Dragon and Chameleon Volume 1 Review
Mangaka Ryo Ishiyama may not be a household name currently, but he certainly has the makings of one. Having worked as an assistant to One Piece creator Eiichiro Oda and had his current series recommended by My Hero Academia mangaka Kōhei Horikoshi, it’s clear that Ishiyama is someone worth keeping a close eye on. Today I’m here to review the first volume of his award-winning series: Dragon and Chameleon. Will it impress? Let’s find out!
The story follows the best-selling manga artist Garyo Hanagami, whose current series Doragon Land has been serialised in Shonen Wonder for seven years. Having risen to the top of the magazine with an adoring fanbase and a collection of hit multi-media projects, Garyo is the creator everyone else dreams of surpassing.
This includes Shinobu Miyama, a rookie who is currently working as an assistant to Garyo. He’s well known for his ability to copy the art style of anyone he works under, but when it comes to original works of his own he’s always struggled to get any traction. This is not helped by his bitter personality, which has seen him passed around by editors and ultimately left by the wayside. It’s while working for Garyo that Shinobu gets into an accident and falls down a flight of stairs, together with Garyo who was hoping to break his fall.
While neither of them is injured from the fall, they have somehow swapped bodies in a supernatural twist! With no apparent way to switch back, the two are stuck living the life of the other. Shinobu declares he will take Doragon Land for himself and live at the top of the manga industry having had all he ever wanted fall into his lap with the switch, while Garyo must start over from the bottom.
Shinobu is so bitter toward the manga industry that Garyo can’t accept handing over Doragon Land to someone like him. It’s one thing if he was going to devote himself to bringing smiles to the faces of his readers, but that’s not the case. Instead, Garyo intends to crush Shinobu with a new series and expose him as the imposter he is. What will happen in this fight between rookie and legend, passionate creator and jaded mangaka?
Right from the start Dragon and Chameleon is full of charm. It’s easy to get invested in the rivalry between the two leads and appreciate the different ways they approach their craft. Mangaka Ryo Ishiyama spends a lot of time explaining how the process of creating manga works, either through the story itself or in bonus pages scattered throughout this first volume. It’s reminiscent in many ways of Bakuman, just with a little more flare for the eccentric.
It’s not the most grounded in reality due to the body-swapping aspect (which Garyo even tells his new editor about and then is sworn to secrecy), but you can tell that Ishiyama really loves manga and wants the audience to appreciate the hard work that goes into creating it. As someone who loves stories rooted in the industry like this, many scenes spoke to me as I watched over these two characters. It was reminiscent of watching over the cast of Bakuman, which certainly brings back happy memories for me as I loved following that back when it was being serialised.
You could say that Garyo and Shinobu perfectly represent both sides of what it means to be a creator just turned up the extreme in either direction. Garyo loves manga so much that he forgets to eat or drink and frequently pulls all-nighters. With Shinobu, we don’t know much about his past, but it’s clear there’s something that has led to him becoming so jaded despite his immense talent.
Despite having to juggle the supernatural setting and the two leads, Ishiyama has created something extremely compelling whether you’re interested in the act of creating manga or just in it to see the fight between the two. Ishiyama does have some works under their belt before this, but this is their English debut and longest-running so far. The artwork is polished and full of details that pull you into the scene.
Both Garyo and Shinobu have very distinct designs, although I did mistake Shinobu’s body as being female for a while due to the long hair and more feminine appearance. Given how few female creators work in the Shonen genre, I think it’s a bit of a missed opportunity there. I can certainly see why Kōhei Horikoshi recommended the series based on the artwork here, it is incredible for a relative newcomer to the field. I can’t wait to see both where the story goes from here and how Ishiyama grows throughout the series.
Dragon and Chameleon Volume 1 comes to the West thanks to Square Enix Manga and has been translated by Kevin Yuan with lettering by Phil Christie. The release reads well, with plenty of translation notes at the back of the book covering some of the more specific manga terms, as well as explaining that the Dragon in the title comes from the kanji in Garyo’s name (this is unfortunately just not as obvious in English the way Shinobu being the Chameleon is due to the references in the story).
The series is ongoing in Japan with 5 volumes currently available. Here in English, Square Enix Manga has Volume 2 scheduled for a release in February with #3 following in May. If you can’t wait that long, this is also being released on the Square Enix application MANGA UP! where they’re up to Chapter 25 (for reference this release includes the first 6 chapters).
Overall, Dragon and Chameleon Volume 1 offers us something rarely seen in the Western market with a story about rival mangaka in very different stages of their career. With a supernatural twist, this will prove a must-have for those interested in the story from the manga industry perspective or just looking for a new drama. There are a lot of reasons to like this and I’m excited to see where it goes from here.
A free preview of Volume 1 can be found on the Square Enix website here.
Our review copy from Square Enix Manga was supplied by Turnaround Comics (Turnaround Publisher Services).
