History Manga / Golgo13

Saito mentioned in interviews that he has made draft plans on how to end the manga should it be necessary, either by him or by the editors. The manga went into its first hiatus as the longest running manga without a single interruption in May 2020, at 52 years, due to [[UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic the COVID-19 pandemic.]] It came back with the first chapter published on July 2020.[[https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/interest/2021-07-05/golgo-13-manga-breaks-guinness-world-record-for-most-volumes/.174827 Regardless, it now holds the record for most manga volumes in history with a whopping 201 and counting as of July 2021.]]

** The M16A2 Golgo currently uses has a custom barrel, cheek pad, and a special scope mounting. [[https://www.rockislandauction.com/detail/64/871/desirable-cased-colt-delta-match-hbar-sporter-rifle-with-scope This is highly similar to an actual M16A2 variant known as the HBAR (High Barrel) Delta]], which possesses those same attributes, except that it retains the standard carry handle.

** The first known example of this is in "Insect - The Last Spy". After rooting out the person responsible for trying to kill him, Golgo stages an elaborate, ''Franchise/MissionImpossible''-style ruse with the aid of his banker to ferret out his target - by roping in a village and pretending World War II is still ongoing. When "Insect" finally reveals herself, the last we see is Golgo at the controls of the plane, just as his banker rings the town bells to signal that the job has been completed.

* RatedMForManly: A DarkerAndEdgier version.

* BrokenWinLossStreak: Despite his legend as an "unbeatable" hitman, Golgo has indeed failed twice. The first happened in "Accidental", as he never followed up on the hit after he found out who sabotaged the job. The other happened in "Rockford's Ambition - Flaw in the Strategy" where his kill was stolen by a rival sniper woking for the Rockford family. Very nearly averted in "Telepath", as he indeed tried to quit the job was convinced to stay on for longer.

* {{Ubermensch}}: Golgo has indeed been doing this throughout his career.

* AGodAmI: "Eye of God" has Dr. Belmeyer, with his impressive deductive talents and access to a highly advanced spy satellite, can see and understand nearly anything on Earth and makes actual comparisons between himself and God. He believes that if he can blackmail Golgo 13 into killing anyone he pleases, he'd be unstoppable. But can he see why Golgo shouldn't be treated like a pawn? [[EyeScream Not]][[MoeGreeneSpecial]][[LaserGuidedKarma for long...]]
* AceSpecial: Golgo's various M16s throughout the years. In the older stories, his M16 and M16A1s had different carrying handles (or lost them alltogether) and could easily be broken apart, more so than the standard M16. The last M16A1 he used in "The Masterpiece Assault Rifle" was even mentioned to have a special "super barrel" that gave it longer range, explaining how it was able to used for slightly longer hits than its advertised maximum effective distance.

** Variation; in one story, Golgo meets up with Mandy Washington, a journalist who once tried to uncover his identity. Golgo is ''extremely'' touchy about the subject of his origins, but Mandy backed off after a third party killed his friend and scared him straight into halting his investigation into Golgo's past. As such, Golgo does not end up killing him when they cross paths again.

** The 1969 story ''The Yellow Rose''. Duke is hired to kill a playboy only known as The Yellow Rose, who's infamous for seducing rich, famous women who later turn up dead. A pornographic film featuring a Creator/MarilynMonroe-expy leads him to a rug factory in Iran, where he discovers countless other films, where he also notices that all the men appearing in the films are different people and can't be the Yellow Rose. Finally, it turns out [[spoiler: The REAL Yellow Rose is a hermaphrodite living as a woman, who's the brains behind the operation. She sells the films for high prizes to her rich clients and smuggles them around the world with hidden inexpensive Persian rugs. Her motivation? She hates the world because of her condition and takes it out on rich, beautiful women. This revelation is even enough to make Golgo surprised.]]

* AGodAmI: Dr. Belmeyer, with his impressive deductive talents and access to a highly advanced spy satellite, can see and understand nearly anything on Earth and makes actual comparisons between himself and God. He believes that if he can blackmail Golgo 13 into killing anyone he pleases, he'd be unstoppable. But can he see why Golgo shouldn't be treated like a pawn? [[EyeScream Not for long...]]

* StuffBlowingUp: The result of Golgo destroying a tank by shooting down its main gun.

* TakeMeOutAtTheBallgame: In "Touch Down", Golgo assassinates a quarterback while he's making a running play during a game. [[spoiler: His client was the man behind the target in the depth chart.]]

** Moreover, considering there are thousands of M16s everywhere, if Duke does lose his gun, he can always get another one, as stated in the Viz release's commentaries. This even comes into play when he gets one on-site, according to the volume.

This is the page for the original ''Franchise/Golgo13'' manga, written and illustrated by Takao Saito and beginning serialization in the {{seinen}} magazine ''Big Comic'' in 1968. Although many of the stories featuring Golgo 13 revolve around the current [[TheCaper assignment]], the sheer volume of installments have led to an increasing number of stories that mainly focus on his current clients or victims, with Golgo making only a token appearance (one story focused on the effect of just the threat of his presence, with Golgo never appearing in the actual story).

->''"10% talent, 20% effort, 30% cowardice... the remaining 40% is probably luck."''

* TwoDVisualsThreeDEffects: The TV series uses this for automobiles in motion, "Target 18" in particular is a good example.

-->-- '''Golgo 13/Duke Togo''', ''Rockford's Ambition - Flaw in the Strategy"[[note]]Story #218[[/note]]'''

* AmnesiacHero: In "The Lost Assignment," Duke Togo has a loss of memory after a bomb explosion and is aided by the requisite beautiful female bystander. Being TheDeterminator, even without knowing he's a ProfessionalKiller at first, Togo gathers enough information and fragments of memory to make it to the kill zone he's selected, but the question remains: who was he meant to kill among the people assembled in the kill zone? [[spoiler:Togo fires his gun in the air, and the hail of bullets from the bodyguards somehow restore his memories. Then he's faced with killing the woman who helped him, as he must LeaveNoWitnesses. A stray bullet however takes care of that problem.]]

** A rare, cross-media example of this is the black hitman Spartacus who intially fought against Duke Togo in the story "The Brutes' Banquet" in the original manga. He later appears as a boss in the first NES game as well as in the TV series adaptation of "The Brutes' Banquet". This gives Spartacus the distinction of being one of the only Golgo 13 characters to appear in both the manga and the media stemming from it.

** In Episode 42, Golgo is hired by the CIA to kill a DoubleAgent in a snowy area of Canada. He captures a henchwoman working for the agent, and [[UndressingTheUnconscious leaves her stripped naked in a cabin]] so that she can't escape without freezing to death. Before leaving, he tasks a local girl with watching the prisoner, and pays her with an expensive red coat. The henchwoman [[MuggedForDisguise quickly knocks the girl unconscious and steals her clothing in order to escape]], and heads off to find her boss. While the two of them are fleeing, the woman realizes too late that Golgo planned ''all of this'', and that the red coat was meant to make her stand out as a target against the white backdrop of the terrain. [[spoiler: Before she can warn her boss, Golgo kills both of them with a single shot.]]

** In "Power to the People", a flashback is shown wherein Golgo is told of a way to escape Robben Island Prison by a younger Nelson Mandela. During said arc, Golgo goes uncharacteristically above and beyond during the assignment, not only wiping out the organized group of pro-apartheid Boers Mandela paid him for, but also eliminating an official who was working with them to destabilize the government and pull a coup.

* PlaysGreatEthnics: In-universe. Golgo's ambiguous facial features tend to have people believing he's at least partially Asian, but he's passed as Jewish, Arabic, European...at one point even used a chemical to darken his skin and successfully pass for African. His skill as an {{Omniglot}} helps greatly with this.

->''"Ten percent talent, twenty percent effort, thirty percent cowardice... the remaining forty is probably luck."''
-->-- '''Golgo 13/Duke Togo''', ''Rockford's Ambition - Flaw in the Strategy"

This is the page for the original ''Franchise/Golgo13'' manga. Although many of the stories featuring Golgo 13 revolve around the current [[TheCaper assignment]], the sheer volume of installments have led to an increasing number of stories that mainly focus on his current clients or victims, with Golgo making only a token appearance (one story focused on the effect of just the threat of his presence, with Golgo never appearing in the actual story).

Saito has mentioned in recent interviews that he has made draft plans on how to end it should it be necessary, either by him or by the editors. The manga went into its first hiatus as the longest running manga without a single interruption in May 2020, at 52 years, due to [[UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic the COVID-19 pandemic.]] It came back with the first chapter published on July 2020.[[https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/interest/2021-07-05/golgo-13-manga-breaks-guinness-world-record-for-most-volumes/.174827 Regardless, it now holds the record for most manga volumes in history with a whopping 201 and counting as of July 2021.]]

Sadly, Takao Saito, Golgo's creator, passed away on September 24, 2021. With his story seemingly planned to have an ending that would be ready to publish, it would fortunately [[PosthumousCollaboration still continue with his assistants at the helm, according to his last will]].

* WeaponOfChoice: A modified M16. M16s are generic and easy to find, so he can drop it after a mission with no problem, whereas hauling around a giant, expensive sniper's rifle would make discreet escapes nearly impossible. Also, he is the lone wolf of lone wolves, so he lacks a spotter or permanent sidekick of any kind. No one is watching his back for him. Using an assault rifle like the M16 gives him a weapon that is equally suited for self-defense if he is attacked during a mission.

* KnifeThrowingAct: A hitman posing as a circus performer demonstrates his skill with his WeaponOfChoice by throwing a knife into the bulls-eye of a dartboard, just past his girlfriend's head. She shows her own badass credentials by [[NervesOfSteel not flinching]]. After playing the trope straight on stage, he then uses his skills against Togo, who unfortunately is an unflinching badass himself.

* ThrowAwayGuns: Golgo sometimes discards the weapons he uses for a job after it is done. Given that he charges seven figure fees for his services, he can afford to replace his guns whenever he wants to, especially since his normal go-to weapon is fairly inexpensive and easy to acquire as military hardware goes, as discussed in WeaponOfChoice.

* RareGuns:
** Generally averted; Golgo's favorite gun is an M16 because of how it's easy to obtain, customize for his needs, and dispose of if necessary. He does have access to specialized weapons that fit this trope, though, like underwater guns.
** At least one manga plot involves the bad guys attempting to outfit private armies with [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_100_submachine_gun Type 100]] RareGuns/{{submachine guns}}, under the incorrect assumption its rarity was because it was so advanced and not just that Japan didn't have the facilities to manufacture enough of them to make a difference. The 2008 anime also has one episode revolving around a pair of brothers going after Duke, one of whom has an [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XM29_OICW XM29]] RareGuns/{{assault rifle|s}}, under orders from a weapons designer trying to create the greatest assault rifle the world has ever seen and prove its superiority by having someone kill Duke with it.

* LockedRoomMystery: "The Serizawa Family Murders".

** Golgo is usually the cause of this for many a SympatheticInspectorAntagonist he's met over the years.

** At least one manga plot involves the bad guys attempting to outfit private armies with [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_100_submachine_gun Type 100]] RareGuns/{{submachine guns}}, under the incorrect assumption its rarity was because it was so advanced and not just that Japan didn't have the facilities to manufacture enough of them to make a difference. The 2008 anime also has one episode revolving around use of an [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XM29_OICW XM29]] RareGuns/{{assault rifle|s}} fitted with a digital "super scope", whose maker intended to prove its superiority by using them to kill Duke.

* RevealingCoverup: The key of of arms merchant Jakob Nachtbloem's plan to survive exploiting Golgo 13's reputation in the story "A Fierce Southern Current". Jakob's plan involves manipulating six nations into a war over a small set of oil-rich Pacific islands by implying Duke would invest the billions he's earned with the winner; if he followed his standard procedure by just killing Nachtbloem, the sudden death in the growing story with him already in the background would cause a stream of reporters who would be led onto the trail of the mysterious Golgo 13, and killing them as usual would just lead him into a downward spiral. However, Duke manages to figure out how to TakeAThirdOption.

* RareGuns: Generally averted; Golgo's favorite gun is an M16 because of how it's easy to obtain, customize, and dispose of.
** He does have access to specialized weapons, like underwater guns, that fit this trope, though.
** At least one manga plot involves the bad-guys attempting to outfit private armies with [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_100_submachine_gun Type 100 sub machine guns]].

** Golgo's target, Nuols, in the two-part story consisting of "Checkmate" and "Stalemate" is a good example. A wealthy man and an expert at chess, he decides to play an elaborate game with the hitman [[spoiler: SecretlyDying dies of an illness that will kill him in six months.]]

* MultipleChoicePast: Several of the stories in the series, such as "Kensaku Azuma, The Japanese", "The Serizawa Family Murders", "All To The People" and "The Last Will of Mao Zedong", seem to be possible origins for Golgo. However, they always end on at least on a loud note of ambiguity ensuring Golgo 13's past remains mysterious.

** Other times, such as in "Wasteland" and "The Orbital Hit", he has to clean up disasters waiting to happen. (nuclear meltdown in the former, KillSat gone rogue in the lateer.)

* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: The story "Accidental" features a supposedly routine hit get sabotaged when his rifle refuses to fire. Despite pleas from his client, Golgo straight-up quits the job. The story ends with him uncovering the mastermind: [[spoiler: it was the weaponsmith who gave him the gun in the first place. Just before he kills the man, the guy gives his reason: [[ItAmusedMe he thought it would be a good joke to sabotage the reputation of the world's greatest hitman by giving him a faulty weapon.]]]] Seeing as we never see Golgo follow up on this failure, this can be definitely counted as one of the few the great Golgo 13 failed to do the job. [[StatusQuoIsGod Not that it affects his reputation anyways]].

* TheOnlyOneAllowedToDefeatYou: Variant: Golgo 13 makes a point of not allowing his target to be killed by some unrelated person or accident. He must be the cause the target's death, if only as a proxy. Perhaps most notable in the climax of the animated film where the antagonist leaps from a skyscraper window to his death, only for Golgo to fire one bullet down at him, killing him in mid-air before the ground can do the job for him.

** This spills over to the later stories as well. In "Power to the People" not only laughs, but he displays a suprising amount of loyalty to Nelson Mandela. In "Request From A Saint", he's betrayed by a Filipino contact working for the local communist rebel group who try to kill him. Golgo gets away, but spares his life!

* PerpetualFrowner: The title character of Golgo 13 fame is one of the trope's fathers.

** An experienced yogi was able to scan Golgo's soul (remarkably pure, even with all the murders) and the progress he'd somehow made in yogic disciplines without even knowing that they were.

** But it is a double-edged sword that's gotten him into trouble. This is best illustrated in the very first story of the series "Operation Big Safe". During a stay in Hamburg, Germany, a woman he has just slept makes the mistake of trying to playfully creep up on him from behind without saying anything at all. She gets punched by Golgo and causing her to hit a nearby bedpost knocking her out. This results in him not only arousing the wrath of two burly hotel tenants who try subduing him for hitting her whom he beats very soundly but is arrested by the police after trying to escape.

** AX-3, [[AllThereInTheManual real name Hans Jurgens]]. A KGB hitman co-starring in "Shadow of Death". Needless to say, when they both team up out of PragmaticVillainy to destroy a Syndicate-funded biological/chemical weapons program, AX-3 shows from the start that he is an equally effective killing machine as Golgo is. The Viz release states, rightly so, that he is "one of the few men he could call an equal!"
** Big Snake, from the 1983 movie. He actually managed to put Golgo on the ropes in a man-to-man fight and was on the verge of killing him. However, [[spoiler: a helicopter appears, miniguns the elevator they're fighting and Duke uses him as a shield.]]
** Gold and Silver, from the same movie. They [[spoiler: annihilated an entire battalion of guerillas by themselves and managed to make Golgo scream in pain after he fought off Snake.]]
** There were also three CIA agents who managed to cripple Duke after he completed a routine job. [[spoiler: They didn't last very long against Snake.]]

** Ixion, the first major example in the series. He's a [[spoiler: blind sniper with a guide dog,]] and draw speed is described as "godly".

** Katz Double: A young sniper who tries to outwit Duke when he targets the Jordanian ambassador to the US. He also proves that he can be just as calculating as Golgo is. [[spoiler: This doesn't save him from his cockiness as Golgo snipes him and the target from the last place he expected.]]
** Brigitta: A female assassin who comes up with a near-foolproof plan to take Duke out and even [[spoiler: manages to have sex with him before the hit. She however, is outwitted by Golgo, who kills her afterwards.]]
** In "The Masterpiece Assault Rifle" Duke is ostensibly on a job to spoil the efforts of a Japanese racing crew in the desert, Duke suddenly get ambushed by two ex-French Foreign Legion commandos, the Savine brothers. They force Duke into a tight spot with their modified automatic rifles. [[spoiler: He beats them by taking the gradient into account while using the passing race cars' headlights to spoil their aim.]]
** In the story, "Bionic Soldier", Riley, the title character, is assigned by the CIA to kill Golgo. A genetically-bred {{Ubermensch}} shown to have heightened senses, ultra-fast reflexes, and superhuman response time. He ends up putting Golgo on the defensive for a good chunk of the story, until [[spoiler: Golgo realizes that his hyper-sensitive hearing can be exploited. By overloading his that headphones with static, Riley is distracted long enough for Golgo to nail him with a headshot.]]
** Nikolai Ledelovitch, an ex-Olympic medalist Polish sniper in "The Superstar's Joint Appearance" is hired to protect Golgo's mark and snipe Golgo's client. He actually meets Golgo in a bar and offers him a drink, but with Golgo being Golgo, coldly refuses. When Nikolai finds out who he is, he calls his employer and demands a pay raise as he did not expect that he was going to shoot it out with Golgo 13. He gets his raise, but [[spoiler: Golgo outsnipes him regardless.]]
** In the story "The Cheerful Sniper", Golgo is hired by [=McDonnell=]-Douglas to snipe a Grumman plane's radar dish that's on demonstration along with their own plane for a lucrative Ethiopian defense contract. Grumman hires Barnaby, a rival sniper, who's much more loose and freewheeling than Duke is to do the same to the [=McDonnell=]-Douglas plane. On the day of the hit, Golgo hits his target, but his rival doesn't. At the end, Barnaby meets Golgo on the road, [[spoiler: before losing in an off-screen duel with Golgo to the tune of "Everybody Loves Somebody".]]

** A good example is in the story "End of the Century Hollywood". In it Golgo is assigned to eliminate whoever is trying to kill Lee: the star of an Asian film being made in America. He discovers that the attacks are being orchestrated by the head of American Company who believes that the Hong Kong film industry is eroding the American film industry and that the success of Lee's film will result in his company being bankrupted if it becomes a success. Despite using his influence to acquire a plethora of EliteMooks in the form of Defense Intelligence Agency soldiers to kill Lee, Golgo routs them all single-highhandedly and kills the executive all in the span of a single night.