Claymore

Claymore is a Shounen, Action, Adventure anime in a Fantasy, Medieval setting. The story basically revolves around a specific Claymore "Clare" and her companion "Raki" as she goes from town to town, slaying monsters known as Yoma.

From the beginning the story is very easy to follow. You have Claymores (strong female warriors) and it is the job of these Claymores to slay the Yoma. The story basically follows Clare as she travels to slay these Yoma, which get increasingly difficult to defeat as the story goes on. As a character Clare is developed so well that your opinion of her will change constantly throughout the ... series. Knowing her past before she became a Claymore and her current self makes it hard to believe that those two are the same person. What's disappointing is that some of the other main characters are not as developed as Clare but at least they produced good enough results. Raki being the main supporting character is really the only annoying character and doesn't really bring much to the story. As the story goes on it changes completely from the original hunt and kill Yoma, onto a more interesting and compelling storyline with amazing battles.

The fight sequences are just amazing and what helps it is the superb animation quality, thanks to "Madhouse" (also producer of "Death Note"). A lot of detail is put into every aspect of animation, with amazing lighting effects, detailed backgrounds and realistic character models. It is great to see all this kept during the bloody fight sequences however I do feel some corners are cut which just loses some of its essence (e.g. when the arms move so fast it does the typical DBZ speed attacking effect).

The music is fantastic with a magnificent orchestral score mixed in with some wicked bass and rockin' tunes. It's perfect in setting the right atmosphere; drama or action, it does well in both however there are times, mostly during fights, that the music can get a little messy.

Overall this ends up becoming an interesting anime that actually brings something new to the saturated shounen anime market. It manages to stay true to the manga storyline throughout however the story ends up moving at a very fast pace but the benefit of this is that every episode counts and there isn't any screen time wasted by: pointless flashback, training episodes, prolong deaths, etc. It's a shame that the anime deviated from the manga slightly near the end, which is bad news to manga fans and it means there's less chance for it continuing.

^_^

Claymore is one of the most intelligent shonen anime that has come out in recent years. It has a pretty good, though rather classic plot of revenge. For a story synopsis go to animenfo.com. In any case, here\'s my review up to eps 14.

We see that the main character, Clare, does grow throughout the series so far, which means in each episode something happens and she is changed by it, and through out the story arcs, she is either benefited by the events or suffers the consequences whether she wants or not. I can talk about this character as if she were a real life ... person precisely because the balance of things that happen to her - I don\'t mean that she gets exactly half good and half bad as she journeys, but I mean she has her good days; she has her awesome days; she has her awful days, and she has her almost dying days. She grows through it all.

She has suffered a ton in her life time, and as a woman, she\'s seen a lot of dark side in men. Yet she\'s still on the job, partially because she doesn\'t want to quit. There are rules bounding her but we can assume that she can leave and go in hiding if she desired. But she doesn\'t quit her job. Why is that?

I think she has a sense that the rules of the game are to be followed, maybe not completely to the T, as sometimes she goes out and bend some of them, but not breaking them. There are priorities over organizational rules, after all, especially when it comes to saving a life and nurturing it. She learns that from her previous experience when she was in the position of being nurtured. However, at the same time, she nurtured the person who was supposedly the strong one (this happen when she was young and wasn\'t a Claymore). Something within Clare made her a strong person even before she grew up to become a Claymore - she recognized pain and suffering similar to hers.

Despite all the things happened to her, she\'s still going strong. She risks her life and being discovered (she\'s currently hiding) when she sees her comrades desperately need help; even though she\'s not quite powerful yet and her opponents-would-be are extremely powerful - a classic component of shonen anime. Here, I\'ll go into the shonen stereotypes.

Claymore is a shonen show with its classic plots - revenge, skilling up/powering up, mentors who train, and someone that comes out and help during the most desperate-to-the-urgency-of-death situation (hopefully only one). The biggest and the most obvious twist here is that all the strong characters are women - all the roles that would\'ve been filled by men in the classic shonen (Saint Seiya comes to mind) are filled by women in this case. What marks it apart from a lot of other shonen is the fact that it doesn\'t drag on and on and give out mindless battles or tournaments. That means everyone that the main character has to fight has a good reason to be there, and some of them do indeed come back later, like many shonen shows, but not because they just do, or they have some simple reason like they just want to come back for another round, but these characters all have their reasons, some forced, some by choices, and some by both.

What happens earlier definitely affects what happens later. Friends and enemies are made later because of earlier events and encounters (this anime would make a great RPG).

Because the plot doesn\'t drag - the anime came out when the manga is already on vol. 13 or 14 (I can\'t remember), which means they have a wealth of materials to work with, the arcs are well developed and I don\'t see any unnecessary fillers (at least not yet, I can\'t remember if this is slated to be a 26 eps series), each episode does something to move the story forward. That\'s what a good storyteller should do. In addition to that, the important characters are distinctive and form deep impressions, the unimportant characters mark their short impression and then they\'re forgotten and don\'t take too much of the viewer\'s attention for too long. All these are important to a good storytelling.

This show only suffers a little bit of cliches from shonen anime - one occurrence of ex deus machina. It also has other classic shonen characters like mentor that takes the disciple for training when the disciple has been badly defeated, sociopath characters, sidekicks, and a couple other smaller ones. But these traits get developed the right way, pile those with good character developments and an intriguing overall plot with good small arcs and you\'ve got an awesome storying that retells the classic revenge in its own way.

As for the other elements such as Art, animation, sound - it\'s production I.G. and I\'ll leave those for others to review, because...

this review is too freakin\' long! I commend you for reading this far. Good job! =D

P.S. I obviously like it. For the reason see above! =D

This show is really cool.

There are these women, Claymores. They are feared across the country, for they are half-monsters. And what do they fight? Monsters. Yes, they save the people from monsters, but are regarded as ones themselves. Irony, huh?

The story follows one of these women. She meets a normal human kid who isn't afraid of her, and they end up as traveling partners. At first, it starts as a standard "good-guys-killing-monsters" show, but it goes deeper. I've always felt that the organization for whom the Claymores are working isn't quite good, but let's just leave it at that. The story, as I said, develops ... as time passes, and we get to know more characters, maybe a bit about their background, and it all culminates with a real neat final fight.

The animation in this series is simply... just.-... unique. I haven't seen anything like it, and I don't think I will. It gives me this really weird feeling, but that's good. It's really nice, and definitely one of a kind.

I really enjoy the music in this series. It's really, really nice, and it fits perfectly with the current scene.

The characters are also, um... well, not that much, really. They're kind of okay, but I find the male lead to be veery annoying.

Oh and this anime has a realistic power growth and difference. That's something I really like. Kudos to that!

Final thing: This anime seems very unfinished. After watching it, I thought: "Isn't there a season 2?" Well, one has to come. The end was just too open.

When you first start watching the show you're greeted by a strange looking creature feasting on a dead human corpse. Unknowingly, a tall slender figure appears right behind him. He senses this new danger and turns to fight this opponent. But hidden behind this slender gorgeous figure is a sword just as tall as her. She unsheathes her massive weapon and a vicious fight ensues...

That is the backdrop of what you are going to be experiencing. Fortunately (or unfortunately), that should leave you wanting for more. This story is set in a fantasy land set in medieval times where creatures called Yoma hide within ... human civilization.

Many (but not all) of the normal humans fear the claymores because they are made of half of what they are afraid of: the Yoma. But they are a necessary evil since they are the only ones strong enough to combat these horrible beasts. Not many people know much about Claymores. Just as mysterious as they sound, you will know very little about the inner workings of their organization, except for a few important rules. This story surrounds one character only known as Clare and basically shows how one becomes a claymore. From human life, to selection, to training, to assignments, and then to tougher assignments... typical shonen anime right? They way they tell Claire's exploits is a pretty good idea. They pretty much "Tarantino". That is a great way to explain how this universe works, well I enjoy moves told in this fashion too (some folks won't). This shows how emotion plays an important role in the show how their human half creates many internal conflicts with themselves.

There's mainly one main character and like 40 supporting characters. Unlike most anime out there that keeps EVERY character alive, this one actually does the dirty deed of killing off characters, which I enjoy very much. Not the killing part but more of the reality of it. Friends live and die just as willingly as the enemies. And that is very refreshing in the sea of Naruto's and Bleach's. You'll actually get a good amount of face time with all the claymores they present to the viewers. You'll still remember who favorite ones are. This is one of the very few anime that I actually remember most of the characters' names. Not only does each one have a unique look and attitude, but they also have specific powers that separates them from them all. Half way through the anime, im sure you will find a handful of favorite blond warriors. My personal favorite is Clare.

You can't mention anything about the artwork without talking about the character design. I think this is one of the best character designs I've ever seen in an anime. Not just because it mostly consists of beautiful slender blond haired sexytime warriors but, in the variety of how different each warrior is from each other. From hair style to warrior insignias, to even the swords they carry all have subtle details that u can easily remember or recognize. Even their "alter-ego's" are unique to each warrior. And you cant have medieval fighting giant monsters without great backdrops and this show has those in spades. As many fight scenes there are in this show, the backdrops are just awesome. From abandoned towns, to forest fights at dusk, to even fights in dark dreary caves, they're all situated in different places. Sure they sound very typical but with as many variations in the villains they fight, they all feel very fresh when watching them. The background animations like the random civilians, breaking objects, sparks, and fire embers are all here. They don't look anything impressive but they do add wonders tot he fighting. Most notably the blood... and this anime shows them by the bucket load. It never stays away from violence and thats what makes this show great. Not many current anime shows this much gratuitous violence and its very refreshing after watching a few dozen slice of life school comedies.

If there was anything to complain about the show, it would have to be the sound effects. You can tell most of the stock sound effects were from other shows and movies. Most notably would be the Star Wars laser fire sound when a Claymore "transforms." When I first heard it i was laughing so hard. On top of that other sound effects are just very normal like growling and sword clanging etc. The music is also a little on the weak side. They could have done better with some of the 'theme' songs like when clare 'gets angry' or when she 'learns a new skill' the songs appear pretty weak. But they do break out in some serious guitar riffs and rock instrumentals, which are pretty impressive compared to the other music in here. But the opening songs and closing songs are one of my favorite parts of this show. J Rock is really catchy and seems very fitting for this show throughout. Hell, I have it playing in my car as we speak!

The story was very interesting through the first 20 episodes. Representing a little shonen with Clare's development cycle. But the end sorta feels like they're selling the series a little short. At this ending i felt kind of cheated just like what i felt on the ending of Code Geass. If you want to watch a good story driven show this is a good one to watch, but be wary of Raki and the ending.

Oh by the way, please try to watch the entire show before you go and give it 10's or whatnot. The last 4-6 episodes will disappoint, I guarantee.

Story: 9
The plot is great, even if it follows the outline of a typical Shonen: a greater enemy to defeat as final objective. The storyline however is enough original and rich of inusual particulars, for example the presence only of women as main characters to part Raki and Isley, the control of the enormous power, the awakenings, and the Organization that is incumbent every minute.

Art: 8
The design of the characters is enough anticonventional and inusual: some physical features, like lips or the face seen of profile, well, not everybody will like how they're done. However they are enough pleasant to see, and the ... design in general terms, as of personages as of scenes and of movements is coherent with the type of anime: raw, dry and connoted in the colors.

Sound: 8
Door-bells and other sounds similiar to old rhythm can often be felt as a mysterious prefeeling, thus resembles epic scenes. Battles sometimes also have a rock rhythm. Masanori Takumi did a good job on the OST, especially on some songs like Bishou no Teresa (Teresa's Theme), Ginme no Majo, Hateshinaki Tabiji and Fukaki Mori no Naka. The choice of the rhythms is guessed and coherent with the scenes. Other sounds instead are ostensible, for example the sounds heard during the battle: squeaking of blades, cuts, footsteps and blood that exits from wounds. Also the chosen of dubbers have been good, in my opinion.

Characters: 10
Splendid characterization of every character! Even if in the first moment nearly every character can seem cold and calculating (Claire for example in the first episode gives so much this feeling), when you learn to know them, to know their feelings and their past, will born an endured empathy, an example is the story of Teresa and Claire, or the Ofelia's one. Every personage has its fundamental characteristics that distinguish she from all the others Claymores (physically, every claymore is similar to the others, therefore is for their qualities you'll love every single character): there is who, like Jean, has one strongly will, who learns to love, like Teresa, who simply loves, as Raki, and who cannot more survive to the pain like Elena.

Enjoyment: 10
Every time that I am watching an episode, I always hope that it does not end that way and I hope that it continues not leaving things as they are, I want more and I'm disappointed to have to wait for one week in order to see the continuation. Every minute of the show very is calculated as in converses as in the amazing, never-boring scenes of action, where the spilling of blood is not fine to himself.

Overall: 9
There aren't means ways, you love it or hate it. It's a great shonen, similiar to others but also a lot different. I love it, more the story goes ahead the more it becomes interesting... what else? Can't wait to see the showdown!

I wasn't going to write a review for this, but I felt something less Bias than the over reviews were necisary.

Claymore... simply is an anime about blond haired chicks with bigs swords cutting up demons... or other women with big swords. Lots of decapitations and blood and action. The protagonist Clare is a "Claymore" or a 1/2 demon 1/2 human demon hunter. If these claymore use too much of their demon power they themselves will be engulfed by their dark side never to return.

This anime began as a potential masterpiece, but my expectations were crushed half way. What had started as a unique story ... line and an awsome character was Infected by stereotypical MAIN STREAM elements that nearly destroyed this anime.

Story:
I already gave the Main Plot~ As already said its starts off great and goes downhill in the end. It also has an even pace in the beggining, a perfect blend of plot of battles~ But in the end plot is thrown out the window just for constant battling, Cliche plot twists and complete disregard for story.

Art:
I was rather happy with the animation^.^
Mostly darker earthy hues~ but it makes a good contrast with the Claymore shiny swords and armor. The character animation was ok till you find out 90% of them look the same, it becomes hard to tell alot of them apart towards the end.

Sound:
Both the opening and ending were good, especially the ending "Danzai no Hana" which is perhaps one of the best ending themes of 2007. It completely matched the feeling of the entire anime.
The OST itself is rather good, but it didn't stick out very much when I watched it myself.

Character: As already said, the series starts off with very good characterizations, but in the end throws out their development and makes most of them into stereotype roles that were completely without motive. Besides the protagonist there was hardly any attempt at character development to begin with and they messed that up.

Enjoyment: I can honestly say I did enjoy 3/5 of the series. It had me on the edge of my seat, engrossed in the action and plot twists. The ending 2/5 were a total let down and nearly destroyed the entire anime~ but perhaps someone less picky than me could enjoy it? If all you like is battles and fireworks you will enjoy this anime~

Overall~ I've said all that needs to be said~
This anime is acceptable... but far from a 10/10...

I'm a sucker for super violent animes with lots of demons and/or people getting chopped up (Vampire Hunter D, Ninja Scroll, etc.), so this is definitely up my alley. Still, it has quite a few things that bug me.
Sometimes the animation is very obviously digital (Mostly the camera movements, some of the backgrounds as well. We're not talking well-integrated CGI here, it's obviously a budget thing), and it falls into some of the shonen cliches when someone busts out some badass new super power (though, admittedly, a lot of those really ARE super badass). There are a couple dozen musical cues, so that gets ... pretty repetitive by the end as well (plus it sounds like they picked a completely wrong cue a few times in there).
And Raki. Oh, Raki. Mostly the character development in this show is perfectly satisfactory, even when it goes into an extended flashback that's... Well, long. But Raki is friggin' annoying. He is consistently a total idiot and then cries about his dumb decisions later. I understand his role as Clare's emotional grounding, but still, what a whiny stupid jerk. A humble hint to my readers: If you, a mere human, find yourself in the company of a badass super-powered part-demon woman and you are determined to follow and help her in her quest, learn to play SUPPORT. Basically, learn some escape art, be bait when that's needed, and do reconnaissance or healing or whatever when you'd be in the way. And please don't cry when you try to pick up a sword and aren't able to protect the girl from beings of godly power. She's protecting YOU, idiot.

All of that said, the fight scenes are brutal and cool as hell, the super powers are very super powered, and the themes are fairly interesting, if nothing particularly new. In the end, the good qualities make me enjoy it more than the flaws annoy me.

The anime Claymore,is one that gave me a deep impression and I am willing to read the manga too.Awesome fights and intriguing characters,Claymore is an anime you should definately check out.

In this world,humans coexist with demonic creatures called Yoma,who feast with human innards and can take human appearance.For the reason of killing Yoma,exists an organization,which consists of female warriors called "Claymore".These warriors though are half-human,half-yoma and for that are detested by humanity.

Story 7/10
The story is not an extraordinary one but not a bad one either.Following the protagonist,Clare and her path towards her goal develops gradually.From just slaying Yoma it goes on to a much ... more interesting story and tremendous battles.From some point on though it becomes less promising(because it does not follow the manga) and ends a bit dissapointing,for me atleast.

Art 8/10
The art style is very unique and in a way realistic for an anime.The are some elements that differs this style from other art styles of anime.Some of them that I noticed are in the faces mostly,the eyes,the hair,the lips.The shadows and the expressions,even the monstrous forms are ones to be concerned.It may seem weird to some people,but because of this unique style you can indetify Claymore.

Sound 7/10
I do not have much to say about the sound of the anime.The OSTs were not anything remarkable but fit the "mood" of it.The opening and ending songs are really great too.

Character 7/10
The characters in Claymore are exceptional and you can recognise the depth in most of them.They vary and each one of them has a special reason for living and that makes them trully notable.I really like this anime because it portreys strong female individuals with no fan-service.It reflects their powerfull will and does not display their body.I did not really like though the main supporting character Raki.I understood him but I think that he contributed almost nothing.He did not develop much as he was mostly all-talk and nothing more.

Enjoyment 8/10
I really enjoyed Claymore.It was one that kept me continue without getting bored.The battles were outstanding and the development was intriguing.It was definately worth the time.

Overall 7/10
Claymore is an anime worth watching.If you want astonishing battles,a touching story and strong but at the same time deep female characters,you have found all you want.

I know many anime fans, who don`t like Claymore. Their argumentation is something like " What a nonsense! "You`ve lost you hand, take mine, and I`ll grow one more". Can`t stand such a crap". And I always ask: "WHAT were you watchng? Fights and breasts? (Yes, Teresa`s ones are great, hehe) Or this serial, maybe, requires a bit of thinkning and brain using?"

Howewer, that`s not easy - make people like it.

Which of you ever wanted to live in Middle ages? I think, everebody. Just look into Claymore world... there are not too much differences between guts-hungered yoma and nomad hordes. And great-looking Claymores... girls, ... who lost their destinies through sacrificing themselves for the mankind serving? (Yes, I know that real knights were a bit off that, but... their romantic shapes sometimes remain in our mind) So come and live here... be a simple peasant and live in a fear to be eaten everyday. Claymore easily ripes illusions.

Well, I`ll return to anime. It`s much spoken about Clare and Teresa already. I want only to say: don`t you think that everyone can find similiarities in his and Claymore`s lives? Each of us had tragedies, losses... same like they. Each of us found ourselves in filthy situations... same like they. But go on fighting - and you will go through them with honour. That is what Claymores teach us.
P.S. Special thanks to Riyu Kosaki and others.

For me, Claymore has been an anime that has given so much mixed emotion over the past days that I have watched it. Emotions both surprisingly positive and unsurprisingly negative, to a point that I just had to write a review about it, both because of sheer enjoyment of how I experienced the show but mostly because of how much I was disappointed in its presentation.

To start off in the notion of why I enjoyed it, it was because not of its theme (humans< monsters< half-human half-monster< protagonist) but because somewhere down the line when I was watching the show, it gets interestingly good. ... Not to spoil the content for the readers but, there are certain times where the show hooks you pretty well because the series of events in the show actually was getting good.

But with that been said, let us go to the bad side of the case. I was mostly disappointed that it, most of the time, leaves the viewers wanting for more than what we came for. The story progression in Claymore is like a roller coaster to begin with, slows start, progressing high during the middle but when you reach the top of the roller coaster to see the climax of the story, so that you can enjoy the ending, it just stops. And that’s the problem I have with the show. It’s like a fisherman catching the interest of the little fish viewers, patiently waiting for us to bite the bait so he can reel us in for the epic kill, but disappointingly pulls up the fishing line before we even got a chance to take a bite.

And to top it all off, it happens in every arc, up until the ending.
But enough of that for now, let’s talk about the character design and development. I’m going to make a point that the character design in Claymore had a similar feel to it with being in a comic book or a particular show where every hero wears a motorcycle helmet for a mask. The good guys have same bland costume and body structure, but different voices and hair style (with the great exception of the protagonist and some supporting characters), while the bad guys, well, they were a bit too similar to begin with, but the design gets progressively good as the story goes on, but they do have this issue that they never seem to run out of, as the saying goes, ‘this is not my final form’, only to get hacked to chunky bits in the end because the story wants the good guys to always win. The personality of the different characters of the story was at least a giver of ways for the same looking characters to shine, so I’m no longer going to point out the fact that there were at least certain elements of moe (personality speaking to be the very least).

Character development in Claymore has been a 50-50 battle of whether or not it’s good or bad because it did well to develop the main characters and the main supporting characters in the story (If you’re wondering, yes, there is such a thing as main supporting character in this story), but it’s a double-edged sword for the other characters because they tried to make every character that way, but ended up failing in that aspect, so the minor support characters ended up looking half-baked. And to top it all off, there was one point in the story, somewhere in the middle, where one of the main protagonist (Claire’s pet human boy), who was supposedly a main character, suddenly became a main supporting character down the line. It was like, Claire, who was once just a main supporting character in the story, became progressively the main character in the end, and her pet human boy, who was once the main character of the story, became a cameo in the middle and made an unsatisfying appearance in the end. The fact that he was there just to drive the protagonist forward and no longer appeal to the viewers, was just irritating when he made his grand appearance in the end. I’m no longer going to mention the other main support characters in the story because, it’s either they were good enough to understand in such a short span of only one arc or that they were too minor to begin with, but the story seemed to revolve around them for some time anyway, so it would be wrong to call them just a supporting character [SPOILER WARNING] (given that most of the supporting characters in the story all end up dead anyway) [END OF SPOILER].

Also, just to let out a bit of frustration out of watching the show, [SPOILER WARNING] CLIFF-HANGGERS EVERYWHERE!!![END OF SPOILER] I mean it’s redonculous to a point that there’s so much more things left unanswered. I mean not to spoil the show in any way but, there is still so much questions that is still hanging. I am no longer going to mention all of it for the fear I might spoil the show to the readers, but you’ll know what I’m talking about when you’re done with the show.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to fly back to another planet before I change into my final fantasy form and fight the most bad ass boss that’ll probably have his own final form as well. KAI!!!

Welcome to my first review.

A friend of mine recommended this anime to me, and I told him when the series ended that it was a nice catch. Claymore is one of the best anime's that I had seen this year. It's medieval theme and kick-ass female characters is what this anime is payed for. Claymore made a stand through the masses with it's compelling and brilliant story.

The story goes as the protagonist, Clare, fights for her humanity and seeks revenge to the Claymore named Priscilla who miserably ended the life of her most precious person, Teresa. As Clare struggles to fight and finds out ... the reason of her existence, the whole story revolves on another person named Raki and as the two of them shared the same fate, they found themselves driven to the organization's darkest secrets.
The story is indeed stunning and I congratulate Norihiro Yagi for making it possible.

The Animation is made by Madhouse, which is by far my most favorite animation company. They did well on the animation as expected from them. Even though the animation were sometimes &quot;off&quot;. The characters, background and the animation effects were good and the battle scenes are worth dying for.

The one who's responsible for this Anime's industrial-inspired music is Masunori Takumi, the BGM's were used very cleverly and the composition for each and every one of them was awesome, from the heavy guitar riffs and even to the Orchestral scores, it's very intelligent. The Jrock band Nightmare performed Raison D'etre and I'd say that it fits the anime very well and so it is indeed true that the rumors i've heard about them being the band whos currently having a large fanbase all over in Japan, they're a band that is worth following for. As for the Ending theme which Kosaka Riyu made, her voice is powerful and the composition of her song Danzai no Hana is a true fit for the &quot;Medieval&quot; theme that Claymore has.

Overall, Claymore is indeed, Worth watching and I pity those who won't. :P Just kidding. Seriously it's worth a watch, and one proof to materialize that is I recommended this in my friends and none of them missed it and said that &quot;It was a nice ride&quot;.

Claymore was definitely a good pick and a fine watch despite the much repeated and disappointing fact that the entire manga hasn't been adapted and considering that the manga just recently ended it just makes one wish that they would continue.

Now to start off the review, the best way to describe this anime is... an amazing idea, a well executed anime but lacking in certain elements and those elements bugged me a lot. Just to state beforehand, I am not going to stress on it being an adaptation and bringing in the manga to quote everything - I'll consider the anime as an anime, not ... as a 'meant to be a faithful adaptation to a certain manga.'

The story of Claymore is intriguing. Its start gives off the air of Blood+ or Muv-Luv in that it portrays an issue and gives its solution - defining the universe in terms of those monster/hunter/prey and similar characteristics while the rest of the elements like the time era and the culture remains as secondary. It is a fine approach, nothing wrong with it but it does give the initial vibe of the mainstream anime story progression (won't go into details there) and does not keep attention as did Another, Deadman Wonderland and Mirai Nikki (for me) in their first episodes. However I always say that animes should be given certain episodes to develop - I know many people who dislike Code Geass based only on first episode.

And when the person gives time to this anime, then the culture, the environment, the physics of the universe slowly start to unravel in more detail, and in a more relevant manner. An example is that the initial "Queen's Blade" vibe of all female fighters is slowly shattered and the person emerges from a world of simple monster vs hunter to a much complicated and gripping universe. I do wonder how the story line elements hinted yet left out of the anime were tackled in the manga but the slight graze of the side story isn't a negative, it eventually gives the story a multi-purpose and while the anime concludes on ONE of these 'purposes', the rest are a well thought way to keep the viewer motivated to watch.

So basically the anime is a well developed story, complex and intruiging HOWEVER, the ending retracted back to typical anime-ish. Wish I could give a comparison but it would be near equal to a spoiler.

One of the very big positives in Claymore for me was the art. The art style was very impressive and enjoyable. Let's consider it a little more technically. The background was well managed, with detail where necessary and reflecting the over all ambiance of the time. The color scheme was suitable and the art was fluid especially in many fighting sequences. If we consider character art, the females certainly were similar in most traits, however they had believable proportions... not only in terms of the bust size but thighs, arms and over all stature. Yes, similar but they were all fighters and I suppose they could have varied the height a little but otherwise the physique should be more or less the same. The lips and eyes were designed very well - I loved many characters in how appealing they looked not due to a hanging cleavage but due to a decent art style. The basic monster art was also impressive, the lesser monsters were more or less generic but they still didn't look... bad.

I would say here that an all blonde congregation was not really the best idea.... especially since many gave the first impression of being 'elvish'... but ah well.

The sound however was a... 30/70 for me. 70 in the negative. The sound tracks were certainly unique and some did have quite the appeal but they were executed at very awkward moments making one confused for a moment whether they are interpreting the overall atmosphere in the wrong way. So not really a fan of the music however I enjoyed the voice acting and the sound effects reflecting actions or movement.

Now the character development was a roller coaster for me. Lets see... considering the main prominent characters... Clare, the protagonist, an emotionless warrior, brutal in her fights against the monsters but calm alongside, a balanced character with a clear vision that doesn't waver but needs to be reminded in between since there are slight 'additions' to her goals. There isn't much complex about her, she had a past that carved her present and if there are complexities to her personality that isn't shown in the present story. Her interaction with other characters is also justified and reasonable.

Raki... the... pathetic side kick that has... okay lets tackle him a little properly. When you are alone and helpless and are dependent on someone that has far superior intelligence, exposure, endurance skills than you and is mentally a lot more stable, you are supposed to... what? Depend on them. You stick around, give them company, comfort yourself and them. We see another relationship in the anime comparable to what he and Clare have and THAT was BEAUTIFULLY executed. His wasn't. Why? Raki has to impose his sense of helplessness every other episode, he has to lecture Clare every other episode over what is right or wrong, has to butt into every single situation when he isn't required... I mean... just stop being an annoying pest! I disliked that character a lot and the story line plus a few other major characters kept me watching.

TERESA, a secondary character that does have a huge impact on the story was well handled. The best handled character. You can understand her, see how she thinks and understand how it makes sense. Her interaction with other characters was very believable. I won't go into much details but she was easily my favorite character.

Miria and other characters too have a personality defined yet they are not so constricted to it that you find them completely 1-D. They have certain traits to them that keep them believable characters. Yes, there are certain characters you will be able to identify in other animes as well (like the typical fight crazed guy) but the over character development is good. Just ignore Raki and you'll like the characters.

Now... if we were to sum it up to enjoyment... then it was a certainly enjoyable anime that had me waiting to know more - more than was shown in the anime but it kept me on the edge, it kept me guessing in places and the only part that did piss me off were it being incomplete and where they ended. The way the ended it didn't justify the rest of the anime.

So a good anime over all with decent fighting sequences, a story with various elements and if you ignore the character Raki and just try to get over the ending than a VERY good watch!

Thank you for reading and Feed back is more than welcome!

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&acute;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!!

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. &quot;Claymores&quot; is what they are called, and they represent a mysterious organization that fight demons or human devouring &quot;Youma.&quot;

The story is revealed by a certain &quot;Claymore&quot; 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 &quot;silver eyed witches.&quot; 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 &quot;I want to be with you no matter what!&quot; or &quot;She is a human, even though...&quot; 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.

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.

**************************************************************
********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***********************

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.