Gender bender

I've watched only watched/read one series that would be considered as gender-bender, Ouran Highschool Host Club. (one of my faves btw ^^) . Not sure if it would be a series that implemented it or fully concentrated on the genre.

 

I was thinking something else. Well, I guess I wasn't entirely off-topic.

Anyway.

I don't think I've watched a series that made a central point of gender-bending, it's usually just a one-off in those examples above, or whatever the reason for Link's gender-bender was, but I think it has the possibility of being handled in a good way. Intelligently observing the difference in social norms between men and women and how they're treated and expected to behave, but on the other hand it can just seem like a slap in the face to transgender/transsexual struggles.

My favorite handling of gender-bending was probably in Futurama (it probably happened in at least 3 different episodes), and it usually incorporates people who are originally of a given gender defending their horribly-exaggerated stereotypes against the people who are newly of that gender.

 

Only one I've seen is Ouran HighSchool Host Club. It was so funny, and I never really cared how weird the premise of it being a host club (thank you that one Gaijin Goomba episode for explaining what those were) was. The characters were actually quite unique for a Shoujo, the male characters actually had problems, even if they were fetish characters (which the anime jokes about to hell and back (and any guy who watches fantasy anime can't talk cause nekos and maid girls even if that ain't their fetish)). All the characters are quite memorable, I actually wanted to cosplay one of the guys at one point... and i have still never watched every episode of the anime (some of the earlier episodes I missed out on).