Taking their advice into consideration, I sat down, got my box of tissues ready, and plunged into the final episode. And as the ending music played, I found myself staring at the screen, stunned at how non-emotional it was. As I recall, I even scoffed a few times and smiled a little.
Story: One of the things that pisses me off about the story is Clare's rank. Clare is the main character, can be insanely strong sometimes, and is the LOWEST RANKED CLAYMORE. It's explained in the story that Clare's powers are inconsistant, so her rank is low, but most of the time she's really strong, especially towards the end. I could understand if she was in the 20's or 30's, but the lowest rank? It makes no sense. Moving on, the story centers on Clare being followed around by Raki, who I'll get to later. Raki is someone who is obviously just a device to insert more variety (because there are only so many ways one can draw a tall blonde girl) and a way to introduce Clare into the story. There are demons in the story, but they're boring and don't really add that much except conflict.
Towards the end I stopped caring about the story entirely and finished it for the sake of finishing it.
Art: At it's best, it was mediocre. At it's worst, it was downright hideous. The battles, which are supposed to be a main point of the series, consist of a shot of a sword moving, then a black screen with lots of diagonal cuts forming, the demon looking confused and frozen for a few seconds, and finally the demon spurting blood from wounds that seem to have a delayed reaction timer in them. When the artists try to draw Clare or anyone in a very beautiful way, it just causes me to hide behind my chair in fear. The facial proportions were terrible, the character designs okay (I give them props for being able to draw one sort of character 47 different ways), the clothing designs very good, and the youma okay.
Sound: It wasn't that memorable. It gets a five. It wasn't offensive to my ears, and it wasn't great.
Characters: Oh boy.
Raki is a useless little boy who has the personality of dead grass. He's on the sidelines, he thinks he can help, but oh wait, he can't, he's grass, and in the end simply gets stepped on by everyone.
Another character in particular annoys the hell out of me. Jeane, a Claymore who comes in later and I can't say much about her for fear of spoilers, is someone who is dedicated to returning a favor Clare did for her. And she does return the favor. Multiple times. Clare even says that it's not necessary for her to go to such lengths for her. Jeane then decides to follow Clare around. I only see "stalker" when I look at Jeane. Not "reliable friend".
As for the other characters, they were alright. Nothing to write home about.
Enjoyment: Ehhhh. Whatever enjoyment I got out of the first few episodes were vanquished in the last few.
Overall: What else is there to say?
Watch it if you enjoy long, drawn out fights, blonde women, and annoying protagonists.
Now, I have to go return the tissues I bought.
