[Note: I minimized the spoilers as much as possible, but it turns out analyzing body swaps is difficult without getting into the details.]

Humans beware when gods start to show favoritism. Divine favors are apt to cut in multiple directions. A quartet of Japanese high school students learn this lesson when a local shrine god takes an interest in their affairs. Here, the titular deity in the gender-swap BL “Favoritism of the God” answers the prayers of Yashiro and Kagura, each of whom sought a fresh start as someone else. The god (“kamisama” in Japanese) obligingly switches their souls after each falls into a coma following an accident. The main cast also includes two friends: Kenta, the boy who rejected Yashiro when he confessed (“but I like girls!”); and Rin, a girl who found Yashiro’s personality irritating when he was a boy but later finds herself confused to be attracted to “her” once Yashiro’s persona lands in Kagura’s body. Over the remaining episodes, the foursome contemplate whether attraction to another person owes more to the personality or to the corporeal meat sack that houses the soul. Is the body “just a container?” ponders Rin in Ep 7. In ep. 2, Yashiro, now in a female host body, worries the just-completed switch means abandoning characteristics that made Yashiro Yashiro. This existential conundrum, spooling out over the series’ eight episodes, elevates “Favoritsim” from the small collection of other BL-body swap stories. The series rewards thoughtful viewers with thoughtful dialog.

At a particular moment in the story, the titular deity finds itself observing (from above, naturally) the interactions among the four high-school aged humans in whose lives it has recently taken an active interest. Unimpressed by the quartet’s efforts to resolve conundrums both mundane (does my crush reciprocate my interest?) and supernatural (how can I get my soul back into its original body?), the god’s sapient canine companion volunteers an acid summation of human exertion: “As usual, they’re wasting their time on things that don’t work. Well, I guess that’s what we call ‘youth’.” Like most BL series, youthful attempts at love, awkward yet endearing, comprise most of the plot. Rather than drive the series forward as with a typical BL, here the BL plot informs gender-swap high jinks that arise when the Yashiro and Kagura sort out the nuances to the performance of their new gender. Both stories take a backseat to the real achievement of this series: a prolonged, thoughtful discussion about the role of sex and gender in shaping our romantic attractions. The BL story and the gender-swap story entangle one another, developing in tandem, but each retains hallmarks of their own genre. The BL story follows the beats of a run-of-the-mill friends-to-lovers track, modulated by both some GL subtext and even some hints at bisexuality. The fact that two of characters swapped bodies and genders blurs the boundaries between all those categories. The gender swap story includes familiar beats from that genre, including the inevitable scene of trying to figure out the proper etiquette for using the unfamiliar gender’s bathroom. New pronouns (and names) must be remembered.

After several months elapse with Yashiro acclimating to his new life as Kaguro, the full implications of the divorce from his past-self reach crisis level when the “real” Kagura reawakens in Yashiro’s body. To everyone’s surprise, she is delighted to abandon her old life and has no intention of reclaiming her old body. Eventually, she, too, wants to reverse the kamisama’s favor. The series remains comfortable with ambiguity. Rin lands firmly on the notion that personality matters the most when it comes to attraction. In ep. 7, she admits to Kenta that she loved the current (Yashioro) version of Kagura. Kenta replies by insisting he wanted Yashiro to return to his original body. Belatedly, he’s accepted he can reciprocate his friend’s crush, but not in his current female body. Kenta wants Yashiro as a guy.

Kamisama hears their prayers to undo his prior favoritism with sympathy. Alas, rules prevent him from granting more than one wish per human (Kagura and Yashiro) or granting wishes to others (Kenta and Rin) that are not about themselves directly. Any further analysis (I have thoughts!) would spoil the ending; so, I will refrain. But the epigram that opens this critique reminds us all that gender equality and equality of sexualities are not goals that will achieve itself. Individuals must take action in their own lives.

The central lesson Favoritism offers: be yourself. The only authentic way to win over other people is to present yourself is to be honest to who you truly are. Swapping bodies failed to resolve the dilemmas Kaguro and Yashiro faced. Their “dishonest” faces created more difficulties instead. “My life is mine alone to live for the rest of time,” notes Kagura, as part of the denouement. (ep 8 @ 38:12) This series should stand the test of time and out of its Japanese context. The ideas considered here resonate everywhere.