I really don't know what to say about Claymore.
Here what I think, great anime, perfect artwork and character
designs are beautiful, But soooooooo unfulfilling ending.
That way I am going to
start reading the manga.
Will I didn't regret watching it, and all the time I was moved by
what is happening with all the characters.
So watch it, U will enjoy doing so.
I did
U can find it at:
http://www.moviesandsubtitles.net/search.php
http://www.isohunt.com
U can find the manga at:
http://www.onemanga.com/Claymore/
Have fun
Genres:
Adventure,
Drama,
Fantasy,
Shounen,
Supernatural
Age rating:
Mature
Plot Summary:
In
a world rife with deadly creatures called "youma", a young silver eyed
woman, Clare, works on behalf of an organisation that trains female
youma halfbreeds into warriors with the ability to destroy these
creatures. Considered a rogue for picking up a stray child & almost
losing herself to her youma side by "Awakening", she is constantly
assigned rather dangerous missions...
Synopsis
It is a time of darkness. Kingdoms quail and townsfolk cower in fear
before a plague of demon-like creatures called Yoma. Shapeshifters that
feast upon the entrails of humans, Yoma are a plague on the land.
Difficult to kill and almost impossible to detect once they have
insinuated themselves into a community, the Yoma threaten to turn all
of mankind into a giant smorgasbord. Enter the mysterious, nameless
organization. Comprised almost entirely of women, the people of the
land start calling these saviors Claymores after the giant swords they
carry with them. Also known as Silver-eyed witches, the Claymores will
destroy Yoma in any town or city that pays for their services, but even
so the people are almost as afraid of the Claymores as they are of the
Yoma.
Claymores are half-yoma themselves.
Clare, a relatively new Claymore in the organization's ranks, is on
the job in a small mountain town when she meets a boy named Raki. This
fateful meeting begins a chain of events that will eventually test
Clare's very soul. Which is stronger? Her human nature or her inner
demon?
Review
Claymore is an exciting, action-packed show with a well thought out
premise. The artwork and character designs are beautiful. However, it
suffers from many of the small ailments that plague shonen titles of
its breed, and while the story is an interesting twist on the gothic
sword and sorcery motif, it's not exactly breaking new ground.
First the animation; it is actually pretty decent for a television
series, but once again, good action shows (see works by Sunrise such as
Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo), don't skimp on the fight scenes.
Claymore is not so far gone as the black screen with a silver flash
of light to depict a sword duel, but it does make judicious use of
still shots and pans layered with gratuitous blood spraying in order to
save on animation frames.
Despite this lack of animation in many of the fight scenes, the
artwork makes up quite a bit of the slack. I especially enjoyed the
creative character designs (hooray for anime heroines that don't look
like they are twelve years old!). It's difficult to make distinctions
between a group of characters that all share the exact same hair and
eye color, but the distinctive faces, hairstyles and sometimes even
poses the characters adopt become so familiar that it's easy to pick
your favorite claymore out of the crowd. The backgrounds and other
small effects within the scenes are also extremely well rendered. It's
obvious that Claymore used a lot of CG in its production, but the
compositing is nearly flawless.
Female demon hunters have been a staple of Japanese pop-literature
for decades now, but the writer for Claymore has managed to put an
interesting twist on the premise. Being half-yoma themselves creates
endless opportunities for drama and conflict within the story. Indeed,
the very crux of the plot is how the various claymores, especially
Clare, deal with this condition. It's the one aspect of the show that
keeps it fresh in an otherwise stock shonen-action wrapper.
That said, Claymore still has its little foibles. It suffers in a
way from what I call Kenshin Syndrome, wherein the hero or heroine
feels compelled in the middle of a pitched battle to stop and wax
philosophic on the nature of life, the universe and this week's special
attack. While not as egregiously bad for this as the show for which the
condition was named, or others like Tokyo Underground, Ranma ½ or
Dragonball (choose your flavor), the characters do often segue into
long discussions of Yoki, special powers and life in general. I like
detail in my shows, but could it please wait until after the bad guy is
dead?
Claymore also has the habit of drawing big fights out into many
episodes. While I understand that this is good business for animation
companies that want to get the most out of a manga license, it's still
annoying to have one battle, with one bad guy, stretch out for three or
more episodes.
All in all, Claymore is a solid show in its genre, with plenty of
action, nice artwork, and an interesting story. It's not the best show
in its category, but fans of sword and sorcery won't be disappointed
and even those who prefer sci-fi or drama might be interested in
checking this one out.
Fans of sword and sorcery anime will probably add one star, while those turned off by gore or violence may remove one star. - Jason Bustard
Recommended Audience: Definitely not for the kids. Extreme violence and adult sexual themes limit this to the older teen crowd and up.
Median rating: Excellent
Running time:
23 minutes
Number of episodes:
26
