Golgo 13

"Golgo 13" is a professional hitman with perfect 100% accuracy. His real name, nationality, permanent address and age are unknown and there is no record in any worldwide intelligence agencies as to his true identity. All of his assignments are completed with the use of a sniper rifle. His most frequently used alias is Duke Togo (デューク・東郷, Dyūku Tōgō).

Duke Togo shows no emotion when carrying out an assignment and is willing to kill anyone. He'll accept any assignment from anyone who can afford his services. Taking out terrorists has always brought on retaliations against Golgo 13, so he constantly watches out for assassins hired to kill him. Golgo 13 also works with people to assist him in his assignments, such as giving information on his targets, providing a vehicle, a secondary gun, or gadgets.

Early on, Takao Saito developed a system where he created the page layout based on a script written by the editorial department. He also inked the main characters' faces, while assistants provided the backgrounds and other elements. He did extensive research to provide accuracy, especially when the plot dealt with technology. Kazuo Koike was one of the writers on the series in the beginning.

Author Yoichi Funado wrote approximately 30 stories for Golgo 13, three of which he later novelized. Takashi Nagasaki was Saito's editor on the series in the mid-1980s, and later wrote two stories for the manga under the pen name "Keishi Edogawa".

Golgo 13 won the 21st Shogakukan Manga Award in the General category in 1975, the Grand Prize at the 2002 Japan Cartoonists Association Awards, and the Special Judges Award at the 50th Shogakukan Manga Awards in 2005. With the publication of volume 201 in July 2021, Golgo 13 was certified as holding the Guinness World Record for "Most volumes published for a single manga series." On TV Asahi's Manga Sōsenkyo 2021 poll, in which 150,000 people voted for their top 100 manga series, Golgo 13 ranked 36th. Golgo 13 is one of the works credited with popularizing the gekiga movement in Japanese comics, which strives for more realistic and dramatic works.

Saito himself is surprised by his series' popularity overseas, because it is firmly rooted in Japanese culture and samurai. He cited the timing of when Golgo actually takes his shot as an example; "It evokes iaidō [the martial art of drawing one's sword and mimicking a deadly blow]. It is the same movement and the same shape. I love Japanese samurai stories and that is why, unconsciously, Golgo moves like a samurai.