For people who have been following the series, the sixth volume of Madlax will be a welcome addition to their anime collections.  This disc starts filling in some of the holes in the story and revealing just what happened to the world 12 years ago as well as revealing just how and why Margaret and Madlax have a shared destiny.  The story gets a little metaphysical too, but not in a bad way and there is still plenty of action for those fans who want to see Madlax do her stuff.  These shows sets things up for the conclusion in volume seven, and that disc can't come soon enough.

Series recap:

Madlax is a mercenary, a gun for hire, who is reputed to be the best there is.  This assassin doesn't look like a hired killer though, she's a delicate looking young lady.  Looks can be deceiving thought as she is quite competent and deadly.  She shoots her victims with her eyes shut, but with pin point accuracy.   Caught up in the middle of the Gazth-Sonika civil war where the Galza resistance is fighting the government, Madlax has more than enough work.

This is also the story of Margaret Burton, an odd young girl.  She lives in Nafrece, alone with her maid Elenore, and it's rumored that she's very wealthy.  Margaret marches to the tune of a different drummer.  She will spend a long time staring at shoes in a store's window display, or leave school early because she's afraid that it will rain, even though there isn't a cloud in the sky.  When she looks at the world, it's almost like she's seeing something different from what everybody else sees.  In addition to her maid, Margaret spends a lot of time with her adult friend Vanessa, a woman who works at a large corporation.  Vanessa has traveled to  Gazth-Sonika, where she has retrieved some very important data that will show who really started the civil war and who is profiting from it.  There are many powerful people who want to kill her for the data, and she's hired a bodyguard:  Madlax.

Margaret also has a book, the Secondari, a very special tome that may have mystical powers.  Many people are looking for this book.  People who are willing to kill for it, including the criminal organization Enfant.

This volume:

With all three mystical books finally together, Margaret opens up the door to another dimension an travels through, along with Carrossea Doon, who has a surprising connection to little Margaret.  Once on the other side, they are presented with the "door of truth" and while opening it will reveal Margaret's lost memories, it will also have some dire consequences.

The plot really starts moving in this volume, with Margaret discovering what happened to her 12 years ago, more revelations of the origin of the Gazth-Sonika war, and the exit of some major characters.  Enfant's role becomes more clear and things start rolling towards the final resolution of the series.

The metaphysical aspects of the series also come to the forefront in this series of episodes, which is not really a bad thing.  They do this in a good way, seamlessly integrating the action and previous storyline with a meditation of the nature of reality, truth, and what humans really desire.  It's not  a confusing and nearly incomprehensible series of odd scenes like occur in some other shows. *cough* Neon Genesis *cough*  This volume includes three good episodes that advance the plot and contain some major plot developments, while not getting too strange.

Audio:

ADV provides the original stereo Japanese track to this DVD as well as a 5.1 English dub.  I alternated tracks between shows, and both of the audio tracks sounded very good.  The English dub was a little more full and robust, but the Japanese track reproduced the sound well.  The voices seemed to fit the characters a little better in the original language, but that's just my opinion.  The only problem I had with the dub was that the music level was a little high in places, making it hard to hear the dialog.  There were no audio defects.

Video:

The anamorphically enhanced widescreen image is very good.  The lines were very crisp, and the colors were reproduced well.  The color reproduction is important, since They used a wide palate, with both the jungle scenes and the urban settings having distinct looks created by the colors that were employed.  Digital defects were practically nonexistent.  A great looking DVD.

Extras:

This disc has a good number of bonus features.  In addition to the standard clean opening and closing, there are Japanese promo spots and a two-minute reel of design sketches.  My favorite bonus feature though was Conversations With SSS, a 10-minute reel of out-takes where the English voice actors come up with some pretty humorous lines for the scenes they are dubbing.  Very funny stuff.

There's also a music video to "Shards of My Eyes" in both regular and karaoke versions.  Finally the Vanessa video clip strings together a series of scenes of the character.  A very good set of bonus material.

Final Thoughts:

Madlax has an intricate plot, and the various plot threads are starting to come together on this disc and the whole tapestry is starting to be revealed.  They don't forsake the action in order to advance the plot though.  Some of the best battles in the series occur in this volume too.  A very good series that started off as a typical action/adventure show and morphed in something more.  Highly Recommended.