Madlax

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Madlax
マドラックス (Madorakkusu)
Genre	Mystery, Action, Heroic bloodshed, War Drama, Psychological thriller
TV anime
Directed by	Kōichi Mashimo
Studio	Bee Train
Network	TV Tokyo Anime Network
Original run	5 April 2004 – 27 September 2004
No. of episodes	26

Madlax (マドラックス, Madorakkusu^?) is a 26-episode anime television series produced in 2004 by the Bee Train animation studio and directed by Kōichi Mashimo. The DVD version was released in North America by ADV Films, and as of November 2006, it airs on the Anime Network channel. According to the director Mashimo, the title is a portmanteau of two English words: MAD and reLAXed, mirroring the authors' intention to portray the two extremes of human being.^[1]

The story revolves around two young women, who, at first glance, have nothing in common, nor know of each other's existence. The first and titular heroine is Madlax, a living legend among the mercenaries and assassins in Gazth-Sonika, a small Asian country torn by a civil war. "Madlax" is a code name and a substitute for her real one, forgotten along with the rest of her past before 1999, when the war started. The second girl is Margaret Burton, the sole heir of a wealthy aristocratic family in the peaceful European country of Nafrece. Twelve years before the story begins, an airliner her mother and she were on crashed over Gazth-Sonika, and its passengers, as well as Margaret's father who lead the rescuers, have been missing ever since. Margaret managed to travel back to Nafrece on her own, though how she made it remains a mystery because she has lost her memories prior to her return, save one word: "Madlax". This seemingly thin thread linking the two girls turns out to be a much more intense connection when they both independently start investigating the powerful crime syndicate Enfant and its enigmatic mastermind, who, for some reason, shows interest in both of them.

The critics have pointed out multiple similarities between Madlax and Noir,^[2][3] an earlier work by the same studio, and according to the authors, these two series are the first installments of a planned trilogy exploring the so-called girls-with-guns genre,^[1][4] with the third title being El Cazador de la Bruja.^[5] Still, Madlax differs considerably from its predecessor, as it is very plot driven, pays much attention to the interaction of various factions rather than individual characters,^[6][7] and, in particular contrast to the predominantly realistic Noir, incorporates many aspects of mystery thriller and multiple supernatural concepts,^[8][9] which the audience must often interpret without further explanation (see Terminology in Madlax).

Contents 1 Story 1.1 Characters 1.2 Plot summary 1.3 Themes 2 Production 2.1 Releases 2.2 Music 2.3 Franchise 3 Reception 4 See also 5 References 6 External links

[edit] Story

[edit] Characters

Main article: List of Madlax characters

A large primary cast of distinctive characters is essential to the plot of Madlax, spiraling ever closer and evolving alongside the central ideas of the series,^[10] as well as, according to the composer Yuki Kajiura, serving as the milestones for Margaret Burton's (マーガレット・バートン, Māgaretto Bāton^?) inner growth, one of the main topics of the show (see Themes of Madlax).^[11] At the beginning, Margaret is a sleepy, clumsy amnesiac, who lives under the care of her devoted and sometimes overprotective maidservant Elenore Baker (エリノア・ベイカー, Erinoa Beikā^?), a child prodigy who graduated from school years ahead of other students to spend all her time caring for her "Miss". In fact, if it weren't for Elenore, the absent-minded and world-alienated Margaret would have had a lot of trouble even in tranquil Nafrece.^[12] Also caring for her is Vanessa Rene (ヴァネッサ・レネ, Vanessa Rene^?), a soft-spoken but strong-minded corporate executive in her early thirties ^[2] who was once her tutor.^[13]

It is also Vanessa who links Margaret to the other female lead - Madlax (マドラックス, Madorakkusu^?), a charismatic kind young woman, who happens to be the most efficient operative and assassin in the war-torn Gazth-Sonika ^[14] and is hired as Vanessa's bodyguard when she travels there. Just like Margaret, Madlax remembers next to nothing of her life before twelve years ago, except the word that she accepted as her code name and a vague image of her father, whom she hopes to meet one day. Madlax's supernatural battle skills prove increasingly useful when Vanessa's investigation of the Gazth-Sonican casus belli, which until then had been unjustly thought to be her own father's diplomatical incompetence,^[15] draws the attention of a powerful criminal intelligence network named "Enfant" (French: "Child") to them.

The mysterious masked head of Enfant, known as Friday Monday (フライデー・マンデー, Furaidē Mandē^?), single-handedly controls all information channels on the planet ^[16] and commands an army of agents to pursue his obscure goals involving, among others, Margaret and Madlax. One of these agents is his right-hand man Carrossea Doon (カロッスア・ドゥーン, Karossua Dōn^?) who often plays his own game under Monday's nose, for example, gaining trust of Margaret Burton, whom he is assigned to observe but feels himself mysteriously attracted to. Another agent of Enfant later in the series is Limelda Jorg (リメルダ・ユルグ, Rimeruda Yurugu^?), an officer of Gazth-Sonikan royal guard and the best sniper in the country, except for Madlax with whom she develops an increasingly bitter rivalry.

[edit] Plot summary

Main articles: Fictional setting of Madlax and Plot summary of Madlax

The series starts off with the two female leads living completely separate lives. Madlax works as a special ops agent for hire in the war-torn Gazth-Sonika, while Margaret enjoys the tranquility of Nafrece. When a "picture book", presumably given to Margaret by her late father, attracts attention of an international crime syndicate Enfant, she starts researching its origins and discovers that they lie in Gazth-Sonika. Enfant's top operative, Carrossea Doon, tracks Margaret down but tips off his superiors in the wrong direction - towards Madlax, who has been causing Enfant trouble in Gazth-Sonika for some time. Meanwhile, Vanessa Rene, Margaret's former tutor, discovers that her employer, Bookwald Industries, covertly supports the civil war in Gazth-Sonika by supplying both sides with firearms, so she seizes the opportunity to find more about the true casus belli. Her investigation brings her to Gazth-Sonika, where Madlax is assigned as her bodyguard, and together, they uncover data that definitely proves that Enfant orchestrated the entire conflict. Enfant intercepts them and forces into hiding. Back in Nafrece, Margaret decides to travel to Gazth-Sonika to help Vanessa and is accompanied by her maidservant Elenore Baker and Carrossea Doon.

Eventually, Madlax and Margaret encounter each other and embark on a search for Quanzitta Marison, a Gazth-Sonikan mystic who may know something about Margaret's book, Enfant's involvement with it, and Enfant itself. Lady Quanzitta does indeed tell them about Enfant and its plans to plunge the entire world into a total war, starting with Gazth-Sonika. She reveals that Friday Monday (Enfant's leader) possesses supernatural powers connected to the three ancient books, one of which belongs to Margaret. Margaret has supernatural abilities, too, and decides to use them to return her lost memories. Failing to complete the proper ritual, Carrossea, who has been supporting her, dies, and she herself is captured by Monday who intends to use her abilities to complete his own goals.

While Margaret and Carrossea perform the ritual, Madlax is attacked by her arch-nemesis Limelda Jorg, who accidentally kills Vanessa while targeting Madlax, sending the latter into clinical depression. Never the less, Elenore and Lady Quanzitta's servant Nakhl manage to restore Madlax's will to live and persuade her to save Margaret, and the three storm Enfant's headquarters together. During the assault, Elenore is killed and Margaret, now under Monday's control, shoots Madlax. Believing her to be dead, Monday commences a ritual to start a new world war but as a result, Margaret's memories return and she snaps out of his mind control. It is revealed that back in 1999, Monday drove Margaret's father insane with his powers and she was forced to kill her own parent. To escape the sin of patricide, Margaret had split herself into three personae: the "memory keeper" Laetitia, the sinful Madlax, and Margaret herself. After the revelation, Madlax reappears and guns down Monday, then Margaret fuses the three personae to undo the ritual she unwillingly performed and stop the global war. Upon accomplishing that, she once again splits herself in three, judging that after twelve years, she no longer has the right to make decisions for her other personae.

[edit] Themes

Critics called Madlax "thought-provoking",^[17] and among the most prominent recurring themes in Madlax are the war, its causes and the destructive effects it has upon the characters' lives.^[18] In the first episodes, the authors juxtapose the tranquil Nafrece and the war-torn Gazth-Sonika to show off the contrast between them,^[19] and later, the story moves completely to the combat zone, focusing on the central characters, such as Limelda Jorg,^[10] and their suffering. The second half of the series discusses the possible reasons and causes of war: Friday Monday, while playing the role of a mad villain,^[20] expresses the belief that the intrinsic nature of humans carries only destruction, death and chaos in it,^[21] and to support this, attempts to grant "people's intrinsic wishes" by starting a rationally senseless global war.^[22] His plans are thwarted by Madlax, whom Margaret Burton defines as a "kind murderer" ^[23][24] and who is able to gain sympathies of everyone she meets, be it other characters ^[25] or the audience,^[26] while her work not only does not invoke rejection but, naturally fits into her image.^[23] Staying a kind and empathetic person despite having to kill people,^[24] Madlax represents a living denial of Friday Monday's beliefs, embodying the real "true human nature" he is vainly searching for.^[27] In the end, Margaret draws the ultimate conclusion, clearly influenced by existentialistic philosophy:^[28] the world and everyone living in it carry both good and evil within them and are free to embrace either side.^[24]

On the other hand, Madlax can be interpreted as a story of Margaret Burton's search for a psychological identity: for example, based on the available to her Mashimo Menu theme titles,^[29] Yuki Kajiura has once suggested that while searching for her memories, Margaret meets the other characters ("Gatekeepers") one after another and gets to know the lifestyles ("Gates") they represent. In the end, she finds her own "Gate", which is her new identity that finally replaces the one she lost twelve years ago.^[11]

Another important theme in Madlax is Elenore Baker's loyalty towards her "Miss" Margaret Burton.^[30] She is presented as an utterly devoted and always compassionate maidservant and comes to Margaret's rescue on occasions, such as when the latter is harassed by the playboy Maurice Lopez on a private party,^[12] or when Elenore storms the Enfant headquarters, where Margaret is held, on her own despite a severe gunshot wound.^[31] Contrary to the speculations of particularly inventive fans, Elenore's affection towards her "miss" is not romantic: at some point, she recounts making a promise over her dying grandfather that she would protect Margaret forever ^[32] and shortly before her death, she admits that Margaret is "her family".^[31]

Overall, Madlax does not depict obvious lesbian relationships but has gained fame among the yuri fandom,^[33] following their enthusiastic reception of Noir. With its predecessor's influences put aside, the only true source of shoujo-ai speculations in the series is the relationship between Madlax, Vanessa Rene and Limelda Jorg,^[34][35] that partly mirrors the "love triangle" between Kirika Yuumura, Mireille Bouquet and Chloe.^[36] The relationship between second lead character Margaret and Madlax, which is ambiguously hinted at in the final shots of the opening animation, never progresses past acknowledging each other's right to exist.^[37] On the other hand, multiple allusions towards a heterosexual mutual attraction between her and Carrossea Doon are scattered throughout the story.^[38][39]

[edit] Production

Staff

Director	Kōichi Mashimo
Series composition, screenplay	Yōsuke Kuroda
Planning	Shiro Sasaki
Producers	Shigeru Kitayama  Tatsuya Hamamoto
Assistant producer	Hiroshi Yoshida
Music producer	Keiichi Nozaki
Original music	Yuki Kajiura
Theme songs performance	FictionJunction YUUKA
Art director	Yoshimi Umino
Character animation director	Satoshi Ohsawa
Character design	Minako Shiba  Satoko Miyachi  Satoshi Ohsawa
Mechanical animation director	Yasuhiro Saiki
Mechanical design	Kenji Teraoka
Color coordination	Makiko Kojima
Editing	Seiji Morita
Special effects	Masahiro Murakami

According to the director Kōichi Mashimo, he has always envisioned Noir and Madlax as part of a trilogy belonging to the girls-with-guns genre,^[4] and soon after the release of the latter, he has revealed that the third installment is already being planned.^[1] In late 2002, Mashimo invited Shigeru Kitayama, the producer of Noir who once came up with its original idea, to discuss a new series entitled Madlax. Kitayama greatly expanded Mashimo's original screenplay plan, but it was not until Yōsuke Kuroda was put in charge of the script that the series took its final appearance. It took Kuroda about one year to finish the screenplays for all 26 episodes, during which he was constantly encouraged by Mashimo to add his own original ideas to their initial plan. Kuroda has admitted that at the time he received Mashimo's invitation, he felt frustrated after his first project has been canceled by the publisher, so he decided to make Madlax "really extravagant", blending as many genres at once as he could. Kōichi Mashimo, furthermore, admitted that the most unusual plot twists, like Margaret and Madlax's connection to each other, were invented by Kuroda and him in a state of alcohol intoxication.^[1]

By comparison with Noir, Madlax features a much larger primary cast, including multiple recurring male characters, who were effectively absent in the former. It was not so in the original screenplay draft written by Mashimo and Kitayama: for example, "Madlax" was Margaret's own nickname and Charlie (Vanessa's colleague at Bookwald Industries) had one of the central roles similar to Speedy's in Avenger. Only the "draft" characters' names remained of them when Kuroda has rewritten the script. A total of three character designers collaborated on Madlax cast: Satoshi Ohsawa (who also worked on Noir cast) created the central heroines, Margaret and Madlax; Minako Shiba drew the agents of Enfant led by Friday Monday and Carrossea Doon; and Satoko Miyachi was entrusted with the "mysterious" characters, Laetitia and Poupee.^[40][41]

Seiyūs who voiced characters in Madlax have participated in earlier projects by studio Bee Train, for example, Houko Kuwashima and Aya Hisakawa who played Kirika Yuumura and Chloe in Noir also voiced Margaret Burton and Limelda Jorg.^[42][43] Kotono Mitsuishi (Mireille Bouquet in Noir), on the other hand, has received only a minor role (Margaret's mother in episode 21),^[44] while the titular lead of Madlax was voiced by Sanae Kobayashi, previously involved with .hack//Liminality (Mai Minase).^[45] Masashi Ebara (Friday Monday) had a major role in Liminality (Junichiro Tokuoka).^[46] Monica Rial (Kirika Yuumura in the English translation of Noir) did not appear as a voice actor in Madlax, but has instead translated the screenplay for ADV Films release,^[47] earning praises from the critics at that.^[20]

[edit] Releases

Main article: List of Madlax episodes

Originally, Madlax was broadcast in Japan by TV Tokyo from 5 April to 27 September 2004, from 1:30 to 2:00 AM every Tuesday (formally, Monday night).^[48] Shortly before the series finished airing, it has been licensed in North America and Europe by ADV Films,^[49] which has previously acquired distribution rights for Noir and has long had plans to license its successor, as well.^[50] The official English dub has been released under the trademark MADLAX on a total of seven DVDs from 12 April 2005 to 28 March 2006 and received a TV-14 rating, though it has been lowered to TV-PG for the consequent cable network broadcast.^[51] Madlax has become the first series on which ADV Films' director and producer David Williams tested the technology of distributing promotional materials via P2P network BitTorrent.^[52]

The North-American DVD release contains extras available in English only, such the controversial Conversations with SSS ^[19][28][30] and Sock Puppet Theater, an Easter egg live action about Madlax going after Chris Patton, Badgis' voice actor and an annoying womanizer.^[20] To access the latter, one should press "Up", "Down", "Left", and "Right" buttons when the second eye-catch of episode 21 (DVD volume #6) comes on.

Since 7 February 2006, Madlax is aired on Anime Network (which is, like ADV Films, a subsidiary of A.D. Vision) on Tuesdays from 20:00 to 20:30 (each episode is repeated on 23:00 the same day and on 19:30 the next Tuesday). On 4 April, shortly after the last DVD volume has been released, the consequent broadcast was put on halt and until 27 June, only the first 8 episodes were repeated. Since then, the series has been relaunched twice: on 1 August and 7 November 2006.^[53]

[edit] Music

Like with many other studio Bee Train's works (first of all, Noir), the entire Madlax soundtrack was composed by the famous Yuki Kajiura, marking it her and Kōichi Mashimo's fifth project together. Kajiura and Yuuka Nanri's duo FictionJunction YUUKA has recorded the series' opening and ending themes, "Fragments of an Eye" (瞳の欠片, Hitomi no Kakera^?) and "inside your heart", respectively, as well as two insert songs: "nowhere" and "I'm here". Aside from the opening sequence, "Fragments of an Eye" is featured in the series itself: at the end of episode 18 and in the episode 24, when Margaret is humming its tune (along with another song called "Cradle") to herself in the flower field.

The entire OST has been released on two albums in 2004. Two singles were published in the same year by FictionJunction YUUKA, each containing an opening/ending theme and one insert song, as well as their respective karaoke versions.^[54]

In the insert song "nowhere", there is a frequently repeated background refrain "Yanmaani" (ヤンマーニ, Yanmāni^?), which is a meaningless chanting rather than a sensible word. Since the song usually plays when Madlax is fighting, "Yanmaani" has become something of a joke to many Madlax fans: its loud singing has come to symbolize Madlax's apparent invincibility - some see it as a kind of "magic word" that powers Madlax up for battle, in accordance with the magical girl genre canons.^[55]

[edit] Franchise

MADLAX the Bible (ISBN 4-89425-375-5) is a 95-page artbook that was published in Japan on 21 May 2005 by Hobby Japan.^[56] Aside from color and BW illustrations and artworks for the series, it contains interviews with its authors and seiyūs, as well as diverse additional information about the show in Japanese.^[57] The artbook has never been published outside of Japan. Since the word "Bible" is derived from Ancient Greek: "τὰ βιβλία τὰ ἅγια", meaning "holy books", it is likely that the artbook's title contains a hidden reference to the Holy Books that play an important role in the series' plot.

A resin model kit known as "Madlax with Guns" has been produced, featuring a figurine of Madlax dual wielding her signature SIG P210s.^[58] In Japan, a T-shirt with Madlax logo has been added to the limited edtion of the first DVD volume,^[59] and the "first press" of the OST albums came with logotype mousepads.^[60]

[edit] Reception

Common rating
Australia	M, PG (some episodes)
Canada	14+
Great Britain	12, 15 (some episodes)
United States	TV-14, TV-PG (cable)

Unlike Noir, that became instantly successful in Japan and Western countries despite controversial opinions about it, Madlax has never been able to match it in fame and received only moderate (though generally approving) attention from the critics. Madlax was often accused of being secondary and reusing Noir's stylistic solutions, such as the story premise, the two heroines' appearance, and musical performance,^[3] but on the other hand, the story as a whole was praised for being more monolithic and consequent than its predecessor's, owing to all its episodes and subplots being tightly intertwined and held together by the primary A-Plot,^[30] which lead some to name Madlax the better of the two.^[61]

The majority of reviewers perceived the early episodes of Madlax as boring and too slow-paced,^[2] but the same critics later remarked that the prolonged exposition is crucial to the unusual finale of the series, which fully establishes the series' own identity and sets it apart from other competitors.^[20][30][62] According to them, after the initial volume, the story gets better and better with every new episode,^[38][63] though some have been dissatisfied with its "pseudo-existentialistic" ending.^[28] Professional reviewers welcomed the increased number of sympathetic characters,^[9] especially of the distinguishable male ones (Friday, Carrossea, Colonel Burton), as opposed to stormtrooper-like operatives of Soldats in Noir,^[2] but the female character designs were still said to be much more detailed (to the point of subtle fanservice in case of Madlax) than more generic male ones.^[20] On the negative side, the episodes that involve computer use and hacking were criticized for lack of realism (admittedly, it's a common problem in fiction).^[34]

The initial slow pacing, especially compared to the first episodes of Noir,^[3] however, became the main reason why the audience often dropped watching Madlax before it could present its more exciting and interesting story turns,^[64] which eventually resulted in the moderate success of the series. Among other suggested reasons behind the mediocre popularity of the show were, most notably:^[65] the market saturation, which resulted from other anime series attempting to repeat the success of Noir since 2001; the expectable prejudice against a "Noir remake", found among the fans of the first series;^[2] and its unconventional genre, which prevented Madlax from gaining popularity among the fandoms of mystical science fiction and Noir's strict realism.^[9]

In terms of soundtrack, Madlax has not become as innovative as Noir,^[66] with critics suggesting its OST to be a blend of Noir and .hack//Sign styles.^[67] Nevertheless, the reviewers acknowledged its superiority over the majority of contemporary works.^[2][3] The English translation released by ADV Films was praised for keeping most of series' original stylistic aspects preserved and inviting veteran voice actors for the dub.^[38] Reviewers went as far as to suggest that several English voices (especially Mike Kleinhenz's) match the characters better than the Japanese ones.^[20]

[edit] See also

• List of Madlax episodes

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• (English) Official website (ADV Films)
• (Japanese) Official website (TV Tokyo)
• (Japanese) Official website (JVC)

• Madlax in the Anime News Network encyclopedia
• Madlax in the AniDB database
• Madlax in the AnimeNfo.com encyclopedia
• Madlax in the Internet Movie Database
• Madlax in the TV.com database
• Madlax in the Bee Train Fan Wiki

v • d • e Anime series and OVAs animated by studio Bee Train
Girls-with-guns:	El Cazador | Madlax | Noir
Other original works:	Avenger
.hack franchise:	Gift | Legend of the Twilight | Liminality | Roots | Sign
Other video games:	Arc the Lad | Medabots | Meine Liebe | PoPoLoCrois | Wild Arms
Manga and literature:	Spider Riders | Tsubasa Chronicle