Summary
Life hasn’t exactly been comfortable for trans people, non-binary people, and anyone else who isn’t cis in the past few decades, but the past few years have been especially tough. Even people supposedly on their side have been acting against them, cutting off their support while treating them like some modern fad. But there have been stories about people changing genders or removing the label entirely since antiquity, be itfamous Greek mythslike Caneus and Tiresias, or biographies of figures like Chevalier D’Eon.
Even in this unfriendly climate, there are plenty of movies, TV shows, books, plays, comics, and manga about others bending gender norms for a variety of reasons. Whether it’s a case of mistaken identity, fluffy fantasy fulfillment, a light-hearted romp, or a sober, introspective look at how gender identity (or lack thereof) can affect people, these are just some of the best gender-bender manga available for people to check out.
Updated on June 03, 2025, by David Heath:There’s something about playing with gender lines that, one way or another, gets people riled up. Maybe it makes them consider hard questions about gender itself or about themselves, or they find themselves relating to the leads whose sex and/or gender identity gets twisted. Or they just find the topic interesting and entertaining.
Yet it is a topic that’s inspired a wealth of stories, including in manga. People may be familiar with the curse-induced, water-related shifting inRanma ½,or the crossdressing case of mistaken identity inOuran High School Host Club. But there are plenty more out there that make for intriguing reading.
14The Day I Became Her
Sex-Shifting Disease Makes a Man Confront His Gynophobia
The world ofThe Day I Became Heris a curious one. It looks like present-day Japan, but it has some surreal mechanism where it sets humanity at a fixed ratio of men to women. Which means some people end up shifting from male to female, or female to male, partway through their lives in order for the mechanism to maintain that ratio, as Nao Mamiya experiences firsthand.
As a boy, Nao had a friendly rivalry with his pal, Kyosuke, where they challenged each other over school, sports, tests, etc. But when Nao turned 17, he came down with an illness that saw him slowly turn into a girl. Nao comes to terms with it pretty quickly, but Kyosuke has more trouble adjusting as he has a fear of women. It has become his greatest challenge yet, as his friendship with Nao begins to change as well.
13The Gender of Mona Lisa
Agender Person Ends Up in a Romantic Dilemma
People have analyzed Leonardo da Vinci’s painting of Mona Lisa in all sorts of different ways, with some finding the figure more gender-neutral compared to other Renaissance portraits. So, Tsumuji Yoshihara used it as a metaphor for Hinase’s predicament inThe Gender of Mona Lisa. In it, people are born androgynous until they hit 12, where they’ll then go through whichever puberty they desire, no matter their genetics.
But even at 18, Hinase has remained gender-neutral. They thought they were fine with it, as they had the support of their friends, Ritsu and Shiori. But when they both confess to Hinase, they’re left troubled. Do they pick one gender or the other to keep one friend happy and do the whole ‘love’ thing? Or is there still a place in their world for someone to be agender,asexual and aromantic?
12Boku Girl
Androgynous Boy Gets the Full Female Experience
People complaining about pronouns in English would hate knowing Japanese, as the term ‘I/me/myself’ can be translated into multiple different ways to show a person’s gender, class, upbringing, etc. Like Anglophone pronouns, it can cause a stir too, as Japanese fans took umbrage withUndertale’s Sansusing the bumpkinish ‘Oira’over cooler-sounding pronouns.
Boku Girluses ‘boku’ (‘I/me/myself’ for young boys) to show how Suzushiro looks more androgynous than he’d like. The guys confess to him, and the girls treat him like one of their own. It’s annoying, but he deals with it. That is, until the trickster god Loki decides to take the ‘andro’ out of ‘androgynous’ by turning him into a woman overnight. Until he can find a way to revert it, Suzushiro has to deal with literally being one of the girls, which isn’t easy to say the least.
11Life with an Ordinary Guy Who Reincarnated into a Total Fantasy Knockout
Man Gets Isekai’d and Turned into a Girl at the Same Time
In the real world, Tachibana had trouble standing out to women thanks to his best friend, Jinguji. He doesn’t mean to cause trouble. It’s just that women are more into his tall height and hunky good looks over Tachibana’s smaller, slight features. Drunk and frustrated, he wished he was a girl in the world so he could get some attention for a change. Unluckily for him, the Goddess of Love and Beauty happened to be listening.
She decided to grant his wish by transporting them to a fantasy world. By turning Jinguji into a strong, buff hero, and Tachibana into an overpowering beauty, she challenges them to use their new skills to defeat its evil demon lord. Hence, why it’s calledLife with an Ordinary Guy Who Reincarnated into a Total Fantasy Knockout.It’s only the start of their troubles too, as Tachibana’s new wiles begin to charm Jinguji as well as the world’s inhabitants, and Tachibana starts to see Jinguji in new ways too.
10Inside Mari
A Lonely Man Wakes Up As His Crush
A lot of gender-bender stories tend tobe bodyswap ones, where a guy and a girl — be they friends, lovers, rivals, or barely acquaintances — learn what life is like in the other person’s shoes before switching back. It’s the topic of many a cutesy romcom, which is fun enough. But if readers know who Shuzo Oshimi is, they’ll knowInside Mariisn’t likely to be cute or funny, as he’s best known for creating gritty psychological tales likeFlowers of EvilandBlood on the Tracks.
Inside Marifollows Isao, a man who thought he’d start a new life in Tokyo, only to end up stuck in a lonely rut, dropping out of college to work to play video games at home. The only bright spot in his life is when he bumps into Mari, ‘the Angel of the Convenience Store,’ and falls for her. One day, he manages to make eye contact with her, causing him to black out and wake up in her body. Without knowing how he got there, or who’s in his old body, he now has to do his best to live Mari’s life, which turns out to be more straightforward than he thought.
9Shishunki Bitter Challenge
Boy/Girl Body Swap Induces Gender Dysphoria
Bodyswaps are such a common trope in manga and anime that they often get twisted in other sources.Yakuza 6had a substory where two would-be lovers pretended to bodyswap in an effort to elope, much to Kazuma Kiryu’s confusion. ThenInside Mariturned it into a psychological drama that plays with the theme of identity.Shishunki Bitter Challengetakes a different turn by having a bodyswap happen, which then never gets fixed.
Yuuta accidentally fell out of a tree onto Yui when they were kids, which caused them to swap minds and bodies. They both kept it a secret in case it just fixed itself. But they’re still stuck years later, and they’re beginning to start puberty. By playing the premise for drama, the manga ends up showing off how grim gender dysphoria can feel in terms everyone can understand; cis, trans, or otherwise.
8Until I Become Me
Sexist Boy Gets His Just Deserts
Manga don’t have to swap bodies to make people see the error of their ways.Until I Become Mechanges the person on their own instead. As a boy, Akira used to torment and abuse the girls at his school, but things took a turn when he woke up one day as a girl. He thought it would be temporary, thinking “I’ll go back to being a boy soon”.
But the days turn into weeks, and the weeks turn into months, and Akira is still a girl. During that time, she learns just how it feels to be on the receiving end of the abuse he used to dish out. That’s not to mention the other awkward parts about growing up as a girl, which give Akira complicated feelings. Her ironic punishment may end up opening her eyes in more ways than one.
7Onimai: I’m Now Your Sister!
Manga doesn’t have to be as heavy asShishunki Bitter ChallengeorThe Gender of Mona Lisato tell a story. Readers who fancy something lighter can find some fun inOnimai: I’m Now Your Sister!Where the eroge-playing shut-in, Mahiro, ends up undergoing a life-changing experience courtesy of their mad scientist sister, Mihari.
Her latest experiment ends up turning her big brother into her big sister overnight, which ‘she’ isn’t so fond of. Mihari wants to study all Mahiro’s different changes, but she’s absolutely not interested. Female or not, Mahiro insists on going back to her bedroom, playing her videogames, and living as ordinary a life as possible. But unfortunately for her, things are only going to get stranger from there.
6Ranma ½
Martial Arts Prodigy Gets Cursed to Switch Sexes When Doused in Water
This list wouldn’t be complete withoutRanma ½.It’s perhaps the most popular gender-bending manga out there, and likely many people’s first experience with the topic. Albeit via either its classic late 1980s anime, or its new adaptation that’s been catching on with newer audiences. It sees the Tendo sisters contend with the prospect of being married off to continue their family’s dojo.
They’re not too keen on the prospect, until they find their suitor is Ranma Saotome. He’s afflicted by a condition he gained when he fell into a cursed spring. Whenever he’s doused with cold water, he becomes a girl (‘Ranko’), and changes back when hit with hot water. Depending on what he’s splashed with,rivals can become suitors, suitors can become rivals, and sticky situations can become all the more troublesome.
5Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches
Bodyswap Shenanigans Ensue After a Fall and a Kiss
As much asInside MariandShishunki Bitter Challengeplay with the bodyswap subgenre, it’s more popular when it’s played straight.Yamada-kun and the Seven Witcheslargely stuck to the standard bodyswap formula, and got an anime series, an OVA, a live-action series, and a one-off crossover withYankee-kun to Megane-chan.
It started when the delinquent Yamada tried to goad top-flight student Urara, and ended up falling down the stairs on top of her instead. When they wake up, they discover they’re in each other’s bodies. They learn the switch happened when they accidentally touched lips, so they kiss each other again to fix it. Unluckily for them, student council vice president Toranosuke discovers it, and revives the Supernatural Studies club to study the phenomenon. Through them, Urara discovers she’s a witch whose kisses can induce bodyswaps, that there are other super-powered students on campus, and Yamada can copy their abilities on contact.
