Golgo 13

I'm amazed that there's no review for this movie, especially as Golgo 13 is pretty well known in anime circles. But then again, anime that are over 25 years old don't seem to get much love these days, no matter how good or bad they are.

Golgo 13: The Professional was released in 1983, a full 7 years after the manga by Saito Takao ended serialisation. During it's run the manga saw phenomenal success in both Japan and the rest of the world, with over 200 million sales in various formats. The series was adapted into two live action movies in 1973 and 1977, both of ... which were reasonably well received, but were not the successes that had been hoped for.

Fast forward to 1983, and the release of the first anime incarnation of the legendary assassin Duke Tougou. At that time anime was still in it's infancy in the Western market, with much of what was being released were either Ghibli affairs, or shows that were deemed suitable for Western audiences. Then, Golgo 13: The Professional arrived on the stage, and nothing was ever the same again.

It's often commented about how Akira opened the Western markets for anime, however what is often overlooked are the shows that came before it that gradually forced their way into how we in the West viewed "cartoons". Golgo 13 was not only responsible for giving that door a good kick, it also had the added bonus of being made specifically for an adult audience, something which was almost unheard of at the time.

The story follows the exploits of Duke Tougou, the legendary assassin known only as Golgo 13. He has been comissioned to kill one Robert Dawson, the son of oil baron and owner of Dawson Enterprises, Leonard Dawson. Although Golgo 13 is successful in his task, Leonard Dawson has sworn bloody revenge for the murder of his son and heir. Throw in the army, FBI, CIA, other assasins, mass murderers and a distinct lack of morals, and you have a recipe for something..... unique.

The pacing and style in which the plot unfolds is actually very good, and is very reminiscent of the better class of action movie. Indeed, the writers took their cues from several action movies from both the East and the West, which is ironic as this movie has in turn inspired others, from Luc Besson's "Leon", to Tarantino's "Kill Bill" (even the videogame "Hitman" pays homage to the whole Golgo 13 series in several instances). The whole story starts with an innocuously languid feel, which belies the breakneck speed at which it progresses later on.

One thing I did like about the plot for this movie was that it wasn't simply about Duke Tougou, but was seen from the perspective of Leonard Dawson as well. His blinding rage at Golgo 13 is the main driver for the story as a whole, and is also what adds some drama and tension to what would otherwise have been a fairly one dimensional action movie. Another thing that separates this from the herd is the huge twist at the end of the movie as it adds a new dimension to the events that occur, and also explains a lot about Leonard Dawson as a character.

Given the age of the movie it would be fair to expect animation to be subpar compared to most titles on offer today. That said, Golgo 13 was one of the first anime to make regular use of CGI, something which did not become prominent in the medium until the mid 90s. This is only used in certain sequences, however it is used to good effect on the whole. Some of the buildings and backdrops are clearly CGI, but rather spartan with the detail. Those that are not are nicely drawn and detailed, making them a decent canvas upon which the action can take place.

The design for Duke Tougou follows very close with that of the manga and, using the manga as inspiration, the other characters were also created using Saito's foundations. The nice thing about this is that each of the characters have a certain "believable-unbelievability" about them, in other words, they're visually larger than life characters in the style of any good action story.

Animation-wise, the movie isn't too bad on the whole. It is, however, reflective of the time, which means that there is often an over-emphasis on speed and movement (the use of speed lines for example), which can detract from a given scene. These techniques were used often during the 70s, 80s, and early 90s though, so their usage can be forgiven if one remembers that fact.

Unfortunately I've only seen the English dub for this movie (one of the few anime I haven't watched in both languages - yet), but don't be fooled into thinking that this is a bad thing. The dub is actually pretty well acted, if a little wooden on the whole. Gregory Snegoff, who plays the role of Duke Tougou, has also played several other anime based roles, however this role was a challenge for him and the rest of the cast as they were effectively being asked to speak and act like no other anime characters before.

Ultimately the dub is pioneering stuff though as it effectively paved the way for more adult oriented anime like Akira, Crying Freeman, Wicked City, Genocyber, AD Police, etc, etc, to be released on the Western market.

The music an eclectic blend of pop, rock and jazz, with some strange quasi-classical pieces thrown into the mix. This seemingly odd mixture of style and content has meant that some people have found the movie to be less than satisfying, primarily because the music and the atmosphere sometimes don't mix. Although this may be the case in certain circumstances, it's my belief that, at least musically, the movie is well served by the majority of the tracks it uses.

As far as characters go, one would expect Duke Tougou to be the one who gets the most development. Ironically, and fittingly, it isn't actually him who is the driver for the movie. That role belongs to Leonard Dawson who, in my opinion, is one of the better anime antagonists to appear fro the 80s. Dawson's blind rage over the death of his son pushes him to act in ways that are both morally and legally wrong, however his thirst for revenge overrides everything else. What is interesting to see in the movie is how Golgo 13 remains unchanged and unchangeable - forever the quiet assasin, whilst all the hatred, evil and invective happen because of Leonard Dawson, which poses an intruiging moral argument as to who is actually the monster in this case.

That said, the other characters aren't really developed all that well, and some of the supporting characters are extremely stereotypical. Laura Dawson (the widow of Robert), is a case in point, as she seems to be a character with almost no backbone whatsoever, no matter gets thrown at her. The other characters are equally as poor unfortunately, with almost no depth to them.

This is a movie with numerous flaws, however it works as a straight up action flick simply because of the conflict between Duke and Leonard. The acting may be wooden at times, but this can easily be forgiven as the action does make up for it.

So, will you enjoy this? If, like me, this was one of the first anime you owned back in the 80s, then the movie will have a certain nostalgic feel, especially when we recall how cool the CGI helicopter looked back then. Likewise, if you're a fan of the manga, or the recent TV series, then this is a movie you shouldn't miss as it does do justice to the franchise.

Action junkies and people looking for something with a bit more bite may also want to give this a try as, even with the flaws, it's still makes for pretty entertaining viewing.

But if you want romance, friendship, comedy, or twinkly stars and rainbows, then steer clear.

Golgo 13: The Professional.

To me, its was The Eighties: The Anime.

Golgo 13, an assassin who lives by a samurai code and never breaks his word, shoots his way through a Sicilian mafia and uncovers that a mysterious organisation is trying to put him 6 feet into the ground. He's a mix of James Bond and Agent 47, which makes him even more badass.

This movie has all the action you could wish for, and more. He pulls off seemingly impossible shots with his rifle, gets into fistfights with special forces and extremely sinister villains, engages in high speed car chases where he drifts round the ... streets of San Francisco, and makes love to several women whilst saxophones perform a romantic rendition in the background.

All this whilst the art is gorgeously drawn, no shots are the same as Golgo 13 stoicly fights through the movie from beginning to end. However, there are some flaws to this movie.

There's the worst CGI scene I've ever witnessed near the end of the spectacle which ruined my immersion completely. I couldn't help but laugh at how out of place the CGI was. Did they run out of money for that scene or something?

Another flaw was that they had spent the entire movie building up the 3 counter assassins who seemed impossible to kill and has Golgo 13 dispatch of them within minutes. On one hand, it does show how invulnerable Golgo is, but on the other hand it does leave me and possibly a lot of other people underwhelmed by how easily they were killed.

All in all, this is a great movie to watch despite the flaws if you're big on action, mystery and maybe even romance and love the eighties as a decade.

Overview:

When you think of the most successful and best selling manga series of all time, you probably think of stuff like: One Piece, Bleach, Naruto, Dragonball, etc. However, there is a manga that has been running non-stop since the 1960s! That manga is Golgo 13, and it is basically unknown outside of Japan. Golgo is one of those series along with Lupin 3rd that is not just HUGE in Japan, but at the level of cultural icon, yet they are utterly irrelevant everywhere else outside of Japan. In Japan, Golgo has sold well over 200 million copies, which is more than Rurouni Kenshin, Yu Yu ... Hakusho, Attack on Titan, and Inuyasha...combined! Is the anime movie of this highly successful manga any good? Not really.

Golgo is a badass assassin who kills without mercy and sleeps with all the ladies. He is a smooth, sociopathic killing machine. However, Golgo never evolved outside a crude ripoff of James Bond in 50 freaking years. He is never given a background even in the manga, so it goes without saying that you learn NOTHING about the guy in the movie. It would be OK if only certain details were kept ambiguous like where he was born, how he became an assassin, why he became an assassin, but we don't even know his basic likes and dislikes, let alone his character motivation. Golgo may be GAR, but he is possibly the most flat, one dimensional character in anime history. For many viewers, this kind of makes Golgo a tad boring. We know he's going to win. We know he's going to kill his target without getting a scratch on him and he isn't going to feel bad for killing him. Eventually even something as awesome as sniping people in the head gets stale and redundant.

The plot is that Golgo kills the son of a very wealthy man, who had a mysterious hit order placed on him. The wealthy father than sends legions of guys after Golgo only for Golgo to easily kill them all. The plot in this movie is honestly pretty simplistic, apart from having one of the absolute STUPIDEST twist endings in anime history. I won't spoil it, but even M. Night would say that was head bashingly retarded!

To be honest, Golgo 13 doesn't even have the cheesy 1980s charm to it that Violence Jack has. It is honestly quite boring. Seriously. A movie about a hitman popping people in the fucking head is boring! If you want to see a Golgo movie, I would check out the live action version with Sonny Chiba! Why? Because Sonny Chiba makes everything better! He rips people's balls off, has a black belt in Ninjutsu, and has eyebrows even bushier than Leonid Brezhnev's! Golgo 13 the anime movie is a mediocre waste of time, but it is never a waste of time to see what kind of over the top performance good ol Shinichi Chiba will turn in!