Category: Claymore

I liked this episode. A lot. It was intriguing, the fight was really tense, it made sense, and there was A LOT of character-development in it. Claymore may be dull in its introductions; it’s brilliant in its conclusions. While this does mean that the next episode will be another dull one, I’m glad enough that this episode turned out good. First of all, Jeane. Not only is her new hairstyle much better than her old one, she showed that you can go back from awakening, even though you haven’t put your mind to it, though that may be because of Claire and Galatea’s ability to manipulate Yoki so well. I can imagine that Claire will pick Galatea’s technique of manipulating Yoki up as well in the future somehow. I think I also finally realize what makes Claire so special. Half-awakened beings already are rather rare among Claymore, but the Claymore it happens to usually don’t notice the difference. The only reason Miria noticed this was because they were with four Half-awakened ones in one group, so this just had to stand out. I think the reason that the Organization sends the problematic Half-awakened ones to get killed off as a precaution, as the awakening-process seems to have made them more curious, and easier to question the Organization (after all, fully awakened ones tend to go berserk, so I wouldn’t be surprised at some subtle effects on the characters of Half-awakened ones). Claire is probably one of the few who survived such an attempt to kill her off, along with Miria, Deneve and Helen, and because of her rather impulsive and ignorant nature, she probably is the first of them who left the organization willingly. It will be interesting to see where she’ll go now. She now has another companion who’ll follow her around, no matter what (although I do think that Raki won’t be doing that anymore, as something major seems to have happened to him, according to the manga-readers). The fact remains, though, that it’ll take a long time for Claire to defeat Priscilla without Riful’s help. I wonder how many comrades Riful managed to gather. The guy up in the north seemed to have at least three huge awakened beings, as seen at the end of the episode, if you add Priscilla, that makes four. (The organization is losing a lot of Claymore lately, isn’t it? If the party we saw there didn’t survive, they’re going to have to recruit ten new members, quite a significant amount and I suspect that more Claymores have died off-screen).]]>

Ah, it sees that my worries after the previous episode were all for naught. This episode was really good, and it finally tied the entire anime together. Lots of interesting things happened, and I didn’t even mind the way in which Galatea saved Claire at the last possible minute. Let’s start with Galatea. It seems that she didn’t just get her first place, just because she was very good at sensing Yoki. She also possesses the ability to manipulate small amounts of it, and from all 47 Claymores, her strength increases the most when she releases her Yoki. (It would be bad for her to awaken, wouldn’t it?) It makes you wonder how powerful number one and two are. It also seems that there are three awakened beings, even stronger than Priscilla. One of them is the girl we saw in this and the previous episode, Riful. One of them recruited Priscilla after she went berserk, and apparently she manipulated the guy into becoming active again. The episode wasn’t really clear whether he meant to pick a fight with Riful herself, or he means to fight against the organization, but all three of them have begun to gather more awakened allies. What I’m really curious about is how these three awakened beings will be defeated, and what Claire’s role will be in it. I really like how she finally showed in this episode that she isn’t perfect, and needs the help of others. The next episode should start out really interesting, when Claire needs to rescue Jeane. At this point, all signs point to the fact that Claire is indeed going to save her, but then again, this isn’t the first time that Claymore surprised me. ;)]]>

This episode was slow. A bit too slow, if you ask me, and needlessly drawn out, so that the next episode would be able to feature a big fight. As the end of the episode draws closer, this becomes more and more apparent. And I actually like slow episodes usually, but this one just didn’t fall right for me. One of these reasons for this was that it completely wrecked one of the major reasons why I liked this series: the fact that everything made sense. With only one or two exceptions, events happened in Claymore because they had to happen, and it was completely logical for these events to happen, with no apparent signs of predictability whatsoever. And then it comes with this. First of all, how often do you see people arguing about a stranger they met, TEN friggin’ days ago?! And how often does that happen with Claire in the neighbourhood? Furthermore, why did Claire chose the perfect timing to visit a town, at the exact moment when four claymores were slaughtered by an organized team of awakened beings? Raki is also more stupid than I originally thought. You’d think he’d pick a landmark that was easy for both of them to find, and yet we see him now, wandering in the middle of nowhere. Doesn’t he want to meet Claire, no matter what? And what was that about Youma, not usually being in groups? This isn’t the first time we’ve seen groups of Youma together. And don’t you just love it that these Youma tell their strategy before it even worked? Anyway, I liked how we finally get to see the people who control the organization. Now all that’s needed is some development for these guys. Galatea also gets sent to go after Claire, seeing as it’s been three months after the previous episode (now that I write this, it doesn’t make sense, actually. When Raki talked to the couple, he was supposed to be covered in wounds, but at that point, he already was supposed to have run for more than two months and two weeks. That’s more than enough time to heal these kinds of wounds). And I was wrong with my prediction at the previous episode, since it seems that this episode introduces two villains who probably don’t have anything to do with Priscilla. They’re also quite full of themselves, and they actually are confident to think they’ll be able to beat the top Claymores combined. Obviously, they’re not, since Claire is going to beat them, but the matter of an organized group of awakened beings does have potential. Also, we finally know a bit more about the two Goddesses, It seems that the name of the second god is Teresa, alongside Claire. I now understand why Teresa chose the name of Claire. Okay, next episode should prove to be more exciting. Claymore: surprise me!!!]]>

Haha, I’m glad to see that in the end, Ophelia did turn into a memorable character. During episode 12 and 13, she didn’t really impress me much, and her background story felt too incomplete for me to care about her, but luckily this episode changed this. The fact remains that she already had the personality of an awakened being, and now that she has realy become one of them, her insanity didn’t increase, it decreased, and she spends the final minutes of her life in a surprisingly human state, after she realizes this. It seems that Priscilla hasn’t been standing still, ever since she killed Teresa. We have still no clue about what she’s been up to, but we now know that she did kill Ophelia’s brother. Because of that, Ophelia began to develop her obsession for killing awakened beings. And now I finally realize what’s going to make Claire so special: she’s basically a combination of lots of great Claymore. She first had Teresa inside of her, and in this episode, Irene’s arm and Ophelia’s goal get added. Something tells me that she’ll take something from every major opponent she runs into to add this to her arsenal. I quite like this, in fact. Still, that is no reason for me to like the immense power-up that Claire got after merging with Irene’s arm. I mean, Ophelia already was immensely powerful, and now that she has awakened, this power has only increased. The power-boost that Claire got from it could really have been more subtle, especially since it’s the first time she uses it. After all, the arm may be one thing, but what really makes it work the way it does is the link to your brain. It takes a while to get used to the power, and Claire, who couldn’t even come close to one tenth of the speed of Irene, should have had more trouble dealing with it. Oh, and Irene dies in this episode, by the hands of number five, Rafaela. We also learn that of the top-five, Ophelia was actually the weakest. Next up, Claire is probably going to have to fight the remaining four, after which Priscilla comes. That’s one of the things I dislike about shounen-series, no matter how good the rest, they always follow the pattern of a great power that needs to be defeated, only to move on to the next, even stronger power, until the big boss is reached. The great shounen-series are the ones that manage to add more than just that, like the comedy and tactical battles in the Law of Ueki. For Claymore, this is going to be its explanation and characters. If it wants to be better than the other shounen-anime, the future enemies had better have the same level development of Ophelia, or even more.]]>

Ah, everyone’s been telling me, but I kept believing the opposite. When Priscilla went berserk, there was one Claymore who survived. I really liked how she chose to live her life afterwards. It’s quite interesting that nobody knew that she lived after she faked her own death, and how she became scared of dying. That’s why she’s nowhere to be found on the top-level Claymores, she isn’t with the organization anymore. What I didn’t like, though, was the huge Deus ex Machina that introduced her. Just as Claire is about to die, she plays for saviour in order to keep the main character of this series alive. I thought the creators knew better than this. I mean, why now, of all times? It’s also quite surprising that Claire lost her right arm. This means that her swordfighting will get worse, now that she has to learn to use her left arm all of a sudden. To make up for this, she now knows Irene’s flash sword. Oh, and Ophelia has awakened. You’d wonder how she acts in the presence of the numbers 1 to 3, when she lost her cool this easily. She seems to have quite a brother-complex here. The next episode should feature the awakened Ophelia against the two Claymores with only one arm. This episode, unfortunately, wasn’t that exciting, but there was one interesting point: Ophelia’s special attack looks like a cheap version of the flash sword. She never spent the time to perfection it, and never thought about the possibilities. If you look at her using it, you’ll see that her entire body is trembling, instead of the calm Irene. I think that that’s how she’ll be defeated in the next episode, combined with her carelessness.]]>

This episode, we get a proper introduction of Ophelia, the rumoured heartless number four, with an unhealthy obsession on everything awakened. Claire gets sent on another Awakened Being-hunt, though this time, the only other one recruited was Ophelia. This obviously screams that the organizations is trying to get rid of her, because something tells me they know fully well that Ophelia tends to break rules once in a while. Basically, through the course of the episode, she tries to kill both Claire, Raki and the Awakened Being. The last one dies, while Claire and Raki escape. Raki, meanwhile, seems to have gotten more and more attached to Claire, and in this episode, we see him claiming that he’d die for her. In the end, though, they part wais after Claire scolds him. The thing is, though, that Ophelia is in dire need of some development. Her introduction was nice and all, but I don’t really like her character yet. She’s just a fighting-machine, no more, though I do admit that some of her antics were rather disturbing. The next episode had better show something about her background. I also dislike the way Awakened Beings were portrayed. If a number 4 can take care of one so easily, why would the organization waste time sending groups of four weaker Claymores when Number One can probably take care of them with her eyes closed? It’s also interesting how that Awakened Being just stood still for minutes, allowing Ophelia to continue with her endless monologues.]]>

This probably is the episode of Claymore with the least amount of fighting. Heck, most of it was just talking, which is very nice for a change. It’s another very important episode, you wouldn’t want to miss it. The four Claymores were indeed sent to take care of the male Awakened Being because they’re problem children, and half-Awakened, and the four of them have become allies against the organization. A relative lot of time was spent on this, probably in order to really show the bond between Helen, Deneve, Miria and Claire. We also see something interesting in Miria’s flashback. We see the part where she half-Awakened (Deneve was there too), and then we see what is probably Claymore Number four, Ophelia, who keeps encouraging Miria to awaken. She looks quite scarily, but I think that she is the biggest reason. For Miria to turn against the organization, and while she never mention it, Miria keeps dropping hints that she hates that woman. We also see the identity of Claymore 3: Galatea. It’s the Claymore who spied on the fight in the previous episode, and her ability seems to be quite similar to Claire’s: sensing Yoki, especially from very far away. Number 1 seems to be Alicia, Number 2 is Beth and number 5 is Rafaela (wasn’t she the Number 5 in episode 5 as well, before Priscilla took her place?). So far, Claymore is good stuff, but there’s one thing that worries me: the fact that the manga hasn’t finished yet. Is there any sign of the manga finishing soon? The series may be true to it right now and all, but I fear what would happen if this series would get stuck in fillers.]]>

Interesting, the current episode answered many questions the previous episodes have been hinting at, with the most important one being: did Claire inherit any of Teresa’s specialities? The answer is: yes. Episode eight indeed made a huge impact on Claire, and she indeed has inherited Teresa’s ability of sensing Yoki, but because of the fact that she only is 1/4 Youma, instead of the usual 1/2, her physical strength is weak. I think that because of this, she decided to use her skills, rather than her strength. Especially because this is a perfect way to fight Awakened Beings, which probably was the biggest reason for her to concentrate on this skill. I do wonder, though. What caused Deneve to develop her skill as it is? I mean, extra-fast regeneration definitely is useful, but only once or twice against a strong opponent. She probably won’t ever need it when she faces regular Youma. What caused her to actually need this skill? Another thing that’s remarkable is Claire’s ability to stand, even though she’s got a lot of wounds. I’m not sure what’s up with that, but I can imagine that being under the care of a Youma for her entire childhood did make her body quite tough. Also, if I understood things correctly, the party was sent to get killed off. The organization was aware that there was a male Youma in the vicinity, yet they didn’t notify Miria of this. I can understand Claire, being 47th and all, but why did they want to kill off the three others? This episode was quite nice, but I’m actually more interested in the next one, to see how everyone changed after the events in this episode. One thing that annoyed me in this episode, though, was the lack of battle-tactics. These four Claymores just rush in, without knowing anything about each other. No planned moves, nothing. Heck, Miria first keeps telling that she wants to know as much of her companions as possible, but she doesn’t even know about Helen’s extended arms for god’s sake.]]>

Now this was an intriguing episode! It’s almost a shame that I checked it out so early, since I have to wait another week for the next episode. I now understand how Claymore is rumoured to be so different from your average shounen-series. I first thought that Claire would be your average Claymore, but she turns out to be the weakest of them al. It does make sense, though. While every other Claymore is infused with the flesh of a Youma, Claire is infused with Teresa: a half-human half-Youma. What intrigues me even more is the fact that she doesn’t act like she’s in last place. She gets into fights with the stronger Claymores, she shows up either too early or too late, and never apologizes. I think this is because she never really lived as a human, and the Youma who used her probably used her since she was young. Apparently, Claymores usually don’t need to release their powers when they fight. I think that was unique among the stronger Claymores, though now it seems that Claire has the worst time of everyone, trying to get rid of a Youma. But I wonder, if she is infused with Teresa’s flesh, does this means that she excels at sensing Youma as well? If I had to guess, based on the first episode, she doesn’t. Either that, or she doesn’t know it. Another new piece of information also is that when a Claymore awakens, the Organization doesn’t go after it. That does make me wonder about episode two. What if Claire arrived just a bit too late? Why did Elena take so long transforming, while this happened nearly instantly with Priscilla?]]>

And suddenly, the entire concept of Claymore has become clear. Finally, the identity of the main antagonist has been revealed, and I must say that while it had it coming, the element of surprise in this episode was excellent. Teresa’s death was a sad one, but it perfectly explains why Claire turned into a Claymore herself. However, that doesn’t mean I’m 100% happy, though. This episode really reminded me that Claymore remains a shounen anime, where the fights are supposed to be the highlights, and the enemy is the strongest enemy you could possibly think of. In the last episode, I already voiced my disappointment about how easily Priscilla got her powers, and now it becomes clear why she had to be so powerful: it’s to become as strong as possible this early on. I really would have preferred to see her actually grow a bit more, it would have increased the credibility tenfold. This also automatically creates a new flaw: how the heck is Claire going to beat Priscilla in the end? Unlike Teresa, Claire is just an ordinary Claymore of a normal power-level. The awakened Priscilla, meanwhile, was even easily able to beat the strongest claymore: Teresa, someone who couldn’t even be defeated by the combination of Claymores 2 till 5. She also easily killed off her companions in the process. I definitely do not hope that this anime will fall into the pits that plague so many other shounen-anime at this point: where its characters become an unbelievable amount stronger. Right now, we’ve seen the five strongest Claymores in action for the past two episodes. I hope that the new top Claymores will around the same level of strength in the current timeline. The next episodes are probably going to show whether this anime will focus on character-development or action. Let’s pray that the character-development will take priority! One thing I do like, though, is that Priscilla isn’t after any kind of world conquest or anything. After all, if she was, she would’ve done this already. She also revealed why she hates Youma so much: she was the same as Raki. Her father was actually a disguised Youma, and he killed her family in front of her eyes. Another reason why Claire decided to take Raki in, because she feared that he’d end up like Priscilla if she didn’t help him. I wonder, though, how could a little girl be able to kill of an entire Youma? Did she already know how to fight even before she became a Claymore? That could explain why she turned out so strong as a Claymore, even though it doesn’t explain how that made her unique like that.]]>