Duke Togo makes James Bond look like a little schoolgirl. A true man among men, Duke is the absolute best at his craft ever - one shot, one kill - and is known to most only as the legendary assassin GOLGO 13. Perhaps that's why so many people want to kill him! Join us in a blast from the early days of anime with THE PROFESSIONAL: GOLGO 13.

The big old jet airliner comes in for a landing, and the media crowds around some noteworthy figure to get a quote to lead the six o'clock news. They get more than they bargain for -one bullet from the rifle of GOLGO 13 drops the bigwig where he stands. As the vultures descend, Duke escapes totally unscathed. Later, Duke makes his way down the California coast in his kick-ass Mustang. Meanwhile, on a tanker owned by oil tycoon Leonard Dawson, the businessman prepares to hand over the reigns of power to his only son Robert. Back on shore, Duke subdues a lighthouse keeper and takes aim on that very ship now passing by. One gunshot later - Robert drops stone cold dead on the tanker's deck. Leonard is understandably upset...

Duke takes on a new job for a reformed mobster whose family has been wiped out by the mysterious Dr. Z. No one has ever seen the notorious mafia boss, but that won't stop Duke. After obtaining information from one of his many contacts, Duke "arranges" a meeting with Dr. Z's daughter Cindy in Sicily. As cool as the other side of the pillow, Duke soon has her doing the horizontal dance. She tells Duke she's tired of the mob life and wants out, but her father will kill her. While all this is going on, however, a third party spies on an unsuspecting Duke. Ignoring Cindy's advice to leave the island, Duke survives an ambush, deduces the truth about Dr. Z and makes good on his contract, as always. Just then, the mysterious watchers launch their own attack on Golgo 13 - he barely manages to escape the onslaught. They proceed to kill several of Duke's informants, but even Gatling guns and grenades fail to take down 'the man' himself.

Well, as Duke tries to go underground in San Francisco we learn it's the government that's after our friendly neighborhood assassin. They've even brought in some uber-creepy psychos to do their wet work, and they've figured out Duke's next assignment. But there is another power behind the g-men, paying them to eliminate Golgo 13 - at any cost. (Be you can't guess who?) Will the government's trap catch Duke and finally take him out? And if Duke slips this net, can he win a battle where there is no place to run, no place to hide, until he is six feet under? Or can he turn the tables and cut off the head of this unrelenting hydra out for his blood? What would James do?

In the annuals of spy thrillers, there are no characters who can come close to the iconic stature of James Bond...at least in live-action films. In anime, THE PROFESSIONAL: GOLGO 13 is a movie that roars Duke Togo above the British spy's legendary status. Not only does Duke face more extreme dangers (because, after all, he is an 'anti-hero') but he scores more women than James could manage. THE PROFESSIONAL: GOLGO 13 is a film that presents its story as several smaller episodes, each building into the next until all the players meet in a final showdown. Unfortunately, the actual climax is a bit underwhelming, but the trip there is unrelenting action. The story is lean and mean like its characters, wasting precious little time on complex dialogue or plots. Duke's character is shrouded in mystery, but the writers allow us just enough information to show he's not some killing machine - he does care, but in his own way. They show his reasons for plying his trade are such that we side with Duke even though he's a paid assassin - his targets are amoral scum whose deaths only make the world a better place; and who trusts the government these days anyway? Its a similar situation with the other characters; just enough info to understand who they are and what they represent, then into the mix to kill or be killed. Who needs exposition when the game's afoot!

The style of THE PROFESSIONAL: GOLGO 13 is actually very ground breaking; it is one of the first anime films to utilize computer animation. While the results may seem blocky and unrefined to today's Pixar generation, twenty years ago it was quite the feat to combine traditional cels with wholly CGI images. In retrospect, it doesn't really matter how 'great' the finished product looked, it showed the technique would work. The quality of THE PROFESSIONAL: GOLGO 13 is very nice - beyond the computer scenes, traditional animation is spliced with still pictures to maximize impact at crucial moments (a nod to GOLGO 13's comic book origin). Much like the story, the animation is straight to the point, with enough backgrounds to establish our place and then to the action. But then again, were you really expecting Miyazaki? Audio is sharp and defined, and the dubbing job is adequate.

The DVD release of THE PROFESSIONAL: GOLGO 13 has a wide screen presentation of the film and an option for Dolby Surround, but little else. Yes, there are the movie trailer and previews and an art gallery, but the only real extra is an all-too-short interview with producer Mara Yamamoto. For a film with this reputation, THE PROFESSIONAL: GOLGO 13 deserves a more comprehensive release extolling its influence on the action world of anime.

Why watch the umpteenth rerun of "You Only Live Twice" when you can watch a man's man Duke Togo kick it up a notch in THE PROFESSIONAL: GOLGO 13? Stripped to the bone, unfettered by sentiment or whimsy, this film crashes onto the screen bursting with Action (with a capital "A", natch). Pray you never are in the sights of Duke Togo - the professional Golgo 13; one shot.... you're dead....