Claymore

The Claymore manga was written by Yagi Norihiro from May of 2001 all the way until October 2014. Yes, it just finished. Roughly midway through the manga's run, in 2007, it got an anime adaptation from Madhouse. Now, I have not read a single chapter of the manga, so I'm not going to notice how faithfully they adapted the portion of the manga they adapted. The question is, does the anime manage to be interesting and coherent with what it does use?

Story:

In the world of Claymore, monsters called “Yoma” roam around the land disguising as ordinary humans and eating their guts. In order to combat ... these beings an organization with no name creates warriors that are human-Yoma hybrids, the titular Claymores. Our narrative follows a particular Claymore named Clare as she travels the land, fighting Yoma and completing missions for the organization. You quickly learn that there's a particular Yoma she's chasing after to take revenge for the death of someone she loved. Unfortunately, the one she's chasing is a particularly powerful variety called an awakened being. So, how does the series manage the premise?

Let's start with the problems. The biggest one is the ending. Now, let's be as fair as possible. There's no way they could go through the story of the entire manga, even if you only include the bits that had been released at that point. That being said, the part they do end on is kind of rushed and very much unsatisfying. A lot of the story is also pretty standard action fare. It isn't really bad, but it does nothing new either. Clare goes to a place, fights a thing, gets stronger, lather, rinse and repeat.

Now, there are some good things about the story too. The episodes that deal with Clare's back story are quite brilliant. The series also does build up a world that has a lot of potential intrigue, although it isn't nearly taken full advantage of in the anime. The series is also good about introducing major plot points well in advance of the point in the story that they become really important.

Characters:

Most of the major characters in Claymore are quite interesting. The Claymores are nicely varied and the best character moments in the series are among them. The biggest issue with them is that most of their basic back stories are all very samey, at least the ones you see. Dead family because of Yoma and then she became a Claymore. I suppose it does make sense given the sacrifices they have to make to become Claymores. Doesn't seem like the thing you'd get into if you had a loving and supportive family but it still gets a bit repetitive when the series wants you to feel sorry for a particular character because of her tragic past that happens to be virtually identical to the tragic pasts of all of these other characters. The antagonists do have some depth to them too, which is nice for an action oriented series. The secondary characters are largely under-developed, but most of them serve well enough for what they need to do.

After all that let's get to the big problem the series suffers from in terms of characters, Raki. Just imagine the most obnoxious, useless sidekick character you can think of and you've probably got a character similar to Raki. He's a young boy who gets rescued by Clare and then starts following her around while contributing nothing of value to anything. As a narrative device, he serves two purposes. The first is to give the series an excuse to explain information about the organization. Which could have been done without him if they'd been clever with their dialogue. The other purpose he serves is to give Clare an anchor to her humanity. Although I would argue that they could have easily made her a stronger character by giving her a more introspective anchor, like her memories of Teresa or her own determination, and dispensed with the twit altogether. But instead we had to have this obnoxious brat with no good dialogue or moments. I don't know what ultimately happens to him in the manga, but I hope it involves death by fire.

Art:

There are plenty of positives about the art. The action scenes are magnificent. The backgrounds are vivid and nicely detailed. They also do put effort into making the Claymores look different in spite of them all having the same outfits, hair and eye colours. There are two major problems with the art, though. The first is the way they do blood. This is one of those series where blood frequently spurts from wounds as though it's shooting out of a high pressure hose. Furthermore, the lighting in some scenes makes the Yomas' blood look like a neon purple hue. Which is practically guaranteed to drain the tension given how silly it looks when a liquid that strongly resembles grape kool-aid is spraying into the air. The second problem is the outfit that claymores wear. It's a tight, white bodysuit with a cape and the only armoured bits are around the shoulders, fingerless gloves and making up the skirt. Now, they can regenerate quite a bit of damage but it still makes no sense for them to leave quite literally all of their vitals exposed. Nor does it make sense for them to wear something that's going to ride up in the worst ways into battle.

Sound:

They did get some really good actors. Kuwashima Houko, who also showed up in last week's review as Kita Michiru, voices Clare. Paku Romi, Mizuki Nana, Orikasa Ai, Takayama Minami and Inoue Kikuko all give great performances. The one weakness is Raki's actor, Takagi Motoki. That isn't to say he's a bad actor, I really haven't heard him in enough roles to make a good judgment, but he plays a character who spends the bulk of his dialogue either crying or being vaguely perky. As such, he doesn't get the chance to demonstrate any real range. The music is pretty standard stuff, except when it comes to tragic or intense scenes. The composition work in those is really good.

Ho-yay:

There is a bit of les-yay in this series. Clare's attachment to Teresa comes across as a young girl's first crush. Jean and Clare get some subtext laden moments. Several of the other Claymores get scenes with each other that could be read as having romantic undertones as well. Particularly Helen and Deneve. That being said, the series ultimately does nothing with these relationships that's definitive, so it's ultimately left open to interpretation. So I'm going to give it a ho-yay factor of a 3/10.

Final Thoughts:

Claymore does have quite a bit that's good. A lot of the characters are well done, the premise is interesting, the acting is largely good and the action scenes are awesome. However, it also has a lot of issues. It ends at a bad point, Raki exists, there are questionable art decisions, Raki exists, it draws on quite a few cliches and Raki exists. In the end, the series is still decent enough for what it is but it's certainly not a classic or among the best. My final rating for it is a 6/10. If the premise sounds interesting or you're looking for something relatively quick with some good action, check it out, unless you don't want to deal with an annoying sidekick. Next week I'll look at another request, Welcome to the NHK.

Claymore is a good choice for you if you enjoy admiring the world building of a series and are typically into fantasy action series. It becomes a terrible choice if you hate when a show doesn't really know what direction to go towards the end and doesn't manage to do anything meaningful. In addition to this, you might hate it when the main characters of the series of the series are way blander than pretty much everyone else in terms of personality.

If we are to exclude the fact that Claymore didn't know how to wrap things up, its story was for the most part solid. ... The world was presented well, with elements introduced gradually before they were immediately relevant to the current events of the story, this creating a better understanding for future scenarios without anything really ever feeling like a plot required asspull. For example, before the main focus of the series starts, which is the fight against awakened beings, the series has an episode about how Claymores will transform into demons once they use their powers too much and they will want to end their lives before losing their human conciousness. This introduces elements that are gonna be relevant in a future arc that explains the main character's motivations and goal, but also that are gonna be relevant way past this point. When the significant events happen, you don't think they don't make sense or are built in a way just to keep the action alive, because they are introduced well in advance.

Until this isn't the case anymore.

For the most part Claymore faithfully adapts its manga and doesn't really stray from its source material. But, because it had to end and the manga still had more content to go through and create, it had no idea how to wrap things up and create an ending for the anime adaptation. So it basically adapted as much as it could, and then brought the most hyped up bitches together and made them fight. And then ended the series on a note where things were like "Our fight will go on, it's not over, we still have to do shit". Which is a cliffhanger. The final fight was very unsatisfying, featuring a lot of flashbacks to "make us understand the characters perspective" and not at all to fill for time. I mean we already should've known this information but we probably forgot the information because we're really really really stupid. And there's a lot of random powerups in the fight with senseless slashing and power level display, totally not done because "we don't know how to write this fight", but rather because people truly enjoy when characters just think about their lives and nonsensically are more powerful. When people see something done 1000 times done already the same way, they demand it 1001 times more, The final fight is pretty much a "the plot demands this" fight. It's exactly how it feels. It's exactly how it's written. it's exactly what it is.

This hurts Claymore a lot, because of the fact that it introduces elements way in advance that withhold relevance, only to end on a note that seems poorly pieced together, completely destroying I'd say what it was its strongest suit. The planning ahead the initial series did for itself to allow itself the moments it wanted, wasn't at all a factor here. Instead of that, it focuses on the weakest theme of the series, the thirst for revenge. I won't detail it, as to not give the nature of the ending away, outside of it being basically a cliffhanger, but it is something done rather frequently, done very hastily and poorly pieced together, and that for me was very unsatisfying because it brought nothing new, nor was it executed well.

The characters in Claymore made me contradict myself because while I think that they're well done, I also think that they're poorly done. Let me explain myself. The overall design of the Claymores, and the color palette of the series, (or rather the lack of a color palette) make the Claymores really hard to distinguish by character design, with them pretty much differing only in hairstyle. The fact that they're so similar is a downgrade because this makes it really easy to swap in your head their names, faces and personalities, which are differentiating traits. Keep some characters away from the story for too long, and you'll definitely get lost in the details. The point of the design being hard to differentiate is making the Claymores look expendable, because that's how their world treats them, and also recognizable from any other bystander. But a little more customization in the design, like at the very least let them keep their hair color and just make them distinguishable just by their eyes being silver and their suits, could've made them easier to distinguish from each other.

Another thing that is bad is that all the Claymores have THE SAME BACKSTORY. It is not an exaggeration, everyone's family got eaten by demons, then they became Claymores to avenge them by killing them. I mean I can understand this being the case for the majority of the Claymores, but can't be there at least one Claymore that picked up the job for any other reason? I can understand the reason always having to be selfless, because if Claymores are tempted by power, the more likely they are to become demons themselves, but maybe some girl just wants to join because they want to make the world a better place by removing the demon threat due to strong moral values or any other reason.

These were the reasons for which I think they're poorly done. The world requires for their design to be basically the same and the world's rules requires their background to be basically the same. But in a way that makes them well done because they're serving the purpose of the world fully. None of them (for the most part) seem like fantastic out of the ordinary circumstances with any special gift to them, because none of them are, and none of them should be. Some of them happen to be way more powerful than other Claymores, but that's it. That is not an irregularity in the world of the Claymores. On one hand I admire the fact that the series built a world and its characters to be as fitting as possible to their setting, but one hand I see the flaws it creates, making every character forgettable due to how similar to each other they are.

Which is dissapointing because the two main characters, Clare, who is a girl who's on a revenge quest against Yoma, just like everyone else, and that's her personality. And Raki, the annoying sidekick who's there to humanize Clare and cry because hey Claymores aren't that bad y'all racist. Clare is the brooding silent type who has nothing on her mind than revenge, which is a boring and predictable character type. Raki is a kid who just lost his family and just follows Clare around because he has nobody left, with his role pretty much being to fuck up Clare's battles and yell CREHRH from time to time. None of these characters are interesting. The most interesting arc of the series, is, ironic to everything I said, the backstory arc of Clare, where a different Claymore is the focus of the story. Who is a much more interesting protagonist than Clare and makes Clare that much worse, because not only does that backstory have the exact same purpose that the main characters have in the overarching story, but it's done that much better and with a character that is irregular to the world of Claymore.

And as a result of such after that background story, the story doesn't really bring anything new, and pretty much develops the world for the action bits. The action of the series is mostly women slashing gigantic monsters displaying their powers and how they differentiate from one another. The way they differentiate themselves is interesting and how certain demons need a certain type of strategy to be combated is also interesting, but for the fights can seem dull since there isn't intrigue sometimes, since it's mostly the characters constantly using the powers they've established and slashing the shit out of an enemy until they die. You usually know how things are going to play out in terms of choreography, the more interesting part is how the characters decide to get there, and how they make use of the powers that differentiate them from the other Claymores in these situations.

I think the action could've been enhanced visually if the series had brighter colors. I made a joke earlier in the review that the series lacks a color palette, because, it barely uses any warm colors, and mostly uses monotone cold colors, even on backgrounds that are colorful. Everyone is dressed in some very monotone looking pieces of cloth, Claymores are dressed in almost full grey-ish clothes and the monsters are mostly designed with dark colors. There isn't really any inbalance in the colors to catch your attention visually when something significant happens and everything always looks regular due to the show's overall tone. In terms of visual details, the series does not lack those, everything is well detailed, and the characters are drawn realistically which is a definite plus, but you need some way to draw attention to the spectacle of the series, the action, and look for a way to not make everything seem as monotone every single time. The soundtrack of the series didn't really help the tone for me, I didn't find it noteworthy and I mostly got annoyed of hearing the same song whenever a battle is about to commence.

Ultimately, I think Claymore had an excellent world with only one arc that actually tells an interesting story, both things I enjoyed a great deal. But it has a lot of shortcomings, with plenty of unfullfilling fights, some dull main characters and a story that doesn't know how to draw any sort of conclusion. It felt like a dragged out story of an arc that at heart had the same goal as the overarching story, backstory which already fullfilled the role of the main story. I think there are some things in Claymore that are genuinely worth seeing and on which it can be recommended on and be easily enjoyed, but also plenty of shortcomings that definitely ruins the potential it has built. If the premise of Claymore genuinely interests you, you could watch it, but please consider the problems I've had with the series and if they have the potential to ruin the series for you too.

This is Dragonball. With an all female cast and the added benefit of not having to watch someone power up and grunt for 3-4 episodes before unleasing teh ultimate attak.

In an alternate reality bleak medieval world, humans are considered food by monsters creatively called Youma... :| Since this is a non-adult show Youma just masquerade as and devour humans, foregoing the rape. In a move of brilliance, a secret dark society of Men in Black decided that the best way to combat Youma is to cross-breed them with human warriors, creatively called Claymores for the weapons they wielded.

Their first attempt was to use men, but ... the power rush--akin to an orgasm--made all of them seek their Youma power and transform into insanely powerful "Awakened" beings and actually made the problem worse since the awakened warriors were infinitely more powerful than the Youma.

The sheer stupidity of pursuing the Claymore program is never commented on in the anime, since clearly the Awakened ones are more of a menace than the Youma, as they wage war and organize, while the Youma are content to munch on a leg or two here.

So now all Claymores are women. Silver haired, silver eyed women who all look alike. The protagonist of the story, Claire, is a weaksauce Claymore (being 1/4 Youma due to a important plot development) wandering the wastes. After we get around to her origin story, involving a Claymore, Teresa, who took her in as a teen in a totally non sexual way, Claire then finds herself a boy, Raki, and in a totally non-sexual way lets him accompany her in her exploits.

When she's being totally sisterly and non-sexual with Raki, Claire meets other Claymores who become her friends, cloned characters consisting of waify skinny chicks who all look and act alike. They all have tragic backstories of Youma and why they became Claymores--which sort of becomes comical once it's told over and over again and it becomes more of a guessing game of WHO in their family was eaten.

Together they fight Youma, Claymores, and the Awakened ones. And that's really the show. It's like Dragonball or Bleach. Powering up and a seemingly weak protagonist suddenly becoming all-powerful, and the usual escalation to more and more powerful opponents untl it becomes absurd--which is what the ending was.

I honestly turned my media player off and said: "Are you shitting me?"

Yes, it's that silly. And it takes itself seriously, that's the saddest part.

I found this anime to be among the most disappointed ones. It started very good, and followed the manga, which is very good, too. Then... it went horribly wrong.
Story: As I mentioned, the story started very good. It was simple yet have some depth in it; love, hatred, revenge ... it had all. And slaying demons are never boring, in a good show. But all the potential in the world does not guarantee anything; from episode 20, the series branched off from the manga, and had one of the most disappointed ending ever. It made people feel incomplete. What is going to happen to them, ... who were the leader of the Claymores ...? The manga is still far from end, and making an anime based on a good yet to end was a bad idea. And the result? A disappointed storyline.
Art, and sound: not much to complain, they are good. Sweet animation; perfectly fit in the classic shonen hack n' slash action. It was just good. The music, awesome. 9 for both Art and Sound.
Characters: amazing and unique characters. All the Claymores were unique; and I loved that. The only thing that held the character point from getting any higher was Raki. He was supposed to be a key main character, but he turned out to be a weak boy who always got into the middle of the battle and Claire had to get him out. And for a long time, he had nothing to do with everything happening in the show. Didin't he supposed to be cool and important? So lame!
Enjoyment: I enjoyed this series from the beginning till' it was 10 minutes before the final episode ended. As I mentioned, the ending left me an overwhelming disappointment. What's the point of such ending? I had the felling that the show had just started, even it was the last episode. Then I decided to burned this anime to DVD and locked it up forever, unless they made a sequel. Rewatch value: 0. Enjoyment before you hit the final: 10/10. Disappointment after you hit the stop button: 100/10. So, 5/10.
Overall: Claymore was supposed to be an extrememly good anime. But the story made a horrible turn at episode 20 and hit disaster at the last episode. I want a sequel or a remake! If it is a remeke, let just forget episode 20 and onward, and make it the way the manga is. 6/10

Scoring Preconditions: While I rate all parts, the overall score takes in most consideration from story, character, and enjoyment. Art and sound are not factors in the overall, although they can slightly enhance or detract from enjoyment portion. I score from as unbiased a view as possible and I view it in a critical sense, not in a simple enjoyment sense. Thus I give at most a one point overall bonus for enjoyment. Story and characters matter most. I will state exceptions to this rule depending on the anime.

Summary: Without going into to much detail, this anime had a lot of potential but wasted a ... lot of time. It's definitely more than your average run of the mill anime and the idea is unique. But it hit a brick wall. I discuss this more in the story.

Story (6/10): Now before I say anything else, I'm going to say that on the basic idea alone the story would have been worth a 9 or higher. The only reason this show fell to a 6 here is because the ending left a gaping plot hole. Of course this ending may resonate with those who enjoy a cliffhanger ending - although it wasn't so much a cliffhanger as they just ran out of ideas. Besides the ending, the story arcs were well done. The introduction of Claire and Raki is nothing special but the decision for the next arc to be a flashback was pretty good. And of course flash forward to the present. It isn't clever but it is well executed, of course besides the ending. The original idea is both unique and interesting. The half demon idea of course isn't unique, but a lot of the elements of this plot are. The Yoma Claymore struggle is good to watch. The dark mood really resonates well with the story and creates a nice path to the final battle with Priscilla. It is a good story and well worth watching until they hit the wall.

Art (5/10): Frankly the art wasn't all that appealing to me. I think the blade and Yoma art appeal well, but the human characteristics were kinda hard to swallow. Of course this was my personal opinion and this changes by viewer. But I found a lot of people who share my viewpoint on this.

Sound (10/10): Raison d'Etre was probably the most perfect fit an opening could have for an anime like this. Nightmare's lead has that really strange and creepy voice that matches the mood so well. This is another in my playlist. Other background noises were acceptable. The opening really is the reason for the 10.

Characters (6/10): On their own, the characters aren't much to look at. We have the weakest (and later strongest) claymore and a weak little human boy who really doesn't do much except maintain Claire's humanity. But, what is really great is that we see growth in Claire. Power is one thing, but through the flashback arc we get to see the transition and explanation of how she became a claymore. It was interesting to see how Claire changed throughout the plot. Raki...I'm not sure how to classify other than wimp. While the parallel with young human Claire is clearly visible, Raki is pretty useless and he stays that way throughout the plot. "Oh but he keeps her humanity. That's so brave." Ummm yeah thats great but this is a battle between badass claymores and Yoma. What can Raki do when he can't even use a sword properly. I think he is a necessary character for the plot, but that doesn't make him an enjoyable one. Other characters are support. Necessary but non-unique.

Enjoyment (7/10): I'm not sure how I should classify my enjoyment. I thoroughly enjoyed everything but my happy meter just dropped like a rock after I hit the brick wall ending. I wouldn't have a problem if there were a second season, but seeing as there is none to explain what happens next, I have to downgrade my enjoyment here. But the battles were enjoyable to watch. It's not as if the battles were unique in any way but watching Claire continue using her yoma powers to the limit was pretty badass. Also the Yoma artwork gets mention here.

Overall (6/10): I think that for many people this rating might seem slightly harsh, but I'm averse to giving this anime more than a 6. The story blew up at the ending and while Claire was valuable, Raki was a pain. Seeing as even my enjoyment here fell from the ending, I have one major complaint about this anime that would have entirely changed my score had it been fixed: GET SOME FRICKIN CLOSURE ON THE PLOT!!!

Don't let the creepy designs and macabre setup fool you, despite its appearance Claymore is a shonen anime at its core, which means lots of weird powers and grand-scale fight scenes, speeches about honor and friendship, a conga line of weird villains, and a whole lot of swinging swords and screaming. I know that the word "shonen" makes some anime fans cringe on sight, but it is not automatically a bad thing. There are many shone titles that have stood out positively over the years, whether through captivating heroes and villains (Rurouni Kenshin, Yu Yu Hakusho), a polished and distinctive style (Soul Eater) or some ... surprisingly mature themes thrown into the mix (Fullmetal Alchemist). While Claymore doesn't really excel in any of these categories, it is at least competent and often above-average in many of them, placing it a red and purple bloodstained cut above most shows of its ilk.

The name Madhouse usually promises at least above-average production values, and this is no exception. The backgrounds are expansive and nicely detailed, and Yagi's unusual, distinctive character designs are generally well-maintained throughout the many fighting scenes, not to mention some of the monster designs are just plain wicked. The action itself is half-and half. On one hand, this was definitely adapted from a manga, and during some of the less inspired battles you can practically see the seams from the panels being stitched together: speed lines, quick motions that look more like teleporting, all the shortcuts normally associated with shonen fighter series are here. Thankfully, the strong animation budget softens the blow considerably, with a fairly consistent level of detail, and when it's time to show off during a pivotal battle, the choreography and design work can get really impressive. In a nutshell, this show looks a lot like Naruto and Bleach, only a little more grizzled and much better.

Claymore boasts a rich and diverse music score that mixes folksy strings and winds with modern electric noise, but unfortunately it doesn't seem to have any idea what to do with it. The music direction is so incredibly hit-and-miss that I honestly have to wonder what the show's creators were thinking for some of the choices they made. It will start too late and overstay its welcome, rarely playing loudly enough to make a noticeable impression and often completely failing to match the beat of whatever is happening on-screen. The end result is consistently either forgettable or distracting and only occasionally manages to hit the right beat. I half-suspect that they just went to a composer, asked for an appropriate soundtrack, and then put it on shuffle over the show and called it a day; if someone told me that was the case, I might actually believe it because some of the pieces would have been perfect if they weren't playing over the wrong scene. I should clarify, it's not that bad all the time, and sometimes it actually works really well, but it only takes a few slip-ups to sour the experience and there are more than enough to make this shortcoming noticeable.

Voice-wise, this series is a bit atypical for shonen in that it lends itself to low, threatening intonations instead of the overwrought screaming you usually hear. The Japanese track is a lot of fun to listen to in this regard from start to finish. By contrast, the English dub starts off a little on the dull side, but after awhile the voice actors really grow into their roles so that by the end, both tracks are solid listens. I do have one bone to pick with the dub, and that is Todd Haberkorn's portrayal of Raki. Haberkorn is a very good actor, don't get me wrong, but his voice is a little too snide and snarky to play innocence convincingly, resulting in Raki sounding overly whiny at all the wrong moments, whereas Motoki Takagi was able to carry the character more naturally. On the plus side, Brina Palencia turns out a fantastic performance as Priscilla, able to capture all her childlike purity and twist it into something hideous. Priscilla is a more interesting character than Raki, so I'll take it.

Setting aside its shonen trappings for a moment, Claymore is not an entirely brainless story. This series is at its very best when it is portraying the most basic, carnal side of humanity: fear of the unknown. Humans don't know or understand the Claymores that protect them any better than the Yoma that hunt them, and they're understandably afraid to get close enough to find out. The Claymores do nothing to discourage this attitude toward them, they're cold and often intimidating toward their charges, and as we find out more about them it becomes clearer and clearer that even if they tried to be accepted among humans, what they are would make that more or less impossible. Priscilla's origin story (which also covers Clare's backstory) is a definite high point of the show, clearly showing just how dangerous being "too human" can be when you're constantly battling monsters both within and without. Unfortunately, said flashback takes place from episodes five to nine out of twenty-six, and it's generally not a good sign when a series reaches its high point so early on.

Not that the rest of the show is in complete nowhere land, there are still some good bits here and there, but after unloading its guns far too early the show has to keep its audience entertained almost purely on action sequences, so it's a good thing the action is still fun to watch. This is how a shonen action title needs to be done: lots of cool heroes and scary villains with weird and memorable powers, a simple (rather stupid) plot, maybe a little conspiracy thrown in somewhere, and none of that waxing philosophical nonsense. Most of the characters can be boiled down to "how they fight" and "why they fight", but who cares as long as they're still entertaining? It's a little darker and bloodier than its classmates from the school of Jump, which lends it a distinct flavor and a bit more of an edge. The darker and more twisted this show gets, the more wicked the villains and the more intense the battles, the better. Seriously, forget the heroes, forget the ordinary rank-and-file Yoma, the major villains like Ophelia, Riful and of course Priscilla are the real reason to watch this show. That, and all the creative ways the show finds to cut its characters to tiny bits.

The low point of the show is undoubtedly Raki, and not just because of the voice acting. Make no mistake, he could have been a very important character to help Clare rediscover what it means to be human and given her the companionship she needed to let her past go, but for the most part his role borders on that of her pet (she even gets called out on this at one point). As the first human to ever view her as a person rather than a monster I get why he's so important to her, but throughout the series he constantly needs to be protected by Clare while offering very little in return. He tries to learn how to fight, but he's only human and never really gets a chance to be useful, and as far as good company goes his relationship with her is underdeveloped. If they spent more time talking to one another and had more of a natural chemistry things might be different, but most of their conversations are just generic fare along the lines of: "I'll definitely protect you, you're really important to me, blah, blah, blah", which is a shame. He's a tag-along character done wrong.

Even so, the show remains consistently entertaining from start to... well, not quite to finish. Continuing to rub salt on the wounds, Claymore ends with a "read the manga" conclusion, and a pretty poor one at that. The final arc of the TV series concludes a little too easily while ignoring all the hanging plot threads you could've sworn were leading to something much bigger and signing off with a hokey declaration that "the adventure continues" (okay, they don't actually say that). The possibility of a second season covering subsequent events is looking a little slimmer with every passing year, so you'll have to read the manga if you want answers.

For what it is, Claymore offers a slightly atypical, fairly engaging take on the tired Shonen Jump formula. It doesn't really live up to its potential of being a dark and mature fantasy, but it's still fun to watch and as far as shonen goes that's really all that matters. It doesn't have much to offer anyone aside from the usual action fans, but if you want to see badass ladies fighting monsters with swords, give this the time of day and see if it sates your craving.

Story:5
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It's a typical Shonen Storyline
Though somehow enemies would block sword strikes with their arms which seem to be made of steel and then the next moment have those arms cut off by another sword strike

Art: 4
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The art overall is very dull, most of the girl's look way too similar making it almost impossible to distinguish who is who at times
The majority of the cities and landscape was very dull as well
Any special abilities the Claymore's had were boring from an aesthetic standpoint
...
Sound: 7
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Nothing to complain about here, the sound was average

Character: 5
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Just a ton of one dimensional characters, specifically the enemies.
Arguably my most hated character was "Priscilla", a really annoying girl who somehow blames one Claymore who "betrayed" the organization for killing her family members.
Also everyones power-level seemed very inconsistent, strong one moment and weak the next.
I disliked how the show tried to make me care about all the Claymore's getting slaughtered, like really? I just found out who they were two episodes ago and I really don't care for them anyway.

Enjoyment: 7
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I enjoyed the first half of the show but enemies became very repetitive and the more Claymore's introduce the less I cared about the show

Overall: 6
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This show is just a bunch of women being displayed as strong and then getting ripped apart by some demonic creatures and Raki is an annoying pointless cry baby.
If your into below average Shonen anime watch it.

Claymore freatures some of the laziest character drawings ever in shows! I think this show might be sexist because they all look like butch lesbians who can activate their special period power. Its just not that good of a show and in all true you should really just watch Bleach because it has way better looking characters and story. Let me tell you something about this sickening show.

The Story is mostly just a bunch of monsters eating people and some people who are half monster who fight them. They try to make girls empowerment statement but it fails since the male monster is better. I ... was shocked but that is all.

The Art is absolutely bad like I said all characters look the same but action sequences are good. The monsters are really scary but most of the time it's just blood and angry girls which is kind is funny.

Sound is bad because they have the same music for everything and is very repeating. The sound effects are too.

The Characters are cool looking but they look the same. Nothing really happens to most of them and they dont do stuff much. Most just fight and do nothing.

The overall is that you should just watch bleach and not give in to this femenisim.

Claymore is an anime, much like Berserk, is about a swordsman trying to find purpose, and unlike Guts, Claire is simply not as great, but she plays her part well.

The story is about basically Claymores, who are half-human and half-kyoma, or demon, and they fight to destroy these demons, so that the humans can live in peace. Claire encounters this boy named Rocky, who is saved by Claire basically twice within the first episode, and after that, he clings to her non-stop... This is the story, not the characters. I will get to them in a second. The story basically was a mix of just ... Claire being a badass/having the best luck out of the entirety of the Claymores and defeats opponents at near impossible odds. I can't really tell myself.

The Art was pretty good, but it just looked rather wonky, especially with how the Claymores were drawn. Everything else looked great, the blood and gore, the humans, the demons, and even Rocky looked good, but the Claymores just looked so weird, it just didn't sit right with me.

The music and sound were pretty good, except the soundtrack wasn't that great. Some of the sounds made were well done, but many of the songs used were appropriately inappropriate. Basically, they tingled my spine in the wrong way and they didn't sit right with me.

Thankfully, now I can talk about the characters. My word, the only decent character was Claire. All the other Claymores and Rocky were just simply horrible. Rocky was simply annoying as hell, and the other Claymores were just playing their part, but that was about it. Need I say more? If I did, then I could give you a long list of mostly Rocky being one of the worst characters I have seen in anime. Even the kid Characters in Berserk could hold their own and not be annoying. Rocky was one of those characters that was only useful to Claire at times, but that was about it.

Overall, Claymore was an enjoyable anime, but it fell WAY short on characters, and everything else was good overall. (6/10)

Ahhhh, CLAYMORE, where should I start witcha.

I really really enjoyed claymore, and I really really wanna give claymore a 10, but the ending the damn ending ruined the whole anime for me.

A brief synopsis. So in world of claymore, u have these fine hybrid ladies who fights demon (youma as they called in the anime), and our main characters Clare is one of em, but with a slightly different backstory. As she travels around getting missions from the organization, she winded up with an attachment (a burden, big one)— RAKI. We later learn Clare unlike other Claymore, actually has a purpose as why she is ... a Claymore, is to kill the awakened being (a OP Youma) who killed a mother like figure to Clare. There u have it, sounds just like another revenge type shounen adventure fantasy anime, and it def is that, and only just that.

Right off the bat, the biggest problem of the show is RAKI. I hope MAL could have a list for annoying characters, unlike ur fav characters, this list we need unlimited slot for, and RAKI would be the first one on my list. RAKI, has to be the most useless, obnoxious sidekick I've ever seen. Most of his screen time is just to hug Clare so she won’t awaken, which is okay at first, but at last battle, here it goes. Clare is at half 90% awaken mode fighting her biggest antagonist. As she right about to kill slash the antagonist freaking head off, RAKI came outta nowhere hugs Clare again, then gives one of those dumbass if u do this u cant go back speech. And of freakin course she stops, and turns back to human, then the antagonist runs off. At the moment i was watching this scene, I almost throw the controller right at my tv screen. How many more times i have to see these type of scene in anime. And this one gotta be the worse kind, it’s like u having sex, ur bf is doing his best to please u, it was all fine, til the moment bout to climax, he stops, pulls out, calls it the day, leaves u laying on bed helpless wanting a climax, but u will never get there, unless u do it urself. Imagine how that would feel like, and thats exactly how i felt after watching the last ep of claymore. If u sets the whole story up just for Clare to take her revenge on Priscilla, make her kill her off or defeated, don’t leave a half ass ending, where a third party comes in stops the ending. Then why the FUCK i watched those 25 ep for.

Character in the show is fine, except RAKI like i said before. Most of the character are unique has her unique attacks, has their “unique” backstory which sounds the same, it goes like: ahhh i have a family member got killed by youma, so i became a claremore to hunts em down. But one of the thing that show creator impressed me was, even tho all the claymore has silver eye, blonde hair, and emotionless, they still manage to make em look different.

Music score is fine, voice acting is on point, ,story is mediocre but keeps u engaged, animation is abit wonky, but it was made in 2007, what can u ask for.

Overall, its a fun watch til last ep, where completely ruined the show for me. So if u enjoy unsatisfying sex, this would be ur anime!!!

Okay Lion Tamers, it's time to begin again, with a new review; of Claymore.

I saw an advertisement for this anime, and became intrigued. Finding it streaming, I caught a few episodes; and finally downloaded all of them for viewing the entire series.

Firstly, I want to talk about some of the characters.
1). Raki is a pain in the behind, with little plot value, and adds nothing to the story. A total wimp, who faces everything like a participant in a Beauty Contest "... I want World Peace ...". He will never understand that his world's game of life is rigged, and that Clare cannot escape from ... the rules of the game, if she never tries to alter the views of the game-masters.

2). Clare is passable as a character, but is far too dependant on her past, to face the future.

3). Muria is totally focussed on the future (and rightly so), but is never expanded upon in the story line properly.

Next I want to talk about the music.
While some of the between scene music is passable, much of it is inappropriate or just plain lousy. The opening and closing music is downright terrible; so poor is it that I often found myself almost quiting the series.

And for the final critique (and here's where I'm completely innovative), the entire series anime and manga are a spectacularly better looking version of "DragonBall Z". Comments like "... I Need More Power ..." and "... I'm Going To Kill You ..." are everywhere, and are a dead-ringer for plot points for DragonBall-Z et al.

Now for the review commentary.
The worst part of this show, should have been the basic direction of the story. The "Organization" (for those who have seen this show) should have been the main focus. They're crooks, manipulative, and outright corrupt. If I had to make a judgement, I'd have to say that the entire story wrongly misses that the Organization formed the Yoma (evil monsters) so that they could also produce the solution Claymores (the saviors) in order to financially (and politically) fleece the general public. If that is true, and I think it is, then the authors of the Manga and the anime, have created a felonious assault on the viewer's belief system; because they have left all of us, with nothing but never-ending combat; while promising something more, grander and better. Never to be delivered.

This story will never get any better. While Claymore is dark, moody, and atmospheric (which I like); it might as well have been written in the the comic style of a TV sitcom for all its story line strength.

I really don't like writing negative reviews, but it is necessary in this case. Claymore is a huge disappointment. I give it a five (5); only because the artwork and character development is fairly good. The story is never going to fulfill its promise.

I'll keep it short. This series succeeds in being watchable without pushing the boundaries.

Up until 4th episode it seems redundant. With the introduction of Teresa a story base is established and it moves forward with quick slashes. Best thing about Claymore is tightness of the flow. There is no room to catch your breath, every 2 ep.s apart it tunes up a notch till the end. Without the intention to do so, I became addicted and drained it in 3 days.

Each Claymore basically looks the same except the haircut, as the numbers multiplied I had a hard time differentiating between the characters. Same cocky attitude, ... different techniques, similar motivations.

It's generic fantasy world and ending wrap up makes it forgettable for me. In order to enjoy the thrill ride I tried not to read too much into it.

- SPOILER -
The explanation about all the Claymore's being female presents an interesting subtext. Triggering of Yoma powers feeds on sexual pleasure, and every male experiment ended up -awakening-. Once men get excited to the limit, it results in a premature ejaculation. Makes sense to me :).

Going into Claymore, my anime loving friends had all warned me that it would be a tearjerker. "The ending!" They cried with a fiery passion, "O, the ending! It hath plucked at mine heartstrings, it hath sliced at my heart with an oversized sword."
Taking their advice into consideration, I sat down, got my box of tissues ready, and plunged into the final episode. And as the ending music played, I found myself staring at the screen, stunned at how non-emotional it was. As I recall, I even scoffed a few times and smiled a little.

Story: One of the things that pisses me off about the ... story is Clare's rank. Clare is the main character, can be insanely strong sometimes, and is the LOWEST RANKED CLAYMORE. It's explained in the story that Clare's powers are inconsistant, so her rank is low, but most of the time she's really strong, especially towards the end. I could understand if she was in the 20's or 30's, but the lowest rank? It makes no sense. Moving on, the story centers on Clare being followed around by Raki, who I'll get to later. Raki is someone who is obviously just a device to insert more variety (because there are only so many ways one can draw a tall blonde girl) and a way to introduce Clare into the story. There are demons in the story, but they're boring and don't really add that much except conflict.
Towards the end I stopped caring about the story entirely and finished it for the sake of finishing it.

Art: At it's best, it was mediocre. At it's worst, it was downright hideous. The battles, which are supposed to be a main point of the series, consist of a shot of a sword moving, then a black screen with lots of diagonal cuts forming, the demon looking confused and frozen for a few seconds, and finally the demon spurting blood from wounds that seem to have a delayed reaction timer in them. When the artists try to draw Clare or anyone in a very beautiful way, it just causes me to hide behind my chair in fear. The facial proportions were terrible, the character designs okay (I give them props for being able to draw one sort of character 47 different ways), the clothing designs very good, and the youma okay.

Sound: It wasn't that memorable. It gets a five. It wasn't offensive to my ears, and it wasn't great.

Characters: Oh boy.
Raki is a useless little boy who has the personality of dead grass. He's on the sidelines, he thinks he can help, but oh wait, he can't, he's grass, and in the end simply gets stepped on by everyone.
Another character in particular annoys the hell out of me. Jeane, a Claymore who comes in later and I can't say much about her for fear of spoilers, is someone who is dedicated to returning a favor Clare did for her. And she does return the favor. Multiple times. Clare even says that it's not necessary for her to go to such lengths for her. Jeane then decides to follow Clare around. I only see "stalker" when I look at Jeane. Not "reliable friend".
As for the other characters, they were alright. Nothing to write home about.

Enjoyment: Ehhhh. Whatever enjoyment I got out of the first few episodes were vanquished in the last few.

Overall: What else is there to say?

Watch it if you enjoy long, drawn out fights, blonde women, and annoying protagonists.
Now, I have to go return the tissues I bought.

Yare, yare... at the beginning of the story, I was rather excited. Girls fighting monsters, girls fighting evil and stuff (sounds like Blood+). The portrayal of the character is rather mediocre but the earlier plot drove me to the anime.

At the beginning of the plot we are introduced to the protagonist of the story, Clare (Kurea). Then she met a boy named Raki. The relationship is rather ambiguous. Sometimes Clare treats him like a lil brother and onced she kisses him like a lover would do.

The fighting scene is quite remarkable and the portrayel of the antagonists, a group of monster called Youma, is very ... grousome. However, in my humble opinion, the characters are way too many considering there are only 26 episodes. So, the development of the main character is not well-presented .

For many years Claymore was promoted as the second Berserk, because it was dark fantasy and we didn’t have much of that back when it was made. The similarities are surface level at best, since down to it Claymore is like Berserk, but with more boobs and less plot. It hardly does much with its potential and it’s average at best.

The art was very good as far as aesthetics go. High on detail with lots of filters and dark palette colors to transmit the feeling of a grim world overrun with dread and death. That aside, character designs were unappealing, with weird faces and very ... similar body types. I had a hard time telling apart the Claymores since they all looked and acted the same. Also common Yoma were drawn too simplistic and human-like and were closer to painted bandits with fangs, which was hardly making them scary.

The fight scenes were mostly about the gore than the action choreography, so it wasn’t exciting even back when it was made. Now it’s just plain and boring to look at. It’s extra insulting when you know it was animated by Madhouse, which back then was the king of anime studios. You would at least expect more fluent fighting scenes or creepier monster voices, but nah, despite the popularity of the manga it was based on, they did a rushjob. Most battles didn’t last much and ended in a dull way. There was very little actual animation to the fights as most slashes were nothing but frozen pictures with a silver line that was substituting motion. This was usually followed by excessive amounts of blood, which as cool as they may have been if you were not accustomed to the glorious goreporns of the 80s, they were not rewarding you for the boring build up and the disappointing finishing move.

Claymore’s strong point was not its story, which was simple, linear, and just like it happened with the first Full Metal Alchemist, not even a faithful adaptation, since it followed a small part of the manga and then changed the ending it in a way that made a continuation impossible. The premise is about fighting fire with fire and thus the monsters that plague humanity in this series are to be dealt by humans possessing monster abilities. It could have been an exploration around that and how you can keep your humanity despite having to act like a monster, but you hardly get much of that. This is no Parasyte or Devilman Crybaby, or even Tokyo Ghoul. The plot can also be easily divided into short arcs with their own set of monsters, which don’t explore the theme or the setting, as much as they offer some fairly basic characterization.

The characters are the selling point, since the monster hunters are a bunch of emotionless super waifus whose worst enemy ends up being their own selves, as they slowly turn to Yoma. We mostly see that through Claire, the main heroine, who moves from a heatless killing machine to a… heatless killing machine than has a will of her own and doesn’t go around killing stuff just because she was ordered to do it. And this is done through her interactions with Raki, an obnoxious idiot who is supposed to be a pacifist and what keeps Claire connected with her humanity, but comes off as a spineless idiot who is nagging, making unrealistic remarks, standing in the way, and generally causing more trouble than helps out. Nobody likes Raki; he’s a party pooper. As for the adversaries, the Yoma, they can hardly be called characters, since to the most part they are just mooks that exist to be killed as generic mini bosses. You will never get something to care about them, much less find out where they come from. They don’t even feel like monsters most of the time, since they come off as cosplaying cannibals with motivations that don’t go beyond ‘kill humans’.

I also didn’t like the dialogues, as they are very shonen for the subject matter they are dealing with. They infodump a lot, even during a fight, when they have no reason to say all that shit. All the Claymores want, is to kill Yoma, and by talking needlessly about what they plan to do, they give them a lot of information which can be used against them. And the Yoma talk like hillbillies without some voice alteration for making them sound like the scary monsters they are supposed to be. Also, Raki’s moral speeches are unbearable, as he keeps saying the most out of place things all the time. He is not the voice of reason or the good angel sitting on the right side of the brutal Claymores. He’s completely detached from the reality of the world he is living in, and thus quickly becomes a major mood-killer.

So, is there any value in this anime? Aside from nostalgia possibly, no there isn’t. You can easily find shows that do everything better, and don’t have Raki in them. The popularity of the anime was based on a lot of people who were easily impressed by violence and amoral characters, something which is nothing special and keeps repeating to this day every time an edgy anime comes out.

This review was hard for me to post. I would approximate Episodes 1-20 as a solid 8/10, but Episodes 21-26 are a 2/10. What happened to Claymore is that the animation caught up with the manga, so the studio just started making things up in order to bring it to an end. All of the great things that came in the first 3/4 of the show were thrown out the window. As much as I loved it, I can't recommend a show saying you must stop a majority of the way in and then go read the manga instead. The manga also ended up rather ... cliched and didn’t have the same feeling as the show.

- Story. The show is set in a grim and imaginative fantasy world. I have been watching anime for over two decades, and I have yet to come across something similar to this show. I was fascinated by the world building and eager to see the culmination of its mysterious plot. Only women are turned into "Claymore", or half-demon beings whose sole purpose is to slay said demonic beings that attack and eat people. Like demons, Claymores possess superhuman abilities such as speed, strength, and regenerating wounds -- but it comes at a price. Claymores are also ranked by strength.

The end of the plot, however, devolves into a power creep DBZ match that answers no questions.

- Characters. You can usually count the number of non-whiny and genuinely developed female characters in an anime show on one hand, and that number is usually zero. On the other hand, Claymore's entire cast rocks. Furthermore, the show depicts good development in the relationships between the Claymores themselves as well as between Clare and Raiki.

Towards the end of the show, these carefully crafted personalities and motivations disappear as Clare pursues stereotypical shounen level fight showdowns.

- Art. I do not normally watch shows if I do not like the art. Claymore was an exception. Although I find the art ugly, it fits the dark atmosphere of the anime.

- Animation. It wasn't the best, but it was okay for its time.

- Music. It had a decent rock and orchestral based soundtrack to enhance the scenes.

- Sound design. Meets the bare minimum for sound effects.

- Writing. Before the show fell apart, the tone was generally dark and serious, with a few interjections of humor and hope.

- Emotional impact. I felt disappointed. Also thanks to this show, I can never hear "motto, motto" ("more, more") in other anime's without having a flashback to caveman logic Clare and laughing my butt off.

It started at a 7 and had the potential to go like an 8 if something really really cool happened. It was already just cool with the action and cool sword fighting that was going on. In addition to crazy random creature abilities and fighting abilities and stuff. So that part of the show was definitely cool, I enjoyed it.

There were many things to be answered, and many interesting points to be looked at. But none of them were really addressed, all the questions you might have are like, well nope. There were also things that just weren't necessary and/or relevant to the plot they ... developed. For instance, it is clear within 10 episodes who Final Boss is. However, episodes after it they introduce Final Boss 2, Final Boss 3 and implicitly Final Boss 3,4, and 5. Why they do this? I don't know, it definitely did not need to happen. Was meaningless to the storyline, and gave rise to more questions.

They honestly had a streamlined, clear, concise road ahead of them which was not complicated at all. They however, did not take it. This reaaaaaaallly looks like the kind of thing that has continuing story in the manga, whereas that's it for the anime. There's so many questions and loose ends, I know there has to be more; it really feels like I'm only half way through the story.

The ending song for the anime is awesome. What can I say, I love the ending. It's by awesome cute former bemani group BeForU member, Riyu Kosaka. Who makes awesome group (and individually) makes awesome DDR/Beatmania songs.

Ending was lame I think.

It ends up getting a 5, and I'll tell you why. Simply because of the cool action, sword fighting scenes, and the awesome ending song for the show. The ending song actually prevented it from getting a 4 in my opinion. Nonetheless, with the amount of unanswered questions and disappointment arising from series completion, it gets lots of minus points. Resulting in a 5. I enjoyed it but there were noticeable issues by the end of the show.

The begining is fine, but as the series progresses appear more and more frequently dialogues and monologues redundant and / or unnecessary.

The claymore's have the same personality except for a few. There is an excessive use of stereotypical female warrior that could have been a little less boring with some psychological nuance of the characters. There is no cohesion between the personalities and some actions.

At times the sound effects are not consistent with the scenes. There are a few mistakes in the proportion of objects.

It is a very good story carried out in the most poorly way. Totally dissappointing.

Deviates too far from the manga and suffers because of it. They literally made up an ending exclusive to the anime. There are so many plot points left unresolved and then it just ends. It'd be like if in Lord of the Rings the entire thing ended after the battle of Helm's Deep. It's jarring and makes no sense.

Also characters stand around talking too much. Writers never heard of show don't tell. I know that's a problem in shounen as a whole, but it's REALLY bad here. The yoma will literally just describe what Clare is doing TO HER. "Ah, you're trying to hinder my ... movement by going for my legs" etc. Like what? Who talks like that? You're supposed to try to kill her, not lecture her.

One of those Anime Series that pop up now and again that seem to have gone no where. If you watch be prepared for very little resolution as there are only 26 episodes (where as the Manga is ongoing). The series is high fantasy. Where women imbued with the powers of Yoma (flesh eating, human possessing demons) fight against the Yoma and their, quite literal, inner demons to protect mankind. These women (who call themselves warrorirs but whom everyone else calls Claymore) are under the thumb of the clearly shady Organization. By far the best part of the series is the interactions ... between the warriors as they try and navigate in a word both hostile and dependent on them, where despite their prowess they have no control over their fate. The villains sidekick and overall storyline are fairly generic if solid. It is the ladies which shine on this one folks