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This manga is written by a manga lover for manga lovers. It has references to popular works like Jojo's and Hokuto no Ken. It's respected by the author of Kingdom. On multiple occasions Araki Hirohiko drew illustrations celebrating the anniversary of the manga and Hara Yasuhisa made an illustration for the 10th anniversary. It's unbelievable how almost no one talks about this manga and how unknown it's kept while seemingly being this mega hit in Japan. Nevertheless I'm happy to have found my favorite story in all of manga.

Usogui is a thrilling ride. It never stops and continues flooring the gas pedal into absurdity. Each ... gamble keeps you turning the page, eager to see what'll happen. The mind games and creativity of gambles is nothing short of brilliant. It keeps one upping itself and constantly keeps you entertained. Oh he won a pretty big gamble, time to settle down right? Nope, time for an even more absurd gamble that was actually a plan to get this dude to come over and gamble with him in an even more absurd gamble which will give me this to be able to actually start my real plan. I'm deliberately not giving any details for even one would spoil the enjoyment.

For a gambling manga, it doesn't shy away from physical fights. The Referees which preside the matches have some of the best hand to hand combat in all of manga, the matches and assassinations are INSANE. When you think you saw everything, Sako Toshio simply flips the board. Remember the Greed Island arc in Hunter x Hunter, well, it'll be a ride to say the least.

Honestly the top part was just me gushing as a fan of this manga and the man behind it. But from an extremely technical level this manga just delivers everything. The dynamic of each and every character is polished and worked on in the manga. Nothing feels left to the table and every plot thread is resolved by the end which is an extreme plus for a long running manga. The main characters, referees and "villains" you'll get to know each of them quite well, and you'll end up loving every one of them. This series has the highest number of characters I love in a manga.

The art keeps evolving with each arc and funnily enough it's never consistently the same, but not in a bad, jarring type of way. It keeps slightly changing style which feels refreshing every chapter. Extremely high detailed drawings that rival Berserk and Vagabond with ease to these highly kinetic one on one fights. It's never afraid to change style and experiment, while it does suffer, it's never bad.

I'd say this is a must read if you're a fan of entertainment. As I said "this series is written by a manga lover for manga lovers". Each decision Toshio made feels perfect to me as a fan. I was never disappointed when something happened, I never had any questions or doubts about his decisions. It's like he was reading my mind and just consistently kept telling me "Don't worry, It'll be fun" and kept pulling my hand, not letting put down the manga until I physically had to stop reading because my eyes were hurting. Toshio clearly loves manga, he reads so much of it. It feels like I could talk to him about the manga we both read and we would both fangirl over everything. Usogui is the most wild and fun ride, the most fun story I have read. Thank you Sako Toshio for creating this Masterpiece.

Baki 2nd season i believe is a step in the right direction in terms of the animation for the series,i quite honestly believe that if it continues to improve from season to season that it might get up there with one punch man,but as it is,it leaves a foul taste,sometimes when the characters are supposed to be walking or moving,the whole thing is so poorly done that it looks like they are walking in place.

Art style

Is in my opinion very good,i love the harsh black outline that depict's the harsh reality the characters are in and have to live in,but on the other hand it ... sometimes looks janky,but if we can keep this style and improve the animation in the season to come,it would be quite amazing,as it is now,its really good,but because we have this good art style,the animation quality suffers.

Story

To be honest,whoever comes into baki and expects a tightly written story,with 0 inconsistencies and plot holes,really missed the show he should be watching,that being said,the story is okay enough,its noting groundbreaking,and in my opinion the only saving grace here is Muhammad Ali Jr's arc,which in itself wasn't perfect and could have been done better.

Enjoyment

I had lots of fun watching this,all of the fights felt unique and at the very least they were all insane fun to watch,but i think that baki season 1 had more interesting fights

The main issue here

Its probably the length of the season,i feel as tho the ending was rushed,Muhammad's arc felt too short and rushed,the whole tournament felt rushed,i think a solid 24 episode's would have done great justice here and would have made for a much better season.

Overall

All in all this season is okay,if you love baki,you are gonna like this season,but i feel like we need something better,i think Baki deserves better,i would very much like to see improved animation quality and just overall presentation in the next season,the only reason im even giving a 8 is because i love this series but more importantly i want too support the anime with a good score to get another season.