Nightmare Fuel / Golgo 13

Will he pray for you?

• Let's not forget to address the elephant in the room: Golgo himself. An unstoppable professional hitman who will not stop until the target is dead; a man who under any circumstances cannot be recalled and will resort to any means necessary to carry out the job. You can't bribe him, you can't escape him, and you can't beat him. No matter what you do, you are a dead man walking the moment he has you in his sights.
  • Oh also, the "cannot be recalled" and "any means necessary", bits he takes VERY seriously. Getting called off the job because the client had a change of heart? Nope, you brought him in, he's sure as hell going to finish it. Getting intentionally sent to prison for uh... "supposed sexual immorality"? Nope, not beyond him, his target's either the warden or locked up tight with him. Someone close to the target (who he was not hired to take out) takes it upon themselves to defend the target with their lives? Sorry, it's just business. Killing a child if it's part of his contract or someone was mad enough to use said kid as a henchman? Nope, he can and he has. Twice.
  • The sheer level of skill, cunning and intelligence Golgo displays deserves a mention. Not only does Golgo have all of the proper abilities required to be an assassin, he excels at them. In addition to his physical prowess and lightning-quick agility he has proved time and time again to have a genius level intellect in the methods and strategies he uses to go after his targets. He knows how to avoid and minimize risk, plan his targets moves well in advance and always does his research to find a way to achieve his goals. You want to hide behind half a foot of bulletproof glass? Golgo will focus all of his shots on a single point the size of a pinhead to drill through it and nail you with a killshot. You want to step inside a secure panic room with steel walls? He'll find a way to draw you out into the open where you won't even see him coming. You want to hide in some sort of maximum security prison surrounded by guards? He'll either find a way to get inside or shoot you through a tiny opening that only appears for a split second on any given day of the week. Duke Togo isn't a dangerous man because he can hit a target at an impossible range or because he can take on an army and win. He's dangerous because he has a cold emotional detachment that would make a Terminator jealous and can keep a cool head even in the most dire situations. He isn't just strong, he's smart... logical... and never lets his guard down. Most of his victims never even see him coming until he has a lock on them... and some don't see him coming at all.

The Professional

• One word: Snake. Of all the killers, cutthroats and psychos Leonard Dawson hires to take on Golgo 13 he is by far the worst. When first introduced he effortlessly cuts through an entire elite commando team in graphically grotesque ways such as gouging a soldier's eyes out with his Razor Floss weapon or using another's own Hook Hand to slice open his back while relishing his pain and suffering. The only thing nastier than his demented bloodlust is his creepy infatuation with Robert's widow Laura, who he gropes while promising that "you will be mine" in the least subtle way possible. Later, as part of his payment Leonard reluctantly allows him to rape Laura while she is trapped in a locked room, before raping her again while she's in the shower. When he finally confronts Golgo 13 he easily disarms him and comes very close to giving the famed assassin a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown before the timely intervention of an attack chopper cuts him down in a hail of bullets. Snake was a brutal, twisted and insane man to the very end. Worst of all, his backstory and motives aren't fleshed out at all, unlike the other mercs Dawson hired, which gives him an aura of mystery and eerie unpredictability. Even Gold & Silver had a story to explain how they became so messed up in the first place, but Snake? He's just a psychotically depraved murderer.
• Speaking of Gold & Silver they deserve a spot here as well. While they may not be quite as deadly or depraved as Snake both are shown to be similarly unhinged and dangerous in combat. Dressed in matching attire with prosthetics made from their namesakes the duo are challenging opponents that come close to finishing off a heavily injured Duke Togo before he can reach Leonard Dawson himself. Gold manages to grab ahold of Golgo's bullet wound and very nearly tears his stomach open with his golden gauntlet before getting his head smashed in and then filled full of lead. With his partner dead Silver is then shown crying Tears of Blood while preparing to ambush Golgo, which he does in one final desperate charge as his mask cracks apart to reveal his horrifically burned face. Thinking quickly, Golgo shoves a grenade in his mouth and blows his entire head clean off his body as his remains are enveloped in flames, putting an end to the demented duo once and for all. They may not have gotten as much screentime as Snake but the nightmarish pair are sure to leave a lasting impression in many viewers minds long after their demise.
  • Their backstory is just as nightmarish as you'd expect from such a twisted pair and perfectly explains how they turned out the way they did:
  Leonard Dawson: It was in the summer of 1970, a secret joint experiment by the pentagon and the CIA was performed in the jungles of Zanzibar, central Africa. Forty of the finest hitmen where gathered from around the world and dropped into the jungle. They were to fight two thousand guerrilla commandos. One interesting note however, the professionals were given neither food nor weapons, it was a merciless test to see how long they could last without help of any kind against the commandos and jungle beasts. The length of the experiment was set at eighty days. Twenty of the original forty were dead within three days. Another ten corpses were found after a week, and four more on the tenth day. On the thirteenth day two severed heads and two scalps were found floating in a swamp. Even though termination had been set at eighty days thirty eight out of forty men were dead by the thirteenth day and the experiment was considered a complete failure. However, a short while later the joint observation team discovered something incredible. Two men, at first though to be missing, were found alive. These two not only survived the entire term of eighty days by drinking rain water and eating roots, they killed every single one of the two thousand guerrilla troops. I don't know what their real names are but they are a pair known as Gold & Silver.
• Dr. Z. A mafia boss willing to kill civilians and children is one thing. Now imagine said boss living in a seaside mansion guarded by the best gunmen in Sicily, and no man alive can ever claim to have seen the doctor. While it is revealed that Dr. Z is actually the gorgeous Ms. Fanservice Cindy, let the horror sink in that a beautiful young woman had ordered the massacre of countless innocents in the name of business. And that's not all, because Cindy's no innocent girl herself while pretending to not be Dr. Z; she has a habit of having the men she's slept with killed after she's done with them.

Queen Bee

• Lieutenant Benning. Good Lord, where to begin? It's like the writers decided to read the entire Sociopathic Soldier page and condense it all into one character! Benning may have ultimately proved to be small fry compared to some of the guys Golgo has faced over the years, but he makes up for it in sheer depravity and ruthlessness. Called in by a corrupt general to kill Queen Bee by any means necessary Benning leads a band of soldiers on a raid of her home village, killing many noncombatants in the process. But even with the atrocities he commits onscreen it's implied to be nothing compared to what he got up to during the war...
  Lt. Benning: I was only obeying my orders!
  General Gordon: Of course you were, son. Your loyalty was never in question.
  Lt. Benning: I'd walk through the gates of hell if my superiors ordered me to!
  General Gordon: Oh, I know. I remember ordering you to destroy that village but your orders did not include cutting open a woman who was six months pregnant, dragging her back to camp and frying up strips of her flesh in a frying pan! Or returning to base with a chopper full of human heads, I don't recall ordering anything like that!
• While nowhere near as psychotically violent as Benning is, Thomas Waltham also is pretty creepy by himself. Not only did he have Robert Hardy's mistress murdered, he also raped their 10-year old daughter.

The Manga and 2009 Anime

• Ross MacDonald and Ingmar Pettensen, Golgo's targets in "The Brutes' Banquet" live up to the title. Enthusiasts of human blood sport, they once led an army of mercenaries to massacre an entire village of innocent people. Then they fed the last survivor, a little girl, to pirannas just to see how long she'd last.
• Volume 5 of the Viz release regales us with various tortures Golgo's faced. Some of the more horrifying ones include him being attacked by tsete flies, attacked by a giant eagle in the desert (under the midday heat and with nothing but pants on and his fists to fight with), and being made to listen to music at deafening volumes after three days of continual whipping.
• "The Serizawa Family Murders" is pure Nightmare Fuel from start to finish. A multiple unsolved homicide? Check. A decades-old case involving a family of assassins? Check. Golgo's sinister shadow hanging behind it all? Double check.
• Pandora Island Prison from "Sleep Inside the Cage" (episode 9 of the anime) is a truly nightmarish Hellhole Prison off the coast of Alaska. It's ruled over by a sadistic warden with a raging napoleon complex that loves spending his days making life hell for everyone under his control. When Golgo first arrives he sees a message written over the main gate "Be Hopeful" that the warden put up to demoralize the prisoners, all of whom have full life or death sentences. Over a dozen prisoners have tried to escape, all notched on the wardens sidearm once he has them tortured until they beg for execution, which he eventually grants them after he's had his fun. The whole place has a desperately bleak tone and makes it feel like even Golgo has managed to bite off more than he can chew.
• Michael, the main antagonist of "The Saint with the Stench of Death" (episode 16 of the anime) is one of the most disturbing foes Golgo has ever faced. Pretending to be a godlike figure capable of performing miracles he has successfully brainwashed enough people to create a massive cult that threatens to control all of New York. Inspired by his false divinity he commands diehard loyalty and complete subservience from his followers while training them to be his personal soldiers and terrorists. They show no fear or restraint when going after his many foes, often suicide bombing even high ranking politicians that have found themselves on Michael's bad side or brutally murdering innocent people who simply got in his way. After murdering the fiancee of a detective and hanging her corpse from a street lamp the guy decides to go beyond the law and hire Golgo to take the madman out before anyone else gets hurt. What ensues next is a all out war between the cult and Golgo as he begins picking the members off one by one. Finally, Golgo surprises Michael with a trap where he hides in the cult leader's underground tar pit and fools his remaining soldiers to flee in terror before killing the bastard with a neck snap, but not before knocking off his mask and revealing his horribly disfigured face as he crushes the life out of him. Before making his escape Golgo then sets fire to the building and burns it to the ground to erase any remaining traces of the cult. The series was certainly no ray of sunshine before this point but its doubtful if any episode since has managed to be quite so ghoulish and unnerving.
• "15-34" has Golgo's target be of all things, a rogue AI system codenamed "Jesus". Unfortunately, this particular AI system hacks into the FBI database and comes to the conclusion that Humans Are Bastards. Thusly it tries to hack into the US defense grid to activate the entire US nuclear arsenal to cause an apocalypse.
• "Hydra" has an enhanced form of heroin that permanently damages peoples' minds. The Professor Guinea Pig who invented it (and hides her true self under a male nom de plume) suffers from a host of induced mental disorders and ends the arc crawling on the ground babbling about how she cut off her own head but another one grew in its place. Golgo's been contracted to assassinate her, but at this point it comes off as more of a Mercy Kill.
• "Garimpeiro" (episode 21 of the anime) opens with a violent gang raiding a small isolated Brazilian village and going full Rape, Pillage, and Burn on the inhabitants. After most of the residents are dead the thugs then make off with several of the village women, leaving the entire place in ruins. A lone man then returns from fishing to find his family either dead or kidnapped and his home gone. It's soon revealed that the captured women were raped and killed and the man himself was fatally wounded trying to avenged them. Driven mad by the trauma and the pain of his injuries the man presents Golgo with some diamonds he stole with a crazed expression before finally expiring after begging him to take the job. Golgo ultimately decides to do it and brings the culprits to justice, but its a small comfort when considering that he wasn't able to actually save anyone from the village.
• In the manga, a few of Golgo's clients are children. God knows what kind of people they'll grow up to be...