Title: Dragon and Chameleon Vol. 2
Author: Ryo Ishiyama
Publisher: Square Enix
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 208
Genre: Slice-of-Life, Sci-Fi
Publication Date: February 18, 2025
The Story
The Serialization Boot Camp has begun! In total, six were invited but only one will win. The winner is guaranteed to get serialized in Wonder magazine while the person who comes in last place will be blacklisted from the magazine forever! The stakes are high; however, Miyama (aka Garyo) is determined to come in first place; however, there is a secret ace at Wonder magazine participating known as “The Tiger Cub” Tamon Sakaki. Sakaki and “Miyami” trade first place back and forth throughout the first three days of the boot camp.
On the fourth day, each place is worth double points so anyone could come in first. Their challenge is to take the one-shot that got them recognized and convert it into a complete first chapter fit for serialization! This is the toughest challenge yet behind the other three which dealt with adapting a film into a storyboard, creating characters from prompts, and more! What’s worse is that the fourth and final round will be judged by Garyo (aka Miyami)!
The fate of Miyami (Garyo) now rests in the hands of the man he swapped bodies with!
Characters
We have several new characters in this volume!
First up is Genji Oiwa. He’s a 31-year-old manga artist who lucked into getting invited because his one-shot came in seventh place during an opportune time. He sees all of the youth attending and feels out of place; however, Miyami (Garyo) remembers him from their past and encourages him to stay while almost accidentally let his body-swapping secret slip! His story is one of someone who feels he is past his prime but still has something to prove and a desire of being serialized to fulfill!
Next is Hayato Kamiya. He’s a brash and arrogant boy who thinks that if you draw as a hobby, you’re not a real manga artist. This makes him despise Miyami (Garyo) from the outset; however, as time goes on, he learns to respect him. His resentment comes from a chip on his shoulder as he defied his father’s wishes to follow in his footsteps to make manga. Because of this, he felt as if he had no choice but to take it seriously because he refused to go back to his father and admit defeat!
Ako Yakuno is the third new character and… yep. She didn’t add much to anything outside of showing concern for our next character…
Fumimi Enokawa is number four and she’s just a sweet and innocent girl; however, as the contest goes on, she flees the house. Miyami catches up to her and discovers that getting ranked and judged bothered her and she admits that she loves manga as a hobby. She felt that by being judged, she might come to hate manga and she would much rather preserve her feelings for it. Miyami talks her out of leaving as she redoubles her efforts to love manga again.
Our last contestant is “The Tiger Cub” Tamon Sakaki. Apparently, he is regarded as the Ace of Wonder magazine and the one who will carry the torch of the magazine once Doragon Land concludes its run. He doesn’t say much and just focuses on making manga but he does show some concern for Miyami during the fourth day which shows that he’s not just a manga machine.
Then, we have our two boot camp officials… Maki Shimaki, the team leader at Wonder, and Chibiki, the Deputy Editor-in-Chief. Both of them are sadistic in their own ways. Maki holds deadlines above anything else. She wears bells for earrings and they say that hearing her approach to collect your manuscript is akin to the grim reaper coming to take your soul. She’s always on time to collect it no matter what and she expects 100% completion every time no matter what. Chibiki, on the other hand, just loves challenging people. He is the one who added the blacklist rule to the person who came in last place!
Final Thoughts
I had a couple of issues with this volume… the first was the whole blacklist rule. I get that they wanted to add drama and, yes, manga is not supposed to be reflective of the real world, but if you have six of the top gifted young manga authors on your doorstep and you tell one that if you come in last you can never draw for our magazine, then you’re just handing a golden goose over to your competition. Many manga artists fail time and time again but then the one that ends up being a hit turns out to be something like Naruto, Attack on Titan, Demon Slayer, Fairy Tail, etc. How would Shueisha feel if someone like Eiichiro Oda was blacklisted from them for failing and then a company like Kodansha landed One Piece? Or maybe Kadokawa ended up with something like Dragon Ball? That’s beyond stupid… but, this isn’t the real world… this is manga and I guess we can throw our brains out and not think about the pure business implications of a rule like that.
The second problem I had was with Fumimi. So, earlier in the manga, we had Kamiya scolding Miyami about drawing as a hobby and if they were here to do that then they shouldn’t bother making manga… it needed to be taken seriously… and later in the same volume, we have Fumimi running away because she likes to draw manga as a hobby and hates being judged and ranked. So, you mean to tell me that you accepted an invitation to a boot camp to become a serialized mangaka and become part of a world where your series lives and dies based on being judged and ranked by every single person who reads it week after week… Sorry but that made me contort my face in confusion rather than feel sorry for her. It was just a dumb plot point that should have never been used. Literally any other reason could have worked but it just made the character look naïve, stupid, or both.
Those two issues aside, I thought the overall boot camp was fine. I didn’t like how it went into detail on days one and four, but I did skip a time/one or two-page summary of days two and three. It made those middle days feel like an afterthought. I would have loved to see more attention paid to those days but with the way day four took up two entire chapters, it was excusable. Still, the ending was something I didn’t expect and it took me off guard. I have to admit that it actually surprised me as I predicted it to go in a different direction. Otherwise, this was a pretty good volume despite my gripes and I want to see where Miyami (Garyo) goes from here!
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