Madlax

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Anime television series
title Madlax
Original title マ ド ラ ッ ク ス
transcription Madorakkusu
Madlax Logo.svg
Country of production JapanJapan Japan
original language Japanese
year 2004
length 25 minutes
Episodes 26th
genre Mystery , action , heroic bloodshed , war drama , thriller
Theme music FictionJunction YUUKA - Hitomi no Kakera
idea Kōichi Mashimo , Yōsuke Kuroda
production Shigeru Kitayama
music Yuki Kajiura
First broadcast April 5–27. September 2004 on TV Tokyo
synchronization

Madlax ( Japanese マ ド ラ ッ ク ス , Madorakkusu ) is an anime television series produced by the Bee Train studio and director Kōichi Mashimo and first broadcast in Japan in 2004 .

The series tells the story of two young women who at first glance have nothing in common, but who still know each other at the beginning. The heroine Madlax is an agent and contract killer who operates in a civil war- ravaged country called Gazth-Sonika . The other protagonist is Margaret Burton , a wealthy heiress who lives in the peaceful, European-looking country of Nafrece . Twelve years before the start of the main plot , she survived a plane crash in Gazth-Sonika , but since then has not remembered anything except the word "Madlax". This connects the two as they attract the attention of the criminal organization Enfant .

action

prehistory

In 1999 civil war broke out in Gazth-Sonika in an attempt to overthrow the totalitarian government . Responsible for this outbreak of violence is Friday Monday, which carries out an occult ritual with the help of the three holy books ( Firstari , Secondari and Thirstari ). The aim of this ritual is to loosen the inner moral barriers of humanity and thus to plunge the world into chaos. In doing so, however, a plane crashing in which Margaret is in gets in his way. All inmates, including Margaret Burton's mother, are killed in the crash. The only survivors are Margaret and another boy named Poupée.

The two then wander through the battle zone and meet Friday Monday and Margaret's father. Her father, a senior member of the military, is completely under the influence of Friday and is ready to kill his own daughter. Poupée tries to protect Margaret and is killed. Margaret shoots her own father in self-defense. Influenced by the magic of the books and to escape the terrible truth that she is a parricide, Margaret splits into three personalities. These are Madlax, Margaret and Laetitia.

Main story

In 2011 the sin-bearer Madlax acts as a lone fighter in Gazth-Sonika, while the innocent Margaret is allowed to enjoy peace and quiet in Nafrece and the commemorative Laetitia only exists in a parallel world, together with Poupée. Both Madlax and Margaret have no memory of what happened. Only Laetitia and Poupée know what happened, but cannot tell anyone. However, they are always part of Margaret's dreams and visions. Poupée is the memory holder of Carrossea Doon, who also lost his memory and now works for Friday Mondays criminal organization Enfant.

A book with unknown characters that Margaret allegedly got from her father soon attracts Enfant's attention. But Margaret also begins researching the origin of the book and finds out that its origins lie in Gazth-Sonika. Enfant's best secret agent, Carrossea Doon, manages to find Margaret. However, he points his superiors in the wrong direction - to Madlax, who Enfant has already got in the way several times in Gazth-Sonika. Meanwhile, Margaret's former teacher Vanessa Rene discovers that her current employer, Bookwald Industries, is secretly supporting the civil war in Gazth-Sonika by arming both sides with weapons and by being a division of the Enfant itself. Her investigation leads her to Gazth-Sonika, where she hires Madlax as her bodyguard. Together, the two women discover information that proves that Enfant staged the war. However, Enfant is on their heels, forcing them to go underground. When Margaret finds out, she immediately travels to Gazth-Sonika, hoping to find and help Vanessa in time. She is accompanied by her maid Elenore Baker and Carrossea Doon. Carrossea is involved in the action mainly through his working relationship with Vanessa Rene and because of his affection for Margaret.

Finally, Madlax and Margaret meet and decide to track down the mystic Quanzitta Marison in Gazth-Sonica, who is supposed to know something about the war, Margaret's book and the involvement of Enfants. Lady Quanzitta tells of Enfant's plan to plunge the entire world into total war. She reveals to them that Friday Monday has supernatural powers related to the three sacred books, one of which, the Secondari , is in Margaret's possession. Margaret uses her own supernatural abilities and those of her book to get her memories back. Carrossea supports her in this and, despite Quanzitta's warnings, demands not to do this, in return that he too can regain his memories. He finds out that he has actually been dead for twelve years and that he could only continue to exist through the strength of his will to protect his beloved Margaret. Carrossea disappears and Margaret breaks off the ritual before her own memories also return. In the process, she loses consciousness and is captured by Monday, who intends to use her skills to achieve his own goals.

While Margaret and Carrossea are performing their ritual, Madlax is attacked by her arch enemy Limelda Jorg. In the firefight, Limelda accidentally kills Vanessa Rene, which robs Madlax of her will to live. However, Elenore and Quanzitta's servant Nakhl can help her escape from the depression and convince her to save Margaret. When the three of them storm the Enfants headquarters, Elenore is also killed and Margaret, who is now completely under Monday's control, shoots Madlax. Believing she is dead, Monday starts the 1999 ritual all over again. But it escapes Margaret Mondays mind control and her memories of her father murder she committed twelve years ago, will return at the moment.

After this revelation, Madlax appears, shoots Monday down and suggests Margaret to become a person again with her, to which Laetitia also agrees. Margaret only unites her three personalities to undo the ritual she previously performed with Monday to free the world from madness again. In the end she divides again into her three personalities because she believes that after twelve years she no longer has the right to decide for her other personalities.

Characters

According to composer Yuki Kajiura , all characters in Madlax can be seen as milestones for the inner development of Margaret Burton ( マ ー ガ レ ッ ト ・ バ ー ト ン , Māgaretto Bāton ), which is one of the most important themes of the series. Margaret starts out as a sleepy, clumsy student who suffers from amnesia and has to rely entirely on the care of her devoted maid Elenore Baker ( エ リ ノ ア ・ ベ イ カ ー , Erinoa Beikā ). Elenore is a child prodigy and graduated early. Now she devotes all her time to her "Miss", which is often very useful, because the absent-minded Margaret seems to get into trouble everywhere. Another person who takes care of Margaret is Vanessa Rene ( ヴ ァ ネ ッ サ ・ レ ネ , Vanessa Rene ), a kind, strong-willed woman who was once her tutor and now works as a manager at Bookwald Industries ( ブ ッ グ ワ ル ド , Bugguwarudo ).

Vanessa is the one who brings the show's two main characters together when she goes to Gazth-Sonika and hires Madlax ( マ ド ラ ッ ク ス , Madorakkusu ) as her bodyguard. Although Madlax is the most efficient agent in the whole country, there is a sad life story behind the facade. Just like Margaret, she can't remember anything from her past, except for the word "Madlax" (which she made her code name) and a vague picture of her father, whom she hopes to see again one day. Her supernatural combat skills become increasingly valuable when Vanessa's inquiries into Gazth-Sonika's war reasons, previously wrongly attributed to her father's diplomatic ineptitude, attracts the attention of a powerful criminal network called Enfant ( ア ン フ ァ ン , Anfan ; French child ) .

The mysterious, masked leader of Enfant, who is exclusively called Friday Monday ( フ ラ イ デ ー ・ マ ン デ ー , Furaidē Mandē ) is able to control all channels of information in the world. He commands an army of agents to carry out his obscure goals, in which Margaret and Madlax are among others involved. One of these agents is his right-hand man Carrossea Doon ( カ ロ ッ ス ア ・ ド ゥ ー ン , Karossua Dōn ), who, however, often pursues his own goals in front of Monday's eyes. Carrossea tries to win the trust of Margaret Burton, whom he is actually only supposed to watch. He is even mysteriously attracted to her. Another Enfant agent is Limelda Jorg ( リ メ ル ダ ・ ユ ル グ , Rimeruda Yurugu ), a sub-lieutenant in the Gazth-Sonika Royal Guard and an excellent sniper who develops an increasingly bitter rivalry with Madlax.

Conception

In the first part of the series, the stories of Margaret and Madlax are told separately. Only after the characters have met does a common storyline emerge. One of the main themes in Madlax is the causes and effects of violence and war on the characters' lives. The first episodes represent the calm Nafrece ( ナフレス , Nafuresu ) and shattered by civil war Gazth-Sonika ( ガザッソニカ , Gazassonika ). In this case, "Nafrece" an anagram of "France" (dt. France ), while "Gazth-Sonica" is sometimes written with the same kana as " Gaza Strip ".

Later, the whole story shifts to the battle zone and focuses on the main characters and their sufferings. For example, the sniper Limelda Jorg is taking a path that is not easy to understand, but which makes sense when you consider that Limelda grew up in a country torn by civil war. Because although she is a peaceful person inside, she feels the need to kill Madlax by all means, because she shot her previous superior. Limelda is ignoring the rules of the military more and more and even develops a friendly relationship with Madlax during the conflict.

The second half of the series explores the true nature and desires of humanity : the insane villain Friday Monday is convinced that humans are inherently destructive, chaotic beings who are always ready to kill. To prove this, he tries to fulfill the "deepest desires of the people" by starting an irrational world war. Monday's opposite pole is Madlax , who ultimately thwarted his plans and is described by Margaret Burton as a "kindhearted murderess ". Despite her blood-soaked lifestyle, Madlax always manages to remain a lovable and empathetic personality. She embodies the “true nature of man”, which Monday searches for unsuccessfully and which he cannot accept in the end. Margaret Burton draws the final conclusion : the world and people carry both good and bad within them and it is up to them which side to take on.

On the other hand, Madlax is interpreted as a story of Margaret Burton's search for her psychological identity . Based on the background thoughts known to her as a composer, Yuki Kajiura has put forward the following interpretation: In the search for her identity, which was forgotten in 1999, Margaret encounters various characters ( doorkeepers ). They get to know their respective ways of life ( doors ) in order to finally find their own door , which is their new personality.

Origin and publications

The title Madlax is a suitcase word , which is composed of the two English words "mad" (dt. Insane ) and "relaxed" (dt. Relaxed ). The director Kōichi Mashimo wanted to express the two-sidedness of the human being. After his presentation, the anime series form Noir (2001) Madlax (2004) and El Cazador (2007) together form a trilogy in the so-called girls-with-guns - Genre . That is why Madlax was designed in a thematically similar way to its predecessor series from the start.

As early as 2002, Mashimo had invited the producer of Noir , Shigeru Kitayama , to introduce him to a new television series called Madlax . Kitayama expanded Mashimo's ideas significantly. The story only took on its final form when Yōsuke Kuroda took over the writing of the script . During the one year it took Kuroda to write the scripts for all 26 episodes, Mashimo constantly encouraged him to incorporate his own original ideas into the original plot, which he was happy to do. Kuroda later said he was so frustrated with the cancellation of his last work that he immediately wanted to make something “really extravagant” out of Madlax by bringing as many genres as possible into the series. Furthermore, Mashimo subsequently admitted that he and Kuroda came up with the most unusual plot points (such as the connection between Margaret and Madlax), partly while drunk.

Compared to Noir , Madlax has more main characters , including male ones, who practically do not exist in Noir . It wasn't like that in the original conception of Mashimo and Kitayama: "Madlax", for example, was Margaret Burton's nickname and Vanessa's colleague Charlie played a much bigger role in the story, similar to the mechanic Speedy in Avenger . After Kuroda had rewritten the script, only the names remained of the original characters. A total of three designers worked together on the characters: Satoshi Ōsawa , who played a major role in the creation of Noir , designed the main heroines Margaret and Madlax ; Minako Shiba dealt with Enfant's agents including Friday Monday and Carrossea Doon ; and Satoko Miyachi was responsible for the mysterious characters, Laetitia and Poupee .

Many seiyūs who have dubbed Madlax also took part in previous Bee Train projects, such as Hōko Kuwashima and Aya Hisakawa , who dubbed Kirika Yūmura and Chloe in Noir and Margaret Burton and Limelda Jorg in Madlax . On the other hand, Kotono Mitsuishi ( Mireille Bouquet in Noir ) got a very small role ( Margaret's mother in episode 21), while the heroine Madlax was dubbed by Sanae Kobayashi , who previously played Mai Minase in .hack // Liminality . Masashi Ebara ( Friday Monday ) also starred in Liminality ( Junichiro Tokuoka ).

Anime

Madlax first aired on TV Tokyo from April 5 to September 27, 2004, from 1:30 to 2:00 a.m. Tuesday night. Shortly before the end of the broadcast, ADV Films licensed the series in North America and Europe . ADV had already acquired the license on Noir and had long had plans to license its successor series Madlax .

The official English translation was released on seven DVDs from April 12, 2005 to March 28, 2006 and was broadcast on February 7, 2006 on Anime Network , an American cable television channel which, like ADV Films, is a subsidiary of AD Vision . Madlax was the first series of ADV Films, the Marketing partially over the peer-to-peer network BitTorrent done.

Madlax has so far only aired and released on DVD in Japan and the United States .

Voice actor

role Japanese speaker ( seiyū )
Margaret Burton Hoko Kuwashima
Madlax Sanae Kobayashi
Vanessa Rene Satsuki Yukino
Elenore Baker Ai Uchikawa
Friday Monday Masashi Ebara
Carrossea Doon Toshiyuki Morikawa
Limelda Jorg Aya Hisakawa

music

As for many other Bee Train works, Yuki Kajiura , the critically acclaimed composer, wrote all of Madlax's music. This series was their fifth joint project with Mashimo since their first collaboration on Noir . For the television series, an approximately 90-second opening and closing credits and several intermediate songs were recorded by Yuki Kajiura in collaboration with Yūka Nanri , which are known as a duet under the name FictionJunction YUUKA .

For the series, the opening credits "Hitomi no Kakera" ( 瞳 の 欠 片 , dt. "The splinters of a pupil") was composed by Yuki Kajiura and sung by Yūka Nanri.

The following intermediate songs were used as background music for the individual scenes of the anime:

  • "Nowhere" (Eng. "Nowhere") by Yuki Kajiura
  • “I'm here” (Eng. “I'm here”) by Yuki Kajiura
  • "Story begins" (Eng. "The story begins") by Yuki Kajiura

The title “Inside your heart” , composed by Yuki Kajiura and sung by Yūka Nanri, was used as the end credits of the television series .

Franchises

MADLAX the Bible ("The Bible of Madlax") is a 95-page art book for the series published on May 21, 2005 by Hobby Japan . Apart from color and black and white illustrations, it contains interviews with the authors and seiyūs, as well as various additional background information about the series in Japanese . The artbook was never published outside of Japan.

Madlax with Guns is a model kit that contains a resin figure of Madlax and two SIG P210 pistols.

In Japan, buyers got the limited edition of the first DVD, a T-shirt with Madlax given logo and the first edition of the soundtrack albums contained Madlax - Mouse .

Music publications

The full soundtrack was released on two CDs in 2004. In addition, FictionJunction YUUKA has produced two singles , each containing an opening and closing song, the karaoke versions of them and an intermediate song.

In the intermediate song “nowhere” there is the repeatedly repeated refrain Yanmaani ( ヤ ン マ ー ニ , Yanmāni). This is not a real word, but actually a meaningless sequence of notes. However, since the song always plays during the fight scenes, Yanmaani became a running gag among fans of the series: singing the tone sequence loudly symbolizes the obvious invincibility of Madlax and many consider the word to be a spell that prepares the title heroine for the fight, like it's common in the Magical Girl genre.

reception

In contrast to the anime television series Noir , which quickly became a success in Japan , the USA and Germany , the Madlax series did not succeed in achieving comparable fame. It aroused rather modest, if mostly positive, interest from anime critics. Of these, Madlax was often criticized for reusing the stylistic aspects of the previous series, e.g. B. for the premise of the plot, the appearance of the characters and the music style. On the other hand, the story itself was praised and felt to be much better cohesive and consistent than was the case with Noir .

Still, Madlax differs from its predecessor in many ways, such as the use of surrealist concepts associated with psychological thrillers . This would be in stark contrast to the predominantly realistic noir .

One of the main reasons the series didn't become a huge hit is the slow storyline at the beginning of the series. For many critics and viewers, the first episodes of Madlax were too slow and boring, so that many gave up the series Madlax before it could show its real strengths. The unrealistic action scenes, especially in the first few episodes, which were often described as completely ridiculous, reinforced this effect. However, a portion of the same reviewers later noted that a longer exposure was required for the series' unusual ending that made it a completely separate work and set it apart from the crowd of similar works.

Other reasons that have been mentioned for the relatively mediocre popularity of the series, were the saturation of the market , which in of Noir for the first time explored thematic niche occurred after three years, the lack of interest among fans of the first series of a " Noir - Remake “, And the unusual mixture of genres in the series, which neither fans of mystical science fiction nor those of strict realism à la noir could feel right at home.

Nevertheless, according to the reviewers, the plot gets more exciting with each new episode, although some were disappointed with the “pseudo existentialist ” ending. On the other hand, the larger number of sympathetic main characters, especially the clearly recognizable male figures (Monday, Carrossea, Colonel Burton), who were hardly present in Noir, was praised . Nevertheless, the female characters were drawn in much more detail (up to the Madlax fan service ) than the opposing male characters. The high animation quality of the series received general recognition. On the other hand, the computer usage and hacking scenes have been criticized for lacking realism. Madlax's soundtrack wouldn't be as innovative as Noir's, and some critics said it was a mix of noir and .hack // sign music. Still, its superiority over other contemporary works was widely recognized.

Because of the implied lesbian content, Madlax became famous in the Yuri -andom. Most suggestive in their sense is the relationship between Madlax, Vanessa Rene and Limelda Jorg, which partially repeats the triangular relationship between Kirika Yuumura , Mireille Bouquet and Chloe from Noir . The relationship between Margaret and Madlax , which is hinted at in the opening credits, however, never becomes romantic, and there are still several references in the series to a mutual heterosexual affection between Margaret and Carrossea Doon .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b ADV Films: Staff Talk # 5 (Yuki Kajiura) . In: Kōichi Mashimo: Madlax Volume 3: The In-Between . Supplement to the DVD. ADV Films 2005, ISBN 1-4139-1128-5
  2. ↑ a b c Amos Wong: Inside Bee Train . In: Newtype USA . No. 3 . Newtype USA, Inc., March 2005, p. 8-15 .
  3. ^ Girls-with-guns. (No longer available online.) Beetrainfan.org, June 30, 2007, archived from the original on March 28, 2008 ; Retrieved March 19, 2008 .
  4. ^ ADV Films: Staff Talk # 1 (Shigeru Kitayama) and Staff Talk # 2 (Yosuke Kuroda) . In: Kōichi Mashimo: Madlax Volume 1: Connections . Supplement to the DVD. ADV Films 2005, ISBN 1-4139-1126-9
  5. Jump up ↑ ADV Films: Staff Talk # 4 (Minako Shiba and Satoko Miyachi) . In: Kōichi Mashimo: Madlax Volume 2: The Red Book . Supplement to the DVD. ADV Films 2005, ISBN 1-4139-1127-7
  6. ^ Katherine Luther: ADV Announces MADLAX . October 2, 2004, accessed March 14, 2007 .
  7. ↑ ADV Bittorrent Test. AnimeNewsNetwork.com, July 14, 2005, accessed October 29, 2006 .
  8. ^ Madlax the Bible. (No longer available online.) Hobby Japan May 21, 2005, archived from the original on January 28, 2011 ; Retrieved October 29, 2006 .
  9. ↑ Madlax with Guns. HomeMedia4U.com, September 19, 2006, accessed February 11, 2007 .
  10. ↑ See also the complete title lists of MADLAX OST 1 ( Memento from September 28, 2007 in the Internet Archive ), MADLAX OST 2 ( Memento from September 28, 2007 in the Internet Archive ), MADLAX Opening Single ( Memento from September 28, 2007 in the Internet Archive ), MADLAX Ending Single ( Memento from September 28, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) in the Bee Train Fan Wiki ; (As of July 19, 2007)
  11. ^ ADV Films: Staff Talk # 3 (Satoshi Osawa) . In: Kōichi Mashimo: Madlax Volume 2: The Red Book . Supplement to the DVD. ADV Films 2005, ISBN 1-4139-1127-7
  12. ↑ a b c Theron Martin: Madlax DVD 1 - Review. May 6, 2005, accessed November 8, 2006 .
  13. ↑ a b Erica Friedman: Okazu: Madlax. June 29, 2004, accessed June 14, 2007 .
  14. ↑ a b c Chris Beveridge: Madlax Vol. # 7 (of 7) Review. (No longer available online.) April 13, 2006, archived from the original on March 25, 2006 ; Retrieved November 9, 2006 .
  15. ↑ a b c d Chris Beveridge: Madlax Vol. # 6 (of 7) Review. (No longer available online.) January 26, 2006, archived from the original on March 25, 2006 ; Retrieved November 9, 2006 .
  16. ↑ a b Mitchell Hattaway: Madlax. Retrieved January 10, 2007 .
  17. ↑ Mitchell Hattaway: DVD Verdict Review - Madlax: Sacrifice (Volume 6). February 7, 2006, accessed November 8, 2006 .
  18. ↑ a b Jason Carter: Madlax vol. July 1 , 2005, accessed November 8, 2006 .
  19. ↑ Mitchell Hattaway: DVD Verdict Review - Madlax: In-Between (Volume 3). September 15, 2005, accessed November 8, 2006 .
  20. ↑ Mitchell Hattaway: DVD Verdict Review - Madlax: Reality (Volume 7). April 20, 2006, accessed November 8, 2006 .
  21. ↑ a b Bryan Morton: Madlax Vol. # 3 (of 7) Review. (No longer available online.) July 24, 2006, archived from the original on September 30, 2007 ; Retrieved November 8, 2006 .
  22. ^ Theron Martin: Madlax DVD 2 - Review. June 28, 2005, accessed November 8, 2006 .
  23. ↑ Shoujo-Ai Archive: Madlax Fanfiction. ShoujoAi.com, August 10, 2006, accessed June 14, 2007 .
  24. ↑ Mangaminx: Madlax DVD # 7 (Finale). March 17, 2006, accessed November 10, 2006 .
  25. ↑ Bryan Morton: Madlax Vol. # 4 (of 7) Review. (No longer available online.) September 28, 2006, archived from the original on September 30, 2007 ; Retrieved November 8, 2006 .

Web links

This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on October 17, 2007 .