Dragon and Chameleon Manga Review (Spoiler‑Free)

Dragon and Chameleon by Ryo Ishigami is about exactly what it says on the tin: a legendary “dragon” of a veteran manga creator, and the “chameleon” rookie assistant who can perfectly imitate anyone’s style. When a freak accident causes the two of them to swap bodies, these two artists with very different mindsets duke it out in the pages of the weekly manga magazine.

And it rules!

The dragon and the chameleon

As the title says, this manga is focused on its two lead characters, supported by a varied cast of assistants, editors, and random strangers who pop in and out occasionally. Fortunately, both leads are extremely fun to follow. Garyo Hanagami is a prototypical plucky battle shonen protagonist in every respect except for the fact that he’s a middle-aged professional mangaka. He’s cheerful, kind, and determined, and loves making manga more than anything else in the world. When he finds himself in the Chameleon Shinobu Miyama’s body, his new youthful face almost seems to suit him better, because he’s so excited to just be alive. It’s easy to root for someone who’s been around the block but still chooses to be so positive.

Garyo’s perfect heroism is necessary in the face of Miyama’s intensely villainous aura. One of the reasons for Miyama’s lack of success in his own career is that despite his clear artistic talent, his personality is so terrible that no one wants to work with him. When Miyama ends up in Garyo’s body, he’s thrilled to have jumped the ranks to veteran without having to work for it, even if he’s struggling to capture Garyo’s creative spark. Ishiyama pulls out all the stops depicting Miyama as a primordial force of evil: replacing his head with a chameleon, covering him in creepy swirls. He almost looks like he’s planning to take over the world for real, not just by winning the weekly shonen manga magazine popularity polls.

Trapped in each other’s bodies and pursuing the same goals, the two of them literally cannot escape each other. Garyo bets everything on his storytelling abilities, vowing to surpass his own longrunning work with a brand-new one-shot, but it’s harder to shake his own creative habits than he thought. Meanwhile, while Miyama can copy Garyo’s art style perfectly, his snappy dialogue and exciting plot twists are another thing entirely. As much as the reader might want to see Garyo succeed and Miyama fail, it’s hard to predict who will come out on top with every battle.

The aesthetics of manga about manga

It’s vitally important that a visual work about making art looks good in itself, otherwise the suspension of disbelief will be shattered on the first panel. Fortunately, Dragon and Chameleon is absolutely beautiful. Though his manga is partly about the importance of mangaka assistants, Ishiyama draws every chapter entirely by himself, and they all look fantastic. The character designs are striking and memorable, and the way Ishiyama depicts the dragon and chameleon natures of his two leads is incredibly dynamic. Every panel feels like it was drawn in response to “what’s the coolest possible way to show this?” It’s great!

Except for one thing.

Unfortunately, Women

The women in Dragon and Chameleon are depicted in unnecessarily sexualized ways for no reason, the first being the as-of-yet nameless girl Garyo rescues from harassers on his way to an editorial meeting. Here is how she reacts to reading his amazing new comic.

I just don’t think that’s necessary! It’s not funny or titillating. It’s tonally out of place, as this is the only time anything like this happens in this entire volume. All this character has done in the book so far is be sexy and get rescued by the protagonist. The other female characters encountered in this volume are all manga assistants; none are fully serialized mangaka themselves.

So far, we’ve seen more of the female characters’ boobs than we’ve seen of their brains. It’s a pretty glaring downside to an otherwise really fun comic. Not quite as egregious as BAKUMAN., but still not an ideal reading experience.

The Verdict

There’s a lot to like about the first volume of Dragon and Chameleon. The art is incredible, the pacing makes the relatively low-stakes world of making manga feel like the most exciting thing in the world, and the two leads have an intense and interesting dynamic. If the unnecessary fanservice with the female characters doesn’t bother you, give it a read!

If you liked Dragon and Chameleon, you may also like…

• Bakuman
• Freaky Friday
• Monochrome Days

Credits:

Story & Art: Ryo Ishiyama
Translation: Kevin Yuan
Lettering: Phil Christie
Cover Designer: Phil Balsman
Editing: Edward Hong
Published in English by Square Enix

Thank you to Square Enix Books for providing a review copy. Receiving this copy did not affect the reviewer’s opinions as expressed here.

Article edited by: Adam Wescott

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