shinigami’s blog

Finally, the second show I’ve been waiting for this season! Nanoha was no 1 only because I know for sure, or thought I knew, that it’d make an enjoyable series, while Claymore, awesome as it is as manga, had a not very promising trailer, screaming low budget. I wouldn’t have minded less than perfect animation, really, but what the trailer showed was cheesy shortcuts taken in the action scenes. Those get really old, really fast, and are a mood-breaker. Well… the first episode is not quite trailer bad.

The beginning is very gory and shot all in red and black, but the music is a classical piece, on the serene side, which offsets the visuals quite nicely.

The OP is boring: when 90% of the OP shows boring pans of characters to save budget (which is fine) using boring music is a no-no. On the other hand the art is a pleasure to behold, as the manga translated very nicely into anime.

One thing I especially liked about the visuals was the way the fights vs yoma were all black-and-red, while at times Claire was in a blue light. And the silver-turning-golden eyes thing manages to look good, with eyes glowing in the dark without looking cheesy. (I’ve taken screenshots of these details instead of the “blink and you’ve missed what they did” action scenes.)

The first 13 minutes of the episode follow the manga to the ~~letter~~ panel. I got the distinct impression that some of the angles match those in the manga, though I didn’t open the first chapter to compare them on purpose. After those 13 minutes the episode takes some shortcuts, which is… well, maybe not exactly “bad”, but not good either. I’d have liked to see the scene at the end of chapter 1 happen at minute 13, not later, because it makes Claire’s taking care of the boy less ~~wtf~~ abrupt, and there was some pretty important stuff in chapter 2. Oh well…

In my opinion it’s easy for a synopsis to not do the series justice. “Claymore is about women who are half-yoma, half-human in order to defeat yomas” - this sounds lame. Why half-half? For once they alone have the ability to see youma for what they are, even when disguised as human, and then, they draw the power to kick ass from the yoma part inside them, which, btw, means that they can’t use too much of it. Predictably, Claymore goes into what the half-half, don’t draw too much yoma power stuff means. This is better than it sounds because the manga is just good!

Because these women (they are all women) use claymores, people gave them that name. They are also called “silver-eyed witches” because… yeah, duh. And their eyes turn golden like youma eyes when they fight.

All this does not exactly make them popular. Despite being part monster/demon, unemotional and feared/loathed by those they protect, they are not actually inhumane. Claire is not an exception in this respect, as it will be later seen. (I find Raki to be the weakest character in that he is a shonen stereotype.)

The scenes before and when Claire arrives in the village deal with fear, prejudice and ungratefulness on the part of “commoners”, which might feel a tad too cliche. But the series will show the same in the organisation, as well as gratefulness and the tolarance it leads to in humans.

One final note, in the last screenshot (as well as in a scene during the fight in Raki’s village) we get to see the transformation that a Claymore’s body goes through when the power is full on. Basically imagine a bodybuilder on fast forward, with all the veins bulging. Not exactly fanservice… And yes, this will feature later on.

It looks like the manga, but it moves faster. It needs to slow down a little or people who haven’t read it might not get into the anime. If you like the manga, you will like this. If you don’t (want to) read the manga, give the series a try - if it keeps following the manga, it will be worth your time.