The Hypernatural and Supernatural in Madlax -- Episode 6

Episode 6: amnesia, empathy and fictional coincidence
"Dying Wish ~leave~": (遺言: Yuigon)

In the avant, a boy is wandering in a battlefield. A man in military suits helps him and raising him up, asks his name. The boy answers, “I… my name is Poupee.” He seems to be the boy appeared both in the avant and in the middle of the story, sitting in a bench beside the girl holding a doll. His name is at last acknowledged here, but his hair is painted in gray instead yellow.

Margaret wakes up in her bedroom. There is the picture book beside her. Margaret mutters recalling something, “That was a dream… No, what if it was…” It appears Margaret’s recollection of her dream content has consolidated with increased background information gained repeatedly several times. But neither the relationship of the four characters appeared in the opening nor the framework that connect their existences meaningfully is not afforded yet. After the title is displayed, a butterfly is shown caught up in the spider web.

Next scene introduces Margaret having a nap in her classroom. “Ouch!” She utters a cry of pain when the butterfly is about to be attacked by a spider outside of the window. Somehow, the butterfly is able to escape from the attack of the spider, and flies away out of the broken web. It seems Margaret is not aware of the incident on the other side of the window. No explanation is afforded about the relation between the empathy Margaret formed with the butterfly and the physical working that enabled the butterfly to escape. But it is suggested that this girl is able to share some sense with others that have no direct connection with her and is even afforded with a strange power to sway their fates without knowing it. Her cry of pain “ouch”, she uttered when she happened to touch the cactus pot in Vanessa’s office room, is repeated in this episode, accumulating the instances which disclose the existence of particular quality or ability constructing peculiar perspective against a fictional background. But the viewers have to wait for some while until the disclosure of a shocking fact is amply provided.

Elenore is consulting with a psychiatrist at his mental clinic in the town, reporting Margaret’s activities of this month. The doctor says to her, “If you judge Margaret to be normal, that means she’s recovering well.” Elenore tells about the most recent doings of Margaret. “Miss Margaret found a picture book in the closet, and ever since then it’s seemed to be very important to her.” The doctor says, “…it would seem that book is somehow connected with Margaret’s past.” Elenore asks back to him, “Could Miss Margaret be trying to remember her past through the book?” The doctor replies with advice, “…this is something that shouldn’t be rushed. After all, Margaret isn’t conscious of the fact that she doesn’t have any memories more than twelve years old.”

Margaret is recollecting her dream she had in the class. “That dream… My father’s picture book…” The man in her dream is clothed in military suits like the officer who was helping Poupe in the avant. His appearance seems to be the same man as Madlax had seen in her delusional vision while she was seeing after Peter in the jungle, in episode 1. But there is no concrete information afforded about the nature of their shared experience. Though several suggestive visions are presented repeatedly, no explicit information is given to the audience in the form of conceptually understandable ones.

Elenore and Vanessa are recollecting together the incident that occurred to Margaret 12 years ago. Margaret had been caught up in an airplane accident in a foreign country, and suddenly came home alone after 6 months’ loss of correspondence. Her memory had been all lost then. What she remembered when she reached her home was only one word, “Madlax”. Since then, Vanessa Rene, the neighbor of Margaret has been aiding her not only as a governess who instructs her studies, but also as a kind consultant taking care of the orphan of a millionaire, together with Margaret’s faithful maid, Elenore. Margaret has a big loss of memory not only for her helpers inaccessible, but also for herself utterly impossible to regain.

Margaret is invited by one of her classmates in the court of her school, and joins their party reluctantly. A delinquent youth approaches her expressing his special concern with her. But Margaret gives him a downright answer. “That’s a lie. …I don’t know why exactly, but somehow I know it is.” As for Margaret’s mysterious power of intuitional discernment, it is supposed that she is endowed with some supernatural ability, judged by the incident of the butterfly exhibited in the starting part of this episode. Maurice Lopez, who is trying to seduce an orphan of a millionaire, seeing his plan is not working well, decides to choose a forcible way, in spite of the direct refusal of the uncompromising girl. But something occurs to him when he accidentally grasped the picture book Margaret carried. Casting away the amiable attitude he had hitherto assumed, Maurice Lopez violently approaches to her. “Go out with me. I like you.” He tries to hold Margaret violently in spite of her refusal. Margaret utters a cry of pain, “That hurts!” Lopez continues, “You’re going to be mine. Give yourself completely to me.” Naturally, audience will be prepared to witness some supernatural occurrence after her cry. But after all what ensues as the result of her reaction against the violence is not depicted in this episode. It is not until later that the audience is allowed to surmise the shocking aftermath that might have occurred at this scene, corroborating the similar scene in which an occurrence of eerie incident is suggested after Margaret has uttered her cry of pain. At this point, what is actually described in the show is the details how some part of her latent quality only is revealed without even constructing the condition of underplot, as a result of accidental consequence. This is the peculiar instance of this fictional work Madlax, attesting the way extremely hyper natural directing method is introduced in a possible world as anime.

note:
Aristotle developed his argument on the mechanism of the possible worlds in the preliminary stage before the generation of phenomena, introducing the concept “dynamis” in his Metaphysics. Long time after the age of Aristotle, in 20th century, modern physics had to introduce various innovative hypotheses in order to comprehend the inexplicable modality of superposition quanta exhibits. facing the principle of polysemy.

Just then, Elenore and Vanessa come at the scene of violence. In this episode, their appearance has resulted in hindering the chance of revelation of Margaret’s latent ability. Elenore, like a meticulously careful servant, had gathered unsavory rumors of Maurice Lopez, and hurried to come into the party with Vanessa, anxious of her safety. Elenore rescues Margaret after exhilarating combat against Maurice Lopez who took out a knife. She even goes too far in her punishment to the villain as return for the violence he committed to Margaret, that makes Vanessa frown. This scene exhibits a sound sequence of fictional reality, as the detailed description is endowed with some kind of peculiar concreteness, in spite of the exaggerated development peculiar to anime. Elenore relievedly watches Margaret sleeping safely back home again. This maid is going to be described with minute care in this show, as a character who exhibits some kind of abnormality in her deep affection to Margaret, adding to her exceptionally high ability in both intelligence and physical strength. The waning moon is hanging in the sky. The scene shifts, showing similar waning moon above jungle.

The girl holding a doll and the boy named Poupe are nestling close in a bench among ruins. But it is the waxing moon that is hanging in the sky. Next scene shows Madlax in her room with the same picture in a page pinned on the wall. It was exhibited at the end of the episode 1, and the image drawn on it was similar to the one drawn on the page of the book the masked man of Enfant was holding. This book and the image drawn in it suggest some undisclosed connection of these people, who have not yet actually met but only have been implied of some hidden relationship indicated through the cut back directing technic.

There is no explanation especially given on the strange effect Margaret’s picture book exerted on Maurice Lopez. It has been depicted as a matter-of-fact incident shown through hyper natural presentation, as if one of many occurrences in a fictional world.

The Hypernatural and Supernatural in Madlax -- Episode 5

Episode 5: Annihilation or Absence?
"Nonpresence ~none~": (無在: Muzai)

In the avant, there are some figures of suspicious men who are carrying out illegal trade at the late-night port. A boy witnesses a cruel murder executed by men who have been waiting for smugglers who carried the goods, and he escapes into the sea from the ship and disappears. Television news reports on the statement of Min Durk, the leader of armed resistance group Galza. The content was a declaration that Galza was not involved in the assassination of Guen McNichol who was killed in the episode 3. The framework on the story description that makes a cutback connection between people through the incidents that occurred and the TV news reporting it, follows the directing method adopted in the 3rd episode. Such repetition and its variation will be perceived as an active element to form the fictional perspective of the work. Self-reflective directors exercise their ingenuity most effectively telling the story centered on rather trivial events and the details of the characters than the story line itself. Sometimes the story and characters can be distinctively stereotyped and hackneyed, because it makes it possible to emphasize the subtlety of peculiar direction adopted in a work like this anime.

Madlax is receiving her mission from SSS on the telephone. SSS talks about the situation. “Certain goods were secretly shipped to the armed resistance group Galza by a Nafrece civic group.” The mission assigned to Madlax is the recovery of the goods Enfant is trying to capture. However, SSS just tells concerning the details of the goods, “I don’t know.” It is too vague a mission content as a request for a free agent. Madlax goes to the store of an informant to inquire about the missing person in the illegal transport business, and variously tries hitting the stakeholders of the port area driving the motorcycle, in order to gather information about the missing “goods”. There appears the boy who disappeared in the sea from the ship at the beginning of this episode, and speaks to Madlax pointing a gun at her. “I am sorry, could you lend this bike to me?” Despite attempting robbery, his tone is very polite, and he seems to be unable to stand the action of shooting a gun. Madlax does not panic, pulling out her own gun quickly; she covers the boy with it. The boy gives up instantly dropping the gun from his grip. Strangely, Madlax invites the boy to date, and offers help with her motorcycle. Despite her unknown background motivation, Madlax’s incomprehensible actions of friendly kindness and the boy’s gentle manner build up a uniquely realistic scene here. It is a good example of this anime’s directing method, presenting actions and dialogs that embody hyper-real scenes, which should be esteemed as the peculiar strategy of the work’s ingenious presentation.

In a room of the military facility, there is the blond-haired young man of Enfant, who is checking the picture of the stowaway boy. Although he has never directly participated in Madlax’s or Margaret’s actions, he has been appearing around them in every episode, and it suggests the existence of an unknown factor which may form the axis of this fictional world. There enters the room the woman of the guard who met Madlax on the roof of the building and exchanged words with her in the 3rd episode. From her words stating her name opening the door and entering, it is finally disclosed here that her name is Lieutenant Limelda Jurg. The name of the blond young man who returned a greeting was Carrossea Doon. Not only the case of Madlax of the 1st episode and the case of Margaret of the 2nd episode, but also the name of each character appearing in this anime is to be spoken directly without explanatory narration following the convention of fictional description. They are to be confirmed by the hyper-real process as if the audience accidentally intercepted the encounter of the people in the fictional world, and gained information out of the dialogues between them.

The request of Carrossea is the detention of a smuggler boy. “That boy’s existence works against the interests of our enterprise. We cannot allow him to move freely.” Carrossea tells the reasons why he asked for the mission to Limelda, a member of the military guards. “I’ve received information that a certain agent is involved. I believe you know that person, Lieutenant.” Limelda replies. “Madlax.” Carrossea responds. “Precisely. That’s the situation.”

In a hotel room, Madlax is having a talk with the boy she assisted. The boy’s name was Chris Krana. Chris explains the current situation. “Last month my mother died of an illness. Before she died, she told me... She said my father was in Gazth-Sonica... And apparently he’s in a resistance group.” In addition, Chris gives the information that unravels some part of the mystery that had not been elucidated until now to the audience. “There was someone helping me. His name is Piederica Morey. He’s a Nafrece politician.” For the first time here, the contents of the requirement that was instructed through the telephone by Piederica Moray at the opening scene, who was brought to the inexplicable death by the hands of his own daughter in the 4th episode, turns out. Moray had sent Chris Krana to Gazth-Sonica with certain intentions and hired Madlax for his personal protection. At that time Moray was asking Chris a request. “In exchange, the civil war that began twelve years ago... I’d like you to investigate the reason it started, and tell me.” It seems that there is something hidden about the cause of the civil war that occurred in Gazth- Sonica.

Madlax guides Chris to the place near the destination and watches him off. Looking at the back of Chris, Madlax recalls the past scene of the battlefield. There is a figure of a girl wandering on the battlefield, wearing a red shoe only on her right foot. But it is not the girl who held a doll; the feature of the girl is of Madlax’s own childhood appearance. The girl mutters in the middle of bombs bursting around, “Dad, where are you?” At the foot of the girl, who fell down bounced off by an exploding shell near her, there is a torn page of a book and an identification tag with a hole on it. The girl stretches her hand and picks up the tag. When Madlax comes back from the hallucination, she also holds an identification tag with a hole in her left hand. “Somewhere... somewhere in this country...” Like as Chris, Madlax seems to have broken up with her father when she was a small child, and has been searching for him. It seems that the illusion of a man Madlax saw seeing Pete off in the 1st episode, is the back of her father.

A group of men suddenly appear in a car in front of Chris, who is walking towards the destination, and they start attacks trying to kill the boy. Madlax rushes in the scene on a motorcycle, develops a gun battle, and defeating the men, rescues Chris. “Who would have thought it was you I was supposed to recover?” Finally Madlax understands that the task of “retrieval of the goods” requested by SSS was for Chris. Chris tells the name of his father questioned by Madlax. It is “Min Durk.” Madlax understands that Chris’ father is the leader of the anti-government resistance group Galza, and the target of Enfant is Chris.

Carrossea, receiving a report about Chris’ whereabouts, follows him with Limelda. Carrossea comes nearer to the destination ahead of the boy riding on a helicopter, and decides to ambush him at a mountain pass with Limelda. Limelda seems to be unable to hide her excitement anticipating the reunion with Madlax. However, catching the sight of a helicopter above them, Madlax skillfully anticipates the plan of Carrossea and succeeds in giving a preemptive strike. Madlax’s fighting pose is a distinctive one looking away from the target as she had assumed in the battle scene of the 1st episode. Chris, convinced of the pursuers eliminated, speaks to Madlax on leaving, “I’ll be waiting for you in that room, three days from now.”

Madlax replies, “That’s a promise, then?” Despite the failure of his mission, Carrossea says satisfyingly in front of Madlax, “I wanted to see you with my own eyes. I wanted to meet you, Madlax.” There is no account given on this occasion, for the meaning of his words and the contents of his thoughts, or the circumstances that he is carrying behind him. Looking back on this scene after all the mystery has been solved; it is to be understood that Carrossea himself did not understand at all the unknown factor behind his own thoughts at this time.

Chris is accepted by Galza and is guided by a soldier to the headquarters of the organization. It is a place with a strange appearance like a castle. The guide tells Chris, “Our leader and your father, Min Durk, is inside.” The luxurious furnishings in the magnificent pavilion do not look like ones of an anti-government armed group. Closing a book with a strange illustration on it, the masked man speaks to Chris greeting, “Welcome to the center of Galza,... I have something I want to tell you. There’s no man named Min Durk here. No, in reality he doesn’t even exist.” He was the masked man of the International Criminal Information Group Enfant, who was exerting eerie mental attacks to Marini in the 4th episode. The illustration of the book on which he was resting his hand convinces the identity by a momentary vision. The masked man continues to utter strange words. “Within Enfant’s information, there is no data that says you are Chris Krana. You do not exist in this world.” As we have witnessed in the tragic case of the Detective Marini, a scene is represented that depicts not only the mental shaking but also the fatal effects that shake the foundation of Chris’ existence. After this, it is a candle fire blown out by the wind that is reflected on the screen. As visual expression, it is a hackneyed description often used to imply death, but there is no information to be fixed as to whether Chris was actually killed in this scene, or some other abnormality occurred. Whether the words “no existence” that were introduced in the title of episode 5, refer to any experience or phenomenon Chris encountered, is to be revealed without any special notice through a trivial story description, some while later after this. It is still long before the truth of the affair of the case that happened 12 years ago, the masked man talks, is disclosed to the audience.
 The screen switches, and it reflects the buildings of the night city.

Next, the figure of Carrossea is shown on the balcony of a mansion, looking back on his encounter with Madlax. Satisfied, he mutters. “That girl is Madlax... Beautiful, lithe and strong.” Some background information such as the relationship between Enfant and Galza, and people who seem to be involved in these organizations, has been fragmented out so far. However, the disclosure of the meaning axis of the story that should decide the characteristic of each individual action is rather getting far away. One is not sure, whether who will be the opponent the main character must fight as an enemy, or how she should accomplish her task to carry out the attainment in order to unify all the meanings, that are supposed to determine the value of the story. In the room of the hotel, which was the promised place with Chris, Madlax is left alone. Chris’ luggage is still there, but he does not show up. Madlax murmurs with her face down. “Liar. Chris, you liar...”

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.

The Hypernatural and Supernatural in Madlax -- Episode 3

Episode 3: Cutback and Synchronicity
"Blue Moon ~moon~": 蒼月 (Sogetsu)
In the avant, there is a little girl sitting on a bench holding a doll. She is wearing a red shoe on her left foot, but her right foot is bare. A blond boy is seated at the other end of the bench. In the background, there are a group of buildings of the night city illuminated by the moon, quite different from the mountain view in the episode 1. The girl mutters, “The past won’t come back. I can’t see the future. I’ve only got the present, this moment. I can only see the blue moon. I can only see the flowing red blood. How boring now is!”

Next scene reveals Margaret, the girl who appeared in the episode 2, watching TV in her living room. The TV is reporting the news of a distant Asian Kingdom Gazth-Sonica, that a hardline Army Commander, Guen McNichol has issued a statement on their strict measures against the armed resistance organization Galza.

A mission is told over the phone from SSS to Madlax, the girl who appeared in the episode 1. The mission is the assassination of Guen McNichol who is going to attend the kingdom ceremony. However, SSS says that the client of the assassination is McNichol himself. Madlax undertakes the mission and goes to the shop of an informer to gather the details of her target Army official. The commander, who leads the kingdom army as the forefront against the rebels, seems to have had his wife murdered by the enemy organization Galza 11years before. As the commander the TV was reporting is the only link between Margaret and Madlax, it is expected that the new appearance of this person, introduced in the story juxtaposed with a cutback technique, is going to play a definitive role to build the specific fictional perspective of the story as one of the meaning construction axes. Madlax seeks for a valid sniping point, looking down the square of the planned ceremony site from the roof of a building. There appears a woman officer of the Guard in vigilance patrol. She is also checking the possible sniping point, for the personal protection of Guen McNichol. Asked to present her ID certificates, Madlax holds out a card with the name of Laetitia Lune, citizen of Nafrece, printed on it. Madlax tells the officer she is traveling in this country for a vacation. The nationality she pretended, “Nafrece”, seems to be an anagram of France. The Asian country Gazth- Sonica Madlax is living in is reminiscent of Vietnam, which had been colonized by France. The streets on the background, showing specific characters on the signboards, bear the impression of Chinese culture. The country may as well be Hong Kong, the leased territory of the United Kingdom. Ambiguity in the background information that will not allow immediate verification of the identity of the country seems to overlap with the work’s representational strategy that will not reveal any definite genre characteristics in this anime. The assumed name “Laetitia”, Madlax had in her passport, is going to function as an important intersection of meaning axes which will determine the peculiar fictional perspective, to be confirmed afterward when full examination of the deployment of the story is attained.

Madlax exchanges words with the Guard officer in a familiar manner, but after she has gone Madlax murmurs, “The way the muscles of her right arm are built up... Her right index finger and the base of her right thumb, and ... She’s a scary person.” The audience is able to guess that Madlax, as one skilled in the art of sniping, measured the ability of the Guard officer from her own peculiar knowledge and experience, and sensed extraordinary menace in this person. However, as for the specific physical characteristics possessed by the woman officer, her judgment must have based on, are not given in any concrete details. This is the typical example of the hyper-real directing method introduced in this anime, where intentional lack of information has been deliberately accomplished, reflecting the chaotic nature of the real world just as it is. Both the young boy Pete who appeared in the episode 1 and the woman officer Madlax met on the roof of the building in episode 3, were endowed with dense personal modeling, and it is not easy to discern central figures from small roles in this anime. Pete seems to have ended up in the episode 1, but it is not easy to determine whether his presence might in any way come to be involved in the meaning construction of the story or not. The outstanding concreteness of personal modeling applied to each character in this anime, together with the intentional lack of information superimposed on it to make it difficult to guess the density in the narrative perspective, are also applicable to other various characters as well.

Madlax has undertaken quite mysterious a mission, but her interests and suspicion seem to be harbored in a different place than the outrageousness of the contents of the mission the sponsor requested. Madlax murmurs, “You lost, so you steal. You couldn’t protect, so you avenge. Guen McNichol, someone who will waste his own life. Tell me. What should people who have nothing do? What should they do?” Her own mystery, that seems to be hiding in the background of her presence, is going to determine her behavior from now on, establishing the basic axis that forms the genus quality of the fictional world depicted around her. But the details of her current state, together with her upbringing are not revealed to the audience as yet, that might be associated with her mysterious words. It is only after the story has progressed further into the core, that the audience is able to understand the meaning of the strange lines Madlax voiced here.

The screen suddenly mirrors the battlefield of a village. There is a figure of a little girl holding a doll. Turning around, the girl utters a voice. “What? Dad, where are you? It’s me, I'm here.” An identification tag with a bullet hole in it is lying on the ground. Some woman’s voice overlies in answer to the voice of the girl, but her figure is not shown on the screen. “I’m scared, Dad. I don’t like being alone.” “That’s what you desire.” “Read me the picture book, like you always do.” “That’s the future.” “If I were with Dad, I’d die. I’d die...” “That’s...” Here, the screen changes suddenly to a night landscape, showing the moon illuminating the trees through the window. It is the bedroom of Margaret. Margaret is sleeping in bed with her face on the pillow, and she mutters in sleep. “Why... that...” It is suggested that there is some unknown relationship, which connects Nafrece and its ex-colonial country Gazth-Sonica, and that Margaret is sensing something unconsciously across the far distance. But no organized information is offered to the audience arranged for the conceptual grasp other than visionary insinuation, as if the fictional world should be experienced just like the phenomenon of real life, according to our own subjective viewpoints.

Next screen shows the figure of Madlax infiltrating in the hotel, disguised as a hotel maid. Someone stops her in the passage. It is the blond young man who had dropped the artwork “amber” in the auction house in Nafrece. “Oh, you there. Have we met before?” It seems that he had left Nafrece where Vanessa and Margaret are living, and now has come to Gazth-Sonica where Madlax is living. Madlax answers, “No, I don’t think we’ve met.” The young man responds, “I see. It seems I was mistaken.” It is expected that this young man is going to play an important role to connect Nafrece and Gazth-Sonica, and Margaret and Madlax also, although his identity remains unknown still. It is not until after a variety of meaning construction axes have been accumulated piecemeal, that the coincidence between the fact that he called out to Margaret in the passage of Book Wald Company in the episode 2, and that he addressed to Madlax in the hotel passage in the episode 3, generates peculiar sense as a fictional perspective.

Madlax sneaks into the room of Guen McNichol, and dares to expose herself in front of the man, who requested the assassination of himself. Her posture is most impressive, hiding herself in the windowsill curtain and exposing her face only. “Nice to meet you.” “What are you doing here?” “I wanted to meet you.” “And who might you be?” Madlax discloses her identity to the commander. “I’m the person who’s undertaken on your assignment and will be sniping you.” “A young lady like you, I can hardly believe it. Or, does this mean I’m dreaming?” “No, this is all reality.” “I see. Reality, huh?” Without representing any expression of surprise, McNichol moves the glass of whisky calmly to his mouth to ascertain it. “Yes, it is reality.” He invites Madlax to a drink. Madlax answers. “No.” “But why did you come here? You’re quite ahead of the assignment’s schedule, you know.” “I wanted to try having a talk with a man who’s preparing to kill himself.” “You’re saying you ran the risk of coming here just for that?” “Is that strange?” “No. It’s a lot more reasonable than a man who prepares to kill himself.” In this way, a bizarre conversation unfolds between Madlax and the Army Commander. Guen McNichol starts talking about the absurdity of the world, and the unreasonable emptiness of military service, to a strange girl who contracted the assignment to kill him. The Army Commander of the kingdom is aware of his presence, like a puppet dancing on top of a stranger’s palm. “But I was being manipulated by some large, unseen force. Just like a marionette. Even my wife’s death may have been planned.” McNichol confesses his dying wish to a strange girl. Madlax reaches out her hand to McNichol in an intimate manner as if starting to dance with him. McNichol murmurs, “You’re quite the romanticist.” Madlax answers, “It must be... because the moon is blue.”

The reference to the blue moon gained in the line of Madlax, by the contrast with the words that had been told by the girl holding a doll in avant, forms a peculiar perspective in the anime Madlax as a fictional world that must have a specific meaning configuration axis. In the real world, any occurrence of remote events not connected with mechanical causal chain should be deemed as coincidence, because the relation is impossible, and if some relation is manifested the occurrence should be regarded “supernatural”, as departing from the natural laws of science. According to the scientific worldview, where every phenomenon is supposed to occur in linear local-mechanical chain of causal action relationship, it is not allowed to discover any meaning more than a physical phenomenon described as the motion of a mass in accordance with the laws of physics. Any similarity perceived in the event that is observed outside of the system of inevitable mechanical action is a mere coincidence, and it is impossible to find an inherent meaning associated with it. Any miraculous event received by the subject of consciousness as some sort of revelation, or impactul phenomenon that shake the spirit of the people as a mystery, can be no more than a false “analogy”, the deluded projection of the mind. It is the function of consciousness to read a concealed meaning other than the mechanical action in the correlation of natural process of event generation. But the characteristic nature of the detailed description in a fictional work that is portrayed as accidental event lies in its premise that it demands that some distinctive “fictional meaning” should be read out, in the very event that scientific worldview dismisses as a “coincidence”.

It has some similarity to the notion posited by Jung in his presentation of the concept “synchronicity”, that the universe can be grasped in its wholeness through the meaning construction of the mind. Jung admitted the possibility that some events can be accepted by the subject of consciousness as miraculously meaningful occurrence even though it is obvious that one event is outside of the mechanical system of the other and does not have any direct causal relationship; and he called this principle that there is some kind of a sign to be regarded as a revelation that combines the complex meaning associations as if led by fate, by the term “synchronicity”. It is something like a natural law that one can read something subjectively meaningful in the events that do not have any causal relationship, as a manifestation of the hidden connection between the universe and an individual. Jung believed synchronicity to be some kind of intrinsic order that rules fate, as the law of gravity dominates the physical world, and proposed the hypothesis to understand the essence of the latent world that lies behind the phenomenal world.

The structural existence of meaning that has been orchestrated in the contingency in the fictional description suggests in reverse the mind’s capability of understanding the essence of the wholeness of the universe by presupposing an unknown formula to grasp its comprehensive substance as an organic continuum of mind and material.

Coincidence would be a concept that is accepted in the premise of strictly defined scientific worldview. Because the notion is referred to the occurrence of events that look as if one has some connection with the other while there is no direct causal relationship between them. Those events are irrelevant in the essence, but they are misjudged in subjective illusion as if there were some “tunings” principle to endow some meaning association over them. In contrast to this, religious concepts such as “Providence” and “dispensation” in Christianity may be taken in consideration. As is inferred from the literal meaning of the words “provide” and “dispense”, they suggest the prospect that various events are brought about from profound wisdom which is out of the measure of man’s knowledge and therefore impenetrable to human reason, indicating the limit of comprehension in the form of principle or natural law. The word “天啓” (tenkei) in Eastern thought would also belong to the same concept axis as these. In either case it is presupposed that it is impracticable to build a system to understand for human intellect although the fundamental meaning of event generation exists.

In comparison with these two contrasting ideas concerning the order of cosmology, the fictional worlds developed in TV games are extremely meaningful to reexamine the implication of the event generation that we observe currently occurring. In the game world, according to a variety of experiences a player undergoes, a condition is fulfilled to start a new “event” as the forking point of the story, that enables the story line to go still further. By this repetition, pre-established “true end” will be eventually accomplished to realize a peculiar harmony in the fictional world. It is quite natural because games are pre-programmed as such. A TV game is a particular possible world where each player propels the world by making his own choices, and attains peculiar meaning in his own particular fictional world. Actually, the character’s action that triggers the event does not have any specific function to attain the end in causal chain, but each of the contingent action is indispensable for the programmed game story to be unified. The game space is established as an independent dimension where mechanical cause and effect chain has no meaning, and quite aloof from the idea that distinguishes coincidence from inevitability.

Systematically, the idea of synchronicity may be interpreted like the case of the events generation in TV games that represent themselves to be something perceived in the individual mind and provided with meaningful conclusion and understandable accomplishment. In other words, the world exists as a game to play, where some kind of meaning is established. Each person is a player of the world, and playing the leading role. It was the premise of scientific worldview to presuppose that there is definite objective physical world regardless of individual’s personal intention and awareness, and there exists no such thing as raison-d’etre.

According to the premise of science, the world is the same “objective” thing from everyone’s point of view, that is fundamentally “meaningless”, so everything that is derived from the inevitable chain of causality is no more than a coincidence. There is not only no true end or bad ending, but there is even no beginning or end, with time just flowing aimlessly, which is the reality of the world we live in.

If we amplify our understanding of the ontology of the fictional game world, we can assert the hypothesis that the energy of the archetypal psychic field exuded by the collective unconscious manifests the conceptual existence of fictionality in the phenomenal world as a latent force to overthrow this hopeless worldview advocated by scientific principle. By affording meaning to the world, the fiction is healing the collective psyche.

The ambiguous characteristics of the quantum that made it impossible to identify the manner of its presence definitely on coordinate points, quite unlike the propensities of atom which has the determined character as particle existence, shook the conventional concepts concerning the definition of existence. But it was “depth psychologist” Jung who responded to the serious crisis of the norm of identification, and came to organize a new idea to grasp the connection between physics and psychology through discussions with physicist Wolfgang Pauli.

Cutback technique in the fictional presentation has the function to irradiate the psychical characteristics of the universe by novel approach suggesting the concept “actuality” which has been extracted by the discovery of the principle of quantum mechanics, indicating the hitherto unobserved elements lying in potential state behind the phenomenal world called “reality”. Analogical representations attained by piling up the contingencies, display the effect like a revelation liberating the mind from the conceptual restraint of scientific worldview that allows no more possibility than accidental occurrences; and suggest the cosmological significance of the fictional meaning that is acknowledged in the metaphysical plane, breaking through the premise of the objective reality that has been supposed to be common to all people, and the absence of the essential meaning in it. And this ontologically reflective idea, relates to the philosophical subject of this anime as an important motif on the identity of the individual existence.

The viewer is forced to witness the actions and utterances of the heroine practically, without any objective or intention revealed in her extraordinary attempt to have a conference with the target of her assassination. This is exactly the same case as for her opponent/client Guen McNichol. Extremely impressive exchange of words charged with unique reality is developed between a girl full of unknown details and a man endowed with a vivid personality modeling with whom it is hard to guess what sort of relationship might be built, quite in contrast to the norm of “engaging” conversation usually prepared for the development of stereotyped story with definite directional intention. Their extraordinary lines contribute to the establishment of a peculiar fictional world belonging to the unknown category full of uncertain basic axes that may determine the characteristic of the fictional world, avoiding the fixed semantic projection incorporated into existing conceptual category as one of many possible worlds. This particular speech modeling is going to be applied effectively in the same manner for each of other characters, as a basic strategy for building an important foundation of this anime work.

Finally, the sniping is carried out by Madlax in the ceremonial place. The assassination scene of her mission is depicted by a long take of the background music “nowhere”, with the impressive refrain of “Yanmani” that had been introduced in the battle scene in the episode 1. In response to the outbreak of the incident, quickly identifying the sniper point, the woman guard officer captures the figure of Madlax hiding in the remote building in her telescope. However, Madlax succeeds in administering a preemptive shoot to the opponent who was just trying to snipe her. The bullet shot by Madlax had flipped off the beret of the guard officer. Barely escaping her crisis, Madlax mutters again. “Scary person.”

Just then, the blond young man who had called out to Madlax in the hotel passage is giving a phone call to someone, reporting on the assassination of Guen McNichol. “I never even imagined that he was prepared to do something like that. Yes, it is all right; there are any number of people to take his place.” He has already sensed the intention of the Army Commander who was the victim of the assassination. This young man seems to be a person who has some relationship with the mysterious organization that controlled Guen McNichol behind, but it is not entirely predictable how he is going to participate in the main story, or he is just no more than a bit player, at this point.

The woman officer of the royal guard is reporting about the details of the sniper to her boss. “I saw the criminal through my scope. It was a young girl with blond hair.” The captain of the guard tells her the name of the agent of this offense. It is Madlax. As for this woman officer of the guard who was called “scary person” by Madlax, it is difficult to judge for the present, whether she will be deeply involved in the development of the story or she bore but temporary relationship with Madlax, as well as the young blond man. Rather the existence of the man named Guen McNichol, who had been ended abruptly in the assassination, was impressive more than anything else. This is the same as the case of the young boy Pete who had been annihilated in a tragic death just about to start a tentative association with Madlax in episode 1. Various characters equipped with a rich personality profile in each of them, are going to either survive or end in sudden death without making any differences between the central figure and the small role in this anime. This trait makes the work extremely “realistic”, overstepping the convention of usual fictional works. The character modeling adopted in this anime manifests the hyper-realistic description method that reflects the eerie meaninglessness of the real world just as it is, breaking through the limits of stereotypical forged “reality”.

How Madlax and Margaret are going to reveal their hidden relationship? What sort of connection the blond young man is going to make with these two girls? And how the little girl who abruptly appears holding a doll in her arms might be connected with them? The outlook is not clear, together with the roles other impressive characters are going to achieve.

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.