THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS
in the form of revealing the structure the story follows, because it's the primary reason for my score. No plot specifics will be discussed.
Several years ago I followed Claymore probably first in anime and then in manga, both making a fairly decent impression on me. I didn't like Raki or some other things here and there, but it was a pretty nice story with a respectable pace and, a rare treat, power-level explanations that actually made sense relative to each other to a good extent and meshed in well with the progression of the story. Overall, as a certain character in a well-designed sequence and final scene said, Claymore was "Magnificent".
I recently happened to look back and notice that Claymore had been completed at 159 chapters. The anime stopped at 61, and I had stopped somewhere in the low 80's, though I went back to 61 because my memory wasn't clear after that point.
My individual scores are:
Story (5)
Art (8)
Character (7)
Enjoyment (6)
Overall (6)
Up to ~61 or so it probably would've been solid 8 across the board or higher, but after that it simply drops the ball. Perhaps these numbers are still too nostalgic, as the chapters after 61 are more than one and a half times by numbers. It simply ceases to be an entertaining story.
First of all, Clare is no longer the main character. I have no problems with the new main character since I preferred her more anyways, but there is a shocking lack of explanation as to why the story suddenly changed all focus. Or actually, it might be more accurate to say that the story no longer has a main character after chapter ~61. It's simply characters doing things. Which I don't have a problem with either; just as it's not unheard of to have a main character switch in a story it's also not unheard of to switch from a character driven story (which is what Claymore primarily is up to ~61) to a plot driven story... but it doesn't do that either. Again maybe I am being nostalgic as to the quality of Claymore 1-61, but except for the "new main character" everyone else is just a caricature of what they were. One even becomes basically nothing more than a mouthpiece for explanation, it's almost like the author couldn't figure out how to make this group of friends argue or discuss something into conclusions so this one comes up or decides the final thing every time the protagonists are in any kind of pinch. Why? Who knows.
Except for a handful of chapters/scenes which are devoted almost solely to worldbuilding, the story really fails to explain what's going on or why we should care. Two of them in particular were particularly notable in their detail and length, but they all come back to one minor confirmation and one miniscule payoff at the end. From ~61 to the end, the explanations come less often, the opponents get stronger at what we're told is a ridiculous pace (but you don't feel it because there's no oomph to anything anymore), and their defeats become ever more unforseeable with the most disappointing of methods and finalizations to fights. Something appears once or twice for its original purpose, then goes away, then comes back to remind you it's there, then goes away permanently - this happens multiple times with multiple things. Sometimes explanations even come out of nowhere, with literal flashback chapters stopping the flow of things to tell you why this out-of-nowhere thing happened. Like most other things don't mind the use of such a device in the absolute sense, there's always new and unforeseen circumstances, but this just keeps happening and there is almost always no payoff. Why should I care about what's happening? Destruction of towns and people dying en masse and getting their guts eaten, yeah but that's with like much lower tier stuff and the premise of the story - what about all this new stuff? All I'm told is they're powerful, and this guy is more powerful, etc. etc. etc. Great. So what?
Nothing pays off, It's unclear how powerful something really is, allies and enemies seem to appear almost always out of convenience, working together or apart no longer has any particular meaning, the world means less and less because things are either going too fast or getting destroyed too fast, and we have some infodumpers who tell us "everything" or decisionmakers who somehow resolve all conflict and it's over.
That's what the ending feels like too by the way. There are a number of stories out there that are pretty bad in the middle and basically everywhere except for the beginning, major events, and ending, like a master writer filled out those parts first and handed the rest to interns. There are also a number of stories out there that are basically a series of short dramatic stories tied together by what's basically an excuse of an overarching plot. Claymore after ~61, on the other hand, is actually just terrible. There's one, or two, or maybe three scenes that are good tear-jerkers and the artist really knows how to do panel composition, but the buildup and payoff of those scenes happen over the course of +/- 3 pages at best. The rest is action scenes, which consists almost entirely of running or things blowing up or who knows what's going on where and who has the advantage when. Perhaps it is rude for me to assume, but it felt like the author cared less and less as it went along, because the life just kept escaping from the story, being replaced evermore by "this is what a bullet point on a checklist would think is a good idea".
There's caricatures of characters (except for maybe the "new main character" who is unfortunately not very well done either), some good ideas but no execution or payoff in story, the art was good and the monster design pretty amazing but that's about it.
I can't recommend Claymore. Maybe up to ~61 I can, I'd have to read it again to check what's on the other side of the nostalgia goggles - but unless one is trying to study monster design, one might as well watch the anime instead I think.
