History SuperPrototype / AnimeAndManga

** World Government's original Pacifista, created by [[WeCanRebuildHim rebuilding]] Bartholemew Kuma into a {{Cyborg}}, is able to make short work of some later models, though this is mostly because Kuma had Devil Fruit powers couldn't technologically duplicated. [[spoiler:It is stated that more powerful models have been created over the TimeSkip, and they were finally revealed in the Egghead arc, though it has not yet been shown how well Kuma would stack up against them.]]

** The first attempt to [[SufficientlyAnalyzedMagic artificially replicate]] a Devil Fruit, by [[WorldsSmartestMan the brilliant Professor Vegapunk]], was [[EffectiveKnockoff functionally identical]] even though it let you transform into a mythical creature. [[ThePerfectionist Vegapunk]] abandoned it as a failure only because it turned you a different ''color'' than the original. The ''mass-produced'' SMILE Fruits, reverse engineered from Vegapunk's work by the less brilliant and [[BrilliantButLazy much lazier]] Caesar Clown, [[ShoddyKnockoffProduct are vastly inferior to the real thing]] in many ways. For starters, SMILE Fruit powers are only even a loose fascimile of the animal transformation of Zoan-type Devil Fruit, and even then only for animals Caesar could get a tissue sample of (not mythical creatures or extinct animals like real Zoan fruit). Even in that regard, SMILE Fruit is more like MutagenicGoo that permanently gives you random animal parts, not the reversible ability actual Zoan users have. Most importantly, only 10% of SMILE Fruit eaters get ''any'' powers, while the other 90% lose their capacity for any expression but smiling and laughing.

* [[RidiculouslyHumanRobots Chachamaru]] of ''Manga/NegimaMagisterNegiMagi'', the first of [[MadScientist Hakase, Chao, and the engineering club's]] line of androids, which Chachamaru refers to as her little brothers and sisters. As [[ChineseGirl Ku Fei]] mentioned before she kicked the asses of multiple mass-production versions of Chachamaru at once, as long as it's not Chachamaru herself, the fight is easy. There are a few hints implying the greatest breakthough in developing Chachamaru beyond an animatronic performing tea ceremonies was Evangeline choosing to apply the "ensoulment" process she created to animate dolls, which bypassed major power and processing issues the inventors never actually solved in time: the mass-produced model depended both on running limited software and having temporarily heightened levels of ambient magic to tap for power. They do feature minor design improvements (retrofitted into Chachamaru afterwards), however.

*** The V08-1228 Grimgerde is one of the nine Valkyrie Mobile Suits developed by Gjallarhorn in Pre-Calamity War, Grimgerde serves as the prototype of the mass produced Graze as well as the Graze Swords carried by Carta Issue. Piloted by masked man [[CharClone Montag]], he assists Tekkadan in overthrowing the current leader of Gjallarhorn.

* ''Manga/OnePiece'' has the World Government-developed Pacifistas. The original, created by [[WeCanRebuildHim rebuilding]] Bartholemew Kuma into a {{Cyborg}}, is able to make short work of some later models, though this is mostly because Kuma had Devil Fruit powers that apparently couldn't be transferred to the others or technologically duplicated. [[spoiler:It is stated that more powerful models have been created over the TimeSkip, and they were finally revealed in the Egghead arc, though it has not yet been shown how well Kuma would stack up against them.]]

** ''Anime/AfterWarGundamX'' initially {{avert|edTrope}}s this, with the prologue showing that the titular Gundam (as well as the Airmaster and Leopard) was mass produced, and Garrod's is simply the [[LastOfHisKind last of its kind]]. [[spoiler:At least until the United Nations Earth recovers Jamil's old Gundam X and upgrades it into the Double X.]]

* Remarked upon in ''Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann'', in reference to the [[SpellMyNameWithAnS Grappals/Gulaparls]] compared to the Gurren Lagann:

* Several cards in ''Franchise/YuGiOh'' have a fairly justified case of this: they were created, playtested, and discovered to be far too broken to see mass play. As a result, [[PowerEqualsRarity only a handful of copies exist, and they're naturally rather powerful.]] Toon World, Blue-Eyes White Dragon, the Destiny Heroes, and Gold Castle of Stromberg all exist in small numbers, and all dominate their user's strategies.
** In the sequel ''Anime/YuGiOhGx'', it's revealed that such overwhelmingly powerful cards are normally banned if they are available for the masses. The best examples (at that time) being Chaos Emperor Dragon. It was incredibly easy to summon, and its effect was so devastating that it could easily win the game by itself. Its counterpart, the Black Luster Solder, however was not banned, due to it being so rare to the point that almost no one believed that it existed until Dimitri summoned it.

* Sagara Sousuke of ''LightNovel/FullMetalPanic'' handles the [[http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v629/Kuruni/MS-Story/Vault-Other/arx-7.jpg ARX-7 Arbalest]], one of the first mecha to be fielded by MITHRIL to possess a Lambda Driver. Later in the series he goes up against many enemy mecha with Lambda Drivers of their own, but proves his to be the more powerful while defeating them in combat. It is suggested that this is because the Lambda Driver in Sousuke's mecha is a prototype model compared to the mass-produced variants fielded by the enemy, and is capable of increased output at the cost of stability. It does, indeed, fail to function properly on a number of occasions, leading Sousuke to become thoroughly frustrated with it. The Lambda Driver is later put into the ARX-8 Laevatein which, despite the serial number, is actually an AceCustom put together in a hurry. It can still kick the asses of everything mass-produced, though.

* In ''LightNovel/InfiniteStratos'', it turns out that Ichika's [[PoweredArmor IS core]] is actually the very first one ever made. It's noted that the inventor "poured all [her] heart and soul into that core," since it was her first creation. Note that this is ''not'' the reason he can use the IS ([[GenderRestrictedAbility he's the only male who can]]); rather, that is [[spoiler:never revealed. Not even the original inventor understands why]].

* ''Manga/OnePiece'' has the World Government-developed Pacifistas. The original, created by [[WeCanRebuildHim rebuilding]] Bartholemew Kuma into a {{Cyborg}}, is able to make short work of some later models, though this is mostly because Kuma had Devil Fruit powers that apparently couldn't be transferred to the others or technologically duplicated. [[spoiler:It is stated that more powerful models have been created over the TimeSkip, though it has not yet been shown how well Kuma would stack up against them.]]

** In the sequel of -->'''YuGiOhGx:'''---- it's revealed that such overwhelmingly powerful cards are normally banned if they are available for the masses. The best examples(at that time) being Chaos Emperor Dragon. It was incredibly easy to summon, it's effect was so devastating that it could easily win the game by itself. It's counterpart, the Black Luster Solder, however was not banned, due to it being so rare to the point that almost no one believed that it existed until Dimitri summoned it.

----

* The police protagonists on ''Anime/{{Patlabor}}'' had three prototype AV-98 Ingram mechs. One episode focused on the introduction of a mass-produced line of Ingrams, subverting the trope a bit in that the prototypes weren't exceptionally good so much as the mass-produced ones were exceptionally shoddy. Also, other kinds of mass-produced police and military mechs are shown to be close in quality to the Ingrams.
** The first film has the Type Zero which was supposed to be an advanced replacement for the AV-98. It proved to be a fearsome opponent in melee combat against other labors and when it was overtaken by the Babel virus, it completely mopped the floor with Ohta's Ingram and Noa barely managed to subdue it. Seeing as the Type Zero wasn't seen in the subsequent films, it can be assumed that the design was abandoned.

* ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'' has (or rather, ''had'') White, an experimental Hollow designed and created by Aizen 18 years before the start of the series in order to test a new method of Hollowfication. It was powerful enough to fight [[AsskickingLeadsToLeadership Captains]], and even [[spoiler:Isshin]] noted how it was more akin to a Shinigami than a Hollow. Considering it was created by merging the souls of several Shinigami together, it stands as no surprise. In a twist of fate, [[spoiler:[[GrewBeyondTheirProgramming it chose to infect Masaki, a Quincy]], who are noted to have zero tolerance to Hollow reishi. Her Hollowfication drove her dangerously close to dying, and it was only thanks to Urahara and Isshin's intervention that her life was saved. Isshin was then forced to stay with Masaki in order to supress White's influence, [[RedStringOfFate after which the two fell in love]], got married and had a son in Ichigo; during Masaki's pregnancy, White was passed on to Ichigo and merged with the Shinigami powers he inherited from Isshin, upon which it was reborn as [[EmpathicWeapon Zangetsu]]]].

** The Tallgeese in ''[[Anime/MobileSuitGundamWing Gundam Wing]]'' was the precursor to all mobile suits in that universe. It's so powerful it can hold its own against the first generation of Gundams in that series. It did have one glaring design flaw: it was so powerful that it ''killed its own pilots''. This was because the Tallgeese effectively had no shock absorbers; its gargantuan size and incredible thrusters transferred ''all of the G-Force'' to the pilot. The Leos that were based on its design are far weaker but also safer for people to pilot.
** The Wing Zero is, likewise, a super prototype to the Gundams, as it housed the dangerous ZERO System, which fed real-time tactical data directly into the minds of its pilot. Unfortunately unless you actually ''know'' how to process that data, it just drives you insane. The comparatively downsized Gundams each just settled for unique weapons tacked on to the general frame. Note that the Wing Zero was specifically designed to counter the Tallgeese. The reason why it is considered 'super' compared to its following generation model Gundams aside from the ZERO System is that it was designed with the expertise of all five Gundam scientists, who at some point afterward parted ways and recreated their own respective Gundam creations with their own styles and preferences, but without input from the others involved in the original creation, none quite as powerful or versatile.
*** There's also some speculation that the Wing Zero may have '''''EATEN''''' one of the pilots who attempted to use it. Because despite the pilot being declared dead and the cockpit never opening after his death until Zechs captured it, they NeverFoundTheBody afterwards, which not only means the suit is dangerous to the mind of the pilots, it may have actually gotten a taste for [[ImaHumanitarian human flesh]]. The fact that Heero ''talks'' to Zero like it can actually communicate with him, and tells Zechs that both Zero and Epyon have "told" him things just makes the ZERO system itself NightmareFuel on several levels.
** The Vayeate and Mercurius from ''[[Anime/MobileSuitGundamWing Gundam Wing]]'' was this to the mass production Virgos. However this was due to both of the mobile suits being test beds for their respective systems; the Vayeate needed an external reactor to power its beam cannon while the Mercurius had to dedicate all of its power to the "Planet Defensors", leaving it with very little offensive capability beyond a beam saber-shield. The Virgo was designed to be something in-between; housing less than a quarter of the Mercurius' Planet Defensors so that it can wield a less powerful version of the Vayeate's Beam Cannon. This was acceptable, as the Virgo was to be mass produced and unmanned, so what they lacked in quality they made up for in overwhelming quantity. In fact when the two prototype suits were later rebuilt as unmanned Mobile Dolls as well, they fared much less effectively against the Gundams, as they were only marginally more effective, but there was only two of them compared to the dozens of Virgos flying around.

*** The Crossbone would also serve as the parent unit for the F99 Record Breaker, designed for extreme speed (capable of crossing the space between Earth and Jupiter in 7 days) and the Amakusa, a high performance AI piloted suit (based on Amuro Rei). These would both serve as the progenitor of what could be considered the Crossbone's true successor, the Phantom (later Ghost) Gundam. This model is an extreme example of a super prototype as it was a somewhat haphazard build intended to posses extreme speed and nothing else. However the way the Minovsky drive and I Field generators were applied resulted in the unexpected effect that the Phantom passively generates an I Field that makes it completely immune to beam weapons up to somewhat ludicrous scales and can use it can weaponise its Minovsky Drive to create offensive heat storms, resulting in a suit with perfect long range defence, extreme long range offence and the close combat abilities of an upgraded Crossbone. The abilites of the Phantom were born from such a random chance that several attempts to duplicate it failed with one of the most successful, the Blanc Phantom, only reach able to reach approximately 75% of the Phantom's output.

** The Crossbone Gundams from ''Mobile Suit Gundam: Crossbone'' were created at the tail-end of the Formula projects. Originally dubbed the F-97, 3 units (X-0, X-1 and X-2) were made with a fourth (X-3) produced later on. In an age where mobile suits and space combat put an increasing emphasis on beam weaponry, the Crossbone units were created with the idea of creating suits with extremely high melee combat potential with numerous close combat weapons and specialised disposable anti-beam cloaks which dissipated beams long enough for the suit to get into combat range. The result was a super protoype whose fighting potential vastly exceeded almost every mobile suit of its age. Any of the Crossbone units are one man armies to almost SuperRobot levels, capable of taking down scores of standard mobile suits. Their close combat weapons include beam cutlasses, lances, transforming shotgun blades, removable beam shields, drill whips, energy spikes, launable grappling chains and plain old giant knives. While they all have some impressive long range weaponry, they rarely use them. The X3 includes experimental I Field generators to prevent ANY beam weapon from harming the arms for a period of a few minutes (allowing it to catch beam sabers) and the Muramasa Blaster, a beam gun/saber hybrid with ''14'' separate emitters. The X-1 is upgraded multiple times culminating in the X-1 Full Cloth, which combines every remaining tool and weapon for the Crossbone series into a single mobile suit, including new skull shaped shoulder bads that function as both I Field generators and gauntlets as well as new Anti-Beam coating armor made from fusing the remaining cloaks together. Combining these extreme abilities with the highly skilled pilots means that the number of suits or pilots capable of matching a Crossbone is few and far between. The suits are so over developed that decades later the X-0 is capable of overpowering some of the most recent and advanced mobile suits in hand to hand, despite its pilot being blind and while he's a newtype, he's not a particularly remarkable one. It would later be upgraded into a Full Cloth version itself. In comparison, the production model the XM-10 Flint has a number of the same weapons but without the extreme abilities. They're produced in limited numbers and have an overall unremarkable combat performance. The reputation of the Crossbone would mean that the X-0 served as a design basis for 3 more units; the X-11 (a direct copy with with full Crossbone capabilities), the X-12 (a cheaper model with numerous modifications) and the X-13 (the most cost effective Crossbone). The X-13 has such reduced capabilities that it struggles to match the abilities of Curtis/Tobia when he has to pilot it.
*** The Crossbone would also serve as the parent unit for F99 Record Breaker, designed for extreme speed and the Amakusa a high performance AI piloted suit (based on Amuro Rei). These would both serve as the progenitor of what could be considered the Crossbone's true successor, the Phantom and later Ghost Gundam. This model is an extreme example of a super prototype as it was a somewhat haphazard build intended to posses extreme speed and nothing else. However the way the Minovsky drive and I Field generators were applied resulted in the unexpected effect that the Phantom passively generates an I Field that makes it completely immune to beam weapons up to somewhat ludicrous scales and can use it can weaponise its Minovsky Drive to create offensive heat storms, resulting in a suit with perfect long range defence, extreme long range offence and the close combat abilities of an upgraded Crossbone. The abilites of the Phantom were born from such a random chance that the Blanc Phantom, a targeted attempt to replicate its abilities could only reach approximately 75% of the Phantom's speed.

*** That said, this may be due to the pilot, but no direct comparison is made between the Guren's abilities and any of it's MP derivatives. Also, the Prototype Radiation Arm used by the Guren Nishiki after it's original Radiation Arm is destroyed seems to be both weaker, and not as well built, but this is also difficult to compare.

* An interesting twist on this trope is utilized in ''Anime/GargantiaOnTheVerdurousPlanet''. The [[AMechByAnyOtherName Machine Caliber]], "Chamber", is just one of many of the Galactic Alliance's RealRobot troops fighting against the hostile alien force known as the Hideauze in outer space, and many are destroyed in the first battle during episode 1. However, on Earth, due to their much less advanced technology, Chamber is essentially a this trope. It is so advanced compared to the Earthling's mechs that they can't even make a dent in its hull, even with jackhammers.

** Another example would be the sea train in Water 7, the original one, Rocket Man, is WAY faster than its successor, but it wasn't used as the city's train since its extreme speed, lack of breaks, lack of steering controls and lack of momentum (if it crashed something it wouldn't lose speed but it would be sent flying in any other direction) was a high risk to safety for something meant to be a civilian train.

* ''Anime/CodeGeass'' features several super prototypes, [[LensmanArmsRace progressing in power with the times.]] Supplementary materials explain the backstory of KMF development, where they were literally putting pieces together just to see how it worked.

** On the opposite side of the coin, Guren Nishiki gets two successors: the limited-production Gekka and the mass-production Akatsuki (as well as Tohdoh's [[AceCustom Zangetsu]]). Neither can hold a candle to the original, especially after it receives its own ninth-gen upgrade into the Guren SEITEN.

*** The Gekka at the very least are roughly on par with the original Guren in terms of specs and build. They simply lack the Radiation Wave technology that made it so dangerous and have to rely on their swords, but still can run rings around the standard Sutherland and even keep up with the Lancelot. The Akatsuki are harder to judge because by the time they're released Britannia has revamped their military to have a new generation of mass produced units as well as more single custom knightmares like the Knights of the Round's units.

whereas the X-13 is a cheaper but still high performance unit, powerful but ultimately inferior.

* In a way, [[spoiler:Madara Uchiha]] and [[GreenThumb Hashirama Senju]] are this compared to most ninja in the ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' universe. Due to living in an age of constant warfare, their abilities were brought to such a zenith that, as Kabuto Yakushi described, many people ''thought it was a fairy tale'', specifically Hashirama. We've seen characters like Yamato, Danzo, and even [[spoiler: [[BigBad Tobi]]]] with Mokuton, which doesn't remotely ''compare'' to Hashirama, and Sasuke and Itachi both achieved the same [[DeadlyUpgrade Mangekyo Sharingan]] powers as [[spoiler:Madara]], specifically the PoweredArmor, [[NighInvulnerability Made of Diamond Susano'o]], but [[spoiler:Madara's Susano'o is on such a ''far higher scale'' than both ''combined'', Tsunade, one of the current Kages and one of the most powerful shinobi of her era, wondered ''how the fuck did her grandfather even fight Madara''?]]

** If anything, Unit-00 is considered less reliable than its counterparts. As a prototype, Unit-00 wasn't intended for actual field deployment. [[spoiler: And, Rei 1's soul is rather unstable and rebellious.]]