Summary
Gender-bending anime explores the shock and personal growth that comes with a gender transition. The characters in this anime often struggle with social expectations and mistaken identities. Whether through body swaps or supernatural transformations, the main characters are forever changed by their experiences.
The best gender bending anime Don’t play magic or supernatural gender change games just for fun. Gender roles and personal expression form a significant part of a person’s identity, so sudden transitions from one gender to the other often shock characters to their core. their. They are forced to explore a different experience of the world and often of a different person.
Often, gender bending is not only supernatural but also beyond the subject’s control. However, there are characters who learn to control the transformation, and there are even characters who even voluntarily go back and forth. All of this show’s main characters are changed by their experiences whether the transformation is reversible or not.
10 Ranma 1/2 Set the standard
Based on the manga by Rumiko Takahashi
Ranma Saotome sets the blueprint for many future gender-bending anime, which he was not at all pleased with. Stories in which the transition takes place continuously often have some complex condition leading up to this transition. Ranma turns into a girl every time she is splashed with cold water.
Rumiko Takahashi wrote and illustrated some of the most influential manga of the 1990s, and Ranma is no exception. Although he really wanted to break it, Ranma still adapted very well to his curse. Much of the series’ humor comes from the cases of mistaken identity and heavy gender-related expectations from others that Ranma must deal with.
Watch On Tubi
9 Ayakashi Triangle is a new favorite anime about gender
Based on the manga by Kentaro Yabuki
Suzu Kanade and Matsuri Kazamaki have been best friends since they were children, bonding over their shared ability to see ayakashi. Suzu can sense strange spirits, and Matsuri fully intends to continue her family’s tradition of warding them off. However, his life took a different turn when King Ayakashi turned him into a girl.
The recent anime adaptation of Ayakashi Triangle was heavily censored for explicit content, just like the original manga. The story has a lot to offer in the way it thoughtfully handles Matsuri’s new condition. Matsuri reaffirms that he still feels like a boy, although he appreciates the new friendships he made as a girl.and Suzu ponders what it means to both of them that she’s still attracted to him in a girl’s body.
Watch On Tubi
8 Yamada-kun and seven witches use body exchange magic
Based on the manga by Miki Yoshikawa
By most standards, delinquent Ryu Yamada and talented Urara Shiraishi would never make a good couple. However, when an accidental kiss between the two causes them to suddenly switch bodies, Yamada is thrown into a whole new world of magic and shenanigans. The more he discovers about the hidden magic, the more it becomes clear that Yamada is more closely connected to Shiraishi than he thought.
Many gender-fluid anime advance their premise through body swapping. Stories like these force their protagonists to experience not only the life of another gender, but the life of another person as well. Later in the series, Yamada begins to jump between many bodies, gaining new magical powers, but the most important thing he gains is his friendship with Shiraishi.
Watch On Crunchyroll
7 So I’m a spider, so what? Rebirth of characters in many forms
Based on the light novel written by Okina Baba and illustrated by Tsukasa Kiryu
When an entire class is killed in a disaster, the students are reincarnated in various forms in a classic isekai-style fantasy world. The show’s hero was nicknamed Kumoko by fans because she transformed into a measly spider. Her friend Kanata Oushima was at least reincarnated as a human.
Formerly a boy, Kanata lives a new life as Katia, the daughter of a wealthy duke. At first, Katia was uncomfortable with this form, using masculine speech patterns and pronouns when around her reincarnated friends. However, the longer she stays as Katia, The more her internal identity conforms to her new body, the more clearly her speech changes to reflect this.
Watch On Crunchyroll
6 BlazBlue: Remix Heart Is A Gender Origin Story
The manga is written by Deko Akao and Toshimichi Mori and is based on the BlazBlue video game series
Remix Heart is a manga prequel to the BlazBlue series, one of the video game franchises with the most complex storylines. It focuses on Mai Natsme, who was once a boy fused with a powerful grimoire that decided she would be best suited to its magic as a girl, and transformed her accordingly. fit.
Same with Katia Mai feels happier as a female than as a male, after initially seeing herself as a boy acting out a play. When her new friends discover her past, it’s a shock, but they quickly accept her for who she is and certainly don’t love her at all. Mai reciprocates their feelings, completing the merge and transforming permanently to become strong enough to protect them.
The manga is serialized on Age Premium, but is not yet available in English
5 Le Chevalier D’Eon is a murder mystery in history
Original story written by Tow Ubukata
Siblings D’Eon and Lia de Beaumont were both highly regarded agents of King Louis XV’s police and intelligence forces. When Lia is murdered while on the job, D’Eon is determined to bring her killer to justice. To his surprise, he will have a partner in his hunt: Lia’s soul, who possessed her brother’s body to help avenge her own death.
D’Eon and Lia don’t adjust much to their new state as they both gradually lose their own identities the longer they share the same body. The show borrows the title and name of the real-life Chevalier D’Eon, but bears little resemblance to the life of the actual spy, who many historians agree was one of the first recorded cases of a transgender woman who wants to legally change her gender.
Watch on Funimation
4 No Doubt Among Us Brings Couples Far Away Together
Based on manhua by Lu Ye Qian He and You Zhi Jiaozi
Many manhuas and donghuas also use gender-neutral plots. In this romantic comedy, Emperor Tieu Jinyun and Empress Xu Yu accidentally fall into the pond in their palace garden. When that happened, the pond possessed magical properties and when the royal couple appeared, they switched bodies.
So many stories are about an estranged couple learning to truly connect and love again. However, adding body swaps to the mix makes it much more interesting, because Xiao Jinyun and Xu Yu are forced to learn more about each other very quickly in order to successfully surpass each other. Through experience, they discover that each other’s lives have much more depth than they thought.
Watch on Netflix
3 Kokoro Connect brings friends closer together
Based on the light novel series written by Sadanatsu Anda and illustrated by Hiromizakana
Five members of the Student Cultural Studies Club spend their days pursuing their personal interests. But one day, the group attracts the interest of supernatural creatures called Heartseed, who decide to play a game with them. A game that involves swapping the bodies of teenagers repeatedly, putting each of them through a different experience each time.
As in No Doubt In Us, Kokoro Connect’s body swap puts identity exploration at the forefront. One of the best supernatural life anime forces all five children to face harsh truths about themselves and each other. The anime adaptation only includes the body swap, which results in all the clubs starting to reveal deep secrets and grappling with their individual identities.
Watch on Sling TV
The 2 Heroines of Ouran High School’s host club join the all-boys club
Based on the manga by Bisco Hatori
Haruhi Fujioka, the only scholarship student attending the wealthy Ouran Academy, has a turbulent first day of school. After going to the wrong room, she not only had a very dramatic encounter with the Host Club, but also accidentally broke an eight million yen vase. To repay her debt, she must join the club, playing the role of male host to entertain the sorority.
More of a gender-mixer than a straight-up bender, Haruhi in particular nonetheless goes a step further than just pretending to be a girl for the sake of the club. By her own admission, she doesn’t care whether she’s considered “a guy or a girl.” The host club quickly saw her as a natural host type: she didn’t put on an act, she was truly at ease as a guy who seduced the girls.
Watch On Tubi
1 Your name has saved thousands of lives through Gender Bender magic
The original anime film was written by Makoto Shinkai
Taki Tachibana, in bustling Tokyo, and Mitsuha Miyamizu, in rural Itomori, both wish they could live completely different lives. When a stunningly beautiful comet passes over Japan, it grants their wishes, but not in the way they thought. They wake up in each other’s bodies again and again and must quickly get to know each other to live properly, soon sparking one of the best supernatural romances in anime.
The tone of the couple’s body-swapping changes markedly between the first and second halves of the film. The first half is largely comedic, as Taki and Mitsuha frantically try to figure out how they can communicate with each other and act in their new bodies. The second half emphasizes the mechanics and sudden necessity of their body swap, and they quickly have bigger things to worry about than how a guy or girl should act.
Watch On Crunchyroll
