Madlax Volume 1: Connections (DVD) - Anime Reviews


	Number of Episodes 4 Language Options English/Japanese/English Subtitles Released by ADV Films Extras - Production Insert - Clean Opening/Closing Animation - Japanese Promo Spots - Production Sketches - Unused Opening Sequence
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Madlax Volume 1: Connections (DVD)

Madlax – An assassin, head and heels above the rest. She is a deadly poison, yet irresistibly sugar-coated. Nothing can surpass her skill in the art of combat – except perhaps her skill in the art of deception. She will find you, she will charm you, and then she will most certainly harm you. It doesn’t matter who you are. It doesn’t matter where you are. It doesn’t even matter if you know she’s coming. Because in the end, strong or wise, rich or hardened, friend or foe, Madlax will have you eating bullets out of her hand.

Margaret Burton – An orphaned schoolgirl with issues the size of plump juicy peaches. Haunted by bizarre and cloudy dreams, she must not only endure the horrifying images of her past, but she must also traverse the treacherous path of high school. Margaret is lost – lost in her way, lost in herself, lost instead of alive. Grasping for the truth, she flutters in and out of reality without ever letting her feet touch the ground. Her connection to Madlax is mysterious. It’s dark, it’s deadly, and of course, it’s classified.

Noir was one of those animated series that really appealled to fans of the genre. Dark, brooding, and filled with tortured characters who were interesting for not only in the ways that they could move, but for the ways that they couldn’t it was an amazing anime to watch, assuming that you didn’t become too impatient. Madlax for all intents and purposes, is both the thematic and spiritual prodigy of Noir – the animation is a carbon copy, the main show focuses on strong but tortured women, and uh, features assassins.

Episode 01: Gun Dance

Enter the cute killer Madlax, a blonde bombshell in more ways than usual. Her mission is quite straightforward: she is to recover information that two soldiers (Galza troops) are escorting through enemy held territory. Making the mission just a tad more difficult – one of the soldiers is a traitor and has betrayed his partner to the enemy forces. The remaining soldier refuses to believe the possibility and insists on “saving” his comrade. How is Madlax going to complete this mission where the sense of honor causes a man to forget his objectives? Some excellent splicing of action into drama.

Episode 02: Red Moon

Our second major character is introduced, the disaffected youth Margaret Burton – a girl so removed from reality that she struggles to interact with most people who don’t understand her. Without a family, her primary caregiver is her kindly maid Elenore who cares for the young charge with a balance of motherly concern and decorum expected of a maid. Margaret is visited by a former neighbor and tutor, Vanessa, who shows concern for her former charge and wants to show some care for the bewildered young girl.

The interplay at the end of the episode is very interesting, both Vanessa and Elenore know each other rather well and express some happiness at the recovery that Margaret has shown from some unmentioned incident.

Episode 03: Blue Moon

Madlax is currently staying in a city whose calm is thanks to a tenuous peace agreement. The peace is between the current ruling government and the rebels in a civil war that has been dividing the country for the last 13 years. Her mission this time is to assassinate a speaker at a major military function, a Commander in the ruling government (Gazth-Sonika). The client is none other than the Commander

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himself, he has paid for his own assassination to increase tensions in the civil war and possibly cause a more aggressive response against the rebel forces (Galza Forces), for which he blames the loss of his wife almost a decade ago.

Being a military function, this mission won’t necessarily be as easy as lining up a sniper’s rifle, the special forces are in position to protect the dignitaries and keep any problems from arising.

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Episode 04: Enticement

A murder-suicide has brought the police force into an investigation that appears to have no motive nor indicators of potential violence. The target of the murder is a mid-level government worker who was killed by his 16-year old daughter, via strangulation (then she committed suicide). The killer is an unlikely murderer, a described kind girl who was very polite and conscientious, at least as she was described by Margaret. The investigation turns up an interesting piece of information when they investigate the girl’s personal computer, all data on the hard disk has been erased and replaced by the phrase “Elda Taluta.”

According to the primary detective, “Elda Taluta” is a phrase that implicates the secret organization “Enfant” and as he continues his investigation into the case he starts to meet heavy resistance on every front. Not only has he been removed from the case, his finances have been ruined, and all of the utilities in his apartment have been shut off. Not being deterred, he continues to press on until he comes across the same phrase on a series of TVs which causes him to lose control of his mind.

The pacing of this 1^st volume of Madlax is rather on the slow side, much like the beginning of Noir. The sheer amount of back-story that the story lays out with (especially with the two different geographic perspectives that are being used) can be a little overwhelming at first, but once the series settles in the pace will improve. Good animation and a whole lot of plot.

- Tazman

(May 15, 2005)

"Boy, everyone is stupid but me."

- Homer (The Simpsons)


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