Best Gender-Bender Anime

Summary

• Anime offers a diverse range of gender-bender shows, each with unique storytelling and genres to explore.
• Finding the best gender-bender anime can be challenging, but certain shows rise above the competition.
• Ranma ½ is considered the definitive and best gender-bender anime, with a timeless mix of comedy and adventure.

While generally covering the same genres and themes as other entertainment media, anime is more heavily associated with a couple of concepts than its peers. Isekai is an obvious one, but gender-bender is way more common in manga and anime than, say, Western animation or modern movies. For the uninitiated, this idea involves a character flipping their gender, be it through magical means, body-swapping, or reincarnation. Men becoming women is the more popular direction, but the reverse happens on occasion.

Just to be clear, gender-bender anime are not extremely popular by any means, but most years tend to produce one or two shows that loosely fit the theme. In some cases, a show revolves entirely around the concept; other times, the flip lasts for an episode or two, usually for comedic purposes. Let’s go through nearly all the gender-bender anime out there, highlighting the best of them.

Here are a few criteria and notes:

• Body-swapping anime will be included as long as the characters are of opposite genders and the story focuses on that element.
• Reincarnation anime that involve characters reborn as the opposite gender will not be considered since they are technically different people/lives.
• That said, some isekai anime will be included if the story does not use conventional reincarnation or if they warrant a mention for some other reason.

Updated on August 28, 2025, by Mark Sammut: Summer 2025 does not have a gender-bender anime, although Ranma ½ is set to return in October. While waiting for that legendary show’s comeback, you might want to check out an anime based on a manhwa that we just added to this article: When I Woke Up I Became a Bagel Girl.

31

Ayakashi Triangle

A Fanservice-Driven Action-Comedy That Struggles To Pick Up Steam

To say that Ayakashi Triangle had a troubled production cycle would be an understatement. Despite debuting in Winter 2023, the anime had to wait until that year’s Summer anime season to complete its single-hour run. Due to its elongated release schedule, Ayakashi Triangle squandered a somewhat decent start, dooming itself to be nothing more than a footnote in the year’s anime output. Still, this gender-bender series has just enough positives to warrant a very weak mention, even if I would generally recommend checking out the manga.

The eponymous Ayakashi are essentially spirits, and they can be dangerous if they happen to find someone with a lot of energy. Kanade and Matsuri can both see these creatures, and the latter strives to keep the former out of harm’s way. One day, a cat-like Ayakashi transforms Matsuri into a girl, a change the shinobi takes in her stride.

30

Back Street Girls: Gokudols

Either Hilarious Or Awful, With No In-Between

All things considered, most gender-bender anime do not push the envelope too much. Well, Back Street Girls: Gokudols is an exception that throws any semblance of good taste out of the window, crafting a story designed to push buttons. The result is a polarizing series that can be either painfully funny or nearly unwatchable, depending on the viewer.

The premise revolves around three Yakuza members who are forced into a gender change so they can become idols, allowing them to earn money for their boss. Back Street Girls is at its best when mocking the idol culture or exploring parallels between that industry and the Yakuza; that said, the anime relies on a lot of tired punchlines. Beyond that, Back Street Girls‘ animation is very static, to the point of barely having more movement than just a standard manga page.

Fair warning, Back Street Girls revels in poor taste. The anime can be funny in an “did they really do that” type of way, but I also wouldn’t recommend it to just anyone.

29

Cinderella Boy

Body-Sharing Anime Detectives

Based on a one-shot manga by Monkey Punch, the author behind Lupin the Third, Cinderella Boy comes across as a fusion of multiple classics. Besides sharing similarities with Lupin‘s character designs and humor, the male lead is named Ranma, a pretty obvious reference to the most famous gender-bender anime character of all time. The concept is fairly interesting. Two detectives, Ranma and a woman named Rella, get in an accident and are “saved” by a doctor who puts them into the same body. Each day, one person and their associated body come out, swapping at midnight.

Cinderella Boy is a unique gender-bender since Ranma and Rella are presented as different people inhabiting the same body. Technically, they are not swapping genders but instead sharing real estate and time. The 2003 anime is the definition of a mixed bag that never comes close to matching the brilliance of its inspirations. That said, the show has decent comedy and a few fun action sequences.

28

Heaven’s Lost Property (Episodes 11 and 23)

Well, One Anime Had To Do It

Generally speaking, most anime that explore gender-bending feature protagonists who are forced into a new body, and they are just trying to adapt to a tricky situation. However, exceptions exist, and Heaven’s Lost Property‘s Tomoki might provide the most stereotypical comedy harem take on the concept. Through supernatural shenanigans, Tomoki gains the ability to change his gender, becoming Tomoko in the process. Why? Well, he wants to enter public baths that are exclusively for women.

Frankly, at one point or another, there had to be a perverted protagonist who uses the power of anime to gender-bend his way into crossing the line, and Heaven’s Lost Property handles the idea relatively well. Sure, the humor is very “2000s,” but Tomoki receives his comeuppance at the end. Tomoko comes back in a later episode as well, although that transformation is shorter-lived than the original.

27

KonoSuba (Episode 25)

Kazuma Becomes A Princess For A Day

Similar to Heaven’s Lost Property, KonoSuba uses a gender body swap to indulge its protagonist’s unsavory vices. This time, Kazuma swaps bodies with Princess Iris thanks to a magic spell, allowing them to both experience life from a different perspective.

For her part, Iris heads out into the city alongside Megumin, a combination that proves to be pretty explosive since neither girl knows how to defuse potentially tense situations. Conversely, Kazuma uses this gift to live the high life for a while…and to try and take a bath with two girls. Completely in character for the isekai protagonist.

While not painting Kazuma in a great light, KonoSuba never rewards him for his stupid or bad behavior, and the payoff to this storyline is simple but funny. I firmly believe KonoSuba is one of the funniest anime ever, but you probably should not watch it solely to see this gender-bender episode.

26

Sailor Moon Sailor Stars

Sailor Starlights Are Magical Girls And Male Idols

The final season of Sailor Moon‘s original run, Sailor Stars is probably the most divisive entry, and a large part of that reaction has to do with the Sailor Starlights. A trio of galactic-travelling magical girls, the Starlights come to Earth on a mission, and they decide to blend in by becoming male idols. In the anime, they are gender-bender characters, which is not the case in the manga. So, they can swap between male and female, although they spend most of their time as the former and limit the latter for when they take on their magical girl forms.

Frankly, the gender-bender aspect is probably the most fascinating part about the Starlights, as they are otherwise fairly bland (although Seiya can be interesting, at times). They also don’t mesh that well with the Sailor Guardians, all of whom are way more likable than this trio. They are also introduced so late in the anime that they feel like footnotes in Sailor Moon‘s history. At least, they were brought back in Sailor Moon Cosmos.

25

She Professed Herself Pupil of the Wise Man

A Gamer Becomes His OP RPG Character, Albeit In Little Girl Form

An isekai gaming anime that adds a gender-bender twist, She Professed Herself Pupil of the Wise Man is mostly just OK, with the adaptation not quite managing to match the quality of the source material or the manga version. Still, if someone is craving a lighthearted OP fantasy with a relatively likable protagonist, they might enjoy this short journey, even if the trip might not linger in their memory for that long.

Sakimori Kagami is the gamer behind Danblf, one of the most powerful wise mages of Ark Earth Online. Long story short, he falls asleep and wakes up as his character within the game’s world, albeit a few hundred years in the future. However, Danblf’s conventional magician look has been tweaked slightly, and now he resembles a little girl. She Professed Herself Pupil of the Wise Man does not actually make that big of a deal about the gender-swap aspect, as Sakimori does not seem particularly uncomfortable in the new form. As such, this aspect is pretty quickly forgotten, with the anime becoming a fairly typical OP MC isekai story.

24

When I Woke Up I Became a Bagel Girl

An Otaku Becomes A Bagel Girl

Based on a webtoon/manhwa, When I Woke Up I Became a Bagel Girl did not leave that much of an impression during its initial run. Firstly, the series aired all its episodes in the span of a week, which is not an ideal release schedule due to not fitting into the seasonal lineup. More importantly, the anime is difficult to come by and does not have a particularly glowing reputation. Taking all that into account, should you just skip this one?

Honestly, yes and no.

When I Woke Up I Became a Bagel Girl follows Bong Gi, an otaku who is, overall, not a great or charismatic person. One day, he randomly wakes up as an attractive woman, granting him a new lease on life. Before long, he befriends a woman (and develops a crush on her), gets a job, and reunites with a person he hates from his past. When I Woke Up I Became a Bagel Girl has a couple of things in its favor, including a pretty interesting dynamic between the protagonist and his female friend. The story also tries to offer a few surprises rather than just sticking to slice of life comedy, and the second half is quite different from the first. While not a huge, huge focus, Bong’s psychological struggle with his transformation is somewhat explored.

Unfortunately, Bong is really not that likable, and he/she gets worse as things progress. Although the show deserves props for trying to be dramatic, it does not handle this aspect all that well.

23

Kämpfer

Forgettable Fluff That Is Mostly Passable But Struggles To Leave An Impression

Kämpfer is one of those anime that, while enjoyable, will probably not stick in a viewer’s mind for all that long. The series does not excel in any area, delivering middling action, serviceable humor, and inoffensive characters, all things that combine to create an experience that goes in one ear and out the other. Just to be clear, there is nothing wrong with fluff, as long as it is entertaining. Kämpfer is just fun enough to warrant a recommendation, even if it is nowhere near the best gender-bender anime ever.

Essentially, Natsuru becomes a magical girl, albeit one who fits other chosen girls rather than evil monsters. While this situation leads to a couple of notable fights, it mostly culminates in comedic high jinks as Natsuru tries to fit in at school while keeping his dual gender a secret. The story does not build all that much momentum as it goes along, and it kind of peters out at the end; still, Kämpfer is a decent watch.

22

Sket Dance (Episodes 62–64)

Himeko And Bossun Swap Bodies

Coming across as Gintama-lite, Sket Dance is primarily a school-based comedy that, occasionally, gets weird. One of the anime’s more bizarre storylines sees Bossun and Himeko swap bodies during a school trip, a situation that proves to be very difficult for both of them. Himeko, naturally, is not particularly excited by the prospect of Bossun interacting directly with her body during ordinary daily events that will definitely come up, so she takes it upon herself (as Bossun) to handle contact. Things are made even more complicated when another girl, Saaya, approaches Bossun (Himeko) to try and get a read on whether he is interested in Himeko.

Sket Dance is surprisingly dedicated to this premise, with the body swap lasting roughly three episodes. The anime uses this circumstance to further develop Bossun and Himeko’s friendship and (potential) romance, so this storyline ends up being plot-relevant rather than just an extended gag.