Golgo 13 12
November 19, 2009
Takao Saito – Viz – 2007 – 13 volumes
the US edition is based on a special “greatest hits” release of the manga. Golgo 13 is 154+ volumes.
Oh, Duke Togo. So serious. So much fun to read about. I like the stories better when there’s not a huge government conspiracy involved. The first story starts out with some CIA line, but then quickly turns into a Golgo 13 versus a Russian counterpart face-off. The second story is a personal vendetta, which are my favorite stories.
The first story was interesting because the first third of the story is Duke Togo catching up to someone who is clearly ahead of him and after the same thing, and then there’s a small segment where that man chases after Duke Togo, and then they briefly work together. The motives of the Russian man are never made clear, and the story is interesting because you are waiting to see how one reacts to the other. The ending was the most interesting part of all. The plot involves busting up some sort of… poison/drug lab that serves several nations in secret. Golgo 13 is hired because the CIA is in hot water and needs the poison disposed of immediately. If they can’t use it, no one can.
The second story is about a man who hires Golgo 13 to take out the mayor of a certain town in Mississippi. The mayor is hilariously racist, and he and his police squad use several slurs I’ve never even heard before. The mayor catches wind of Golgo 13 coming to assassinate him, so we also get the slurs about Duke Togo being Japanese, and it only gets better when Golgo 13 teams up with a black resistance movement set on stopping the mayor. It didn’t strike me as insulting since the portrayal is so over-the-top. We are told immediately that the mayor is like this, and everything out of his mouth is some sort of slur, which pretty much means you can’t take him seriously. Also, you know he’ll get his in the end, anyway.
Notably, Golgo 13 uses methoxsalen to darken his skin, knowing that the police will shoot any Asian man they see on site. Also notable is the fact that Golgo 13 is shown with women in both stories, something that hasn’t happened in a long time.
The File 13 in the back is about Golgo 13′s income and expenditures. It is quite possibly the geekiest thing I’ve ever seen, where the amounts he was paid from every story it was mentioned in are added up, and then any expenditure that is mentioned is taken away from this total, then things like averages for the jobs where pay isn’t mentioned are discussed at length, as are anomalies and other things about his finances. I read the whole thing, and as impressive as it is… that’s ten minutes of my life I’m never getting back.
