Identity theft is no joke. Millions of families suffer every year. But that didn't stop certain anime and their deceptive leads from carrying out a false identity. Such is the case for the mistaken identity trope. In certain media, it's quite a common setup for a one-time joke or punchline, but some anime have made their plots and narratives revolve around it.
So what viewers get is nearly one whole season (or more) of characters mistaking the lead or one another for someone else. It's quite a common element in romance and comedy but even those with higher stakes didn't shy away from making mistaken identity as its premise. These following mistaken identity anime prove that chaos through miscommunication is more than watchable.
8 Cheeky Angel
- Release Year: 2002
- Episodes: 50
Some young boy named Megumi Amatsuka who thinks he's the hardiest delinquent ever also thinks he isn't manly enough. So when he found a book with a genie inside, he immediately wished to be a gigachad for lack of a better word.
Hilariously enough, the genie actually grants the playful opposite of the wish, and everyone knows that the opposite of a gigachad is a beautiful high school anime girl. Even worse, Megumi now has no shortage of suitors in her high school life as she scrambles to find the genie again while keeping everyone at arm's length.
7 A Couple Of Cuckoos
- Release Year: 2022
- Episodes: 24
- Watch On Crunchyroll
A Couple of Cuckoos is one of the latest harem anime in 2022 and if the harem bit wasn't chaotic enough, it also added mistaken identity into the fray. Because two of the several main characters in the anime were swapped at birth and both of them grew up without knowing their true families until they were in high school already.
Oh, but it gets even more convoluted further on as it turns out, the main character guy also has an estranged brother who looks just like him and one of his harem candidate girls mistook him for his own brother. The anime tends to overuse and exhaust its mistaken identity premise to drive the story, but there are plenty of comedy and harem hijinks for those who like the genre.
6 Yamada-Kun And The Seven Witches
- Release Year: 2015
- Episodes: 12
- Watch On Crunchyroll
Yamada-Kun and the Seven Witches was made by the same people responsible for A Couple Of Cuckoos so there are plenty of similarities between the art style and the character traits. This one's an even wilder harem since the main character guy, named Yamada discovers that he can swap bodies with a girl with just a kiss.
So both of them utilized their identity swap ability for the benefit of a Supernatural Studies Club where they must find seven other witches who could swap bodies with Yamada using a kiss. They went ham with the mistaken identity chaos here even more so compared to their latest project.
5 Ranma 1/2
- Release Year: 1989
- Episodes: 161
- Watch On Hulu
In Ranma 1/2 most of the main characters are afflicted with a "curse" where they turn into another person or animal if splashed with cold water and then back to their true selves if splashed with hot water. The titular main character just so happens to turn into a cute redhead girl after getting splashed with cold water.
This opens up the anime to several avenues of comedy, mostly centering around gender-bending. One of the other main male characters even had a major crush on Ranma's female form, not knowing that she could revert to his male martial arts nemesis, Ranma.
4 Princess Jellyfish
- Release Year: 2010
- Episodes: 11
- Watch On Crunchyroll
Princess Jellyfish is primarily a comedy anime involving a cross-dressing boy named Kuranosuke who manages to find himself in an all-girl dormitory due to his appearance. Turns out he was one of the unprecedented humans that Tsukimi and her wallflower friends needed in order to become more sociable.
Because surprisingly, Kuranosuke is a lot more stylish and girly than Tsukimi and her outcast girl friends. One could say that this anime was ahead of its time back then due to its treatment of cross-dressers and how it goes beyond gender norms.
3 Assassination Classroom
- Release Year: 2015
- Episodes: 22
- Watch On Netflix
Assassination Classroom is a healthy blend of comedy, action, and school anime where an alien is supposedly holding Earth hostage and its only demand is to have a chance at transforming the life of a class of delinquents. The alien, aptly named Koro-sensei is certainly more than meets the eye.
Eventually, the anime unfolds into a grand reveal of Koro-sensei's true identity along with several other character-reveals that seemingly came out of nowhere. Needless to say, there's no shortage of false and mistaken identities here to surprise the viewers and maybe even draw out some tears.
2 Ouran Highschool Host Club
- Release Year: 2006
- Episodes: 26
- Watch On Crunchyroll
One of the old reverse harem classics with a gender-bender twist, Ouran Highschool Host Club begins with an indebted girl named Haruhi. She accidentally broke an expensive vase in her expensive school and must now work for the all-male host group which amuses girls as part of their main activity.
They mistook Haruhi for a boy and quickly recruited her into the group. So on top of having to entertain girls as a presumed male host, Haruhi also has to skirt around her feelings for the handsome guys all around her in this hilarious cross-dressing anime.
1 Spy X Family
- Release Year: 2022
- Episodes: 25
- Watch On Netflix
Spy X Family, also one of the biggest anime of 2022, is also a comedic dance about hidden and false identities. It involves a spy, an assassin, and a telepath posing together as a family in order to prevent an all-out war between countries. In their pretend-family, only the telepath knows everyone's identity.
Both the spy, Loid, and the assassin, Yor don't really know the truth about each other as they carry about with their masks as husband and wife or father and mother. Sure enough, the whole world around them also isn't aware of their identity and mostly sees them as a typical happy family. But having to juggle between their true duties as espionage operatives is what keeps the anime interesting, fueling both the comedy and drama.