Am I the only one who noticed how the mainstream media and films are trying to embrace cross-gendering or gender-bender? Anime and manga are genres with a large audience; they thought it would be a smart move to explore them also.
Hideyoshi Kinoshita is a character whose name refers to a gender-bending anime under the term “Hideyoshi”.
When a character is taking this role, it happens in different ways. Either they change their sex identity partly or wholly, becoming the opposite of their natural gender.
Reasons for that may be a dream coming true, the impact of their surroundings, the power of magic, etc. They can revert to their original gender, but it’s not always the case; sometimes it stays like that for life.
The lucky ones can become who they want to become at any time. Here is a compilation of the best gender-bender anime series I thought you would like.
1. Boku Girl
Here’s a summary of Suzushiro Mizuki from one of the gender-bender manga. He just started high school, and everyone thinks that he is a girl of his looks.
Guys are always hitting on him, and he has to constantly remind them that he is a girl. The problem now is he has a girl he likes, but the girl doesn’t take him seriously.
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Loki, the god of deceit, was tired of playing with the other celestial beings. She then decided to look for a different way of having fun, and Mizuki was the right candidate.
One morning Mizuki finds out that she now has boobs and his penis is missing. What would you have done? There is only one way to find out what Mizuki did after that sudden change. Go ahead and check it out.
2. Ranma 1/2
Somewhere in China, there was a place well-known for training people in martial arts and turning them into gurus. But let me tell you, these springs were under a curse at this place.
One of the trainees, Ranma, accidentally fell into a cursed spring where an unknown girl had drowned before. From then on, every time he comes into contact with cold water, he becomes a woman.
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His father didn’t see this as a reason to stop him from getting a fiance. The soon-to-be wife was his friend’s daughter, who didn’t give a damn about men. She felt like she could do more than marry a random man.
Ranma had options because he also had two other ladies who were up for marrying him. Do you think this was a good or bad thing for Akane? On the other hand Ranma also had a life to worry about other than just getting himself a bunch of enemies, suitors or whatever.
3. Ouran HighSchool Host Club
Ouran High School was a school where bloody rich people’s kids attended. Everything about the school gave them a soft life. They weren’t even burned with much schoolwork. This gave the students more time for their personal needs and life. It was an earthly paradise.
There was a Host Club where all the attractive young male students could easily get a fortune by simply entertaining their peers with their talents.
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Unfortunately for Haruji Fujioka, he broke a whopping 8 million yen vase. For that, he had to work tirelessly for the Host Club. His duties were mainly to do and cover the shenanigans of the club, work in the store and run around for all their business. He was a slave at this point. I wanna know, if you were Haruhi, would you have run away?
Whether he liked it or not, he would do it at the end of the day. Haruhi had an inborn thing that all the students were somehow drawn to him. Here is the twist: this guy was a girl, but none of the clients noticed that.
4. Aoharu × Machinegun
Hotaru Tichibana had issues with being confident as the student council president. He always had to end up talking about justice all the time. No one could tell that Hotaru is a girl! After school, he saw an odd-looking man on his door talking to someone on the phone. The interaction with Masamune Matsuoka didn’t go well, and Hotatu wanted this to be the first and last time they met.
Hotaru’s best friend came to her to complain that a club host had been unfaithful to her. To her surprise, the alleged cheater was the man from yesterday whom she didn’t want to see again.
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She was so mad at him and began to throw tantrums at him. Matsuoka was a crook and loved how she was bold towards him. He tells her that they should play the Survival Game, where people have to shoot each other with BB balls loaded guns.
Mutsuoka won, and now Hotaru is supposed to be part of Team Toy Gun. Following her defeat, she has no choice but to join the team and replace every item she destroys. This is the crazy part: girls were not allowed on the team. The problem is what she will do because people assume she is a boy. What was she gonna do?
5. Your name. (Light Novel)
This story has one of the crazy plots. So here is the thing: there were Taki and Mitsuha; they didn’t know each other and were living their separate lives wherever they were. One day, Mitsuha wishes to be a Tokyo resident and wants to leave this quiet mountain life. These two find themselves entangled most strangely.
They were simultaneously wishing for the opposite of their current lives. Taki wishes to be a village girl. Isn’t it odd that he knows nothing about that life and still dreams about it? Are you now wondering where this led them and what became of their lives?
6. Kampfer
Let me tell you the insane story of Natsuru Senou. A kampfer changes from male to female so that you fight against other kampfers. Natsuru was a high school student who had a thrilling experience as a kampfer. This is a once-in-a-lifetime exciting manga.
Natsuru wakes up like any other normal day but now as a girl. As this was not shocking enough, his tiger plush toy could move and talk to him. From the blue bracelet on his hand, he understands he is now under a Kampfer contract and has to be one.
The following day, he meets Kaede Sakura when he goes to school and brushes everything off, hoping it is just a dream. Akane Mishima has also become a Kampfer and starts to fight against them, and at that moment, there is a spark in his bracelet.
He made himself invisible to Kaede after recalling what Harakiri had told him. His bracelet’s glow was a sign that the transformation was about to happen.
7. No Doubt In Us
As I mentioned earlier, gender-bending is also a thing when two people interchange their sex identities. There was a couple, Li Jie and Eu-funh, a king and a queen.
I was bold and enduring and had a stubborn and playful wife. These two got into a tense misunderstanding, and as they argued, they fell into a waterhole.
Upon waking up, they find themselves trapped in each other’s bodies. Li Jie has to face the grudges in the Royal women’s quarters. On the other hand, Eu-funh should take up the new responsibility of ensuring peace in the palace. Find out more about how they will accept their new reality and feel what the other partner has been going through.
8. Maria†Holic
The main character, Kanako Miyamae, was allergic to men, right? She was a new student at Ame no Kisaki Women’s Catholic School. Kanako’s parents had met at that same school. Her father was a teacher, and her mom was still a student. This made her want to get herself a girlfriend to be in love with.
Luckily, she found herself a charming and adorable girl named Mariya, who was perfect. Shortly, she was head over heels with Mariya, but it didn’t last long. Maria was a boy! People didn’t realize this because he was cute and had a woman-like fashion sense. He successfully fooled everyone.
The reason why she was pretending was because it was mentioned in her grandmother’s will. There were a lot of funny and awkward moments as Kanako was challenged never to reveal Mariya’s secret.
9. Himegoto
This story explores the life of Hime Arikawa. He was studying at Shimoshina High School in his second year. His parents had died, but they owed a lot of people, which was all left to him. Out of frustration, these people started to threaten him as he was to take up his parent’s debts.
Certain three girls, his schoolmates, came to his rescue. Whether he knew them or not didn’t matter at this point. But this wasn’t a free service. They wanted him to be a puppet for the student council. So now Hime has to spend all his high school days as a girl.
10. Love In The Mask Manhwa
All the characters that are cross-gendered have different stories and reasons. Hyun-Bin has been tricking people into thinking he was a boy. After her young brother dies, whom she loved dearly, she has to leave the fake gangster life.
A filthy rich family takes her in, which seems to be a good thing at first. She underwent vigorous training solely to protect Yae-Ha, the family’s treasure. It was Hyun’s duty to ensure her safety and to protect the secret of her being a girl.
This was not the best life she could get as a young girl. She then met Yun-Ha, whom she fell in love with, and now she is caught up between meeting her responsibilities and following her heart.
11. Fukigen Cinderella
This can be one of your best on the list. Haruhiko Kanna is a regular guy living his normal life like he should. His life took an unexpected change when he came across three witches that were in a tiny room. They gave him the ability to turn into a woman. Was it a blessing or curse?
We have no idea. At exactly 12 pm, he will be a girl and return to his normal body at 12 am. What bothers him is the uncertainty that comes with it. Will this stop, and what will become of him if it doesn’t?
12. An Hour of Romance
There is an office with two completely different co-workers. Jooahn was a savage boss lady with no time for jokes. On the other hand, Dojin is a softie with a calm aura and has just started working. I don’t know why a whole company would think traveling to a weird temple would be a good idea.
There, they were transforming into different persons, and Jooahn and Dojin changed bodies daily for an hour. They now had to make their differences work.
Do you think Dojin will manage to pick some good things from the arrogant boss? And will Jooahn be patient enough to deal with Dojin’s calmness and excuse him for his mistakes?
13. Hatsukoi Zombie
These days, finding true love is a hustle. The hustle part was what Tarou Kutume avoided because he wanted to maintain his way of life without anyone asking him to change. All this ended when his head was hit by a ball, leaving him almost dying.
When he wakes up, he finds himself looking at an unknown girl. He is baffled because he has no idea who this woman is. I know you’re spinning right now with too many questions. What could have possibly happened? How is gender bender coming into play?
14. Reborn as My Love Rival’s Wife (Novel)
Something happened to Su Jian that you wouldn’t even wish on your worst enemy. There was someone who asked a hypothetical question: What’s the first thing you do if one morning you wake up as the opposite gender?
Some guy’s answer was I would make sure the whole friend group is getting sexual satisfaction. Reality hit Su when he woke up one day as a girl and recalled how much he celebrated that answer. He praised the unknown guy for knowing what’s up.
Now he is shuttered, sad, scared. Was he going to do what the answer said to please his bros or what?
15. Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches
Ryu Yamada is relatable to some people because he was mischievous and never liked school. When he went to High school, he was determined to be a better student, but he didn’t expect much from himself.
One Day, he lost his balance and tripped on Urara Shiraishi, his classmate and there they had a moment and kissed. In that instant, their bodies were interchanged.
It was shocking to both of them to realize that another kiss would reverse it back to normal. Ryu found out that Shiraishi was a victim of bullying despite her being a genius in class.
This was like an advantage to them, so they changed bodies now and then. Toranosuke Miyamura saw this as an opportunity to bring back the student club that dug deeper into the mystical mysteries. Urara and Yamada had now found a safe space.
16. Princess Princess
Let me brief you on how Toru Kono got caught up in the gender-bender situation. As a new student, he went to Fujimori, a boys’ only school. Toru begins to discover the weirdness of the school even though it is one of the highly-ranked schools nationwide. It was a norm that each year, they picked a “pretty boy” and were crowned princess to entertain the senior male students.
So if you are chosen to be the princess, your ladylike and girlish behavior gives other students joy. Toru became the new princess when he got into this school.
A princess was always chosen from the newbies because they didn’t have much school load and had not yet reached puberty. The female costumes would easily fit them without raising suspicions.
Terms and conditions apply; if you are attractive but unknown, you will be given this title. You had to have both looks and popularity to be the perfect candidate.
17. Cheeky Angel
This story follows a boy named Megumi Amatsuka, who is a fighter. One day, he defended an old man whom some random boys were harassing, and for his act of kindness, the man gave him an odd book. Later on, a demon showed up to Megumi and said whatever he wanted, he was gonna get it.
As a fighter, he wanted to be brave and powerful. But here it goes sideways: the demon was kind of a lunatic. So, instead, he became the most girlish girl there is.
Out of frustration, Megumi angrily tossed the book into the pool, and he never saw it again. Now, he has to live this newly found reality as the girl with a beauty that surpasses every other girl in school. But still, she is beating the hell out of every guy who falls in love with her.
18. Hana No Kishi
This manga also explores traditional gender roles. Ran Kurono’s bigger brother was murdered when he was on duty protecting Sei Ohtori. From that moment, she told herself she would be the First Knight of the Ohtori family and protect them until she died. It came along with her hiding the fact that she was a woman.
The Ohtori family’s First Knights have always come from her family for years. However, other people wanted this position, not out of love but just for the title that came with it.
During that same time, Sei was also going under trials to see if he was fit to become the family’s leader. Ran and Sei went through tough times from the time they entered Saint Locks Academy. Sei’s fiance became of great help to them all the way.
19. She Professed Herself Pupil of the Wise Man
Here is the last one l have for you. There was a squad called the Nine Sages, which Kagami was part of. They were games enthusiasts and could play all night. Nine Sages had the strongest witches in the world of visual reality.
Kagami’s life is about to change. One night, he couldn’t keep playing and went to bed, only to see himself as a girl the following morning. As a sage, this was not good news at all. He cannot afford to have people know his true identity; it would cost him his reputation.
The only thing that can save him now is him making up an excuse why this has happened if he wants to be considered a talented music artist.
