I must try and stop comparing this to Noir…
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5.1 Englsih and 2.0 Japanese are you usual ADV choices.
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- Conversations with SSS
- Production notes
- Clean opening
- Clean closing
- Japanese promo spots
- Design sketches
- Unused opening sequence
- ADV Previews
The “conversations with SSS” that runs for again for just short of ten minutes is once again hilarious and well worth a look for a decidedly different slant on Madlax.
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Madlax is sent on a seek-out mission to bring some cargo out of Gazth-Sonika from under Enfant’s watchful eye, even from the opening couple of scenes it’s not hard to put two and two together that the cargo is a teenage boy but it’s still quite cute watching Madlax figure it out, things get more complicated when Lieutenant Limelda is hired to assassinate the boy so her path with Madlax will cross once again.
To get sidetracked for a moment: I must add that I took an instant Liking to Limelda in the first volume (partly due to the sniper aspects of her work) but coming to the realisation in this volume that she could very well be Chloe’s (from Noir) older sister / look-alike, and that’s no bad thing for me, Chloe fanboy that I am…
The episodes continue in there switching between Madlax and Margaret but as the layers are beginning to open both are becoming more and more inextricably woven together. Margaret is invited to a party where a boy has an interest in her, Margaret being the daydreamer that she is thinks she’s done something wrong to garner his attentions. She’s taken a book with her that she feels some strong connection to but when the lad looks at it strange things start to happen.
Margaret in her own way then starts to make inroads into unravelling her own past; she hires Eric a book detective to track down a complete copy of the book, hers missing a few pages. Though Margaret cannot read the text or knows anything about it Eric takes the job and starts his detective work, following him the story heads back into the jungles of Gazth-Sonika where he finds that the language the book is written is supposed to be cursed and that the book can hold a power over many who read it.
His situation gets worse as those underlying powers-that-be are out to get him, Madlax is sent in as a replacement bodyguard for Eric, his first one dead before even getting to him, marking really the first time that even indirectly the paths of our two main characters have openly crossed, it’s going to be very interesting when they finally meet and a scene that given the ambiance of the series thus far, I look forward too.
There’s something very quaint about Madlax despite it’s increasing dark tones that are beginning to surface, Vanessa and Elenore are good friends with very different characters but similar sensibilities so they play off each other well, Margaret is just a daydream and the writers play with it, even her school teacher tells her to go back to sleep at one point and finally Madlax can be sweet on occasions, just little shots of her smiling really help nail that aspect of her.
If I can levy one fault against Madlax it’s that even after 8 episodes I am still finding it hard to pin names to everyone, I only managed to pin Friday-Monday’s name down as I recognised Mike Kleinhenz as his English voice actor, while many of the other characters still remain nameless to this watcher anyway. I’m all for mysticism-centric plots that need to be unwoven, that’s even one of the biggest draws for this volume but not being able to name active characters diminishes the enjoyment a little.
Other than that gripe witch may well be fault of my own this was a top-notch volume all round.
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A solid bunch of very likable central characters with a mystery vibe that I’m keen to see unfold, not to mention the increasingly “cool” ambience. Madlax is cementing its place as this-years action-hit. "
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