The story is just stunning. The idea, the big picture behind it offers you a world that you discover with the anime piece by piece. The story flows most of the time, of course there are confusing moments, but it settles in a while. However the ending...oh the ending. It actually is a decent ending. It gives us some good thoughts about life, the characters that are rather in the front get their piece and the story is about to go on. I would say a nice ending. OF THE SEASON. NOT THE ANIME, OF THE SEASON. It leaves a large hole in the story and the story could have evolved into more episodes then there are now. But up to that point I was on thorns and enjoyed every second I watched the anime. STORY: 9.
The art is enjoyable. You can see that this is not something, that was just thrown together over night. You can see a lot of detail in it, however it is not the best that I have seen. There is a dark aura present the whole time in the anime, that makes it appear sinister, somehow dark, just to boost the thrill of it. ART: 9
Sound is pretty good I must say, some of it could not fit in better then it does now. However some music was just kind of forced in, in my opinion, it didn't fit in at some moments. All around, very unique tracks. SOUND: 8
Every characters is a story on its own and that is what I like about it. Some of them blend together like water and wine and some are just like oil and water, very realistic from my point of view. What bothers me is that some of the characters a left unexplained and mysterious while it seems crucial to know of their whereabouts. However you can not expect this to be a miracle in 26 episodes. What also bothers me is that different characters have the same wounds and home can heal them some just can't. Why? (cricket sounds in the background) Clere improved through the whole anime like A LOT, while Raki, who was a partly (imo) main character, improved like 0 or close to it. He just wines about everything and is of almost no use. It remind me very much of Ganta from Deadman Wonderland, he just lacks the impulsiveness. But what do you know, he manages to somehow save Clare (actually Jean saves her but let's say that without Raki things would not have gone into the right direction) and it turns out that he is sort of useful.
And while we learn a lot about each individual of the "Claymore family" we actually learn nothing very useful of the Organization. We just know that some sinister guys work for it and they boss around the Claymores. Nothing more, nothing less. CHARACTERS: 9
OMG did I enjoy that show. Some of the characters can really grow to your heart but remember the first rune of animes: never get attached. Some episodes end in a way that you just have to keep watching. The twists are spectacular and not everything resolves as expected, just a nice reminder that it's not a fairy tale. ENJOYMENT: 9
To sum up, I recommend Claymore to everyone who wants to watch a new anime, loves battles and is not bothered by too much blood. Yes you can say it is a bloody anime, not overkilling it but it gets pretty rough. If would have rated this anime according to the ending it would have probably be a 7 or so, but the anime wasn't accepted that well in Japan and the company just probably decided that it was enough and decided to put and end to it... Sadness and sorrow I know, but that is how business rolls nowadays. Despite a lot of us want another season, the chances of getting another one is close to zero. I am grateful that they gave us this (close to a) masterpiece, if even a glimpse to the whole story, it was satisfying yet disturbing because of the ending.
I haven't read the manga yet but the anime really encouraged me to read it.
And guys remember: you can suppress everything if you just try hard enough. In addition with friends around you it can be a lot easier.
