with douchuuki).
    • Slayers Evolution-R has a variation on the "series theme plays as Big Bad gets ass handed to him" thing, playing the theme from Next.
  • In Soul Eater, Soul does this quite literally, as he is able to play a (technically imaginary) piano to co-ordinate him and Maka with their teammates.
    • Other than the Musical Assassin, there are usual examples in Kid's '...Have a nice dream' track, and Black Star's 'Never Lose Myself'.
    • Black Star also has HarmoNIZE.
    • Soul can make a keyboard out of his arm and play whatver music will make a person go insane.
  • Transformers Victory's opening theme music plays whenever Star Saber does something particularly awesome. Road Caesar and Landcross each have their own remixed version.
  • Space Battleship Yamato 2199 usually plays it straight, with the appropriate triumphal music playing every time the Yamato is kicking someone's ass, but also features a rather curious inversion when the White Comet Empire gets an Early-Bird Cameo with their theme song playing and is curbstomped by Domel.
  • The North Maiden of Star Driver always starts to sing before that episode's giant robot battle.
    • With her being put on a boat resident Genki Girl Mizuno seems to have taken over for her.
      • And now with Mizuno leaving, TMPU has fallen to the East Maiden Keito.
  • Steins;Gate turns the Visual Novel's original theme into this in Episode 23 when Okabe receives the message from his past self and renews his determination to save Kurisu.
  • Almost the entire last episode of Stellvia of the Universe is accompanied by various theme music pieces, including the OP. The Grand Finale takes more than words to convey. Stellvia actually uses its opening theme like this several times in the series... and the first time, it even gets subverted.
  • In Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie, Ryu and Ken's Final Battle against M.Bison is set to "Itoshisa To Setsunasa To Kokoro Tsuyosa To." This was, in a way, foreshadowed by the encounter between Chun Li and Vega, where an instrumental version of said theme shifts the horrible beatdown to the heroine's favor, she still won though.
  • We get a very literal example in Symphogear in which Symphogears are actually activated by the girls singing their theme songs.
  • Various versions of a heavy, hot-blooded rap song are played during pivotal power-up moments in Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. Eventually they get so powerful that they actually get those lyrics superimposed on an opera track.
    • Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann plays this down to the very basis of each part of the trope. There's the various power-up versions of 'Rap Is A Man's Soul!' (AKA 'ROW ROW FIGHT DA POWAH') One for Kamina, one for Gurren-dan, after Kamina's death, and "Libera Me From Hell". Along with these are 'Ten Wo Tsuke/Pierce the Heavens With Your XXX!' (Occurs in Episodes 1 and 8, when they first break through to the surface and the first Giga Drill Breaker), "Happily Ever After" (Insert Song, used in Episode 11 when Simon has his famous He's Back! moment), and the full version of the show's theme, Sorairo Days, used when the cast fight on top of galaxies against the Anti-Spiral.
    • Also works for the bad guys: whenever Viral shows up, the English-language song "Nikopol" plays. The meaning of the title Nikopol coming from the greek as Nikê meaning victory and polis which is city. "City of victory" sounds very ironic when you realize how this guy keeps losing to the good guys every single time. But he never gives up, eventually joins the good guys, and lands up being immortal and apparently very happy as an ambassador of the Earth. He won after all.
    • Subverted in Episode 25 where an attack is launched, a power up song starts... and the missile is harmlessly crushed before it can reach its destination. In all fairness, that wasn't the main theme song anyway.
      • Then played straight immediately after.
    • In Episode 2, when Kamina and Simon hijack the Gunzan, later named Gurren, the English-language song "Gattai Nante Kusokurae" (AKA "To Hell with Gattai") starts playing.
      • It plays during the final battle with Lordgenome as well, when Simon is reduced to fighting the Spiral King's Gurren Lagann-style mech with just his own Lagann, and totally kicks ass.
    • During the final battle with the Anti-Spiral in the second movie, a new version of Sorairo Days plays..
  • Tekkaman Blade: When Blade receives his Blastor power up, Eternally Loneliness starts playing. Blade proceeds to send Lance running with his tail between his legs, before blowing him up with a souped up Voltekka. The same Lance that spent the better part of episode bragging about how he was superior in every way.
  • Nearly any fight in The Third: The Girl with the Blue Eye, most notable One-Woman Wail "Sword Dancer" during first and tension rising "Storm on the Battlefield" during last battle.
  • There must have been some kind of clause in the developmental contract for Valvrave the Liberator that this had to happen at least every other episode. Because this happens a lot.
  • The Vision of Escaflowne does this sometimes. When the "Dance of Curse" starts playing expect some serious fighting.
  • In The World God Only Knows, the opening theme plays when Keima goes into God of Conquest mode in episode 12 of Season 1.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh!
    • Yu-Gi-Oh!:
      • the show's main theme begin to play pretty much every time Yugi pulls off an epic combo. The theme of the Egyptian God cards plays whenever one of them is summoned.
      • Also, the transformation theme when Yami Yugi takes over, which happened near episodically in the first season. You know someone's going to get it handed to them when the sequence starts.
      • In the first season's English dub, Kaiba's theme, "I'm Back," plays in a few choice Theme Music Power-Up spots.
    • During Episodes 18 and 19 of the Yu-Gi-Oh! GX dub, the duelist who purloined Yugi's deck and was dueling Jaden kept having musical overtures from the previous series playing. Towards the end, they were even being played in the same musical style as a lot of GX music.
    • Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds has a variety, kicking off with Jack Battle in the very first episode when he summons Red Demons in a televised duel, then got upgraded to an early and unreleased track when summoning Savior Demon Dragon. Yusei has his own themes, Yusei Battle 2 usually reserved for whenever he whips out Savior/Star Dragon. As of late, with Accel Synchros coming into play, a couple of occasions featuring Yusei summoning Shooting Star Dragon are accompanied by Clear Mind sung by Masaaki Endoh.
    • Yu Gi Oh ARCV has DDD for Reiji, which is reserved for his truly epic moments; Swing, Pendulum of the Soul for Yuya when he isn't crazy; Steadfast Duel for Gongenzaka and later Tokumatsu, and the upbeat half of Yuto's Passionate Soul for Yugo. Yuto's is hard to pin down, but Duel of Rebellion is rarely heard elsewhere save the turn in his duel with Sora where he would have curb-stomped him had he not been merciful. Crow's unnamed theme also plays when he's about to kick some ass.
  • Zatch Bell! brings a quite literal example of this trope. Italian Super Star Parco Folgore has a hit song known as "Muteki Folgore" (Invincible Folgore) with the ability to revive him every time he has been knocked down if it is sung by his partner Kanchome.
  • Zoids: New Century has Strike Lazer Claw!

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