Madlax

A slow, plodding mess filled with unexciting action scenes, bizarre pacing and completely pointless side characters who have no impact on anything and exit the plot with zero notice from the main protagonists. It takes over half the show for either of the leads to ever meet or interact in the most remote sense and the ending is strange and nonsensical, discarding any semblance of logic for a purely emotional answer to its main conflict. It has gorgeous music and is one of my favorite anime of all time, I have never stopped thinking about it since I watched it.

Madlax is a bizarre show. Being the second entry in Studio Bee Train's girls-with-guns trilogy, it does little to differentiate itself from Noir, the first in the series. Their premises are similar, as are many plot points and characters. Even the shoddy action with girls flipping gracefully through the air, firing with their airs closed and forlorn expressions, getting hit by none of the other characters, even that's basically the same thing as Noir. I mention this because I think if you were able to put up with the many pitfalls of Noir, you will be able to put up with the same in Madlax, ... and as such, it is a series worth trying for you.

If you haven't watched Noir, then Madlax is a much tougher sell. The pacing of the story is awful, the action is pretty underwhelming, the characters are very two dimensional, and the plot is a bit nonsensical. That said, the anime scratches an itch that few others do. I think the wartorn third world country setting has a lot of potential for anime, and while Madlax doesn't fully explore said potential, it gets closer to commenting on the stark contrast between those 'developed' countries that are comparatively utopian and so far removed from war and violence and the pillaged 'developing' countries who are not in control of their own destinies. On top of that, the soundtrack for the show is phenomenal. Yuki Kajiura once again knocks it out of the park with several memorable tracks that are deserving of a more memorable show.

I believe the average person's enjoyment of Madlax depends on how forgiving they can be. If you can look past shoddy pacing and repetitive storytelling, if you can look past flat characters and unengaging action, then give Madlax a shot. If not, then your time is better spent elsewhere.

"I'm confused!"

If you are looking for a good thriller with a solid amount of mystery watch Noir, not this anime. This anime has the potential to be a masterpiece with its ideas, however you will be lost in unnecessary vagueness, unfinished sentences, unrealistic action and mystery build on something that looks supernatural until the second part of the final episode where everything finally makes sense. The feelings I was left after watching this anime is sadness, not for the story, but for anime itself. Once I got the idea, I realized, that if implemented properly this anime had the chance to bring me to tears, ... but unfortunately the way the story developed in the first 25 episodes negates everything.

Story: 3
The story explores a normal rich girl, its maid, and an assassin, that looks like they have nothing related in common, but they are joined by a mystery in their past. Their connection is related to the "human essence" - what a human being can do when they are pressed between their consciousness/morality and their will to survive. It has something to do with the civil war mentioned in the synopsis, but since all this is explored only in the second half of the last episode, there is not much time for the idea to evolve or to feel any tragedy. The rest of the episodes feels like a waste of time.

Art: 6
The art is fair considering the year this anime is produced. The shadows are partly transparent and there is sufficient details. Some backgrounds are actually amazing, but this contrasts with how the characters are drawn.

Sound/Music: 3/8
The sound in this movie is poor. There is a clear studio-room echo that negates the feeling of the open scenes. It is not a problem with the voice acting, which is good. It is a problem with the recording, and it is not due to quality of sound, but the simplicity of the sound recording.
However, the music is the only thing that stands out in this movie. The name "Yuko Kajuira" can ring the bell from the Noir OST. Unlike Noir, I do not consider this OST to be "masterpiece", but it is very very good. I watched the opening most of the times only for the song. And the songs "Nowhere" and "Lost Command" are amazing. The OST is dynamic enough for the action.

Character: 3
The characters and story combined is the weak point of this anime.
First weak trope is the unfinished sentences in the dialogues. If properly implemented and with a sufficient background, this trope can increase the sense of mystery. However, the writers misunderstood that - they used the trope without a background story. I did not feel any tension building in any episode.
Second worst is the invincibility. I can refer to Noir here. The assassin work in Noir is shown from the moment of receiving a job, throughout planning and executing the job. The "Noir" anime understands that if assassin is really good and you are his target, you will first see their face once you have a bullet inside you - planning and surprise. And here we have a Madlax that have just "talent", she just moves and shoot without looking and no bullet hits her, while she kills everyone. So realistic... :(
And finally, the characters that talk so much of the "human essence" has zero sense of justice. It seems the only thing no one dares to kill is exactly "the bad guy". Instead, the characters are willing to shoot their friends, because that is their human essence? That view is not an essence of normal people, that view is not the essence of the sociopaths. It is just unrealistic and hard to grasp.

Enjoyment: 4
I enjoyed watching the backgrounds while listening to the music. I enjoyed a little bit when finally everything made sense. But most of the time I did not enjoy this anime. I just sit there waiting with a hope that all this mystery will be resolved to some smart idea. Yes, there was a climax, but no outro. There was no consequences of the climax, so I all my hopes were in vain.

Overall: 4
This anime is decent enough to lose your time if you have nothing else to do. When it comes to assassins and guns, I prefer animes that stay firmly on the grounds of realism, instead of flying into the skies of the supernatural. Considering, it clearly misses the point of the "human essence" most of the time, it is an anime that if you really think about what message it tries to convey, you will be disappointed. However, if you are looking to just relax and enjoy nice music without any thinking, it could be enjoyable.