So, here we’ve got your basic body-swap story.
When beloved veteran manga artist Garyo Hanagami and rookie manga artist Shinobu Miyama take an unfortunate tumble down the stairs, the two wake up in the other’s body. Hanagami immediately wants to figure out how to fix this problem but Miyama is thrilled—he can finally be the celebrated manga artist he’s aspired to be rather than the rookie in the wings, copying the art styles of others.
What ensues is an epic battle of art and storytelling as Hanagami decides he will build his career from the bottom up and challenge the “chameleon” who thinks he can ever be a true “dragon” in this field.
It’s an exciting premise and the art style here is very sharp, very cool. This story has a lot of aesthetic and appealing elements to it—if you enjoy manga about manga.
I don’t really.
Reading this first volume gave me the same feeling I had with “Bakuman”—it’s interesting but not enough for me to want to read a full length series about, you know? Also, stories like this just kind of lend themselves to being a bit of a “circle jerk”, if you will.
Manga about manga (and, really, any “meta” ideas) walk a very thin line between being introspective and being obnoxiously self-referential.
So far, this series hasn’t egregiously leaned one way or the other—and I’m willing to give it a few volumes to see where it goes. But, content-wise, this isn’t really a story I find particularly compelling so far~