Golgo 13 The Animated Series

Rather than review any new anime that I personally enjoy, I have made it my mission on Cheshire Cat Studios to review only the best anime that would conform to Western preferences and be something that even those who have been jaded by overly Eastern-orientated anime could watch, and very likely enjoy.



Golgo 13: The Animated Series

What is it with our natural fascination into the lives of secret agents, assassins, and international men or women of mystery? In popular fiction, they are charming, wealthy and they visit exotic locations It is require of them to have to fight their way out of traps using either their cunning skills or their arsenal of hi-tech gadgets, and after the fighting they need to bed a beautiful woman with sexual innuendos for names. Secret agents and other more shadowy figures live a glorified life that we all wish was our own. The money, the adventure, the sex, and the prestige are what we as human beings naturally strive towards, and that is likely why we have been drawn to follow the adventures of Ian Fleming's James Bond, Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan, Earl Derr Biggers' Charlie Chan, numerous Alfred Hitchcock films, the Bourne trilogy, and so many more.

But there is one mysterious figure of international intrigue who has been relatively unknown in the West, but whose adventures - beginning in 1969 with the classic manga comics by Takao Saito - have been popularized in Japanese Manga, video games, two alive action films, two feature length animated movies, and a recent anime series. He is the the world's greatest sniper and a professional mercenary and assassin for hire, known by the pseudonym Duke Togo but more widely recognized by his code name, "Golgo 13".



Golgo 13's identity and past remain shrouded in mystery, however his skill with a gun is legendary and unparalleled, and he will hire himself out to anyone with a few million dollars to spare, regardless of the client's politics, nationality, or, to a lesser extent, the moral ramifications. The vast majority of the missions that Golgo 13's clients present require his sniping the intended target during seemingly impossible circumstances. Whether the window of opportunity is severely limited, or the distance between Golgo 13 and the target is too great, each client will pay the extraordinarily high multimillion dollar fee because Golgo 13 never fails his missions.

With Golgo 13's impressively long publication history, and also several games and OVA's, it was likely that the popular assassin would become the star of his very own animated series. An animated series of Golgo 13 aired from April of 2008 to March of 2009, producing an impressive 50 episode series. Each episode is entirely stand alone; there is no overarching theme or larger plot, only 50 unique missions.



Golgo 13 is very reminiscent of classic James Bond movies in that both James Bond and Golgo 13 both utilize specialized weapons, both collect intelligence for their assignments, and both have healthy libidos for the stunning ladies in their lives. But unlike James Bond, Golgo 13 is far less comical and rather than make jokes or operate in the luxuries of high end hotels, restaurants, and exotic sports cars like his British counterpart, Golgo 13 conducts himself with ruthless efficiency to stay one step ahead of his enemies, and to keep himself from being one foot in either jail or a grave.

But as intimidating as Golgo 13 may seem, and with obvious similarities to fictional hit men like The Jackal, Golgo 13 is not limited to killing, as demonstrated in earlier episodes. One example is when a famous violinist hires Golgo 13 to shoot the G String of his rival's violin during a concert performance, or to shoot out a tire of a rally car to prevent the car's manufacturer from obtaining a large corporate contract. And the Golgo 13 anime never really emphasizes the target itself, but the process and the preparation taken prior to the shot.



Although the stories are condensed, they follow similar formulas. The majority of the earlier episodes in the series follow not Golgo 13, but the person supplying the contract, a third party or Golgo 13's target, and the tale is told from their point of view as to the events surrounding their encounters with Golgo 13. About quarter-way through the series this formula is slightly broken: rather than Golgo 13 simply sniping a target and then walking into the sunset, episodes become more elaborate with Golgo 13 not only simply shoots his targets, but he is much more active in aforeplanning and the execution of his plans. In addition, more than one point of view is shown, such as Golgo's, the target's, and that of the person who paid the contract. The result are episodes that are either more action orientated, or more emotionally satisfying.

But it is the formulaic pattern of every episode that would normally be criticized. Golgo 13 gets his contract, and manages to formulate a plan that is improbable and takes a shot that is nearly impossible, and in the end Golgo 13 is always successful. To once again drawing comparison to classic James Bond movies, although every mission is entirely fantastic in nature and every outcome generally predictable, it isn't the end that is satisfying but the entire course of events that proves rewarding. In contrast to 007, Golgo 13's missions are far from being as similar as James Bond saving the world form a megalomaniac who schemes for world domination, and instead finds himself in a great variety of situations than simply shooting a target. Golgo 13 is set up, hunted, and seduced. He takes Government jobs, Mafia contracts, or even normal people who seek revenge for being wronged. He battles through cities, jungles, deserts, and crowds. He can be silently stalking his target, speeding down the road in a high speed car chase, defusing a bomb on a cruise ship, or find himself on an airplane during a hijacking. His targets can be mobsters, terrorists, political figures, other assassins, movie stars, sports stars, small-time thugs, or even inanimate objects. He is a world class sniper, but also proficient with pistols, assault rifles, knives, and hand to hand combat. The diversity of his situations aren't even close to the diversity of the plots of each episode, and while the general outcome of every mission is predictable, the situations that Golgo 13 finds himself in are not.



The violence in every episode is not intense, but it is certainly generally more bloody than a 007 film. And even more surprising is that the animated series does not shy away from topless nudity, as there are many bare breasted women featured through the full series. In fact, the opening credits openly features breasts. And although there is sex, it's never gratuitous and is often filmed, or animated as the case may be, as standard lovemaking montages that never show anything that would merit an explicit rating.

My chief complaint of Golgo 13 is his almost complete lack of a personality or character. With other great fictional spies and hardened hired guns, the characters often bring forth their personalities and each character seems to grow over time. One of my favorite examples is the James Bond movie Casino Royal which follows the tale of a very green James Bond maturing to the cold, ironic Bond that we all know and love. However, the character of Golgo 13 is much closer to Bruce Willis's portrayal of The Jackal; little is known about him, he is cold and solitary, and the act of killing doesn't stir either pain or pleasure within him, it's just a job and nothing more. Golgo 13 is emotionless and often entirely silent, as though he were more of a Terminator than a man. And while he partakes in sex, he seems to lay in one position, expressionless as though the woman he is coupled with is channeling all of the pleasure in a very over the top manner seen in pornography.



The most fascinating aspect about Golgo 13 is that in many of his episodes he is clearly a cold and calculating sniper who will kill even women whom he has had past relations with if she becomes his paid target. And yet you are rarely presented with an episode that turns his entire character on end and you see a faint glimpse of compassion and humanity staring down the scope of a sniper rifle. It is in these brief glimpses of Golgo 13's soul that you find yourself needing to continue following him on his mission in hopes that he either reveals more of his past, or reveals more of himself as a person, albeit only very briefly.

My verdict is that if you are a fan of James Bond spy thrillers and action films about hit men and mercenaries like The Jackal, you must at the very least rent Golgo 13 The Animated Series because it is a highly entertaining series that delivers both action, some excellent stories, and a hint of mystery. Do not let the fact that Golgo 13 is an anime dissuade you from watching it because it is well worth what little of your time it requires to be invested.

-clap-

Yeah I've only seen a episode or so but I remember thinking the show was fun and defiantly entertaining. Great Job as always Onoe ^_^

Bravo, my friend, this was truly an excellent review!

What I really liked was how you didn't into too much detail about certain plot points or, indeed, Golgo, and yet you still managed to deliver a quite insightful analysis of both the show's story-lines, as well as its main character.

Personally, if you ask me, the review can easily be published on the main page right now! However, if I were to criticise, I'd say the review felt a little callous.

Don't get me wrong, you did manage to elaborate on why you liked the show and how it can be appealing to fans of spy/mercenary films (personally, I would've also added Leon: The Professional in your list of great mercenary films, but, then again, that's just me), but I would've liked if you added a couple of more sentences containing "Personally", "To me", "I thought" in place of some of the generalizing "Those who like this or that will like" kind off remarks in order to make the review a little bit more buoyant and fleshed out, if you know what I mean...

Also, you might want to fix these:



Other than that, a magnificent review!

P.S. As for the series itself, I dunno. Usually I'm quite fond of these types of spy/hitam style of films/series, but, to be frank, that's mostly because of the well fleshed out and likable (to some extent at least...) main characters with whom I can sympathize with in spite of their professional and questionable moral codes (i.e. see Leon); however, if you say that Goldo is more of an emotionless stoic brick than an charming sarcastic womanizer, plus, there is no overarching storyline connecting the episodes, and that violence and tits are the only redeeming factors, I think I'll give this one a pass...

You've got me curious about this series now, but like CineMax said, if the main character is an emotionless brick, then where's the attraction?

Also, in past reviews you've described the animation and voice acting, so maybe add those to this review, too? Unless you don't think they will add much, or they may even derail your review a bit.

I'd say clean up a few grammatical items that CineMax found, and then post this up Wednesday.
As usual, nice work!

Well, ONOE did mention in his review how all of the episodes are unique in their own style and manner, which I suppose can be somewhat of a redeeming factor, but, then again, (a) if there's no overarching storyline connecting all of Golgo's missions and he himself is just a generic emotionless thug who only occasionally drops one line of dialogue and shags some wench now and then, it kind of makes the whole series feel a bit disjointed, if not even incoherent; and (b) I'm sorry, but 50 episodes is a bit too much for a such a repetitive and uneventful show, don't you think?


Good point! I'd like to hear whether the animation and voice acting are good, 'cos if Wikipedia is to be believed the show was released in 2008, and yet when looking at the screens I somehow got the erroneous conception like the show was from the early 2000s or even 1990s...

Every fucking screenshot of the main character has that same scowl on his face o_o

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Maybe he just wants a hug?

In all seriousness, yeah... No offense, ONOE, but I'm just curious whether it's the screenshots that depict Golgo as an emotionless cardboard cut-out while in reality he's a compelling three dimensional character, or does he always look like that?

P.S. Just for the sake of fairness I'd like to point out that if a character has the same look on his face it doesn't mean he's an emotionless one-dimensional robot. Take for instance Blondie for Sergio Leone's "Dollars" Trilogy. A great character who's iconic squint only made him look even more badass!

http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/i ... Tropes.jpg

I... think he's smiling in this image.

LOL!!!!!!! I didn't realize that until you pointed it out. LOL!!

No offense ONOE, I just thought it was funny.

Well this wasn't exactly the response I was expecting but your comments are justified to a point. Maybe I didn't make it clear enough that the individual stories are more focused on situations and the people whom encounter the infamous assassin, for better or for worse, which isn't all that unusual for television. The only example of a television series that I can think of which follows a similar situational and non continual format would be Quantum Leap in which the same character finds himself in the middle of other peoples' lives and whose mission is to make some correction to historical events, but with little plot continuation through the entire series. But you are all correct in your assumption that Golgo 13 is a very stoic, and largely two-dimensional character who makes his appearances in the lives of others long enough to gather information and then shoot his target. With so little to like in regards to Golgo 13's personality or lack thereof, he still possesses an aura of mystery that's captivating.

Another comment is the artistic style which I should have elaborated upon, but the art style of Golgo 13 hasn't changed all that radically since his debut in 1969, with a large majority of the male characters being portrayed in a characature style with exaggerated facial features to make them all distinctive. The female characters, or the attractive ones specifically, are often of an idealistic super model design which varies little except for hair color and some less noticable features. To say that this anime looks as though it were animated a few decades ago, it is largely because of the art style and not my blurry screen shots.

And Mr. Farino, Golgo 13 always looks like that. Even while having sex. That follows up on another point that I raised in my review, regarding how Golgo 13 can send a woman into a fit of extacy while appearing as passionate as a shark.

But that is what Golgo 13 is, a shark, and possibly even a boogyman akin to the slasher horror icons such as Jason Vorhees and Michael Meyers, whom are equally as two-dimensional, and yet have an aura of mystery that is no less captivating.

Perhaps I will expand my review with some of these points.