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CLAYMORE
Version: 1.1
- Changed a feature of the review that was requested.

foreword: If you read this review at all, a little bit of critiquing // opinion-leaving would be highly appreciated.

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In the world of Claymore, giant monsters run around called Youma, essentially demons, and happen to like eating human guts. The Claymores, warriors named for the weapons they wield, are half-demon demon slayers (a little like InuYasha, no?) made by an Organization in existence for an unknown period of time.


ANIMATION - 10-1 = 9

Oh my... Oh my, indeed. The job done here by Madhouse was arousing. The actual artwork and details put into the backgrounds and foregrounds were excellent: trees were trees; water rippled and flowed; and, for the most part, people looked like people. The part of this series with the most intense detail would have to be the warriors' eyes. If you take the time to actually look at it, it almost looks like Madhouse did eyes better than Kyoto Animation, and you know those people do a good job with eyes after watching Air (in which eyes > facial proportions).

On top of the details, there was a hefty amount of fighting in Claymore. There would be, of course, seeing as this is somewhat of a seinen/shounen action series. The action scenes were brilliantly crafted until the end. Movements were made totally fluid, special effects accompanied segments where the Claymores would "power up" with demon energy, and the transition from Silver Witch eyes to Demonoid eyes was always great to watch.

The Opening and Ending sequences stayed consistent throughout the series. They seemed to follow the stereotype of other shounen action series in that they showed viewers the primary villains and allies, mixed along with people along the way. In the intro alone, viewers see a One-Horned Monster (someone I refer to on Claymore-related threads as the superbitch) and another person with a Faint Smile. The quality of animation in both was somewhat higher than in the show itself, as is seen with many other shows.

SOUND - 8

The actors and actresses cast for Claymore did the series justice, and then some. They were, for the most part, fantastic, and matched their roles well. Especially radiant in performance would be Riful, a big bad little lady. She is, depending on how you look at is, portrayed as being someone with no real motivation to do things. She can be threatening and dangerous while at the same time maintaing a charm meant only for helpless girls in the snow. Her seiyuu, Mizuki Nana (Hyuuga Hinata from Naruto and Wrath from FullMetal Alchemist) somehow harnessed the traits of previous roles and manifested them as perfection to stand at the mic for Riful.

The other seiyuu performed to high standards as well, let's not forget. Everyone was unique, bringing their own unique vocal ranges and talents to the front. Romi Paku (Hitsuguya Toushirou, Temari, Edward Elric), armed with her vast repertoire of talents, brought Bishou no Teresa in as a brilliant heroine. Yusa Kouji (Ichimaru Gin) gave Easley the voice he needed to match his cool and collected manner. And even Galatea was given the "caring girl" archetype by Orikasa Ai, the woman behind Quatre Rebabba Winner and some some girl from Angel Blade (Punish).

Background music is next, I guess. It was, in a word, extreme. This can be taken with a grain of salt based on your own preferences in background music, but for me I happened to love it. The normal BGM was nice. It seemed to belong with the series, giving off a medieval vibe to match the medieval setting. It was in no way stuck to that single type of music, however, as proven with the BGM leading up to and during fight sequences. Going into them, I was bombarded with some addictive Heavy Metal, lacking in vocals, pumping up the atmosphere for the fight. During the fight, it's toned down a bit to be less extreme. Why? A personal theory would be that Madhouse wished to keep from drawing the viewers' attention into different parts of the episodes while they should keep their focus undivided. But for the pressure-building into-the-fight songs composed by Masanori Takumi, the rest of the soundtrack (also done by Masanori) conveys the emotion set with each scene. At times of peace, slow and melodic tunes would greet the viewers. During the more ominous sequences of Claymore, the music never failed to match.

Finally, we reach the part of the show that hasn't been brought up yet: sound effects. Everything from the swords clashing to the sound of the half-demons charging up their demon energy would go here, and go here it does. Everything was great: when the swords of fellow warriors clashed (they had their own little spats, too, mind you) it was almost never the exact same clash sound repeated for each and every sword impact for the whole series. They seemed to differ between each general encounter, which is to say that the same impact sounds were used during each individual fight. The only real other part of this section would be the noise that warriors made whenever they charged their powers up. It was described by a relative as the sound that "the laser guns in Star Wars" made. Not bad at all, but I don't see HOW this action would make a sound at all.

CHARACTER - 8-2 = 6

Deary me, Norihiro Yagi did a brilliant job with his cast of warrioresses here. Each and every one of the girls (and guys, endangered as they are in Claymore) was totally unique, failing to follow preset character archetypes for a vast majority of the series.

There is, of course, a massive amount of character development in Claymore. Strangely, however, it is distributed fairly evenly between everyone, failing to be done in a cheerleader form (in which one or few characters take up all the development of the series). As viewers, we are drawn closer to characters only to have them ripped away from us, leaving behind a sense of longing for more time with the people created for our pleasure. At other times, we take in the traits of the people moving around on the screen, wishing with every fiber of our beings that they GTFO!!!! as fast as possible for the sake of the computer that you just bought.

Perhaps the greatest character in the series (and my favorite), Bishou no Teresa, was fleshed out in nothing more than three episodes. These episodes were, of course, followed up with tons upon tons upon tons upon tons of allusions to the events that took place during these three episodes. She comes across as somewhat of a wolf in sheep's clothing, but we learn so much about who she is just within the span of time she tells her story. It just goes to show how well done the development in Claymore was.

One who could be called the series' lead heroine would be Clare. She's blonde, short-haired, and the lowest-ranked of all the Claymore of all the world. Despite the injustice done to her with the ranking, we easily find that she takes on the title of "BAMF" with nothing more than a break of sweat (Teresa wouldn't even have to move). It is because of her past, shrouded as it is in despair and pain, that the series follows her quest. It's a quest for a lot of things, really, loaning to the greatness of the story.

STORY - 9-2 = 7

And here we reach another strong point of Claymore. The story, as stated before, follows the path of Clare the demon slayer on her quest to find something. Along the way, we find out about the motive-questionable Organization that creates the half-demons, the origin of the villains of the world (specific villains, at least), and even whether or not Clare reaches her goal.

The story itself moves at a fairly fast pace, leaving no room for people who can't learn to grasp things that are further than a week apart. Clare's journey through the unnamed continent on which her story takes place is one that draws people in, never letting go with a deathgrip stronger than the otter Taggerung's hanging onto the Sword of Martin. On top of the latent captivation being awakened from just watching the first episode, there were no real plot holes to speak of in Claymore. Everything moved with the fluidity of thawed Alps snow down the throat of its drinker. It worked in a fashion built around minisagas, in each of which Clare would add some new ability to her arsenal, all the while pushing forward to meet the goal set before her. With all this, the story would be, of course, far from disappointing.

Surprisingly, however, with all my talk on how brilliantly done Claymore's story was, any random shmuck would be able to get the gist of it without any problems. Sure, it might take a rewatch to fully understand everything and to analyze the show to its nitty gritty guts, but the story works despite this simplicity.

As with any anime, there are episodes that stand out far more than the others. Most of it was worth watching over and over again, don't get me wrong, but a particular episode trio stood out for my far above the rest. These episodes would be *drumroll*: Teresa's story. For all the buildup, that's a really crappy way to sum it up, right? Anyway, everything about this part of the story was brilliant: the fighting, the story itself, voice acting, its purpose, and even the development for characters at the front and on the sides of the show. This is a must-watch portion of the series, by far its best.

Raki and the Volcanoe of the End

In other words, the flaws of the adaptation of Norihiro Yagi's work, and there were many.

For starters, we have the fact that the anime went off on a separate tangent from the manga. Though the source could be inaccurate (and on top of that remains unknown, even to me), I heard that this was because Madhouse was only going to do one season of Claymore. This did not have to be a bad thing, however, and I was almost looking forward to how a revised ending would work. Sadly, it was something that I did not expect. The ending even left me feeling like a baseball bat crashed across my head with the force of a swing from Nagato Yuki.

Next up would be Raki. Any list of hated anime characters would be incomplete if he weren't on it. I don't quite know why, but a vast portion of the anime viewing community finds Ikari Shinji to top their lists. Such is not the case here, as Raki could destroy Shinji with the hate he's fostered as the lead good guy of Claymore. Raki is the epitomy of the word "pathetic": his voice is annoying, capable of bleeding the deafest of ears, his attitude is far too one-dimensional, as are his goals, his voice is annoying, like a chalkboard being scratched with steel nails, and he does (almost) absolutely nothing to move the series forward. He even managed to jump into the ending of the series, telling you either how bad the ending was or how bad Raki was to put up with.

Third, we have the animation quality of the ending part of Claymore. When it was broadcast, I was expecting stupendous quality, something at least par with the work that KyoAni produces. "Too bad," I told myself. When I finally got to watching the end of the series, a lot of things were wrong. The "non-spoiler" fault would be that Madhouse began recycling segments of action during the finale and the bout right before it.

Lastly, we have plot holes. I shudder to think how much better the series could have been if Madhouse had chosen to end the first season and go into a series of OVA (in the same fashion as Hunter x Hunter, I think), but alas, they became the organized human form of PHAIL.

To begin, we would need background information. There are three entities in the world operating independently of the Organization, collectively referred to as the Abyssal Ones. Of this trio, two are introduced, and one is even included in the ending, but what of the third? This here would be the problem. The last member of this triumvirate remained unnamed throughout, only alluded to in the remotest of ways somewhere midway into the series.

To describe more would mean spoiling the series more than I may have already, so this will end here, but be warned that, as great as the series is, there ARE flaws in the series. The only way to fix such monstrous downfalls would be to do a second season that, apparently, won't be done.

VALUE and ENJOYMENT - 7

Well, here we are, ladies and gents, the ending of this little review of mine. Let's end it with a bang.

Claymore was, in a lot of ways, enjoyable for me. I've watched, rewatched, and watched again certain portions of the series, namely the aforementioned story of Bishou no Teresa. Episode eight would have to be my favorite of the series. Sadly, the rest of the series is far from being as rewatchable as this, mostly because this episode was packed with enough action to make Chuck Norris cry.

This is a series that I would DEFINITELY (in caps!!!) recommend to people looking for an action series. It may not be the best to tide one over during the wait between two desired series, but Claymore does more than a good job keeping men interested in women who could kill them with a flick of the wrist and the flash of a giant sword.


- I have no source for whether or not they're doing a second season. It's just something I read on the internet. If it's wrong, it's wrong, but doesn't change the fact that there were flaws in Claymore.

It is a clear 10. WTF? Can't say to much or i will spoil all the fun.
This is a story that i really wanted to hear , if you want to know the anime better even if you seen it you must look on wikipedia for more info. That way you may find out all details about it.
This anime is a bout might and magic , about heroic battles. Wonderfull!! Tears come out of my eyes as i write this review , this was such a cool anime. :']
The anime may be a little bit annoying at the begining but in time the story flowers.
Watch it , i promise it won't be disapointing.