Madlax Vol-1: Connections (2004)
Animation Production: Bee Train/Victor Entertainment
Released by: ADV Films
Episodes: 1-4
Running Time: 100 minutes
By Jeffrey Couto

Introduction

Being a huge fan of Noir, an anime series whose elegant beauty delivered an easy one-two punch to anyone who watched it, I was more than excited to check out ADV Films’ release of Madlax, which comes to us from the creators of Noir. On the surface the show seemed to have all the right ingredients and the premise sounded fun enough so I imagined it would live up to the previous show’s high standards and artistic leanings, especially in the music department.

Let’s head in deep into Madlax territory and see what this series is all about.

Story

"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”?"-- Official Madlax Website

Review

The first volume in ADV Films' release of Madlax features the first 4 episodes in the series. These include:

Episode 1: Gun Dance
A disc with important Kingdom Army data needs to be recovered from a rebel group deep in the jungle. This will be a particularly difficult mission so the special gun for hire operative known as Madlax is hired to carry out the mission. Will she be able to recover the disk and take on an entire military platoon by herself? The odds look bad, but on whose side?

Episode 2: Red Moon
Margaret Burton leads the type of life most girls would love to have. She lives in a mansion, has a servant to help her around the house and is well taken care of. However, this young high school student doesn’t seem happy with her life, in fact she appears to be lost, striving for a past that is elusive and long forgotten. What connection can this girl possibly have with Madlax?

Episode 3: Blue Moon
Madlax’s new assignment is to assassinate the commanding officer of the army. However, the job is not as simple as it sounds because the customer who has made this request is the commander himself! Curious Madlax decides to meet the target prior to the designated mission time. What will she learn from him?

Episode 4: Enticement
A local politician with an impeccable record has been murdered by his own daughter, who then killed herself. Everyone seems to agree that there doesn’t seem to be any motive because both father and daughter were highly regarded by those around them, but a city detective isn’t so sure about that. However when his investigation pits him against a secretive organization that even his own country’s intelligence agency has little knowledge of what will he end up discovering?

Exactly 2:41 minutes into episode one of Madlax I had surrendered to this show. That’s not a lot of time to make an informed determination of a program’s true worth, but that the music, the character designs, the production values, the camera movement and background art all came together to form such an amazing eye and ear spectacle in a rather short time was something else. Then when you think it can't possibly get better the story kicks in and we begin learning more about Madlax’s character and personality traits, needless to say it not only gets better, it gets a heck of a lot better.

The setup is admittedly simple and right from the get-go we know this is a one shot story whose only purpose is to show us what an amazing individual Madlax is and how she can take on an entire military unit by herself with no problems. The way it’s handled is brilliant and reminds one of the first episode of Noir in some respects. Here the setting is completely different and many departures are taken, but the effect remains as impressive as it was with the other series. By the end we know we're in for one amazing roller coaster ride with this show.

Standing in sharp contrast to episode one, “Crimson”, focuses on a completely different character, Margaret Burton. In this story we basically follows her around as she goes about her school day and fills her mind with thoughts of the past and events that had a tremendous impact in her life. Unlike the cool and confident persona of Madlax, Margaret is more on the quite side and at times seems lost in a mental maze of her own creation. Even those around her don’t quite understand why she acts the way she does. One thing is certain though, this girl and Madlax have some type of connection that will bring them together. What the nature of that relationship or common bond may be is not yet known, nor hinted at however.

Episode three is similar in nature to the first one and focuses entirely on Madlax’s newest assignment. Unlike “Gun Dance” this one isn’t packed with explosive action scenes, rather it’s constructed around the poetic layers and visuals of the situation that Madlax and her target find themselves in as she prepares to shoot him from a long distance away, even as another sniper is ready to take our heroine on. Episode four was probably the most unique in this particular collection as it focuses neither on Madlax or Margaret, but rather the detective investigating the politician’s murder. It also serves as our introduction to a mysterious organization, that very little is known of and that seems to have great powers across the globe.

Despite the lack of overarching story details or any true exposition of the characters, their situations and possible bonds, these first four episodes completely captivated me and left me wanting much more. I loved the personalities that each of the two protagonists brought to the table and I’m interested in seeing how their dynamic will work out as they are complete opposites. I’m also anxious to see more action sequences like the one from the end of the first episode. If that’s any indication of what to expect in upcoming stories this is going to be an absolute can’t put down show.

On the production end Bee Train continues to blow me away with their attention to detail and artistic approach. From several levels of parallax in a number of scenes to the incredibly realistic depiction of mechanical objects such as guns and vehicles, these guys show that they know what they’re doing and then some. The animation frame rate is very smooth and during action pieces a great range of dynamic movement is used to depict our heroine’s large armament of moves and fighting tactics. Visual effects are used throughout to help bring everything together.

On the soundtrack front the music and songs assembled for Madlax are a true delight for anyone who enjoys good anime music. I especially enjoyed the chant-like piece that plays during Madlax’s deployment over the jungle and when she begins fighting the military garrison. The opening theme while not particularly catchy, is a good song that manages to capture some of the essence of the program at this early stage. The voice acting is rather good, the North American cast should be commended for their performance here. I usually don’t like the English dubbed tracks that are included with anime DVD’s but this one was surprisingly solid.

On the product side the final production copy of Madlax’s boasts a number of extras which include a production insert inside the DVD box that gives us more background information on the show’s production, clean copies of the opening and closing themes, Japanese promo spots, production sketches, an unused opening sequence and promos for other ADV Film’s releases. The video and audio transfer were vibrant and crisp with no real issues to speak of.

Final Thoughts

I can hardly wait to see more of Madlax. If you’re into action anime series or liked Noir to any degree you will too. Based on this early copy I will very energetically recommend this title to all anime fans. It really feels different from a lot of the things currently out there in the market and with the team from Noir behind it Madlax has the right ingredients to be a fantastic show.

Now where’s volume 2!?

Jeffrey Couto