Claymore

The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
I will begin with saying that this is particularly true for Claymore. On the second hand i must note that this was the first of all anime I ever watched - my boat to the new unexplored horizons that awaited me...so this review might tend to be emotional, irrational, illogical, subjective and biased :) This is of course because it holds a special place for me among anime world.

Story (7): Revenge, conspiracy, redemption, comradeship, existence and purpose are the key motives of this story. Story of finding something that keeps you going on, ... something worth fighting for and ultimately give your life, one thing that is truly your own. It can be said bluntly that it's about hunting demons with big swords and shady organizations with evil intents but I observe it from another perspective-trough motivation, exposed and subtle meaning. This kind of stories tend to be vessels for character growth so light shifts to characters as the most prominent and strongest aspect of the show. This is by no means bad thing as Claymore is first and foremost story about Claymores themselves - beautiful silver eyed witches.

Characters (9): There are truly many memorable characters from Claymore. Clare is our main character and the "media" which links other protagonist, the future and the past. As a monster/demon huntress which are by the common folk simply called Claymores, she is on a path of self exploration, of finding something she lost. She is of unbreakable spirit, and as the twirl of events unfolds, she dares to hope, to hope that there is more to existence than staining her sword with demon blood. Raki, young boy who lost his family to Yoma (demons) accompanies Claire on her travels. As time passes he eventually finds way to Claire's inner-self and the feelings she thought lost long time ago being always a cold huntress! Bond of love, trust and friendship is forged between them but events get them separated and both of them struggle to unify with each other once again. Other characters also contribute to this great anime: Teresa, Irene, Jean, Miria...their motivations lead the story onwards. Character interactions, their intervened relations, conceive emotionally moving and warm moments thus for me are surely highlight of Claymore.

Art (9): Madhouse - there is no need, I believe, to specially introduce this studio. Their work speaks for themselves (Black Lagoon, Death Note, Devil May Cry, Hellsing Ultimate...) and Claymore is of course no different. Madhouse style is clearly present and so is the quality. There could be some nitpicking about consistency but overall nothing short of great. Must note that I watched also blu-ray edition whose clarity of picture and sound is excellent and pure enjoyment that really gives due credit to beautiful artwork and animation of studio Madhouse, same time giving anime new dimension.

Music (10): Excellent and memorable. Soundtrack for Claymore is one of the best of all times combining strong dark bassy tunes and then some soothing guitar ones, beautiful bagpipes sounds, folkloric flute melodies...rarely you will find soundtrack of such caliber. I deeply enjoyed every moment of it. Powerful opening and ending songs (Raison d'etre by Nightmare and Guilty sky by Riyu Kosaka) just add up to this awesome piece, also making one of mine favorite openings of all time.


Overall/Enjoyment (9):
I'm quite sure that i didn't cover all of the aspects of Claymore and as such this review is to be faulty in that manner. I humbly tried to present my view on enjoyment this anime provided to me and reasons for doing so, therefore I believe this could also serve as my tribute to Claymore - the first anime I ever watched and than after quite some time decided to write a review. Now I'm glad that this was my first venture in the world of anime because it sucked me in and presented me in best manner what that world has to offer: great artwork and style, beautiful strong music, emotional connection with characters, sense of immersion, tense and awesome battles...
As the whole is greater then sum of its parts so is Claymore as a whole more then just its artwork, characters, music... combined they make Claymore shine! As for me, on my anime sky, Claymore will always, like the Sirius, shine brightest.



Thank you for reading!

Story (9): Its simply amazing, however the ending is not so great, i dont know why i say this, i just think it started really amazing and finished in just a good ending. However, now i´m curious, i want to read claymore manga as well..

Art (8): Art is fine, the characters are well designed, the rest is also good, but nothing special. However, for me is more than enough to be one of the best anime ive seen.

Sound (7) : Sometimes great, sometimes not really good. The fact i dont like it at all doesnt mean its bad.

Character (8): This aspect is very good, but ... could be better.. the fact that there are a lot of claymores doesnt help i know, not every one of them appear in the anime...but the ones that are in the anime, some i still know almost nothing about them..I know, its hard to tell something about every one of them, so i consider the way characters are develloped very good, but could be a little better...

Enjoyment (9): A fine anime to watch. Lots of fights, action, blood, killing...and also peaceful moments. I liked...i recommend to everyone who likes action, its a nice choice.

Overall (8) : Well, a fine job.. i give an overall 8, but this one is 8.4-8.45, very close to 9..In my opinion, it focus all aspects (not only 1 or 2 like some others) and the story is atractive.

Claymore got my attention from the very first episode. The story focuses on a certain Claymore, Clare, who's motivated to become stronger snd stronger in order to get her revenge.

The story is truly great but what I loved the most was how every single character was amazing in their own ways. My favourite one was Teresa and I'm dissappointed that she only appears in a few episodes although she had a great influence on Clare and other characters. Many characters die and with every death you become more and more addicted to the series because it gets to your feelings.

Like I said first, I ... enjoyed watching every episode beacuse the story is very captivating so you won't get bored even for one second.

I don't want to write any spoilers. All I want to say is that the ending is rather open, the story goes on so I really wish there would be season 2.

Overall I rated this anime 10. I was more like 9.50 but I gave it a 10 because of the great characterisation of Clare, Raki, Teresa and other ones. If you haven't watched it yet, I really reccomend it to you.

Claymore

-I am going to make this short and sweet.
-I don't understand why people gave this anime 6's & 7's. This anime is truly great in its own way.
-I believe this anime came from nothing and evolved into something much greater than expected.
-I loved this anime from the characters to the story. Every character that was involved in this anime were really unique and made this anime really good and entertaining. The story was pretty cool too, it was something new to me that really peeked my interest I didn't know much about this anime before watching it all i knew was what the synopsis provided ... me. (which wasnt much) One of my favorite parts about this anime was the Arc with Teresa and Claire and how Claire met Teresa. This was remarkable and very memorable to me. It told a really really good story and explained the unexplainable about Claires life. Thats the reason why I rated the story a 9 was just based off of this arc.(yeah your probably thinking that its not an arc but whatever its the same thing to me haha)
-The best thing about this show and the ratings was the Enjoyment of this anime, i rated it a 10 because i never saw myself losing interest in this show. Every episode was filled with some sort of action even if the story was starting to get slow it still kept me wanting more. I ended up finishing this anime really really fast because it was that damn good.
-If you dont believe what i am saying to you then stop reading this and go try it for yourself.
-Hope this helped you in deciding to watch this or not have a great day!!

If you are interested in a dark anime, with a decent plot, a flood of blood, and for once fearless women without squeaky voices, then Claymore maybe for you. Spoiler free.

Plot summary:

Basically, demonic creatures 'Yoma' consume human innards. To oppose the 'Yoma', we have a group of women known as 'claymores', who are half human - half Yoma. These silver eyed Claymores exist solely to eliminate the Yoma. Due to their Yoma anatomy, the Claymores are detested by regular humans.

Plot Analysis: 8

The plot, sure is capable of intriguing you. Raki, our main hero, sets out with Clare, a Claymore, after a Yoma attack. We see ... Clare encountering a variety of opponents, ranging from Yoma to Claymores. The battles aren't endlessly dragged, or the victor prevailing through 'laughable', illogical means. The main character has a sole purpose for her actions, and no arbitrary events are showcased.

Would you selflessly serve the society, which despises you? That's the question which lights the Claymores mind. Overall, the plot was fairly decent, may seem a bit episodic in the beginning, but it all fits up. One thing that may dissuade people from watching Claymore is that, towards the end it diverges from the Manga, and forms its own ending. As to that, I believe it solely depends upon the viewer's taste. It may seem a bit incomplete, but I for one found it satisfactory enough.

Sound: 8

The opening and ending songs are fairly decent, easily supplementing the anime's atmosphere. The soundtrack ranges from a beautifully executed melancholy orchestra to a more forceful thumping beat.

Art: 9

The art is magnificent. Set in a medieval period, the dark tone of the anime is beautifully animated. Its like reading a fantasy novel, coming across descriptions of crystal clear lakes or mountains. If you've read the Inheritance series by Christopher Paolini, you'll be reminded of Alagaesia. The action scenes look realistic enough, and the sequence pacing is decent.

Character: 7

This is where, I think the anime could have buckled up. No real character development really takes place. The characters who are pathetic remain pathetic(you'll know when you see), and you don't notice any visible changes in the characters. With that said, the main characters have relevant backstories, but barring that you don't see any further development. You also don't really get attached to any of the characters.

I personally don't have serious issues with that. It depends upon your taste. Should the characters remain the same, after the initial backstory/past introduction? Or would you want to see a visible change in their outlook? Since Clare primarily has only one goal, its clear why her character remained steadfastly firm, but as I remarked, this depends upon viewer interpretation.

Enjoyment: 8

So basically, despite all the inherent flaws, plot, etc, enjoyment is what really makes an anime for me. The above mentioned becomes irrelevant, if your time was well used. So yeah, for the most part I enjoyed Claymore. Occasionally, it may seem dragged or a tad bit repetitive, but watchable.

Overall: 8

Action, Gore, dark medieval setting, intriguing plot. If you are into this genre, you may consider checking Claymore out. Not my favorite but still pretty unique, and satisfactory.

Excellent !!!!. Claymore is one cool anime, yeah I know the stories revolves around sad and sorrow of the characters that had exrperience tragedy in there life all and all it comes to one thing.......... the fight scenes of the series art, sound track, characters and story was outstanding. But its not good for the young kids, becouse of the brutality of the fight scenes its not good for there young minds. Anyway its one of the greatest anime of 2007 even if well the ending of the series way rushed and I know I read about its manga and its rushed. But ... for the people that likes hack and slash anime with a bit of finding one's purpose in life well this anime is for you.

Claymore the anime that has a bad ass, sword fighting and did I say that the Claymore's are hot and beautiful women that protect the world from from demon's called Yoma. And can I say that the Claymore are such liers, you know why? becouse they say that they are half human half monster and consider them selves monsters, but.... but when the time comes that they awaken they say to there comrades to kill them will they have the heart of a human and thats full of ump....hahahahaha... And the bottom line is I like this anime even if its rushed and so brutal and did I say that i don't like voilence against women man come on those women are beautiful than any anime I have seen and they get killed Oh man...... well that it....... Its good, its great, and outstanding.

The first that one will notice about Claymore is that it is a heavily thematic anime: women with swords and armor, humans versus monsters/demons and the internal battles of strong, sacrificial yet feared and misunderstood warriors.


I'll begin with what I believe to be the aspects of Claymore that are both its best asset and weakness; this anime offers an awesome blend of beautifully crafted women that possesses awesome fighting qualities. "Claymores" is what they are called, and they represent a mysterious organization that fight demons or human devouring "Youma."

The story is revealed by a certain "Claymore" named Clare and her meeting with ... an ill-fated boy, Raki. Their endeavors will reveal little by little the mysteries surrounding these female warriors or what people call "silver eyed witches." Those women each have special abilities, personal conflicts and pasts- especially Clare, who has a certain resolve to achieve her goal: vengeance.

This backdrop offers us plenty of exciting and suspenseful action (with a certain degree of violence); Claymore offers one of the best. The interaction of those characters, and the clashes of their persona deserves praise, and also many criticisms:

To my dismay, the themes of Claymore are differently emphasized, emotion and desire are the ones that are prevalent in the story. The plot progresses with vengeance, hatred , curiosity, strength and of course, love. However, because Claymore's story is like a rope with many threads (its characters affecting the series overall), the story is weakened very much by few necessary significant, yet mediocre characters.

Also, the presence of obviously evil, inhumane antagonists offers a one sided war. And if ever they have the reason or motivation for their actions, it is explained/emphasized in an unimpressive way-with many of the characters. Too many deaths of certain beloved people for dramatic effect already became cliches. The set of characters are is also limited to those who share the same fates or point of views, so the clashes of varieties of individuals are hardly seen.

Also note the overuse of lines such as "I want to be with you no matter what!" or "She is a human, even though..." which are based plainly on emotional reasons, yet they advance the story.

Yet I can also say that Claymore is enjoyable and its art is worth to be appreciated. Its animation is very beautifully realistic and appropriate, setting a perfect mood for the series. The medieval inspired setting, is well designed and the characters can be individually identified though they share certain characteristics. The Claymores are certainly memorable and its hard not to love them.

The music is very dramatic and epic. The opening and ending music are very well-suited to the themes. But in my opinion, they could have been better, for they failed to stir emotions at certain scenes; some music are also used inappropriately- like a heroic music at a haunting scene.

Though I believe that Claymore wasted a lot of its potential (such as female psychology and the issue of humanity), I really had fun watching it. The suspense is awesome that you'll be glued in your seat or bed.

Story:5
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It's a typical Shonen Storyline
Though somehow enemies would block sword strikes with their arms which seem to be made of steel and then the next moment have those arms cut off by another sword strike

Art: 4
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The art overall is very dull, most of the girl's look way too similar making it almost impossible to distinguish who is who at times
The majority of the cities and landscape was very dull as well
Any special abilities the Claymore's had were boring from an aesthetic standpoint
...
Sound: 7
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Nothing to complain about here, the sound was average

Character: 5
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Just a ton of one dimensional characters, specifically the enemies.
Arguably my most hated character was "Priscilla", a really annoying girl who somehow blames one Claymore who "betrayed" the organization for killing her family members.
Also everyones power-level seemed very inconsistent, strong one moment and weak the next.
I disliked how the show tried to make me care about all the Claymore's getting slaughtered, like really? I just found out who they were two episodes ago and I really don't care for them anyway.

Enjoyment: 7
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I enjoyed the first half of the show but enemies became very repetitive and the more Claymore's introduce the less I cared about the show

Overall: 6
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This show is just a bunch of women being displayed as strong and then getting ripped apart by some demonic creatures and Raki is an annoying pointless cry baby.
If your into below average Shonen anime watch it.

Claymore is a Shounen Fantasy anime that revolves mostly around a female protagonist, Clare, and her ventures with her cook Raki. Clare is part of an organization that essentially controls half-man, half-monster beings called 'Claymores'. These Claymores go out and fight monsters called Yoma, who plague the world of wherever it is that this anime take's place setting wise. It is a moderately well thought out battle anime with decent enough character development and a plot that makes you wish it was twice as long.

Story:

The story, in the beginning, progresses very slowly. As denoted in the quick overview, the anime focuses on Clare, a ... Claymore who fights Yoma. I was actually quite bored with the show (for multiple reasons) until I reached episode 7, where things finally started to pick up. But until you reach that far, you're basically just following Clare and Raki with almost no real story background and watching Clare slay basic Yoma; Yoma that are so basic, you can tell they aren't major just by the way they are drawn. The boring monsters, coupled with the lack of story and lame characters in the beginning was a real turn-off for me for this anime. But believe me, it picks up. You eventually learn of Clare's reason for fighting, and that's where the story takes off. It is the classic story of revenge, and from there more interesting monsters get involved too. You learn that the world doesn't revolve around Clare, and there is a bigger picture involved here. For once, as well, we have a protagonist that isn't created to be the most powerful person in existence, which is a nice change of pace. But speaking of pace, that was a problem I had with this anime. The pacing in the beginning was really slow, and I feel it was a waste of a good amount of episodes. Then, out of no where, it picks up and gets very interesting. At the end though, it almost seems rushed and ends with more questions than answers. I feel entirely unresolved now that the anime is finished, and the anime didn't interest me enough to pursue the manga to find out the overall ending. I would almost say I was disappointed in how the story turned out, but the end was still sort of pleasing and I really did love the mini-arc with Teresa. However, it feels like it ended half-way from where it SHOULD have been. It should have been twice as long. Overall, a good story.

Art:

The art was different than I am used to. I'd describe it as Victorian art style meets Anime art style. We have the beautifully drawn Claymores, that all look like the could be dolls, and we have the not-so-well drawn humans. They aren't bad, but not as good as the Claymores. The Yoma in the beginning, as aforementioned, were boring and not drawn in a way that caught the eye. However, when the more interesting Yoma get involved, the artwork really displays how good it is! One thing I did notice was a lack of consistency, with eye placement on a face or lip detail and other things that relate to the face. Nothing major, but sometimes distracting if you're overly critical with the art of an anime (as I am). They also don't censor much, and this anime is a bit gory. Overall, the art is one of the more fine points of the anime.

Sound:

There was nothing particularly good or bad about the sound, voice acting, or music.

Characters:

At first, I was REALLY annoyed. I actually disliked Raki and Clare as characters, because they had such a lack of depth for the first 6 episodes. Raki was just an annoying cry baby; I haven't even met a girl who cries as much as he did. And Clare was just a plank with no personality at all. Then Teresa's story came up, and I fell for her character first. Then we learn more about Clare, and Raki toughens up and becomes more likable. Clare also manages to be less of a Kristen Stewert and gains some emotion, which is always good for the protagonist of an anime. The other secondary characters also are a very nice touch. The girls we see in the opening credits (Miria, Deneve, Helen, and Jean) are really nice additions and contrast each other well, giving a nice variety to the characters. As it probably seems, my favorite character in the whole mix was Teresa.

Enjoyment and Overall:

Overall, I have mixed feelings about this anime. I liked the story, but it was slow and boring at times and left me wishing there was more (not in the good way, but in a 'this is rushed' way). I liked the artwork at times, but didn't at other times. The sound wasn't specially good or specially bad, and the characters were good but took a while to actually get to that point. I feel very stuck between a 7 and an 8. I'd give this anime a 7.4, but since there are no decimal ratings, I rounded overall to a 7. The anime was a decent watch, and considering how popular it is and the fact that it isn't long, it's worth watching. I wouldn't say it was one of my favorites, but if they were to make a second season I would totally watch it. Overall, a good anime.

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********SIDE NOTE! IGNORE FOR POSSIBLE MINOR SPOILERS**********

Something that I felt like I could not go without saying for this review was something that might be perceived as a minor spoiler: character death. I feel like this anime is the 'Game of Thrones' of the anime world. Characters die off so casually and often in this show, to the point where I almost never wanted to get attached to a character. It was nice knowing that the suspense of a battle was warranted because they may not actually come out alive, but the characters die so casually that they don't get the epic deaths I wished they would get. In fact, all of the fighting is treated really casually: enemy deaths, limbs being cut off (which happens A LOT), and/or friendly character deaths. Overall: violence is gory in this anime, but treated casually.

**********************END OF SIDE NOTE***********************

At first glance Claymore could be as any other shounen anime including blood, gore,fights and a fair share of revenge. However when I continued I noticed that the characters captured my interest. The pain they suffered, the trials they faced and the despairs they were thrown formed many different people. Depending on how they coped, processed and the amount of acceptance they were each capable of thrown into a clash of competition was a brilliant combination for me. The frail limits of a human mind when pressed to the ultimate created this fascinating anime.

I admit that the story was typical as expected and I didn't ... particularly grow fond of the the way the characters were drawn but with the excellent casting of voice actors it became acceptable and after a while I hardly grew annoyed with the art in itself. The depth of characters lifted this anime from something average to my absolute favorite anime seen so far that is if a second season is to be expected otherwise I feel that the whole season was wasted but I give points to this anime while assuming that a second season is on its way.

I just finished the last episode of Claymore and I have to say it left me with a bit of thinking. Claymore is a very unpredictable anime with a lot of blood spilling. Watching it, you will think that the story will flow as any other common anime would, mixing together war, love, hatred and revenge resulting a mixed-up story, but that is not true at all. Claymore respects the primary goal throughout the story.

The environment is dark, obscure, giving it a more serious air but also a spooky and cold one.

I really admire that despite the fact that the anime has got a lot ... of beautiful blonde girls appearing in it, Claymore respected its genres of adventure and action all the way, without any ecchi involved.

The thing I did not really liked was the bitter taste that Claymore left me with. Even though the anime was really good, something was missing. At some point i realised that the story lacked some details and could have been wider and richer. That made it just a little bit unsatisfactory.

Some may learn something from the last episodes, maybe a life lesson, some may accept it, some may not agree with it, but that is for you to decide, I dont want to spoil it.

All things considered, Claymore is a "must see" and I strongly recommend it.

Claymore is an action, fantasy, supernatural based anime which was released in the spring of 2007. The show itself was adapted from its manga, spanning 26 episodes- although it should be noted it does cut off from the manga near the end in order to fit the anime in. This show gets going straight from minute one and from there on it’s almost impossible to stop. Almost.
The premise upon which Claymore is built is actually a very absorbing one, the setting and plot doesn’t seem clichéd and right from the first episode it is likely to have you hooked. The world in Claymore ... is inhabited by both humans and monsters which are otherwise known as Yoma. They are beings who are always thirsting for human flesh and have a veracious appetite for guts. What makes these Yoma so special is the fact that they can change forms to look just like humans and thus they can reside in villages and towns, getting by undetected and pounce whenever the opportunity presents itself. Humans themselves are unable to fight back as the Yoma are simply too strong and so the humans often call for help in the form of claymores. Claymores are half-human, half-Yoma beings who are controlled by an “organisation” and have the power to slay most Yoma with relative ease. They are however not trusted and feared by the humans due to their Yoma connections despite the assistance they provide.
The first episode introduces the two main protagonists in the show, Raki, a young boy who had lost his parents to Yoma and also Clare, a claymore who is sent to rid the Yoma in Raki’s village. Through various events, Raki eventually tags on and travels with Clare on her journey- very much to Clare’s disdain. Without getting into spoiler territory, I would like to point out that this is initially a very interesting relationship in terms of how the two quite different people start to bond. Raki slowly tries to win Clare over and eventually they start to build a bond over the length of the show which is key to many parts of the story. However, this isn’t the only relationship and in fact there is an arc far better involving a relationship much fuller and richer than that of Raki and Clare.
The show actually has a theme running throughout of brotherhood, togetherness and friendship. These themes are the backbone of so many arcs and sub-plots and the way in which the characters are united can seem to strike up a few emotions. It certainly promotes a very healthy and real sense of camaraderie which means you can really connect and empathise with many of the characters. They use this attraction to the characters to really play with your emotions, not always for the better, in this show you can feel frustrated, shocked, elated all at the same time for almost all of the characters throughout the show. Personally apart from two or three characters, I didn’t find the characters to be amazingly deep and most were average.
There are some deeper questions this show asks too however, which are interspersed frequently in every episode. The main one being- what is it to really be human? What is it within us that keeps us sane? When do we cross the line that turns us into a metaphorically speaking, monster- I’m thinking murderers etc. here. These are just thoughts that will pop up from episode to episode and get you thinking- although the anime itself doesn’t take it upon itself to really answer these questions.
At this point I’ll also mention the amount of guts and gore involved in this show. Basically, I don’t there was a single period of ten minutes where I didn’t see someone’s limbs or head flying off. Every single episode is full of blood and gore, that isn’t to say however that it is off putting, it’s just extremely over the top. The amount of damage some of these people can take just has you thinking “oh c’mon you’ve got to be dead by now!” So you are certainly covered if you are looking for a lot of over the top action!
Now, so far everything seems pretty good. Fairly gripping characters? Check. A storyline and setting that can really go somewhere? Check. Do we end up actually going anywhere? Not really.
There were quite a few problems with this show, which personally I feel stopped it from really going on and becoming a really top rate show. The biggest problem with this show was that it was simply too short, it needed to, HAD to be longer. It could really have benefitted from further episodes, not to keep the story going, but instead to expand on the situations within the initial 26 episodes. The show starts to run out of steam as the show goes and after an extremely strong start, fails to keep it up. As a result by the end of the show you feel as if there loads of details that have been missed out and that the whole thing is just too rushed. The strong premise of the show and the action means you will keep watching-while still enjoying the show- but at some point you will feel as if you have hit some kind of wall and that nothing is really progressing.
A further problem was that the show seems to lose the overall plot over the course of the show and fumbles its way through to the final few episodes. The sense of closure when you will finish the show is missing, you don’t really feel as if the show has ended and you’re left with a sort of “wait what, that’s it?” feeling. After all the plots and storylines which are set up it can feel like a massive let down and that’s where the flaw lies.
The art style was quite good for an anime of the 2007 period and also complemented the style of show that Claymore depicts, although it did seem a little odd at times with the way some humans were portrayed. The Yoma themselves weren’t all the same and were sufficiently different enough to keep you guessing. The music was simply superb, the actions scenes were complemented with the kind of music that really pumps you up and the tense moments really did give you a sense of unease. The OP was very good in my opinion, while the ED was average.
Despite the criticisms, Claymore is still a thoroughly enjoyable show which sadly falls short of its rather massive potential. However if you are looking for fast paced action with loads of over the top fighting and blood and gore, then this is your show.
For recommendations for similar shows, I would certainly recommend attack on titan if you haven’t already seen it since they are both similar in terms of action, although attack on titan in my opinion has a far more even paced and frankly better story line.

Claymore is one of the animes that you certainly would look a second time, just to enjoy the thrilling fights, yet while having an already seen concept.

It plays out in a medieval world where predators called ,,Yoma'' reign terror over humanity. They are able to hide in a human ,,shell'' and can pop up anytime to kill and eat a human when they see fit.
Humanity though then showed the politely described ,,Go away'' -Finger to the Yoma by the creation of a sub-race.
A secret organisation has brought women together and had let them consume Yoma flesh, or implanted yoma flesh into them. The ... result to that is that they gain the power to see Yoma even in their human shell, but in exchange -they have to stay emotionless. When those girls unleash their emotions, the yoma in them rises and thus takes over them. If they reach a certain limit then they are not able to revert to their human form.
I will come back to this part in a bit.

The Story brings us Raki, a young boy that that had lost his parents due to a yoma attack and thus was left only with his brother who tries to teach him swordsmanship. Raki is faced with a sudden yoma attack and even that the elder called the famous ,,Claymore'' to their aid. Claymore , is an unfortunately not explained nickname that the citizen gave the cursed women. Some say that they could see nothing behind those eyes , yet when they changed the colour - they were able to see Yoma.
A young woman with short hair then arrives at the city, she was the one called, but then the story does a rushed step where raki gets attacked by the yoma that hid himself as his brother while telling him bit by bit that he was the one that ate his brother back then.
Naturally this wont go unnoticed by the Claymores' Eye, and she saves the little boy Raki. Him having nothing left, he began to follow her and thus we finally hear her name, Claire.

Claire is basically the same like Raki. The story begins to deconstruct her by showing a bit of affection and care for his welldoing while she protects and trains him too. Up to that point where she even gets saved through his will. Despite Claire being clarified well in the story. We unfortunately get little to no more information about Rakis Backstory during the whole series. The Plot goes then further to introduce the main villain, a demoness called ,,Priscilla'' which violently killed Claires guardian and her friends back then. You get a good feel from then on that she seeks only and only to avenge her killed friend.

Coming then to Art. If you are a fan of gore - you will be fine with this. The art is trying to be realistically and creative and when something should look like it hurts - it does look very very very painful. I was also amazed at the competitive fights and the different yoma designs, not to forget that its style its leaned towards older anime maybe bringing even a bit more comic-like features in it. The sound is more medieval oriented and thus also very fitting. Though while the Opening is very fitting, i feel like the battle themes hadnt had the power they should. Theme should make you pumped, should make you excited for the fight..yet it went a little lash, but thankfully the plot makes up for that so it wont get boring midway through.
Characters, as already mentioned, were sometimes left out and not really well fleshed out, leaving you with scenes that hadnt much reasoning attached to them. Like, why did Teresa not kill Priscilla -it is clear that she would have been a threat, why did she hesitate at the moment of Priscilla being overtransformed and begging to be killed. I know that the new Priscilla might have been too fast for her, but ît seemed like she gave time on purpose instead of ending it quickly.

Though some flaws, i mostly had enjoyed Claymore - even looking it in English dub and japanese dub too. (though i ensure you that watching the original jp dub is much better) i issue it a solid : 7.5

If you have read it all up until here, know that im very grateful for that :) and i Hope that my review could have helped you making the choice to watch it or not.

Claymore is set in the medieval times where demons called, Yoma, terrorize humans. Luckily however the humans have the claymores on their side, half human half Yoma beings ordered by a mysterious organization to rid of the Yoma. The story follows Raki and Clare who venture off to fulfill Clare's revenge quest.

Story:
The story is not unique but that ins't a issue because the story although cliche is well executed. the story is also easy to follow so there shouldn't be confusion as to what is going on in the story.

Art:
The artwork is great and reminds me much of the anime, Monster's animation, making the characters ... look like actually people.

Sound:
I really enjoyed the soundtracks in this anime and have no complaints about the sound

Characters:
This is the shows Achilles heel, which is not good since the charterers have to carry the show along. It felt as if most of the characters were just lacking in personality, aside for a few select of dynamic characters, most characters could be classified as either cocky, evil, or naive. The characters genuinely were generic and some had zero substance.

Enjoyment:
Aside from some characters i had a blast watching this anime, It was badass even in spite of its flaws.

This anime is a classic for me. As an person who loves action anime it delivers some good epic stuff.

Action: 9/10. This anime is violent and gory and I'm totally fine with that. People get eaten, monsters get cut up, half humans and half monsters ( claymores) get cut up. People getting killed left, right and center. Its perfect from an action point of view. Tonnes of action throughout the series. Won't be disappointed by it either. There's fast paced action. Slow emotional paced action and intellectual action where characters outsmart there opponents or evaluate the battles in detail. It's absolutely wonderful.

Story: 6/10. This story ... was basic, effective and started of good. Without revealing too much its about revenge and a organization which deploys half human and half monster warriors ( claymores) to exterminate monsters. Relationships get built both between humans and claymores and the series just progresses from there. There's tonnes of emotion and hardship which will get you sucked in and focused on this. The story is great you'll love it. You'll hate the ending though. Many unanswered questions left. This is the type of anime which just didn't end. It needed a season 2 but never got it. I guess a part of that could be because it stopped following the manga at one point. The ending is catastrophic its bad and it ruins the whole series because the story was brilliant. Nevertheless if you like action and character development you should watch this series. Plenty of emotion and character and plot development.

Overall 7/10. The action and massacres are worth watching. The story is very seducing. The ending is heartbreaking it hits me every time i watch it.

Since Claymore is one of those anime that doesn't adapt the whole manga and has an anime original ending; I never really bothered to watch it. The premise looked cool, but I didn't want to be disappointed. Now that I've finally finished it; here are my personal thoughts on it:

Claymore's setting can be described as Dark Fantasy; it's very grim, there's virtually no comedy or fanservice; it's violent and a lot of people die. So first of all, what is this anime about: Claymores are half-monster girls (not as sexy as it sounds) who defeat actual monsters ("Yoma") with their giant swords. But since ... there are part monsters themselves, they might turn into "awakened beings" who are even more dangerous than normal monsters. The main characters are a young woman named Clare, who seeks revenge for a beloved person from her past and her sidekick Raki who doesn't really do anything, except whine.

Probably the first thing that you'll notice, is that 95% of the characters are female. What, a fighting shounen with females who aren't weak? Exactly. I have to be honest here if it wasn't for the strong women in Claymore; this show wouldn't have that much identity. That's a pretty poor statement, but I still really appreciate the author's decision, since action anime with girls are still pretty rare.

I didn't like the number of character deaths though. Too many characters die 2-3 episodes after they're introduced, which made it hard to like any of them (except for Clare). The fact that most characters look the same didn't really help (same clothing/armor and very similar hair and faces).

This show had an interesting art style and I really liked the atmosphere in Claymore, it felt really dark and edgy. The music was decent too and there are a few tracks that really stood out. Animations are good too, the action scenes usually look fluid.

The ending was by far the worst aspect of this anime. It wasn't satisfying at all and felt like there was so much left (which it was since the anime only adapts 40% of the manga). But what this anime adapt was pretty good and for the most, I felt very entertained. After you finished this show, you either want to quickly read the manga, because this anime made you a Claymore fan and you want to see the real ending or you're just disappointed and want to never touch Claymore ever again because of the ending(in my case it was the former ^^).

First of all, I'm not a huge fan of this genre of anime. It troubles me when the entire series can be seen as a progression of power. Much like in the Dragonball series, Z, GT and such, the villains can only get so powerful, and the main hero can only grow in strength so much. Now, if all you want to see is some pretty cool sword combat, lots of blood and dismemberment, even bodies being cut to little tiny pieces, then you've come to the right place. But don't come expecting some phenomenal story-line either. Essentially, what you ... get is a typical tale of revenge - "you took something from me, so I'm taking your life" kind of response. Now while this isn't such a bad thing, it depends entirely upon the presentation. What makes Claymore a respectable entry into this genre is in the characters and the art. Somehow, with over 47 different Claymores, each one has their own unique personality and appearance. Each villain is also given a unique and interesting personality that makes each encounter fresh, exciting and tense. The art, as well, is something unique to this anime. I don't believe I've seen another series that has quite this level of animation. It's hard to describe fully so that you can understand what I'm talking about. But if you watch the first episode, you'll get a feel for what the rest of the anime will look like.
One other issue I had, was a "flashback" that happened in a series of quite a few episodes in the middle. There's no clear reason or indication that this is a flashback. I sat there and wondered for the longest time "What happened to Clare (the main character) and who's this Teresa lady?" It isn't until the end of the flashback session that you realize that is has been a flashback. I feel that could have been done better, but, even then, the characters presented there (in just a few episodes) become likeable and enjoyable to watch.

Be prepared for a lot of action, a lot of tense "what's going to happen next" moments, and several incredulous "over-the-top" scenes with limb regeneration/reattachment and the likes.
All in all, I enjoyed the anime and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys a good, bloody action series.

Claymore is not a groundbreaking series. While it's great fun to watch, it does not feel like it's doing anything particularly new. The story is fairly standard, but does the job, excluding the inconclusive and, frankly, disappointing ending, the art style takes some getting used to (before I got used to it, I found that faces looked very odd, but the backgrounds and the Claymores were always excellent), the characters are fairly shallow and, in Raki's case, very annoying in parts (he just won't stop whining and blubbing - even if you don't mind him at first, you'll see what I mean later on).

Despite this, ... Claymore is well worth a watch. It is certainly one of the more compelling anime I have watched, and I got through it in three days (this pace of watching is very rare for me). It never drags, with the possible exception of the three epiosdes or so that flesh out Clare's backstory, and this only slightly drags because I always find flashback sequences a tad boring - this was about as good as they come, and it's nice to see a few episodes devoted to fleshing out the characters, instead of the usual token episode per character.

Claymore's animation is variable. While it sometimes seems jerky (I found that after a few episodes I no longer noticed this), the fights feel very lovingly done, with nice animation. The series avoids excessive repetition of animations, and it happens a lot less than it normally does in anime of this type, especially the classic head-on view of multiple, identical, repeated swordstrokes and constant parrying. Not saying it doesn't happen, just it doesn't happen nearly as often as it does in other sword-heavy anime. Towards the end, the flashbacks of scenes from earlier episodes begins to grate.

The Japanese voice acting neither stood out for nor disappointed me. It does the job. Where Claymore's sound really excels is in its moments of rousing orchestral score. Had it had a bit more variation and slightly better voice acting, I would have given Claymore a 10 for sound.

One of my major gripes, before which I was considering giving Claymore a 9, was the ending. Not only was it inconclusive, but the final fight couldn't hold a candle to the penultimate one. It's hard to describe without spoiling anything, so suffice to say it felt rather formulaic and dull. The ending left me wondering whether there was a second series, of which there is currently no sign.

If you like this sort of series, you should definitely have a look at Claymore, as its faults do not stop it from being a highly enjoyable watch.

Remember the time when Claymore sucked ? Neither do i ! This is easiest one of my favorite series of all time.

In a medieval world, there are monsters called Yoma, they love to eat human flesh and they often disguise themselfs with human form... it is not rare a yoma disguising as one of their eaten victims, eating their brain to gain their memories the disguise becomes even perfect.

Imagine the terror one would have to live in a world like this...constantly haunted by demons.

But don't panic ! There is hope and they are here to help us ! (or they are just following orders in ... exchange of money ? )

Yes ! Claymores ! It is the name given to a female warrior whose have made a pact of blood with the yoma, thus gaining some of their ability to regenerate their body (defensive type) or increase speed and attack power (offensive type). They can sense if a human is a disguised yoma or not. They are controlled by an organization which aims to protect humans from yomas.

In fact, claymores are not the heroes for justice or human salvation in any form, most of them are dragged by their own sentiments of hatred/suffering/revenge.

It is a great action show, with consistent fights and terror. Why did i mention terror ? because unlike other action/fighting animes like dragon ball z where people often gets their ass beaten by big explosions and their body parts don't fall apart, in claymore a misjudged moves would rather result in a loss of an arm, a head or in a fatal wound. So the entire show you are immersed in this atmosfere, with terrific fights meaning the characters could die at any time and often severely wounded.

As the plot develops, you start to get the "BIGNESS" of their world, and you realize that the most powerfull enemies are light-years away from the claymores, leaving a feeling of impotence and weakness, increasing the tension and the terror they must face.

But most people criticize the end of the series, stating they didn't follow the manga and etc... but for me was more than perfect, as the internal conflits around the protagonist comes to a closure and raki, the most useless and pathetic (fighting?) character of the entire anime history, would not later become a baddass fighter as in the manga, preventing an inconsistent powerup which would drop the series rating.

Claymore is a violent, terrific, full of terror, baddas action anime series of all time, it is only better than Berserk because they didn't animate the black swordsman/conviction arcs onward which Berserk's history starts to get similar.

I don't know what to say, except for the fact that I can't believe that I didn't discover this anime earlier. This is not only a great anime, but its also got to be one of the darkest that I've ever seen. However; despite it being real dark, they actually kept it at the right balance with the light elements in it as well.

The story deals around a group of female warriors known as Claymore's who are half-breeds; half-human and half-yoma, a demonic like creature that can not only shape shift into humans but feast on human flesh. This was the first action adventure ... anime that I'd seen where all the warriors were pretty much all female. Well, actually they were all female. It's not that often you see something like that and it really worked here.

The animation is just great in both light and dark elements. The design of both; the Claymore's and Yoma are very well done. I feel that there could had been a little more color to the Claymore's maybe but this is about a group of half-breeds who carry the blood of a demon in them so yeah you can understand why they went the way they did. Even the designs of some of the awaken beings were very well done. The action was also fast passed and worked towards its advantage. I also liked that each Claymore had their own symbol to keep identify them. I found that very interesting that they had their own unique form of identity.

The music was just awesome, especially; the theme songs. The opening theme is good and does leave a great impact, but my god the ending theme though, I can't get it out of my head it's just that damn good it's called; Danzai No Hana and it really leaves a big impact on ya.

The characters are just thenomonal. You have Clair who the story mainly ventures around with and travels with a boy named Rocky after saving him from a Yoma, and as good as a character Clair is I have to admit that she is not my favorite character. No, despite her only being in like 4 episodes, my favorite character would have to be Teresea. It's another way of saying of not giving credit where credit is due because even though she wasn't in that many episodes she clearly developed very well and changed quickly. However; we also find out that there is a big plot twist in all of this to which I will not spoil though I'll admit that it caught me off guard.

Overall; I really enjoyed this anime and am still ashamed that I didn't find it sooner. Truth be told, there's really only one thing that's holding it back and that's the fact that there is only 26 episodes and yet the manga is not only continuing to expand today but has like over 100+ chapters. So, I don't know for sure what happened but would have loved to have seen more. Despite though of it only being 26 chapters long, I like what we got. It's great, it's dark, and it has a ton of action to it.