It’s dark and at times depressing, just as I like it. But what really draws me into Madlax was the way it tells what seems to be two separate, unrelated stories, and then turns them into one.

Margaret Burton is an innocent, naïve schoolgirl. She is the orphaned daughter and sole survivor of a wealthy family being cared for by her maid Eleanor. But she also has 12 years of memory missing, bad dreams, and a book written in an unknown language which makes her a target.

Then there is Madlax, the same age but exact opposite of Margaret. She is a highly trained assassin and agent working in a country torn by civil war. Her story and Margaret’s seem unrelated, but they are eventually drawn together by a common thread. This involves Enfant, an evil organization which created the war, and three books, including Margaret’s, which when combined can open the door to – mankind’s destruction?

Now there are a lot of far-fetched elements of the story which are hard to believe. First, how can Madlax possess an endless supply of bullets? Even without a supply chain, she never runs out of ammo. And when taking on a whole platoon, how is it that every soldier has problems hitting a target – even when the target is stationary? Then there are those several elements in the conclusion which are downright confusing and never really explained.

But most of those drawbacks seem unimportant. Madlax does lose points for those flaws, but it doesn’t really hurt the action or the story. I still remained interested, and the final secret is easy enough to decipher.

There is lots of blood and killing. Madlax is not a safe girl to be around. Get too close and you will get caught in the crossfire. So stay back and just watch. Madlax is a pretty good action anime.