"The forbidden fruit tastes the sweetest"

Intro
Usogui is a manga with a premise similar to other gambling/death games manga. Lose the gamble and you shall pay the cost. The stakes can range from losing a few million yen or even your life. Usogui combines these psychological games with immersive fighting scenes as how can your protect your winnings without physical prowess? In the world of Usogui, there exists an organisatioin known as Club Kakerou who has 48 members. Members can propose a gamble with anyone (members or non members) with set stakes and rules. 1 of 101 referees will be watching over the games to ensure "fairness" and the transfer of stakes. This provides a way to hold the gamblers here accountable as Kakerou is an extremely powerful organisation capable of tracking one down with roots deep in the Japanese Government.

Enter Usogui (Lie Eater), Madarame Baku is a man who has bet everything against the leader and lost. With his life on hold, he is now trying to have a Kakerou match against the Kakerou Leader to take his position as the leader of Kakerou. He is accompanied by Kaji, a man who is a "loser" in life, filled with debts and unable to clear it.

The story of Usogui simply follows Usogui obtaining the right to challenge the leader and shows great depth in characters. Every character has their distinct quirk to be memorable, characters when given a chance, are able to grow greatly in the 539 chapters. A prime example is Kaji who went from a downright loser into almost an equal to Usogui if not an equal. The main character Baku / Usogui is almost a perfect gambler except for the fact his physical abilities are very weak.

Writing
The writing for Usogui has to be complemented as there are many foreshadowing hundreds of chapters before. It has a well done plot with little to none plot holes. Everything clicks in the end and readers have an 'aha' moment as they realise why "X happens" or why "A has grown to be how he is".

Art

Art in Usogui is very realistic, fight scenes are on point, every battle is as intense as it could be. Every point of action is accentuated by the Author's art. The expressions of characters can tell you the despair or joy they're feeling at each moment.

Games

The most important part of Usogui is the games. The games are often twists of children games but with higher stakes. Some games are genuinely interesting and I am interested to play them in real life albeit without risking my life or 1 million yen. It is an absolute master class of mechanism design and game theory as people have to coorperate with imperfect information or have impeccable mind games. However, some games are too complicated for my liking, it should not be the case that the translation team has to make 10 pages summaries to explain what happened in the Arc/Game. Shoutout to Team Duwang who has been essential to the enjoyment of the series.

It is a very satisfying story and I implore you to read it if you have the time for it.