Chameleon 6 (Series End)

After more than seven years, it's done.

Orphan started in on Chameleon in the spring of 2015, because it had been left unfinished - only the first episode was released in the US. It didn't take me long to realize that I'd made a big mistake. Nonetheless, I soldiered on, and the first episode was released in 2015. (These days, I'd give up.) Orphan released a second episode in 2017, but then there was a gap of more than three years, reflecting my distaste for the series. In 2021 and 2022, Orphan released three more episodes. And here, at last, is the sixth and final episode. During the opening credits, Yazawa exclaims, "I can't believe we made it this far!" Neither can I.

This episode ("Yazawa vs Matsuoka Bros: Fight to the Death at Dawn!") begins with a party for Junna-chan, Aizawa Naoki's younger sister, celebrating her entrance into high school, and coincidentally, Yazawa Eisaku's entrance into 11th grade (by cheating, natch). Junna-chan meets and falls for Matsuoki Eiji, a violent delinquent and Yazawa's arch-rival. But Matsuoka's real concern in this episode is his younger half-brother, Hachiya Miki, the natural son of his father's mistress. Hachiya wants his elder sibling's acknowledgement and respect, but Matsuoka will have none of it. The result is a series of increasingly violent encounters, with Yazawa playing the role of faux-mediator in the hope of winning Junna-chan's love.

Of course, it all comes to nothing, and Yazawa's only love interest remains Yu, Shiina's cross-dressing older brother.

I'm not the person to provide a serious critique of this episode (or indeed, of any of them), but this one, like the previous one, feels like filler. The last two episodes followed the first four after a gap of 15 months and featured a new director and a new character designer. Perhaps they were a late cash grab to exploit the insane popularity of the manga. (It ran to 47 tankoubon volumes and won the 1999 Kodansha award for shounen manga, beating out One Piece!)

As usual, the episode contains a lot of untranslatable puns:

• "A chocolate cheat sheet." Anchoko is "cheat sheet," but choko is a shorter way to refer to "chocolate."
• "Popular" / "Pubic hair." jinbou is "popular," while inmou is "pubic hair."
• When Yazawa tells Hachiya that he understands the relationship between the brothers is rough, he uses the term 肉体関係, meaning "sexual relationship."
  

This episode features some new voice actors:

• Konishi Hiroko (Junna) played Aida Rion in Agent Aika, Miho in Yume de Aetera, Nene Romanova in Bubblegum Crisis 2040, and Gaou Nejiri in D4 Princess, an Orphan release.
• Matsuno Taiki (Hachiya) played the lead role in the second Kindaichi movie (an Orphan release) and every subsequent show in the franchise. He starred in Exper Zenon and appeared in Fukuyama Gekijou, both Orphan releases. He played Kouga in Inuyasha and the title role in The Adventures of the Little Prince.

It features the best song in the series, Bad Timing, as the opening. (The other really good song is Smokin' Boogie, the opening for episode 2.) The ending is the same as episode 5. I have not found any EP or OST for the series, either online or on physical media.

Moho Kareshi did the original translation, and laalg provided translation checking. VigorusJammer integrated laalg's translation check into the script. convexity and Sunachan translated the songs. ninjacloud timed. I edited and typeset. Nemesis and Uchuu QCed. The raw is from the Internet and is a VHS rip. (All of the Chameleon raws are from VHS tapes; there never was a laserdisc or digital release in Japan.) I get the occasional inquiry about whether Orphan would redo the series if better sources surfaced. The answer is "no".

So that's it; my long anime nightmare is over. You can get this final episode from the usual torrent site or from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net.