Madlax 9/10

Read the following lines out loud.

Elda Taluta.

Sarks Sark.

Ark Arks.

Have you gone crazy? If not, you could have the power to carry a 26 episode anime TV series BUT if you aren't a teenage girl you'll get killed before the end. Them's the breaks.

Dating back to 2004 the 26 episodes of Madlax look really great. The vast assortment of backgrounds from European cities to jungles and trippy yellow Dementia 5 type locales were all very detailed and unique. I also really liked the lighting effects that were really put to good use during all the moonlit battles Madlax has. The animation was nice and consistent throughout and I really liked the character designs. I particularly liked the somewhat bemused smile Madlax has all the time. This show has some of the best music I've heard in a series in awhile. I went so far as to buy both the O.S.T.'s and I highly recommend them. Some tracks of note are the terrific OP and ED and the insert song "nowhere" that is one of Madlax's battle themes. Such great music can really add to a show and this one has a fantastic score. Also try "Calm Days" and "Margaret". The VA's were all great and I really enjoyed the VA for Madlax. She's been in alot of shows but this was the role that I really noticed.

Margaret Burton is a high school girl who's a little odd. She disappeared as a child when on a trip to a country called Gazth-Sonika with her mom and when she shows up at her home in Nafrece sometime later she can't remember what happened to her except one word: Madlax. Madlax is a teenage girl living as a mercenary and assassin in Gazth-Sonika who's feared as one of the best at her trade.

Margaret is somewhat odd because she's very spacey. She's not stupid but seems to have an almost dreamy air about her all the time. She lives with her maid Elenore in her parent's house and they have an almost sisterly relationship since they're about the same age. Margaret also owns a mysterious book she claims was given to her by her father. She also has an older friend named Vanessa who works for a company that does buisness in Gazth-Sonika.

Madlax on the other hand is rather normal but for her choice of occupation. She lives alone and gets her jobs over cell from a mysterious man named 3-speed. Madlax ALSO has the missing page of Margaret's mysterious book on her wall. Madlax gets alot of business since Gazth-Sonika is in the midst of a civil war that started around the time of Margaret's plane crash.

The story jumps back and forth between Margaret searching for the history of her book and Madlax performing her assignments while we're educated about the history and current situation in Gazth-Sonika. It turns out that Vanessa's company is involved in the war so she goes to Gazth-Sonika to investigate where she gets Madlax as a bodyguard. She discovers the existence of a secret organization named Enfant that seems to be controlling the civil war from both sides AND is trying to take Margaret's book.

Since Vanessa ends up in fear of her life she goes into hiding with Madlax. Margaret and Elenore head to Gazth-Sonika to find her and get more information about the book. They eventually meet up and we get the only fan-service in the show as the girls go swimming. It turns out that 12 years before a man named Monday Friday, who is the head of Enfant, used the books to open the door to some crazy other dimension and is keen to do so again but it turns out he needs Margaret to do so. This leads to Margaret getting kidnapped, the other girls rushing off to save her, and some of them getting killed in the process. Things rush towards the finale as the secrets behind Margaret and Madlax are revealed and things come to a conclusion.

There's alot more to the story than I can relate here. I thought the power the books have was pretty cool and it reminded me of something from something more fantasy based. I really liked how the show is almost 2 shows for the first part and the ending wasn't the cop-out it could have been. I was impressed how none of the episodes felt like filler and that the series was so well paced I didn't get bored. Overall a much better outing than Noir and it's highly recommended.