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Written by maehara
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Tuesday, 04 April 2006 00:00 |
 Mention Bee Train, and most anime fans will think of Noir and .hack//SIGN - two very popular shows that also took a fair amount of criticism for being triumphs of style over substance. Mention that Madlax comes from the same people, and some fans begin to worry about having seen it all before - and if I'm to be brutally honest, up to a point they will have. But while Madlax is dripping with style, it also has a slightly different approach to its storytelling that could help provide the substance - if proper use is made of the opportunity...
1 - Gun Dance
"Whose side are you on?" "Neither." So goes the first conversation with Madlax, mercenary agent of sorts, before she parachutes into the middle of a war zone. She's on a mission to retrieve some top-secret data that's gone missing in the warzone, and she's not the only one after the data - the enemy have been sold some information on the location of the courier, so it's a race against time for Madlax to get there first. There's also the small problem that the courier doesn't know his comrades have turned traitor, and is determined to 'save' them...
2 - Red Moon / Crimson
Meet Margaret Burton, a young schoolgirl who seems to have real problems staying awake, and who looks a lot like Kirika (Noir), only with pigtails. Kawaii, but also a little kowai in her own way. Margaret's been having strange dreams of late - dreams of war, red shoes, and that it's going to rain this afternoon... Meanwhile, an auction has been held for a valuable artifact that seems to have some significance - although at this stage we're not told what. One of the people bidding for the artefact, Vanessa Rene, used to be Margaret's next door neighbour and is about to renew their acquaintance...
3 - Blue Moon
Another mission lined up for Madlax - to assassinate Guen McNichol, Gazth-Sonika's army commander, during a major speech. Madlax being herself, she's done her research well - and after running into the security forces, it seems there's at least one person who may be able to stop her. It's an unusual assassination, too - the client himself is the man to be killed - so Madlax lets her curiosity get the better of her & goes to meet her victim...
4 - Enticement / Ask
The authorities in Gazth-Sonika are well aware of Madlax's involvement in McNichol's killing - but they're also well aware it'll be difficult at best to catch her. Meanwhile, a pupil at Margaret's school kills her father, apparently with no motive - although some overwritten data discovered on Anna's computer gives the police a pointer, towards a criminal organisation know as Enfant. Just when the officer investigating seems to be getting somewhere, he's taken off the case, and in true Enemy of the State style, all records of his identity are erased...
  Main selling point of Madlax: a Yuki Kajiura soundtrack, which is well up to her usual high standards. As for the story - there are two distinct storylines here, each very different in tone & focussing on a different lead character. On the one hand you've got Madlax and the Gazth-Sonika civil war - as good an excuse as you'll ever get for action scenes and such. On the other, you've got Margaret and her normal high-school life - although there are the first rumblings of there being problems to deal with here, too, this is a much slower arc and perhaps not as easy to watch as the Madlax stories. It's fairly clear from the start that these two stories are going to merge at some point (and if you couldn't figure that out yourself the disc packaging makes it crystal clear), but at this stage of the series there's nothing to really go on in figuring out what the connection between the two girls is. In true Bee Train style, the style of the series if definitely outweighing the substance. That said, I like the style, and although a lot of 'suspension of disbelief' is required (shooting down a helicopter without even looking at the target!?), it seems to be enjoyable enough. And there's that Yuki Kajiura soundtrack, which really adds to the show's appeal. But I have to say that after 4 episodes, I do expect a show's creators to have repaid my time by at least letting me know what's going on, and that hasn't really happened here. Bee Train seem to be too engrossed in choreographing scenes to the admittedly excellent soundtrack to have spent much time on developing & clarifying the plot & characters, and that makes it difficult to really warm to the show or find some way in which it really stands out. There's promise here, but the story (stories) need to start slotting together soon if Madlax wants to really keep the interest. |
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