Transformation Name Announcement

So standard, even tomboyish Magical Girls have to comply.

Ben: [transforming into Swampfire] SWAMPFIRE!
Gwen: Ben, that's overkill.
Swampfire: No, it's Swampfire. I don't have an alien named "Overkill." 'Cause if I did, I'd, y'know, shout "OVERKILL!"

— Ben 10: Ultimate Alien, "Prisoner Number 775 Is Missing"

What's the most stylish way to end a Transformation Sequence, a shapeshift, or a mode change? For some heroes, it's simply to shout the name of their new form right as the Stock Footage ends. Very much standard operation procedure for Humongous Mecha of the transforming or combining variety, Magical Girls with long, sparkly transformations, and any Tokusatsu hero worth their salt.

Alternatively, the name of the form can be the activation word for the transformation, or at least part of it. Again, Super Robots do this often, simply because it's easy to Hand Wave or at least poke fun at it, and because it's style. For another variation, the hero himself needn't announce his form change, but his commander, his spotter, or a piece of machinery can do it for him.

You may notice that this trope springs up the most in Merchandise-Driven shows, or programs that just generally have an associated toyline; this isn't an accident. After all, what better way to get young kids to remember what toys to ask their parents for other than having the show's characters outright shout it at them?

Compare Calling Your Attacks, By the Power of Grayskull!, Invocation and In the Name of the Moon. May be part of Transformation Sequence, Shapeshifting and/or Super Mode. In some cases, comes with a side of Hot Blood.

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Examples:

Magical Girl Anime

• The ur-magical girl example, from the original transforming Magical Girl: "Ai no senshi, Cutey Honey da!"
• Lyrical Nanoha's machines announce their own mode changes, such as "Barrier Jacket: Aggressor Mode."
  • Though the Transformation Sequence itself goes without it. Mode changes are only announced when already in battle gear.
• Every Pretty Cure team does this, individually and in groups.
  • The Yes! Pretty Cure 5 GO!GO! versions are practically this trope and In the Name of the Moon combined.
• The Powerpuff Girls Z. "Hyper Blossom!", etc.
• Akazukin Chacha has "Let Love, Courage and Hope—Magical Princess, Holy Up!". As an aside, the name of Chacha's Magical Girl Warrior form is Magical Princess, not Holy Up as a lot of people seem to think.
• Ojamajo Doremi has the characters say "Pretty Witchy [insert name]-chi!" after transforming.
• Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch: "[insert color] Pearl Voice!" Well, in the manga, at least. The anime changed it so the phrase was just for transforming, and they just used their regular names.
• In the first Sailor Moon anime, all of the Inner Senshi and Sailor Pluto have their own In the Name of the Moon speech that announces their form, and Sailors Uranus and Neptune share one. You generally only hear the Inner Senshi other than Sailor Moon delivering it during their Once a Season focus episode.
  • Sailor Moon Crystal does this with all the Inner Guardians.
• The manga version of Princess Tutu has the titular magical girl stating her name after every transformation—"I am Princess Tutu! I dance to guide your heart!" In the anime, she generally doesn't do this.
• Nurse Angel Ririka SOS ends the heroine's transformation sequence with this: "Nurse Angel! Messenger from heaven!"
• Cute High Earth Defense Club LOVE! has "The [insert adjective] Prince, Battle Lover [insert name]!" The boys even lampshade the pointlessness of the trope in episode 5. According to the Mentor Mascot it's about "feeling and etiquette".
• Shugo Chara!:
  • "Chara-nari: [name of character transformation]!"
    • "Chara-nari: Amulet [various]!"

Mecha Anime

• GaoGaiGar. All of them, both transforming and combining, heroes and villains. Indeed, many of the Braves are this way.
  • The dragon bros. don't always do this, though. And it's very odd when Volfogg does it, as he's often working alone and has no one to announce it to.
• Tekkaman Blade's titular character did this nearly every time. In Tekkaman Blade II, Tekkamen Vesna, Sommer and Hiver carry on the tradition.
• Getter Robo, every single incarnation up 'til Armageddon. "Change, Getter-(form)! Switch on!"
  • Then again Ryoma compensated by holding his "Getter" part of the phrase for four freaking seconds.
  • Three words: "CHANGE GETTER EMPEROR!!!" Also known as "the voice that quakes the universe itself."
  • In the case of Getter Robo though, this is what they do at the start of the transformation, justifying it. They're combining at very high speeds, so they're likely to crash and burn if they don't know exactly which form they're supposed to be combining into, a lesson more than a few Getter Test Pilots learned fatally.
• Zoids: New Century Zero. "Liger Zero, CAS complete!"
• Voltron. Also the original: "Let's GoLion!"
• Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann
  • "From now on, this mech's name is... GURREN-LAGANN!" The first time for each new robot, the present Hot Blooded hero would name it.
  • The pilots of every iteration of the mech tend to give a Rousing Speech whenever the thing gets bigger... and it's usually accompanied by explosions. Viral (Gurren Lagann), the orbital Mugann fleet (Arc Gurren Lagann), the face of that weird battleship thing (Super Galactic Gurren Lagann), and then a galaxy (Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann.)
    • "TENGEN TOPPA!!! GURREN LAGANN!!! WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK WE ARE!?!?!?!?"
• In Transformers, a few incarnations will use "[name], transform!" as their transformation word.
• Robot Romance Trilogy: The pilots of Combattler V, Voltes V and Daimos always scream the name of their machines upon combination / transformation.
  • In Super Robot Wars Advance, this gets spoofed by Gai Daigoji (if he survives), whereas after Kazuya roars Daimos' name, Gai yells out "AESTEEE!!! VALIIIISSS!!!", much to Akito's confusion.
    • Naturally, since Gai knows about it, you'd better believe Gekiganger 3 has an example. In this case, it happens in The Movie when Ken brings out the Gekiganger V- he does some poses and shouts "GEKIGANGAAAA... V!" in a similar fashion to Combattler V.
• The Brave Express Might Gaine has one for the titular machine (both said in both regular and Great forms) mixed with In the Name of the Moon:
  Might Gaine: "Carrying hopes on silver wings, this green light glows for peace! The Brave Express Might Gaine, arriving right on time!"
• Both Hiroshi and Kenji of Steel/Koutetsushin Jeeg would strike a pose and shout "Koutetsu Jeeg!" once all the Parts were together.
• For a Super Robot show, Gravion somehow averts this most of the time... until Sandman himself announces the mecha's name after it finishes combining, which shocks Raven. His reply when asked why? "I've always wanted to do that at least once."
  • Well, only averted for the main Choujuu Gasshin. "Elgo Form!" should count. Also, at the end of Sol Gravion's combination the pilots shout its name.
• The Commandos in Transformers: Robots in Disguise always cap off their combination sequence with "Ruination, awaken!"
• Happens in Gunbuster episode 5 after the combination sequence. "GUN...BUS...TEEERRRR!"
  • And not to forget Diebuster, for both Buster Machine Number Seven and Diebuster itself. Number Seven's is particularly long, as it gives it's weapons class and attached unit.
• Mazinger:
  • Mazinger Z: Kouji always yells "Mazin GO!" when he starts Mazinger-Z.
  • Great Mazinger: So does Tetsuya when he starts Great Mazinger.
  • UFO Robo Grendizer: When Duke Fleed transforms his clothes into his Latex Space Suit he always screams his own name. And when he starts Grendizer he tells: "Grendizer, Go!"
• Daitarn3: Daitarn is a Super Robot Affectionate Parody. Hence, all usual tropes are made in an overexaggerated fashion. So, when Banjo transforms his robot, he always tells its Humongous Mecha complete name:
  Banjo: This is the Invincible Robot Daitarn-3!

Other Anime

• The characters of Kill la Kill announce the name and/or rank of their uniform every time they transform.
  Ryuko: Life Fiber synchronize! Kamui SENKETSU!
  Satsuki: Life Fiber override! Kamui JUNKETSU!
  Ira: Three-Star Goku Uniform! SHACKLE REGALIA!
• Devilman: Only anime example. Akira Fudo always shouted "Devilman!" when he transformed into his diabolical, superpowerful side.
• In Pokémon: The Series, the first aspect of an evolution a Pokémon tries out is generally its voice. Pokémon cries being what they are...
  • In the Pokémon games, you get the cry directly after an evolution as well, but there, the cries consists of roars and similar things.
• Digimon: Whenever any of the Mons change form, they say "[Old form] digivolve to... [New form]!", or in the Japanese original, "[Old form], evolve! [New form]!" That and Calling Your Attacks are done 99.9% of the time, but omitted just often enough that it's not certain it's 100% necessary. For example, Angemon opted not to call out the name of his Hand Of Fate attack when he first used it.
  • Armor Digimon (with the exception of Magnamon and Rapidmon) all declare their special nicknames along with their own names upon digivolution i.e. "Flamedramon, the Fire of Courage", "Halsemon, the Wings of Love".
• Bleach:
  • A zanpakutou releases into shikai as a result of the shinigami calling out a release activation phrase that ends with the announcement of the zanpakutou's true name, at which point the zanpakutou transforms into its true form.
  • When a zanpakutou releases into bankai, the shinigami simply announces "Bankai" and then enters the Transformation Sequence. Once the transformation has ended, the shinigami concludes with the zanpakutou's new name which sums up the nature their weapon (and any changes that have occurred to the shinigami's own appearance) has revealed as a result of entering bankai. Shinigami who have achieved bankai are also able to activate their shikai silently (but rarely do). With bankai, silent activation seems to be impossible, but announcing the name of the transformed zanpakutou is entirely optional.
  • Arrancar have their own zanpakutou and releases, which operate in the same manner as a shinigami's shikai. Despite their zanpakutou not being empathic weapons like those of shinigami.
• In Bladedance of Elementalers, an elementalist must say the name of her spirit for it to transform from its weapon form to its spirit form. Exceptions apply to extremely powerful spirits, such as Est and Restia, who can transform at will.
  • Claire's fire cat spirit Scarlet has a 3rd form, Ortlinde, in which she turns into a Cat Girl wearing a dress clad in flames; it can only happen if her name is called out by Claire. First happens in Volume 10.
• MegaMan NT Warrior gave this to Megaman for Style Changes and Soul Unisons.
• Used as an affirmation of identity in SoltyRei when Eirene keeps calling Solty by her original name of Dike: "MY NAME IS SOLTY REVANT!!!" *Full-strength Power Fist.*
• YU-GI-OOOOOOOHHHHHHHHH! This, combined with a golden light show, heralds little Yugi Muto's transformation into Yami Yugi.^note Only in the dub, though.

Asian Animation

• Catch! Teenieping: After transforming, Princess Romi does this according to which form she assumes. She states the name of her form, followed by what concept the form represents.
• Mechamato: After Amato combines with MechaBot, the former may announce himself, or rather themselves, as Mechamato.

Comic Books

• In the first issue of Blue Beetle (New 52), when Jaime transforms into Blue Beetle for the first time, he involuntarily shouts "Khaji-Da!". Khaji-Da is the real name of the Scarab armor bonded to him.
• While he originally didn't count, as the character's name used to be Captain Marvel, after his name was changed in the 2010s to end the confusion caused by multiple comic book characters using the name, Shazam! is now an example.

Fanfiction

• In Shatter Me, the glee of fusing makes Pearl and Jasper do this.
  They were a living war cry to sing their enemy into the void. There was no fear or hesitation, there was only Agate. And as they screamed their new name, they were at last truly one.

Live Action TV

• Nearly every Super Sentai series makes regular use of a "roll call" where the heroes shout first their names, then the name of the team in unison. Later shows expanded this into a full In the Name of the Moon, but their names are still part of it. Some older shows also had the heroes simply say their names as their activation phrase.
  • It's also a Super Sentai tradition for the heroes to announce the names of their mecha, both while summoning/combining it and right after it's been summoned/combined, often with a couple of words added to it. A few recent examples:
    • Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger: "Build up! Dekaranger Robo!"
    • Mahou Sentai Magiranger: "MagiKing, Number One!"
    • GoGo Sentai Boukenger: "Daibouken, Combination Complete! First Gear In!"^note There's also "Top gear, in!" and "over top gear, in!" and others for other formations
    • Juken Sentai Gekiranger: "GekiTouja, Burning Up!"
    • Engine Sentai Go-onger: "Engine-O, Tune-Up! Go-On!"
    • Samurai Sentai Shinkenger: "Shinken-O, United under Providence!"
    • Tensou Sentai Goseiger: "Gosei Great, advent!"
    • Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger: "Complete, GokaiOh!"
    • Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters: "GoBuster-Oh! Ready? GO!"
• Power Rangers doesn't have them say the same thing every time unless they're sticking very close to Sentai, but the formation of a Megazord calls for something, even if it's just "Power up!" or "Let's do it!" Often, it's the name of the formation (especially in series with numerous formations, in which case the Rangers have to help the audience keep it straight. "Predazord: Blue Moon!" "Isis Megazord: Predator Mode!")
  • Though they have been known to mess this up: The second season of Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers kept referring to Thunder Megazord as Mega Thunderzord.
  • And they don't just do this for their mecha. In about half of the seasons, the team has a habit of doing individual Transformation Name Announcements and ending with a group In the Name of the Moon (and the other half still have at least one or two roll calls, even without the group ending).
  • Wild Force embodies this trope with its call: "Guardians of the Earth, UNITED WE ROAR! Power Rangers Wild Force!"
    • Since Sentai influence increased as of late, we get this a lot more. I give you: "Space Patrol Delta, defenders of Earth!"^note Dekaranger had "S.P.D.! [each of them says their names]! Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger!"
    • "We call forth the magic, Power Rangers Mystic Force!"^note Magiranger went like "Overflowing courage becoming magic! Mahou Sentai Magiranger!"
    • "Call to adventure, Power Rangers Operation Overdrive!"^note Boukenger had "Endless adventure spirits! GoGo Sentai Boukenger!"
    • "We summon the animal spirits from within! Power Rangers Jungle Fury!"^note In Gekiranger, it was "Our burning power is a proof of justice! Juken Sentai Gekiranger!"
    • "Rangers together! Samurai forever!"^note Samurai Sentai Shinkenger used "Shinkenger, going forth!"
    • "Earth's defenders, never surrender! Power Rangers Megaforce!"^note Protecting the Earth is an angel's duty! Tensou Sentai Goseiger!
    • "Dinosaur might, ready to fight! Power Rangers Dino Charge!"^note The strongest braves in history! Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger!
    • "Ninja Rangers, fear no danger! Power Rangers Ninja Steel!"^note We may be shinobi, but we do not hide! Shuriken Sentai Ninninger!
  • Of course, in Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, the Rangers would often pose beneath the Power Coin symbols after morphing and yell "Power Rangers!" Back when the original Rangers were the only Rangers, there was no need to differentiate.
  • Ninja Storm and Dino Thunder didn't have one for the whole teams, but it did have each Ranger yelling "Power of *element here!*" or "*Dinosaur here* Power!" after the morph stock footage ended. This is the sort of bit of Ranger ceremony that's different from season to season—which shouted phrases are for coolness' sake and which are necessary to activate gear, and whether the just-because yells come before or while posing after.

• In every Kamen Rider series starting with Den-O, whenever a Rider switches forms, the hero's belt will announce the change by saying the name of the new form. In Kamen Rider Double, this even goes for the Monsters of the Week. In Kamen Rider OOO it's only for single color combos.
• In Zoboomafoo, Zoboo only begins talking after eating a snack from the snack machine. He eats the snack, belches, spins around shouting "Zoboomafooooooooooo!!!!!" and he can talk from there.

Video Games

• Using a wand in Animal Crossing: New Horizons to equip a saved outfit causes the player to say the name of the outfit. This can fall flat if you're still using the default naming scheme. "Outfit 1"!
• In .hack//G.U., Haseo shouts, "SKEITH!" when releasing his Avatar. Ditto Kuhn and Pi.
• Mega Man Battle Network 5: Twin Leaders for the Nintendo DS has MegaMan doing this with Soul Unisons, similar to the anime.
  • The Japanese version of Star Force 2, which introduced voice acting to that series, has Subaru (Geo) invoking the names for all of his Tribe Ons, Double Tribes, and Tribe King (combining all three possible forms). For the alternative Burai (Rogue) forms, he says instead, "I'm... the only one I can trust." The same applies for Multi- and Finalized Noise Forms in the English and Japanese versions of Star Force 3.

• Though Super Robot Wars includes practically every Humongous Mecha example above, the Original Generation series does surprisingly little of this despite the large number of characters. It's all good, though, since the one character who does this often is Fighter Roar from Banpresto's Great Battle series. It's even part of his name.
  • Sanger also gets an epic yet delayed one that comes with its own title card when Dygenguard finally becomes combat-ready. It was absurd enough that the villain even broke the fourth wall to call him out on it, which happened again in the anime adaptation of the scene.
  • It becomes slightly more common in later games as attack animations become more complex and can sometimes include mid-battle combinations, such as Granteed Dracodeus.

• In Tales of Zestiria, each Seraph has a True Name that is yelled by both participants during Armatization.

Webcomics

• In Everyday Heroes, this is parodied twice:
  Mister Mighty: I am MISTER MIGHTY! ...and this is Jane, my wife.
  Mister Mighty: Professor Odious! At last we meet! You now face... MISTER MIGHTY!
• In Chapter 1 of Glitter and Guilt, Sweetheart gives one to the Vent after blowing a hole in its head:
  "Heartache is a painful feeling... one that is hard to control and makes the world seem like your enemy. But your pain is not an excuse for you to behave however you like without consequence! That's why I, Beloved Sweetheart, will soothe your sorrowful heart with my love!"
• Justified in Hi to Tsuki to Hoshi no Tama, as saying the name is what triggers the transformation.
• Zigzagged in Sleepless Domain: some of the magical girls will do so, particularly if they're introducing their magical girl identity to someone, while others don't. The first chapter actually has an inversion: Team Alchemical shouted their magical girl names as they prepared to transform, then said their real names after transforming. Note: they don't need to call their magical girl names to transform, as Undine's demonstrated, they just...chose to. The real reason, of course, was to introduce the audience to the decoy, except for Undine, protagonists.

Web Original

• A Very Potter Sequel: "I am Woman. Hear me... SMASH"

Western Animation

• While the transformers in Beast Wars need to say an entire activation phrase to enter their robot forms, turning back into a beast just requires saying "beast mode" (it's not specific for each character's different animal form, it's just as quoted).
• Most installments of the Ben 10 franchise avert this, with Ben only mentioning the name he's given to one of his aliens when referring to it in conversation. Both Ben 10: Alien Force and Ultimate Alien have Ben playing this trope straight though, with the showrunner for those entries stating that the change was made so younger fans will know the names of all the alien transformations: after all, by the end of the first series, Ben had 19 different transformations, and AF and UA would only increase that number. This was occasionally lampshaded by other characters, and Ben occasionally forewent the name announcement whenever he was sufficiently enraged.
  • It's lampshaded as early as the Alien Force episode "Pier Pressure", where Ben accidentally gets Brainstorm for the first time. He has to take a moment to figure things out, including the name.
  • A Running Gag in the third season of Alien Force was Ben getting the wrong alien and saying its name in defeat.
    Upchuck: "Or Upchuck... Upchuck is good..."
    Goop: Goop?! But I wanted Way Big!
  • During one early Ultimate Alien episode, Ben even sang one of the alien names as he transformed. Kevin told him to never do it again.
  • Lampshaded in the Ultimate Alien episode "Prisoner 775 is Missing", where many of the jokes surround Ben's tendency to do this. Towards the end of the episode, when Ben transforms into Wildmutt, Gwen calls out the name in a phony "Ben" voice, to the others' confusion.
    Gwen: Well, he can't talk! Somebody had to do it.
    • A few minutes later, he transforms into Ultimate Wildmutt, who is able to speak and thus shout his own name, causing Gwen to voice her disappointment over not being able to do the announcement again.
  • Additionally, Albedo was shown to never shout the names of his transformations, with the sole exception of deliberately doing a dramatic reveal of the Ultimate forms to Ben.
    • Taken up to the levels of Pokémon Speak in the Alien Force finale, "The Final Battle", where droids linked to the Omnitrix by Vilgax are incapable of saying anything that isn't the transformation name.
  • While it's mostly abandoned in Omniverse, it makes a brief return for the first transformation into Humungosaur. Because it was the first time the new Omnitrix actually gave him the form he wanted.
• The Venture Brothers: The result of two guys watching too much of this: Mecha Shiva, Mecha Shiva, Mecha Shiva!
• Darkwolf lets off one of these in Fire & Ice while holding off Mooks.
• She-Ra: "I am She-Ra!"
  • He-Man: "I have the power!"
• All the transforming heroes and villains in El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera call out their hero or villain name upon transforming from their civilian identities:
  • El Tigre! White Pantera! Puma Loco! Plata Peligrosa!
• Dino Squad: Go Dino!
• In Mask of Light, the Toa's Sixth Ranger announces himself as such before delivering a Curb-Stomp Battle to the last Elite Mook standing (the rest having already been dealt with by the others):
  I am Takanuva, Toa of Light!
• The Impossibles (the pop group superheroes from Hanna-Barbera's Frankenstein Jr. and The Impossibles show): "Rally Ho!"
• Miraculous Ladybug: The people affected by Akumas use this in a combination with That Man Is Dead to show that they have been overtaken by the Superpowered Evil Side.
• Winx Club does this, starting with the Atlas Oceanic Dub: "Bloom, Fairy of the Dragon Flame!"; "Stella, Fairy of the Shining Sun!"; "Flora, Fairy of Nature!"; "Musa, Fairy of Music!"; "Tecna, Fairy of Technology!"; "Aisha, Fairy of Waves!"
• W.I.T.C.H.: The girls' don't always do this, but the first transformations done in any given episode will finish with each girl calling out the name of the element they use ("Water!", "Fire!", "Earth!", "Air!"). Will is the sole exception to this; initially, she just pants from exertion, as she's the one that has to trigger everyone else's transformations in addition to her own. Once she gets used that, she starts saying "The Heart!", which gets switched out for "Quintessence!" once she finally gets her own unique power.

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