The highly anticipated award-winning manga Dragon and Chameleon makes its English language debut this month. Garyo Hanagami is a best-selling manga artist praised as a genius of the craft. Shinobu Miyama is a bitter rookie with a knack for copying other people’s art styles. When an accident causes the two to switch bodies, Miyama is more than happy to take Hanagami’s place, forcing the veteran to rebuild his career from the ground up. Now, the dragon must reclaim his throne from the chameleon who replaced him!
Dragon and Chameleon has already been making waves in Japan – winning the U-NEXT award for print manga in the 2023 Next Manga Awards and placing 27th for male readers in the 2024 “This Manga is Amazing!” rankings. Not to mention getting an endorsement from My Hero Academia creator Kohei Horikoshi. It is easy to see why it has garnered this popularity from the opening volume.
Ryo Ishiyama is a well experienced artist who cut his teeth as an assistant to Eiichiro Oda on the global phenomena that is One Piece as well as working on two other series for Shonen Jump. Dragon and Chameleon very much feels like the accumulation of many years of training and gathering skills. Given the premise of the manga, that feels very appropriate.
The concept of body swapping has been explored several times in manga and anime – largely from a comedic perspective – with Your Name being the most prominent recent example. Whilst there is humour to be found, Ishimiya uses the scenario as a unique way to explore the demands and pressures those working in the manga industry face. In other circumstances, Miyama would be a sympathetic character, given that many manga creators get their start as assistants and are often encouraged to ape their mentor’s style. Indeed, Ishimiya gives a very accurate portrayal of the hard work involved in producing manga and how brutal the editors are when it come to determining what can be a hit.
But Miyama’s immediate choice to take advantage of the situation to obtain Hanagami’s success gives the story a darker edge. Additionally, it creates a situation where it almost becomes a shonen battle manga as the two creators do battle with Hanagami fighting to build a new legacy for himself. It goes in a different direction than other series focused on manga creation such as Bakuman and Blue Period with its larger-than-life characters giving the story a rather epic scale.
The larger-than-life approach to the story is equally reflected in the artwork with Ishimiya’s two main characters standing out from their more down-to-earth colleagues. He also does a tremendous job of establishing the characters’ various quirks (such as Hanagami’s sitting and drawing poses) which he uses to great effect once the body swap occurs. Even small things like Miyama’s twisted smile and Hanagami’s hairstyle go a long way in establishing the theme.
Ishiyama has made a truly memorable series that has a ton of spirit and is also an authentic look at the life of a manga artist. This is one manga that fans need to keep an eye on.
Dragon and Chameleon 01 is out 19 November from Square Enix Manga (9781646093113, p/b, £12.99)
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