A purely action oriented episode, the four claymores ordered to kill Teresa attack her head on. A rather “meh” episode for me, fighting sequences have been incorporated into episodes before, but they never really took center stage. It’s the characters in Claymore that interest me the most, so having 4 new ones introduced only to be immediately sent to a life or death battle seems like such a waste.

Thoughts

Teresa and Clare arrive at a nearby town, only to find that its in the middle of being attacked by a yoma. Even though she’s no longer part of the organization, and is under no obligation to do so, she quickly dispatches of it, perhaps out of habit. Afterwards, something surprising happens, Teresa is praised for her actions, the town cheers her on as their savior. Far too different a response than the usual fear, Teresa is left speechless, but happy that they don’t have to leave the town, Teresa and Clare check into a nearby inn.

Meanwhile, the claymores ranking #2-5 in the organization have been sent to a town full of yoma. Such a town could have been handled by any single one, and the confusion is cleared only when the rank 3 claymore shows up and relays their orders, to hunt and kill the rank 1 claymore, Teresa of the Faint Smile.

Names and rankings:

Rank #4/5. Noel*: Characterized by her swift and agile non-linear movement, she is so flexible and unpredictable in fights that she is teased by Sophia as being like a monkey.
Rank #4/5. Sophia*: Possessing unbelievable brute strength (enough to cleave clean through buildings), Noel reckons her brute force to be that of a gorilla’s.
Rank #3. Irene: Known for her lightning fast swordplay that few can follow, often appearing as though she has not even drawn her sword after attacking and sheathing so quickly. These skills have earned her the name of “Flash Sword Irene”.
Rank #2. Priscilla: A rookie claymore who just recently received her symbol, possessing unseen latent talent, she rose to second rank in mere months. Much like Teresa, Priscilla has never needed to rely on her yoma powers to fight.

* Noel and Sophia are so closely matched in ability that it is not clear who is rank 4 or 5. I put Noel below Sophia because, although their talents are nearly on par, Sophia seems to be much more knowledgeable than Noel.

Wasting no time, the four track Teresa down and start their attack. The combined strength of Noel, Sophia and Irene barely phase Teresa. But it is the fourth assailant, Priscilla, whose presence Teresa was not able to detect, that starts the real fight.

The plan was to have Priscilla take Teresa by surprise while the other three distracted her, but Priscilla has the mindset of a knight and refuses to attack an unsuspecting opponent, opting for a 1 on 1 battle instead.

Apart from her raw combat skills, Teresa’s greatest strength is her ability to sense the flow of yoki, the power radiated when using the strength of a yoma. Her sense surpasses the ability to detect presence, it is so precise that she can feel where an opponent is directing her strength and in essence perceive where the next attack will come from.

However, Priscilla, whose presence even Teresa was not able to detect, fights with her yoma powers suppressed to the minimum. And in that regard, she is the worst possible opponent for Teresa. But even so, Teresa’s combat skill and experience far surpass those of Priscilla’s, and after recovering from the initial shock, she begins to pressure the rookie.

Just as Teresa prepares to deliver the final blow, the other three members of the execution team step in to support Priscilla. Although it disturbs Priscilla to fight 4 on 1, they are not here to compare individual skill, their objective is to carry out the execution of Teresa, who has broken the rules. And for that objective, a 4 on 1 assault is obviously the best course of action.

So the four of them release their yoma powers and prepare for a full on attack. Priscilla’s release being so powerful that it releases a DBZ-like shock wave that sends everything around her flying.

Aaaand, cue cliffhanger ending.

Thoughts

T_T Even when there was’nt much development in the episode, I somehow managed to stretch my summary to fit its usual size. orz

With such little plot and character development, there’s not much left to say that I haven’t covered already…

Priscilla seems like a really innocent character, having very basic ideals when it comes to good and evil. Her experience with yoma must have been more traumatic than usual, as it’s noted that she possesses the greatest hate towards them out of all claymores. She fights to kill yoma and protect humans, and struggles with the concept that she is unable to overcome Teresa, who has betrayed justice. She’s even more angered when Teresa tells her the world isn’t as convenient as simply right or wrong.

With a 4 on 1 match up against the four next powerful claymores in their fully released form, and the next episode being titled “awakening”, it’s pretty obvious that Teresa will be releasing her own powers next episode. I’m almost certain that she’ll be able to beat the other four, but more interesting is what happens after that.

I predicted that although she’ll be able to beat the others, Teresa will rely too much on her yoma powers and be unable to revert back to a human. That would be a nice buffer into Clare becoming a claymore, as Teresa would probably ask her to kill her while she still has a human conscious. Either that or someone else from the organization will do it and Clare will be taken by a handler and forced into becoming a claymore.

I’ll stick with that guess for now, even though someone commented, on an earlier post, that it wasn’t completely right.

Hopefully there’s more plot development and less shounen-esque fighting next week.

~ Shirukii ~