Claymore
Posted: 20 Oct 2007, 03:36
Synopsis:
The countryside and towns are in terror as their inhabitants are devoured by the "yoma", powerful demons who can disguise themselves perfectly as humans, they move from town to town devouring human beings. The only ones capable of recognizing and defeating these demons are the so-called "Claymore", silver-eyed warriors who are half-human and half-yoma. But their origin also makes the Claymore objects of fear and distrust for the villagers. A Claymore a female warrior named for the sword she carries and there Silver eyes that change to yellow during battle also earning them the titles of “Silver Eyed Witches” or “Silver Eyed Killers”.
Claymores are half-humans, half-demons who willingly transformed themselves by “consuming” part of a demon. Only females are allowed to become Claymores since males made bad warriors due to the fact that they turned violent and found sexual pleasure though killing. The story revolves around the character Clare and her struggles as a member of the Claymores. Her sole mission is the eradication of these Yoma, who feed on human guts. Clare is first introduced when a town comes under attack by one of these creatures, disguised as a human in an attempt to deceive her and the rest of the villagers.
Though the people are intimidated by her presence and fear her (her constant stoicism doesn't help either), a young man named Raki decides to reach out to her. He even goes as far as following her throughout her patrol of the city, much to her displeasure. Young Raki has lost his family to a yoma who infiltrated his village, who is in turn eliminated by the Claymore Clare. Fearing that his contact with the Yoma might have transformed him into another monster, the villagers expel Raki who now joins Clare as her cook, following her in her travels as she fights against the yoma.
Review:
Were to start this anime totally caught me off guard the Manga is still running but it has turned into an extended monster hunt and I was afraid the same would happened to the Anime series. But luckily Madhouse decided to make only one season of the show and so they deviated from the Manga on the last couple of episodes. This isn’t a bad thing in it self as the show has a nice ending without that “what the f*ck I have been cheated out of 13 hours of my life” feeling at a end of the show. This is a seinen/shounen action series so if u looking for all out action title with a good story mixed in between then Claymore is the show for u. If u don’t like excisive amount of gore and blood then stay away from this show.
Story:
And here lies the strong point of Claymore. The story, as stated before, follows the path of Clare the yoma slayer on her quest to destroy the yoma and to defeat a certain yoma. The story itself moves at a very fast pace and new characters get introduced into the Claymore world almost on a per episode basis up to episode 20 were the final arch of the story takes place. There are so many characters u get attached to from "Irene of the Flash Sword," to "Phantom Miria" and to the minor characters like Helen and Deneve. As the story evolves so does Clair’s abilities which I found to be a nice touch u grow with the characters and learn more about each one as u get pulled in by the fluid story telling making for captivating story.
Animation:
Big thumbs up to studio madhouse for this title the job done here by Madhouse was amazing. The actual artwork and details put into the backgrounds and foregrounds was pretty good. The part of this series that that stood out for me (art wise) was the eyes most intense art detail would have to be the warriors` eyes. As the Claymore`s released there yoma powers there eye color changed and there facial expressions with that giving you goose bumps as they went though there transformations.
Sound/Music:
Masanori Takumi did a pretty good job here. The normal background music was good a mixture of Celtic music with a mixture of Scottish bagpipes and Irish flute`s. Only when the battle sequences started did u notice the awesome Heavy Metal charging up the atmosphere for the fight that was about to happen.
Characters:
This is also a department where Claymore shines as I stated before there isn’t a episode in Claymore were we don’t get introduced to a character and learn a bit about there past and present situation. A total of 12 characters get introduced in the show that’s excluding Clair. The story telling is fluid and solid with no holes in it, although I would have loved to learn more about the organization and how they created the beings called “Claymores”.
The only downside to the show would be the character “Raki” he would be on the same level as Shinji from Neon Genesis Evangelion but with a sword. Luckily he doesn’t make that many appearances in the show to become a great annoyance.
Enjoyment:
This is a seinen/shounen action series so if u looking for all out action title with a good story mixed in between then Claymore is the show for u. If u don’t like excessive amount of gore and blood then stay away from this show. Claymore did more than a good job keeping me interested. It does have its flaws due to it leaving the Manga plot in the final couple of episodes but other than that I can highly recommend this show.
The countryside and towns are in terror as their inhabitants are devoured by the "yoma", powerful demons who can disguise themselves perfectly as humans, they move from town to town devouring human beings. The only ones capable of recognizing and defeating these demons are the so-called "Claymore", silver-eyed warriors who are half-human and half-yoma. But their origin also makes the Claymore objects of fear and distrust for the villagers. A Claymore a female warrior named for the sword she carries and there Silver eyes that change to yellow during battle also earning them the titles of “Silver Eyed Witches” or “Silver Eyed Killers”.
Claymores are half-humans, half-demons who willingly transformed themselves by “consuming” part of a demon. Only females are allowed to become Claymores since males made bad warriors due to the fact that they turned violent and found sexual pleasure though killing. The story revolves around the character Clare and her struggles as a member of the Claymores. Her sole mission is the eradication of these Yoma, who feed on human guts. Clare is first introduced when a town comes under attack by one of these creatures, disguised as a human in an attempt to deceive her and the rest of the villagers.
Though the people are intimidated by her presence and fear her (her constant stoicism doesn't help either), a young man named Raki decides to reach out to her. He even goes as far as following her throughout her patrol of the city, much to her displeasure. Young Raki has lost his family to a yoma who infiltrated his village, who is in turn eliminated by the Claymore Clare. Fearing that his contact with the Yoma might have transformed him into another monster, the villagers expel Raki who now joins Clare as her cook, following her in her travels as she fights against the yoma.
Review:
Were to start this anime totally caught me off guard the Manga is still running but it has turned into an extended monster hunt and I was afraid the same would happened to the Anime series. But luckily Madhouse decided to make only one season of the show and so they deviated from the Manga on the last couple of episodes. This isn’t a bad thing in it self as the show has a nice ending without that “what the f*ck I have been cheated out of 13 hours of my life” feeling at a end of the show. This is a seinen/shounen action series so if u looking for all out action title with a good story mixed in between then Claymore is the show for u. If u don’t like excisive amount of gore and blood then stay away from this show.
Story:
And here lies the strong point of Claymore. The story, as stated before, follows the path of Clare the yoma slayer on her quest to destroy the yoma and to defeat a certain yoma. The story itself moves at a very fast pace and new characters get introduced into the Claymore world almost on a per episode basis up to episode 20 were the final arch of the story takes place. There are so many characters u get attached to from "Irene of the Flash Sword," to "Phantom Miria" and to the minor characters like Helen and Deneve. As the story evolves so does Clair’s abilities which I found to be a nice touch u grow with the characters and learn more about each one as u get pulled in by the fluid story telling making for captivating story.
Animation:
Big thumbs up to studio madhouse for this title the job done here by Madhouse was amazing. The actual artwork and details put into the backgrounds and foregrounds was pretty good. The part of this series that that stood out for me (art wise) was the eyes most intense art detail would have to be the warriors` eyes. As the Claymore`s released there yoma powers there eye color changed and there facial expressions with that giving you goose bumps as they went though there transformations.
Sound/Music:
Masanori Takumi did a pretty good job here. The normal background music was good a mixture of Celtic music with a mixture of Scottish bagpipes and Irish flute`s. Only when the battle sequences started did u notice the awesome Heavy Metal charging up the atmosphere for the fight that was about to happen.
Characters:
This is also a department where Claymore shines as I stated before there isn’t a episode in Claymore were we don’t get introduced to a character and learn a bit about there past and present situation. A total of 12 characters get introduced in the show that’s excluding Clair. The story telling is fluid and solid with no holes in it, although I would have loved to learn more about the organization and how they created the beings called “Claymores”.
The only downside to the show would be the character “Raki” he would be on the same level as Shinji from Neon Genesis Evangelion but with a sword. Luckily he doesn’t make that many appearances in the show to become a great annoyance.
Enjoyment:
This is a seinen/shounen action series so if u looking for all out action title with a good story mixed in between then Claymore is the show for u. If u don’t like excessive amount of gore and blood then stay away from this show. Claymore did more than a good job keeping me interested. It does have its flaws due to it leaving the Manga plot in the final couple of episodes but other than that I can highly recommend this show.
