Claymore is the story of the "Silver Eyed Witches", half-human half-demon beings who fight man-eating monsters called Youma. The main protagonist is one of these witches-warriors named Claire, and the majority of the plot is about her quest for revenge. Despite the basic premise, the story evolves to become a bit more complex; in the end I found it to be Claymore's weakest aspect, as it remains largely predictable. The one time it tries to surprise the reader with a big revelation it does introduce some unexpected elements, but the author did not employ the said elements in any other way throughout the manga (i.e. there are things that are mentioned but never or briefly shown), so it is rather disappointing in the end (especially with the fact that some explanations seem not so coherent and more aimed to perplex the reader than anything). There are some moments you definitely do not see coming and they are great, but more connected to the fights themselves than to the plot. Luckily, everything else is very good.
ART: 8 - CHARACTER: 7
The art is satisfying, with a great character design managing to keep every warrior different from the others despite all of them being similar for plot reasons and them being so many. The monster design also shines with some absolutely great looking and menacing demons. It's too bad that the environement are not drawn to their fullest potential as they could have been more varied and detailed (the Medieval setting had so much potential for this). It doesn't help that the landscape is always destroyed in the fights either. Remaining on the characters, they have not the deepest characterization but they are enjoyable nevertheless. Every one of them has little nuisances which make them interesting, especially the seven main Claymores who are the protagonists of the manga. The villains are a bit of hit and miss, since some of them are quite charismatic while others are too cliché with the standard high and mighty attitude given from the fact that they are incredibly powerful.
ENJOYMENT: 8
The balancing between action scenes and plot developing is one of Claymore's greatest point: fights are long and immersive and most of the time when you are just about to get bored from them they resolve just the right way and you can catch your breath with explanations, strategies and the likes. The rythm is, as a consequence, very engaging and you always feel motivated to continue the reading. Fights themselves are often dramatic, with high tension and filled with a little more blood and dismembering than your average action manga (by no means Berserk-level gore, but it still is something); they often employ strategy and this make them less predictable, though they are sometimes resolved with a convenient power up in shonen fashion. This is one of the thing I disliked the most: despite being basically a seinen, Claymore employs too many expedients and structures typical of shonen mangas (that is to say warriors with a number to represent their strength, convenient power ups, class of stronger demons and so on) which hinder the overall potential of this work. I would have like it to be more mature and anti-conventional in these details and it had the potential to do so.
So overall we have a fantasy action manga that does not particularly excel in any aspect, though some of them are great, but the alchemy of them works quite well and will keep you hooked if you are a fan of the genre. In fact, I was tempted to give this an 8, but considering all the flaws that I think there are in this work I opted for a 7, which is more fitting to my overall standpoint.
