GOLGO 13

Duke Togo, Golgo 13, is a freelance agent.

Technically he is and has been for quite a long time an assassin. He kills people for money. He does not do the various things that one might connect with an agent like gather intelligence, steal vital technology, sabotage ongoing projects or facilities, or suborn others to do the same.

However, I have marked him as a freelance operative because far more often than might seem likely for someone who illegally kills people for profit, he does so at the request of governments which, for the purposes of this compendium, qualifies him - hence 'agent'. He alone decides which contract he will take from whichever government might approach him, and those government departments might be the CIA or MI6 or Mossad or a dozen other alphabet-inclined agencies - hence 'freelance'.

The name listed above might be real or it could be fake, we are never ever told for certain but since it is used repeatedly throughout the many adventures that exist of him, it is as real as it needs to be. The Golgo 13 is a codename routinely given by him to avoid the use of the name.

I have listed Japanese as his nationality though even there disagreement exists. MI6 believes it. The CIA has him down as of 'Japanese descent' only. The KGB believes him Japanese-German. Other groups put him as Japanese-American. Obviously from his physical appearance he is decidedly Japanese but with his uncanny skill with languages, placing his origins any closer is impossible.

He is 6' tall (182 cm) or close enough. He weighs just over 175 lbs. (80 kg). He had black eyes and sports closely cut black hair with long, wide sideburns. If he allowed himself to show emotions, which he almost never does, he might be considered handsome by most but instead he is attractive to many woman largely due to his intensity and aloofness.

To conduct his trade, Golgo 13 is apt to use an M16 or similar model but any rifle would be lethal in his hands. For a handgun he goes most often with the simpler, trustier .38 but again he can use with superb ability anything at hand. And with his hands he is devastating as well. If the contract requires, he is efficient with explosives as well. By and large, though, what makes him so deadly is the rifle and his skill at killing from impressive distances.

Golgo 13 has his own set of codes he lives by. He will take a contract on either men or women but he will only take a contract from one client at a time. Even when several parties might want him to kill a person, he accepts payment from only one of them. He does not care for ambiguity or anonymity from his clients - if a prospective hirer will not meet him in person and be able to explain clearly why the target is do die, Togo will usually decline. Once he takes a contract, he sees it through. He insists on payment up front and should a client renege, that would not go unpunished. In fact, any betrayal of him will result in the death by his hands of the traitor - no easy way out.

Togo has no personal life per se. He has been known to favor remote mountain regions for long periods of solitude but otherwise he has no permanent place to retreat to when the job is finished. He is said to own numerous houses and apartments around the world but these are just places, not home.

He has no lasting relationship with anyone. He is extremely fond of women and 'visits' them frequently but he has no one particular person to spend time with. He has no known offspring though considering the number of 'visits' we are talking about, there could be a good number who might call him father, if they ever had a chance to meet him, which they would not because once he leaves, he does not look or go back.

For reasons I would be hard to explain, I held off on adding this series to the compendium. It is baffling in a way because from the moment that I bought, years ago, the first English version of a manga about him, I was hooked.

I loved the character, hard and emotionless though he usually is. I adored the artwork which is gorgeous and richly detained without being overblown. And I loved the wide variety of plotlines, which considering how many adventures he has had over the impressive number of decades is stunning.

So why the long delay to add him here? No idea! But he is here now and rightly so.