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.]]>
Claymore – 08
I am very sure that Claymore will not fall into the typical shounen trap. Elements will be similar of course…^^
Cry. Teresa dies. But this flash back arc definitely gives a lot of character building for Claire. Wonder how the Claymores can take down this monster.
Thanks for excellent blogging,I follow your blog for sometime now, it’s fun to read your comments about anime.
About this episode, I feel like Teresa was able to be killed because she is cheated by Priscila though. Teresa seems to let her guard down when Priscilla pretends begging for her life so I think it’s something unexpected for Teresa. That’s why I really feel sad with her death coz it’s not fair-fair with full caution and strength, we never get to see even her real 50% power anyway, if she released all her yoma power,I think she will be much more powerful than Priscilla.
“Unlike Teresa, Claire is just an ordinary Claymore of a normal power-level.”
*knowing smirk*
Believe you me, there’ll be plenty o’ plot between the shounen fights in this series…
Hi I like reading your blog about Claymore and such, but I think you need to sit back and just enjoy the show. You’ve been trying to second guess everything so far, and like the other two above comments suggest, you are going to be wrong again. Don’t worry about Priscilla so much, or any of those other characters. Its pretty obvious this episode confirms that Claire is the main character.
So my suggestion to you is to just sit back and relax and enjoy the show. Don’t try to keep guessing about what is gonna happen next, because this series is far from the normal shounen show.
I can understand your concerns, rikku! But one of the impressive things about Claymore manga is its use of shounen tropes to set up certain plot expectations—and then to unexpectedly subvert them. Norihiro Yagi likes surprises, and you’ve only seen the first of them.
How can Claire ever hope to defeat Priscilla? Part of the answer is just around the corner, in the next two or three episodes. We’ve only been given only a small clue in the anime, so far.
hmm, I’m not sure I agree with you when you say that Priscilla “was even easily able to beat the strongest claymore: Teresa” I from what I could tell, Priscilla had to resort to trickery to beat her because she couldn’t beat Teresa in a fair fight. Had Teresa been ready, I think she probably could have beaten Priscilla even in her awakened form since she was able to beat an almost awakened Priscilla with only 10% of her power
Ah, it’s good to hear that go out and defy the clichés of shounen-anime. It really had me worried for a bit, the next episodes are starting to look promising. 🙂
Jon: I guess that’s true, yeah. Still, I do suspect somehow that she’d have given Teresa a run for her money.
I was shocked that Teressa dies (sob)
“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.”
Teresa was defeated not because she was weak but because she showed mercy when she shouldn’t have. I’m sure Clare has learned from her mistake, and if she’s able to reach Teresa’s level someday, who knows? Maybe Priscilla will meet her match.
Teresa… ;_;
That was my point a bit. Okay, the awakened Priscilla may have been less strong than Teresa, who showed mercy, but the fact remains that reaching her level is incredibly difficult, as shown by all the other Claymores, who can’t get even close to her strength. What makes Claire so special that she’ll be able to reach this level? But I’m glad to hear that there are a few twists in the manga. 🙂
well there was that episode when claire was about to awaken, maybe that will affect her power level because she was suprised the transformation resisded.maybe she also has some awakened powers.
well there was that episode when claire was about to awaken, maybe that will affect her power level because she was suprised the transformation resisded.maybe she also has some awakened powers.
Well, if she awakens, won’t she get hunted down, just like any other Claymore?
Look at Theresa, she had so much skill and strength that none of the best Claymores (2-5) could fight evenly with her, even in their 10% release state.
I can’t get over teresa dying it’s complete bull she was the strongest of them all and yet she lost her life to that stupid kid
I think that Theresa was much stronger than the awakened Priscilla. At 10% strength, she was able to easily repel her attacks and Priscilla was using 80% of her Yoma power. If she had not died, Theresa would probably have been able to kill Priscilla by releasing 30% of her Yoma power. Theresa did not trust the Organisation at all and kept lying to them about her strength. The reasons behind her distrust were never revealed but the author is so good that he is exposing them little by little through the Point of Views of other Claymores.
It was explained why Priscilla’s power sprang out of control so quickly. It was because she had never encountered an opponent before who she could not beat and Theresa frightened her. Also, her mind began to fragment and her entire mental reality became warped. In her mind’s eye, she thought that Theresa was the one who killed her “Papa”.
If you follow the Manga, it can be seen that Claire’s powers are growing exponentially. She is not as powerful as an Abyssal one but is slowly and steadily making her way there. She was able to defeat Rigald (Rigardo in the Anime version) and easily killed ‘Blood Red Agasa’. The chapters are increasingly showing Claire’s yoma growth as well as further expanding the plotline. It is slowly but surely leading us up to a fight between Claire and Priscilla in near to or equal ground.