Gamble Fish Review, Don't take it seriously

Gamble fish is about Shirasagi Tomu, who is nothing short of a genius when it comes to gambling. He is a new student in school that takes only rich and elite people in. Quickly his plan becomes clear to the reader: he wants to gamble and win money. Students (+ especially one dean) in the school are usually nothing sort of sadists being rich and all (critique towards the elite?) so that makes the whole setup like a battle of personality contrasts.

Art of this manga is good enough: it's clear and compared to other similar mangas such as Liar Game, Akagi, Kaiji it can even be called superb. It's clear and well designed and there happens to be a some varying quality in pages, which is present in almost every manga. The pages where there actually happens something are done in very good manner, but then there's a lot of panels where the characters are talking a lot so they take up a lot of space in this manga.

Characters of the series are in my opinion very good: Shirasagi Tomu is a good protagonist who has a clear aim and knows what to do. The villains' motives are not always so clear, but that is a thing that I'm willing to overlook. I have to say that Gamble Fish has perhaps one of the most twisted villain character compared to any series. Adibanis weirdness is so twisted that it soon becomes funny to follow. Gamble Fish also has couple very enjoyable characters who manage to surprise with their weirdness over and over again, it was obviously the aim of the author and he succeeded in it.

As for the story it's really only means to an end. The real good side of this story lies on the interesting games/matches that the characters compete in. In this case it's not about getting to the end, but the journey that we are willing to read while Shirasagi Tomu is trying to complete his objectives. I think that most of the twists in this series can be considered good: this kind of mangas often rely on things that the readers have overlooked or something similar to that. In other words the wittiness and sneaky surprise elements of this kinds of mangas are very much needed for them to be worth reading and thankfully Gamble Fish manages to pass the scores better than well in my opinion.

 At it's best it can be pretty witty and that's what makes it enjoyable. The best part is that it doesn't prolong unncesessarily itself too much with all the games and manages to keep them interesting enough through the series. The whole point of enjoying this manga is to not take it too seriously as it doesn't even take itself. When you read long enough and encounter Adibani, you'll understand what I mean.

There's really not much to say about this: if you enjoy gambling mangas and stories which are mostly based on outwitting others, then Gamble Fish is most likely for you. Only thing that I find painfully disencouraging about Gamble Fish it that it either gets scanlated too infrequently or the mangaka is definitely taking his time.