Takao Saito (1) (1936–2021)

One of the greatest values of the Golgo comics is that backstory is always based on the political situations at the time. Background for the Golgo's adventure is full of details that were deemed important at the time but today would not be found interesting or important.

First story is about Golgo being hired by Nelson Mandela to stop the coup d'etat lead by Mandela's defence minister scheming with remaining apartheid paramilitary forces. Mandela sees this as a grave danger for the new South show more Africa and asks Golgo to help him prevent the coup and buy Mandela time to implement all the political changes. In a way reminiscent of the Dashiel Hammet's "Red Harvest" Golgo manages to confuse the conspirators and turn them one against the other.

Second story is about international conspiracy for taking control over South China Sea islands (Spratley's) that made one gigantic error in judgement when they decided to use Golgo's name [without him knowing it] as a guarantee to raise the necessary funds. Not happy being put under the spotlight and unwilling to find himself in the cross-hairs of the governments in dispute over the resource rich area Golgo decides to teach the parties involved a lesson.

Excellent book. Art is as always great.

Recommended to fans of thrillers and spy genre. show less

The eighth volume in this collection of Golgo 13 stories contains two very different but equally hard hitting tales. In the first Golgo 13 the world’s greatest assassin must face his first failure and dig deep into his own psyche to defeat an enemy who seems to know his every move. In the second story Golgo is more of a background player as it centers on a Sicilian priest who hires him to take on a pair of mafia brothers who killed his adopted father. The story examines the depths that show more vengeance will drive a man to and how even the most pious can cross the line for family. show less

Golgo 13 is entertaining in spite of it's main character. The art is very well done, and the characters are interesting... except for Duke Togo. Golgo 13 is generally a dull Gary Stu. The way that characters repond and react to his presence is more interesting then the character himself, to the point that of the two stories in this volume, the most interesting one is the one that Golgo doesn't appear in at all.

I'd certainly recommend reading the manga. However, after reading it, at the show more suggestion of Helen McCarthy, I cannot, for the life of me, see the appeal of Duke Togo outside of being a wish fulfillment character for people with limited imagination. show less

What I like the most about Golgo13 is how stories are current even years after the initial release. Excellent story (wont go into details in order not to spoil anything), highly recommended.