The Hypernatural and Supernatural in Madlax -- Episode 2

Episode 2: coincidence and meta-perspective

"Red ~crimson~":紅月 (Kogetsu)
A refined Western city is chosen as the stage of episode 2, and the avant starts with a luxurious apartment instead of the girl who was holding a doll in ruins. A girl is being awakened in her bedroom by a maid of about the same age. Her name is Margaret, who was one of the two girls floating among the bullets in the opening. By the call of the maid who is taking care of her, the viewer easily confirms her name. Immediate procedure of the introduction of her name, making definite contrast with the case of Madlax’s, indicates the peculiarity of psychic relationship between the two girls. But the audience has to wait until the end of the metaphysically constructed show to confirm full understanding of the hidden mechanism that constructs the extraordinary perspective behind the subject matter.
At first sight, Margaret seems to be an ordinary girl leading a mediocre life in everyday circumstances. The second episode title “紅月(red moon) -crimson-” is displayed here, and the story is going to migrate to the main part. On her way to school, Margaret mutters to herself half asleep in the bus. “I wonder what that was? There was a loud sound, and I was really sad. And I felt like I’d always been alone.” In episode 2, the story seems to follow the steps of a girl of the commonplace name Margaret, with just a slight touch of extraordinary propensity. But here abruptly appears the girl with a doll in her hands, and she utters mysterious words. “You are happy now. You must be. I mean, you’re not feeling anything. Neither joy nor sadness. You don’t even know pain. So no matter how cruel this world is, you’re fine. Just like this little one is fine.” Neither this girl’s name nor her relationship with the space Margaret exists is yet clarified to the audience, no more than whom she is addressing to, and whom “this little one” means. It might be the boy with blonde hair standing beside her that she is speaking to. The boy had appeared second in the opening overlapped with the face of the girl called Madlax. The girl may have been addressing to the doll she was holding in her arms, calling “this little one”, but the contents of her lines remain unresolved. After looking into the show window of a shop on the way to school, Margaret mutters, “Red shoes… I’ve worn red shoes… at some time, somewhere…”

At school Margaret gives a pointless reply to her classmates who spoke to her, “I’m going home. It’s going to rain.” But there are no signs of rain in the sky at all. Her reference to rain is introduced as a strategic axis of fictional creation, in symmetrical contrast with the procedure of the introduction of the girl’s name who enacted the role of a main heroine in episode 1. The analogy in directing method in two different spaces that don’t bear any causal relationships, suggests a subtle perspective that constructs a latent meaning formation of a fictional world.

The scene change, somewhere in the venue, an auction of expensive artwork is being performed. When the bidding of the legendary work “Amber” is started, a female company employee makes a decision to get off, taking into account of the situation of the venue. She speaks to Margaret finding her in the street on her way to return, but Margaret has forgotten her name. By her lines reminding her of a neighbor who has been an old friend of her, the audience comes to know her name naturally. Her name is Vanessa Rene, an employee of the international department of a trading company. Vanessa, who has returned home after a long time, invites Margaret to her office room in the company. But Margaret’s reply is the same one as she gave to her classmates previously. “But it’s going to rain, so...” There is a young blonde man who is reporting to someone that he has dropped the bid of “Amber” in the auction. His name or identity has not yet been revealed. With extensive use of cutbacks, events that seem to have no direct link at first glance are developed in parallel lines. Here comes the end of the A part, eye-catchings used after this are all the same ones that were used in episode 1.

B part starts. Margaret is guided in the Vanessa’s office room, and taking a photo frame showing young Vanessa and her parents on top of the desk, hits a cactus pot inadvertently, and utters a cry, “Ouch!” On that momentum, the computer on the desk displays the characters “Gazth-Sonika” on its screen. This episode, though introduced like a trivial occurrence at first sight, turns out to be a subtly provided foreshadowing of the supernatural ability of this girl, when looked back after obtaining a deep understanding of the psychic nature of her existence. Though she looks like a simple girl lacking in intellectual judgment, she is endowed with some sort of insight and even with paranormal ability that enables her not only to share other people’s perception, but also to manipulate them quite unconsciously. Her cry “ouch!” functions as a sign that shows the psychic relation between the two girls, repeatedly introduced in several occasions in contrast with Madlax’s lines, “You’ll die.” Here, it is shown in the fact that the screen of the computer on the Vanessa’s desk displayed Gazth-Sonika, the name of an Asian country where civil war is being fought. In the next scene, Vanessa is told by the director that the artwork “Amber” she quit bidding, was dropped by someone unknown, and transported to Gazth-Sonika. But this show’s hyper-natural directing strategy never chooses to disclose the meaning association or relationship, between the Western cultured nation and the Asian country, where Madlax is striving in warfare. Margaret is wandering alone along the corridor of Vanessa’s company, recalling something. She mumbles, “Gazth-Sonica… A dream… Red shoes… Rain…”

Just then, there appears the young blonde man who bid “Amber” in the auction, and calls out to her. “Miss. The area ahead of you is off-limits to the public.” Though his voice was gentle, and kindly addressed, Margaret seems to be unusually upset and asks back to him, “Who are you? Who are you?” Margaret starts running away as if trying to flee from him. There is no explanation provided as to what she is scared of, and what her thoughts might be, taking such outrageous behavior. Just like her classmates who spoke to her at school, this young man, and the viewer has to go watching this girl as an ordinary person with unpredictable way of thinking and a little extravagant behavior. She comes back to Vanessa, who has started looking for her noticing she is missing, and abruptly tells her, “I’m going home.”

Margaret and Vanessa come home together, and are greeted by Margaret’s servant Eleanor. The depiction of Vanessa and Eleanor immediately striking up a conversation between old friends is rendered with lively concreteness constructing unique fictional reality. But Margaret suddenly rises up in her seat, recalling something at the glance of the shoes Vanessa bought for her as a gift. It is the figure of a girl standing in ruins that is shown on the screen, presumably expressing the internal image of Margaret. Followed next is the feet of a girl running wearing a red shoe on one foot only. An image of a strange building and a clock tower follows. Those mysterious scenes without any explanatory description correspond with the strange vision of Madlax in the episode 1, suggesting a directing strategy of meta-perspective presentation. Margaret returns to her room in a hurry.

After being left, Vanessa and Eleanor begin intimately talking about Margaret again. Through their conversation, it is revealed that Margaret lost her memory 12 years ago, and as a daughter of her servant, who had served in her house for generations, Eleanor took care of the girl together with Vanessa who had been her tutor, and has watched the girl with intimate concern. This part constructs usual background information with descriptive elements that are prepared for the understanding of the audience. Margaret is looking for something in her room. Then, the interior of a strange mansion is projected abruptly. There is a masked man throwing down the rare artwork on the floor. “Amber” is smashed into pieces. The strange man falls in a loud laughter. He exclaims, “An invitation to madness. What endlessness.” Neither his name nor background situation, nor the cause of his action is not revealed at all to the viewer. Using the cutback technique again, the screen mirrors the figure of Vanessa sinking herself in a bathtub. Vanessa mutters. “What was with Margaret? It’s not going to rain.” Just then, Margaret finds out something out of a trunk in her room. “Here it is.” Margaret turns the page of a picture book on her bed. Something like bloodstain is spread on the page. “My father’s gift. The picture book soaked with blood. The red picture book.” The scene changes again. The screen shows an Asian city smoldered in rain. There is the figure of Madlax in a room staring at the landscape outside. The voice of Margaret overlaps on the screen. “And rain.”

Thus, the latent linkage between Madlax’s country and the country Margaret is living in is indicated, though there is no direct relation other than the name Vanessa’s computer accidentally displayed on the monitor. Myriad hints seem to have been charged everywhere, but it is not clear whether any integrating perspective axis is going to function to gather theses together. As represented in this part, Madlax frequently utilizes cutback technique, to describe various events occurring simultaneously in parallel lines. But the explanatory description about the association between each of the scene has been intentionally omitted. Viewer’s concern is naturally focused on the prospect how individual perspective richly filled with detailed representations of fictional reality should be unified by means of higher meta-perspective. It is the highly speculative consciousness aware of the fictionality of art works, that the hyper-natural directing techniques are trying to appeal to, which demands its audience grope for perspectives a fictional work may present and set up logical inspection onto the phase structure of them, quite different mind-set viewers than non-reflective ones, who tend to confuse fictional world with real world.