#120 Chameleon Jail: A Slam Dunk? Or a Slam Flop?! ft Manga Analyst Josu_ke

[00:00:12] Welcome to this episode of Shonen Flop where we talk about manga and Shonen Jump that didn't make it big. I'm David. I'm Jordan. Next week we'll be covering Hakutaku. If you'd like to read along with us, be sure to join the discussion in our discord and submit your six word summary. You can find a link to the discord in our episode description and on our website ShonenFlop.com. But this week we're talking about one of the easiest, a series that definitely is not going to win hardest titles. We are covering Chameleon Jail, which is two English words, so I love it. And we are joined by Josuke, which is not an English word, but from an anime I've seen a lot of, so I likewise am not going to struggle with it. David, I'm going to be talking about the first time I'm going to be talking about the first time I'm going to be talking about the first time I'm going to be talking about the first time I'm going to be talking about

[00:00:42] but I'm pretty sure he said Josuke. Yeah, no problem. Thank you. Did I say, fuck, did I fuck it up again? You've been calling him Josuke this whole time. I thought that he said that was fine in the warmup audio. Yeah, but you asked him, hey, what's, what name you want to go by? And he said Josuke. Okay, yo, Josuke, MTV raps. Tell the audience about, okay, God, this is, I'm dying. I really thought I was pulling like a Rory Dragon where I was like out of the game and no one would notice. So anyway, Josuke, please can you introduce the audience to you about it? Yes.

[00:01:11] Yes. I'm Josuke, known most on Twitter now X about talking about manga numbers and sales, making infographics about manga data, more things like anime or assistance manga trajectories. I'm not here to talk about Jump and my favorite author, Takehiko Inuyo. Hell yeah. I really like that post where you're talking about it's actually not common for digital initial series to primarily get their viewership through digital in reference of Chojin X.

[00:01:38] Yeah. I'd be curious. So in your analysis, do you like to ever do more like nuanced mathematical approaches like regression or chi-square analysis? Oh my God. Or do you feel like that kind of stuff isn't really necessary for the style of analytical work you're doing? Data science! I do some data science for my job, so I'm all familiar, but just be curious if you've ever tossed some regression in there from time to time, just for fun.

[00:02:01] I did data analysis course a little while ago. I think that for the general public, that data or that kind of things is a little too much. But on my time and on my sheets, maybe I try to do it. I've never done it because I'm not very familiar with that. I need to learn more and how to apply that to manga sales and so on.

[00:02:22] I did a project where I actually analyzed the listenership of Shonen Flop doing regression analysis to see what factors matter. So if you like, I can toss that to you where it's an example of how you can do some regression analysis and see what values correlate to each other. Oh yeah, that'd be fun. I once data science some data. Jordan's like, I know what I mean. Did some data science and found an average.

[00:02:43] Anyway, I think it's now time for us, if you know what I mean, to talk about this manga. So let's get into the mode of podcast discussion. How about that? Median. Mixolydian. Get it? Because it's a mode. Anyway, get into the manga details. So the writer of this is Kazuhiko Watanabe, and apparently no one knows who the fuck this guy is. Yeah, nobody. Nobody. Yeah, teams up with the writer of one of the most successful magas of all time, doesn't elaborate leaves. Yeah. Artist. You said writer.

[00:03:13] Well, he did write slam dunk, didn't he? Oh yeah, you're right. I apologize. You know what, David? I'm sorry. Anyway. I was unfamiliar with your game. Yeah, apparently he showed up, wrote this, and then disappeared, which is weirdly fitting for this manga. Maybe he did this and then used a bunch of explosions to turn himself into Aichiro Oda and has been writing One Piece ever since. We won't know. We'll never know. No. But yeah, he was an assistant to nobody, and he has done nothing else.

[00:03:42] Max B notes that there are two people with the same name. One is a music critic and the other is a voice actor, and there's a photo of him, but he's just kind of a generic guy. So nobody knows for sure who the fuck this guy is. But we are very familiar with the artist of this series. Extremely. This was drawn by Takehiko Inoue, who was an assistant for Tsukasa Hojo on City Hunter for about 10 months, which is what he's known for.

[00:04:12] I'm just kidding. He also wrote fucking slam dunk, which is so fucking popular and famous that it made basketball popular in Japan. Yeah. It is one of two sports manga I've read in my life. Yeah. I mean, obviously, the other one being the actual greatest sports manga of all time, Eyeshield 21. It's the reason they don't make American football manga anymore is they kind of it's a solved it's a solved topic now. Yeah. What? You're going to make a better one than Eyeshield 21? Shut the fuck up.

[00:04:40] Yosuke, have you read Eyeshield 21? Yeah. I hate. Yeah. Oh, OK. Wait, sorry. We can't talk about Eyeshield. I would love to. We should do a Patreon episode on Eyeshield 21. Anyway. We should. I would love an excuse to read it again. But yeah, other works the Sky had were Buzzer Beater 96 to 98 four volumes ran in an ESPN magazine as well as Shonen Jump and also Vagabond, which I haven't read, but I've seen the art for and it looks gorgeous. It's in his final form.

[00:05:09] It's absolutely dimensional the way he draws Vagabond. It looks amazing. It's a shame. He's just kind of like, I don't feel like working on it anymore. Yeah, he's been on hiatus since 2015. He started writing it in 98 and it's got 37 volumes. I mean, on one hand, it's sad he's on hiatus. On the other hand, based on how incredible the art is, I'm not surprised really. It seems like it takes a shitload of work. Yeah. But he also writes real, all capitals. Started in 1999.

[00:05:37] So he was making Vagabond and real at the same time, which is crazy. And that's 16 volumes. I don't know. Is that really unfrequent or is it just on hiatus as well? I think it's just come. It's like one chapter a year kind of thing, right? Real also had a lot of hiatus for a long time. Same as Vagabond. But Inoue is more comfortable drawing in real and more familiar with the basketball theme.

[00:06:01] And so he has more time or he wants more to draw that Vagabond where it's like samurai things. And so, and it's historical. And so, but maybe he doesn't feel like it's the moment to continue that. So Real is a basketball manga? Yeah, but totally different from Slam Dunk. It's about the story of a player who lost one leg. So he needs to learn again how to play basketball, but in a wheelchair. Yeah, it's about wheelchair basketball. Whoa.

[00:06:31] And then Jordan, can you tell us about, I was about to make the worst transition ever. Can you tell us about the run dates? Of Chameleon Jail. I feel like I'm gonna take so many opportunities to just say the title of this fucking manga, Chameleon Jail. Chameleon Jail, Lizard Prison. It ran from July 31st, 1989 to October 16th, 1989. It replaced Cyber Blue by B.O.B.

[00:06:55] Of course, Bombs Over Baghdad, the Flat Earth Guy, by Takaichi Matsui and Tetsuo Hara. That name sounds very famous. Yeah, very, very famous too. He's the one behind first Fist of the North Star. Right. Oh my God. How did I forget? I thought it was, I thought it was fucking Fist of the North Star. And then after that and another series, he with other creators founded another manga publishing company named Koamix. Right.

[00:07:25] Yeah, we talked about that. We did Teguke Ryusei. Teguke Ryusei, yeah. Which I think was like at least his first manga on that label and started very good and then got bad. XB says to keep in mind Cyber Blue for later. Oh yeah. I mean, only four volumes. So that's a fucking flop. But yeah, the series that replaced Kameleon Jail was fucking Dragon Quest. Yeah. A super hit. Another super hit. Yeah. The Adventure of Dai by Koji Inada and Riku Sanjo.

[00:07:54] 37 volumes. You know, it's funny that the art of Dragon Quest famously Akira Toriyama. And he obviously did not do the manga because he was a little busy in like 1989. Yeah. He was busy working on Dragon Balls. Fucking Dragon Ball. The series that started at the same time as Chameleon Jail was Tendei Showaru Cupid by Yoshihiro Togashi. Oh, I've heard of that guy. That's the level E guy, right? Yeah.

[00:08:24] Yeah. It got four volumes and flopped. But I mean, like, it's a shame though, because like he never did anything after that. Yeah. I mean, obviously Hunter Hunter guy. That's for the unknowing. Yeah. But Chameleon Jail went for 12 chapters and two volumes. And it was republished as one volume in 2004, probably because its artist is unbelievably fucking famous. Yeah. Totally. The same reason why Ba-Oh, of all things, got a fucking OVA.

[00:08:54] Yeah. And so let's find out what happened in Newt Prison as we get into the manga details. So there are these guys named Riss Hunters who are essentially super private investigator. So the best risk hunter is a guy whose name is literally Chameleon Jail. Like, why would they name him actually Chameleon Jail? As I said, I think on the chibi, this is some American name. Yeah. And it's like a very 80s vibe.

[00:09:22] So the name of the show is based on the name of the protagonist. I think that's a very 80s vibe. Yeah. You know what this is? This is a fucking Mega Man X name. This is a fucking maverick that you would take out in like Mega Man X3 or something when they were running out of ideas a little bit. An escaped border is playing basketball in New York, bad jokes on him because one of his teammates dispels his magic blackface to reveal that he's Chameleon Jail. You see, his name is Chameleon.

[00:09:50] We can, he can change his appearance some way and jail because he sends people to jail. Yeah. And this guy is going to jail. So Chameleon is approached by Sal who works for the detective agency that deploys him and tells him he was hired by a Chinese doctor named Wan to stop his friend from becoming a murderer. His friend Long wanted to become an actor, but the mafia killed his girlfriend Ling Long. And Ling Ling, oh no. So instead, he decides to follow his backup plan of becoming a billionaire New York businessman, changing his name to Goldman.

[00:10:19] Goldman corners up from Italia. I still can't take that seriously. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, wow. I need to become a New York businessman. Let me change my name to a New York businessman name. Oh, Goldman? Goldstein is too on the nose. So I'll go Goldman. Jesus Christ. So this Goldman guy corners an Italian mafia boss named Mr. Pinocchio, obviously, who was responsible for Ling Ling's death.

[00:10:47] Goldman tells him that he already killed the other mafia guy and he's going to kill him too. Wow. But what's this? Ling Ling appears to be the piano to play the piano. Why? Because it's not Ling Ling. It's Chameleon Jail. Oh, got him. Using his spirit energy to make tiny explosions happen all over his body to morph into Ling Ling. Goldman decides not to kill Mr. Pinocchio and no one is upset that he killed other mafia guys. Yeah. That pretty messed up all the manga history in one paragraph. Popcom Jordan.

[00:11:15] Jail then stops a guy from being randomly violent by turning into his brother, who is a boxer, which pushes him to instead become a champion boxer. Next, he helps a young synchronized swimmer defeat an older cheating swimmer in a competition that only makes sense if you have no idea what synchronized swimming is. Uh-oh. An evil big boss guy wants revenge on Chameleon and his kidnapped Shawl. Chameleon shows up and stops him by using his powers to turn him into a woman.

[00:11:44] Like, straight up gives him gender reassignment surgery in an instant. And I can't tell if the guy's happy or upset about it. And I don't know why Chameleon did it. Yeah, he's just kind of like, you're trans. You're now a woman. There's like another woman there who's like, oh, I used to be a male knife fighter. And then he turned me into a woman too. And now we're both women. Yeah, next there's this whole thing where a detective named Cody, who has a medical allergy

[00:12:13] to girls, like he's allergic to cooties, I guess, is in love with a pickpocket named Kat. They have matching Sonichu pendants and used to live together with a landlord who seemed to know way too much about them because she told Shawl and Chameleon their entire backstory and everything about their personal lives. She had a very offensive, like African-American stereotypical dialect, which is not the author's fault.

[00:12:42] I don't know why the translator decided to make that decision, but I kind of wish they did not because she's the only one who talks like that. And it stands out really badly. Yeah, I just love that. It reminds me of that scene from Dragon Ball Z, a bridge where it's like, how how did you know what happened for the parts you weren't there for? Yeah, exactly. Oh, God. Popcorn David. All right. She's forced by a criminal group named Jackal to steal an ancient Egyptian artifact because we're now at Yu-Gi-Oh! His fucking pickpocket!

[00:13:11] Detective Cody has to shoot her with a sniper rifle to save the museum's valuable assets because I guess economic value is less than her life. And the head of Jackal tries to save her life, but by God, it's Chameleon jail in disguise with a bulletproof vest. What? Cat and Cody reunite at Cat's fake funeral. Finally, a guide team jet hijacks a plane with bombs strapped to him because his cop father never loved his mother and she died. His dad, who's in the hospital dying of heart stuff, gives Chameleon his special cool gun.

[00:13:39] Chameleon infiltrates the plane, turns into Jed's dad and shows him his cool gun all while possible while having a heart attack or something. It was weird. Jed also has a cool gun. And when you make the guns kiss, it says his mom loved them both, which means he couldn't have been an abusive husband. Jed salutes his dad as he dies before going to jail. And not to be confused with Chameleon jail. That would be weird if they started living together. Yeah. And that's the last thing that really happens. I mean, we see a little bonus scene where Chameleon jail captures a generic criminal. But yeah. Uh, wow. What a manga. What a time. What a plot.

[00:14:09] Yosuke, can you tell us about Chameleon jail, the character? Because that won't get really confusing. Yeah. So yeah, I kind of didn't get too much into Chameleon jail because I think it needed a little more of a character developing on the protagonist side. I mean, it's cool to see the steel thing with the two lovable characters.

[00:14:31] I think they both authors try to make an 80s by episodic comedy gag thing, but they went too hard on the comedy. He has the ability to change his body by using tiny explosions. His spiral power. But it specifically says he makes little explosions happen throughout his body that change it. That's an interesting explanation.

[00:15:01] Yeah. He uses his real face a lot. Yeah. I was expecting something more like espionage based, but like so much of the time he's not really using his powers. And it's kind of like, why? Like he's sneaking in places completely out of disguise. Yeah. It's completely ridiculous. And he uses his real name constantly too. Maybe it's not his real name. I was waiting for that revelation where he just, yeah, where his like face is not real.

[00:15:31] Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But then they never do that. Also, I have a question. Is he able to change his clothes as well? It seems like sometimes he is and then sometimes he's not. You know what? Who knows? He either also had a women's one piece bathing suit on him or he took the bathing suit off of the synchronized swimmer and put it on. So like stuff like that, it's confusing. And then he's able to do it to other people.

[00:16:00] Jordan, I don't think I have it in me to figure out how that power system works. Well, we'll talk about it more, I guess. We get into why it failed or succeeded. Yeah. And speaking of failures, can you tell us about Miss Shaw? Miss Shaw is a woman. I'm not seen. That's it. Speaking of women, let me get into Kat because I really needed to reach to have three characters for this section. All the chapter titles refer to her as Madonna. And for a while, I thought her name was Madonna. But yeah, she's a master thief who loves her police boyfriend. Who's a fucking idiot.

[00:16:30] She's supposed to be like a femme fatale, but as George, she's a fucking idiot. So she can't really orchestrate anything. They're both stupid. They're both so stupid. He's a detective and like for the longest time cannot tell that his fucking girlfriend is a fucking pickpocket. And then it turns out that when they say pickpocket, they mean master museum thief. There's so much overlap between stealing wallets and breaking into a museum. Yeah. And she's really bad at it because the cops are immediately aware.

[00:16:59] Like it's very, very strange. Yeah. All right. But I think we're ready to criticize this series. So let's get into why it failed and talk about the negatives of Iguana Stockade. So, Yosuke, I know you are already starting. So why don't you kick things off? What was something that stood out to you as a real issue you had with the series? You mean with Komodo Dungeon? Yes. It needed a little more introduction about Chameleon Jail in the maybe after the first case,

[00:17:29] not just jumping into another total random excuse to drop jokes and just be totally absurd. So, yeah, maybe a little more into the relationship between Chameleon Jail and the police, why they use him, where does he come from? So, yeah, the pacing is like all over the place. You know in the first chapters that the author, the writer is very, very young and is starting

[00:17:56] because he needs a lot of more time to develop a more steady pacing to introduce all the story. That's the thing is like he doesn't actually give any backstory or connectivity between anything going on in this series. Like, Michelle is the second most occurring character in the series and we know nothing about her. It's fine if you want to make an episodic comedy police theme series, but you need to decide

[00:18:21] if you want to do very episodic with just absurd things, but without going into the character development, you are totally dragging the public out of Chameleon Jail because you just see a guy who pops up and solve a case and that's it. You don't develop that kind of connection that the public wants to know more about the character. But the problem is also is like the episodic nature of these cases aren't that interesting. Like the pool case didn't seem to make much sense.

[00:18:49] And then it goes from like three one chapters cases to one that's what, like six chapters? Yeah. At least 50% of this series is on the Madonna case. So uninteresting. No, no, I think that it was the moment to introduce more about Chameleon Jail, but somehow they didn't do it because normally when you do this kind of series, you set up the first case, which is shorter to just pop out the main character and so. And in the second case, you develop that character. Yeah.

[00:19:18] Tell us about more about him. But here, no, just straight up to the couple. And we don't know more about Chameleon. Because they have police officers show up. They could have had Cody in one of the earlier cases. I also want to say that like, so in some ways the premise of this manga is cool, like his powers and stuff. And then they use it very poorly. Like the majority of the time he uses his powers, it's for the same reason, which is just to make the bad guy feel shame until he's written.

[00:19:47] Every chapter ends exactly the same way. He's like, oh, this is a guy who loves you. Don't you want to stop doing a bad thing because you're reminded of a guy you like? Like, come on. Like, yeah, it's very similar. Like, again, as we as I mentioned earlier, there are a lot of times he is sneaking around. He is doing espionage and he's not using his power. They also skip it. Like when Kat gets kidnapped, they're like, oh, we found where she is. I'm like, why? Why didn't you show that?

[00:20:16] Yeah. Is that the point of the series is to have shown how he got that information? There is like no sense of place in this manga where no sense of space. There are so many times where I was just like, where are they right now in relation to each other, even especially with the boxing and in chapter two. It's like I really couldn't tell what was going on in like the fights. Also, there are a lot of times where like a guy commits a horrible crime and is just forgiven.

[00:20:43] Like that boxer steals a cop's gun and fires at New York police. He is not making out of this situation either alive or able to become a professional boxer. Well, Jordan, he is white. That's true. You got to remember that. Yeah. This is said in New York City, so he's white. Yes. But but also in the final chapter, Jed, who just decides to like slaughter half of the Oh, yeah. He killed a lot of people. He killed a shitload of people.

[00:21:12] And then they kind of just brought him to the hospital to say bye to his dad. And then he just, you know, he went to prison and it was like, oh, poor Jed. You know, I really feel for him. Like he's a mass murderer. What are you fucking talking about? Yeah, it's your fault. I just killed 25 people. Yeah, because you didn't show me your gun. And that when it kisses with another gun, says I love you. So why did it end on that chapter? Why didn't it just end after the Madonna arc? Well, I don't think he knew it was getting canceled at that point. He wasn't expecting that to be the last chapter.

[00:21:42] Yeah. And then Yosuke, is there any negatives we haven't brought up yet? I mean, I think that sums up all my thoughts on this series. I mean, it's just like a training series for both a writer and artist. So it was like a bet. You bet on these two guys to make a series. If it goes well, great. If it goes bad, nothing happens because it's just training for them. They are young. They are new to this industry. So yeah, it doesn't matter if this series for Sonnen Jam. Yosuke, you're so positive. I love it. It was me.

[00:22:12] I'd be like, you guys are never fucking making manga ever again. No, I think that that mentality is not there in Sonnen Jam. Even more on those. Oh, actually for the writers though. Even in those years where this was just absolute kings in Japan, the Sonnen Jam, they didn't care if another series just flopped. Yeah, that's fair. I feel like this series just gets so repetitive and also so confusing. Jackal wasn't set up remotely despite it being this huge crime organization in New York City.

[00:22:40] How did they not have like a Dr. Claw, evil, mysterious boss who like stuck around and was like, I'll get you, chameleon jail. Like, come on. Yeah. There's also the fact that this author said in New York City, but clearly didn't really do any research about New York City. There's no pizza eating. There's no subway. There's no rats. He works in a sushi restaurant. Yeah. I guess the info they had then about New York was very, very little. Just two or three TV shows and one movie. Yeah.

[00:23:08] Like they talk about like having a gun is like this exceptionally, which it is hard to get a gun in New York City, but like criminals have guns. It's America. Yeah, it's America. It's not that. Like they definitely did not have an American cultural viewpoint on guns in this series. Like why even set this in America? Because I think it was cool just to be in America to that bite of police theme. Yes, just let him be really racist. But like to go with that, it's like, why have him work at a sushi bar? Like you put it in New York.

[00:23:37] Like why not have him work at like a pizzeria or something? Something that made it seem he was in fucking New York instead of Japan. They have sushi restaurants in New York, but it's like, why wouldn't you take that opportunity to make it feel more like New York? Or they could have been part of his backstory if why? Well, he is Japanese, so I guess it wasn't that weird. They didn't say that he's Japanese? I think they did say he's Asian. Okay. No, maybe I'm wrong. I thought they did though. Yeah, I don't know either. All right. Well, we got to move on.

[00:24:06] So why don't we get into the positives for Baskillow Scale? So Jordan, though, what are some things that you actually enjoyed about iguana confinement? Well, Turtle Gulag. Let's see. You know, again, like his power is like interesting and could be used well. Positives. The art was actually really good at times. Yeah, I mean, there's a reason that they gave the artist an art check. Yeah. I mean, not surprising that the art was really good because the artist has shown that he's amazing.

[00:24:32] I don't think that this was like the extent of his eventual power, but like it's good. It's good art. Yeah. For a first series, it's very good art. Yeah. I mean, to be honest, I think for a first manga between the two of them, this was a pretty solid attempt. Yeah. Yeah. Very, very solid because it knew it was totally over the top about humor and things and just don't care about giving explanation of power or anything else.

[00:24:57] So it could go better if they knew that and maybe twist it a little bit more. So you get a very, very absurd comedy. But then you have to be a very good writer to do that, I guess. Yeah. There's at least credit. This was a novel idea for a series. Yeah. I feel like the comedy. Well, I don't know if it's it was like super funny. Probably it was. I mean, it wasn't. It was cute. I thought, you know, I mean, the artist, in addition to being able to draw really good,

[00:25:27] like serious art is also good at drawing like funny, cute chibi. Yeah. When jail like goes into Charles fridge or freezer and sees the ice cream and she gets defensive and the next page has her like holding her ice cream. Yeah. That was a good joke. I mean, it kind of falls off. Like we liked the first chapter. That was a very solid first chapter. Yeah. It was at least interesting. It was like so ridiculous. Like if the rest of the series was that crazy, then we would be more positive about it.

[00:25:54] I also do want to say that the series seems to have some sort of positive trans rights message to it. I don't know if that was maybe. Maybe. I don't know. I don't know if the author knew himself. No, I don't think they knew. I genuinely don't know if that was good or bad. I don't know either. God, I don't know what else to say positive about the series. Do you guys have anything else? I think since Inoue was an assistant to City Hunter author, I guess they tried to do something similar. It has a little bit of City Hunter vibes.

[00:26:24] Oh, for sure. So that maybe was the cause to his fail. I mean, you want to do something that already is very popular, but you are not that guy. So you need to create something different, but sticking to the City Hunter. So yeah, I guess that was other reason why they just cut it out. That's right. I feel like my main positive, other than what we've said already, is just like it wasn't worse. We've read much worse series than this. We've read worse and it wasn't that.

[00:26:54] But I mean, specifics, it's kind of like, I don't know. The problem is that like aside from the art that was good and pacing that was bad, it was kind of just average. It was kind of just there. So if I was a kid reading Sonnenjump every week back then, I wouldn't mind having this series every week, just a silly chapter of this guy doing silly things. The only problem is if you read it weekly, you're going to see it's the same format every single chapter. I'm not interested in this series.

[00:27:24] I just want to read other series. And in between, I get to just totally my brain just don't work, doesn't work. And just reading this, okay, fan haha, and just next series. I mean, I wouldn't mind this series in a weekly theme. You know what? I can respect that. And I think talking about what could have happened to the series that kept going, let's get into where Monitor Lockup could have gone. So I think this series, honestly, this feels like this could have taken the format of like a USA Blue Sky show.

[00:27:53] I don't know if you guys are familiar with that term. Yeah. Blue Sky? Is it like a TV station? So Blue Sky was like a style of TV show on a TV network called USA. So like, have you ever heard of Psych or Monk or Royal Pains? Or Burn Notice. Or Burn Notice. This should have been manga Burn Notice. It should have been manga Burn Notice. Yeah, right? So essentially the idea is like you have a chapter of the week where it's a little story, but there is an overarching plot and you kind of pretend that it's progressing, even though it's kind of not.

[00:28:20] You know, it's like Detective Conan where it's like every hundred chapters, there's a little bit of progress. So you feel like something's happening. And that's the thing. It's like it could have been where he deals with Jackal every week and then there's a big Jackal app. You know, there's like a three chapter Jackal thing and then he's like takes down a boss and, you know, we learn a little bit more every season, a little bit more about Chameleon Jail. And that would have made it feel like reading the chapters like you're still having episodic, but you're not feeling like every chapter is pointless where I felt like that with Chameleon Jail.

[00:28:44] There should have been some kind of, I guess, meta progression, like an overarching plot. Like you introduce this criminal organization and like you build it up to be like this powerful thing. And then I guess it's over. I guess not Chameleon Jail just defeated the whole organization. And it's like, there's your plot, dude. There's your plot. Yeah. It's like he could have been trying to find like, I think it would have been really cool if that wasn't his real face. And that's like the revelation at the end of like the first volume. Yeah.

[00:29:13] And then, you know, it's like, why is he hiding who he really is? Yeah. The series just desperately needed some sort of backstory and also like some sort of connection. Like there's a huge gang war between Chinese and Italian mafias. Yeah. And then after that chapter, it never is relevant ever again. I know. Like I would have loved to see Chameleon Jail kind of do something like at the end of a heist movie where like he shows up and it's like, how did he do this? Like first I changed myself into this person's face and I showed up here and then I more

[00:29:42] morphed into this person and did this and that, which like led to that. Like you could have like a really complicated series of events take place that would be like kind of interesting. Like you solve a reverse mystery almost. We kind of saw the Madonna one where I was, I forgot to say as a positive, it was kind of cool. I turned into her and wore the pole or the cat, except I don't know how he got into place. Yeah. He just kind of teleported down there. I was very confused by what exactly happened.

[00:30:09] I was very confused at when she got shot and I had to like reread it and I discovered, oh, the detective shot her and it was like not super shown because he also had like a dream where he shot her. Yeah. It was all just so strange. It was hard to follow. But yes, K, is there anything that you would have changed about the series we haven't discussed yet? I guess they could have worked better the relationship between Shaul and Chameleon. Yeah. Yeah, totally. Make Shaul a character is a good idea. Totally.

[00:30:40] You have, or maybe make the, a cop, a side character for Chameleon, like a partner where he goes and is like more serious and Chameleon is like the comedy part. Yeah. I really was expecting Chameleon to have some sort of sidekick. Yeah. Because it feels like a little MP. Yeah. And then how about you, Jordan? Uh, yeah. Maybe more of a buddy cop thing. I did like the 80s styles that they had going on. I don't know. Like, it's just make it feel like it matters more.

[00:31:08] Those three chapters right after the first chapter just felt like pointless, completely pointless, especially the one where he's fighting like the boss. Like what the fuck is happening in that one? Yeah. And it goes so fast and out of nowhere. Like Shaul is suddenly hanging from a thread about to fall. And it's like, how about you show us how that happened? How about you show us like how, where this guy came from and his issues with Chameleon?

[00:31:34] Like there's a woman there and it seems like nobody knows who the fuck she is until the very end when it's revealed that she used to be a man. And it's like, again, I don't know if it's accurate to call these people trans. It seems like they were forcibly transitioned by Chameleon jail. Like, I don't know if they wanted it that way. Yeah. It's also, I don't know if the series is better that he actually has superpowers because no one else has it and they never talk about its origins or repercussions. Yeah. It's just very weird.

[00:32:02] Like I would have been fine with him sneaking around if they were like, oh, the explosions actually like leaves a little bit of lasting damage, which would make sense because you're making explosions happen in your body. But they don't say that. So it just seems like he's just choosing not to use his power. It's all very strange. Yeah. What an explanation, by the way. I can't get over it. Explosions. Oh, also they talk about risk hunters as this big thing. And then we never, ever see another risk hunter. Yeah.

[00:32:31] Like, why is there not one where it's like two of them competing? Like that could have been like his rival. Very easy to introduce a rival risk hunter. Like in Sakamoto days, the first chapter, you see a lesser hit man like meet Sakamoto. And that's how you know that he's like a legend. Yeah. Okay. Just keep telling us he's the best risk hunter. And it's like, I have nothing to compare him to. Fuck. Speaking of Sakamoto days, why don't we get into miscellaneous thoughts so we can talk about other things? Doesn't it sound good? Yeah, sure. So Jordan, is there anything you feel you haven't had a chance to bring up yet?

[00:33:01] Man, the medical implications of chameleon jail's power. I think you mean Baskula's fault. You're right. I'm sorry. Frog who scowl. I feel like the ability to do instant plastic surgery on anybody that you touch is insane. Imagine what he could do to horribly burned people. He could literally, like no joke, be a billionaire with his abilities. Can you imagine? Yeah.

[00:33:26] Having like, I talked about this in the discord, but the fact that he could flawlessly fix anyone's gender dysphoria, people would absolutely be paying millions of dollars on top of the other things he could be doing with this ability. Let's think about the implications here because he also seems to be altering bone structure, which is insane. Like the things that that could do to people's like bodies. Like, yeah. Can you like regenerate someone's eye? Yeah. Could he do that? Like he can change skin color with his explosions.

[00:33:55] He can do so many things. And it's just like, it reminds me of like, you know, the, the Spider-Man, uh, the dinosaur, the dinosaur. I don't want to cure cancer. I don't want to cure cancer. I want to turn people into dinosaurs. Fuck. That would have been a good part too. Yeah. But it's like, why are you doing this? You could do so much more good than just being like a super PI basically. It's actually funny since we have Yosuke on just K and part four of Jojo probably is

[00:34:24] one of the easiest stands to legitimately make an insane amount of money because he can just fix anything with his stand. Yeah. Yeah. He did not need to do anything. He could have just been the world's most effective repair man making millions of dollars every year. Yeah. Sure. Right. He could have gone to Chernobyl, fixed the reactor. God. Anyway, there was a line about men competing in the women's Olympics, which I saw really aged absolutely terribly, by the way. Oh, that was, that was bad. Yeah.

[00:34:54] I think it was during the swimming arc. Yeah. Again, by the way, that's not what synchronized swimming is. No, no. Maybe it is in Japan. I don't even know what they were doing. It was like, I'm going to swim and then you have to match my swimming, which seems like the first person has an immense advantage if that's what they were doing. Imagine if a horse was in the Olympics. Actually, that sounds pretty great. That'd be great. I mean, they tried breakdancing. So just have a horse next time. Yeah.

[00:35:21] Oh, something interesting as well as this is in our series, I guess predates the convention of black gutters, meaning flashback. Did you guys notice that? I think I did. Yeah. It was like a gray gradient almost. No, that was like a dream sequence when he's talking about like him passing the police test and all that. And also imagine if he had failed that test because she assumed he was going to pass when she wrote that letter and left him. That would have been hilarious. But all of that has normal border colors. That was so confusing because I think they also sort of implied that she was like kidnapped. I don't know.

[00:35:50] It was very confusing. Forget it, Jake. It's chameleon jail. Yeah, basically. Oh, on that note, speaking of Corey, why did jail wear a wig when impersonating Corey when that's his superpower? Oh my God. Did you notice that at the funeral? He takes a wig off. No, I didn't notice that. He used props to turn himself into Corey instead of using his superpower. Maybe he can get his wig every time he transforms, but he decides not to. I mean, we don't know the power.

[00:36:17] They make a thing saying Corey and chameleon jail physically resemble each other, which never is relevant except for this one scene where, again, it does not matter. Why would it be important if chameleon can change his appearance? Yeah, that's why I'm saying. So I guess he just felt like using a wig instead of his superpower. Again, it would have made more sense if they were like there's some kind of downside to him doing it, but they never say that. Yeah, there's so many pointless things.

[00:36:44] And again, I don't know if his power changes his clothes. It doesn't seem like it should do that, but sometimes it seems like it does that. God, yeah. There is such inconsistency in this manga. This is definitely being made week by week. Yeah, just has the energy of like a really shitty WB show we had to watch like 15 years ago. Yeah, it's where all his transformation is off screen because they don't have the FX budget to show him transforming. Oh my God. Yeah.

[00:37:11] It's like Master of Disguise or they never actually show him changing into his disguise. They only show after he's done it. Yeah. When he's in the turtle turtle. The turtle brig. Thank you. The turtle brig. Turtley enough for the turtle brig. Oh man. Oh, and you know who else is? Is Max EB who has a few thoughts. The artist originally used his real name and then changed it to a pen name to try and be more private. It looks like the artist was selected to draw this because it was based on his work for City Hunter, which is this area is as we said, it's really trying to be a rip off of City

[00:37:40] Hunter. Chameleon Jail is one of Inoue's manga still kept in a physical only jail. Ah ha ha. No pun intended. Along with Slam Dunk and Vagabond. It's believed that this is due to resistance from him himself, a common occurrence in the manga industry. So it's very hard to find raws of the series. And despite this being a big old flop, the volume release did have its appeal. Volume 1, including Inoue's debut one shot. Kare Purple, an incredibly well-received basketball story that became the basis for Slam Dunk. And explosions can actually change the structure of your face, Max B says. Just not quite in the same way Chameleon Jail does.

[00:38:11] Ha ha ha. Yeah, that's true. You mean, uh, Snake Slammer? Yes. Enole Chamber. Yes. I don't know what lizards I haven't said yet. I literally looked up words for jail. Yeah, I did too. Crocodile Block. Crocodile Block. The sequel to Crocodile Rock. Yeah. Okay, God. All right. Uh, do you guys have anything else or should we get a final verdict? I think I'm good. Yes, Kare, are you good? I just want to make sure you've had a chance to speak your mind on this series. No, no, no. I'm good. And I... Okay, just making sure.

[00:38:40] Okay, let's get into final verdict. As we wrap up our time with skink detention. I already said skink clink, David. Oh, you're right. As we get into, um, dragon detention. No, yeah, dragon detention. Let's get into our six word summaries. From Tucker. Mission Impossible. Unmasking scenes. The manga. Maxi B. Magical trans power. I want them. Or Paladin. King scissored by his lizard wizard. Fuck. I was really trying to make a lizard wizard reference and you'll see it later on.

[00:39:09] CT3 LA says, would have been better without the superpowers. Deckerson. I'm allergic to bad manga. Boom. Diego. Shitty hunter shapeshifter. Is that blackface? There are some weird repercussions of him changing his race, aren't there? Dude Rocks. Should have actually been about incarcerated lizards. Bunky green overdrive. City hunter now with more blackface. And they also said this manga isn't a slam dunk. There it is. Gene Shelley. Shall we advance? No more chapters. Captain Clueless. Change face into something more interesting. Lord Anubis. It was not a slam dunk. Portal Man. Should have shifted into something better. Spubby.

[00:39:39] You're under arrest. Trans is your chenter. You are already trans. You are already. Well, that's how it works, right? Spike said, karma, karma, karma, karma, aximilian. Thor said, wait, there's no dragons in this. Watchtower. Looking for shapeshifting shenanigans. Yeah, same. Blomomomoo. Constantly shapeshifting between variations of mediocrity. And Redblade. Shapeshifts into confusing new genres. And Jordan, how about you? I have two. This face makes you feel ashamed. Because that's how so many of this shit's ended. Where'd you get that picture of my mother?

[00:40:08] And a medical miracle being used poorly. How about you? I really thought you were going to do alliteration. I could have, but I decided not to. Yeah. Mine is always be helping your trans homies. And I didn't know how to make the six words, but I just wanted to reference all you had to do was follow the damn train, CJ. Tegu Big House. Yeah. I'll say art training camp for attacking for Inoue. It's just my verdict. There you go. All right. So I think we can all say this is a flop. Jordan, is this a certified flop, my man? Yeah. Yeah.

[00:40:39] Yeah. Okay. We're all in agreement. So for the record, Jordan can clarify. I did. I did say just go listen to King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, just because I couldn't think of a good six word summary. But I wonder for the record, I noted the connection between them. They're very good. Yeah. I also have started reading a little bit of Marriage Toxin. That has some trans overvites. And it's all about people with like weird powers and stuff that are solving or fighting crime or causing crime, I think. So it kind of has, it has a few pieces overlapping. So it's pretty good.

[00:41:04] It is by Shonen Flop alumni, the creator of Not Amalgam of Distortion. Fuck. Who was it? Jordan, do you remember? He did Dragon and Chameleon. No. Yeah. That's why I know it's not him. Marriage Toxin. Read Dragon and Chameleon. Dragon and Chameleon fucking slaps. Have you read that series, Yosuke? Yeah. It's so good. All right. I get this is bothering me. What did he make? Nehilation. Oh, shit. Yeah. And then Jordan, what was your recommendation? Play the spy class in Team Fortress 2. You know, they finally showed the spy's real face. Really? Yeah. Kind of wish they didn't.

[00:41:34] And then Yosuke, how about you? Just read City Hunter. You know what? That's fair. There you go. I love it. I had a feeling. All right. But I feel this is not the worst certified flop we've ever read. Do we agree? No, I don't think it is. The art is too good for it to be the worst. This is on the borderline of not a certified flop. Yeah. But it's still a certified flop. Yeah. All right. Well, let's get into wrap up where we talk about lizard name prison. I don't know. I can't think of any more. I don't actually, I don't know what ones we haven't done yet.

[00:42:03] I'm looking up lists of lizards and it's just kind of all variations on the ones that we've said. There's only so many lizards. There's only so many lizards. I've already said a few amphibians. Did we do newt? Yes. I think many times. Okay. You know what, listeners? In the comments, drop your chameleon jail name. I should have made a formal list, but I forgot. Yeah. Let's get into wrap up. Yosuke, thank you so much for joining us today. Where can they get more of your awesome content in their lives?

[00:42:31] So you can follow my X page. J-O-S-U underscore K-E. Also, I'm on Blue Sky Instagram. I was about to ask. Yeah. I'm trying to move little by little to Blue Sky and Instagram. Better places, I think. But for now, I'm sticking with X. So yeah, there I do. Not daily. I wouldn't say daily content. I make content on my basis. I'm not very disciplined in that matter. So yeah. You can also check.

[00:43:00] If you're familiar with Spanish, I have some talks on my YouTube channel about Shonen Japan more themes. That sounds good to me. And I want to say props to Jordan for making the opening and ending theme, being a great co-host and helping with editing. Thank you for everything that you do on the show, Dave. No problem. Props to Murlisle for the awesome cover art. Find her online at Lyle Murr and Nigel for being our generous art benefactor. Thank you, Dylan, for assistance with editing. You can find this podcast, Anime Out of Context, at animeoutofcontext.com. Thanks to Tucker and Maxie B for assistance with pronunciation, translation, and other miscellaneous research.

[00:43:29] Thanks to Kalala for being our social media manager. Find us on Twitter at ShonenFlopCast, Tumblr Shonen-Flop, Blue Sky ShonenFlopCast, and our website, ShonenFlop.com. We're also on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, wherever else you get your podcast. If you want more weekly David and Jordan content, you can find us every Friday on the Chainsaw Minute, where we talk about the latest chapter of Chainsaw Man. Find it at csm.libson.com or wherever else you listen to Shonen Flop. And come join the Shonen Flop Discord. Open to everyone, patron or not. Hang out with us and talk about anime, games, whatever else is on your mind. We even have a manga book club and movie nights.

[00:43:57] Find a link to it in the show notes or on our site, ShonenFlop.com. And if you've been enjoying the podcast and want to help us keep going, subscribe to our Patreon at Patreon.com slash ShonenFlop. Along with that warm and fuzzy feeling of helping us out, you also get access to monthly bonus episodes, including the Shonen Drop, where Jordan and I look back at our previous month's episodes and open the mystery box. Jordan, what was our bonus episode this month? Well, David, our bonus episode for this month, we are finishing up Hentai Kamen. Yes, part three. Part three of Hentai Kamen. If that's not enough, other perks include picking a manga for us to cover in a main episode,

[00:44:27] episodes up to a week in advance, and behind-the-scenes content like warm-up audio or recording notes. I'm also going to read off some of our wonderful patrons. Starting with the Dolphin Dad tier, we have Glornak, Rachel, my wonderful wife. We just got back from Japan, and she had the best Kobe steak of her life. Moving on down to the Ravioli tier, where she missed me so much. She did little zoomy zooms. Oh, I missed my puppuccino. Chris, Eva, Jeanette Davis, Lady T, Matt, Scarlet, T, Tiffany, and Trevor. Moving on down to the King of the Forest, we have Bandit Stoof. My girlfriend! 090Z. Brad, follow Anime Outland on Blue Sky. Oh, God.

[00:44:56] Ivan, Jacob, Justin, Kirbymon, Marty, Riley, Sarah Hydra, T, Wolfwood, and Tommy Boy, and a big thank you to all of our Galactic Ball Federation officers and our Beast Children. Yes, thank you. I love you all very much, your all-my children. Anything else you want to add in, Jordan? Uh, Toad Arrest. Okay. Thank you so much for joining us. Dino Custody. This has been Jordan. And this has been Jeske. Us. Dinosaurs actually aren't lizards, Jordan. Great, let's go. Whatever. And you've been listening to Shonen Flop. Keep on flopping, floppers. Yeah. Bye.

[00:45:26] Bye.