Madlax: Bee Train didn't falter… much

ktulu007

Jun 2

I've already reviewed Bee Train's other two girls with guns classics, El Cazador de la Bruja and Noir. Now, it's time to finish the trilogy with a look at Madlax. This was the second one released coming out in 2004. Is it as amazing as the other two? Let's have a look.

Story:

Our tale takes place in two different countries. The first is Gazth-Sonika where a long civil war is taking place and where the mercenary, Madlax, makes her home. The second is the peaceful Nafrece where our second protagonist, Margaret Burton, lives. Little do the two women suspect that the criminal organisation, Enfant, is going to bring them together while trying to obtain an old book that's in Margaret's possession.

There are two pretty significant flaws with the writing in this series. The first is that its pacing is really slow. Now, you could make the point that both Noir and El Cazador also take time to build up and are slow burns. However, there are a couple factors that make it a problem here and not necessarily in those. The first is that the series reiterates information a lot. There are so many scenes with mysterious characters making the same handful of comments or with characters just repeating information they already said one or two episodes ago that it gets a bit tiring. The second issue is simply that a lot of sequences in this just feel really dragged out. With Noir, we had a lot of really compelling content propelling the story forward. With El Cazador, we had a really interesting journey. And, in both those cases, we had strong developing relationships between the lead heroines as well. In Madlax, they don't even meet until the very end of episode eighteen.

The second issue is just that the story is written in an overly cryptic way. A lot of sequences with mysterious characters talking vaguely. A lot of repetitive flashbacks that are clearly meant to be hinting at something and the sequences are so over-used and repetitive that you will very likely figure out where they're going before the reveal in spite of them being written in the most convoluted fashion possible.

With that out of the way, Madlax is still a compelling series with a lot of interesting moments to keep it going. And it does improve on one thing when compared to Noir, which is that the mystery it sets up for an ongoing source of tension has a much more satisfying conclusion. The ending to this is pretty strong in general. And the whole thematic conflict among hedonism, idealism and pragmatism is pretty interesting. I generally appreciate media that shows idealism as unrealistic and takes a more pragmatic stance at dealing with conflicts if I'm being honest.

Characters:

Madlax revolves less around the dynamic between the two leads and relies more on their relationships with others. For Madlax, we see a strong dynamic betwixt her and Vanessa. As well as an antagonistic relationship that starts developing into something more between her and Limelda. For Margaret, her main dynamics are with Vanessa and Elenore.

The protagonists in this are all pretty compelling with their own goals and back stories that help flesh them out as characters. The main antagonist, Friday Monday, is kind of boring though. He basically just wants to "free" humans from a sense of morality without any real reason given for why he wants such an asinine thing. The characters who are there to be mysterious, the glowing children and the discerners, are also pretty under-developed. They have roles to play in the narrative but not much personality.

Art:

The artwork is roughly on par with Noir's. While it does suffer somewhat from overly angular faces, the designs are strong and the action sequences are really good. And it does have some cute sequences.

Sound:

The acting is really good. Kobayashi Sanae, Kuwashima Houko, Uchikawa Ai and Yukino Satsuki all deliver excellent performances. The music in this isn't just excellent but it's also used very effectively to build atmosphere and enhance the action sequences.

Ho-yay:

There's a decent amount of les-yay, though not as much as the other two. Madlax gets les-yay with Vanessa and, later on, Limelda. Margaret gets les-yay with Elenore.

Areas of Improvement:

Less time spent with "mysterious" characters talking vaguely about plot points. Yes, it's important to foreshadow the major plot points especially with a plot as complicated as Madlax has. But they just overdo it.
Friday Monday needs stronger motivation. There should at least be some reason he thinks everyone acting on impulse and desire would be the ideal society.
Madlax and Margaret could use stronger interactions. Just to be very clear, I'm not saying that they should be romantically connected. What I'm suggesting is that the fact that they meet very late in the series and barely interact with each other before things start getting intense does weaken the impact of some of the climactic plot points.

Final Thoughts:

Madlax is definitely the weakest series in the trilogy. That isn't to say that it's bad. It still has a lot of factors working in its favour including a lot of the writing strengths that all the Bee Train girls with guns anime share but it's also overly slow and uses the Judas Traveller method to explain some of its plot elements. Which is never a good sign. I'll still give it a very solid 7/10

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