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Madlax (マドラックス) is a 26 episode anime series that was produced by the Bee Train animation studio. It is licensed in North America by ADV Films.
Story
The story revolves around the lives of two apparently unrelated people: Madlax, a mercenary/assassin with seemingly superhuman skills, and Margaret Burton, a young girl living a peaceful life. While Margaret lives in the seemingly peaceful country of Nafrece, most of Madlax's work takes place in Gazth-Sonika, a country plagued by civil war. The plot is also influenced by Enfin (or Enfan or Anfan, though En fin roughly means "in the end" in French), an amazingly powerful criminal organization.
At first glance, the series bears similarity to Noir (anime), another anime created by Bee Train. Both the main characters are female, and their character designs are similar both physically and (to a degree) mentally. Also, the opening sequence is very similar to Noir's, and the series composer of Noir has composed some of the music in Madlax.
Many of the episodes' themes seem to be commentary on how people are affected by war. For example, Episode 3 is about a prominent politician, Gwen McNichol, who hires Madlax so she can assassinate him. This will bring suspicion to his political (and, due to the civil war, military) enemies and bring closure to his life, which for the past 13 years had been dedicated to fighting against the opposing force, who murdered his wife.
As a side note, the Apple Darwin Operating System [1] (http://minghong.blogspot.com/2004/07/more-on-madlax-operating-systems.html) [2] (http://minghong.blogspot.com/2004/08/welcome-to-darwin.html) [3] (http://minghong.blogspot.com/2004/08/welcome-to-darwin-again.html) and several famous scenes of Hong Kong [4] (http://minghong.blogspot.com/2004/07/civil-war-in-hong-kong.html) appear throughout the story.
Openings and Endings
Openings:
- Hitomi no Kakera by FictionJunction YUUKA
Endings:
- Inside your Heart by FictionJunction YUUKA
External Links
TV Tokyo Madlax Page (japanese) (http://www.tv-tokyo.co.jp/anime/madlax/)
AniDB entry (http://anidb2.ath.cx/perl-bin/animedb.pl?show=anime&aid=1654)
Anime News Network: Anime Encyclopedia: Madlax (http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=3714)
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