Madame Mirage

The first volume cover of Madame Mirage

Madame Mirage (Gylic transcription: Madam Miraj) is a Gylian comic series, which was later adapted into an animated series. Created by the team of writer Tem Leðe and artist Sashi Jesintha, it was published from 2007 to 2017 in 5 volumes, and was adapted by Dreamwave Productions into an animated series, which aired on GTV4, from 2017 to 2019.

Plot

The series follows the adventures of Madame Mirage, a would-be master thief. At the start, she attempts to break into the National Bank of Gylias' vault building where Gylias' gold reserves are stored. She is caught, but makes a strong impression on the Gylian Police, who note her skills and her admiration of gentleman thief fiction. On trial, she is found guilty, and sentenced to 4 years of community service and supervised release — which she is to serve by assisting the police in investigating and pursuing white-collar crime.

Madame Mirage thus uses her talents, and her interest in illusionism and projector technology, to help police investigate and convict corporate criminals and the exploitative rich.

One of the series' central ironies is that Madame Mirage greatly enjoys her work, and is aware that assisting the police is the only way to be able to practice her master thief capabilities without breaking the law. On occasions where her sentence is nearly at an end, she commits other minor crimes specifically to break her supervised release terms and thus lengthen her sentence. She does this out of awareness that her criminal record would prevent her from joining the Gylian Police formally once her sentence ends, and considers her chances of a presidential pardon low.

Characters

Madame Mirage and Nix depicted together in one issue

Madame Mirage

A Hellene Gylian named Angelia Diamantes (Ἀɴγελία Διαμαɴτές), who desires to be a master thief under the pseudonym "Madame Mirage". When she is caught attempting to break into the national gold reserves vault, both the police and public procurator are impressed by her skills, and thus her sentence is to use those skills to aid the police in catching white-collar criminals.

She is a strong admirer of mounoir and crime fiction, and even underwent plastic surgery in the past to increase her resemblance to her favourite fictional characters. Her standard outfit is a white dress with a black jacket, opera gloves, and a large mushroom hat.

She deliberately cultivates the personality of a "good femme fatale", and spends much of the series humorously narrating her exploits in the style of a noir detective. She has a "nearly encyclopaedic" knowledge of mounoir, and makes reference to favourite characters ranging from Aurelia Nyşel to Jackie Forrest, or Gilda to Max Payne.

She is interested in illusionism and projector technology, and takes advantage of her work with the police to employ state-of-the-art projector technology in some of her heists.

Nix

Madame Mirage's younger sister. Her name is actually Nike Diamantes (Νίκε Διαμαɴτές), but Madame Mirage nicknamed her "Nyx", after the personification of night, and she combined it with her real name to get the final pronunciation.

She is athletic, tomboyish, and interested in technology. She was a volunteer in the Gylian Self-Defense Forces, and possesses a firearm license, unlike her sister who is disqualified by her criminal record.

Nix is strongly loyal to her older sister, and secretly helped her plan some of her early burglaries, managing to avoid being linked to them. She assists Madame Mirage in an unofficial capacity, mainly working with projection technology. While Madame Mirage mainly enjoys the thrill of planning and successfully executing capers for the greater good, Nix is a steadfast communist who despises the rich and enjoys seeing her sister expose their crimes.

Zei and Sesi

The two police constables assigned to supervise Madame Mirage for the duration of her sentence. They have a somewhat similar appearance, but differ in personality: Zei is more soft-spoken and meticulous, while Sesi is more boisterous and impulsive.

They have a friendly relationship with Madame Mirage, engaging in copious mutual good-natured teasing. Madame Mirage nicknames them "Natsumi and Miyuki", after the protagonists of Karydan Station Files. Zei is more star-struck around Madame Mirage, even asking for her autograph on a few occasions, while Sesi enjoys humorously reminding Madame Mirage that she is a convicted criminal serving a sentence, regardless of her work and lifestyle suggesting otherwise.

Background

Madame Mirage illustrator, Sashi Jesintha, at a panel in Tennai, 2018

Madame Mirage was created by Tem Leðe (writer) and Sashi Jesintha (illustrator). Tem enjoyed lady thief fiction, particularly the ongoing success of the Kleptechne and Carmen Silva franchises, and wanted to do something similar. Seeking an original approach to the genre, he brought in elements of mounoir, designing the title character as a "good femme fatale" similar to the characters played by Leonora Weeks and Jen Wood.

Tem was inspired to have Madame Mirage sentenced to assist police in catching white-collar criminals by reading about hackers who went on to become computer security consultants. The element also set the character apart from her inspirations by having her use her skills to investigate and incriminate rich exploiters.

Tem brought Sashi Jesintha as illustrator because the use of illusionist technology for Madame Mirage's capers reminded him of Tennaiite mythology's avatars, and thus wanted a Tennaiite illustrator who could make visual puns on said myths. Prior to working on Madame Mirage, Sashi had worked on several different series for PK Comics including Nightwatch, Jester, Jester and Poison, and Invincible Woman as well as collaborating on several Icon Comics series.

Sashi spent a month of pre-production devising the comic's visual style, which was mainly inspired by Art Nouveau, Art Deco, and gauchic illustration. Sashi expressed in a 2011 interview that "Bringing Madame Mirage and her supporting cast to life is a real treat for me. It gives me the chance to explore new styles and also a different culture. And of course it is always a good thing when I get to draw a lusciously lovely lady like Madame Mirage."

Sashi also commented that Madame Mirage's look "came together very quickly": her first design was inspired by Leonora Weeks' appearance in Gylida, and her outfit was simplified until arriving at the final result.

The comic ultimately lasted 5 volumes in 10 years. During its production, Tem and Sashi were approached with offers for adapting it on screen, and chose to work with Dreamwave Productions because, in Tem's words, "We didn't want to fuck around, we wanted to go big with Madame Mirage, and we knew Dreamwave were the best at pulling off big things."

Animated adaptation

Madame Mirage
Madame Mirage in the series' title screen
Genre	Caper procedural action-adventure comedy
Voices of	Max Storm Taðe Ziriş Seina Tymea Sæis Iuaşa
Composer(s)	Mondo Fine
Country of origin	Gylias
Original language(s)	English French various
No. of episodes	30
Production company(s)	Dreamwave Productions Gylian National Film Institute
Release
Original network	GTV4
Original release	5 June 2017 – 30 August 2019

An animated series based on the comic was produced by Dreamwave Productions, and aired on GTV4 from 5 June 2017 to 30 August 2019.

It had three series of 10 episodes each. Sashi created the main model sheet for the series, so that the animation would resemble her illustrations as much as possible, while Tem had a writer's credit on every episode. Tem said that working with Saira Telyn and Anise Lyð was a "wonderful experience" because they were "great listeners" and concerned mainly with successfully bringing the comic to the screen.

The series was notable for its cast, which included veteran voice actors such as Taðe Ziriş (Poly-Space) as Nix, Seina Tymea (Agent Jane) as Zei, and Sæis Iuaşa (Karydan Station Files) as Sesi, and provided one of Max Storm's most popular roles as Madame Mirage. Tem and Seshi were initially surprised because they saw Madame Mirage as more conventionally elegant, but Max's "boisterous, scenery-chewing" performance turned out to fit the character "perfectly", especially by enlivening her internal monologues.

The soundtrack was composed by acclaimed Gylian jazz group Mondo Fine.

One of Saira and Anise's suggestions for the series was to flesh out the relationship between Madame Mirage and the police. This brought additional humour through its depiction of gehenta, as the two sides trust each other enough that Zei and Sesi tactfully overlook Madame Mirage's minor violations of her supervised release conditions.

Reception

Madame Mirage was a significant success during its run as a comic, and its animated adaptation enjoyed similar critical and commercial success, becoming one of Gylias' most popular animated series. The comic earned critical acclaim for its fusion of styles — mounoir, heist film, police procedural, comedy, references to Tennaiite mythology —, distinctive writing, lavish illustrations, and social commentary.

The animated series was similarly praised for successfully bringing the comic to the screen, with the voice acting and soundtrack being highlighted by reviewers. Animonthly described the adaptation as "another excellent Dreamwave outing with the customary abundance of style, panache, and wit", and applauded the way it completely realised Madame Mirage's potential as a character.

The series was uploaded to Proton TV as it aired, and was later released as a box set that included both the series on DVD, the soundtrack, and the volumes of the comic in a single package.

Madame Mirage's impact on Gylian pop culture quickly earned recognition. Madame Mirage herself is considered one of Gylias' iconic "wicked" characters, with her backstory being praised for providing an interesting twist on the lady thief formula by having her work with law enforcement to catch greater criminals. She is enduringly popular on the Gylian internet, with an abundance of fan art and cosplay depictions.