Title: Dragon and Chameleon Vol. 1
Author: Ryo Ishiyama
Publisher: Square Enix
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 192
Genre: Slice-of-Life, Sci-Fi
Publication Date: November 19, 2024
The Story
Garyo Hanagami has paid his dues as a mangaka for five long years. Finally, he achieved a hit series called Doragon Land. His unparalleled love for manga coupled with his seemingly endless energy has earned him the nickname The Dragon. One of Garyo’s assistants, Shinobu Miyama, is a gifted rookie who can copy the style of any mangaka. This has earned him the nickname of The Chameleon.
One day, Miyama and Garyo have a bit of an argument and as Miyama is leaving, he falls down a flight of stairs. Garyo, who tries to save him, falls as well. When they both wake up, they discover that they have switched bodies! The only problem is that Miyama, now in possession of Garyo’s body and hit manga series, is unwilling to let it go!
This forces Garyo to draw a brand-new manga and start over. After reconciling with Miyama’s editor who was pretty much told to screw off and never work with him again, Garyo looks to compete against Miyama and his hit series! While Miyama’s old editor, Tachikawa, is blown away by the one-shot, he tells Garyo that it’s still going to be three months until the next serialization panel. Realizing that he needs money, he takes on work as an assistant to a canceled series. While there, he learns about a party where Garyo (aka Miyama) will be making a speech.
There, the two meet face-to-face and Garyo tells his body-swapped self that he will win and the reason is that Miyama (as Garyo) hasn’t proven themselves with an original series yet; however, Miyama fires back and says that he knows Garyo’s fatal flaw and because of that, he won’t win either! While they found a rivalry with one another, the editing department states that they are holding a Rookie Boot Camp and it’s being spearheaded by the one editor at the magazine that is known for breaking rookies and Garyo (as Miyama) has been selected!
Characters
The first volume places its focus on Miyama and Garyo since this series is all about them swapping bodies.
First, Garyo comes off a bit egotistical; however, that’s not truly the case. Instead, he has an undying passion for manga and he is very energetic. The reason why he comes off as egotistical is that he cannot stand people who look down on manga and trash the true happiness that it can bring to readers. When Miyama does just that, things get kind of ugly.
Miyama, on the other hand, fired back at Garyo during their argument claiming that just because he worked hard and poured his blood, sweat, and tears into something, doesn’t mean he can understand the full picture. He tells Garyo that his attitude makes him blind to those who work harder than he does and have nothing to show for it, almost as if he’s blaming Garyo’s success on pure luck. Miyama was referring to himself there which shows a lack of maturity, consideration, and sympathy. He’s the type of person who feels that he’s owed some sort of success just because he believes that he’s worked hard. He doesn’t want to be known as an extra or just an assistant who draws other people’s styles, even though people give him respect for being a genius in that regard.
When they swap, Miyama’s ego takes over… or better to say, Miyama’s self-vindication kicks in. He blatantly intends to steal all of Garyo’s success, his series, and his anime adaptation, and run with it all simply because he feels it’s owed to him for all the work he has done up until now. Seeing success finally being handed to him, he’s not willing to let it go, clinging to it in a form of self-justification.
Garyo, on the other hand, is fine with it. He knows that he is the original manga genius between the two of them and since their story is really far-fetched to where no one will believe them if they explain what happened, he figures that he will show the world he is the real Garyo through manga by starting over from scratch using his undying passion for manga as his fuel and motivation.
I really love the contrast in personalities between our two main characters here; however, you can clearly see that Miyama is being set up to be humbled. He needs to learn that no matter how hard you work, success isn’t always guaranteed. There is a certain amount of luck one needs as well and Miyama has just been unlucky this whole time. Garyo, on the other hand, also has a lesson to learn and that he shouldn’t take his success for granted. Even if he feels his is earned (and after five years, it should feel earned), he should always understand the position of others who are trying to make it, and rather than argue with them as he did, he should understand and help them along.
Whether or not these two will understand that in the end remains to be seen but just judging by the opening volume, that seems to be the true end goal of this series (along with getting their bodies re-swapped.)
Final Thoughts
I jumped on this series because it reminded me a lot of Bakuman with a twist and after reading it, I can say it met and exceeded my expectations. While it’s not as in-depth as Bakuman was in explaining how the manga industry works, you still have your over-the-top characters competing against one another by making manga which was one of the key plots of Bakuman. Add in the body-swapping sci-fi twist and you have a unique spin on the old “my manga is better than your manga” rivalry… although body-swapping isn’t as uncommon as you’d think in the anime and manga world.
While it is a frequently used plot point, I think it works incredibly well in this series. One of the things I enjoyed was that it didn’t throw the body-swapping aspect in your face by harping on it every single page. It introduced it and then let the rivalry between two manga artists take front and center stage. That decision to handle it as such really made this first volume stand out and be enjoyable.
Even with the ending to the manga, because they talked about Garyo’s fatal flaw, it doesn’t make the Rookie Boot Camp an immediate success for Garyo. While he may win for the sake of furthering their rivalry, I predict that he will learn about his fatal flaw. I’m hoping he doesn’t correct it because that will lead to a slower burn for his development but we’ll see. There are a few directions it could go but one thing is for sure, I’m highly interested to see where it does go!
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