AKA that body-swap anime from 2012. It was pretty enjoyable, so when I found out it had an official English translation since 2018, I started reading the light novels. I was surprised to enjoy them so much.
It's a cheesy teen drama, and each of the 11 volumes focuses on a different revelation about identity, the typical coming-of-age stuff you'd expect. A few queer characters rock up eventually and they're done pretty darn well1. Serious themes like sexual assault are handled respectfully. And several characters are, in my opinion, 'tism'd up, as they say. Like, extremely relatable autism, at least for me.
I'm not really spoiling anything as the following information is introduced from the very start and doesn't affect the story, but I'll list some examples under the read more:
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Unfortunately, there is a classic predatory queer character at the start but it turns out that's just how she is. She gets better. The others ones are normal.
Inaba: 'My favourite hobbies are information gathering and analysis' uh huh I bet you're unintentionally blunt, get annoyed at vague measurements in recipes and go to computer stores in your free time too.1
Taichi: Deadpan voice and expressionless face, which helps with deadpan deliveries but creates misunderstandings too. Obsessed with a niche interest nobody else cares about.
Nagase: I'd love to talk about her but it's spoilers.
Individually I don't think there's enough to say they're definitely autistic, but all together these quirky characters are very, very relatably quirky. I first watched the anime in my early years of high school when I didn't know I was Different(tm) and now I'm reading the LNs after a year of realising and accepting it. I think that's made me a little attached to this story. It's rare that I can strongly relate to characters in a slice-of-life.
Mind you, the story's not directly focused on autism or social issues or anything. It's not revolutionary. It's just your typical slice-of-life about teenagers working out how to be friends and deal with stuff, but with a different supernatural twist each volume to keep things interesting. They're just 11 short stories written in 2011 with an excess of sex jokes in the first volume and an anime that rushes through things too quickly to be coherent at times (still good though). It's no masterpiece objectively speaking but it has some fantastic moments. I've started reading the final arc and I'm very excited to see where it goes.
I'd recommend other stories if you're looking for a slice-of-life with autistic characters. But if you're looking for a cheesy but down-to-earth teen drama with characters that could be interpreted as on the spectrum you should give it a try.
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I'm not saying female computer nerds have to be autistic, of course. I'm biased and projecting onto a fictional character.
