Anime Preview Two: Madlax (DVD) - Anime Reviews


	Madlax Released by ADV Films ETA April 2005 Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu Released by ADV Films ETA May 2005
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Anime Preview Two: Madlax and Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu (DVD)

Madlax Preview:

The release of the upcoming series Madlax will come as a relief to hardcore Noir fans. Madlax is the story of a female mercenary (codenamed: Madlax) who takes missions ranging from assassination to escort duties (not THAT kind!) and completes them with a brutal efficiency.

The first episode involves Madlax being deployed to escort a pair of soldiers carrying important information. The combat area is the edge of the jungle and the two soldiers are trying to evade capture from the dominant military force of the area. Making things even more difficult is the fact that one of the soldiers is a traitor and has been feeding the enemy information about this operation. Excellent opening episode that shows Madlax as being a bi-polar personality: being able to be cute and playful one moment then the next a deadly efficient killer.

Episode number 2. A young teenage girl, Margaret Burton, lives with her maid Elenore and attends school. This girl takes the term disaffected youth to a new extreme, by being completely removed from the world around her and not caring much for her studies or her fellow classmates. A former neighbor Vanessa returns to the area and wants to catch up with Margaret and invites her to her office. The entire episode revolves around Margaret’s detachment from everyone else, and how both Elenore and Vanessa are surprised at how she has recovered from some unnamed incident that should have taken her life.

Madlax was developed by Bee Train, the animation studio responsible for Noir, .hack, and Aquarian Age and the animation itself is a carbon copy of Noir. The shows pacing also borrows from that play-book with the show being heavy on plot interspersed with moments of intense action.

Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu Preview

With a series title that’s just begging to be mispronounced or spelled wrong, here we go with Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu (FMPF for short). Unlike the quasi-serious tone

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of the 1^st series, FMPF is more akin to the manga where Chidori (main female character, generally a serious person who has taken it upon herself to keep Sosuke in line) spends the majority of her time trying desperately to mitigate the damage that the one-man-army Sosuke (a career soldier with a collection of field skills not limited to weapons handling, explosives, and armor maneuvers sent in to protect the student

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Chidori) can inflict upon the school or just the world in general. Featuring no giant robots, gun fights, or explosions… well maybe no robots… FMPF is a humorous look at how a career soldier tries to blend in at an average high school in Japan while performing his mission.

Each episode is 15 minutes in length and instead of weaving long intricate tales, you end up with short bite sized sketches that are usually quite funny.

- Tazman

(April 28, 2005)

“Leela, I'm forced to relieve you of your post.”

“On what grounds, you slobbering oaf?”

“Failure to prevent a mutiny.”

- Zap Brannigan and Leela (Futurama)