General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20264 min read

Switched (宇宙を駆けるよだか)

Switched (宇宙を駆けるよだか, Sora wo Kakeru Yodaka) is a six-episode Japanese live-action drama series produced for Netflix and released worldwide on August 1, 2018, adapted from the manga of the same name by Kawabata Shiki (川端志季). The story follows two high school girls, the popular and pretty Ayumi Kohinata and her classmate Zenko Umine, who envy her looks, whose bodies are switched, and it treats the body-swap premise as a dark psychological thriller rather than a comedy.¹^•²

Key fact	Detail
Original title	宇宙を駆けるよだか (Sora wo Kakeru Yodaka), released internationally as Switched²
Format	6-episode Netflix original drama, all episodes released at once on August 1, 2018¹^•³
Source	Manga by Kawabata Shiki, Shueisha Margaret Comics, 3 volumes (2015)²^•⁴
Director	Hiroaki Matsuyama, known for Liar Game¹^•²
Main cast	Kaya Kiyohara (Ayumi), Miu Tomita (Zenko), Daiki Shigeoka (Shunpei Kaga), Tomohiro Kamiyama (Koshiro Mizumoto)⁵
Theme song	"Akatsuki" by Johnny's WEST³
Reception	IMDb 7.1/10 from about 2,100 users; Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer 85% from fewer than 50 ratings⁶^•¹
Availability	Exclusive to Netflix; no official DVD release⁷

Spoilers

Premise and story

Ayumi Kohinata is a bright, pretty high school student who has just begun dating Koshiro Mizumoto, the childhood friend she has long liked. On the day of their first date, after a disturbing phone call, she wakes to find that her body has been switched with that of Zenko Umine, a classmate who has suffered bullying over her appearance. Zenko, now in Ayumi's body, refuses to switch back, keeping Ayumi's boyfriend and life for herself.⁸^•⁶

Nobody believes Ayumi's account of the swap except Shunpei Kaga, another childhood friend, who recognizes her despite her new appearance. As the series progresses, the four teenagers uncover that the switch was planned, and the story builds toward a limited window for reversal tied to a red moon.⁶^•¹ The Japan Society's review describes the show as a twist on the once family-friendly concept of body swapping, revived as a dark psychological drama set against warm friendships, centered on four teenagers at a Japanese school.²

The series addresses body shaming, appearance-based judgment, bullying, parental abuse, poverty, and suicide; Common Sense Media flags attempted suicide and scenes of people jumping or falling from buildings, and rates the show for ages 15 and up.⁹

Production

The drama was produced as a Netflix original, with production company Que handling production management and Iijima Akio as producer. The production team stated that they designed the show from the start for a worldwide audience, noting the difficulty of getting Japanese live-action drama noticed within Netflix's 2018 slate of roughly 700 new titles.¹⁰ Credits are script by Okada Michitaka, music by Ken Arai, direction by Matsuyama Hiroaki, and the theme song "Akatsuki" performed by Johnny's WEST, whose members Shigeoka Daiki and Kamiyama Tomohiro co-star.³

Dual roles. Because the two leads swap bodies, Kaya Kiyohara and Miu Tomita each play two characters: Kiyohara appears as Ayumi's body carrying Zenko's personality, and Tomita as Zenko's body carrying Ayumi's. Kiyohara, then a teenager who had recently been cast as the lead of NHK's Toumei na Yurikago, described the dual role as demanding but rewarding in a 2018 interview.¹¹ Reviewers singled out the two actresses' performances as central to the show's credibility, noting that the swapped personalities read as genuinely different people.¹²

The manga

The source manga by Kawabata Shiki ran in three collected volumes published by Shueisha under the Margaret Comics label: volume 1 in February 2015, volume 2 in July 2015, and volume 3 in December 2015, with digital editions following in 2015 and 2016.⁴ A novelized manga adaptation of the drama, Uchū wo Kakeru Yodaka: Manga Novelize, with art by Kawabata and text by Momose Shinobu, was published by Shueisha on August 20, 2018.¹³

Reception

On IMDb the series holds a 7.1/10 rating from about 2,100 users, with individual episode ratings between 6.8 and 7.3.⁶^•¹⁴ Rotten Tomatoes lists an 85% Tomatometer from fewer than 50 critic ratings and a 4.2/5 audience rating.¹ The Japan Society Review, which presented Switched as its first television review, praised the cast, dialogue, cinematography, and plot twists, and highlighted the show's handling of bullying, beauty stereotypes, and mental health.²^•¹⁵

Availability

Switched streams exclusively on Netflix, where all six episodes are available on demand. A 2025 survey of Japanese streaming and rental services found no availability on Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, U-NEXT, TSUTAYA DISCAS, or other platforms, and no DVD-BOX was ever officially sold; DVD sets offered online are unofficial.⁷

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Series and fictional screen worlds › International serial drama and telenovelas › East Asian drama series › East Asian web and streaming serials › Titles Sp to Z

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

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