Back to Geyorge's Profile Geyorge's Profile

This manga is based on the premise of a gambler "Madarame Baku" and his journey to becoming the leader of a global gambling organisation. The manga has a long run of 540 chapters, which may seem daunting and unnecessarily long at first but by the end, you will realise that the author simply needed this long to create this complete story. It is widely agreed that Usogui's first half from chapters 1 - 205 are not as good as the rest of the manga. This is not to say the first half is bad, as it is still incredibly intriguing and exciting, but rather to ... accentuate the masterclass of writing that is the latter half of Usogui.

The gambles themselves are the highlights of the manga, with each one being more insane and nail-biting than the last. The incredible mind games and strategy of the characters in the story are unparalleled. The final 2 arcs, air poker and surpassing the leader are both individual gambles that are the peaks of Usogui. However, even earlier gambles like the Labyrinth arc and Battleship arcs are simply mesmerising. Of course, the reason why these gambles are top tier is due to the characters, especially the main character Baku. The whole cast of characters are unique and the main antagonist is one of the best in manga.

However, although the manga's psychological and strategic aspects are incredible, the story also has some of the best fights and action sequences I have seen in manga, surpassing most battle-oriented manga. The choreography and art of the fights are a true spectacle, and a nice break from the onslaught of psychological warfare. Speaking of the art, it starts quite mediocre at the beginning of the manga before evolving into some of the best art in manga by the end of the series.

Overall, Usogui was an unforgettable read for me, having some of the best fights, art, characters and of course, mind games in manga. The only downside of Usogui is that the first half is significantly slower than the latter half, from the Tower of Karma arc to the end of the story, Usogui is simply on a different level. I would highly recommend this manga to everyone ever.

This manga is simply wasted potential. The world is built up decently well. The fight scenes are the best parts of the series in my opinion, with fast-paced fights and quirky abilities. However, the characters are mostly extremely bland, especially the MC. Any meaningful relationships between characters are quickly destroyed due to the sheer amount of fanservice and ecchi scenes. Even the fight scenes are not exempt from fanservice. These elements really slow down the plot immensely, as well as eliminating any emotional connection between the reader and the characters. Overall, I found the manga unengaging, which is unfortunate because the character designs and art ... are both pretty good, but let down by obscene amounts of fanservice. Would recommend if you like fanservice every 10 seconds but not if you want an engaging story.