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  • Attack on Titan:
    • Levi is the in-universe World's Strongest Man and is one of the shorter characters (5'3"). He is easily able to slay behemoth-sized antagonists better than anyone else in the series.
    • Annie Leonhardt, despite being only 5 feet tall, is easily able to curb-stomp men nearly twice her size in hand-to-hand combat. Her fighting skills are such that she rivals Mikasa, who has the superhuman Ackerman bloodline to boost her. In fact, it literally took five seconds for Mikasa to gain her prowess in combat. On the other hand, Annie has no such advantages but worked her way up through practice and brutal training.
  • Tamaki Kawazoe is pretty much the central focus of Bamboo Blade for the fact that, despite being a first-year in high school (and a tiny girl, at that), she's easily the most competent fighter on the kendo team (since she had been trained by her father from a very young age). In one match, she sends a competitor twice her size flying with one deft strike.
  • Asta from Black Clover. Nicknamed "Muscle-Bound Shrimp", he's short for his age (5'1") but able to wield a massive sword longer than he is tall with ease. Justified, because he spent years building up muscle to make up for lack of magical prowess, giving him Charles Atlas Superpower.
  • Blame! has a weapon example. Gravitaional Beam Emitter is some of the smallest weapon in the series and really small even in today's standard. The firepower, on the other hand, can put Divine Buster to shame.
  • Bleach: Hitsugaya, Yachiru, Wonderweiss, and Ururu are all child characters who are all far more capable than their small sizes and young (biological) ages should indicate they are.
  • In Brave10 S, Komatsu appears in the Tournament Arc. She is tiny but a great fighter.
  • The Power Card in Cardcaptor Sakura. This card spirit takes the form of a fluffy-looking, pink-clad little girl. (Who can't be any more than 3 feet tall.) But she has the strength of several grown men, and proves to be an immense challenge to Sakura.
  • Claymore has Miata, a single digit who looks and acts like a little kid and is smaller than most of the other Claymores, but can kill yoma with her bare hands. The Organisation's men speculate that were she not mentally unstable and needing Clarice's constant care, she could easily be a Number 1.
  • Danbei Hayama from Cutey Honey is shorter than even his preteen son Junpei but he can usually easily beat up Panther Claw Grunts who are several times taller than him.
  • The title character of Desert Punk is a very short guy who is still capable of wielding a high-caliber shotgun with ease, and even without it he can pretty easily beat the crap out of most people. Of course, he's later outclassed by Mitsuru, who's like 11, but if you piss him off his "Hulk Syndrome" lets him lift large boulders with one hand and smash robots built with Lost Technology (slightly subverted in that it may also turn him into a giant, but he's superhumanly strong either way).
  • Digimon
    • Digimon Adventure gives us Gatomon — a Champion-level Digimon with the size and appearence of a Rookie. Subverted in Digimon Adventure 02, in which she's reduced to Rookie-level strength by the loss of the ring on her tail.
    • Monster of the Week Thundermon is actually called this word-for-word by Digmon. He's about the size of a softball, but packs enough electricity to send any of the gang's most powerful forms (at the time. We're well away from the DNA stuff.) flying. If not for the reformed Ken and Wormmon/Stingmon, they'd have been in serious trouble.
    • Mamemon and its variants are these as well, being Ultimate-level Digimon that pale in size compared to MetalGreymon, Garudamon or MegaKabuterimon, but pack just as much power as either of them. Coincidentally, Thundermon is speculated in official bios to be related to the Mamemon family, and is even a common Champion level for Mamemon. Mamemon itself appears in Digimon Adventure 02 along with MetalMamemon, a cyborg variant, and both prove to be capable fighters even when drunk. Averted by the aptly-named BigMamemon, who better matches the size of an Ultimate level.
    • While SkullSatamon is not as tiny as most of these teddy-bear-and-smaller figures, he is this compared to the team, since the Champion-levels and above are usually huge. We're talking a bad guy who's twice the size of a human vs. a team of colorful Kaiju. This makes it a sight to see when he hands a Curb-Stomp Battle to the combined might of the season one and two teams, including Imperialdramon.
    • Digimon Tamers has MarineAngemon — a Mega with the size and appearance of an In-Training who becomes Kenta's partner right before the D-Reaper invades Japan. This tiny sea angel utilizes The Power of Love for its attacks which, against a being Powered by a Forsaken Child that passed the Despair Event Horizon, ends up being a perfect counter.
    • Digimon Frontier has Kumamon. Most of the spirits cause the kids to tower over their human selves, with Kumamon being the only exception, in fact, Tommy, who is already the youngest of the kids, becomes slightly shorter when he transforms into Kumamon. This doesn’t stop the polar teddy from being a Badass Adorable, as human spirits are equivalent to Champion-level, so he gets to kick plenty of ass.
    • Digimon Fusion gives us Zamielmon, an evil Digimon who's small enough to sit in someone's palm yet is strong and fast enough to give Mega level a hard time. However he's actually a gigantic Sizeshifter and Lightning Bruiser.
  • Doctor Slump has four examples.
    • Both Arale and Gatchan, who are able to easily defeat anything as if it was a game. During a trip to prehistoric time, the latter was able to easily stop a giant meteor that the former then sent back to space with a simple headbutt. Said meteor turned out to be the moon.
    • Obotchaman was created with the same design as Arale above, and so he possesses the same Super-Strength that Arale has while also being as tall — er, short — as she is.
    • There's also Tsururin, who has unbelievably powerful psychic powers, such as telekinesis, which she's used on multiple occasions.
  • Dragon Ball often combines this trope with Muscles Are Meaningless, to regularly subvert the characters’ and audiences’ expectations that the scrawny shrimp isn’t invariably Stronger Than They Look:
    • There have been several child characters who've qualified: young Goku and Krillin, as well as Chaozu in the original series, young Gohan, Goten, Trunks, Gotenks, Uub and Pan in Z, and Goku again in GT.
    • Outside of kids, some other powerful characters have been on the small side as well: adult Krillin, Guldo, Android 15 and the Cell Juniors being some of the shortest.
    • Vegeta isn't unnaturally short, but there's still a definite difference in height between him and the average-sized Goku. This is lampshaded during the Saiyan Saga when Vegeta is accompanied by Nappa, a mountain of muscle who completely towers over Vegeta and nearly destroys all the Z-fighters single-handedly until Goku shows up. Between the two Vegeta turns out to be by far the stronger one, and easily kills Nappa himself as punishment for his failure. (Admittedly Nappa was already weakened from his fight with Goku, but it's doubtful if he really had a chance against Vegeta even if he weren't.)
    • Frieza in his first and 4th forms is noticeably shorter than Goku.
    • Kid Buu definitely stands out when it comes to this trope- he's one of the strongest enemies in the original series, able to blow up planets like it's nothing, and he's about two heads shorter than Goku.
    • The immensely powerful Vegito becomes one for a short while after getting turned into a tiny piece of candy by Super Buu. He retains consciousness, along with his power, and actually becomes more of a problem for Buu because he's so hard to hit.
    • The small and child-like Zen-Oh, introduced in Dragon Ball Super, is the most powerful being in the entire franchise and only a few feet tall. He doesn't actually fight, but nevertheless has the power the destroy entire universes, and could destroy the entire Multiverse if he wanted to.
    • Quitela and Iwne from Universes 4 and 1 are shorter than the other Gods of Destruction, but they are no less powerful. Notably, Iwne's universe has the highest mortal rating out of all the universes, meaning he’s the smartest and most competent of the Gods of Destruction, while Quitela was the only God besides Beerus who wasn't defeated in the Manga's Zen Exhibition Match.
    • In the Universe Survival arc of Dragon Ball Super, we're introduced to the strongest fighters from all 12 universes, and they come in all shapes and sizes, many of them being very short.
      • The most extreme example of this is Universe 4's Damon, who is barely large enough to be seen with the naked eye, yet capable of knocking around the likes of Piccolo and Android 18.
    • The Great Priest is said to be among the top 5 most powerful beings in the entire multiverse, and is only about as tall as Krillin.
  • Daikichi Komusubi in Eyeshield 21 of the Deimon Devilbats is 4'11. And a lineman. He's regularly holding off, or even pushing back, larger, more intimidating players, and speaks/writes in a language known as "Power-Go", which only 'truly strong men' can comprehend.
  • Wendy Marvell in Fairy Tail is a shy featherweight of a 12-year-old girl, who also happens to be the Sky Dragon Slayer. She is fully capable of producing wind from gale- to hurricane-force, and can restore her Mana essentially by breathing.
  • Fullmetal Alchemist:
    • Edward Elric is only 149 cm (4'11") at the start of the series, but don't point it out. He doesn't like to be called short. He gets considerably taller after a 3-month Time Skip in the manga and Brotherhood, but is still rather short at the end of Fullmetal Alchemist (2003).
    • Mei Chang is a very young and very small Xingese royal, but she's exceedingly agile and well-versed in the art of alkahestry, and as such not to be trifled with.
    • The Fullmetal Alchemist (2003) version of Wrath is a textbook version of this trope. Being a kid, he's even shorter than Ed, but even when low-powered on red stones he's strong enough to tear off an automail limb. When fully powered, he can punch holes in the ground, grapple with a giant monster, and generate shockwaves with his kicks. The only other homunculus capable of this kind of strength in human form is Envy.
  • The president of the Karate Club in Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu seems to be even better in the martial skills than Sousuke, being the same age and size. He casually defeats multiple opponents, each one much bigger than him, and sends Sousuke to the ground without his glasses.
  • Future Boy Conan: Conan is an eleven-year-old boy who possesses incredible strength. He can knock out grown men with ease, carry large animals and adults over his head, throw large boulders, and when ten men piled up on him he easily threw them off.
  • Nuriko from Fushigi Yuugi. Justified, as Nuriko's seishi power is super strength, which increases with a pair of magic gauntlets.
    • Even more so in the Eikoden OVA, where Nuriko is reincarnated as a little girl, and still has that power.
  • Gon, a tiny T. rex who commands respect from every other member of the animal kingdom with his ridiculously powerful jaws and his ability to survive pretty much anything unscathed, IS this trope.
  • Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury has Chuatury "Chuchu" Panlunch, who is 150cm tall (about 4'11"), but can cold cock a bully in one hit.
  • Ippo Makunouchi from Hajime no Ippo, a featherweight boxer (usually 126 pounds/57 kg max), regularly trains with people one or two weight classes above himself, and is still considered small in his class. Despite this, with the first serious punch he ever threw in his life, he sends a punching bag almost flying into the ceiling, and doesn't even notice that he horribly gashed his own knuckles with his unknown Power Level. This is initially justified by how he regularly helps his mom get lots of heavy luggage onto boats.
    • His coach, Genji Kamogawa, is even smaller, standing at 162 cm (around 5'4") and a bantamweight boxer (115 lbs to 118 lbs or 52.2 kg to 53.5 kg respectively) before being retired, but he absolutely makes up for it with his tekken punch; A punch he made through punching a log all the way into a hill, and a punch that's capable of punching a boxer, who's 7 weight classes above him, midair and horizontally.
  • Ushio Hinomaru of Hinomaru Zumou. So short that he doesn't meet the size requirements for pro sumo — at 152cm (~5') he misses the minimum height by 15 centimeters or about 6 inches! But he's packed solid with muscle, a brick wall in a compact frame. He takes everything head on and throws men twice his size.
  • Hunter × Hunter has its own share of insanely able kids. Killua was an assassin ever since he was born, and can extract the heart soundlessly out of an opponent, with just his hands, and he's twelve years old.
  • Inuyasha: Shippou is both a child and a kitsune. As a result, he is tiny, much smaller than even children of an equivalent age. Despite having no time to prepare for a set of exams he didn't even know existed, Shippou thrashed his fellow kitsune, achieving unheard of success by climbing several ranks of power within the space of a single night and going down as a legend among the other students. Although he can pale by comparison to the adults in his group, the calibre of the group he's with and the enemies they fight have ensured he's incredibly powerful by kitsune standards.
  • JoJo's Bizarre Adventure:
    • Red Hot Chili Pepper is much smaller than the stand user and hits as fast and as hard as Star Platinum. It's actually a better stand than Killer Queen in stats although it doesn't have as many abilities.
    • Narancia is the smallest and most underfed of Team Buccellati, but his Stand, a miniature plane called Aerosmith, relies a lot on brute force rather than strange, unconventional powers. Its three main functions are pumping the target full of lead, dropping a bomb on them, or picking them up on a carbon dioxide radar so it can single them out for the first two. Narancia himself can even dent a car with just his foot if he's been riled up enough.
  • Kabane, the protagonist of Kemono Jihen, is only 4'9'' and 105 pounds at (probably) 13 years old. At the same time, he's the main muscle of the Paranormal Counseling Office, with his Half-Ghoul Super-Strength allowing him to easily tear most things to shreds with his bare hands.
  • Lyrical Nanoha. Besides its parade of Cute Bruisers and Little Miss Badasses, it also has characters like pre-StrikerS Chrono, who can easily wipe out squads of Mecha and Humongous Mecha on his own.
  • Hikaru Shidou from Magic Knight Rayearth qualifies as this in spades. 145cm and 14 years old but able to hold her own against LaFarga and even against Zagato by herself. Add to that her unwavering determination to see her mission complete and her loved ones safe and you've got a trope namer.
  • Taki of Maiden Rose is tiny in comparison to his lover Klaus but consistently demonstrates that he is the last person you want to anger. Not only did he single-handedly beat up the group of military students who came to haze him, he has twice bested Klaus in combat (granted never very conclusively), showing he packs far more power and fighting skill than his scrawny body would suggest.
  • Mini Moni The Movie: Okashi na Daibōken! has Ai Kago, who despite being a chibi version of herself headbutts the Fairy Queen so hard she's knocked flat.
  • Though not pint-sized in the normal sense of this word, the Mobile Suits of the post-Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack are this - up until Mobile Suit Gundam F91, Mobile Suits were towering monstrosities, constantly getting taller and taller as they got powerful. By the UC 0100s, Mobile Suit technology had improved to the point where they can be smaller and yet be just as powerful as their bigger counterparts. The opening scene of Gundam F91, where the Crossbone Vanguard's MS run rings around the Federation's older and larger suits, proves this.
  • Heero Yuy of Mobile Suit Gundam Wing was raised from a young age as an assassin, weapons expert, and robot pilot; when he participates in the events of the anime, he's 15 years old, 5-foot-1, and 99 lbs. Wu Fei also qualifies, having pretty much the exact same physical stats as Heero and being a talented martial artist.
  • At 5'2'' and 97 lbs, Shigeo "Mob" Kageyama of Mob Psycho 100 is tiny even by middle schooler standards; and while he's naturally physically frail, he can use his telekinesis to augment his physical abilities and turn himself into a superhuman Lightning Bruiser who can instantly crater a man twice his size.
  • Genki in Monster Rancher he is just 11 years old but can lift and carry older girls and women like dolls. For example cradling them in his arms, taking piggyback or by hoisting them over his shoulder, mostly by running away from monsters and protecting the "helpless girls".
  • In My Hero Academia, Izuku Midoriya is one of the shortest guys in his class at a middling 5'6''. He's also armed with One For All, one of the most powerful Quirks in the world.
  • Shijima from Nabari no Ou is by far the smallest character the series. However, thanks to her Immortality, she is also one of the best fighters and even manages to take down Raikou after fighting for an entire night.
  • The whole cast of Part 1 Naruto. The characters were 12 year old monsters, with some of them being even younger and still destroying mountains.
  • Negima! Magister Negi Magi:
    • Negi. Not only is he a kid capable of clearing out an arena filled with huge men using mostly martial arts, but even in his adult teen form, he was still smaller than most of the people he fought and beat the crap out of in the Magic World Tournament Arc and gave the towering Game-Breaker Jack Rakan the fight of his life. All this from a kid who, via official data, is still only 140cm (about 4'7") tall.
    • Evangeline as well. She's so incredibly powerful that there are perhaps five people in the world capable of putting up a decent fight against her... not that you'd ever guess it, due to her having a perpetually 10-year-old body (and, in fact, pint-sized even for a 10-year-old, at only 130cm (about 4'3") tall).
    • A certain amount of Fridge Brilliance sets in when you realize that Negi learned his martial arts from Ku Fei, herself a Pint-Sized Powerhouse. Due to her small stature and petite frame, Master Ku would naturally know plenty of techniques designed to fight larger opponents.
  • Neon Genesis Evangelion:
    • Kaworu Nagisa. Despite being a teenage Bishōnen, he's got the strongest AT-field ever detected.
    • Or for that matter, Rei III who's equally as strong, if not stronger.
  • One Piece:
    • Luffy is one of the shorter male humans in the series and can kick the ass of people many times his height and size and do things he damn sure shouldn't be able to do with his inhuman strength alone. In real life, his height is about average (172 cm), there are just a lot of big mofos walking around the One Piece world (and that's not even counting the giants) so he just is short in comparison.
    • The dwarves of the Tontatta tribe are incredibly small but wield amazing strength. One dwarf hitting the ground in anger causes it to crack.
  • Honey from Ouran High School Host Club. He's sixteen (though he can pass for an elementary school student) but already a national champion in judo and karate, coming from a long line of martial arts masters. He even beats up an entire squadron of riot cops and brings them to their knees, sobbing and downright honored to be defeated by such an accomplished martial artist.
  • Ash's Pikachu in Pokémon: The Series. It can also be quite scary in the games when equipped with a Light Ball.
    • A good deal of the team's main Pokémon tend to be this (and if they're lucky, will kick the butts of their evolved forms down the line!). Of course, there's the sheer irony in Brock's Happiny being one of the physically strongest when the games have its physical Attack with the likes of Shuckle and its evolution Chansey.
    • Then there's Croagunk, whose testament to battle was shown in the first DP movie when he easily blocks a Draco Meteor fired by a Legendary Pokémon!
  • Ryoma Echizen, Kevin Smith, Akaya Kirihara and Kintarou Tooyama from The Prince of Tennis. To a degree, also Bunta Marui.
  • The two most powerful fighters from Ranma ½ are Happosai and Cologne, Old Masters who have shriveled down to the size of babies...
  • Sawada Tsuna from Reborn! (2004), who is always a lot smaller and younger than his opponents. Most of the villains he fights against even lampshade how tiny or young he is.
    • And the Acrobalenos are a group of seven babies...and any one of them could easily kick the ass of any of the main characters to hell and back.
  • Chirin from Ringing Bell after his Training from Hell from the Wolf, at one point when he’s still small and has a tiny pair of horns he can now plow through trees and is seen fighting a pack of cougars and a grizzly bear and winning.
  • Kokoa, one of the smallest girls in Rosario + Vampire is one of the most physically powerful characters, since it's a vampire's special power. However, she doesn't have the fighting skills to back it up.
  • Kenshin Himura in Rurouni Kenshin, aka the Hitokiri Battousai, is towered over by most of his friends but routinely takes down people twice his size. He's based on a real life assassin named Kawakami Gensai, who was regularly mistaken for a woman, but who was known as the most fearsome assassin of the Meiji Era and was noted for assassinating a man in broad daylight. Kenshin is also a subversion of sorts - because his school of swordsmanship was designed for far more muscular men (like Hiko, his Cynical Mentor) he ends up unable to fight as well as he once could at the end of the series.
    • Yahiko's an extremely straight example, taking on minibosses regularly after the Kyoto arc, especially after he learns the Kamiya Kasshin-Ryu Succession Techniques.
  • Minako Aino / Sailor Venus in Sailor Moon is a petite (5'2" or less), lithe 14-year-old who can knock out The Big Gal of her team with one kick, and that same kick has brought down youma many times her size in Codename: Sailor V. Also, she is the one to kill Beryl in the manga. In the fourth season of the 90s anime, her rage-fuelled power up was enough to break through a metal bind, transform into Sailor Venus, and fire an attack so powerful that it scares the ever-loving shit out of two members of the Quirky Mini Boss Squad. This happened after she'd been subjected to an excruciating attack that left all of the other Senshi unconscious.
  • In Saint Beast, despite looking younger and smaller than all of the other angels of his rank Gai has one of the most powerful elementals in the show and loves a good fight.
  • Suzu in Seitokai Yakuindomo can do painful roundhouse kicks and outrun people twice her size, despite looking more like a child.
  • Coo from Summer Days with Coo is able to outwrestle grown men and toss a girl clean across the room despite being only about 2 feet tall.
  • Lala in To Love Ru. She is an alien princess with the size of a normal teenager girl, but is so strong that can knock out a dinosaur!.
  • Mashiro Torasawa, Torako's older brother in Torako, Anmari Kowashicha Dame da yo, is a thirty-four year old who is Older Than They Look and is very easily mistaken for a child. He is also the first person in the series shown capable of handling Torako's insane and uncontrolled strength. He repeatedly dodges her or throws her with enough force to break floors and walls, both sides doing it with a smile as Mashiro describes it as their version of goofing around. He credits his taking care of Torako in place of their parents as the source of his own strength, as simply surviving her naturally made him stronger.
  • Toriko: The Eight Kings are the strongest creatures in the Gourmet World, and most of them are absolutely gigantic...save for one: Bambina the Monkey King. But while Bambina is barely any bigger than the main characters, he is still capable of picking up entire mountains and throwing them around the world with ease.
  • In Tsukigasa, the short, girly-looking Azuma is capable of beating up 5 guys in a fight and leaving them with broken bones. His skill is part of why the damage is so extreme when he attacks his friend Kuroe later, cutting off his left arm in one strike.
  • Yaiba: He's really small compared to the other characters, but he can knock out a huge man with a bamboo sword!
  • YuYu Hakusho:
    • Hiei the fire demon. 4'10 without his hair (he grows to 5'3 by the end of the series) and can beat up guys twice or three times his size with ease (and when introduced was much weaker than when he was a child). Kurama may also qualify — he's not short, but he's pretty skinny.
    • Genkai. She's barely taller then Hiei. In her first episode, she knocks two rude and huge men into a wall just by shouting a wave of energy at them. And complains she's getting old, and in her youth she would have obtained the same result by looking at them. Be polite to your elders.
    • And some of the guys from the various tournaments. But with the exception of Genkai, they're all demons.
  • Zombie Land Saga: Saki is only five feet tall, making her the second-shortest member of Franchouchou (next to Lily, who's an actual child). She's also a former biker gang member and a fierce fighter. In life, she and her ringleader and best friend Reiko took out about twenty members of a rival gang all by themselves. As a zombie, she's able to deliver a flying kick to a huge, muscular man and send him flying into a wall.

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