Gamble Fish

Gamble Fish (ギャンブルフィッシュ) is a Japanese manga written by Aoyama Hiromi and illustrated by Yamane Kazutoshi. Gamble Fish is serialized in Weekly Shōnen Champion. As of January 2010 fifteen tankōbon collecting the chapters were released, the first one on June 8, 2007, and the last one on January 8, 2010.

Plot
The story follows 14-year-old Shirasagi Tomu, son of the infamous swindler Yumeichirou Shirasagi. He goes to Shishidou academy, a school attended mainly by the rich and influential, from a public High School, instead of a private one, for which he is snubbed, but not for long. He quickly reveals that he is not there to study, but to earn 10 billion yen within a single month and shows himself an expert con artist in an encounter with Shishidou Mika, the great-granddaughter of the dean. He earns two allies in his roommate and class representative Mizuhara and another ally in Kimura Natsumi, a first-year student and self-proclaimed mascot and idol of Shishidou Academy. As the series progressed, a darker side of the academy comes to light, as it is revealed Shirasagi's father disappeared investigating the academy and that students who focus on things other than studying disappear and are jailed by Abidani without anyone investigating.

Main

 * Tomu Shirasagi
 * The main protagonist of Gamble Fish. It is learned that he has already crushed three schools and, apparently, plans to add Shishidou Academy to that list. In order to do so he quickly makes a name for himself by humiliating the dean's daughter, calling her his "bait" as a wall to capture the "fish" who he gambles. This act helps set Tomu's plans in motion as he is quickly challenged by Aota whose loss consequently sets off a chain of subsequent challenges. So far Tomu has defeated all his opponents through a variety of tricks and tactics. To the point that he was able to win against Rio, billiards world junior champion, in a game of billiards despite having played the game for only 10 days. Tomu is primarily opposed by the dorm dean Abidani and the dean's granddaughter Mika.


 * Mizuhara
 * Tomu's first ally and close friend who proves invaluable through several schemes. He is the class representative and first met Tomu when he was assigned to conduct Tomu's orientation. He is short, wears glasses and has a haircut which earns him the nickname "mushroom head". Although he has shown disapproval for some of Tomu's tricks and tactics, such as cutting one of his fingers off in order to seal Yuka's "magic", he has remained a steadfast reliable friend to the point that he has directly helped Tomu execute one of his tricks. He admires one of Tomu's trait of courage.


 * Natsumi Kimura
 * A first-year who develops a crush on Tomu. She wanted to become Tomu's manager but was initially manipulated by Yuka to surprise and beat Tomu in an unofficial match. However, she apologized to Tomu and quickly became a valued partner in Tomu's winning streak. Her uncle is Tatsuhiko, a former billiards pro.

Antagonist

 * Abidani
 * The sadistic dorm dean who seeks Tomu's expulsion (or death). Abidani is drawn as a devilish character, and hence acts as such, to the point that at one point he swooped down in on one of Tomu's matches in a devilish manner. Furthermore, Abidani has been shown whipping students and enjoying gory acts, such as sawing off Tomu's finger when he bets it in order to continue playing. Abidani employees a number of people to take Tomu up on his claim that he will beat them at whatever game they choose, if they bet double what his last opponent bet. So far he has only sent Tsukiyono Yuka the magician against Tomu. Because of this, Tomu openly questioned if Abidani is a coward for not facing him himself. It is later shown he runs a specific class called the Abidani Seminar, in which the "bad" students are jailed for as long as he wishes and regularly tortures. Most of the students believed this to only be a horrible rumor till Tomu's Gamble Battle against three of its members. Though he openly despises Tomu, believing him to be unworthy to attend Shishidou Academy, he appears to respect him, for his skill in cunning and trickery, along with his willingness to do whatever it takes to win. He has knowledge of Tomu's father's wereabouts, leaving Tomu to believe he has him imprisoned in the Abidani Seminar.


 * Mika Shishodou
 * Great-granddaughter of the dean of Shishidou Academy and a true beauty as well. Shirasagi contunally outsmarts her and uses her arrogance and rage at him to trick her into assisting his victory. Mika seeks revenge against Tomu, in order to regain her pride, and is the second force that opposes him outright. She asks her best friend Asahina Rio to challenge him which she accepts, though due to their pride and desire to beat Tomu once again proves to be her downfall, causing them to lose the match.


 * Aoto
 * Shirasagi's first opponent and a 3rd year. He is in charge of the 3rd. year's Public Moral's committee. He is also one of Mika's "Bodyguards". Tomu challenges him to a game, which he then cheats at, and is still defeated. As punishment, Abidani whips him along with Kaizuka. Later, both are seen jailed by Abidani in the secret prison known as Abidani's Seminar.


 * Kaizuka
 * The dorm leader, who is also the captain of the ping-pong team due to his visual acuity or the ability to see things in a slowed down sense of time. He thinks this ability will give him an unbeatable advantage in a coin toss, but Tomu outsmarts him through mental tricks, drawing Abidani's attention. He is whipped by Abidani alongside Aoto and subsequently jailed.


 * Rio
 * Mika's best friend, billiards junior world champion and the daughter of a former luxury hotel owner who was bankrupted by a con she believes orchestrated by Shirasagi's father. This rage prompts her to challenge Tomu to billiards, a game of skill, thinking she can't lose. With Gokijima's help, Tomu wins, although he does run into a few problems along the way. After her defeat, Abidani has her sports scholarship revoked and she moves to Taiwan to study billiards. Tomu appears to feel some remorse, as he sends her a note vowing to avenge her family and sending up a bunch of balloons shaped like billiards balls, thus leading to believe she now has feelings for him too. Despite this, Mika still blames him for "taking her friend" and makes her own vow of vengeance.

Tomu Supporters

 * Yuka Tsukiyono
 * A magician from a family of magicians, she is contracted by Abidani to defeat Tomu, for her unparalleled sleight of hand tricks, which makes her think that she can't be beaten at any card game. She is Tomu's third challenger and bets against Tomu on a game of Black Jack. It is revealed that she wants to defeat Tomu because gamblers use similar tricks to magicians and that, due to her older brother's death, she feels magic is the only way to be close to him and is almost sacred. However, her ego gets the best of her in the belief her skill surpassed his, and despite Abidani's warnings, practically flaunted her cheating ways and gave Tomu too many chances. Tomu sacrifices a finger so that she can't shuffle the cards because the blood stain would not match up. At the end of the match Tomu's act of stopping Yuka from sacrificing her finger, as they are a magician's life, reminds her of her late brother and as such seems to have developed feelings for Tomu, and doesn't hesitate to flirt with him at any possible chance. She later becomes a member of Tomu's three man team against the Abidani Seminar Students for the Dice Game, revealing she also knows many cheating ways with dice. She also practices kitting as a way to strengthen her fingers.


 * Tatsuhiko
 * Natsumi's uncle and a former billiards champion. He refuses to teach Tomu, because he feels gambling is wrong. He is soon bested by Gokijima, a hustler, who has no qualms teaching Tomu, for the right price. After some persuasion from Natsumi, he helps in on of Tomu's tricks by chasing Gokijima away from Tomu and Rio's match which plays a large part in Tomu's victory.


 * Gokijima
 * A rather obese and disgusting hustler who is manipulated by Tomu into helping Tomu win and receiving nothing. He is lecherous, greedy and shameless, but he is good at what he does, and he does appear again after Tomu's defeat of Rio.


 * Megumi Akino
 * First appeared in Chapter 32, she becomes the third member of Tomu's three man team for the Abidani Seminar Dice Challenge. She is known for being skilled at knitting, winning many Craft Contests. She shows up to join near the end of the month, wanting to do so earlier but was only recently able to gather the courage to do so. It is later revealed that she is also a mathematician, able to do 5 digit calculations in her head instantly, which Tomu sees as a great asset as they won't know the rules to the game till the start of the match. Her reason for joining is because she wishes to use the money won in the match (3,000,000 yen) to be able to study abroad as a knitting designer, as her parents wouldn't pay for it as they wish for her to attend medical school to continue the family practice. Natsumi gets easily jealous of her because she believes she has feelings for Tomu as well.

Others

 * Yumeichirou Shirasagi
 * Tomu's father, an unparalleled con artist and notorious swindler who taught Tomu all he knew. However, Tomu claims that his father isn't the type to swindle the innocent. It is later revealed that Yumeichirou has somehow been captured by Abidani and is being held at the academy. It is implied Yumeichirou was investigating something suspicious about the academy.