Madlax

Publisher
ADV
Director
Koichi Mashimo
Production
Bee Train, TV Tokyo, Victor Entertainment
Country of origin
Japan
Format
Series
Running time
26 episodes/25 minutes
Year
2004

Madlax Episode 1 Preview

By David Rasmussen
24th May 05

Just when you thought I’d be forever rotating between Cromartie High & Princess Tutu another series comes along that’s set on Anime Network’s Free on Demand, and how cool is that… not much, this isn’t that good a series.

A new DVD release in April 2005, Madlax is the latest series to get the episodical review.
Then again I’m also going to look at Noir soon, of which I have watched the first seven episodes as of this date… why is that important? Given the choice I’d rather watch Noir than this.

The episode opens in some fictional South American or Latin American country (from all the visuals, the setting of some war torn country, etc) and into this fray has come the one woman gun for hire known as Madlax. Employed by some mysterious faceless voice (sorta like Mission Impossible only no recordings self destruct during the episode) Madlax is sent in to retrieve some valuable information, information presently being held by a “Father” (Lieutenant) figure and “Son” (somewhat passably kind of fair looking dude) who are on the run from the bad guys of the episode, a badly named group called the “Kingdom Army”. Apparently all the good evil Militia names were all taken up.

After attempting to break through a checkpoint they are stopped by the Kingdom Army and only the good looking younger guy escapes, but not before dear old da… I mean Lieutenant… tries to warn him of that no good infamous mercenary known as Mad… ugh, look at the pretty soldiers.

So the guy, and the important data disc is in hiding while the “Kingdom Army” drills the fat-- I mean “Lieutenant” for information. And from this he supposedly (off camera) betrays the kid and the Kingdom Army sends people out after him, but wouldn’t you know it… yeah, Madlax is in the vicinity and using her power to read lips she comes to the conclusion where they’re heading and beats them there to get to the guy first. She saves him, and he pays her back by giving her the disc and running off all dramatically to save pops… I mean the Lt… and then Madlax slips into a delusional state where the sky glows bright with flashing lights and the kid turns into this military dude with blonde hair and, well, since she has blonde hair I’m guessing this is her father and he’s dead… or something.

Anyway when she’s not talking all coy and tough, or considering the need to eat pasta when she gets back home, she’s doing the badass shooting thing… ugh. This is where the episode truly sucks.
If you weren’t dulled by the less than sterling voice acting in English… which probably sounds better in Japanese since 90% of series sound better in Japanese… then get ready for action that will satisfy… if you are into mediocre action that is.

In the big action sequence, as the guy “tries” to save his companion from the enemy base, Madlax takes on a unit of the bad guys (with the chief bad guy amongst them) as they drive through the jungle.
Here she takes what could have been a pulse pounding sequence by being rather nonchalant about it all, not really doing much to make the scene very exciting as she casually shoots each enemy with one shot, as everyone else seems to be overacting and chewing up the scenery all the while.
Heck, she can’t even down an enemy gunship helicopter without being all smarmy and coy as she (while not even looking) uses a high power rifle to take one shot at it (off screen).

BORING!! The sequence’s music was not very good, the sequence itself isn’t very exciting (I’ve seen far better gunning sequences) and overall her attitude throughout this episode is such a downer.
And the ending sucks, too. She saves him (off camera again) and as they’re driving they start to get all sentimental and mushy… awww… and then he wants to know her name and she says “Mad…”… oh, wait, he’s dead. Yeah. Didn’t see THAT one coming. Oh, no. I completely overlooked the stupid “Let’s get really close to saying “Madlax” but get interrupted before we do.” plot point!
Lieutenant almost says it, but they reach a checkpoint and the conversation stops.
The guy almost says it but the conversation grounds to a halt before he spits it out.
She almost says it but he has the bad manners to die before she says it.
Then she talks about eating pasta and whines to her faceless boss at the end about missing a date.
Makes me wish I missed this episode, which I didn’t… sadly.
I think the Breakdown will get the point across as to how I feel about this one.

Madlax Breakdown Episodic 1st
What’s Hot?
I wish there was something hot about this, really.
Pan down to the What’s Not since I have more complaints about Madlax than praise.

What’s Not
First off I’ll state the obvious here.
I’ll take it as a fact that, yes, the English dub just isn’t good and the original Japanese version will have better voice acting. In fact I’m not very forgiving of the voice acting here which is just passable, but not much else. Now if it was the voice acting alone maybe I wouldn’t be so down on Madlax, but yet somehow I don’t think all the episode’s ills can be hung on just the voice actors alone… because if they truly are the cause of all this episode’s ills then even I would be surprised.

First off we have Madlax, who seemingly isn’t a very interesting character.
She doesn’t come off as interesting, and in fact is abit of a drag to watch. She’s so coy and “cool” that she can carry on “charming” dialogue one minute, then do one shot/one kills the next as people speed at her unloading their guns at her. Yeah, right.
Then she goes off on strange tangents like babbling on about how she wants to eat pasta when she goes home, or her delusional drug induced only without the drugs flashing light show “flashback” thing which is just pointless since there’s no actual mention of what’s going on or any connecting info to clue you in to what she’s seeing or why she’s seeing it when the guy walks away from her.
That and she really shows no real spark that would endear her to audiences. She’s just another girl with a gun, and in a genre where a girl with a gun is a dime a dozen you just have to do more to stand out and be recognized, which she fails miserably at.

Yes, further episodes might change my mind… but let’s get to those episodes before I even phantom a guess as to when Madlax will finally sway me over to her side.

Quickly since I seem to be rambling.
The music is so-so, the action is not very good, the characters kind of just sit there and don’t grip you all that tight, the first episode’s story just isn’t that great, and overall this could have done better for her introduction in her first episode.
To cut it short (too late) there are good series out there in this action genre, and this isn’t one of them.

Moments to Remember?
Not much, I’m afraid. Sorry.

What to Ignore?
Hmmm… the talks about pasta… the bad ending… the not so hot action sequence with the shooting and the stunts and so forth… where to begin… oh, well. Forget it, this is just not so good.

Overall?
When it comes right down to it you can do far better than Madlax.
Yes, maybe I’ll change my mind once I consumed more episodes and maybe find some really stand out episodes that catch my attention… but if this continues on in this not so intense venue then I don’t know if I will ever see a time when the series turns around and starts putting out good episodes.
If you have the money, and the need for girls with guns, you’d be far better off investing that money in Noir than this. Noir is the exact opposite of this series, to me at least.
The music is good, the characters are engaging (even if sometimes the English voice dubbers sound dull voiced as if they were assimilated by the Borg) and the episodes I’ve seen so far are pretty good and the action really catches your attention, unlike the action in Madlax which is just so-so and not much else.
Unless Madlax really starts to pick up and I see some really attention grabbing plotlines then I can’t say I have much in the way of positive input for this series… it does make me want to review Noir now more than ever, and even go so far as to get the mangas… there are mangas, right? I’m sure there are.

For Madlax’s sake I hope the coming episodes are cooler. I’d love it if this series proves me wrong and starts to really pick up and become hot… please hurry and become hot. Please.

-- David Rasmussen 24th May 05

Madlax Images