Chapters 1-73
When the demonic creatures known as Youma begin preying on humanity, there is only thing that can stand against them- the Claymores, women infused with Youma flesh and named for the giant swords they carry. Despite being the lowest ranked of them all, the Claymore known as Clare is driven by a fierce determination forged by a tragic event in her past, but in a world where the shady organisation that controls them is arguably as dangerous as the very monsters they must fight, she may find herself becoming little more than a pawn in a larger game.
When the Claymore manga was first released in English, I can’t say that I had a great deal of interest in it, and after reading some lacklustre impressions of the first volume, it seemed as if it was something best left alone. Nonetheless, when the anime came along, it seemed giving it a try, and when my interest in that version of the story slowly dwindled away, I once again found myself faced with trying a version of the series that would let me take the story at my own pace. Sadly, whilst that would undoubtedly increase my enjoyment, it was not to make Claymore particularly worthy.
Claymore’s strength and weakness stems from the fact that its content is very sparse- story development is slow paced, and there isn’t a whole lot in terms of visuals on any given page. Whilst this means that reading it is always quick and easy rather than headache inducing, it also ensures that even after twelve volumes, it feels as if the story has barely gone anywhere. Yes, twelve years may have past since we first met Clare and her contemporaries, and there have been numerous character introductions and a few explanatory flashbacks, but on the whole, it still seems as if we have barely begun. Maybe it’s just because of the sheer simplicity of the plot, which for the most part remains at the level of “Clare meets other Claymores, Claymores fight incredibly powerful monsters, repeat”. Only when it dares to try something with a little more impact, like the consequences of Clare’s meeting with the near-psychotic Claymore Ophelia, does the content become less superficial and more memorable.
As to be expected from an action series, Claymore does at least offer plenty of fight scenes, but even these sadly prove to be a disappointment rather than a distraction from the quality of the plot. Proper fights seem to be thin on the ground, with the mangaka instead relying on a standard procedure of showing the Claymores posing with their swords before the Yoma either pierce them with numerous tentacles or magically get sliced into tiny pieces. Almost all the fights presented therefore lack any sort of tension of involvement; instead the reader gets so detached from them that they all end up seeming entirely dull. Even attempts to up the stakes by including plenty of blood, gore and cleaved in skulls doesn’t work, for where the likes of Berserk and Gantz gleefully go all the way in inspiring either revulsion or a curious addiction, Claymore just once again feels half-hearted and not really worth caring about one way or another.
As mentioned above, Claymore is host to no small amount of named characters, and as you might imagine, this means that they aren’t particularly imbued with much in the way of development. The amount of Claymores is so vast that it becomes hard to even remember their names, and given the fact that they all have similar generically tragic back stories and a high chance of getting sliced in half in the next arc, there’s little reason to care about them. Non-Claymore supporting characters are similarly uninspired, whilst Clare’s early companion Raki is the sort of utterly useless sidekick character that should never have been included in the first place.
Visually, Claymore’s artwork is not terribly impressive; aside from the occasional detailed town, backdrops are basic to nonexistent, and other designs usually fall into the category of generic and uninspired. There are, however, a few impressive Yoma designs amongst the ugly monster of the week types, and the mangaka does overcome his self-imposed handicap of giving all the Claymores the same uniform, eye and hair colour by working hard to make their hairstyles generally distinctive and unique.
Final Thoughts
With its slow pacing and formulaic storyline, Claymore may not be an utterly poor read, but nor can it be said to be a particularly good one. With Berserk already beating it in every department, it should be treated as more of a mild diversion than something that can offer a truly satisfying reading experience.
Okay, you seriously are the first person I know who has read all 13 volumes of Claymore and thinks it’s generic and slow-paced O.o I must say that I am surprised.
Eh, trust me to be different. I don’t know, maybe my hopes were built up too much but I just feel like I’m only superficially connecting with the storyline and characters, and the whole “evil organisation”, “one small batch of heroes fighting incredibly powerful boss monsters, bishie evil lord and final boss Priscilla” reminds me a lot of a standard RPG or fantasy novel story. The only time I really get into it is when something extreme happens like seven years suddenly having passed or Ophelia slicing up Clare’s arm (the chapters about Ophelia and Irene’s return are my favourite part so far).
Hm. fair enough. Like the review, even though I like the manga more than that. 😉
Then again maybe I’m just a sucker for fantasy-medieval shows that don’t include huge amounts of magic and lolis.
Some interesting points, although I wouldn’t thing its quite as “generic” as you made it sound. Also may be this “slow pace” is what is making the anime feels so fast, since we are already well into vol 8 in the anime. But personally I like Claymore.
I think your issue with Claymore is that you went in expecting it to be plot-centric, and thus you keep fixating way too much on the “plot” and finding it lacking. I completely agree that the storyline consists of “battle, get stronger, rinse, repeat,” which is why I’m not into it for the plot. In fact, given the plot caliber of most series published in Shounen Jump (i.e. the likes of Yugioh, Naruto, Bleach, etc., with Death Note as possibly the only exception), I have no idea why you kept expecting the plot to be Claymore’s strong point–obviously it would disappoint you at almost every turn.
The reason I love Claymore is the characterization. You said the Claymores “all have similar generically tragic back stories,” which is true in the sense that they’re all orphans who lost their loved ones to Yoma and were taken away and combined with demon flesh. However, whereas you consider that reason enough to write them all off as underdeveloped clones of each other, I and most other readers/viewers of the series realize that is precisely what makes all the individual Claymores interesting. Think about what that “generically tragic” backstory means: each (female) Claymore possesses the lingering memories and emotions of a traumatized young human girl, even as the Claymore intentionally brings herself closer and closer to becoming the very thing that destroyed the girl’s entire life. That in itself presents an interesting template from which to build characters, and Norihiro Yagi utilizes it well.
Now, a lot of series have dealt with humans and demons (and half-demon hybrids), but few have blurred the lines the way Claymore does, i.e. in a way that makes me care. The series’ brilliance lies in how it presents the consequences of the dramatic psychological conflict that unfolds as the Claymores are haunted by the memories of their pasts even as they constantly push themselves to the brink of becoming demons themselves. Each Claymore has a different personality, and thus each one deals with her mental issues differently–Ophelia is one of the best examples of this, but there are others like Undine, Jean, Clarice, and Miata, all of whom show that Norihiro Yagi is willing to explore varying psychological effects of turning normal girls into killing machines under conditions of trauma. You said, “The amount of Claymores is so vast that it becomes hard to even remember their names, and given the fact that they all have […] a high chance of getting sliced in half in the next arc, there’s little reason to care about them.” Have you ever read Petshop of Horrors? Each chapter revolves around one or two one-shot characters that never appear again, and yet each one-shot provides a telling glimpse into human nature, making you care about that one-shot for as long as it’s there.
On that note, I must also point out another instance of Claymore’s strength in characterization, something which makes Claymore unique compared to 99% of anime/manga series, including Berserk: a nearly all-female cast that doesn’t consist of the usual anime/manga female archetypes. There are many other series with a heroine as the main char and most of the supporting cast female, but even in these series the females generally get relegated to the archetypes of tsundere (loli or adult), crazy bitch, perky/clueless ditz, enigmatic (read: almost completely without personality) doll, angelic sweetheart, or seductress–at best a mix of two or three different archetypes–and it’s so easy to pinpoint which female consists of which archetype(s). Boring, predictable, and heavily suggesting that if a female character doesn’t fit into one of the archetypes, she can’t exist in an anime/manga series. Claymore steers clear of this pitfall quite nicely–it takes its girls seriously. They’re not merely the familiar one- or two-dimensional caricatures of female personalities that appear in most other anime/manga series.
At the same time, in most shounen series, all the substantial character development goes to the male leads, and thus you know *exactly* how that character development is going to go because it is based on general Japanese preconceptions of the ideal young male personality. Claymore actually has an example of this in the form of Raki, whom I openly declare to be a weak character, and part of me suspects maybe Norihiro Yagi intentionally made him an annoyingly exaggerated version of the usual shounen hero to make a point. Raki aside, the mangaka has basically taken a bunch of generic shounen hero plot situations and switched the hero (and his mostly-male buddies) with a heroine (and the female equivalent of the buddy crew). This could have gone horribly wrong, with the Claymores becoming nothing more than shounen heroes in female bodies and thus bringing back generic shounen character predictability. However, Yagi avoided that, as the majority of Claymores keep a degree of femininity which affects how they behave in situations usually given to male characters, so that even familiar shounen situations are not total rehashes like they would’ve been with the usual male lead. Teresa’s arc has tons of examples of these differences, and Clare, though she has exhibited many classic shounen hero behaviors, never gets to the point where she seems like just a guy in a female body. Maybe this particular trait of Claymore doesn’t mean anything to you, but it’s a welcome breath of fresh for me after all those copycat shounen series with their carbon copy heroes and sidekick cast.
Also, Claymore does better than you think in terms of moral ambiguity. Your own words prove how well Claymore is mixing up the line between good and bad: “the whole ‘evil organisation’, ‘one small batch of heroes fighting incredibly powerful boss monsters, bishie evil lord and final boss Priscilla’.” If Claymore treated good and evil with the black-and-white standard of most shounen series, then surely that “evil organization” would be in cahoots with the “bishie evil lord” and Priscilla–YET THEY’RE NOT. You appear to have missed the fact that the organization isn’t being portrayed as full-out evil: no matter what its ulterior motives may be, in the meantime it is saving villages from demons and even, in a sense, giving a future to children who have lost everything. Of course, the future these children have is to eventually become demons, which again adds to the moral gray area. Are Claymores automatically “evil” after they’ve Awakened? Is there something more to them even after they’ve Awakened, such as was the case with Ophelia and possibly even Priscilla given her weird behavior in the recent manga chapters? I wouldn’t be surprised if Priscilla’s death isn’t at the climax of some big epic battle, but rather at a sudden and “WTF?!” moment out of nowhere, like Teresa’s death.
In short, I say if you want to enjoy Claymore, you need to stop looking for strengths that aren’t there and start paying attention to the good stuff that IS there–there’s quite a lot of it.
*finishes reading Hmmm…’s comment and can’t stop laughing at the use of “in short” at the end*
I’d hate to read one of your not so short comments, LOL
Plot: from what people who had read it before me had said, they seemed to make it out to be something special once you got past the early arcs. I agree that most SJ series are formulaic, but my two favourites Hikaru no Go and Kenshin proved that you can be interesting within that formula.
Characters: the point about the novel use of females is taken, but I just don’t see the originality in “my family was killed, I must become strong”, or “you saved my life, now I will use it to protect you”. The exploration you describe is, I feel, something already done much better in Gunslinger Girl.
The organisation is, to me, like so many others seen in fantasy (usually it’s the Church); they think they’re doing the right thing, but “shockingly” their methods are of the “end justifies the means” type, as they lack the firm moral compass of our bold and noble heroes.
I respect that your opinion and that of the other commenters differs from mine, and I’m glad that my review could provoke such an involved response, but ultimately Claymore and I are not currently on the best of terms. Perhaps in the far future when the series has finished and we have 30-40 volumes of content to look over, I will have changed my mind, but for now I felt like throwing my opinion out there.
Some interesting points but I watched it for the first time last week after reading the manga. I really like the anime version, it matched with what I expected. I also think the OP and ED are well suited.
http://japansugoi.com/wordpress/dark-and-violent-anime-claymore-%e3%82%af%e3%83%ac%e3%82%a4%e3%83%a2%e3%82%a2/
I can see where you’re coming from with this, as the plot is rather quite slow to begin with. The character development has been a little lacking because of the number of Claymores cycled throughout the plot as well, but all in all I think the manga is starting to pick up. It did take a while–only at volume ten did I really start becoming enticed–but I can see this being a fantastic manga with future installments.
My main complaints are that, yes, some of the Claymores should have been a bit better developed (Jean is one character I wish would’ve stayed around a bit longer), and the half-hearted scenes during battles are kind of a peeve–wow, spraying blood, monsters getting their last word in before they fall to twenty peices, and Awaken (-ed, -ing, etc.) beings here, there and everywhere. Woopee.
All in all, though, I think the progress made with a lot of characters–the four Claymores who met in the north, especially–has really picked up. I’m glad that it doesn’t look like Raki will be kept useless; Raki is going to have a meaningful character, unlike so many failed, useless sidekicks I’ve grown used to in animes.
I’m quite fond of the art, even when sometimes lacking background, and despite some nit-picks the story does begin to pick up, even if it’s a bit blunt or shallow here and there. It’s great to see how Clare carries herself through assumed ranks and matures as well.
Oh, and I agree with the “extremes”, Kakura. They do stick out a lot more compared to the initially-lackluster plot, but thankfully things have picked up. I actually got pretty emotionally stirred-up with Ophelia, surprisingly. That was a great volume.
I’m keeping with this one, though–I anticipate Clare’s progress versus her fight for humanity when she pushes to innovate and grow stronger.
I liked his ‘Angel Densetsu’–it’s suprising that he went from a high-school comedy to a fantasy adventure. Thank you for the review–I tried reading the first volume to get why people liked it so much, but felt very bored. I was wondering if it got much better, or if the story picked up, but I guess it doesn’t, really.
(p.s. It’s great to see that you inspire so much discussion! Seeing different opinions of the manga is great, but I think I prefer yours overall because you review series not just because you think they are /OMG-LIFECHANGING-PROFOUND/. You provide a kind of casual-‘I-gave-it-a-shot’ opinion that isn’t really anywhere else… (It’s hard to find good criticism)
Mel, thanks for your thoughts- I actually worry that my review ‘database’ seems too critical overall because there are times when I’ve seen a really great series and I just feel like enjoying it without the added consideration of trying to string a few sentences together. Not that there’s any harm in advertising something you love, of course, I’m just too opinionated not to write about stuff that I didn’t think was as good.
Started reading Claymore, stopped after watching Priscilla “go mad” since then I didn´t think it would be anything nice to read after that. Now it feels Like I´ll have to read it and start watching again.
Does one bad plot ruin the entire series?
I wonder what road will clare walk.
Is she even going tobe stronger?
Priscella seem ten time clare level how will she deal.?
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ok I like claymore
I just new to this blog and Claymore..
i found this manga at onemanga.com
it’s look such a serious manga and i think i will continue and do some review about it..
Everyone can die that’s one of the main reason I love Claymore. Power level is better than other usual shonen series. Fighting is mainly rely on teamwork not rely on only one person. I thought Claymore is one of the most brilliant manga I’ve ever read. That’s my opinion of course. And the latest chapter make me love it even more.
I’ve read somewhere that the author decides to release about 25-30 volumns. It’s also a good thing because it means that the author knows how to end the series. So, readers can make sure that this won’t be another never ending series with a filler plot just to extend the series like many popular series out there. I will be sad when the series end but I’m sure that it’s worth my time.
On other note, I’ve heard so many people try to compare Claymore with Berserk. I may be a minority here but I personally don’t feel attach to Berserk character that much compare with Claymore. Again that’s just my own opinion. ^_^
i really love claymore its just the monthly release sux ass i would rather have shorter chapters come every week instead of 1 long 1 once a month that sux bad
The thing that marks the Claymore Anime out from many like it is the way the characters don’t spend half the episode standing round saying “This is my ability; this is what it does; now you will die.” By which point the other character should have killed him instantly but instead waits for the first speaker to finish talking. Claymore doesn’t do that.
Diphobus: actually that happens quite often. Just not as drawn out as others like it.
this is my snake/wobbling (can’t remember) sword. But don’t be fooled, it’s only an illusion. In reality my arm is vibrating really really fast. This causes blah blah blah blah blah.. blah blah.. blah blah blah. blah. Now we shall fight, and then I will easily over power you. As soon as it seems like it’s all over for you and you don’t stand a chance BAM! Credits (anime). Next episode, protagonist finds rediculous way once again to overcome the seemingly impossible opponent completely causing the wobbly swords advantages to seem completely pointless and the protagonist swiftly cleans up. Mean while, a third party decides to enlighten us as to the protagonists overwhelming change into a badass. Formula completed, repeat.
Don’t let my sarcasm fool you, because all in all I absolutely love claymore.
I love Claymore, but you have to admit a lot of concepts was copied from berserk. The huge swords, the way the claymores sleep with their swords, even the look of the awakened beings in comparison to the apostles of Berserk. But I don’t mind this at all, because Claymore is original in how it weaves all these elements, though I have to agree that it is going a little slow, but I have faith that it will pick up. Especially when Raki is introduced back in, one thing is for certain the weak Raki we all knew is no more, he might even become a male claymore (never know) adding a whole other dynamic to his relationship with Clare. There is also the organization, is it just me or are they not even human themselves. Well, whatever happens I am looking forward to it.
Wow, I can’t believe that after 73 chapters of pure amazing manga, you said that it was not too good. I mean, I’ve converted more than 25 people into Claymore fans and gotten more than 40 people to start reading manga and watching anime through Claymore. True, it resembles Berserk but beats in every department? I understand it’s your opinion but there’s a limit lol. I’m trying my best not to get carried away and start a flame war (and then get turned into a Niwe-esque blood splatter) lawl. I mean the Awakened Beings, The mysterious organization, Crazy fights, Romance….what’s not to like?
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I was’nt a fan of any ‘talk-of-theworld’ animes such as Naruto and Bleach before my encounter with Claymore just that the word ‘anime’ makes me feel like a nonsensical kid trying to play around some exhort fantasies. However, when I chanced upon Claymore I started to find out some interesting anime series or read.
The first chapter wasn’t really impressive if you look on the side of an anime-fan newbie but when you go through the plot development in the next chapters you will be enchedith how the concept was realized. The strength of Claymore couldn’t be based on some sheer, hasty generalization about the simplicity of the plot. Clare, aiming to avenge Teresa developed into a kinda mixture of intertwining fates and encounters cannot satisfy one’s lust for a good anime or manga. The reason I loved to continue reading the manga is that it has a realistic virtue. The characters try to find their values in a world they don’t even ‘really know. It’s emotion-packed, serious and sensible; it doesn’t go along with the usual series that make use of comic relief in the surge of a serious battle.
Well, for those who doesn’t yet like Claymore, it’s better for you to watch or read the amnga first then comment.