Madlax and Existentialism
I thought I do a more comprehensive study of how Madlax and existentialism interplay. This has been talked about in the forums but I like to do a more comprehensive review.
I will be going through the ideas underlying existentialism and try to relate them to Madlax. I'm going to refer to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy and Wikipedia because it's sort of easy and I can paraphrase and quote them directly.
One of the starting points of existentialism comes from Heidegger's modes of being. For him he was interested in how people experience the world and things. Existentialists rejects the view that people should experience themselves as 'things' whether it be as a tool like a hammer (ready at hand) or as a set of abstract concepts (present at hand). In categories relating to things like 'substance', 'event' or 'process' and characteristics such as race, colour, age (third-person facts), nationality, job, situation (like a false civil war),one's past about a person are called 'facitity'. This actually relates to Madlax in a multitude of ways. One is to ask what is left of the self when facticity is removed? The detective Marini under the influence of Elda Taluta is an example. His facticity is removed via loss of his public records, being unrecognisable by colleagues and family and losing his job. Another involvement with facticity is how does one engage the world when confronted with it? There are many examples in Madlax of this ranging from the suicide of the bibliodetective Eric Gillian to Limelda's discovery of the false civil war to Madlax and Margaret finding the truth of their past, Elenore listening to Elda Taluta. Furthermore this question is nearly an obsession for Friday Monday who via his data intensive Enfant computers when he 'awakens' people through the words of awakening.
For existentialists, using 'facticity' to approach one's own existence is a mistake because even though the facts are correct, the facts are not who I am. There are some examples such as Madlax viewing herself as just a killer, Eric Gillian as just a bibliodetective, Carrossea Doon viewing himself as just an Enfant agent, Limelda as just a Gazth-Sonikan elite sniper and Elenore as the maid. This approach can also apply in a third person context as in the Maurice Lopez case as he views Margaret as just a rich girl and others as just a matter of status. 'Transcendence' needs to be taken into account into one's existence. This is defined as how one approaches the world in terms of attitude and most importantly individual choices/decision, action or "my projects".
But how one approaches the world can be alienating. Through one's projects, it's possible to find the world as alien as one is "not at home". This can manifest by not belonging to a place. However belonging to a place isn't merely geographical (Like when Luciano goes into Nafrece and he finds it too peaceful and Margaret doesn't feel she belongs in Nafrece even though she lives there) and in Madlax this is taken to the extreme where Madlax is said to be not even real. Also being the subject of another in Sartre's "being for others" reveals another aspect of one's existence which can be alienating from the other's third person perspective. (For example when Madlax shows Vanessa her ability to kill without remorse to survive in Gazth Sonika that causes Vanessa alienation and unease). Lastly just through existing in the world that already exists, the norms, practices and rules of the world one finds themselves in (This can be just being used to a certain normal mode or environment; Laetitia saying "this is a very normal place", Margaret just hanging around, Madlax firing her guns) can be alienating. This alienation leads to the idea of Authenticity.
The idea of authenticity defines a condition on self-making. Do I succeed in making myself, or will who I am merely be a function of the roles I find myself in? Thus to be authentic can also be thought as a way of being autonomous. In choosing “resolutely” that is, in committing myself to a certain course of action, a certain way of being in the world rather than just occupy myself to a role because it's the norm. In Madlax, this comes about in a multitude of ways, to virtually the entire cast. We find that from Elenore defining her relationship to Margaret in her own project rather than just as a duty, Nakhl going out of her way to save Madlax despite being cast as an 'observer' and Limelda approaching her 'sniper-ness' as a relationship to Madlax rather than just an army sniper following orders. Most striking in this authenticity is Margaret and Madlax because of the contrast of their inauthenticity at the beginning of the series. For example Madlax just becomes a mercenary and shoots because that's what she normally does and Margaret goes to school because that's routine. Their authentic lives come about via their interactions with the other characters where they make conscious decisions about how they live their lives. However the most striking examples/hints of authenticity with the slogan 'existence precedes essence' is at the end of the series Margaret realises Madlax is an authentic being due to her existence/choices and Madlax commits herself to be real with consequence such as being injured (unlike being shot to pieces but being unreal a few episodes earlier) and resolutely counters Friday Monday's concepts of essence and truth with reality and existence.
To understand authenticity deeper and its underlying morals and focus on freedom; existentialist ideas of anxiety, nothingness and the absurd have to be examined. Firstly freedom in the existentialist sense is not established against determinism (everything is determined, "it's fate") or being self-conscious. For existentialists like Heidegger and Sartre this comes about through a certain mood or feeling of anxiety known as Angst (in capital A). Angst unlike standard anxiety or fear is not directed at an object or something that is threatening yet I feel threatened and vulnerable. For existentialists, this Angst of feeling unease, vulnerable and threatened with nothing concrete at its source reveals something fundamental about oneself. In Madlax this is hinted early where Margaret feels a certain disconnect with the world. Later in the anime this gets expressed through the disconnect with "normality". Luciano's unease with Nafrece, Madlax's disconnect with her life when shooting at the range.
As Angst pulls one out of their practical projects and roles, this robs one of the possibility of practical self-identification and anxiety. This anxiety teaches me that I do not coincide with anything that I factically am. This first person retreat into anxiety yields the figure of an outsider, the isolated figure who sees through the phoniness of those complacently living their lives prior to anxiety. With the experience of anxiety also yields the existential theme of the absurd, a version of what was previously introduced as alienation from the world. Under anxiety, like when one repeats a word until it loses meaning, anxiety undermines the taken-for-granted sense of things. They become absurd. This is most explicit in Madlax when Limelda loses all sense of meaning after shooting her fellow elite guard members and wandering alone on the streets questioning the reality she sees around her. However the absurd might occur in other ways such as Gwen McNicol's assassination of himself as he questions whether anything he does has any meaning, Vanessa recognises the absurd as she is lost in the Gazth-Sonikan jungle where her standard of values/morals fall apart. Another possible relation with the absurd is Friday Monday forces others to experience the absurd via the words of awakening.
Lastly Angst leads to the sensation of Nothingness which emerges as a result of anxiety. This arises because my practical identity is constituted by the practices and life I engage in, when these collapse I “am” not anything. In a manner of speaking I am thus brought face-to-face with my own finitude, my “death” as the possibility in which I am no longer able to be anything. This experience of my own death, or “nothingness,” in anxiety can act as a spur to authenticity: I come to see that I “am” not anything but must “make myself be” through my choice. In committing myself in the face of death and being self-aware of the nothingness of one's practical identity is what Heidegger and Sartre view as freedom. Madlax demonstrates this powerfully; Elenore committing herself to Margaret in the face of death even when Margaret abandons her and her role as a maid was no longer required. Madlax questions her complete existence after others question her existence and the loss of Vanessa but commits herself to her friends. In the last episodes Margaret, Margaret and Laetitia face literal nothingness by being erased after being asked to merge to face the truth.
However freedom is not something many people welcome and Sartre argues we seek stability, identity, and adopt the language of freedom only when it suits us. We are “condemned to be free,” which means that we can never simply be who we are but are separated from ourselves by the nothingness of having perpetually to re-choose, or re-commit, ourselves to what we do. Characteristic of the existentialist outlook is the idea that we spend much of lives devising strategies for denying or evading the anguish of freedom.
One of these strategies is “bad faith.” Another is the appeal to values. In Madlax bad faith is arguably not as explicit but does manifest in itself with the two main character Margaret and Madlax who adopt a false identity as schoolgirl and agent respectively. Further along the series we find that Margaret herself experiences bad faith by believing she had no choice but to shoot her father when she threatened her. Later she understands that shooting her father to save herself is an act of freedom and experiences anguish as a murderer of her own father.
For Sartre, “values derive their meaning from an original projection of myself which stands as my choice of myself in the world.” Thus values are derived from existence. Sartre speaks of the “ideality” of values, by which he means that they have no real authority and cannot be used to underwrite or justify behaviour. The idea that values are without foundation in being can be understood as a form of nihilism, the existential response to this condition of the modern world is to point out that meaning, value, is not first of all a matter of theory but a consequence of engagement and commitment. However value judgments can be justified, but only relative to some concrete and specific project or situation. With respect to the appeal of values, this anguish is more hinted and characterised in a moral aspect by the antagonist Friday Monday. Friday Monday's attempts to tell the world that values and morals are without foundation via his holy books with an 'essence of mankind'. In the existentialist context, his view is flawed because he negates the choice one makes in the world where one can decide to be 'moral' and live by them. Instead Friday Monday imposes his ideality and theory rather than recognising values and morals are a consequence of how people (shown by the Madlax characters) engage and commit to the world. Existentialist writers also point out how one engages and commit to the world is the basis of an authentic life but cannot be done in a vaccum but rather situated in a social, historical and political context. In Madlax one can argue this is shown in the context of social and politics such as the wealth of Margaret Burton, the peace and power of Nafrece, the poverty and war of Gazth Sonika and the 'Era' and history of the Holy Books.
From this overview, I hope that shows Madlax is filled with existentialist themes with plenty to explore in this context. Madlax cannot be solely fit into an existentialist box and like it's predecessor Noir relates to other themes such as conspiracy, morality, memory and love. However compared to other anime, I believe Madlax is arguably one of the animes with the most potential explored in an existential way. There are other animes that will have Angst and authenticity but unlikely to be as explicit and thorough as Madlax such as hinting at facitity and freedom. But I will leave that exploration to others.
If anyone thinks this is nearly the basis of academic paper material (of course there needs to be rework), let me know.
