Body-swapping is a comedic and popular trope within anime. Characters switching bodies and attempting to live each other's lives often has hilarious results. The ensuing chaos can offer a light-hearted, comedic break for fans to enjoy between more serious episodes.
However, body-swapping can also be used as more than a comedic episode plot. Body-swapping can be seen as a means for characters to better understand one another. By waking up in another individual's body, each character is forced to walk a mile in their shoes and gain sympathy and empathy for one another.
Updated by Sage Ashford on June 27, 2023: Body swapping is an idea that fans and creatives alike never get tired of, which is why it's been used in anime for decades now. We've updated this list to add a few more series that feature body swapping.
15 Birdy the Mighty DECODE
Birdy the Mighty usually focuses on the problems inherent to sharing a body. The series is already about space police agent Birdy Altera sharing a body with teenager Tsutomu Senkawa after she accidentally wounded him. The two of them have to switch between their two forms as needed for their social lives and jobs. However, one episode goes to a full-on body swap.
In the second season of Birdy the Mighty DECODE, Birdy is injured by a sniper attack. As a result, Tsutomu wakes up in her body, unable to change to his own. He's even forced to play Birdy's Earth identity—an idol named Arita—and interact with her fans.
14 Cardcaptor Sakura
In Cardcaptor Sakura, the inexperienced Sakura Kinomoto has to re-seal monsters that escaped from the magical Clow Cards that were in her basement. This leads to a lot of shenanigans, as she and her associates have to deal with the unique powers of each monster she fights. While some of these are serious threats, others are more light-hearted, like the Change Card.
Midway through the series, Sakura captures the Change Card, but not without incident. The guardian of the Clow Cards Kero and her rival Syaoran swap places while grabbing the Clow Card in its monster form. Unable to use the Card's powers to switch them back until after a full day has passed, Kero and Syaoran both have to pretend to be one another, with hilarious results.
13 Gintama
One of the best comedy anime of all time, Gintama always offers its own version of popular anime tropes. Thanks to its unique blend of sci-fi with classic samurai tropes, it was able to fit in a body swap episode as well.
In one arc in the series, a faulty invention causes series lead Gintoki to swap places with his completely opposite attitude, Hijikata. Rather than pretend to be the other person, both of them refused to adapt, causing endless confusion for all involved. In true Gintama fashion, the entire cast eventually found themselves swapping bodies with other people.
12 Dragon Ball Z
Most Dragon Ball Z characters tend to win fights with their superior strength and nothing else. However, while Captain Ginyu might not have been the most complex sidekick to Frieza, he showed there was more than one way to win a fight. After Goku landed on Namek, he displayed power that surpassed any of Captain Ginyu's associates in the Ginyu Force.
Ginyu decided to use his secret body-swapping technique to commandeer Goku's body. After damaging his own body, Ginyu took Goku's super-powerful body for his own. This led to an entire mini-arc involving Vegeta, Gohan, and Krillin trying to slow Ginyu down. By the end though, it was some quick thinking from Goku (and a frog) that led to Goku getting his own body back.
11 To Love Ru
To Love Ru's status as a harem comedy with sci-fi elements means some kind of body swap shenanigans were almost a given. Lala's status as an alien princess grants her access to technology that wouldn't exist on Earth for years. In the Motto To Love Ru season, Lala introduces an actual body-swapping machine called the "Maru Maru Change."
In that episode, Lala uses the machine to swap places with Haruna so they can catch a criminal. However, that's not the only time body swapping occurs in the series. Different characters swap places throughout the series, including series lead Rito swapping places with a dog.
10 Charlotte
In the anime Charlotte, a small percentage of children and teens gain supernatural abilities. One such individual is Yu Otosaka, who is able to briefly possess another individual's body. Yu initially uses this ability to possess high-ranked students and cheat off of them in school.
Due to his gross misuse of his ability, Yu is forced to work with a girl named Nao and her student council. By using his body-swapping ability, Yu and the student council are able to help other ability users who come face to face with the dangers their abilities can cause.
9 Your Name
Makoto Shinkai's powerful film, Your Name, features two teens who have been switching bodies when they dream. Mitsuha, a shrine maiden from the boonies, and Taki, a city boy from Tokyo, are constantly switching places with one another.
With no idea what is causing their body-swapping and no clue how to stop it, Mitsuha and Taki learn to work together in order to maintain some semblance of normalcy in their lives. As they work together to maintain their respective day-to-day lives, they begin to learn that there is more behind the switching of their bodies than they initially thought.
8 Yamada-kun & the Seven Witches
In Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches, delinquent Ryu Yamada suddenly finds himself in the body of top student Urara Shiraishi when the two take a tumble down the stairs. Despite the pair's initial misconceptions of each other, after walking in their respective shoes, they learn that there is more to each other than meets the eye.
Eventually, Yamada and Shiraishi figure out that kissing is the catalyst for their switch. With this reveal, both Yamada and Shiraishi embark on a crazy school life filled with witches and wild body-switching adventures.
7 Kokoro Connect
In the world of Kokoro Connect, members of the Student Cultural Research Club come face to face with strange supernatural phenomena in their daily lives. One such phenomenon the students encounter is body-swapping, where members of the club will switch minds with one another at random times.
Although a few members of the Student Cultural Research Club were reluctant to believe that body-swapping was real, it soon becomes hard to deny. The consistent body-swapping of the club members, along with other challenges they face, helps the club forge a strong and unbreakable bond.
6 Fairy Tail
After coming back from their job on Galuna Island, Fairy Tail's Team Natsu comes face to face with a new challenge in their guildhall. A job listing turns out to be a magic spell that has swapped the bodies of Natsu, Lucy, Gray, Erza, Happy, and Loki.
To no one's surprise, chaotic Fairy Tail antics ensue while the Team Natsu members are in the wrong bodies. The body-swapping spell will become permanent in 30 minutes if they are unable to break it. With the help of Levy, Team Natsu is able to undo the spell, and in the next episode, everything is back to normal.
5 Punchline
The anime Punchline is filled with wild body-swapping adventures. With Yuta possessing other characters in order to save the world, it's no wonder that hijinks ensue. However, Yuta's possession isn't the only body-swapping in this anime. Yuta, along with two other characters, have all swapped bodies with one another as children.
While in a car chase, Yuta, along with Guriko and Chiyoko, is driven off the road. As the car falls into the river below, the vehicle is struck by lightning and the children swap bodies. This reveal only adds more depth and mystery to Punchline's already high-stake plot.
4 One Piece
Naturally, in One Piece, fans expect the Straw Hats to wind up on crazy adventures. On one such adventure, the crew members switch bodies with one another. When Nanami, Sanji, Chopper, and Frankie attempt to free the children imprisoned on Punk Hazard (an island surrounded by both ice and fire) the four members of the Straw Hats encounter Trafalgar Law.
While the Straw Hats attempt to flee the facility, Law uses his Ope-Ope Fruit powers to switch the Straw Hats' bodies with one another. Eventually, over the course of the Punk Hazard arc, Law thankfully returns Luffy and his crew back to their original bodies.
3 Murder Princess
In the anime Murder Princess, Princess Alita flees to the border forest after surviving a coup d'état that had claimed her father's life. As she escapes, Alita is pursued by Jitterbug, the forest guardian, a creature that had claimed the lives of the guards protecting her. In her escape, Alita accidentally sends both herself and the bounty hunter, Faris, off a cliff.
Due to their near-death experience, Alita and Faris switch bodies. The bounty hunter is now the princess and vice versa. With their fates now intertwined, the two girls must work together in order to survive and protect Alita's kingdom.
2 Red Data Girl
The anime Red Data Girl is filled with supernatural wonders, like shikigami and spirits. Izumiko Suzuhara is a young girl raised at Tamakura Shrine. As she enters high school, Izumiko learns that she is part of a lineage of yorishiro, vessels for a powerful spirit.
Throughout the series, Izumiko navigates this new supernatural world with her childhood friend, Miyuki. As dangers begin to appear, the spirit known as the Himegami begins to take over Izumiko's body, thus leading both Izumiko and Miyuki to wonder what their future will hold.
1 Rascal Does Not Dream Of Bunny Girl Senpai
Sakuta Azusagawa from Rascal Does Not Dream Of Bunny Girl Senpai had already encountered the strange abilities of puberty syndrome when he met Mai Sakurajima. The third year high schooler struggled with the fact that she had become invisible. However, Sakuta encounters something stranger when his girlfriend appears to have switched bodies with her younger sister.
Sakuta and Mai body-swap due to their misconceptions and shared jealousy of one another. Thankfully, the two are able to return to their original bodies once they reconcile their differences and clear up their misunderstandings.