The Hypernatural and Supernatural in Madlax -- Episode 8

Episode 8: lost memory and clairvoyance

"Soul Words ~soul~": (魂言: Kongen)

Though this anime has been assuming the mode of a situation drama, in which each story is concluded every week, the disguise is abandoned at this episode. The show depicting the action of the bibliodetective as the main character is continued in this episode extending the story of the episode 7. Looking back the previous episodes of Madlax, it must be corroborated that the story lines have been developing on plural story axes, never reaching to a definite conclusion in any one of the episodes. This episode indicates the existence of the meta-perspective element, that functions in the attempt intentionally overthrowing the conventional patterns of serial anime shows that are usually aired each week, by means of its peculiar hypernatural directing method.

The avant shows a small village located in the middle of the jungle. A girl wearing a cape is addressing a woman with long hair. “So this is where you were, Lady Quanzitta.” The woman answers her, saying, “Nakhl, the mystic words are riding the wind, about to alight here.” These two characters dwelling in the village called Dwaiho are introduced with their names at their first appearance. Lady Quanzitta seems to be a kind of priestess who performs the duties of prophesy. Nakhl appears to be a sybil serving the priestess, but she seems to be performing some more important roles. But as usual, peculiar information is not afforded that tells her exact position or attributes. Viewers with keen awareness on the mode of fictional perspectives will be especially concerned with the newly introduced characters, regarding as to whether they are going to appear in the following episodes or not.

Madlax and the bibliodetective are riding their car through a dangerous battle area where bullets are shooting and shells exploding all around. A foreign car passes the checkpoint following after them, it seems to be in search of Eric Gillain. A copy of his identification card is clipped in front of the driver’s seat of the car.

Margaret is waiting for Eric Gillain’s mail at her home, but the promised scheduled contact does not reach her. In spite of that, she seems to be confident of his honest working. Elenore asks her, wondering, “You’ve only met him once, and yet you’re going to trust him that much?” Margaret innocently asks back, “Is that strange?” Elenore answers, saying, “No, I think it’s very like you, Miss.” Margaret answers too, “Oh, good. I’m glad it’s like me.” It is discerned through their casual conversation, that Elenore harbors deep affection and trust in her mistress more than usual faith entertained as a maid. That is because Elenore is not only aware of her sincere responses not restricted by generally accepted conventional ideas, but also of her intuitional ability with which she is able to grasp truths beyond the reach of logic.

At that time in Gaths-Sonica, Carrossea and Limelda are riding a helicopter in search of Eric Gillain and Madlax. Carrossea has adopted her as his direct subordinate pulling her from the position of elite guard officer. Asked for the reason of her allotted assignment, Carrossea answers her explaining the possibility of the reunion with Madlax. It seems Enfant has the power to rule the military organization, but his own particular reason why he has decided to keep Limelda to his service is not disclosed. A similar situation to the occasion of Chris Krana is again going to be enacted, who came to Gaths-Sonica in search of his father, reported to be the leader of the armed resistance group. By this repetition of actions that has the similar effect to cut-back presentation, it is observed that some kind of relationship is going to be established between Madlax and these two characters, now working as Enfant’s subordinates. But it is not yet clarified whether that is Limelda or Carrossea, who is going to be prorated with the meaning axis that determines the basic perspective of this show in the end.

Being forced to sleep outside the car by the hired agent in their camp, Eric Gillain is complaining of Madlax, “What a woman… Come to think of it, I don’t know her name.” Gillain wasn’t acquainted with the name of the agent he had hired for his protection. This trivial description is going to function as an ingenious underplot afterward around the end of this episode, suggesting the existence of an important perspective to be revealed in this fictional work.

Quanzitta readily welcomes Eric Gillain and Madlax as soon as they have reached the village Dwaiho. Though Gillain and Quanzitta begin introducing themselves, Madlax will not tell her own name, for some reason. Here, it is shown that Neither Eric Gillain nor Quanzitta were not afforded by a chance to be acquainted with her name. Madlax, leaving Gillain and Quanzitta to have their talk between themselves, goes back alone to the woods in order to intercept the pursuing soldiers. In the mansion, Gillain is asking Quanzitta about the book Margaret is in search of. Seeing the copy of the book, Quanzitta denies ever having seen a book written in ancient Eries letters that are called “The Holy words of Saruon”. Quanzitta tells Gillain that she has no measures to understand what the words mean, though she was taught how to read the script phonetically. It seems the title of the book reads “Sarks sark.” Quanzitta had another important information to tell. She tells Gillain of a cave painting written in Eries script near the village.

Quanzitta shows Gillain the way to the cave, where the letters similar to the ones shown at the beginning of the episode 7 are painted on the wall. She goes out of the cave leaving Gillain alone. Just before she leaves, Gillain asks her, watching the letters on the wall. “How do you pronounce the words painted here?” Quanzitta shows him how to pronounce them. “Eluda taluta.” They are the words the masked man intoned in the episode 4, when he used them as a means of mind attack in order to ruin Anne Morey and detective Marini. The expression on Quanzitta’s face is meaningful, when she pronounced these words looking back to Gillain. In this anime, expressions assumed by the characters carry subtle implications that are not easily fixed in conceptualized form, constructing peculiar effect with many angled perspectives.

At that time in Nafrece, Lucille, the linguist Eric Gillain had consulted with on the identity of the book, is talking with someone on the phone over the cave painting and Gillain’s past conduct. The person’s face she is talking with is not revealed on the screen. There is some vacancy of information left in the background of the fictional world, that the audience is not allowed to be acknowledged. The contents of Lucille’s talk, expressed in cut back presentation adopted as before, suggest something eerie is about to occur endangering Eric Gillain who has got into the cave.

“Eluda taluta. Sarks sark.” When Gillain utters these words, Madlax senses something during her battle with the soldiers of Enfant in the woods. At the same time, the girl with a doll in her arms and the boy Poupee who always accompanied her reveal their figures in the cave. “I wonder how many years it’s been since we last met someone.” The girl mutters. Asked by Eric Gillain, she answers her name, “Laetitia.” It is the name Madlax had used as her disguised name in her ID card in episode 3. “What are you doing in a place like this?” Gillain inquires wonderingly. In answer, the girl named Laetitia speaks mysterious words as before, “Just the normal. …Yes. This is a very normal place. But the place where you’re standing is at the edge of normal. Why did you come here?” It is not yet clarified about the true identity of the girl called Laetitia, and what kind of space the “normal place” is, she answered as the place she is located in.

Eric Gillain recovers his memory he had lost, presumably triggered by the influence he got by stepping into the “normal place”. At the same time in cut back, Lucille’s voice is heard talking to someone far away in Nafrece, about Gillain’s past conduct and the reason of his lost memory. “To put it simply, a memory block. Say, did you know that the brain contains neurotransmitters called ‘cannabinoids’?... A cannabinoid inhibits the flow of glutamic acid within the brain. In other words, it has the property of interfering with the process of memory creation.” Gillain had an abhorrent memory that he didn’t like to recall. The details of the recovered memory of his past conduct he had concealed is shown skillfully in cut back visual presentation. He had carried out his revenge too far to the delinquent youths who had violated his sister. It is inferred that his conduct was too ferocious a one to be recollected, and he had to confine them in the unconscious region of his mind. Gillain seems to have recovered the sealed memory by the influence of the words working like a spell. But there is no explanation given, concerning the psychical mechanism that caused him the result. There is no explicit information gained in any way of commentary, whether some logical explanation is affordable or supernatural power is actually ruling this fictional world. This work goes on with its hypernatural presentation to the end, without affording the audience with any conceptual clues that make objective understanding affordable for them.

As to the blanks between hypernatural descriptions that are given without logical explanation in the course of presenting incidents just as fictional facts, it may be understandable by applying whether multivalued logic in which plural opposite meanings are allowed without the restraint of exclusion principle that demands the alternative between affirmative or negative only in its logical inference, or the idea of parallel worlds theory advocated by quantum physics that presupposes the forking generation of many worlds. This depicting method must be evaluated as an expression strategy of fictional presentation to try to attain peculiar type of visual effect suggesting amorphous archetypal mode where fictional world is to be constructed containing various modes depending on the interactive procedure with the subject of consciousness. Numberless inconsistent elements coexist there, as a bundle of possible states of information before they are materialized in the form of actual phenomena. This viewpoint modality which is capable of catching glance of the phases in latent pleroma state is going to be developed into one of the significant perspectives that construct the main subject of this anime.

Eric Gillain says to Madlax, who has returned having annihilated the trackers Enfant sent, “It doesn’t matter anymore. It’s over now.” Gillain hands a letter to Madlax and asks her to send it to Margaret. At this occasion, Madlax hears the name of Margaret, another heroin of this show, for the first time. Gillain continues, saying, “I’m counting on you, Madlax.” Madlax asks him in wonder, because she had not spoken her name to him. “How do you know my name?” Gillain answers, “I don’t know. Somehow, I just know.” And he continues to say, “You know, I was supposed to just be rationally getting revenge. I was supposed to be avenging my little sister. But that wasn’t what it was. I just didn’t notice what was sleeping inside me, that’s all. …The ones who made me notice that were Margaret and Laetitia… and you.” After saying this, he jumps down the cliff and kills himself.

Returning to the city, Madlax sends the letter as Gillain had asked her to do. She has a queer sense that she has known the name from before. “Margaret Burton… I’ve heard that somewhere before.” It is not shown how she felt the sensation like deja-vu, at seeing this name on the envelope.

Carrossea is reporting the annihilation of the trackers sent after Erick Gillain and his death discovered afterward. But he tries to disguise the identity who requested the mission to Eric Gillain, reporting the person as a man. It is suggested that this man is equipped with some other purpose and will other than acting as a minion of the international criminal organization Enfant.

Margaret is reading the letter sent from Eric Gillain. “Eric was crying. …He was. I can see tear taints.” It seems this girl is endowed with some intuitional power that enables her attain judgement surpassing the limit of logical inference that is based on the analysis of cause-and-effect procedure of events. It has something to do with the ability of clairvoyance Eric Gillain gained in this episode.

Last scene of this episode shows Madlax immersed in thought. “‘Normal’? What’s that supposed to mean? What’s normal about it?” It seems there is not enough information afforded yet, concerning how the word “normal” the girl with a doll in her arms was telling in the ruins, is connected with the association of ideas in the existing knowledge system. The audience’s concern will be centered on the question what exactly was the incident that occurred on Eric Gillain, and its relationship with the other characters’ consequences of fate. As Eric Gillain has gained a mysterious connection with Margaret in his loss of Memory, the peculiar experience is going to be shared with other characters also.

The Hypernatural and Supernatural in Madlax -- Episode 7

Episode 7: bibliodetective and gun action

"Picture Book ~nature~": (繪本: Ehon)

Avant exhibits the people investigating in a cave. One of them says excitedly, finding something like letters on the wall of the cave, “So, this is the Elies of legend…” One of them suddenly causes mental disorder and fires a gun. A man looks back to him. It seems to be the man who took up Poupe in the ruins. The girl holding a doll in her hand and always watching the people from somewhere covers her ears with her hands stricken in terror, though she seems to be located somewhere in different space.

After the title back, the scene shows Vanessa and Margaret seated at a table on a terrace of a shop in Nafrece. Margaret is consulting with Vanessa about a book she is in search of. But it seems she has already possessed the book she is looking for. Inquired by Vanessa, Margaret answers, saying. “Yeah, I have it. But there’s a page torn out, so I want a complete copy.” Vanessa gives her advice to hire a bibliodetective. Margaret shows the book, which is stained with something like a blood patch. It is expected that the piece of paper pinned on the wall of Madlax’s room may afford some clue, regarding the relationship that connects Madlax in Gaths-Sonika and Margaret in Nafrece, who have no direct contact as yet. But the course of the story chooses to follow other derivative details hereafter.

Bibliodetective Eric Gillain takes on the investigation of the book on the request of Elenore who came to his office as the agent of Margaret, and visits his old friend Lucille, who is a linguistics researcher, in order for the research for the rare book he has never seen before. It seems they are old friends reunited three years since. Lucille recognizes the letters written on the book. “Is this Elies?” “What country is it from?” Answering Gillain’s question, she says, “Gaths-Sonika.” One of her emeritus professors went there to study some cave paintings before. Lucille explains, saying, “This IS the “Elies” script that was in those cave paintings. ...They were saying it might be the discovery of a new civilization unlike any of the world’s four great civilizations.” But there was an abominable result ensued to the research. Lucille continues, “All of the people who have been involved with that script have gotten mixed up in bizarre incidents.” Furthermore, the professor had committed suicide taking his family along with him. This episode, having started with Eric Gillain as temporary protagonist, is developing taking the mode of mystery or thriller, implying the existence of an unknown civilization and incidents caused by supernatural power like a curse. The audience’s concern is whether this man is able to survive or not.

Eric Gillain starts for Gaths-Sonica, in order to investigate the book and Eries letters after the advice of Lucille. Gillain arranges to get a bodyguard to protect himself in a country of internal strife. There are some young girls joyously playing in the pool of the hotel Gillain boarded. They are going to function as a kind of underplot to conclude this episode. Lucille is at that time telling someone on the telephone of her encounter with Gillain. It seems Gillain have caused some horrible incident in the past. “What about the you-know-what?” “It looks like he doesn’t remember anything about it. …He’s happier that way, I suppose.” Gillain had a serious experience before, but he has now forgotten everything about that. It is supposed to establish a latent perspective how Margaret’s amnesia disclosed in the episode 6 and Gillain’s lost memory should be connected, insinuating the conformation of a fictional meaning.

It is Madlax who has come to Gillain’s room, hired as a bodyguard to protect him in Gaths-Sonica. Madlax skillfully outwit the band of assassins who came to attack Gillain and run out of the hotel together with Gillain. Her action reminds of one of a typical action movie heroine, carrying out the mission calmly dodging the attacks of the enemy. The depictional mode of the show represented by car actions about this part, embodies the characteristics of the genre usually called “girls gun action”.

At that time, a masked man is receiving a report on Eric Gillain investigating Margaret’s requested book in a mysterious mansion. The reporter had hacked the information on the internet, and acquiring the scanned data of the book, identified the book the bibliodetective started to investigate. The masked man guesses the name of the book at a glance of the image, “This is Secondari.” The reporter answers, “Yes. That which was lost twelve years ago has finally reappeared.” The reporter is the fair-haired young man who had called Margaret to halt in the corridor of the Bookwald. It is already proven that he is Carrossea, one of international criminal organization Enfant. It seems all the main people are related to the incident that took place 12 years ago.

Madlax and Eric Gillain are going to the village Dwaiho where the mysterious cave is located, in order to gain information on the Eries letters. Camping in the woods, Gillain asks Madlax, “How many people have you killed?” Gillain inquires feeling some kind of awe witnessing the girl having killed lots of men unhesitatingly. Madlax returns downrightly simple answer, “So many I can’t count them.” Together with the words “You’ll die,” Madlax have uttered repeatedly, her words spoken here are to be identified as indicating her psychical characteristics, insinuating the basic element that determines the perspective of this anime. At this time Margaret is sleeping peacefully in her bed. Madlax’s line runs over her figure. “I’ve killed so many people I can’t count them…” It is not yet manifested what kind of fact the contrast between Margaret and Madlax shown by cut back directing method is going to disclose.

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.