Gorugo 13: Queen Bee

i can't help thinking there are plenty of japanese anime films that get made just so a bunch of animators can sit in a room and draw boobs all day long. I rented this because I loved the video game counterpart on NES 8-bit. I never knew there was a cartoon or even another plot to go along with it. But this film makes Duke Togo out to be some superhero stud James Bond wannabee while the quiet, daring, supercool mofo that I grew to love in the Top Secret Agent video game was nowhere to be seen. There were some neat things but nothing to really keep me awake while watching it at 3 a.m..

What I liked about the movie is that the movie has the feel of a B-action movie more than a drama that I think they were trying for. Possibly has a lot to do with the English dubbed that gives the feel of a Full moon entertainment movie without the Sci-Fi theme. Other than reminding me of a B-Action film, the movie has very little action in it. The hour long feature has the main character, Golgo 13 hired to assassinate a woman who calls herself Queen Bee, who acts more like the main character as the movie's concept is for Golgo to built a profile on her before he kills her, so we get to live a day in the life of the Queen Bee, which could have been more exciting than they chose to make it. I'm sure I would have loved this movie more if it was not animated. It was an interesting story, but not the best use of animation. Not even the animated boobs and sex scenes could have saved this movie and the animated violence like the stuff scene in the professional is absent. Watch something else.

I was originally gonna save this till tomorrow, but I thought, aw hell let's finish this now and thus I am concluding my little mini-marathon of the Golgo 13 movies with the belated sequel to The Professional, Queen Bee. I'd forgotten how much I liked this one as it's a fairly underappreciated and ambitious follow-up to its predecessor despite a massively reduced budget and much easier-to-follow plot. For being only an hour long, it doesn't waste a moment, it's a very harsh and gritty political thriller that keeps Golgo in the background as this omnipresent threat while the movie focuses heavily on the titular Queen Bee and her campaign. The movie leans on its style quite a bit, both visually and sound-wise, which are both to be expected from an Osamu Dezaki movie, but ultimately feels undercooked due to its short length, it's got plenty of ideas and commentary but it never quite comes across smoothly enough to really stick the landing.

Golgo 13: The Professional was one of my favorite anime movies, so naturally when I saw Queen Bee, I had to check it out. This movie more than lives up to its predecessor. The plot is twice as complex and it's characters twice as interesting. What's better is that all the characters are realistic. There are no immortal psychos like Snake, or Silver and Gold. This movie could just as easily been made with live action. But while watching this movie you'll forget that it wasn't. If you liked the Professional, check this one out!

I just got finished watching Golgo 13: Queen Bee and I'm pretty let down. It's a fun movie with some great scenes but it is no where near as good as it's amazing predecessor. I feel like it could have had a lot more and I waited for it to get better but it never seemed to get to the level it could have.

There is some great gore and the story is interesting enough to keep the viewer watching but it doesn't do much else. I think my biggest problem was that the story barely focused on Golgo 13 at all. It seems a bit silly to me because it's named after the guy. Instead, it focuses a lot more on the Queen Bee's character. But other than those cons, it has some really fun action sequences that fans of the first film will be pleased with. See it if you liked The Professional but don't expect a movie that is equal.