Claymore 16
July 18th, 2007 by Shirukii
Despite being an action oriented episode, Claymore’s plot took another leap forward and even more characters are introduced, as well as the insinuation of an upcoming death.
I don’t even bother trying to pick a favourite claymore anymore, it ends up changing with each passing episode. With Galatea finally getting some action centric screen time, I’ve taken a huge liking to her fighting style. But I digress…
Episode Rating: 9/10
As Clare enters the cave of the awakened beings, she notices irregular distortions in yoki everywhere. It turns out that the rods that duff pulls out of himself carries part of his yoki as well. With the cave littered with them, it throws off Clare’s ability to sense yoki so much that she doesn’t even notice the approach of a team of yoma.
Fortunately, they aren’t that strong and Clare manages to get rid of them quickly. But her luck runs out when Duff shows up. Clare starts to attack at first chance, but his exoskeleton is so hard in most places that Clare barely manages to scratch him, even the Flash Sword is passively parried.
Meanwhile, the awakened loli is following the battle and continuing the torture of Jean in the chamber underneath. Her methods persuasion are more mental than anything, Jean calls her a monster but the loli asks her if they’re really that different. In the eyes of humans, the very beings claymore are protecting, there’s little difference in the half yoma/half human claymore and the awakened beings they sometimes become. However, Jean maintains that she was born human and wants to die human.
Returning to the fight, Duff is now on the offensive and Clare can’t even put up a fight. Despite coming off as a complete idiot, Duff actually has a pretty good battle sense, instead of dismembering Clare’s leg, he crushes the bone inside it, making it harder to heal, and puts Clare into a headlock.
Luckily for Clare, a mystery claymore emerges from the shadows with a rather arrogant attitude about her. Sneaking a peak at her symbol, Clare identifies the warrior as rank #3, Galatea.
Ignoring Clare’s warnings of Duff’s strength, Galatea pulls off some weird move and somehow gets Duff to drop Clare without even touching him. Not really wanting to fight, Galatea carries Clare off to the exit, but is stopped by Duff who caves in her escape route. But beyond that, he’s powerless against Galatea, despite his numerous attempts to hit her, every attack misses.
Going on the offensive, Galatea targets the points where Duffs exoskeleton is the weakest, and manages to remove one of his hands.
But things take a turn for the worse when the awakened loli shows up to cheer her boyfriend on. She reveals the secret behind Galatea, who possesses the ability to slightly influence the yoki flow of others, just enough to divert attacks off course. But if one were to put a large amount of strength and determination behind their strikes, such an influence would not be enough to affect trajectory.
With that bit of information, the tide of the battle shifts and Galatea is put at a disadvantage. Seeing this, Clare passes her limits and heals her leg just in time to sweep in and save Galatea from a fatal blow. But this time suppressing her yoki doesn’t come easy, and the only reason Clare is able to revert back to human is because Galatea uses her power to help out a bit.
Intrigued by the peculiar warriors in front of her, the awakened loli stops the battle for a little chat. Galatea reveals her true identity, one of the Abyssals, Riful of the West.
In the history of the claymore society, there have been three disastrous incidents where the current rank #1’s have awakened. Once in the era of male claymore and twice during the age of female claymore. These awakened beings are known as the Abyssals, the most powerful awakened beings who reside in different places in the north, west and south. Usually these three have remained fairly inactive and thus were not bothered by the organization, but lately the three of them have begun to take action, amassing armies of strong awakened beings.
Riful is impressed by the history lesson, but has one thing to change. While it’s true that their locations do not overlap and territory squabbles are avoided, recently the male Abyssal in the north has become cocky after obtaining a strong awakened being for his army, a one horned female awakened being. Riful was simply answering his actions with a similar plan.
The one horned awakened being mentioned is, of course, Priscilla. And at the mere mention of her name, Clare goes berserk and demands to know the name and location of the male awakened being so she can go kill his woman. Riful suggests a game, if Clare can manage to land a strike on her, she will tell her where the Abyssal of the north is. After rampaging for a bit, Clare’s assault is cut short by Galatea, who scolds her for giving in to such an obvious taunt.
More importantly, with Riful showing no interest in fighting, they now have a chance at getting out alive as long as they take down Duff. Fortunately, they have an ally that should be able to pierce Duff’s skin right below them. So with Galatea holding Duff off, Clare is to go free Jean, and in the worst case scenario, kill her if she has begun to awaken.
Realizing the seriousness of the threat that lies before her, Galatea stops holding back and begins to release her yoma powers, which she claims results in the highest jump in power among the 47 currently ranked claymore.
As for Clare, she arrives at the torture chamber only to be greeted by a half awakened Jean, begging for death.
Thoughts
Beings stronger than Priscilla!? Does not compute.
While I like the introduction of the Abyssals and the whole concept of a civil war between awakened beings, I can’t say I’m happy about Priscilla being relegated to a subservient power class. Up until now, Priscilla has been touted as the ultimate goal for Clare, the subject of her vengeance and the underlying final boss of Claymore.
The introduction of even stronger beings and Priscilla not being among them reeks of the whole shounen hierarchy in which no matter how strong of an opponent you face, there’s an even stronger one hiding right around the corner. Although Claymore isn’t an endless shounen like Naruto or Bleach, I -HATE- this technique because you never get a sense of finality or closure. I can only hope that the Claymore anime stops at a sensible point and that the manga doesn’t become another typical infinite shounen.
That having been said, I still like the overall direction Claymore is heading in. I didn’t expect a war to be brewing among the awakened beings themselves, rather than the organization being behind it. But now that i think some more, it does make sense. Yoma are generally unintelligent and usually act alone to fulfill their carnal desires. With that in mind, the cooperation of the three Abyssals would be a difficult task.
Not that the organization is completely off the hook. I still find it odd that they sent such a weak team (the lowest single digit and a couple 30s/20s) to hunt an Abyssal. Feign ignorance all they want, they must have a rough idea of Riful’s location and sending anything weaker than the top 5 ranks is just plain suicidal. So I can’t help but think that the organization is fully aware of the actions of the Abyssals. Perhaps even trying to add fuel to the fire by sending them some weaponry? (This is me trying to apply real world politics to an anime, orz ._.)
But enough of plot speculation, OH GOD GALATEA IS HOT. As i mentioned before, I’m not going to bother trying to pick a favourite among all the claymore, each of their respective character development seems to be in parallel, so just as I think I’m beginning to like one over another, I’m hit with that tiny bit of their past/glimpse of their abilities that pushes one over the other. But in terms of character design, Galatea is the only one I’ve found remotely appealing so far. Seems like she values her outward appearance quite highly as well, embarrassed that she has to release her yoma powers and skew her beautiful face to fight Duff.
Her special ability is one of the better ones we’ve seen so far. I’ve mentioned before that I prefer more subtle means of defeating an enemy as opposed to brute strength, and Galatea’s ability to remotely influence other’s flow of yoki certainly falls under the former. While it doesn’t have the same cool factor as the Flash Sword, its potential is much greater. With Galatea claiming that the increase in her power when she releases her yoma powers is the highest among all existing claymore, I’m curious to see to what extent she is able to control Duff in the next episode.
But unfortunately, that means another week of waiting, and another week of suppressing the urge to read the manga. Only 10 more weeks until I finally get to read it!
…damnit ;_;
~ Shirukii ~
24 Responses to “Claymore 16”
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“I can’t say I’m happy about Priscilla being relegated to a subservient power class. Up until now, Priscilla has been touted as the ultimate goal for Clare, the subject of her vengeance and the underlying final boss of Claymore.”
. . . .
About that, Claymore is a story that has it’s fair share of plot twists and surprises, so stay tuned ^_~
. . . or spoil yourself and read the manga. ;-P
The manga translation identifies Riful, Isley and Luciela as the “Three Persons of the Abyss” or the “Abyssal Ones.”
Probably a better transliteration than “Dwellers of the Deep,” which makes them sound a bit like they hang out in at the bottom of the Atlantic.
Two of the three Abyssals are rather old… one, not so much. And each of them have some of the best monster character designs in Claymore. It looks like we’ll get to see Riful’s next week!
And hang in there, Shirukii… you’ll enjoy the surpise of Priscilla’s current situation all the more if you resist the urge to read ahead.
As for the sending of the original team to hunt in Riful’s region—I very much doubt that the Organization knew they were dealing with Riful. Her whole setup is intended to be a trap, after all. The original reports of yoma might have been of Duff or the several lesser yoma that Riful commands.
Don’t worry about Claymore falling into the Shounen-Hierarchical-Boss-Sequence rut. Claymore is about setting up expectations and then satisfying them with a twist, or denying them altogether. The Abyssals might be at the top of the pyramid now, but there are other monsters out who can exceed them, some even in the bosom of the Organization itself.
Oh, and I guess I’m right about Galatea being likely to attract a fanbase!
“About that, Claymore is a story that has it’s fair share of plot twists and surprises, so stay tuned ^_~” Now that Za_Paper said that, alright then, i will hint only one thing for u and u will have to think about it, Shirukii ( “Beings stronger than Priscilla!?” Laughing…. )
“I can only hope that the Claymore anime stops at a sensible point and that the manga doesn’t become another typical infinite shounen.” I couldnt think of Claymore anime can be longer than 100 episodes.
“Feign ignorance all they want, they must have a rough idea of Riful’s location and sending anything weaker than the top 5 ranks is just plain suicidal.” You r almost get that point but u will get it when u saw the next ep.
“OH GOD GALATEA IS HOT” Didn’t i told u to take a good look at her when it was in ep15, “i would recommend u, Shirukii, to take a bit focus on Galatea on the next ep when u watch it.” But it is still ok if u dont want to pick ur favorite Claymore yet because there r still more to go for u to pick up, but i will tell u right now even if u reached ep26, maybe Galatea is still the best option for u. But there is one weakling Claymore that i like her too but i think it is too early to tell u right now, even though there r maybe 2 or 3 eps to go before that.
When Galatea said “This goes against my policies regarding beauty,” i cant stop laughing.
“I prefer more subtle means of defeating an enemy” I am second that and i prefer an enemy use the same style too.
@ Za_Paper: >>. . . or spoil yourself and read the manga. ;-P
NEVER! But indeed Claymore rarely goes as I predict, but hey, it’s fun to try.
@ Silvering: Thanks, I edited the post with Abyssals instead of Dwellers of the Deep. I still think the organization must have a rough idea of the whereabouts of the Abyssals and should take more caution with missions close to them. While it’s not possible to send Galatea to scout every single mission, they should know to take more caution when the possibility of running into someone like Riful is there.
And Galatea definitely snagged me as a fan, I didn’t think much of her when she was standing around doing a whole lot of nothing, but she was pretty awesome in this ep.
@ Siva: I would cry if I saw Claymore stretch to 100 episodes ;_;
>> You r almost get that point but u will get it when u saw the next ep.
I can’t wait =D
Yea, Galatea was kind of “meh” when she was just standing there, but seeing her in action shot her up in my books. (And she has awesome hair)
Looking forward to seeing even more characters, I love series with tons of characters that are able to develop them properly. Kind of like Mai HiME, except that series failed because of the “LOL RESET” ending.
…fucking Sunrise T_T
Ah, but you forget that often in shounen and RPGs, what seems like a right hand can often take power when the time comes…
Aizen anyone?
@Shirukii: “I would cry if I saw Claymore stretch to 100 episodes ;_;” LOL, i know u cant have another 85 weeks of suppressing the urge to read the manga.
There is a purpose of sending Jean’s team to hunt Riful, and the next ep is the key to finish this plot and to step on to another interesting plot.
I already have my eyes on Galatea from ep10(before i end up reading the manga) i know that she hasn’t show anything that much that time but i can feel that she has some potential that i am looking forward to see it. But after i read the manga i was like wow Galatea, how can i say NO for her. But too bad, after the next ep we wont be able see her around that much or her in action anymore but who know after ep24 or something like that.
The setting of Mai Hime is seem to be too quiet too me, it seems like it has no communication with outsider, i dont know y either. But i do like the story and the theme of its and i dont like the ending either. Personly, i like Mai Otome better than Mai Hime but i do hate the theme of Mai Otome that 2 young girls love a old guy and the guy end up to be their father -_-! but i really enjoy the story itself.
from the beginning of the episode i was like soooooo hoping to see the confrontation between clare and jean T_______T;;; seeing how the episode ended just -literally- a couple of seconds before the confrontation happened infuriated me so hard >=((((((((
oh well.. *picks up manga and starts reading* ahh damnnn.. these drawings~~ they are so well-drawn… ~rawrrrr~ and the scene with jean and clare! it’s so classic~~ even better than the last time I read it~~
hiiiiiii shiruki, how are you doing? ^______^ //// you’re missing outtt~~ >:þ *quickly flashes a manga page before shiruki’s eyes* *SWOOSHHH* did you take a peek? not even a little tiny bit of a peek? *SWOOOSHHH* and now!? I SAW YOU PEEKK YES YOU DIDDD NO DON’T SAY YOU DIDNT >=((( I SAW YOU DIDDDD~~ resistance is futile >=(( j00′ll be assimilated by ze b0rg~
Be strong and stay away from the manga. STAY AWAY!
Makes the upcoming twist and turns so much more exciting!
“The introduction of even stronger beings and Priscilla not being among them reeks of the whole shounen hierarchy in which no matter how strong of an opponent you face, there’s an even stronger one hiding right around the corner.”
Show ▼
As for gallatea, she IS hot. But i like Jean better personally. (incomming next episode hehe)
Wait till you meet Flora…
I guess I never saw Priscilla as the “ultimate being.” She is there as Clair’s big enemy but by no means did they say she was the strongest of all the awakened beings. Maybe she will be or something later, but as I see it now, her roll under one of the top 3 is a good place for her.
@ Erv:
Shirukii has spoiler tags now :)–use them well my young padiwan… using spoiler and /spoiler in
@ Siva:
Mai Otome is way better than Mai Hime….storyline is more intricate/keeps you guessing back and forth…..
@ Shirukii:
“Damn Sunrise T_T”
LOL…..My sentiments exactly :)
What can I say…..Claymore continues to impress me…….I’ve now stopped trying to guess how the plot will continue to unfold lol…….Ophelia is still my favourite though :’(
Hope you can stay strong in the 10 weeks. It only gets better from here, and I think the LION one will severely test your patience. :P
That aside reading the manga really helps gauge how well they’ve adapted the scenes, and it’s been picture perfect so far I might add. It’s amazing how they’ve managed to replicate it scene for scene — adding a bit of special effects to Galatea’s powers was a nice touch, I’d say. Stay strong! You’ll reap the rewards soon enough.
>:3
The best to watch Claymore is dont try to read what the author try to show u but instead try to read what the author try to hide it from u.
-While I like the introduction of the Abyssals and the whole concept of a civil war between awakened beings, I can’t say I’m happy about Priscilla being relegated to a subservient power class. Up until now, Priscilla has been touted as the ultimate goal for Clare, the subject of her vengeance and the underlying final boss of Claymore.
The introduction of even stronger beings and Priscilla not being among them reeks of the whole shounen hierarchy in which no matter how strong of an opponent you face, there’s an even stronger one hiding right around the corner. Although Claymore isn’t an endless shounen like Naruto or Bleach, I -HATE- this technique because you never get a sense of finality or closure. I can only hope that the Claymore anime stops at a sensible point and that the manga doesn’t become another typical infinite shounen.-
Look at this way, Teresa was able to match an almost fully awakened Priscilla by releasing just 10 percent of her yoki; In fact, Priscilla would have died right then if Teresa didn’t let down her guard at the last second. The point is that if Priscilla awakened form is equalvalent to 1/10th of a Rank 1 claymore, then logically speaking, an awakened Rank 1 would be several times stronger than an awakened rank 2, so having Abyssal ones wouldn’t really come as that much of a surprise if you read into it deeply enough.
Though frankly speaking, I’m surprised there aren’t more male Abyssal ones; I was under the impression that they created a reasonable amount of male claymores before abandoning the idea. Then again, I might be wrong.
As a side note, does clare really look like a male in that outfit? I would have missed it if the anime didn’t point it out to me.
@ T_I: Ah Aizen, that guy is badass, too bad Bleach keeps going into filler hell.
@ Siva:Seems like there’s always that bit of info that’s waiting to be revealed in the next episode lol, but I guess that’s what keeps it so interesting.
As for Mai HiME vs Mai Otome, I liked HiME better EXCEPT for the ending. Otome I didn’t really like, but I loved the ending. Kinda funny how that worked out.
@ twsl: Evilll temptations, dieeee! XD
@ Mentar: Will do! (hopefully)
@ Erv: Edited your post for with spoiler tags. And that’s a good point, I just make assumptions often, because there’s no other way to come up with theories except for speculation.
@ Vex: Her appearance as an awakened being wouldn’t really suggest that she’s THE strongest, but the fact that she’s screwed up countless claymore’s lives and is generally good at wrecking stuff gave me the impression that she is the main boss character of Claymore.
@ Kanon_fan82: =O I thought Otome had a much more shallow storyline than HiME, I didn’t see the battle royale twist coming, that was epic. But yes, damn Sunrise for pulling off the reset ending, that ruined it.
@ Owen S: I should be able to manage, after all. I’ve been waiting for over a year for NANA to finish so I can start watching it. And I’ve fallen into the trap of reading manga before watching the series a few times before, and it only killed my appreciation of the series, so I keep reminding myself of that.
@ Alias: Well, what made me think that there wouldn’t be anyone stronger than Priscilla is the fact that even Teresa was scared of her latent potential. It was constantly stated that given time and experience, she had the potential to surpass Teresa. Since we haven’t seen anyone who has been confirmed stronger than Teresa so far, I just assumed Priscilla was at the top of the food chain.
@ Shirukii:
Again totally off the actual Claymore post, but here’s the thing about Mai Otome vs. HiME
HiME had no rhyme or reason….. girls possess a freakish ability to summon mecha-like creatures….whopee ding! :P
the world will end if they don’t fight each other, but there’s no explanation as to WHY it will end (ie. why was the tournament between HiME’s even created in the first place???……What was the ultimate goal???)
the emotional connection between characters was good, I just didn’t buy the plot…
Otome–on the other hand– had a solid foundation. HiME technology exists for a specific purpose: to protect influential feudal lords….
Not only that, but the Otome guardian has to remain a virgin in order to retain her powers…..the Otome series presented itself as a political thriller, while the sexual tension between Arika, Nina, and Sergay provided an interesting sub-plot :)
@Shirukii : “the fact that even Teresa was scared of her latent potential.” Yes, that is the fact, but truth me, there is no point of argument about it, it still has along way to wait and see who is the strongest Awaken because it is shounen after all, so the plot can be twist around no matter what the author told us from the beginning. Instead of argue about that, we should focus on what kind of potential that our Clare has right now.
@Kanon_fan82 : “HiME had no rhyme or reason…….. , and Sergay provided an interesting sub-plot :)” o_O, i really praised u for this one, Kanon_fan82.
Shirukii, dont give up, give it everything u got. :) im looking forward to see what can u say here.
*Priscilla is actually stronger then the Abyssals, though she serves under Isley*
Priscilla would be alot stronger than Teresa, had she not Awakened so early. Irene (formerly Rank #2) had told Ranks #4-5 that almost immediately when Priscilla joined the Claymore organization, she was promoted to #2, and at such a young age.
@Freddo , u r right that Irene and Teresa both of them have stated that Priscilla would be stronger than Teresa in the future but at that time Priscilla fought against Teresa, no matter how much she released her yoma power she wont stand a chance win against Teresa. And Teresa at young age is not a bad either.
You’re right about the organization using underhanded tactics to manipulate this war. When you find out why they sent Jean’s team in though you’ll also begin to see just how right Miria was in saying the most dangerous thing of all is delving into the secrets of the organization. As for what they are, my speculation is that they must all be the godfathers of yoma on tons of those yoma energy suppressant pills. Then again, maybe they have been hiding their power so long that like Irene they no longer are detectable by their comrades.
nice spoiler 19.
But the only thing I don’t like about Jean is she KEEPS saying shit like “my life is yours” over and over again. It’s a not so subtle hint that Jean will sacrifice herself. I haven’t read the manga but you’d have to be an idiot not to see it.
[spoiler]!!!
Okay. You don’t have to compute. In the manga. Priscillia IS undoubtly stronger than Isley (an Abyssal), and Isley is stronger than the other Abyssal (not shown yet). Also, in the manga, it is stated that Priscillia is stronger than any of the Abyssals, therefore you don’t have to compute or think about ANYONE stronger than her. There simply isn’t anyone, at least in the manga. In the anime… she gets owned… or so I’ve heard. XD