Finishing an anime series is a rarity for me these days since a few things tend to happen:
There are things that need doing that are more important than anime (gasp! It’s true!)
Sometimes I lose interest during the slower, less focused episodes that tend to plague series from time to time.
The release of new series that pique my interest, lengthening the must-watch list.
Guilt. I feel too guilty to do marathon viewing sessions in order to catch up and knock down the must-watch list.
But since I invested in the iPod Touch, I can now keep up with my anime viewing schedule and chew through the backlog while I work out— which is great because my backlog consists of 9 series so far and there’s more new anime series coming out!
If catching up on my anime viewing keeps me in the gym more often for longer periods of time, then it’s a total win-win situation.
Claymore
The Claymore television series is based on Norihiro Yago’s manga of the same title.
Claymore takes place in a fictional medieval era world where scattered pockets of humanity must defend themselves against creatures called Yoma. These demonic, shape-shifting creatures feed on human organs and prey upon humanity often disguised as regular people.
To combat this threat, a faceless, secretive organization created the Claymores, an order of half Yoma, half human female (attractive of course) warriors to defend the towns, villages and cities— for a price!
They’re so named because of the gigantic swords they wield in battle and which their super-human strength and abilities enables them to wield with great ease.
Claymore is a dark fantasy, with visceral and explicitly violent fight scenes… Lots of limbs and blood gushers here, folks. While there’s plenty of sword swinging, artery spewing goodness, the series has an underpinning of character drama as the Claymores are born from trauma and tragedy— often young girls abandoned or orphaned when their families are slaughtered by Yoma.
Harnessing the demonic power that serves as their greatest weapon also threatens to consume a Claymore’s humanity. When that happens, they can become an even greater threat than even the pure blood Yoma themselves.
Claymores can never form normal relationships and often distance themselves from the normal human realm some of them long to be a part of.
The series follows the personal quest of Clare, a quiet and emotionally distant Claymore and her Yoma-bait— I mean dead-weight— I mean, friend Raki, a human boy she reluctantly adopts as an assistant/cook of sorts.
The Claymore TV series was produced by Nippon Television and ran from April-Sept. 2007. The North American DVD release is being handled by Funimation and will be released around late Q3 of 2008.
My Thoughts
Claymore turned out to be a better series than I thought after I got well into the first season and into the second where the story begins to become more focused as we delve into Clare’s past to learn the reason behind her decision to join the ranks of the Claymores.
The cast is expanded in scope, beyond Clare and Raki, to include other Claymores, each with their own stories. Their varied personalities is a bit of fresh air as Clare’s emotionally distant personality can be a little boring at times.
At first I found Raki to be bothersome. As it usually is for normal human sidekicks, he tends to be Clare’s fifth wheel.
I looked at Raki as being the foil to Clare’s cold personality but he came off as being more needy and a liability. In that sense, I don’t think the writers used him as effectively as they could have.
However, Raki redeems his onscreen presence when his role becomes increasingly more pivotal as the story progresses.
Some of the battle sequences can be a bit talky, a trait common in a lot of anime. I found myself thinking, “Show me! Don’t tell me!” quite often.
However, there’s more to the Claymores’ fighting techniques than just hack and slash. Through the ‘talky’ fight scenes and further into the series, the audience learns how the demonic Yoma energies harnessed by a Claymore can be precisely controlled and applied to increase their abilities far beyond mere strength and reflex enhancement; their version of Naruto’s chakra concept I guess.
What’s notable is that during the first season, we’re shown just how lethal Clare’s Claymore abilities are, but in the second season, we’re shown Claymores who’s abilities far outstrip even Clare’s.
Furthermore, the Claymores’ opponents become significantly more lethal against even these superior Claymores! It came as a bit of a shock and surprise to me just how much more lethal they could get!
Some of the fight scenes take more than one episode to resolve, which I think would’ve been time better spent on moving the story forward.
No Boobs For You!
I’m not sure if this is true to the original manga but Claymore doesn’t play the “tits and ass” card which was a bit of a surprise to me. There’s no superfluous nude scenes and no lesbian overtones.
I’m not sure whether that’s more of a statement on my own expectations or on how low some series tend to stoop to keep the male viewers interested. Boobonauts— I mean, Dragonauts anyone? 
They could have easily played up the idea that Claymores would seek relationships within their own ranks because they can’t have normal relationships, and that only Claymores can hope to understand other Claymores emotionally.
But there’s really none of that in Claymore (unless you want to read in between the lines 
) and what very, very little nudity there is, is more incidental and logical.
In Conclusion
Claymore left me wanting a third season since the ending introduces more characters and leaves more tantalizing questions. I’m thinking of picking up the manga to have those questions answered.
The production values generally hold up well throughout most of the series, with the fight scenes becoming more intense and visceral as the story progresses.
The first season didn’t have much of a story arc and concerned itself more with setting things up for the latter half of the series when things really start to heat up. It’s possible that some viewers may lose interest or put the series on the backburner like I did but ultimately I’m glad I stuck it out.
Claymore isn’t high drama but it’s emphasis on its characters elevates it to more than just mindless hack and slash. It’s a series worth checking out.
Tags: claire, clare, claymore, manga, norihiro yagi, raki, teresa of the faint smile
Entries (RSS)