The title of spring 2015’s Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches anime made me worry that this would be a harem anime. Thankfully, it is not. Instead, Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches sets about briskly extracting as much intelligence and wit out of its simple body-swapping premise as possible. Not only is Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches not at all what I thought it would be about based on the title, the show packs enough charm and humor into its set-up to make for a pleasing addition to my Crunchyroll simulcast queue. Here’s the breakdown on why:

Rather than waste their premise on panty shots, this show actually does funny stuff with it instead.

Body-swapping in anime usually means one thing, and that’s fanservice. I’m not the world’s biggest fanservice devotee, for reasons I went over in my review of Is It Wrong To Try To Pick Up Girls In A Dungeon. Fanservice can devour an anime’s plot and turn a show gross and mean in a heartbeat. In the worst cases, fanservice turns otherwise interesting characters into inauthentic caricatures of themselves, all in pursuit of the almighty panty shot. So I have a preference for anime that are funny and cute without a need for fanservice at all, like my favorite show of the season so far, My Love Story!!, or ones with epic sprawling plots, like The Heroic Legend of Arslan.

But I’ll deal with fanservice if I have to, as long as the show behind the fanservice stays strong despite any ecchi urges on the part of the production team. I’m relieved that Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches miraculously (given its body-swapping premise) keeps its fanservice, and its exploitation of its cute female leads, to a minimum.

That means that rather than a parade of upskirt shots that leave me with douche chills, I get the genuine hilarity of protagonist Yamada and female lead Shiraishi in each other’s bodies, either trying to be each other or not remotely caring if their behavior matches that of the body’s prior occupant. Every time Yamada tries to be a girl by wiggling his butt and adding the delicate “wa” to the end of his sentences only to bust out with Fists of Justice two seconds later when his patience snaps, I can’t help but laugh. Shiraishi’s voice actress does especially great work emulating Yamada’s loud and aggrieved masculine bluster,

Outside of Yamada, the characters are interesting and have notably different personalities.

Protagonist Yamada hides a good heart inside a delinquent streak bigger than his ego. Female lead Shiraishi is a quiet honor student whose good grades are a product of her shyness and isolation moreso than any kind of ambition. Student council member Miyamura is smart as a whip but cool as a cucumber, while Supernatural Club member Ito’s obsession with the supernatural leads the rest of her class to shun her as a chronic liar (not to mention weirdo).

Not only are the characters’ personalities different, there’s follow-through with that. Miyamura’s student council connections are explored, with his motivations for enabling Yamada and Shiraishi’s body swapping made an impetus for further plot movement. Ito is a weirdo who loves aliens and other New Age garbage, but Yamada uses his time in her body to help her, ultimately giving her a safe place to be her own weird self.

My favorite moment that stems from exploring the characters’ personalities happens when Shiraishi swaps bodies with Yamada to avoid a cold. After Shiraishi states that she is only a good student because she has nothing else in her life but her grades and tells Yamada leave, Yamada instead stays to give her some comfort and company. He encourages her to go to college by saying that he, in all his delinquency and outbursts, will try to go to college as well, if she will. It was really touching and gave us new insight to both of these charactrs and the slow and tender growth of their relationship.

The premise hasn’t gotten tired because the show keeps doing new things with it.

Yamada can switch bodies with anyone, with a kiss. This premise could get played out in just one episode, but Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches has had four episodes so far and the premise remains interesting.

For one, the show doesn’t always do the same thing with Yamada’s switching. When Yamada switches with Ito, he ends up kicking the collective ass of a group of rude jerks who were bent on exploiting Ito’s need for weird supernatural crap. But when Yamada switches with Shiraishi, it is just as often at her request as it is at his. She switches with him so that he can make friends for her, something the socially isolated and awkward girl doesn’t know how to do. He switches with her so she can take his tests for him, not (just) so he can grope himself. (She checks out what Yamada’s working with, too.)

The last few episodes see Yamada’s body-switching power gone completely in favor of a berserk charm ability that overpowers the subject with a driving need to make Yamada theirs, an ability that appalls Yamada and leaves Ito and Miyamuri equally repulsed after he lifts it with a kiss.

In short: Should I watch Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches?

Yes: It’s fun, it’s funny and the characters are entertaining and relatable. Yamada reminds me very fondly of Yuusuke from Yu Yu Hakusho, another loud guy with skill in a fight and a good heart. If you’re in the mood for something light, this is perfect.

Watch Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches every Sunday at 12:30 PM on Crunchyroll.