Feb 10, 2021
This manga starts off weak with the first 20 chapters in particular being extremely weak in all aspects. It was only just starting to get interesting more than a third of the way through the series, causing me to drop it for something more original.
Art: In the first 20 chapters, the monsters are extremely boring in design, being nothing more than a featureless silhouette of a large man, every single one of which looks the same. The faces of human characters are janky looking as well, with eyes not spaced in regular or attractive ways. I find the action to be drawn somewhat poorly in
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terms of paneling and logic as well. Often times, battles are simply people teleporting behind one another and floating in the air (characters cannot actually teleport or fly). I know it’s fantasy, but the lack of realism in fight art, whether it be lines of movement, sword reach, or armor functionality, bothers me. The context and strategies in the fights are mostly typical of other standard battle shounen.
Luckily, the monster design improves to become truly impressive by about chapter 30, and the art improves generally on top. The art in many fights has the same problems however.
Worldbuilding/Story: By chapter 60, the story is becoming interesting, but the world is still extremely bland. I am ⅓ of the way through the series and there is practically no world building. Every town is simply a default medieval town with no unique features to distinguish one from the other. I have no concept of what their economy, religion, politics, or culture is like because there simply isn't any. For example, even when the characters visit a large city that is the center of a major religion within the first 5 chapters, we only see about 2 locations in the entire place, one of which is the inside of the character's hotel room. Despite being in a religious center, I learned almost nothing about the beliefs of people in this world or the lore of the religion, other than it being vaguely Catholic. Another example is that it was recently revealed that Clare's organization operates in 47 provinces, but I have no idea what/who rules any of those provinces, including the ones that Clare has been to. Also have very little information about the organization and no information on the origin of the base demons they fight.
Character: The characters are serviceable, but I did not particularly like any of them. It does not help that all of the "claymores" look very similar. There is a character that I did not like, however, which is the boy that Clare is protecting. He’s whiny and generally just gets Clare injured by ignoring what she tells him to do.
If I read every manga on my TBR list, I may come back to this series to see if it continues to improve until the ending, but with an extremely weak first 1/8 and a mediocre first 1/3, I couldn't rate the series higher than an 8 even if the end was flawless.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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