Madlax: Есімдердің және соғыстың ізінен

2004 Japanese anime television series
Eventually, Madlax and Margaret meet and embark on a search for Quanzitta Marison, a Gazth Sonikan mystic who supposedly knows about Margaret's book, Enfant's involvement with it, and Enfant itself. Lady Quanzitta does indeed tell them about Enfant and its plans to plunge the entire world into a total war, starting with Gazth Sonika. She reveals that Enfant's leader Friday Monday possesses supernatural powers connected to the three ancient books, one of which belongs to Margaret. Margaret uses her own supernatural abilities and that of her book to return her lost memories. Carrossea, who has been aiding Margaret, requests that his memories be restored as well despite warnings not to do so; he discovers that he, in fact, died 12 years ago and held on to life only by sheer force of will to protect Margaret. Carrossea disappears, and Margaret is captured by Monday who intends to use her abilities to advance his own plans. While Margaret and Carrossea perform the ritual, Madlax is attacked by Limelda Jorg, a Gazth Sonikan sniper who holds a grudge against Madlax ever since she failed to stop an assassination by Madlax earlier in the show. Limelda kills Vanessa while targeting Madlax, sending the latter into clinical depression. Elenore and Lady Quanzitta's servant Nakhl manage to restore Madlax's will to live and persuade her to save Margaret, and the three storm Enfant's headquarters together. During the assault, Elenore is killed and Margaret, now under Monday's control, shoots Madlax. Believing Madlax to be dead, Monday commences a ritual to unleash people's inhibitions and trigger worldwide anarchy; but Margaret's memories return and she snaps out of his mind control. Only now does the audience learn the back story: back in 1999, Monday drove Margaret's father insane with his powers and she was forced to kill her own father. To escape the horrible truth of her patricide, Margaret split herself into three personae: the "memory keeper" Laetitia, the sinful Madlax, and the innocent Margaret herself. Margaret then fuses her three personae back together to undo the ritual she previously performed with Monday, saving the world from insanity. Madlax, who should no longer exist after the fusion, appears and guns down Monday. It becomes apparent that Margaret has once again split herself into three, judging that after twelve years, she no longer has the right to make decisions for her other personae. When everything is said and done, Margaret fully releases Madlax so she can live her life freely and also adopts Laetitia as her younger sister so she won't be alone. Madlax ultimately makes peace with Limelda and they travel together.

Madlax is set against the backdrop of Gazth Sonikan war and the first episodes contrast the tranquil Nafrece with the war torn Gazth Sonika; later, the story moves completely to the combat zone, focusing on the central characters, such as Limelda Jorg, and their suffering. In an interview, the director Mashimo stated that "[t]he story is about portraying inner struggles of people, while showing what life is like in this place of madness and this other place of peace". Accordingly, the series' title is a portmanteau of two English words, "mad" and "relaxed", mirroring the authors' intention to portray the two extremes of human being. Madlax also plays as the story of Margaret Burton's search for her psychological identity. Based on the Mashimo Menu theme titles available to her, Yuki Kajiura has suggested an interpretation that while searching for her memories, Margaret meets the other characters ("Gatekeepers") one after another and learns about the lifestyles ("Gates") they represent. In the end, she finds her own "Gate", which is the new identity that finally replaces the one she lost twelve years ago. In late 2002, Mashimo invited Shigeru Kitayama, the producer of Noir who once came up with its original idea, to discuss a new series entitled Madlax. Kitayama greatly expanded Mashimo's original screenplay plan, but it was not until Yōsuke Kuroda was put in charge of the script that the series took its final appearance. It took Kuroda around one year to finish the screenplays for all 26 episodes, during which he was constantly encouraged by Mashimo to add his own original ideas to their initial plan. Kuroda has admitted that at the time he received Mashimo's invitation, he felt frustrated after his first project has been canceled by the publisher, so he decided to make Madlax "really extravagant", blending as many genres at once as he could. Kōichi Mashimo, furthermore, admitted that the most unusual plot twists, like Margaret and Madlax's connection to each other, were invented by Kuroda and him while drunk.

As with many of studio Bee Train's other works, the entire Madlax soundtrack was composed by the acclaimed Yuki Kajiura, making it her and Kōichi Mashimo's fifth project together. Kajiura and Yuuka Nanri's duo FictionJunction Yuuka recorded the series' opening and ending themes, "Fragments of an Eye" (瞳の欠片 ) and "Inside Your Heart", respectively, as well as two insert songs: "nowhere" and "I'm here". Aside from the opening sequence, "Fragments of an Eye" is featured in the series itself: at the end of episode 18 and in the episode 24, when Margaret is humming its tune to herself in the flower field. In the insert song "nowhere", there is a frequently repeated background refrain "Yanmaani" (ヤンマーニ ). It doesn't have any particular meaning but since the song usually plays when Madlax is fighting, "Yanmaani" has become something of a joke to Japanese fans, claiming that it apparently gives her superpowers.

Originally, Madlax was broadcast in Japan by TV Tokyo from 5 April to 27 September 2004, from 1:30 to 2:00 a. m. every Tuesday (formally, Monday night). Shortly before the series finished airing, it has been licensed in North America and Europe by ADV Films, which has previously acquired distribution rights for Noir and has long had plans to license its successor, as well. The official English dub has been released in the United States under the trademark MADLAX on a total of seven DVDs from 12 April 2005 to 28 March 2006. A complete collection was released by ADV on 17 July 2007. Madlax has become the first series on which ADV Films' director and producer David Williams tested the technology of distributing promotional materials via P2P network BitTorrent. As of September 1, 2009, all the titles from ADV's catalog, including Madlax, were transferred to AEsir Holdings, with distribution from Section23 Films. The North American DVD release contains extras available in English only, such the controversial self parody Conversations with SSS and Sock Puppet Theater, an Easter egg live action about Madlax going after Chris Patton, Badgis' voice actor and an annoying womanizer. On 7 February 2006, the first episode of Madlax aired on Anime Network (which was, like ADV Films, a subsidiary of A. D. Vision at the time). On 4 April, shortly after the last DVD volume has been released, the consequent broadcast was put on halt and until 27 June, only the first 8 episodes were repeated. Since then, the series has been relaunched multiple times. Madman Entertainment, who previously licensed Noir in its region, has acquired rights for distribution of Madlax in Australia and New Zealand and released it on seven DVD volumes between 20 July 2005 and 26 July 2006. A complete collection was released on 4 April 2007. and 22 September 2004 by Victor Entertainment. Two singles, Hitomi no Kakera and Inside Your Heart, were published in the same year by FictionJunction Yuuka, each containing an opening/ending theme and one insert song, as well as their respective karaoke versions.

MADLAX the Bible is a 95 page artbook that was published in Japan on 21 May 2005 by Hobby Japan. Aside from illustrations and artworks for the series, it contains interviews with its authors and voice actors, as well as diverse additional information about the show in Japanese. The artbook has never been published outside Japan. Since the word "Bible" is derived from τὰ βιβλία τὰ ἅγια, meaning "holy books", it is likely that the artbook's title is a reference to the Holy Books that play an important role in the series' plot.

A resin model kit known as "Madlax with Guns" has been produced, featuring a figurine of Madlax dual wielding her signature SIG P210s. A polystone figurine entitled simply "Madlax", was launched in August 2007. In Japan, a T shirt with Madlax logo has been added to the limited edition of the first DVD volume, and the "first press" of the OST albums came with logotype mousepads.

A light novel spin off of the series, titled A Traveling Girl and the Land of Ignorance (旅する少女と灼熱の国), has been published on 1 June 2011 by Hobby Japan. Written by Seiya Fujiwara and illustrated by Shunsuke Tagami (neither of whom had been involved in the production of the original TV series), the book focuses on Elenore Baker as the main character in a setting somewhat different from that of the anime. In this continuity, Elenore is a combat trained maid traveling across the war torn Gazth Sonika, looking for the lost Margaret and, along the way, helping the weary locals with their struggles.

Madlax was often accused of being secondary and reusing Noir stylistic solutions, such as the story premise, the two heroines' appearance, and the musical style. Nevertheless, some sources praised the story for being more monolithic and consequent than its predecessor's, owing to all its episodes and subplots being tightly intertwined and held together by the primary plot. The majority of reviewers perceived the early episodes of Madlax as boring and too slow paced, According to them, after the initial volume, the story gets better and better with every new episode, though some have been dissatisfied with its "pseudo existentialistic" ending. Professional reviewers welcomed the increased number of sympathetic characters, especially the distinguishable male ones (Friday, Carrossea, Colonel Burton), as opposed to stormtrooper like operatives of Soldats in Noir, In terms of soundtrack, Madlax has not become as innovative as Noir, with critics suggesting its OST to be a blend of Noir and hack//Sign styles. Nevertheless, the reviewers acknowledged its superiority over the majority of contemporary works. The initial slow pacing, especially compared to the first episodes of Noir, and its unconventional genre, which straddled Madlax uncomfortably between fans of mystical science fiction and those who prefer Noir strict realism.