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Usogui Anonymous 04/25/2025 (Fri) 17:58:56 Id: 066f2e No. 58177
Can we have a discussion about this? I'm on chapter 473 now and things are drawing towards to their final conclusion. Excellent manga with a very strange mangaka, who did not start his career until he was age 28, previously being a barber, then later started practicing MMA which has influenced his current work greatly. It's sort of interesting to see someone do a total career flip in their 30s, and wind up being successful. This story in particular has recieved personal recognition from JoJo creator Araki, an OVA, and a live action adaptation. For those who don't know, Usogui is a 49 volume epic detailing the exploits of Madarame Baku, a thrill addicted gambler, who's goal is to overthrow a Japanese crime syndicate, Kakerou, with the focus being split between gamblers engaging in mental games and the brawls of "referees" from within the crime syndicate. Gambles are typically absurd spectacles, full of loopholes, bluffs, and cheats, as cold calculating madmen lock wits with each other between countless twists and some of the most ridiculous asspulls I've ever seen, while the fights involving referees are among the finest illustrated and most innovative battles I've witnessed. Without spoiling too much, this last arc really impressed me. Usogui was transported to a "Greed Island" style area along with the leader of a rival American syndicate to compete for the right to take a swing at Kakerou's leadership. Without spoiling too much, I enjoyed how the whole MMO aspect was spun on its head and became a political story about how no one could be bothered to actually play the game because they were too busy oppressing the lower classes. (and the gamble itself was to break the status quo, insighting a war and becoming king of the island) Ultimately, this goes to some pretty fucking insane places, from a Purge style manhunt horror to playing poker underwater in a secret government super prison. The more of this I read the better and better it gets, and it already well exceeded my expectations 200 chapters ago. If anyone has any thoughts on this manga or similar series I'd like to hear them.
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Stopped following this one around the time the tower of karma arc (I think that's what it was called, at least) really got going, though I remember it being a pretty huge mixed bag. Some really high highs, followed by some pretty low lows—but still decent overall. I hear it gets extremely good towards the end, and I might try to get back into it sometime soonish, but 400 chapters is a lot for me to stomach. Lol. Though, I'll be honest. Looking up pic rel again, which I still consider the height of the series, kind of made me wanna throw myself back in. It was a good time.
>>58476 Tower is such a clusterfuck that there's a 10 page series of graphs and timelines to explain what the hell happened afterwards, but it also has some of the craziest shit in the entire manga up to that point, like Caracal turning into Senator Armstrong and running around punching people to death while bellowing out racial slurs. It's also when its revealed that a ton of things are tied together that were previously seemingly unimportant and stuff has been building up since like chapter 15. It doesn't help that this is right around the part where the Duwang translation team temporarily dips out and when they get back their lead translator quits. But they quickly replace him, fortunately. The good news is that right after that is when things start to even out. The focus temporarily shifts to Souchi, which is a rocky start, but once all the conspiracies are explained the manga starts to hit its stride and never stops, so you're pretty much right there and you get to see the craziest game of battleship ever. You're basically right at the precipe of when it starts getting really consistently good.
I will post a monologue here when I finish re reading
Well, I've completed the manga and my thoughts are basically just uh wow, holy shit. That final gamble was one of the craziest things I have ever read. While I don't feel I should detail that specifically, it did make me think about a lot of things the manga did really well overall. I've actually seen people say things like "the only thing Sako is good at is drawing close-ups", but I would argue, in a manga about mind games, being able to stylistically portray the facial expressions and body language of characters in a really interesting way is a pretty enormous strength. In this way games are often visually bombastic in a way that dwarfs the already impressive looking battles. The nature of gambles drifting between hope and despair is put on display expertly, which can make big moments feel both triumphant and stomach churning. Personally, I think the writing is pretty great as well, even if its a bit uneven and convuluted in the beginning. Sako had to write this weekly for years, and still somehow managed to consistently set things up hundreds of chapters in advance. Building up Souchi as a character was a great move, as by the finale I couldn't imagine either he or Baku losing. As for the rest of the cast, well there's a lot of them, and despite a heavy-handed use of flashbacks I ultimately ended up really liking every single one. The unique personality of each gives different spins on all the events taking place, and its through their eyes that the reader can grasp what is happening. This also, conveniently, allows all the rules and conspiracies to be organically explained in such a way that even Marco can understand. Towards the end things get pretty experimental, and the manga starts playing mind games with the reader. There was one point where I legitimately got tricked and thought I accidentally skipped an entire volume. I would not say the manga is deep, but there is definitely some pretty interesting ideas. One central theme is fate as determinism versus casualism. Souchi is "perfect". Through what can only be described as divine will, he is able to predict all that will happen with god-like accuracy and algorithmic proficiency, which leads to an outlook of determinism. On the opposite end, Baku is the "Fool archtype". Everything in life is a gamble, each passing second has an infinite amount of possible variations, and through self-determination he is able to manipulate the odds. As the two grapple they form a complicated yin and yang co-existance with an unexpected degree of philosophical complexity. Additionally, I feel the author has a pretty grim view of the world, and brings up some conspiracy theories I thought were quite amusing. Did you know the price of gun stocks often spikes upwards after a mass shooting? In a world where vice funds pay out high-quality dividends to such degree that one might consider it absolutely sinful, what does that mean for the people in power who hold the world in their palm? To give you an idea, there is a scene roughly in the middle of the manga where an arms dealer unceremoniously calls the entire nation of Japan unthinking cattle on national television, and mockingly tells them that despite being fortunate enough to live in a country where they won't even be shot down for flocking to the streets in protest they won't do anything. This is only a drop in the bucket really, lots of things to think about. I really enjoyed this manga and would recommend it to anyone. One of the absolute best I have ever read.
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Really glad to see some love for Usogui here.
>>58476 (me) >>58890 Yeah, okay, I went back and read the whole thing. What an interesting series. I definitely think it's one of those you had to have been there as it was being released/translated to appreciate fully through fan theories and speculation over what kind of plan Baku was going to pull out and win the day with. Still, despite being like four years late to the party, it was really good. Air Poker is the peak. Battleship is second. STL let me down a little despite the amazing climax (it meandered a lot in the middle), but I think it'll probably shoot up a lot on reread with all the foreshadowing.


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