Switched Review

This review contains spoilers

Switched is Netflix show, about two girls switching bodies. It’s only six episodes.  The episodes are around thirty minutes while first and last episodes are around 45 minutes.  It’s based on the manga series by Shiki Kawabata. I haven’t read it, so I don’t know how close it is to manga. I do like how she is a writer on the show.  The show is about high school girls who switch bodies. One being Ayumi who is pretty, friendly, and seems to have everything going right for her. Even in the opening scene, her crush is confessing his feeling for her. Ayumi is basically living her life like it’s golden. Uminee is the complete opposite, she is chubby, loner, and has a hard home also school life.  The viewer can see why she would want to switch lives.

The way to switch is very dramatic. It takes place when a red moon occurs also you basically have to almost commit suicide in front of the person you want to switch with. Uminee is on top of a building and calls Ayumi who is ready to meet up with Koshiro (her crush mention) but stops walking towards him to answer the phone call. She looks at Uminee and tries to get her to not fall. Uminee jumps off the building, Ayumi wakes up in the hospital in Uminee’s body. She’s very confused and doesn’t know what to do. Ayumi panics and the doctor tries to help her but Uminee’s mom comes by to pick her up and makes her say sorry to the doctor for causing problems. This scene made me wonder if Uminee’s mom knew why she was there or maybe she didn’t care. I mean she just jumped off a building. Ayumi goes to school to try find Uminee who is in her body. Uminee acts like she doesn’t know what happen and is confused. Ayumi’s friends act rude to her, leaving her confused and speechless. Ayumi tries to get help from Koshiro and explains what is happening. He doesn’t believe her and basically tells her he’s not interested in her. Ayumi then realizes she has no one, she’s an outcast now. The class is working on a festival so they’re working on decorations. Koshiro doesn’t want to work with Ayumi (in Uminee’s body) so he asked Kaga, his best friend and Mr. popular. He is also friends with Ayumi. The three of them have been trio since childhood so they’re close. Kaga agrees to help Ayumi (in Uminee’s body) and he realizes something about her, she reminds him of Ayumi. He finally realized it’s Ayumi because of her writing. Ayumi finally has someone that believes her so she’s happy to finally have someone. She also confronts Uminee and she finally admits she knew what she was doing and not going back to her original body because she has everything she wanted.

Kaga tries to tell Koshiro what happened but he says it doesn’t matter because he only liked Ayumi because her face. OK just a warning you’re going to hate Koshiro, he’s honestly just an asshole throughout the series, I don’t know how many times I paused the show to collect my thoughts…or maybe it’s just me. Koshiro stays with Uminee, he also confronts her by making sure she’s not the real Ayumi by putting her in a dark room. The real Ayumi is scared of the dark because she locked in this locker outside for hours. Uminee then confesses her feeling and saying if he doesn’t stay with her, she’ll kill herself. So, Koshiro agrees to stay with her if she tells him how to switch with Kaga, who he is jealous over because everybody loves him. So Uminee agrees but they have to act like couple. Throughout the series, Ayumi and Kaga try to figure out how to get Ayumi’s body back. They try researching but no hope. One day Ayumi finds a parakeet and puts up missing up signs.  She tries again with Uminee but she still refuses.  Something that lowkey bothered me is the reason for the switch which was Koshiro, I understand why Uminee likes him, he was the only one who was nice to her, but she overheard him telling Kaga that he has feelings for Ayumi so that’s basically her reason for picking her. So I was like “All this for a guy??? Really???”

Ayumi starts feeling low because she misses her family and it’s hard being Uminee because people are horrible towards her. Kaga confesses to her that he can be her everything since she has no one. He also tells her he loves her. Kaga is one of those guys who are goals because he’s funny, caring, understanding, and has your back. He then realizes this might be too overwhelming for Ayumi so he tells her she doesn’t have answer right now. Later after many failed attempts to try to get Ayumi back to her body. A mystery lady – Ms. Ukon knows how they can switch back, at first, they’re skeptical but she talks about how she switched with somebody. At the time, she was poor and switched with a rich girl who wanted freedom. As time passed, they wanted to switch back, but it failed and the women who had her body died so she’s stuck. She also warns there hasn’t been a successful switch back. This makes Ayumi feel like she’s never going to get her life back. While at school, Kaga’s friends ask why doesn’t hang out with his old friends aka Koshiro and Ayumi. He tries to play it off, which they find weird because everyone knows he likes Ayumi. He says that he likes Uminee (aka Ayumi) and they take that and run with it. Since Kaga doesn’t deny it, Ayumi becomes welcomed since he likes her. Uminee is pissed because she doesn’t understand it because she always thought of herself as ugly. Ayumi is welcomed now with her classmates and people are being nice to her. Uminee is miserable because everyone seems to like Ayumi in her body. She is still depressed and even opens up to Koshiro, something I will say… I do like that Koshiro listens to her. He’s literally her only ally. Koshiro comes up with a plan to kill Kaga so they don’t have to deal with him. Uminee agrees to it because she doesn’t like Kaga. So they set their plan into motion, Kaga and Ayumi are made aware of plan because of the parakeet. They also confront Koshiro, saying they still trust him. The next day, Koshiro goes up to Ayumi asking to meet him in the art room and she does. Uminee is there instead of him and she says “look at the window.” Koshiro and Kaga are fighting on top of some stairs and they end up falling and switching. Since they switched, Kaga is now in Koshiro’s body and vice versa. Uminee is shocked because she wanted Koshiro to stay himself. She avoids him for the time being.

The viewer finds out this was Koshiro’s plan all along. Insert montage of Koshiro of being a good guy and suffering for Ayumi. I still like Kaga more, no shade. So, they try to come up with plan to trick Uminee into switch. The plan changes because Uminee accepts Koshiro as Kaga now as he did for her. She also pours her heart out to him. Koshiro feels bad if he isn’t honest with her. Ayumi agrees because she has seen first-hand on what Uminee goes through. Uminee still doesn’t want to change back so she runs away and the group tries to find her. Finally, with the help of Uminee’s mom, they get a clue. They all go searching for her in the forest. Ayumi finds her in abandoned building and tries to reason with her. I understand where Uminee is coming from, as someone who deals with depression, it’s hard to put into words and make people understand what you’re dealing with. Koshiro and Kaga find them and try to reason with her but with no hope. Uminee’s mom comes and basically beats her and tells to say sorry. I understand maybe her mom doesn’t have the skill set to deal with her but damn she is extreme with her actions. Uminee runs to the roof and threaten suicide, the group tries to comfort her and help her. Uminee’s mom comes back and hugs her. She apologizes for being a horrible and that she didn’t notice how bad she was hurting. Uminee agrees to the switch back. How the switch will work is that the girls will switch with the guys. Then switch back one more time so they’re all back to their original bodies. It works. Uminee isn’t bullied anymore and has friends in school, she is also friends with the group.  I will say I don’t like who Ayumi picks in the end but that’s me. The end is very lighthearted and funny because the guys talking about when they were in the girls’s bodies because they did have to wait for the next red moon to happen so they could go back to their own bodies lol

Overall, I would highly recommend this series, it’s super good and will have your emotions all over the place. I would warn it does deal with bullying and depression so keep that in mind. It’s very deep in those topics. It’s a great drama with amazing actors especially the actresses. Be sure to check it out, you won’t be disappointed.  There is no word on a second season, but I like how it ended so I wouldn’t be upset if there isn’t.