Claymore 12
June 21st, 2007 by Shirukii
Ophelia is a psychotic bitch! And I love her!
I’m not usually a fan of overly bloodthirsty murderers, but there’s something about Ophelia that amuses me. She takes sadism to a whole new level in creative fun and games. Also, her voice fits perfectly, it’s calm yet unmistakably violent, all with a perverted sense of enjoyment.
Episode Rating: 9.5/10
Clare’s strength has taken a noticeable jump since before her first hunt for awakened beings. She easily dispatches three yoma without releasing her own powers, no doubt training her yoki sense. Her handler notes afterwards that she’s become quite stronger and dependable these days, and that she’s become more docile and sincere. Clare cites learning her limits during the awakened being hunt as the cause. On the topic, her handler gives Clare her next assignment, another awakened being hunt, this one being quite a bit stronger than the last.
Upon arriving at the town for the assignment, Clare senses a fellow claymore, along with it a feeling like every part of her body is telling her to run away. Clare approaches her comrade and is surprised to learn that only the two of them will be participating in this hunt. Suddenly, the mystery claymore binds Clare and wonders why she smells like an awakened being.
Fortunately, or maybe unfortunately, Raki jumps in and takes a swing at the mystery claymore, causing her to jump away. When she turns around, revealing her sign, it’s the worst case scenario, the claymore that stands before them is #4: Ophelia.
After attacking Raki only to be blocked by Clare, Ophelia realizes that the two may be useful to have some fun, so she decides to play a game. Starting by cutting Clare’s legs in half, Ophelia explains the rules. She will fight Raki on par with his strength, every minute or so she will increase her power and speed until she kills him. Meanwhile, Clare is to try and repair her legs and try to save him, if she does it too quickly her legs won’t mend properly, too slowly and Raki will die.
The game doesn’t last very long though, the awakened being that they were sent to fight shows up and ruins Ophelia’s fun. When the awakened being launches its first attack, Ophelia suddenly does a 180 and tells Clare that the awakened being is strong and this is no time to fight amongst themselves.
But her speech turns out to be another one of her cruel jokes as she tosses Raki to the awakened being and pins Clare down, forcing her to watch as Raki struggles helplessly against it.
With no options left, Clare is forced to go past her limits and “awaken” to regenerate her legs and save Raki. Ophelia laughs at the futility of her actions, but is shocked when she sees that Clare managed to revert. Although she doesn’t quite understand what’s going on, Ophelia laughs at her fortune, to be able to slaughter two awakened beings in a day.
Clare knows she can’t beat Ophelia with her current strength, so she makes a break for it with Raki holding on for his life. Ophelia starts to chase them, but is interrupted by the awakened being who has been watching the whole ordeal.
Their fight doesn’t last very long. Ophelia purposefully gets caught by the awakened being, who snaps her neck and believes that’s the end of it, only to be decapitated the moment it let’s its guard down.
Elsewhere, Clare senses the end of the fight and knows that Ophelia will chase after her yoki and catch up soon. The only way for Raki to keep his life is for them to split up, Raki protests saying that he doesn’t care if he dies or not, he just wants to be by Clare’s side. Suddenly, Clare kisses him and tells him not to say stupid things like not caring about his life, and that he needs to live. Raki concedes and they split up, promising to become stronger until the day they meet again.
Thoughts
I’ve mentioned this many times in the past, but more than anything it’s the characters that take center stage in anime for me. Plot is important too, but it’s nigh impossible to come up with original content these days, almost every single scenario has been thoroughly played out in the past and there’s only so much variation you can give them.
Characters, on the other hand, have much more potential. Although every character is based on some sort of archetype, there’s plenty of ways to vary their individual personalities and create a whole new person, provided the writer is skilled. Claymore is a great example of an anime that does characters right. Each character is pretty much based on the same design template and the circumstances which led them to becoming claymore are similar at their core. However, they’re each worlds apart in terms of their individual personality.
Ophelia is just plain insane, there’s little to no logic in her actions, she just does whatever her selfish heart desires. She’s not exactly my favourite character, but for me to not despise such a selfish and sadistic character is quite a feat. I can’t wait to see if/how she dies, not because I hate her, but I just want to see the look on her face when it happens.
As for plot development, there’s little question now that the organization is trying to kill off the half-awakened beings. Sending Clare to support Ophelia is a joke, she obviously didn’t need it, and the clashing personalities of the two all but guaranteed a fight break out between them, let alone Ophelia’s refined sense for awakened beings.
Judging from the preview, Ophelia completely overpowers Clare, and she doesn’t strike me as the merciful type. Meaning the only way our heroine won’t die is the appearance of a third party claymore. The preview mentions a warrior of the past, which is ambiguous enough that it could mean anything from Miria showing up to a completely new character. I’m hoping for the latter, the more characters the better, as long as they manage not to become carbon copies of each other.
And so I’m left with little to do but sit and anxiously await the next episode for more of Ophelia’s antics. And, as always, fight off the urge to start reading the manga, which has grown to 9 English volumes, making it that much harder T_T
~ Shirukii ~
23 Responses to “Claymore 12”
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Resist the urge to touch the manga, you will enjoy the anime much more. =D
Yes, some fine surprise developments are coming up, so keep your hands off that manga! The warrior from the past will be just one of them.
And yes, Ophelia is just boatloads of fun, as villains go.
“…….Her voice fits perfectly, it’s calm yet unmistakably violent, all with a perverted sense of enjoyment.”
Couldn’t have said it any better myself Shirukii :) Ophelia rules!
That whole “game “sequence was awesome :)
Although I saw the head twist a la Exorcist coming, it’s Ophelia’s confidence and bravado that won me over :)…..
She’s my favourite character so far in this anime :)
I also like how the writer wasn’t afraid to seperate Clare and Raki…
When that happens, there is tons of potential for individual character development and (perhaps) some cool side-plots! :)……
I’m definitely looking forward to next week :)
YAY VIOLENCE!
One thing I noticed different from the manga is that when Clare re-attaches her legs, the lines from where her legs are severed are not there. I guess in the anime, the yoki erases scars as well.
@ random passerby: So everyone says. I’m trying =P
@ Silvering: *caresses newly bought volume 8 and 9* ;_;
@ Kanon_fan82: Splitting up Raki and Clare was a great move, aside from opening up a lot of story potential, it shows the writers aren’t scared of drastic changes now and then.
@ Servbot: Lazy animators are laaaaazy. They probably just didn’t want to make a new template for Clare.
When I saw them kiss I was like
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Biggest upset of the season. Of the YEAR, too.
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Hi..
I dont intend to hide it that i am the one who read the manga and i already reach vol 13, but i am not here to spoil anything, so dont worry. And Claymore is the only manga i have read so far.
Ok now go back to the topic. It is just like Shirukii mention above that Ophelia is going to die because we can guess it from the show in this ep. but i dont think “A warrior from the past.” is mean to Miria, Devene or Helen. i dont think the 3 of them r consider as a past yet because it is just one or 3 days past.
@Kanon_fan82 “I also like how the writer wasn’t afraid to seperate Clare and Raki…” because it was the only best way to make Raki become stronger or even able to protect Clare as he mention in this ep. because there is no way for him to become stronger if he just stick with clare like that and Clare wont let him or just protect him to the end. EVEN in the manga they havent show how strong he is yet. And it is the best way to make Clare become stronger much faster than stick him all the time, am i right?
@Servbot and Shirukii , lol maybe u guys forgot that Claymore is wearing a long pant after all, u should know what i mean.
But i will say the next ep will be a sweet ep one. and i can say for 13 vol of manga maybe need about 22-24 ep of anime. and everything after this ep is even much better.
there is one i like Claymore than Naruto is that Claymore is short but alot of detail but Naruto … wtf only just destroy a stone and to enter a cave have already eat a full length episode? but i still like Naruto anyway. but i will say Claymore is much better.
when i saw that kiss i went like omfggg noooooooo T____T HOW DARE HE VIOLATING MY CLARE’S VIRGIN MOUTH LIKE THAT SHANNAROOO >=(((((( i always thought i would be her first kiss :’((( *cries and whines*
but to be honest i didn’t expect ophelia’s voice to be that high ^^ high pitched voices are kawaaiii and the lower voices are always the ev0ol >=((( so i went like.. omgod oh noessss WHAT HAVE THEY DONE!! HER VOICE IS MUCH TO KAWAIII YOU IDIOTS IT WILL NEVER MATCH HER PSYCHOPATISM~~ >=((( but i guess i will get used to it =) at least i hope T___T;;; otherwise i will come back at this blog to start my crying and whining again >____> let’s hope i will not U___U;;
@Siva: They may wear the long-john style leggings but it is somewhat hard to tell whether that gets re-attached as well or Clare’s skin is just very white lol. But either way, in the manga it show lines where limbs are severed and then re-attached. In later chapters of the manga, the lines are still there.
Also, Clare was the one who initiated the kiss to possibly just get Raki out of the way of the fight. Not sure why people are so upset about that scene lol
pretty good episode good thing also that they dont dilly dally but go on with the story that keeps it interesting also with the apperance of new characters and their uniquiness. warrior of the past maybe maria’s sprit posses her or somethign that might happen certainly someone whos not from their time. also the kiss part was totally unexpected i mean isnt he only a child and kiss on lips only shows that they probably going to have relatioinship when they meet next time but i would have to have raki be not so young as hes now it dont go to well. i hope raki becomes claymore also or something like that be more interesting.
@Servbot , you may though that Claymore has no emotion about human feeling or something about love at all and their goal is to kill yoma and awaken being, but dont forget Claymore is half human also, and the reason that Clare falls in love with Raki doesnt mean it is impossible at all.
@ache , the scene kissing with Raki doesnt mean Clare is fall in love with Raki at all but instead she just want to mention that Raki is a precious person to her and to do so is making Raki thinks that his life is also important to her.
And Raki wont become Claymore that easily because i though there is only one way that they r going to make Raki become Claymore is when he know Clare is in a big trouble and it wont happen anytime soon until the last 2 eps or so. (this is just my thought)
LoL but who know the next time they met, who can say Clare wont fall for him? :) (but dont get me wrong because i read manga, because manga havent show their meeting yet, and their separation is not that short either over 5years and less than 10years)
What are the chances of Raki training hard to increase his power levels, now that he and Clare went their own separate ways, for now? Didn’t read the manga though, so I’m making up outlandish assumptions. XD
lol siva that’s a major spoiler >__> don’t forget there are people here who haven’t read the manga :)
@twsl , lol sry, but i think i havent spoiled them that much at all, most of the things i state here it didnt have in manga yet, and some of the other things it is not something i took from manga at all. like u see i didnt who exactly the old friend from the past, and the relation between Clare and Raki in manga havent show anything much at all because in the manga they havent met each other yet and they havent show how is Raki end up yet after separated. so everything i state here is not a spoiler at all but it is just my though.
hehe, yea i know you were careful with your words and didn’t want to spoil anything, but i just thought that it was maybe just a tiny bit of a spoiler when you said their seperation would last for 5/10 years, but i am a mangareader so i can’t really tell whether it’s a big spoiler for the animewatchers or not, i’m sorry for my whining if it’s not T__T;;
Don’t worry, it wasn’t that much of a spoiler, not to me anyways. I had a feeling that this separation was going to last a long time, Clare’s speech kind of gave that away.
But just to be safe, in the future if you guys could clearly label anything that you might think could be a spoiler, that would be great. I’ll work on getting spoiler tabs working, I’ve been meaning to do that for a while now D=
This is probably not the right place for it, but maybe someone here could lead me in the right direction. I’m trying to subtitle Claymore 12 for some friends because I couldn’t find it subtitled in English online, and there are a few sentences I can’t quite translate, be it either because I don’t know how to parse the words, I can’t find the words in the dictionary, it’s too quick for me to understand, or a combination of any.
Though I’ve been studying Japanese casually for roughly 8 years, I’ve only lived in Japan for a week, so my proficiency isn’t nearly as good as it would be if I’d lived in Japan for half that time (4 years, or maybe even just 1). Subtitling anime and stuff for fun seems to be a really good way to become more procifient at it, because I have to pay close attention to sentence structure and stuff. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to live in Japan because I keep getting rejected by the ALT english teaching jobs, and they usually take anybody. They won’t tell me why, but I’m assuming it’s because I’m diabetic, which means I’m ‘high maintenance’ compared to most.
Aaaanyway, these are the sentences I don’t quite understand:
かつて一桁ナンバーだ ＝ (In reference to the awakened one Claire’s being sent to fight) “She was once a single digit number.” This sounds a little awkward to me, but I was just wondering if anyone else felt the same, and if so could give some alternatives, namely in regards to ’single digit’.
期待してるよ （きたいしてるよ） ＝ I’m pretty sure the Kanji is right for kitai. Considering Clair says “I’m going to die. There’s no way.”, and he follows with “Those are promising words” right before this, I’m thinking it means “I hope you’re right”.
なんだ。体じゅんさいふんはけっこう出してるような気がする。この感覚。 Having read shirukii’s summary of the episode, which、I might add, was excellent, I’m assuming this sentence means “Weird, it feels like every part of my body is telling me to run away.”(I omitted ‘this sensation’ because it sounds a little redundant). So anyone know what exactly this sentence is, or should be? The part I don’t get is じゅんさいふ（ん） OR ぶん？ けっこう？だしてる. One meaning I found for ‘Junsai’ is ‘water shield’, which can’t be right.
覚醒者狩 ＝ Awakened being hunt(ing). Although literally translated, this just sounds weird to me either way. It sounds better if you go ‘hunt for an awakened being’, but the way it’s used makes it sound like it’s a traditional event that Claymores partake in, which in a way contradicts the wording especially when it’s used as a kind of a noun in a full sentence, like “最近の覚醒者狩りで。。。”.
一桁ナンバー。じょうひこいのちのひとりか。じょうひこ/じょういこ？is the part of this sentence I’m not sure about. I don’t know how to parse it. Calire says this sentence when she’s looking at Ophelia’s back armor.
That’s all ask for now. If someone could give me a link to the torrent that has English subtitles, that would be cool, but I’m really interested in what words are being said.
Ophelia’s sentences by far are the most difficult to translate. I mean they make sense to me in Japanese, but when I try to change it into English it just sounds wrong because I try to translate everything they say. It’s making me start to think that maybe my English sucks too.
Any help anyone could offer would be great. If you know of a link where people discuss translation that would be even better.
Sincere Thanks
Oops, I meant, Claire says “I’m not going to die. There’s no way.”.
Can’t really help you with translations, seeing as my Japanese language skills are virtually non-existent. But I e-mailed you with places to find the subbed version of episode 12 and a place where you can discuss the subs.
Cool, thanks a lot for the help, Shirukii. I appreciate it immensely. And I apologize for crudding up your nice, neat blog with that post.
That was an awesome summary of the episode, by the way.
Haha, thanks! And there’s absolutely no need to apologize. Long comments and discussions starting from our posts is what keeps us bloggers motivated =D
@Hans, there are alot of websites for u to dl this sub version of Claymore, but i think Shirukii already gave u one. so u dont need my help anymore.
@twsl, when i gave the point where i said their separation would last for 5/10 years, i would said it is kind of a spoiler but i though that the duration of their separation it is not the big thing that everyone is looking to see at all and it is just like Shirukii said that their separation was going to last a long time because it will take time to make those 2 changed a lot and become stronger before their reunite. And what everyone want to see the most is what r those 2 doing when they r separating.
@Shirukii , im sry i wasnt intend to spoiled ur blog at all i just want to come here and have some discussion. And im looking forward to see Spoiler-Tab, :)
hi guys! from what i’ve been seen, the end of this is not bad at all..i agree with clare’s decision to separate with raki becoz he is only slowing her down..but the kiss i don’t reaaally expect.naah… i love that scene, for me it’s a sign that there will be a change in their current relationship.. sorry that i post this a so late, becoz in my place the anime was just recently released in dvd.