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Wow. Woooooow. This is bad. This is just, shockingly bad.

I'm a Golgo newbie. I only knew him as the guy with the funny serious face more than two months ago. I've been getting into the works, juggling both the manga and the anime, and just like, wow, there is a night and day difference. How does this average a 7 on Mal?

For reference, I'm watching the dub. Which I probably should not be. Not to shit on voice actors or anything but I don't know if anyone at Sentai Filmworks was truly TRYING on this thing, but uh, not impressed.

So this show, like the manga, ... is a series of unconnected stories with their own episodic context of Golgo performing some action or hit for someone. The problem that comes with this show is that it is very amateurish in tons of respects. The animation is very subpar. Some people's heads almost oscillate when they talk with an unnatural squash and squish, running is just poorly timed with the walking noises, it really feels like the only characters they had the time and care to really draw was Golgo.

And honestly that's sort of a good thing because Golgo is a very constant facet in the series. And as an outsider looking in, you're like, "huh? why isn't he? his name is in the name of the show!" but honestly the actual manga doesn't have Golgo in it ALL THE TIME. The anime makes Golgo seem like just James Bond but Japanese and with better hair, which isn't unentertaining as a prospect, but when you consider how the anime flounders at nearly every other aspect, it poorly executes it and it just seems grating. Every episode with a Golgo related conflict near the end is predictable; he's going to win, and the anime doesn't make it entertaining enough to see how he does it. Gun fights are completed in very quick time because of a lack of budget, and even when they are animated, there's nothing to latch on to, no punch to these bullets to feel the impact of. There's just almost no talent behind this anime and it just feels like it does an injustice to our great hero Duke Togo.

That said, Golgo is sort of just, a great character, so even in a poor adaptation there are some things to like. I particularly enjoyed the episode where Golgo's hit is another violinists' string, and another episode that involved a unique double-twist involving plastic surgery. It was just a little more cerebral than the rest of the anime, but Death Note these episodes are not. Maybe I just find Golgo infinitely charismatic. It's like when you play Sonic 06 and you know that game is absolutely terrible but hey at least the theme for Crisis City is playing and that song rocks. So maybe this anime actually deserves a lower score but I am biased.

Please just read the manga instead. The Viz volumes are so good and are absolutely worth your time, and this anime is not.

I am currently going through the Viz releases dating from 2006 to 2008. These releases are included with a number of liner notes at the end to further expand Golgo 13, his arsenal, and the people behind his stories.

The actual mangas are selected issues, with varying contexts that are plucked and taken as per Viz saw. It is entirely possible that Viz cherrypicked some of the stronger stories they thought, or ones that would appeal more to an international audience, but I will say that many of these stories really are quite cerebral. This isn't just a James Bond story. This is very much a ... series of drama tales with a political, economical, or personal spin on them. Golgo isn't Rambo, he's a force, an agent, who is as levelheaded as he is smoldering (which is to say, very).

My personal favorite story has to probably be in Viz Volume 13, "Dark Skinned Sniper", which has a scathingly accurate and gritty portrayal of police-on-black racism that hits far too hard today, considering the story is pushing 50 years old now. Despite a problematic disguise Golgo takes to blend in to a black commune (he deeply tans himself; this story was written in the 70s and if this upsets you, hey I don't blame you), the tale truly does hold up even to this day as we can all relate to the plight of the black man.

Some other fantastic stories too, including one where Golgo doesn't show up at all, a Golgo-ified retelling of the 2000 Florida presidential elections, one where a man who looks like Golgo kind of rides the high life pretending to be him and taking a hit in his name, lots of fun stories to be told. Viz also provides extraordinarily high quality scans and translations too. I'm someone who normally reads 4komas, slice of life, mecha, and gag mangas, and I am enthusiastically entertained by what I am reading.

But good god don't watch the anime.