is a manga

Manga

Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...

 series written by Kazuhiko Watanabe and illustrated by Takehiko Inoue

Takehiko Inoue

is a Japanese manga artist, best known for the basketball manga Slam Dunk, which has become a success both in Japan and overseas. Many of his works are about basketball, Inoue himself being a huge fan of the sport, and many Japanese children started to play basketball because they read the manga...

, who is more well known for his subsequent manga, Slam Dunk

Slam Dunk (manga)

is a sports-themed manga series written by Takehiko Inoue about a basketball team from Shōhoku High School. It was first serialized in Shueisha's Weekly Shōnen Jump in Japan from 1990 to 1996 and had also been adapted into an anime series by Toei Animation which had been broadcast worldwide,...

. Chameleon Jail is Inoue's first manga series to be compiled in tankōbon

Tankobon

, with a literal meaning close to "independently appearing book", is the Japanese term for a book that is complete in itself and is not part of a series , though the manga industry uses it for volumes which may be in a series...

 form. It was first published in Shueisha

Shueisha

is a major publisher in Japan. The company was founded in 1925 as the entertainment-related publishing division of Japanese publisher Shogakukan. The following year, Shueisha became a separate, independent company. Magazines published by Shueisha include Weekly Shōnen Jump, Weekly Young Jump,...

's Weekly Shōnen Jump

Weekly Shonen Jump

is a weekly shōnen manga anthology published in Japan by Shueisha under the Jump line of magazines. The first issue was released with a cover date of July 2, 1968, and it is still circulating. One of the longest-running manga magazines in Japan, it has a circulation of 2.8 million copies...

in Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

 in 1989. The story centers around a "risk hunter" named Chameleon Jail, who thwarts and solves crimes by using a superhuman ability to change his appearance at will.

Plot

"Risk hunters" are professionals who handle jobs considered too tough for normal law enforcement, such as kidnapping

Kidnapping

In criminal law, kidnapping is the taking away or transportation of a person against that person's will, usually to hold the person in false imprisonment, a confinement without legal authority...

s, combatting terrorism

Terrorism

Terrorism is the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion. In the international community, however, terrorism has no universally agreed, legally binding, criminal law definition...

, and preventing murder

Murder

Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...

s. One man who stands above them all however is the legendary Chameleon Jail, who has the ability to manipulate his "kara" or internal human body energy in order to physically change his appearance into that of any other person. Throughout the series, he pursues several assignments on behalf of various clients given to him by Shall, a woman who runs a detective agency in New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

. All difficult, the successful completion of these assignments hinges on Jail's ability to change his appearance when the time is right.

Main characters

Chameleon Jail

The protagonist and title character, Chameleon Jail or Jail as he more commonly goes by, is a Japanese risk hunter residing in New York City. In addition to manipulating his kara to alter his appearance, he can also channel it in order to literally change a target's sex from male to female. Part of his ability to manipulate his appearance also seems to entail being able to adopt the talents and skills practiced by those whom he imitates in order to further deceive his targets. However Jail can hold his own in most situations without resorting to using his kara manipulation, being a skilled fighter and marksman

Marksman

A marksman is a person who is skilled in precision, or a sharpshooter shooting, using projectile weapons, such as with a rifle but most commonly with a sniper rifle, to shoot at long range targets...

. Despite the high prices charged for his services, Jail has a sense of honor and a conscience. He also has goofy side and a weakness for food. He works between assignments as a sushi

Sushi

is a Japanese food consisting of cooked vinegared rice combined with other ingredients . Neta and forms of sushi presentation vary, but the ingredient which all sushi have in common is shari...

 chef.

Shall

Shall is the female proprietor of a private detective agency in New York City who gives Jail his assignments and also assists him in completing them as best she can, functioning as his partner in a sense. She continuously promotes Jail as the best risk hunter in the business, and uses him once herself for an assignment.

Other characters

The following characters appear in story arcs more than one chapter long in Chameleon Jail.

Colonel Keith Burns

Colonel Keith as he is known as is a former Delta Force

Delta Force

1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta is one of the United States' secretive Tier One counter-terrorism and Special Mission Units. Commonly known as Delta Force, Delta, or The Unit, it was formed under the designation 1st SFOD-D, and is officially referred to by the Department of Defense...

 officer who is dying from a heart condition. Because of his stoic demeanor at the time of his wife's death and their frequent arguments, his son Jed believes that he did not love his wife and bears a grudge against him as a result.

Jed Burns

Jed Burns is Colonel Keith's son who harbors a grudge against his father following his mother's death at a young age. Seeking to get revenge by tarnishing his father's name, he becomes a terrorist and leads a group of hijackers

Aircraft hijacking

Aircraft hijacking is the unlawful seizure of an aircraft by an individual or a group. In most cases, the pilot is forced to fly according to the orders of the hijackers. Occasionally, however, the hijackers have flown the aircraft themselves, such as the September 11 attacks of 2001...

 who take control of an airliner

Airliner

An airliner is a large fixed-wing aircraft for transporting passengers and cargo. Such aircraft are operated by airlines. Although the definition of an airliner can vary from country to country, an airliner is typically defined as an aircraft intended for carrying multiple passengers in commercial...

, killing many of the hostages.

Camel

Camel is Gil's righthand man, who is responsible for kidnapping Kat Suri. He later attempts to kill Corey and Jail and assists in Jackal's attempt to steal an Incan golden idol by detonating explosives in the museum it is put on display in.

Corey

Corey is a New York Police Department detective

Detective

A detective is an investigator, either a member of a police agency or a private person. The latter may be known as private investigators or "private eyes"...

 who approaches Jail and Shall for help in bringing back his former lover Kat Suri. Corey has an allergy to women, breaking out in a rash when they are physically within a meter of him, and vomiting when they are right next to him. However Kat is the only woman who does not affect him in this way. Corey is chosen to lead the police team charged with stopping Jackal and Kat Suri specifically, from stealing a priceless Incan golden idol from a museum, causing intense inner conflict.

Gil

Gil is the current head of Jackal, a criminal organization that aims to steal a priceless Incan golden idol that will be put on display in a New York museum. He was an orphan who was taken in by Jackal as a young boy and raised as a thief alongside Kat Suri. He tries to prevent her from leaving Jackal by having her kidnapped and ordering Camel to kill Corey.

Kat Suri

Kat Suri is a highly-skilled pickpocket who successfully uses her feminine wiles against her male targets. An orphan

Orphan

An orphan is a child permanently bereaved of or abandoned by his or her parents. In common usage, only a child who has lost both parents is called an orphan...

who was taken in at a young age by the criminal organization Jackal and trained as a thief, she is now considered the organization's best one. Kat initially used Corey to shelter her from three of her victims by lying to him, but grew to love him after he steadfastly defended her against them despite sustaining multiple injuries. She kept her true nature as a pickpocket secret from Corey and left him after he was promoted to detective.

Lawson

The chief of the NYPD who is personally involved with tracking down a few of Jail's targets, but is unsuccessful despite his best efforts.

List of chapters

The manga was released in tankōbon form in two volumes which also included three of Inoue's one shot manga stories, Purple Kaede, Flower Shōnen, and Like Jordan. Chameleon Jail was later rereleased as a single volume which included another of Inoue's one shots, Baby Face.