Layers and layer manager

When there are multiple charactes on a scene, you may want to order them to overlap each other correctly.

LayerManager component (custom) is attached to all characters. It contains Sprites property that can be used to iterate over all sprites. It also contains a link to Sorting Group component (built-in). Sorting Group component is attached to Body game object. You can use it to order characters, just change Order in Layer.

If you want to order characters based on the Y-coordinate, use Sorting Group as well. Create a custom script that will update Order in Layer based on the Y-coordinate in Update.