Most anime has the main character driven by the desire to protect their friends. Claymore’s main character is driven by vengeance.
Clare is a Claymore. A Claymore is a half human, half yoma warrior that protects humanity from the yoma threat. Yoma are essentially demons that feed on humans. Claymores can tap into the strength and power of their yoma side but at a cost to their humanity. If they draw too hard they become an “Awakened Being” which makes them lose their humanity. However, a few rare Claymores can move from this “awakened” state and back to human.
The story of Claymore is pretty simple: Clare wants revenge on an Awakened Being named Priscilla that killed a Claymore become a mother figure. The sub-character, Raki , is a human Clare rescues that falls in love with her and acts as a check when Clare’s yoma side gets out of hand. That’s pretty much it. There are a host of other Claymores, all driven by revenge in one way or another. However, Claymore does let the individual personality of each Claymore shine through with their actions.
Clare does show compassion, but generally she is driven by revenge. Claymore really focuses on vengeance up until the end.
Claymore gets the action right. There isn’t any Bleach and Dragonball Z-esque yammering. The action is sudden, violent, and bloody.
The series is dark and monochromatic. The art reminded me of some of the Renaissance paintings of the Arthurian legends…outside the skin tight clothing the women wore. The artist just painted clothing on their bodies.
Claymore isn’t the best anime I’ve seen. The story lacks depth, but it is solid. The characters are well developed (Raki got freakin’ annoying with all his whining and crying. Man up already.) but not enthralling. The action was generally well done. The pacing of the series a bit odd. Several episodes in you are thrust into backstory without any lead and left wondering what the hell is going on. Other than that, the story is well paced.
Claymore is a good romp if you like violent action and dark fantasy.
I’ve seen many anime series in my time and this is by far one of the best. It ranks up there with Twelve Kingdoms, Cowboy Bebop, Code Geass, Fullmetal Alchemist, Bleach and Deathnote. Highly rcmomeend esp. if you like watching female warriors kick ass! The manga is still being written so read that if need your fix after completing the series.
I enjoyed the series as well. It has problems, but there is a nice amount of character complexity behind the surface action.
When i get this series via netfilx, and watch it over and over, i knew then that if this anime series comes out, i would definitely purchase this and would look forward to new series that will come out, A must have imo for anime fan, especially who likes strong female characters who can kick monsters yomas-butt.