Usogui Chapter 541 Discussion

The first 100 or so chapters in this manga were pretty boring, but man was it worth it. Air poker and STL are some of the best animanga arcs ive read. Not like ive read much manga, but I dont think that has anything to do with my claim lol.

Art was meh at first, but it was quickly improved thanks to Toshio's diligence. paneling was top notch (especially in air poker), characters were colorful, and the mind games were insane stuff. Fight scenes were very uninteresting at first but improved during Tower of Karma.

I can see why some things might seem like "deus ex machinas" because of how convoluted the cheating mechanics are, but if you read the Duwang translations, you'd see how much foreshadowing was put into these tactics. The duwang translations include foreshadowing explanations at the end of the chapter. Even if there weren't explanations, they were still slightly foreshadowed by use of paneling. For example, during Sadakuni's glass eye shit (it was weird as hell dont get me wrong), Toshio still put enough effort to give us a close up of Sadakuni's eye before the cheating tactic was found out by Baku.

I kinda find it hard to believe how planned out this story was considering how fucking long this manga is. I was expecting the arcs to be pretty separate from each other, but it felt like one long continuous build up to the STL game. Everything seemed like it served a purpose, even something like the Bulls womb arc served to set up Kyara's fight with Gyeonho (because he killed nameribone, the contractor).

The ending was also kinda odd. It's basically one of those "and the adventure continues" kinda endings which I dont really hate, but its not entirely satisfying either. Nothing felt wrapped up at the end of the day, since the leader was still alive. I felt like the epilogue was building up to something, but the climax was never shown because it didnt need to be? Eh, whatever I guess. It was definitely sad seeing Kaji and Marco end up in such a downhill state though, maybe they'd climb back up after the manga's ending.

There were problems overall but I enjoyed the ride. The last two arcs (along with ToK) are masterpieces IMHO.

In the ending pages you see that Marco and Kaji were faking their decline, along with Baku who faked his death as part of his “Plan A”. It’s implied they had to lay low after Baku faked his death so they could then appear alongside Baku and Hal and help take down the hardest Vice Vehizoma. Which goes along with the Prince and the Bee story where they team up in the end to become the strongest together. You see this on the last couple pages where the three of them are walking towards what seems the final gamble .

Here’s an explanation I found

— For those who were confused by the ending, here's my interpretation:

The last few chapters reveal that all of this entire story (500+ chapters) were part of a greater "gamble" or setup by Baku to take down Vehizoma and the Vices (who are the villains introduced at the end).

The author probably was going for a "and the adventure continues"-type of reveal, and showing that the entire 500+ chapters were actually part of a larger strategy to take down the Vices.

In terms of what's actually happening, my understanding is:

• ⁠After Surpassing the Leader, Baku tries to start taking down the Vices (part of his whole "world peace" vision that he talks about at the beginning of the manga)
• ⁠Hal is brought back to life by Marco after Surpassing the Leader.
• ⁠Baku plays against the West Darfur organization and the Russian-vice organization. He wins against them both, but the new villain "Mr. Gonen" is revealed to be even craftier. He's the one who had a gamble with Baku years ago, and got to transplant his own diseased heart into Baku (resulting in him having a weak constitution and also having to eat kariume as a form of "medicine")
• ⁠In this final chapter, Mr. Gonen is revealed and about to have a gamble with Hal in Vegas, who has retaken control of Kakerou. In the background, Marco and Kaji seem to be doing odd jobs, potentially leading readers to think that Baku is dead and they are despondent/depressed.
• ⁠However at the end of the final chapter, it's revealed that Baku is still alive. Marco and Kaji were part of a plan by him, and the ending voicever by Eko implies that he's now working with Hal to take down Mr. Gonen and Vehizoma in this gamble.
• ⁠The manga ends with him saying it's time for Plan A, implying all of this was part of his larger gamble (perhaps even acquiring the diseased heart).