The most iconic anime power-ups of all time

polygon.com:

When it comes to anime, “This isn’t even my final form” is a trope as old as time. As the battle gets heated and the chances of defeat increase, heroes and villains alike reveal that, through either training or just sheer luck, they have at least one more powered-up version ready to go. At its best, like with Luffy’s Gear 5, the latest upgrade to One Piece’s future King of the Pirates, it can be absolutely thrilling. And watching fans react to the event (and inevitably argue over it) makes it clear why it’s become such an enduring trope for the last half-century.

So, to celebrate Gear 5, let’s hop through five decades of the greatest anime power-ups, jumping through genres and icons to dive into what’s made this such a beloved plot device.

Manga author Go Nagai’s influence on pop culture can’t be overstated. He created series like Devilman, Cutie Honey, and Violence Jack, and also helped pioneer the “super robot” genre with Mazinger Z. Giant fightin’ robots would become one of anime’s bread-and-butter subjects in the ’70s, and Mazinger Z was at the forefront of the genre, telling the story of pilot Koji Kabuto using his late grandfather’s fantastical mech to battle the nefarious Dr. Hell.

Pretty cool, right? But that combat doesn’t come without some wear and tear on Kabuto’s big robot, so old parts are replaced with newer, cooler, more powerful enhancements. Like Mazinger Z’s Hover Pilder, the little craft that Kabuto uses to fly around and pilot Mazinger Z, which is replaced by the more streamlined Jet Pilder. And when it’s time for the robot to get back in action with the sequel series Grand Mazinger, it’s not made out of your grandpa’s Super-Alloy Z, but rather Super-Alloy NewZ, which is much lighter and more