Sometimes, Daisuke Yamanouchi directs TV. He didn't write this series and it contains no nudity or violence... but its story is still sexually charged enough that I'd sometimes stop watching if the children came in. Also, it's pretty good. Episode 7 gets heavy-handed when the supporting cast are giving Very Significant Speeches and the coincidence levels tip over into "oh, come off it". Nonetheless, the show's saying interesting things, can be uncomfortable and has genuine surprises.

It's about a fictional condition called Gender Transformation. For unclear reasons, people will change gender... and it's not voluntary. A man will wake up as a woman, or vice-versa, to the surprise of all concerned, including loved ones, classmates and work colleagues. They hadn't planned for it. They hadn't wanted it. But it's probably not an option to hide away for the rest of your life, even if that's the initial reaction.

The central characters are Akira (Jin Shirasu) and his wife Sonoko (Yua Shinkawa). They're nice people, they don't fight and there's nothing obviously broken in their marriage... but there's room to improve with communication and warmth. They've been married for five years. Akira would like children, but Sonoko has her own career too (as a novelist) and they're childless. Even Sonoko's agent thinks becoming a mother might provide a creative boost, but the suggestion doesn't go down well.

Their lives, assumptions and beliefs are about to be shaken up.

One of my favourite things here was the gender-flip performance of Natsuna. Once or twice, for me she reached "rewind and watch that reaction shot again" level. I even googled the two Akira actors (male and female) to see if they were real-life siblings or something. I don't think they are, but no matter. The acting really works.

There's a lot you can explore these days about gender transition and, of course, the show goes there. Ultimately, though, it's about acceptance and love... and sex. The latter's a big deal, and not only in the obvious ways. Sex might trigger gender flips. This drops a bomb on both the plot direction and the characters' motivations. What if your wife wants to do it, but you're afraid? That's a dilemma with an obvious solution (TELL HER, YOU IDIOT), but there's a two-episode stretch where someone's done something bad and isn't brave enough to be sensible and come clean about it. I found that a little hard to watch. Unsurprisingly, the secret-keeping ends badly.

The show's also studying marriage and relationships. Female-Akira learns all kinds of things that he'd never realised and sees the other side of what he'd thought were ordinary, normal conversations. Questions he'd never asked himself. Things your partner has been quietly, discreetly suppressing. It might seem minor, though, e.g. silently deferring to your preferences (real or perceived).

It made me laugh, but it can be harsh. One character tried working in the sex industry, but couldn't hack it.

Above all, personally, I think it's about communication. The attention-grabbing things that the characters worried about with gender-swapping can turn out less significant than they'd thought. No, what changes lives is the ability to talk. Female-Akira and male-Akira find themselves having completely different conversations, with pretty much everyone. They learn things they'd never known, because they'd never asked. They nearly wreck everything by hiding crucial things, then ultimately the key to everything is again being able to communicate. And being yourself. That symbolic, dramatic haircut towards the end might look rubbish (and it really does), but it's still hers.

Also, that pregnancy at the end. There are so many questions one could ask about that... but they're happy. Let's not ask.