The Hypernatural and Supernatural in Madlax -- Episode 4

Episode 4: Cutback and Empathy
“Enticement ~ask~”: (誘惑: Yuwaku)
In the avant, there is a police car in the rain and a woman in red clothes is lying on the street. Next scene discloses the figure of a man who is instructing someone over the telephone in the room. “Sending that boy may cause some kind of change in Galza. All the more reason why I’m asking this: please arrange for a first-class agent.” Opening the door, a young girl enters the room and speaks to him. “What should I do, Papa? I hated you, Papa. ... Someone’s told me.” The girl suddenly stretches her hands and strangles the neck of the man, muttering strange words. “Elda Taluta.” The screen again shows the woman lying on the street in the rain. The man is collapsed by the window, breathless, in the room.

After the title scene of episode 4, there is the figure of a blond young man and a group of his companions who are discussing administrative measures for business work responding to the assassination of Guen McNichol. However, it is not revealed here what sort of organization these people belong to. The screen is cut back again and shows Vanessa and her colleague Charles Winston who are considering the prospect of increasing the security level of the company’s facilities in response to the assassination committed in Gazth-Sonica. Bookwald has invested huge capital in the Gazth-Sonica industry. On the screen that appears next, there are figures of policemen who are investigating the murder case. It was Anne Morey, the daughter of the murdered politician Piederica Morey, who was lying dead on the street. The policemen are puzzled by the incomprehensible murder case that gives no clues on the motive.

Maclay Marini of the city police speaks to Margaret who has come up on the scene. The main role in this episode is taken up by this man who is in charge of the murder case of Morey, instead of Madlax or Margaret. On the screen, the figure of Anne Morey before her death is revealed in Margaret’s reminiscence. Yellow flowers are blooming in the surroundings of the two girls. The screen switches again, and it shows the figure of Madlax in a foreign country far away. Madlax mutters, “That’s a flower... A Yellow flower.” A pure accidental synchronization in another story line that has no causal relationship suggests the existence of a hidden perspective whose features are undecided as yet, in a peculiar way of presenting a fictional world. It seems that the directing method adopted in this anime is undertaken in describing trivial scenes as if irradiating the “hidden variable” in a spiral roundabout way.

note: hidden variable
The concept of “hidden variables” introduced into the scientific world by J. S. Bell and David Bohm etc., according to their respective implications, was adopted to avoid ontological contradiction of quanta that seem to deviate from the energy conservation law. Attempts were made to introduce unknown factors in order to interpret the quantum entity, which seems to behave non-deterministically, in a deterministic framework. Like the concept of “spin” introduced by Pauli, that was able to solve the fundamental traits of quanta which seemed to overturn the premise of science, within the framework of the conventional scientific world view. Although it was extremely effective in scientific theorizing, Remo F. Ross saw this rather as the cause of the problem that caused Pauli’s own psychic division. However, in contrast to the case of spin, the idea of “hidden variables” was an attempt involving contradiction in a way, trying to leave undefined blank areas in the logical system that should construct the base of meanings.
The concept “natural” in Christianity meant a moderate system of meanings approved by God, which is understandable by humans. However, outside the scope of the authority of God, there were knowledge and technology called “supernatural” which were not allowed to be touched, and it was regarded as a magical manipulation exerted by the power of the devil. In some area of the world, there were certainly hidden problematic “meanings” which were not deemed as moderate. However, Renaissance philosophers who reassessed the idea of alchemy, challenging the taboo of magical practice, had stepped into the supernatural domain as having the true understanding and offering the key to the discovery of the deepest meaning of the world. The idea of “hidden variables” suggested by Bell and Bohm shows a scientific attitude released from Christianity’s constraints against the existence of an unknown perspective extended out of the boundary of rational logic system. It seems to reflect the awareness obtained through quantum mechanics, that some kind of fictional works such as Madlax has introduced hyper natural descriptions, as a method of describing possible worlds that refuse to be interpreted according to typological existing meanings, by both destruction of meanings and construction of comprehensive meta-meaning through trials of organizing Omni-directional perspectives.


Margaret buys yellow flowers in a flower shop for her passed away friend. The clerk tells her the name of the flower, that is Helianthus. Without knowing anything about Margaret, Madlax mutters the words indicating the same flower simultaneously in a distant foreign country. This seems to suggest the existence of unknown ties, or some mental connection like empathy, between her and Margaret. However, it is the directing strategy adopted by this anime to delineate only the surface layer of the temporary events in the fictional world, without giving any explicit explanation to the viewer, through practical accumulation of concrete visual images.

As a result of the investigation of the remains, the police discover that Anne Morey’s computer was hacked, and the data erased. On the monitor that displayed the restored data, the character string “Elda Taluta” is lined up over the entire screen. The analysis officer exclaims. “This code is... Enfant!” The official points out that there is evidence of Enfant, the international criminal organization and intelligence network, in the restored data. Margaret comes to dedicate a bunch of Helianthus to the accident site of Anne Morey and Marini keeps it instead of the deceased. As a result of the investigation, it is unraveled that Piederica Morey was supporting the orphans who became victims in the civil war of Gazth-Sonica. A warning is brought to the detective Marini who continues the investigation. “Back off ... Do you want to awaken? ... If you don’t want to awaken, back off.” Marini will not listen to this creepy warning and declares the continuation of his investigation. Here abruptly, a girl holding a doll in her arms is displayed on the screen. She mutters. “No. You mustn’t do that.” There is no information given on how this girl responded to the words of Marini, and what factors are involved in the relationship between her and the detective.

Pressure from the police headquarters is exerted on Marini, and disturbance of his investigation begins. Besides that, unusual occurrences such as malfunction of appliances in his home room start frequently around him, in addition to the dysfunction of cash cards and inexplicable invalidity of credit cards that were about to be used for payment.
The man in mask starts information attacks against detective Marini through manipulation of a computer from somewhere. Even a public telephone shows an unusual operation that disturbs the detective’s call with his mother and shakes the composure of his mind. When the page of the book the masked man turns is shown on the screen, the look of its illustration is very similar to the piece of paper pinned on the wall of Madlax’s room. “Is this the way of Enfant?” Marini mutters frustratingly. At the same time, abnormal character strings are successively shown on the display terminals arranged in the show window of the shop next to the telephone box. The masked man talks to detective Marini from the distant. “The words of awakening... The words of Firstari...I’ll send them to you. Elda Taluta.” The screen shows the figure of Anne Morey having her mind getting distracted. The masked man says even more. “This is Firstari! This is the door to the Essence. Peace is nothing but a fantasy man has manufactured!” The girl holding a doll reacts to his words. “Someone is trying to touch me. Even though this is a normal place...” The screen shows various people having their mind distracted. Margaret is aware of the influence of something unfamiliar, just as the girl holding a doll is. Eleanor speaks to Margaret worried about the unexplained agitation her mistress showed on the street, “Is something the matter, Miss?” Margaret replies. “I don’t know...I don’t know, but... Something...” But the screen reflects the figure of Madlax in a foreign country.

Operations using a computer, performed by the international criminal group called Enfant, seem to have supernatural effects beyond the level of information processing. The girl holding a doll who told she was in a “normal place” seems to be able to sense all the influence in spite of the distance of space.

The masked man exerts various malicious interventions to the action of Detective Marini through mysterious manipulations of information. But it is precluded at this point to grasp and gain definite ideas as to what kind of mechanism these made use of to give the detective any sort of psychic damages. Objectively it must be understood only as accidental accumulation of events, but it seems they are ones that are able to shake the ease of the mind at the root of one’s perception of the world for those who witness the phenomena. These eerie experiences have been skillfully depicted, through images excluding any conceptual explanation. The process of the mental attacks against the detective executed by the International Criminal Information Organization Enfant reminds of the characteristics of the new genre called “psycho-horror,” exuded from the footsteps stirring up the feeling that are linked to the movies and novels that have appeared after the 20th century, beyond the framework of traditional horror novel. Macley Marini comes up in front of Margaret on the street, but he is not able to recognize Margaret even when she calls out to him, and he has also forgotten his name. The blond-haired man brings Marini into a car like a marionette. The young man speaks to Marini in the car, “You will live as part of Enfant from now on... You’ll live inside information.”


At that time, Madlax living in a distant foreign country, which should never have any relationship with these incidents, is talking to SSS, who has assigned a mission on the phone. “Say SSS... do you know what the helianthus means in the language of flowers? ... It means... enticement.” It is not revealed what Madlax has seen or felt here, any more than why she says this to the man on the phone. It gives the viewer a vague impression that some supernatural telepathic element ties Margaret with her beyond specific causal relations, or even suggests some supernatural power that dominates the world through strange coincidental events is being brought about by unknown mechanism. The genre regulatory elements implied by this animation work here extend beyond the existing genres understood as suspense and mystery, and suggest the possibility of a new kind of thriller or psychological horror. Or, in other words, it is something close to the feeling that an “evil god” dominates the world.

The Detective Marini who appeared in this episode seemed like a character full of sound presence enough to lead the story, but he fell a victim of Enfant’s mysterious mental attacks and utterly ruined losing his personal attributes. He did not actually lose his life like the case of Pete of the 1st episode and Guen McNichol of the 3rd episode, but the eerie psychic manipulation through either suggestions or disturbances on his spirit has destroyed his composure of mind. There is something that gives the audience the feeling of a bottomless fear. In this episode, Marini was not directly related to Madlax, but it seems anyone connected to Madlax through some unknown factor either loses his life or has a close end to it. A viewer who is aware of the possible perspective will focus his attention on whether each pattern follows this or shows a variant example, introducing exceptional new prospects. Unlike the real world, the contents of a fictional world organized as subject matter to be watched, must have some prepared perspectives that should serve as criteria for reading some other-worldly “meaning”. What seemed to be a clue was the word “normal place”, the girl holding a doll was speaking. One might be able to scoop some sort of skillfully hidden subject matter of this anime, by estimating and predicting out of our various existing knowledge, compensating for the lack of information onto the mysterious “normal place”. However, viewers are forced to carry out the job for a while, hanging the position of the coordinate origin, confirming each one of various temporary phenomena full of contaminants that are acquired in a derivative manner.

After all, the actual method of the mysterious murder of the politician Piederica Morey, executed employing the victim’s own daughter as a tool was not elucidated at all, as well as the motive or the purpose, together with the shocking ruin of the investigator himself. The episode was shelved without anything definite, and abruptly ended up leaving the vacant feeling of indigestion. Viewers’ concern what the overall picture the work assembles might be, and how one should organize comprehensible meaning out of it, further deepens the confusion, as it demands suspending the decision whether the aim of this anime rests on the overthrowing of the attempt of the implicit promise of reading some meaning out of a fictional work itself, or on establishing an attempt to present a further integrated higher-level semantic construction, suggesting the possibility of a meta-suspense.