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| 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 11, 12, 14, 16, 18, 19, 21, 100 | |
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| Overall | Art | Animation | Character Design | Music | Series Story | Episode Story | Reviewer | |
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| Unevaluated | Big Fire | # | ||||||
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As much as i liked the OVA the professional, i didn't think the first episode stood on it own very well. Yes he is an expert marksman, but are we going to see episode after episode of Duke sniping away?
Last updated Sunday, May 18 2008. Created Sunday, May 18 2008. | ||||||||
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| Unevaluated | chibi | # | ||||||
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Entertainment values aside, I have to comment that the marksmanship and rifle technology in Golgo 13 is about 90% BS -- take it from a guy who has done his share of rifle shooting at 1000 yards.
Last updated Tuesday, May 13 2008. Created Tuesday, May 13 2008. | ||||||||
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| Unevaluated | Stretch | # | ||||||
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(16 episodes watched): The Golgo 13 manga is a true classic, having been in publication since 1968; I believe it holds the record as the longest running manga (in terms of time) ever. That being so, the thought has occured to me more than once that this tale deserves more anime attention than it has gotten from two not particularly outstanding movies. And, lo and behold, here it is! No less than fifty long overdue episodes ought to correct the imbalance somewhat. If, that is, a good job is done of it; the lacklustre movies have tarnished the reputation of Golgo 13 considerably in the eyes of anime otaku (American ones, at least), and I pray that this TV series will capture the true essence of the character. I have only seen the films but couldn't help being intrigued by this unemotional, inscrutable killer-for-hire, and would love to get a treatment which is more faithful to the manga. After learning of it's existence this has instantly become the series I most look forward to this Spring. In fact, I watched the raw version of episode one as soon as I could DL it. From what I can tell, an American airliner has been hijacked, and the FBI and CIA pull some strings to get Togo released from a prison to take out the hijacker. This show definitely has an unusual visual style, making use of split screens (at one point four different images were playing, each on 1/4 of the screen), and lots of darkness and shadows. It contributes to a feeling of this being a dark, gritty tale of the underside of society. When Duke's distinctive face first emerged from the darkness of his prison cell, I giggled with delight. A trademark of the Golgo 13 genre is that he is seemingly indifferent to concepts of right and wrong, and the plots play with these notions. With no dialogue to go by, I couldn't tell how much use was being made of this, but all-in-all I breathed a sigh of relief. Even if nobody ever fansubs these, I wouldn't mind watching them in raw form. This was violent, nasty, lewd--and fun. Togo is possibly the ultimate anti-hero. At the end I said to myself "That was pretty cool"! Good news! Both Spoonsubs and BSS have picked up this project. I watched the subtitled version and was pleased with the result. I won't claim that it's brilliant, but it captures Duke's silent badass attitude admirably (The one word which is repeatedly used in forums to describe him is badass). The dialogue could've had more depth (and more lines like the one below), but an anime with gun-action (not action-comedy with guns, but pure gun-action) is almost unique. The only near matches I can think of would be Gunslinger Girl for assasins, and City Hunter for phenomenal marksmanship. Watching Duke work out a solution to a seemingly impossible ballistics problem is fun; I hope they'll stay original for 50 episodes. One of my favorite touches: during the station break we see a shillouette practice target behind Golgo. It has only one bullet hole in it--and it's right between the eyes. I thought episode two was much better than number one, which is very encouraging as to the quality of the series as a whole. You know what? I'm going to start compiling episode reviews. Basically, Golgo 13 practically says in your face! to the anime traditions of mecha, the supernatural, swordsmanship, teen romance, harems, etc. It falls into a category of it's own, which is original and refreshing, IMHO. The danger and the seedy side of society are delicious. It disdains the notion that the good guys/girls will always win in the end--Duke always wins, of course, but he's neither good nor evil. Despite this (or because of it) only now is it getting a TV series of it's own. When BSS fansubs stopped coming, I was so desperate that I decided to start watching this series in raw form--I would only do this for a show I really love. Unfortunately, the episodes don't make much sense that way. I read that BSS had abandoned this series because the head translator had quit and the others preferred working on Gundam 00. Fortunately, a couple of additional episodes have been fansubbed, including number 16 by SDX-RSS. Someone claimed that a number of the fansubbers were the same people as before, however. My favorite line (so far): "Don't stand behind him if you value your life!" --narrator Last updated Tuesday, December 16 2008. Created Sunday, March 30 2008. | ||||||||
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Other Sites
| Name | URL |
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| Wikipedia Golgo 13 Page | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golgo_13 |
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