Cinnamon Ass - Reborn Like a Zombie

Madlax Episode 26 - pupil (END)

(incidentally, I've been titling the episodes based on the given English title, but this week's Japanese title amused me - it was "kakera" (meaning "pieces"), and the OP is "Hitomi no Kakera" (meaning "pieces of the pupil"). You figure it out.)

I'm not going to bother discussing the events of the episode I don't think, I don't think it's really worth the effort if you haven't got this far already and most of the plot threads have been resolved already by this point. I will say that the first part of the episode wasn't actually that great, but I quite liked the ending despite it leaving a few things possibly ambiguous.

So, I've actually managed to finish an entire series in blogging. Woohoo. Madlax went from a ropey start to a gripping middle and a slightly anticlimactic final hour due to revealing too much too late so we'd already guessed it. However, there was a lot to like about the show in the end, and I'm certainly looking to pick it up on DVD (which I think will suit the rather lovely visuals no end). Not for everyone, much like Noir and so on, but I really enjoyed it.

Madlax Episode 25 - sacred blood

I think everything about this episode needs to go in the extended entry - to be honest, there wasn't actually anything new as such that you wouldn't have worked out for yourself already, but it's all spoiler-tastic for the rest of the series.

Since there wasn't a lot in this episode, only a brief little recap - Margaret shoots Madlax again, then goes off with her page of Secondary and opens the door of truth with Friday. We see twelve years ago again, and the entire truth is revealed - Richard Burton accidentally shot Carossur, then Friday Elda Taluta-ed him which made him want to kill Margaret. Margaret picked up a gun lying on the ground, but couldn't face killing her own father - so she split into THREE distinct personas - Madlax )the manifestation of Margaret's guilt who then shoots Burton), Margaret herself, and Leticia (who is the manifestation of the "true" Margaret and possessed Margaret's doll). Margaret is rather upset by this, which allows Friday to use the books to re-commence his mass Elda Taluta attack on the world, causing complete chaos and the death of that stupid guy with the bad hair whose name I have yet AGAIN forgotten. Thankfully, Madlax steps into the breach to do something about this.

I felt vaguely cheated by this episode since it didn't really tell us anything we didn't already know, frankly. And I'm slightly confused as to how Elda Taluta etc. actually works - Friday says it releases man's intrinsic nature, but it doesn't have the same effect on everyone - while we saw loads of maniacs in this episode, we've seen Madlax reduced to an innocent and Elinor eventually resisted it entirely. Madlax makes sense in some ways - since she isn't actually real, being reduced to "nothing" IS her nature. Perhaps Elinor's true nature was simply to be Elinor. But WHY would Richard Burton want to kill his own daughter? Aside from being an army man, which the writers seem to suggest makes you Evil (a little bit on the naive side, perhaps). I think my main dissatisfaction with the episode is because I've been hyping myself up for it all week and couldn't fail to be slightly disappointed...

Madlax Episode 24 - hearts

Madlax acknowledges her own immortality as she destroys two squads of soldiers (including tanks and helicopters!) in the Cocktail Dress of Doom. She and Rimelda have another face off - while Rimelda is obviously incapable of harming Madlax, Madlax chooses to shoot her clothes off (!), asking Rimelda to remember her.

Everything else is going in the extended entry to hide spoilers...

Elinor heads off to find Margaret, but is shot in the back by a group of soldiers (she refused to kill them herself because it would upset Margaret). With her last ounces of strength she makes her way to Margaret, who has completely forgotten about her thanks to Friday. Elinor takes aim to shoot Friday, but he convinces Margaret to use the words of the books on Elinor - but her "true impulse", which they unleash, is still to protect Margaret. However, as Elinor reveals that Margaret is her only family, she finally succumbs to the bullet and dies. Reticia breaks down crying for Elinor as they meet in the poppy field where Vanessa was when she died, so Elinor comforts her sadly. When Madlax finally arrives, it's too late.

Boy, they're dropping like flies! And it has to be the really nice characters that go, too (well, aside from Carossur). Looks like Quanjitta killed herself too, although we didn't get to see that. The scene with Reticia and Elinor in particularly was really quite powerful, but I suppose that's because I'm so incredibly addicted to Madlax. Only two episodes left to go...

Madlax Episode 23 - doubt

Madlax, once more miraculously unscathed by last episode's events, sets off once more to find Margaret and get the missing page of Secondary to her. Elinor insists on coming along, which both helps and hinders the journey. Margaret, meanwhile, falls further into the enthral of Friday, who convinces her he's her father, and Rimelda is still out there searching for Madlax.

Reticia's line about Madlax being "the love within insanity" was never more apt, given how bloody bonkers Margaret's gone. She's always been two bullets short of a clip but she's gone completely crackers now. I can understand why Elinor and Madlax still care so much she used to be nice and crazy, instead of psychotic. While a fairly slow, non-eventful episode given the excesses of the last two, we did at least get some nice Elinor-Madlax interaction - although I fear next episode may be the last for our favourite kung-fu maid.

Madlax Episode 22 - rage

Friday blathers on about his insane plans at Reticia, having captured Margaret and somehow placed her under his control. Madlax, meanwhile, has miraculously recovered from her bullet wound without a scratch and sets out to find Margaret, cutting remarkably non-lethal swathes through the fighting Gazth-sonikans. Elinor, Madlax and Vanessa separate in the jungle - Elinor searches for Margaret, Madlax faces off against Rimelda once more, and Vanessa has a fateful encounter with Friday that ends in tragedy and a shocking cliffhanger...

Okay, AARGH. This and episode 21 were aired as a double bill, and we end on the most enormous cliffhanger EVER. We've really got to the good stuff now, and I have absolutely no idea where the story is going to go now except from the snatches of imagery in the preview which I HOPE are misleading (as they usually are).

Incidentally, Friday, your Zone of Absolute Fortune plans are incredibly cliche and you're completely loopy. Ta.

Madlax Episode 21 - guilty

Vanessa nurses Madlax while Margaret and Carossur open the gate of truth - Margaret tries to stop Carossur going through, but finds herself spirited into a flowery landscape. Carossur, meanwhile, finally sees what happened 12 years ago...

The rest is in the extended entry, because finally we get some answers. Wow, what an awesome episode! I think one of the major stumbling blocks of Madlax is that the first episodes vaguely look like they're supposed to be realistic - if you take the whole thing as pure fantasy, as it's now become, those first episodes don't seem anywhere near as stupid.

Carossur was on the same plane as Margaret when the accident that killed her parents occurred - it appears that Friday used the power of the books and the resulting explosion of energy hit the plane.

Carossur and Margaret were the only survivors (or were they? Remember Chris from episode 5? I think he was on the plane too.), and escaped through the battlefield that Friday has turned Gazth-sonika into. They ran into a confrontation between Colonel Burton (Margaret's father) and Friday - Friday calls Burton "Madlax"! Burton shot Friday in the face (explaining the mask I guess), and Margaret ran to him - we see Carossur get shot, and the wound re-opens in the present day as the gate shuts.

Reticia warns Carossur not to re-open them, since he will die if he does so, but he pays no heed. He finally sees the truth about Madlax as the Carossur in Reticia's dreamscape fades away, leaving Carossur to die beside Margaret. This gives Friday (who is still alive!) the opportunity to retrieve the books and capture Margaret, and the apparent truth is reconfirmed - that Madlax shot Margaret's father.

Madlax Episode 20 - wish

Quanjitta explains further about the "gate" the three books opens, and Margaret resolves once more to get them back. However, Madlax still struggles with her identity now that Margaret is on the scene, and both of them choose to open Thirdly and Secondary respectively, with interesting repercussions for their memories. Rimelda is still on the prowl in the meantime, and it takes a tender thought from Nahal to get Madlax out of her existential crisis and ready to fight. Rimelda's obsession with Madlax reaches dangerous heights, however, and Carossur bands together with Margaret and Quanjitta to head for the "gate" with the books.

Aargh, I feel like such an idiot. It's only just twigged with me that in the opening sequence it's Reticia that Margaret split-screens with the second time, not Madlax! My hunches were signposted right from the beginning of the damn series. Don't know if it's correct yet, though. Looks like the next few episodes were aired as part of a special, and the preview looks fantastic - finally things are starting to come together and I'm utterly hooked all the way. Although Rimelda is getting sliiiightly creepy now.

Furthermore, I think I may have worked out what it says at least partially on the dogtags Madlax carries around with her now. Just a very very educated hunch, methinks.

Madlax Episode 19 - holy

Now the gang's all assembled, they head off to find Quanjitta's place again (where Madlax took Eric the Book Detective all those episodes ago). Since all of Gazth-sonika is after them, they get attacked along the way, and Madlax ends off crusading into the jungle to protect them. However, thanks to Vanessa's spectacular incompetence, Nahal ends up coming to the rescue. In parallel conferences between our gang and Quanjitta alongside Carossur and Friday, more is revealed about the nature of the three books and their powers. Carossur ends up taking Firstly by force, and Madlax has yet another existential crisis when faced with Margaret's resolve to find out the truth.

Wonder what's going to happen to Friday now. Does he have a horribly scarred face a la the Phantom of the Opera, hence the mask? Or was it just for visual effect? All these important questions (never mind the usual "WTF?" nature of the show).

Madlax Episode 18 - duo

While Vanessa teaches herself to shoot properly, Madlax investigates the history of Gazth-sonika further until she is held at knifepoint by Nahal and has a quick existential crisis. Margaret's incredibly clueless line of investigation ("Let's go find a member of a criminal organisation! THEY'LL know where Vanessa is!) eventually leads her and Elinor to Madlax's aid, to Reticia's interest (the red moon and the blue moon from the episode preview overlap in Reticia's world at last) Meanwhile, Rimelda decides to quit the military in spectacular fashion after she reads the data on Enfan's involvement in Gazth-sonika and confronts Carossur before setting out with Madlax's death her only remaining purpose.

Alas, Badgis' hair is back to its usual idiocy this episode. This was made up for by the damn cool fight between Nahal and Madlax, and the long-awaited meeting of Madlax and Margaret. Onwards, I say!

Madlax Episode 17 - reunion

Vanessa and Madlax are framed for the murder of a minor royal figure in order to set all the military forces of Gazth-sonika on them. This makes it onto the news, and Margaret finally finds out what's happened to her, resolving to go to Gazth-sonika at once. Her complete lack of subtlety nearly lands them in trouble, but Carossur bails them out. Luck also happens to be what saves Madlax and Vanessa after they're caught at a road blockade, when Rimelda slaughters her own comrades for the chance to kill Madlax herself. In return, Madlax gives Rimelda the data on Enfan's involvement in Gazth-sonika. Finally, the two groups have almost converged.

Did anyone else find this episode bizarrely funny? With the increasing annoyance of Elinor with Carossur, Rimelda taking the whole gun metaphor a liiiittle too far and Badgis FINALLY doing something with his stupid haircut, it seemed a little more lighthearted than usual. Can't see that lasting.

Madlax Episode 16 - moment

Madlax reflects on how everything is connected to Enfan, and arranges to hand the data over to them - however, she and Vanessa are taken hostage by the Enfan unit. They are trapped within a set made to look like Reticia's battlefield by Friday, who apparently did something to Madlax in the past, and attempts to force her to reveal the location of Secondary to no avail (there appear to be three brain-drain books now, since Quanjitta has one on an altar). Madlax then blasts her way out of captivity with a little help from Vanessa, which seems to upset Margaret no end (she's in a bad enough state as it is since she's twigged that she has some connection with Reticia and confronts Carossur about it).

No comment. Just...the usual.

Madlax Episode 15 - camouflage

Margaret is under constant protection by Elinor in case Nahal returns to claim Secondary, but this isn't the case since she's reporting to Quanjitta - specifically that Carossur apparently has "the talent". Madlax, troubled by her lack of youthful memories, decides to undergo the Elda Taluta process again, and finds herself chasing Reticia through her world - Reticia tells Madlax that she is part of a "fake battlefield", and different from everyone else - as a consequence she breaks through the encryption on the Gazth-sonika data. The purification process also affects Margaret for some reason, who appears to be connected to Reticia somehow.

With this talk of Carossur having "the talent", could he be related to the silent boy in Reticia's world? Since he doesn't seem to have any awareness of it, that would explain his silence, whereas Margaret's continuing involvement in the intrigues of Enfan means Reticia gradually gets more and more prominent. Furthermore, if Madlax is "fake", what is her relationship to Margaret? WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?

Madlax Episode 14 - memory

Aaah, Madlax, how I have missed your nonsensical intricate plotting. Let's get cracking. Twitch, Madlax! TWITCH! Anyway...

Madlax gets her brain mushed a bit by Elda Taruta, and so Carossur calls Rimelda off from hunting her. Vanessa is left to care for the newly amnesiac assassin, who reminds her ever more of Margaret (it's the catatonia that does it), and ends up chasing her through the streets of Gazth-sonika while she goes searching for some shoes and straight into Rimelda's clutches. However, Vanessa protects Madlax (who's busy having horrible flashbacks about her father and another freaky book) until she snaps out of it and comprehensively kicks Rimelda's ass.

In the meantime, Carossur decides to tell Margaret that there are forces after Secondary without Enfan's jurisdiction, and eventually confronts Nahal as she watches the Burton residence. Elinor decides to act as Margaret's bodyguard, but Margaret's kooky sixth sense seems to be enough to protect her if necessary.

I'm not sure that there's anything really to say about this episode. You're either utterly hooked on the barmy weirdness entirely like I am or shaking your head at the treacle-like pacing and constant crypticism. Anyway, the plotlines draw ever closer, I still pray they work effectively together.

Madlax Episode 13 - awake

Whoo boy, what didn't happen in this episode? Carossur almost gets control of Secondary from Margaret, but the book's power almost overwhelms him and he is forced to admit defeat after circumstance and Margaret's iron will beat him - apparently the bloodstains in Secondary are his own blood, and his own forgotten past may have been recalled when he read Secondary. Friday has had enough of Carossur's stalling on capturing Madlax, however, and uses Vanessa's computer terminal to get Madlax to read Elda Taluta, sending her into a catatonic flashback of her past where it appears she may have killed her own father. In the meantime, one of Kuanjitta's henchwomen (who has been tailing both Margarat and Carossur) tries to take Secondary from Margaret while she sleeps, but Margaret warns her while she sleeps that she'll kill anyone who takes the picture book.

I forgot how twisty-turny Madlax could be, and these latest plot developments should be interesting if they're fulfilled properly. While I'm still thoroughly enjoying the series, I can see why even those who stuck it out beyond the comparatively rubbish first episode are beginning to fall by the wayside - Madlax has elements of just about everything that I look for in a series, but its problem is balancing it properly - some episodes are pretty much nothing more than talking heads with occasional moments of surreal imagery and weirdness serving to confuse or advance the storyline at a glacial rate, others are very light on substance but contain a great deal of stylized action or mood setting. I think the creative team have been just a little overamibitious, really. While the uneven style really doesn't faze me - I think the plot has sucked me in too much for anything else to annoy me - I can see it being a real love-or-hate show when it gets licensed, even more so than Noir.

Madlax Episode 12 - close

Whoops, forgot to blog this from a few weeks ago. I have very little recollection of what happened, except there was a wicked little sniper cat-and-mouse game between Rimelda and Madlax towards the end - and Madlax got hit! Horror of horrors! Any fight scene with gratuitous stylish pigeons has got to be worth watching. I think there was also traditional Bee Train shoujo ai galore between Vanessa and Madlax too, but I can't really remember, I'm just blogging to make up the episode count I'm afraid.

Madlax Episode 11 - object

Vanessa hunts down the Bookwald data on Gazth-sonika on the laptop of a spoddy teenager, but unfortunately he reconnects his computer to the Internet before she does so, thus enabling Enfan to track him. However, Badgis (Vanessa's geeky friend) stumped up some cash to hire someone to protect Vanessa, and so just when Enfan are about to kill her Madlax pops up and shoots the lot of them. Vanessa's a bit shellshocked, but Madlax points out fairly sensibly that this is Gazth-sonika, and this is war. Oh, and Vanessa has A Backstory involving her father getting handcuffed or something like that.

Vanessa's not very good at this covert stuff, is she? The geek will thankfully not turn up again I shouldn't think, since he looks waaaay too much like Keitaro from Love Hina to have an interesting part. Not much really happened here, except Carossur carried on his agenda of getting Secondary (he's framed Madlax for Vanessa's hacking escapades for some reason), but Vanessa's a likeable lead character for the moment.

Madlax Episode 10 - dive

Vanessa turns out to be one of the top hackers in the world, and enlists the help of an old school friend to try and get some information to expose Bookwald's involvement in the civil war in Gazth-sonika. Carossur is on her (and Margaret's) trail, however, and Enfan's security systems are incredibly advanced. In the end, the data Vanessa manages to get hold of is isolated on a computer in Gazth-sonika itself by Insane Masked Guy (who appears to be called Friday!), so she has no choice but to fly out there to retrieve it - and guess who she passes in the street?

Mmm, nail-biting hacking action which was quite well paced actually. Some more creepy Margaret moments, a bizarre looking warrior standing on a skyscraper in a very X like manner, lots and lots of Vanessa, and Carossur's motives become even shadier. Not convinced that ANY of the names are right, incidentally - the names of the books appear to be Firstly and Secondly (as opposed to Secondary), but I have no idea why. I'm quite ashamed to admit that Madlax is rapidly becoming my favourite show of the season for no particularly obvious reason - perhaps I should give Noir another try some day, the first episode bored me for some reason.

Madlax Episode 9 - scent

Vanessa illicitly books herself, Elinor and Margaret into the Hotel Allium, which is owned by her company. When their car breaks down they are rescued by a man named Luciano who turns out to be an assassin from Gazth-sonika sent to assasinate Carossur (Mr. Doe), who is also staying there. Margaret accidentally foils this when she runs past Carossur clutching Secondary (her book), and he ends up being shot by Rimelda - his dying thoughts are how Margaret reminds him so much of Gazth-sonika, and a time when Luciano saw Retitia (who Margaret also sees for the first time in this episode, much to Retitia's surprise - "Someone tried to cross over", she tells the mysterious blond boy).

Vanessa also discovers that her country has been dealing in illegal arms with Gazth-sonika this episode, and it looks like she'll at least vaguely meet Madlax in the next episode from the preview (I liked the effect - traditionally the preview is done in "split screen", but the shot of Vanessa and Madlax is done full frame to show the two plotlines converging). We get some more hints as to the idea of parallel worlds with the juxtaposition of Retitia's war-torn world right next to the greenery of the land around the Allium, but the one thing I wish they'd do is have some sort of female Victim of the Week - all the poor blokes getting bumped off is getting a little silly!

Madlax Episode 8 - soul

Eric and Madlax make their way to the village where the woman who can read the Elies language lives. The woman, Kuanjitta, reveals what the words say, and while Madlax fends off the attacking Garza forces Eric journeys into the cave where more Elies is written - the words there being "Elda Taluta", from back in episode 4. As he speaks them, Dolly Girl and her creepy friend appear, and we finally learn her name (Reticia, although I bet it's Leticia since that's AN ACTUAL NAME >_<). They unlock Eric's repressed memories about murdering some bullies when he was younger or something like that, so he goes and commits suicide after entrusting a letter to Madlax to send back to Margaret (whom Madlax vaguely remembers, huzzah!). In the meantime, Mr. Doe puts the moves on Rimelda and lies down the phone to Insane Masked Guy (I REALLY need to remember his name) - he obviously has his eyes on Margaret...

Aaaah, what the hell is going on? TELL ME NOW, CRAZY BEE TRAIN PEOPLE? Looks like it's running to 26 episodes, which means I'm probably never going to see most of the series dammit but I NEED TO KNOW WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON!

Madlax Episode 7 - nature

Margaret hires a book detective, Eric, to find another copy of her father's book so she can piece together the missing pages. He traces the script of the book to an ancient culture in Gazth-sonika via an old friend of his called Lucille, and Madlax ends up being hired to protect him after his guide gets killed. They end up in the Gazth-sonika wilds after Eric is attacked in his hotel, and we learn that Insane Masked Guy is after Margaret's book - turns out Lucille knows something about an event Eric has forgotten in the past (which may involve a disastrous archaeological trip into Gazth-sonika) and informs Mr. Doe of the book, which IMG calls "Secondary".

Well, we finally got both Margaret and Madlax into an episode, but they're still not really together. I guess that when Eric pops his clogs (he's met Madlax, he's bound to!) he'll reveal who sent him or something. The show is a little too dualist at the moment, with the mysterious atmosphere of Margaret's storyline not sitting too comfortably with Madlax's more conventional one. Still interesting, though. One thing that's been bothering me is how so many of the male characters have really, really bad hairstyles, for some reason. The character designs in general aren't bad, particularly the women, but the supporting blokes are usually gifted with bizarre bouffant looks.

Just another useful observation there...

Madlax Episode 6 - leave

Margaret has creepy dreams and goes to a schoolfriend's party, where her father's picture book makes a would-be suitor exceptionally...forthright in his seduction approach (it's the tadpoles again, they're EVIL tadpoles!). So Elinor (I'm sure she was Elanore a couple of weeks ago...) steps in as a high-kicking bodyguard to save the day. In the meantime, we get some background on Margaret's past from Elinor's perspective (the first word Margaret said upon returning home after that fateful plane crash was "Madlax") and a few more hints of weirdness.

So Margaret's picture book can do mind-changing things? The glowing eyes were nifty, as was Elinor's kung-fu maid action. Still very little explanation as to what the hell's going on (is this going for 13 or 26 episodes?), but the scripting has sufficiently improved from the first two episodes to retain my interest. The music seems less obtrusive now for some reason, and there's a couple of lovely vocal pieces in there that bring to mind some of the calmer .Hack stuff like Fake Wings.

Madlax Episode 5 - none

Madlax ends up attempting to protect a teenager, Chris Crowther, as he attempts to make his way to his father at Garza, the Resistance headquarters. We get some background and tying-in of plot threads here - Chris was sent to Gazth-sonika by the politician that got murdered last episode in order to investigate the civil war. Furthermore we see some flashbacks to Madlax's childhood - appears she was involved in a war zone, and all she has to remember her father by is his half-destroyed dogtag and that weird piece of paper with the two tadpoles in which keeps popping up. Anyway, Madlax foils Rimelda and Mr. Doe's attempts to stop them, and Chris makes it to Garza, only to discover Insane Masked Guy who wipes him entirely from existence (possibly).

I don't think Madlax is playing the Matrix card, but it sure as heck seems like it at times. I wonder how they're going to explain all this Enfin stuff. That book Insane Masked Guy has must have something to do with it. Curiouser and curiouser.

Madlax Episode 4 - ask

Margaret time! This time round, she gets vaguely involved in a murder investigation after a fellow student kills her father, a noted politician, and then herself. Margaret barely knew the girl, but after a strange dream she shares with Madlax about yellow flowers she buys a bunch to take to the crime scene. Most of the episode, however, is about the investigating detective, who comes across clues pointing to the involvement of a secret organisation called Enfan (personally I reckon it's Enfin, Bee Train have an obsession with creepy organisations with French names) in the politician's death. He pursues the case too far, and ends up with his entire life wiped out from existence before his brain is formatted by Insane Masked Guy and he becomes the "embodiment" of Enfan. There's some creepy nonsensical stuff with Dolly Girl too, but I didn't have a clue what was going on there.

That was actually a good episode, as opposed to a perversely interesting one! Although my brain may possibly have melted and dribbled out through my ears at some point (which reminds me that I really should catch up on Paranoia Agent...). Now I don't have to feel so bad about enjoying this so much.

Madlax Episode 3 - moon

Madlax is hired to commit euthanasia via assasination for the commander of the Gazth-sonika army, Gwen McNichol. So she does, despite the efforts of a sniper named Rimelda (Aya Hisakawa AGAIN? She must be a busy lady). Margaret finds this all very boring, it appears.

Why the HELL am I still watching this and enjoying it? I have absolutely no idea. Anyway, do we reckon that Madlax is the disturbing creepy girl with the dolly? I had thought that perhaps Margaret was dreaming about Madlax, but that doesn't seem possible. As with all such things, the boy with Dolly Girl is going to either be the bishounen guy Madlax bumped into while pretending to be a tea lady or Insane Masked Man, I think. Or perhaps I have no idea what's going on? That's probably why I'm still watching. That and the music, which has actually become remarkably fitting after that first episode.

Madlax Episode 2 - crimson

Weirder and weirder...

Margaret Burton is a rich young girl living on her own in Paris with her maid, Eleanor. She seems to have problems with sleepwalking and generally focusing on the real world, and has been having strange dreams about tanks and the creepy girl from last week's prologue together with a blonde boy. Her ex-neighbour, Vanessa, happens to be in town after going to an auction for a strange sculpture, and takes her to visit her workplace (despite Margaret's repeated protestations that it's going to rain), where Margaret is creeped out by a strange man and mention of a country called Gazth-sonika, where the sculpture is co-incidentally heading.

Vanessa takes Margaret home and gives her a present of a pair of red shoes she'd been staring at, but they only serve to give her strange flashbacks to a ruined clock. After Margaret excuses herself, it becomes obvious that Eleanor and Vanessa know something about Margaret's past that they're trying to shelter her from. Margaret, meanwhile, digs out a treasured possession - a bloodstained picture book from her father - as rain pours down around Madlax in a distant city and a crazy man in a mask smashes the sculpture from earlier and waffles about insanity.

Margaret is almost identical to Lain Iwakura, except with some sort of dark war-torn past that makes her act erratically instead of weird technological doodads. As such it's fairly difficult to get to grips with the episode without going "what?" most of the time - her reactions to things make no sense at all, which is fair enough given we don't know her background, but she's surrounded by things that make her act in certain ways and the audience is given no explanation for them. However, the show is thick with mysteries, and unfortunately my curiosity demands I keep watching until at least some of them have been unravelled. Here's hoping they get Madlax and Margaret together fairly soon, though, the dual plotline thing could get fairly boring.

Madlax Episode 1 - dance

Opening - Hitomi no Kakera (FictionJunction YUUKA) - a bit too much like Shoot (Yzak's image song from Gundam Seed) for my liking, but still rather nice song. Trippy animation, too - and I like the bullet trails.
Ending - inside your heart (same again) - floating nude ladies aren't particularly exciting (!), and the chorus of the song's a bit dull. Meh.

Is it just me, or are there far too many series beginning with the letter m this season? Melody of Oblivion, Madlax, Mars Daybreak, Monster, Mahou Shoujo Tai Arusu, Midori no Hibi...

I have a small confession to make. I like .Hack//Sign. For about a year after I first watched the show I despised it, then watched the first DVD and became hopelessly addicted to it - the commercial subs make it make sense, for one. Never much cared for the slightly stilted nature of Noir, but .Hack//Sign worked much better when I thought of it more as a drama than an actual MMORPG sort of thing (just wait 'til I get around to watching Ragnarok...).

Anyway, that over with, Madlax is the latest thing from Bee Train, who are almost Gonzo-like in their adherence to style-over-substance - except take the tits and mecha out of Gonzo and replace them with blaring music and slight shoujo-ai connotations, plus vaguely nonsensical plotlines. Madlax sees the return of Yuki Kajiura (current darling of anime music fans (including me) since she made it big with Noir and .Hack//Sign, although she also scored the second Kimagure Orange Road movie and Aquarian Age) as the blaring music composer, and a throwback to Noir in character designs and dynamics.

Except we don't get quite all that in the first episode. The first episode is entirely devoted to Madlax, a blonde special ops agent, as she abseils into the jungle and retrieves some data in the midsts of a war. After a nonsensical prologue with a little girl and a doll that will no doubt have some great significance to come, we get a fairly average storyline with fluctuating animation (great explosions and Madlax animation, Pete looks pretty stilted though) and character design quality (weird noses, but then I like Esca-style noses you can ski down, so what do I know?), and some typically ludicrous Bee Train touches - Madlax is the PERFECT agent, she can lipread, second guess the enemy at every turn, shoot targets dead-on, has strange visions of books and soldiers with swirly CG effects, and THEN she dresses up in a cocktail dress and defeats a small army contingent with her eyes closed and without a scratch while wondering what she wants for dinner.

I know the world and his wife hated Madlax episode 1 but, true to form, I quite enjoyed it. It's pure hokum, incredibly over-the-top and ripped off from everything else Bee Train has ever done, but I like Madlax (although she's obviously a bit messed up), I'm interested in seeing what plot there will be (there's a guy with a stupid mask in the promo artwork - he MUST be cool), and the music is at least pretty good, although pretty inappropriate at times.