Ryuu to Chameleon is a hot-blooded battle shounen about making manga. Our MC is a top mangaka who gets bodyswapped with another mangaka who is the best at copying other people's style, and he continues the MC's manga while the MC makes a new one in the copycat's body. So a pro mangaka starts from the bottom, creating a new series to overcome his last one, rediscovering himself as an author, beating the copycat, and eventually reaching the top (hopefully). The premise is fun, but as I continued reading I noticed one glaring problem. The problem lies in how the manga battles are conveyed. It's entirelyan 'aura battle' and it doesn't work for me. They don't actually show the manga itself, just people saying "Oh wow that was really good" and a cool image of a dragon or something. The manga exists off-screen and we don't get to see what it's about, just someone explaining it vaguely. As a result, the whole ideology battle between the characters feels a bit hollow to me. How can I tell if the copycat's manga has no soul if I don't see it for myself? Don't just jump ahead to the conclusion, at least show us a small part of the story, explain why it doesn't work, relate it to the main themes, etc. I'm not asking for a fully detailed explanation, just a short one that shows us why the story is better. Without this, the manga becomes purely about which character has the best beliefs. It's like Dragonball without the beams and punches, just people screaming until their hair changes and someone dying out of nowhere.

So if the battles aren't appealing, then there should be another aspect that carries the story--but there isn't one. The characters feel more like shounen caricatures/symbols rather than people and the story doesn't really focus on the actual craft of manga. Compare it to Bakuman: the story works because a BIG part of the focus is on the character's lives, chasing their dreams, friendships and whatnot. Ryuu to Chameleon is more of a contemplation on manga itself. Like "What makes a manga good/popular?" or "Do people really care about passion in a manga?" which could be done well, but not as a pure battle shounen with off-screen battles imo.

Though, there is a certain charm to the manga's unapologetic, straightforward shounen spirit. And I also think the manga philosophizing is fun, but good themes can't carry a whole story. I still enjoyed it tho. 6/10