Anyway, before that - the basics. This is a VERY episodic anime following the ultra manly Golgo 13 who, with his trusty modified m16 assault rifle is the best assassin ever. EVER. With the thickest manliest eyebrows EVER. He is a never-changing FACT - everything bends around HIM. Forget about his origins... they are UNKNOWN and that is all that can be known of them. This anime starts really slow with a very underwhelming first episode, but stick with it. I recommend watching the two anime movies if you need help getting into GOLGO. Each episode follows what happens to the neighbourhood when the unchanging Golgo turns up in town with elaborate impossible plans. Impossible for anyone without his supreme skill. 3 million is all it costs to secure his services, and he NEVER fails a job. He seems to resent speaking, never moves a muscle during sex which is always THE BEST SEX EVER for whoever he is with (even the sex workers seem to be blown away by his sexual prowess and from all i can tell are generally NOT faking it, which is surreal)... So the anime is a story about different people every week, coz his job takes him all over the world... especially the USA for some reason. Only the arms dealer and some fbi nobody seem to turn up in more than one episode. And they aren't in many at all. The stories are variable but usually plenty entertaining with a twist usually waiting at the end. It looks decent, and I faintly recall that they vary the directors from episode to episode, i think, which is cool. One of the later episodes has a twist so good you will never forget it. Everyone has their own favourite episode. Mine is the wine one.
But what makes every episode really exciting to watch is having the DVD, which gives me access to both sub and dub at the same time, with the original japanese audio too... And when you watch the dub and start to notice when something seems off.. say, a weird silly laugh... and you go to the original audio and realise that laugh was never even there... And then you start checking for every line, and suddenly lines like 'what's up doc?' become suspicious, and you check and the sub doesn't say that... but surely that's just a turn of phrase not meant as a reference to bugs bunny? But then you start checking every possible turn of phrase and whilst some ridiculous stuff was in the original, SO MUCH of the ridiculous stuff is an insertion by these absolute WORDSMITHS.
There are SO many entertaining tropes to watch out for:
-ALMOST every episode (this is how they fly under the radar by not doing EVERY episode) there is usually at least one ridiculous voice. Often it's just a side character, but in some golden episodes they are voices of main characters. I, personally, am utterly electrified by the dub performance of the evil wheellchair dude in The Glass Fortress (Episode 19) - he sounds like he is on cocaine and is constantly trying to pretend that he isn't. It's incredible. The most memorable silly voice in my social circle has become the old lady in Indian Summer (Episode 20)... the way she says 'Hank' is just hilarious, especially watching in a group.
-Golgo's enemies praising him once they've been beaten/killed by him... it gets ridiculous.
-Golgalikes are people in the show who have a bizarrely similar appearance to Golgo. They usually mean business. There are a fair few of em. It's quite funny.
-Physical descriptions of Golgo are thrillingly entertaining. I'm compiling a list on my current watch through, and i haven't even got to the bit where a woman says 'he has an amazing japanese body that's made of steel'... but i remember it strongly... i will leave the rest for you to find.
-There's some really weird hammy racism towards 'asians' which from what i can tell was in the original, and the dub kinda amplified its toothless weird hammy clunky implementation... it's so ridiculous it is generally hilarious. which sounds messed up but it's just SO clunky that it becomes very silly.
-The theme tune for the first 25 episodes is the really good one. I recommend trying to sing along to it with a friend, either along to the english translation if it's offering you it that time, or try to sing along to the japanese which also sometimes appears... at least this is what you can do if you're using the dvd. it cost me 50 quid but i split it with a friend and it has been SO worth it. these are hugely entertaining to watch exploratively with company.
-Golgo has a secret love of ferris wheels in fairgrounds. he just loves anything like that. if you want his attention, invite him to a fairground to do your dirty deal rather than paying lots for opera tickets or something. golgo's inner child screams with unbridled glee at fairgrounds. he never shows it, but he does end up contriving reasons to bei in such places a suspicious amount. he's a big softy inside.
-Everyone lives in penthouses with bulletproof glass, and if they do leave their pentahouse, it will be in a car that is 'practically a tank'.
The final episode is the wrong final episode. Episode 48, Black Pupils, Ebony Eyes should've been the last one. I recommend you watch them with that in mind. omg, in that episode a character says 'you've never had kids coz you're a dick!' and guess what, the sub doesn't have the 'coz you're a dick!' bit... also Ron is amazing in that episode ahhhh i love it....
Okay, fan theory time. There is a woman around the halfway point in the series who i believe golgo develops feelings for, and he ends up killing her... but i think this decision haunts him and he ends up questioning everything that he is doing. obviously he is super manly and doesn't let this show and it is subtle character development, but when he questions the motives of the wine person for example - he takes on SO MANY underhanded jobs, so WHY does he question THIS person's actions? There is only one true answer.
Content warning for shitty abusive including sexually abusive things happening to women from time to time. it's often uncomfortable but most episodes are fine... but yeh it's a thing. soz.
