Categories
Anime Editorials

Madlax aka What's wrong with the anime industry

Young women with gun skills? Check. Mysterious organization that runs the world? Check. Quasi-religious mysticism? Check. Noir only lasted one season, but if you started watching Madlax and thought it was Noir Season 2 I wouldn’t blame you. Madlax isn’t a complete copy of Noir, it does tread new ground after about 20 episodes or so. And the new material is innovative in its own way. What ultimately holds it back, what has held many other shows back over time, is that it still feels too much like a rehash of what came before, rather than something fresh and entertaining.

Categories
Anime Reviews

Girls with guns but not much else

I started out intending to write a review of the show Noir,  but while researching (okay, I’ll admit using Wikipedia) I discovered Noir’s spirital successors, Madlax and El Cazador de la Bruja.  Each show was animated by the studio Bee Train.  I thought, great, I can do one big “girls with guns” trilogy review,  but when I started watching El Cazador, I knew that it deserved its own review.  Unfortunately, the show needed its own review because of what it did wrong, not what it did right.