Daijoubu

I finally checked out Claymore and after going through 20 eps I have to say it’s an intense trip so far. The mix of horror elements and female fighters is a good recipe for winnage, although the Claymores sometimes start to blur together as characters. Not only do they look similar, but they are all oh so intense and you just know that every one has some horrible, revenge-based back story like Clare. But when the fighting starts, there’s enough special techniques and powering up to satisfy fans of that sort of thing too.

Who has the biggest Claymore?

Claymore is notable for the way it takes a fairly common characteristic of Shounen Jump action heroes and effectively institutionalizes and generalizes it. Individual characters in other series, like Naruto or Kurosaki Ichigo, have destructive sources of power within them that raise their power level up rapidly and allow them to master techniques which should be beyond their current skill and experience. But this same power is also something dangerous which always threatens to take over or consume them. Naruto also has Gaara and Sasuke in similar situations to form a contrast with the main hero. In particular, Sasuke’s situation, which is such an important engine of conflict for Naruto, shows how the quest for greater power in pursuit of revenge can lead to a self-destructive turn to the dark side. Rurouni Kenshin also has access to the great power of the Hitokiri Battosai, but must never pass his limit and give in to it, or his soul will be lost.

In Claymore, this common character device is extended to an entire organization of warriors, with the possibility of going too far and Awakening being an ever-present threat. And instead of being a concept in the background, this danger is made the central drama of the series. After the few early chapters of hunting regular yoma, the later arcs all focus on awakenings or near-awakenings, or on hunting awakened beings. This should not be too surprising, though, because it’s quickly established that even Clare, the lowest-ranked Claymore, can usually handle clearing a town of yoma, so the challenge of hunting the more challenging awakened beings becomes essential for the story to reach the next level. It gives a reason for bringing in the other warriors too, so that there can be more and more epic battles. So we get a series of arcs, with the threat-level rising with each one. Of course, many Shounen Jump series are structured this way, but Claymore is particularly good at incrementally providing juicy bits of information in each section- always just enough revelations to keep you hanging for the next chapter.

And this show moves forward wickedly fast! If you compare it to Naruto or One Piece or Bleach, where the big threats from dangerous organizations and their villainous masterminds are hinted at but can then take sometimes hundreds of episodes to get fully revealed, Claymore moves like a Shinkansen in comparison. This is not to say those other series aren’t good at pacing in their own way, but Claymore is an epic that doesn’t waste any time at all. For example, the danger of Awakening is introduced in The Black Card, and just two episodes later Clare almost awakens! That’s a quick action follow through once the new concept is introduced! Later, the threat of No. 4 as someone to avoid is no sooner introduced in The Slashers than she shows up in the very next arc. You might think there would be some delay or intervening arc before she shows up. Later, the presence of Isley and Priscilla in the North is revealed in The Witch’s Maw and in the very next arc the main characters end up (where else!) in the North and then Raki runs right into Isley and Priscilla! This show doesn’t drag anything out, lol.

So those are some of my thoughts on Claymore so far. It’s a strong series, with great fight sequences, although a little more gradual character development might have been good. And I don’t mean the talkiness of ep. 20, but more development through action, especially between Raki and Clare before they were separated. It is interesting though, that when the Claymores get together, the sparks fly between them so much. I was surprised at first, in The Slashers, that they’d be so mean to Clare and not cooperate more, but I suppose it’s inevitable in an organization that encourages so much competition by giving the warriors rankings. This also prevents them from banding together too closely and asking difficult questions about the organization.

Anyway, it’s been noted that from this point the anime starts to diverge from the manga, probably towards a bad end. If it’s really bad, well I guess that’s what the manga’s for, right? ^_^