Madlax

Publisher
ADV
Director
Koichi Mashimo
Production
Bee Train, TV Tokyo, Victor Entertainment
Country of origin
Japan
Format
Series
Running time
26 episodes/25 minutes
Year
2004

Madlax Volume 1 Connections

By noghri
10th Mar 06

Madlax Volume 1 Connections

Back in 1997 BEE TRAIN was established and it is now one of the foremost animation studios in Japan.
The All star production team from BEE TRAIN for the Production of Madlax boasts the head of BEE TRAIN animation, director Koichi Mashimo, The director of anime hits "“Noir”", ".hack//SIGN", “Avenger” and most recently "Tsubasa Chronicle". Compuser Yuki Kajiura who wrote the scores for ““Noir”” and “Aquarian Age” and “Blood the Last vampire”. Character Designers Satoko Miyachi who has worked on many shows including “Azumanga Daioh”, “Ghost in the Shell” movie, “Najica Blitz Tactics” and “Noir”; and Minako Shiba who has worked on “.hack//SIGN”, “Avenger”, “Ghost in the Shell Stand alone Complex” and “Midori Days”. All contributed to the production of “Noir” and so virtually demand acclaim for Madlax despite its content, but lets see.

The first thing that comes to mind is the striking resemblance in the artwork to “Noir”. It has the same simple white background with the main characters displayed as the main focus point. This show is made by the same creative team as “Noir”, even though, I am still amazed to see the artwork and storyline are so alike. The only thing that appears to change is the hair colour and names of the characters.

The introduction on the cover says:
Female gun-for-hire Madlax is a super-sexy and super-deadly mercenary who makes her living in a nation embroiled in civil war. Margaret, a rich orphan who lives almost a world away, attends school like any normal girl her age. Both of these women live completely different lives but share a strange similarity: they have no recollection of their past. What is the connection between these two beautiful strangers, and what do they have to do with the mysterious international criminal organization and intelligence network known only as “Enfant”?

When watching, if you closed your eyes at some points with the soundtrack you could be watching “Noir”, but then again “Noir” had a fantastic soundtrack so its not a necessarily bad thing. You would however, think that when designing a show with the same team, you might try to create something completely different or if not, improve on the possible let downs of the original series. I just couldn’t get my head around why, if you were to make something so similar, why not make a second series or prequel to “Noir”.

Trying to set aside my few reservations as to the way things were going I sat down to watch this DVD. It looked fantastic, but it looked so similar it was difficult to stop comparing it to “Noir”, this of course is my issue and not that of the show.
The first episode was entertaining enough and in fact the story was actually very good, but I could not see why they had made the series so similar. It was “Noir” relocated into a Jungle, and the assassin was pitted against a guerrilla army called the kingdom army, in order to gain some vital data about this army. The assassin involved was called Madlax and although she wasn’t “Noir” it was another woman who was spookily similar in everything but hairstyle and colour of hair.
As the episode progresses it becomes obvious that this is just an introduction into Madlax and we see her in action to show exactly how proficient a killer she is.

Despite my reservations I continued to watch and I found myself slowly being seduced, soon I was really enjoying the story, I found myself asking loads of questions and trying to figure out exactly what was happening before it happened.

This is the kind of anime that just draws you in, and I love that. The first episode is better than that of “Noir”, but so similar in style to the show that I struggled to stop comparing the two. The later episodes in the first volume are very different though.

The second episode sees the introduction or Margaret after a morning that I think we all have experienced in out past. Margaret is shown to be a decidedly dozy and spoiled individual who appears to live in her own little world.
Growing up in a mansion like house with servants dressing and feeding her it sees that she can get through life without engaging her brain at all, I’m interested to find out what she is like when she applies herself. The only real thing that interests her are the red shoes in a shop and weather, she constantly says it’s going to rain until at the end of the episode it does.

Vanessa Rene is also introduced in this episode she is a professional working for a firm called Bookwald, she works in the international division and primarily is concerned in the welfare of a country called Gazth-Sonika, where most of the action is focused and where Madlax actually resides. This is one of the very few facts that we know about this mysterious mercenary.
Veronica also appears to know Margaret although this is not a mutual recognition, but Veronica actually moves in at the end of the episode.

The beginning of a common story to link the two main characters Madlax and Margaret is developing and looks very interesting the main thing that points to a relationship is a ‘picture book soaked in blood’ as Margaret puts it. A red bound book left to her by her father just before he died, the same drawings can be found on the wall of Madlax’s apartment.

Another character worth mentioning is a little red headed girl called laetitia she is about 6 years old and appears to live in a war torn country and speaks only in riddle like phrases.

The next episode is my favourite a high-ranking officer called Guen MacNichol in the military hires Madlax to kill him when he presents the 70th anniversary for the military coup, which gave the current government power.
This is where Limelda Jorg is introduced to the storyline, she is the top sniper in the elite guard and after the assassination she sets her target on catching Madlax to avenge the officer.

After this episode the final is a bit of a let down, but it is certainly still worth watching. The show appears to be designed to capture the same audience as “Noir” and it certainly worked for me. While it is not quite there, it is just the first volume and the amount of promise offered could result in an anime that even surpasses my high expectations I have set for this series.

There were a few niggling little things that happened in these episodes, in the heat of the battle Madlax would stop and tell herself how she was going to make pasta when she gets home and why on earth does she have to put on a cocktail dress whenever she gets into serious trouble? Madlax actually stops whatever she is doing to get changed into a lovely frock and then kicks arse, with what I like to call her cocktail dress theme music.

In case you haven’t figured it out, I really did enjoy this volume, despite a few little factors detracting from it. I cannot wait to see the next volume and see the path that the story takes. This is what anime should be, though provoking, action packed and above all entertaining. Here’s hoping it continues to deliver.

R2 DVD Notes

Features: A DVD-only release, including four complete episodes in both English 5.1 and Japanese 2.0 language versions with English subtitles. Extras include: clean opening and closing animation, Japanese promo spots, phone calls from Three Speed, design sketches, unused opening sequence and ADV Previews.

Release information: ADV 20/03/2006

Notes: This DVD hosts a nice complement of features and the artwork on the cover is minimalistic, but very well designed. The cover art is remeniscent to Nior and you would be forgiven for thinking so, as the same creative team worked on both.

-- noghri 10th Mar 06

Madlax Images