Well…that kinda sucked.

While I was all praise for Madhouse’s anime original ending, I’ll be the first to admit that it fell apart at the very end. Overused cliche speeches, rehashed themes and a lack of the definite conclusion that I was looking for was what the finale of Claymore was missing from being a sufficient ending. However, the series as a whole was very enjoyable and I don’t for one second regret spontaneously picking it up for viewing nor blogging.

Episode Rating: 8/10 || Series Rating: 9/10

After a quick recap of the various important speeches given in the previous episodes and a bit of a stare down between Priscilla and Clare, the final fight between the two begins with an audience of all those close to Clare and Isley.

Priscilla and her aerial projectile attacks vs Clare and her quick reflexes, dodging and blazingly fast Flash Sword, the fight begins pretty evenly. Despite having just procured them, Clare seems quite adept with her new…20 odd blades growing out of her left arm, she adapts her existing skills to them and manages to turn each one into an independent Flash Sword.

As for Miria, Deneve, Helen, Raki, Jean and probably even Isley, they don’t bother interfering with the fight, or perhaps more accurately, know that they wouldn’t be able to stop them if they tried.

As the fight drags on, Priscilla begins to edge Clare out, mainly due to her ability to fly. With Clare on a rage filled offensive, she’s quick to engage Priscilla in the air, where she is clearly dominant. Eventually, Priscilla manages to grab Clare. She taunts her a bit, noting it must be hard not to be able to fly, before throwing her into the air and launching an unstoppable barrage of projectiles at her. But as Clare free falls, she remembers Teresa and the times they shared together, the one who took them away and her reason for living up until now. She parries the fall with a barrage of Flash Sword and propels herself airborne, and on the descent, unleashes all she has in a final wave of Flash Swords that tears through Priscilla.

Although Priscilla has realized that Clare isn’t Teresa, the overwhelming presence that she feels towering over her manifests itself in her image. But just as Clare raises her sword to deliver the final blow…

Raki barrier! He stands firmly between Clare and Priscilla, begging Clare to stop, saying that she’d be no better than a yoma if she went through with this, that even though Priscilla took someone important to Clare away, she lost loved ones to yoma as well, as did all the claymore that stand among them. In short, he delivers quite possibly the lamest “revenge only begets more revenge” speech in the history of anime.

But Clare is beyond her limits and can’t control herself anymore and ends up trying to stab Raki, but Jean rushes in at the last moment and takes the blow. With the roles reversed from their encounter with Riful, it’s Jean’s turn to save Clare from awakening. Using the last moments of her life, Jean lets loose the yoki floodgates, syncs with Clare’s yoki and suppresses it so that she can return to normal.

Afterwards, as Clare mourns her friend’s death, Isley swoops in and grabs Priscilla. Even though she may be unstable and hard to control, he has no intention giving up potentially the strongest awakened one in existence. Miria, Helen and Deneve ready their swords to fight him, but Isley points out (backed up by a fierce yoki) what they all know, that there’s little point of further fighting, and makes his graceful exit.

Elsewhere, Galatea reports to Rubel that not only Priscilla, but Isley as well, have made their presence known. He asks her of the fate of the claymore, Galatea says that she can no longer feel their presence and that he’s free to go check for himself should he not believe her. Despite wanting to, he says he hasn’t the time and must return to the organization to deal with the aftermath of the bloodshed.

And so the series comes to a close. Helen and Deneve vow to leave the organization and continue training so that one day they may come back strong enough to take vengeance for everything they have been put through. Miria has similar plans, choosing to immerse herself among humans and bide her time, slowly learning more about the organization’s true nature. As for Clare, despite having lost her purpose for living, she will continue to do so, but not as a dog of the organization. She invites Raki to tag along, an offer which he makes no hesitation in accepting despite knowing the harsh path that lies ahead.

Thoughts

They just HAD to throw one last one of these in -_-

As I said, I wasn’t very impressed with the way that Madhouse chose to conclude things. The way their ending was set up before this was far from perfect, but at the very least it had a sense of finality. I expected to see the death of Priscilla which would stop Isley’s plans dead in their tracks and restore the balance of power, meanwhile accomplishing the overlying theme of Clare’s revenge. But instead we got a half hearted ending that solves absolutely nothing. With Priscilla alive, Isley’s plans will revive in the future, leaving that story line far from concluded. With Miria, Deneve and Helen deserting the organization and going on their own paths, that’s another end left untied. And finally, Clare’s struggle ultimately ends up as a futile one. So many questions were left unanswered by the ending and many new ones were brought up. And for what? Some lame moral that nothing good comes out of revenge? What the hell is that! This is Claymore, everyone dies in Claymore!

I’m guessing they chose to end it this way because they wanted to leave it open for a possible second season. Personally, I think that’s stupid. At the rate the manga is going, god knows when they’ll have enough material. The only good thing I can see this bringing about is an increase in the pace that the manga is being released. That would certainly be worth it.

To continue the rant: Raki. Oh god Raki, you need to FATE/STAY in the kitchen. His speech was so cheesy and cliche that I died a little inside after hearing it, I had no idea that writers these days could be so uncreative. And I cannot believe that they actually used that hugging scene again, I facepalmed so hard when he did it. I saw it coming from like…10 episodes away, but prayed that it wouldn’t happen anyways, so much for that.

However, I thought that Jean’s dying moments were well done. While only slightly less cheesy than Raki, she died a warrior’s death, repaying the debt just as she said she would. I also saw this one coming from a mile away, but unlike Raki’s case, I really wanted to see this one done. While I haven’t read the manga as a comparison, I thought it was a well done scene, and being the only one who died in the finale of Claymore, her sacrifice will not be forgotten.

All in all, Claymore was an excellent series. Yes it fell apart a bit at the end, but when deviating from the manga, you can’t expect much more. Last week, Trellisaze suggested that my view of Claymore has changed, that when I first began blogging Claymore I was drawn by its ability to set itself apart from mindless shounen, whereas I compromised with the ending, accepting that generic shounen elements were unavoidable.

While I concede that my expectations from Claymore have changed, but for me, that was inevitable. When watching anime, an important thing to heed attention to is expectations. If you hype a series beyond limits, even if the series is relatively good, if it doesn’t meet those expectations, you will feel disappointed. When I began watching Claymore, I had no idea what I was getting into and ended up being pleasantly surprised week after week by the goodness it had to offer. However, when I heard the anime was diverging from the manga plot, I rearranged my expectations. I took the ending for what it was, trying not to compare it to what could have been. Did I make some compromises? Sure I did, but in the end I think it was a better option than hanging on to a fleeting hope that the anime’s finale would match that of the manga.

I’m not saying it’s wrong to want to see the anime live up to the manga, nor am I saying it’s right to go back on something I said and dumb down expectations in sort of a “I’ll take what I can get” attitude. To each their own, it’s just my way of trying to enjoy things for what they are. Perhaps when I read the manga, I’ll go back on these words and join the legions of fans that were enraged by the path the anime took. But for now, despite a lacking finale, I enjoyed Madhouse’s adaptation of Claymore.

Claymore was a great series, one that barged into the shounen genre and despite following many of its conventions, set itself apart from the rest with a great story and characters. The animation could have used some work and the music was horribly repetitive, but when you immerse yourself in the Claymore world, you’ll find such things end up being trivial. For fans of shounen, and even those who aren’t, this is one series that I’d recommend without a second thought.

It’s been fun blogging Claymore and having discussions on everything from the physical feasibility of a certain claymore’s special move to the flame war that erupted in the dying episodes. I hope you enjoyed reading as much as I enjoyed writing, hopefully you stick around even in the absence of these weekly Claymore posts.

But now, there’s something that I’ve been wanting to do for a very VERY, long time…

Manga countdown: =D

Teresa ;_; . . . Flooooooraaaaa T_T

~ Shirukii ~

So as I pray. Unlimited Blade Works!

With every passing episode I’m becoming more and more content with the way Madhouse is dealing with their anime original ending. I haven’t read the manga yet so I suppose you could argue that I don’t know what I’m missing, but nonetheless I feel that the anime ending is doing a fine job concluding everything within the bounds of reason. Although I admit it’s not perfect, with Clare h4xing herself some more power in the next episode inevitable, but it’s top notch work as far as original adaptations go, despite resorting to typical shounen fare at times.

Episode Rating: 9.5/10

With Clare wanting to avenge the death of Teresa, the only friend in the world she had, and Priscilla wanting to kill Clare under the impression that she is Teresa herself, the traitor to the claymore organization and the one responsible for her misery, the battle begins with Isley watching from the sidelines. Priscilla doesn’t move an inch as Clare unleashes a flurry of high speed attacks on the one horned awakened one, batting her away effortlessly. In her frustration, Clare continues to push the limits of her yoma powers well past her limit.

Noticing another spike in Clare’s power, Helen, Deneve and Miria pick up the pace to reach their friend in need. Along the way, Helen notes how odd it is that Clare, who was determined to end her life before awakening, was so quick to change her mind and charge towards Priscilla. Miria explains that during her investigation of the organization, she uncovered some of Clare’s past, telling the story of Priscilla, the one who killed the strongest claymore in the history of the organization, Teresa of the Faint Smile and soon after awakened. And of the little girl who had unknown ties to Teresa who volunteered to take her flesh and blood to become a claymore, the organization agreed, seeing it as an opportunity to test if it were possible to make a claymore out of another fallen claymore. It also explains Clare’s low rank, as she is only 1/4 yoma, despite her occasional jumps in power.

Meanwhile, Jean and Raki are slowly making their way to Clare as well, guided by some sword marks left behind by Miria and the gang. Raki takes the opportunity to ask Jean about her ties with Clare and why she’s so keen on saving her. Jean tells him about how Clare saved her life when she was about to become something inhuman and her admiration for Clare’s motivation to fight for those you have lost and those who you do not want to lose.

Back at the volcano, Clare continues to get her ass handed to her by Priscilla. But what makes Clare even more frustrated is Priscilla’s mindset as she fights. Her memories are still jumbled up and she thinks she is fighting for justice, believing that Clare is Teresa, the traitor to the organization, and doesn’t realize that she is an awakened one. Despite Clare’s rage, her attacks are too weak to get through to Priscilla, and she ends up impaled in countless places.

However, just as Priscilla is about to deliver the finishing blow to “Teresa”, Helen, Deneve and Miria arrive just in time to save the day. After they set Clare aside and confirm that she is still human and hasn’t awakened, they take over the fight. Priscilla introduces herself as the number two claymore, leading Miria to quickly figure out that Priscilla’s memories are frozen in the time just before she awakened. The three show no signs of mercy or hesitation and attack immediately. Helen and Deneve use a pincer attack to incapacitate Priscilla while Miria strikes head on. But despite their perfectly timed and executed assault, Priscilla dodges, only losing a wing.

The only thing their attack succeeded in doing is further angering Priscilla, causing her to fully awaken, much to Isley’s contentment but Miria’s horror. From that point, the battle ceases to be a fight and becomes a merciless slaughter. Their attacks do nothing and Priscilla is quick to incapacitate Miria and begins to slowly dismember Helen and Deneve.

As the three of them lie on the volcano floor, powerless to move, Clare snaps back to her senses. She regroups her thoughts and remembers why she’s fought so hard thus far, why she became a warrior, why she struggled so hard to gain strength, it was all for this moment, if she can’t kill Priscilla now, it was all for nothing. And with that, Clare releases a huge amount of yoki and awakens her left arm, which becomes a metaphorical swiss army knife of blades. All this just as Raki and Jean finally make it to the scene.

Thoughts

So I’m guess this is what everyone was looking forward to when spamming “Superb >:3″. From various manga scans posted, I know that this is the move that Clare was supposed to have used to defeat Ligardes, instead of just a simple Flash Sword. While the fight with the silver eyed lion king suffered from the lack of this attack, it was smart to save it for the Priscilla battle, where the urgency and need for a new power is much more demanding.

It was a good decision to make Helen, Deneve and Miria step into the fight against Priscilla, as opposed to standing on the sidelines, looking on in awe as Clare fights solo. I can’t help but think that Isley is an idiot in this regard. While I understand he wants to see how far Clare pushes Priscilla’s powers, it’s overconfidence that is the downfall of many warriors. No matter how strong he thinks Priscilla is, the chances of her defeat are not zero, and he should stop being stupid and help her. Much like how Ligardes probably would have won if he had the rest of his army backing him up. Stupid prideful one on one fights and their lack of battle tactics.

I can’t say much more in terms of story or character development at this point, we’re in the home stretch, everything is laid out as much as it ever will be. My prediction for the final is that Clare takes Priscilla out and has her awakening stopped by the Raki/Jean tag team. I expect at least one sacrificial death from the Miria, Helen, Deneve team, just because it wouldn’t be a Claymore finale if we didn’t have some main character deaths, Jean will probably pass on after she helps Clare as well. As for Isley, I dunno, either he’ll run away like a scared dog with his tail between his legs, having lost Priscilla, or he’ll go berserk and try to kill everyone, only to be stopped by a random third party, like the organization bringing in their clean up team in an FBI-esque finishing sweep to take the credit and have Isley V& for molesting loli Priscilla. Or something even more random could happen, like Riful showing up to wrap things up, that would be awesome, claymore needs more Riful.

But whatever it is, there’s no doubt that it’ll be different from what the manga did, and that makes it fair game to all crackpot theories. Until next week!

Manga countdown: 1 week!

~ Shirukii ~

I have a feeling that many manga readers weren’t pleased with the direction the Claymore anime is taking in its final episodes, which looks to be a huge deviation from what I know of the manga storyline. This episode sets up the final battle, Priscilla vs Clare. A match up which by all logic shouldn’t even be an option at this point, but it looks like Madhouse wants to end the anime with everything tied up, rather than leave the ending open, as it would have been had they followed the manga.

Episode Rating: 8.5/10

The battle of Pieta ends with Clare edging out Ligardes and Flash Swording the Silver Eyed Lion King into unrecognizable bits of his former self (minus the head >:3). A far off Isley is absolutely stunned at Ligardes’ demise, but Priscilla takes it even worse. Recognizing Teresa’s yoki flowing out of Clare, she loses it and ends up running away from Isley and Pieta.

Back in Pieta, Helen brings the news of Clare’s win to the remaining claymore, who breathe a sigh of relief and erupt in cheer. But their happiness is short lived as their victory comes at a price, Clare has went far past her limits and is beginning to awaken. Helen rushes out to try and calm her down, but Clare knows well enough that she’s past the point of no return and does the only thing she can, she asks Helen to kill her while she still has the consciousness of a human. Helen struggles with Clare’s request, cursing her for asking while Jean cries out for Helen to stop.

Elsewhere, Priscilla wanders the remains of a nearby town that was wiped out by Isley’s army. When she’s confronted with the sight of a dead child and a loved one sprawled over top in a futile attempt at protection, Priscilla’s memories start flooding back.

She remembers her own encounter with a yoma, who disguised itself as her father, killing her brother as he tried to protect her. Pushing off the corpse of her brother Priscilla remembers seeing the yoma who she once thought was her father eating her sister’s guts. With saving her sister the only thought in her mind, she grabbed a nearby axe and cut off the yoma’s head.

Priscilla’s memories about the hunt for Teresa also come back to her. She recalls the orders she was given and the hate she had for Teresa and her betrayal of the organization. But somehow Priscilla’s memories become convoluted and she ends up with the impression that the death of her family was Teresa’s fault.

With her memories back, the cute loli Priscilla that we’re known for the past few episodes is cast aside and Priscilla’s true self returns, the one horned awakened one, slightly confused and agitated at the fact that Teresa has somehow managed to live on, but confident that all she has to do is kill her once again. The resulting release of yoki from her awakening sends a shockwave that resonates all the way back to Pieta, terrifying the surviving claymore. Clare immediately recognizes the monstrous yoki as that of Priscilla, the one being that she will never forgive, the one that ruined her life with Teresa. Forgetting all about dying as a human, Clare’s rage takes over her and she flies off to face Priscilla.

The awakening of Clare and Priscilla sets things in motion towards a final confrontation. Isley puts the remainder of his army on standby, with Priscilla awakened he sees little reason for anyone else to fight. In Pieta, Deneve, Helen and Miria prepare to go after Clare and try to console Raki, who is still traumatized after seeing Clare go berserk.

And an old friend has come back, Galatea has been sent by the organization to do some reconnaissance on the situation in the north. However she is accompanied by Rubel who reminds her that her mission is strictly observation and anything else will be treated as a betrayal of the organization (ie. punishable by death).

Deneve, Miria and Helen set out to find Clare with only a rough estimate of her location based on Miria’s sensing of her yoki, which is too wild and scattered for her to narrow down. On their way, they run into Galatea, immediately readying their swords to fight her if she plans to stop them. But instead, Galatea lends them a hand by pointing out Clare’s exact location, a volcano not too far off. Miria knows of Galatea’s exceptional ability to sense yoki, thanks her for her help and the three make their way to the volcano as fast as they can.

Back in Pieta, Jean listens to Raki as he laments on how he’s all talk and couldn’t do a thing to help Clare in the end, instead cowering away thinking about his own life. Jean consoles him by saying that putting one’s survival first is merely instinct, but regardless, she doesn’t plan to sit around while Clare is in danger. She limps off to find Clare and can’t help but smile when Raki follows her with his usual determined look.

And it all comes down to this. In a live volcano with Isley looking on, Priscilla and Clare stand face to face, poised for battle.

Thoughts

Well, I can’t say that I didn’t see this coming. Although I’ve heard from manga readers that the events of Pieta happen without the intervention of Raki, Isley and Priscilla in the manga’s storyline, it was pretty obvious that this confrontation was inevitable in the anime. That being said, I’m all for it. I’ve already made my stance clear in previous entries that I think that Madhouse is doing a decent job with their anime exclusive ending. While I may be a little biased because I haven’t actually read the manga yet, I still think that an ending with a sense of closure is far better than leaving things open to speculation.

As for the match up itself…Admittedly, I’m not the most knowledgeable about claymore power levels, but I’m pretty sure that Clare shouldn’t have the ability to take on Priscilla at this point, but yet, here we are. A manga scan was posted last week that illustrated the finishing move that Clare was supposed to use on Ligardes where she produces quite a number of blades from her further awakened arms. I think that the reason why it wasn’t used in the Ligardes fight is because Madhouse is saving it for the finishing move Clare uses against Priscilla.

While I am generally supportive of the path that the anime has chosen to follow, I’ll admit that it has its faults. Firstly, as mentioned above, Clare shouldn’t be anywhere close to powerful enough to match Priscilla. Furthermore, what do they plan to do afterwards, assuming that Clare manages to kill Priscilla. Will Isley be so shocked that he’ll run away like a dog with his tail between his legs back to a cave in the mountains? Will he call out his entire army in an attempt to wipe out the claymores, only to be wtfpwned and killed off? And what part will Raki play in all this? Whatever the result, it’s probably not going to make much sense.

But what’s to come is anyone’s guess at this point. The anime has gone far off the beaten path so only time will tell how it will end. However Madhouse chooses to end it, I for one, will not complain, as long as it’s not something stupid like Clare befriending Priscilla, Nanoha style (beamspam first, questions later). The producers risking an original ending is evidence that they know there won’t be an opportunity to continue the anime any time soon, so instead of the vague conclusion that the manga’s storyline would have led to, they chose one with finality, and in my opinion, it was a good call. Yes, I hate open endings THAT much.

With the massive discussion that erupted in the comments last week, I can’t wait to see what everyone thinks of this anime original arc and the Priscilla vs Clare/Teresa power level debates.

Manga countdown: 2 weeks.

~ Shirukii ~

Superb.

Was I the only one who was expecting this fight to last a little longer than the one episode it did? While it may have been the result of having it overhyped, I wasn’t as impressed with this fight as I thought I would be. Many manga readers were hailing it as the fight that would define the series, the one they had been looking forward to all this time, and in that light, it failed to deliver. Don’t get me wrong, it was still a great fight, seeing Clare finetune her newly acquired speed in the heat of battle, but it lacked the urgency and tension of say…the Duff fight or even the Ophelia fight, both of which I thought were done better than Ligardes.

Episode Rating: 9/10

Ligardes stands in complete awe, looking down at his severed arm, impressed at the display of Clare’s speed, one which even his eyes lost track of momentarily. He’s not the only one frozen in surprise, Helen and the other surviving claymore can’t help but stare at Clare’s awakened legs which look like they were stolen from Sleipnir. With her newly acquired speed and her ever improving Flash Sword skills, Clare continues the battle with the Silver Eyed Lion King as the remaining claymore clear the battlefield of the wounded.

As the fight drags on, Ligardes complains about how annoying it is to fight with one arm, so quickly kicking Clare aside, he goes to retrieve the one she severed. But Helen gets there first, using her extendable limbs to snatch it away and carve it into pieces, much like Ophelia did when Clare lost one of her arms.

Cutting his losses, Ligardes returns to the battle at hand and makes an important realization. When he goes to attack Clare she evades his attack, but in doing so moves so uncontrollably fast that she rams straight into a while. Ligardes figures out that Clare’s new speed comes at a price, control. She may possess lightning fast speed, but she’s unable to stop at will and make fine adjustments to her trajectory once she starts to run, so even the slightest dodge out of a linear path saves Ligardes from her attacks. But Clare knows this best and is already struggling her hardest to bring her new skill under control.

As Clare and Ligardes continue to face off, Helen decides to jump back in and fires a shot off at Ligardes, which is easily evaded. As he goes to punish her involvement, Clare tries to pull the same move on Ligardes again, attempting to slice off his arm as he reaches for Helen. But not one to fall for the same trick twice, Ligardes sees it coming and avoids. But surprisingly, he’s unable to finish Helen off before Clare recovers from her dash and is standing in front of him once again, a clear indication of how fast her control is developing.

Acknowledging her power, Ligardes finally decides to get serious against Clare, admitting that she’s the first serious challenge he’s had since taking on Isley. With a loud roar and a very DBZ’esque aura, he releases the full extent of his yoki and prepares to fight with all he has.

Meanwhile, Priscilla and Isley are slowly making their way towards Pieta, Priscilla looking a little down after having been abandoned by Raki, but Isley reassures her that she’ll see him again soon enough. As Ligardes unleashes his yoki to fight at full force against Clare, Isley stops in surprise, shocked that there’s a claymore in Pieta that would force even Ligardes to become serious.

As the fight drags on, Helen looks for an opening to fire off another extended stab at Ligardes when she suddenly notices a civilian wandering the streets. She takes him to where the rest of the claymore are taking shelter where she notices it’s Raki, who defiantly refuses to stay put and insists on helping Clare. As he runs out to see her, he notices her awakened legs and memories of Priscilla and the awakened beings he’s seen in the past come flooding to his mind. Realizing that he’s powerless to help in Clare’s current situation, he falls to the floor and is consoled by Helen.

The fight finally begins to show signs of ending as Ligardes backs Clare into a crumbled building where he believes her legs are useless. With all his strength he tears a tower from its foundation and hurls it with all his strength at Clare, an action which both he and the far away Isley believe is the end of the fight. But as Ligardes turns and walks away victoriously, he is surprised by the sight of Clare descending from the sky at him, releasing a yoki that strikes fear into Ligardes, Isley and even the usually calm Priscilla. Clare puts all she has into one final charge at Ligardes, with nothing else but defeating him, who mercilessly killed many of her comrades, in her mind Clare pushes herself closer to awakening than she ever has. As her Flash Sword tears Ligardes into pieces of unrecognizable flesh, the Silver Eyed Lion King can do nothing but concede to her conviction and strength, a truly superb fight to the death.

Thoughts

Hmm…after summarizing the fight, I’m finding myself a little more content with it. It did a good job in giving Clare the h4x she needed to beat Ligardes, but at the same time making it apparent that it wasn’t a seamless victory and that she just barely got through it. And even then, I’m sure the repercussions of going so far past her limits will be made apparent next episode.

What I didn’t like about the fight was how repetitive it was. I wasn’t expecting much in terms of animation, since Claymore hasn’t made a name for itself by being a technically superior anime. But still…the extent to which they reused rather simplistic animation frames was a little disappointing, even by Claymore’s standard. Also, the fight itself was bland, even though Clare pulled out her awakened legs to even the odds, the urgency seen in all other Claymore fights where the combatants continually pull new abilities and strategies to outdo their opponents trump cards just wasn’t there. Especially in regard to Ligardes becoming serious and unleashing that massive aura of yoki, aside from the explosion of red swirly wind, I didn’t see much of a boost in power after that.

Returning to the topic of Clare going over her limits, I’m really hoping that it won’t be Raki that once again pulls her back from awakening. Many manga readers hinted at Jean having one last duty to fulfill to Clare, and by the looks of this episode I’m guessing it was her who brings Clare back after this battle in the manga, which makes a lot of sense as its the perfect way to repay her after she did the same thing back with Riful. But the anime’s deviations from the manga and the situation as it stands suggests that it will be Raki who will take over that role.

On that note, a lot of people are complaining about the animes various deviation from the manga plot, and while I can’t blame them, it’s something you guys just have to accept. Thinking about it, I would do the same thing if I were in Madhouse’s position. Abruptly stopping the anime after the Pieta arc and leaving things open ended regarding Priscilla, Raki and Isley, something that would only be covered by the timeskip would be even worse than how things are now. At least this way the anime is stopping at a point where things can be wrapped up without leaving a ton of loose ends, even if that does mean changing Raki’s storyline and relegating Jean’s position as Clare’s savior moot. Yes it’s never fun to see an anime deviate from its source material, but compared to a sudden stop in a series that may never see a second season, it makes much more sense to alter the ending so there’s at least a bit of closure, regardless of how different it may be compared to the original. Plus, it’ll encourage people to go read/buy the manga!

So I’m guessing next episode will deal with the aftermath of the Pieta attack and somehow bring Clare back from the borderline of awakening. And either in the closing minutes of next episode or the opening minutes of 25, Isley and Priscilla will show up to throw things into chaos once again. But hey, just a baseless theory on my point, and if it happens I’m rather curious as to how Clare and co. will manage to escape from arguably the two strongest AOs in existence, or God forbid, even beat them.

Manga countdown: 3 weeks

~ Shirukii ~

Sadly, we’ll be waiting another week to see the fight between Clare and Ligardes that everyone is hyping up, cliffhangers ftl. This week’s episode was alright, although a little tedious and there was far too much jumping back and forth between Pieta and Raki, I really hate when scenes are carried out in parallel (largely due to its overuse in Naruto). But with Raki almost at Pieta, the two plot lines should converge soon enough.

Episode Rating: 8/10

With most of the claymore in Pieta annihilated by Ligardes, it’s up to Clare, Deneve, Helen and Miria to once again fight the odds for survival. Clare is noticeably agitated by Ligardes impaling Jean and swears to kill him, however he is generally uninterested with an apparent weakling like her and speeds past the rest of the group straight to Miria.

Miria knows better than to get caught off guard and is able to put up a fight, giving Clare and Deneve a chance to attack. But their attempts are in vain, Ligardes is able to effortlessly block and counter their attacks, but is admittedly impressed by Clare’s ability to sense his attacks and dodge accordingly.

Meanwhile, Raki is faced with quite a dilemma as he tries to sort out his feelings towards Priscilla. On one hand, she’s a maneating monster not unlike a yoma, but on the other she has the mindset of a helpless girl and has gone through the same pain as Raki through the loss of her family.

Isley once again asks Raki to stay by her for she’ll be saddened if he leaves. He goes on to fully explain what Priscilla is, an awakened being, the result of a claymore going far past their limits in battle, the inevitable fate of all claymore, neither human nor yoma nor claymore, an entirely different existence unable to ever return to what would be considered human.

Back in Pieta, the fight shows some hope when Miria shows Ligardes why she’s called Phantom Miria, but even with such speed, it seems as if she’s only keeping up with Ligardes. Clare continues to attack during the occasional opening, but she’s simply too slow.

As Ligardes charges away from Clare to focus on Miria, he turns around to fire a quick attack at the pursuing Clare. She manages to dodge it, but Deneve, who unfortunately finds herself in the line of fire, is not so quick to reacts and gets skewered. Helen rushes over to check on her, telling her to stay still and focus on healing her wounds while the three of them deal with Ligardes. And so Deneve is forced to sit idly with tears in her eyes and lament on her weakness as her comrades fight a losing battle against impossible odds.

Elsewhere, Raki, Isley and Priscilla continue on their way to Pieta, but are stopped by some civilians along the way who warn them to run away as the town is under siege by numerous yoma, and despite the claymore organization sending forces down to their lowest number, the fight looks hopeless. Hearing the news and knowing that Clare is the lowest ranked claymore, Raki is sure that Clare is fighting in Pieta but is stopped by Priscilla when he goes to rush over there. After giving it some thought, remembering Clare almost going her limits and the promise they made when they parted, Raki makes the decision to leave Priscilla and rush to Pieta to protect Clare.

As the fight continues to draw out, Miria’s ability to fully dodge Ligardes’ attacks is wearing thin as more and more of the damage is getting through.

And eventually the inevitable happens, Miria is completely unable to continue dodging Ligardes’ continuing attacks and takes the full force of his claws. Clare and Helen rush to save her but are once again effortlessly batted away by Ligardes. However, Clare has never been one to give up and stands to save her friend, running against her physical limits and time itself. Thinking about her past battles and how differently they would have turned out if she was just a little faster, a little stronger, something inside her snaps and she’s given the speed needed to stop Ligardes’ finishing blow, much to the surprise of the Silver Eyed Lion King, who is minus one of his limbs.

Miria, Helen and Ligardes stare in astonishment at a Clare who has defied all logic with her burst of speed and now stands before them with a murderous look in her eyes, directed firmly at Ligardes.

Thoughts

Not the amazing episode I was expecting, apparently that will have to wait until next week, but definitely not a disappointment by any means. It was great to see Miria in action again, even if she was fighting a losing battle, as well as Clare, once again beating the circumstances and pulling out some major last minute h4x.

I wasn’t so impressed with the scenes with Raki and Priscilla though, they felt forced and unnecessary. Last episode made it clear enough that Raki was facing a huge dilemma in deciding whether or not to kill Priscilla and the moral conflict between her human and awakened being sides. Admittedly, some depth to the situation was added when Isley explained what awakened ones are, as Raki is forced to think about the repercussions of killing Priscilla in her current state and the possibility of facing the same situation with Clare in the future. But really, the episode would have been nearly the same with only the scene where Raki leaves Priscilla to go to Clare. I guess this is what happens when anime deviates from the source material, as I’m assuming it’s doing here.

This portion of the Ligardes fight, while decent, didn’t really set itself apart from any of the other fights we’ve seen thus far in Claymore. It was far too repetitive, Ligardes rushes Miria, Miria dodges, Clare and Helen/Deneve charge only to be batted away. Rinse, lather, repeat. Although things are set up well for next episode, which I assume is the fight which everyone is itching to see, Clare’s “More, more, more, more, MOAR!” scene did a good job of showing her ability to shine in the face of adversity. But what was up with the change in atmosphere, it made it seem as if Clare had completely lost it and went into berserker mode, much like she did when she was provoked by Riful.

The preview for next episode showed Jean being dragged away by Helen and Deneve, so that pretty much confirms what all the manga readers were saying in regards to her still being alive and eventually playing an important part in the battle at hand. The episode is titled “Critical Limit” so I’m guessing that Clare will be pushing herself closer and closer to the limits of her powers and h4xxing herself AGI in the process. The outcome of the battle is a no brainer, but I’m still anxious to see if it’s going to be as awesome as everyone says it will be (something about “Superb”?).

On that note, this episode played out much differently than my expectations based on last week’s preview. The preview came with the tag line “Fading lights. Disappearing lights.” which in my head suggested that we were in for some more deaths this week, which obviously didn’t happen. Did I look too far into that, or is it simply that the previews tend to be greatly misleading?

Again, it’d be great if the manga readers out there could detail the differences between the anime and manga seen in this episode, from the looks of it, they’re becoming more prominent.

So moe, die, etc.

Manga countdown: 4 weeks

~ Shirukii ~

JESUS CHRIST IT’S A LION! GET IN THE CAR!

Wow…just, wow. Any sentiments that there was a lack of death in the War In the North arc have been shattered, this episode was a slaughterhouse with a total of nine claymore deaths and three awakened being deaths. I can’t believe they killed off the captains just like that, that was brutal and totally unexpected on my part, especially Undine, who was developing rather nicely as a character, split in half like she was made of paper mache. Also, Flora, noooooooooo ;_;

Episode Rating: 9.5/10

The stage is set for the invasion of Pieta. In a flashback to Isley’s talk with Ligardes (Ricardo? Ligardes?) it’s revealed that Isley has sent the cavalry, a huge team of awakened ones, to wipe out every shred of life from Pieta, under the direct command of Ligardes, the infamous Silver Eyed Lion King.

When the fight begins, it’s little more than a massacre on the claymore side of things. The initial surprise attack kills off a few of the weaker ones without so much as a fight. As the battle goes on, things begin to even up a bit, Undine’s brute strength, Jean’s GIGA DRILL BREAKER and a tag team of Flora’s Windcutter and Clare’s Flash Sword manage to take out one AO each. As the fight progresses with Ligardes looking on, he tallies up the death count so far as 5 claymore and 3 awakened ones. What should have been a quick annihilation is taking far too long and Isley’s army is taking far too many casualties, so Ligardes decides to step in.

As the fight rages on, even Miria knows that if things continue the way they are, they have little chance of survival. However, even that small chance is obliterated when the army of AOs suddenly retreats, giving way to Ligardes who congratulates them on their efforts so far, but can’t afford any more casualties on his side. The massive flow of yoki he releases when awakening strikes fear into the remaining claymore, and even Miria knows who they’re up against and is trembling.

Ligardes gets straight to work, targeting the strongest of the present claymore, the five team leaders. He tears through Veronica and Undine with very little resistance and despite putting up a bit of a fight, Jean goes down after failing to land her GIGA DRILL BREAKER. Finally, Flora is split from head to toe with a single nail before she even knows what’s happening.

Even a berserk half-awakened Clare is batted aside with a single hand, which is what gave Ligardes the opening to close in on Flora in the first place.

Elsewhere, Isley, Raki and Priscilla are slowly making their way to Pieta, with Isley saying ominous things hinting at the bloodbath that’s underway there. As they continue along, Raki turns around to find Priscilla missing, and when he hears a woman scream, he rushes to find her. But instead of Priscilla, he finds a random local woman who is scared out of her wits and runs away crying monster. Raki eventually finds Priscilla in a cave, but is shocked to see her hovering over a dead man’s body, eating his guts. It doesn’t take him long to draw the conclusion that she’s a yoma and go for his sword, but when she starts crying and calling for her family, Raki can’t bring himself to kill her (not that he could anyway, lol)

Isley shows up soon after and explains to Raki that she’s not a yoma, but an awakened being, something that a human turns into. As Priscilla continues to sob while eating the dead man’s guts, Raki hugs her and begs her to stop, not unlike when he managed to stop Clare from awakening back at the beginning of Claymore, but this time it’s a futile exercise, one which Isley looks on to with a devious smile.

Thoughts

So…if Ligardes is -THAT- strong, able to plow through several single digit or low double digit ranking claymore without breaking a sweat, and Isley is even stronger than that, and Priscilla may be EVEN STRONGER than that…Clare has quite a bit of powering up to do…

I still can’t get over how many claymore went down this week. Forget the insignificant five that were killed by random awakened ones, but Undine, Jean and Flora all biting it in a single episode was unreal. Undine was getting some great character development and I was beginning to get drawn in to her personality. In the end Jean ended up dying without returning a favor to Clare which she thought was of equal magnitude to bringing her back from awakening. And Flora ;_; I just liked Flora, her mannerisms and her voice were subtly attractive and I wanted to know more about her Windcutter. EVERYBODY DIES IN CLAYMORE T_T (but nobody dies in Bleach, except that one guy…)

Another thing that was really interesting to see this episode was the dynamic between Priscilla and Raki. Despite finding out that she’s a yoma, or something close enough to one, he still goes to hug and comfort her. Whether it’s love, or the belief that he can return her to normal, it’s clear that Raki has some rally strong feelings towards Priscilla, which will be an interesting factor when Priscilla, Raki and Clare reunite. And what about Isley, what is he hoping to accomplish by keeping Raki around. Is he just planning on using him to control Priscilla? The further along we go, the more I think that Raki’s potential as a fighter and therefore as a claymore/awakened one isn’t that strong, but perhaps Isley sees something I don’t and wants to add him to his army.

I’m anxious to see how the remaining claymore will conquer the odds in front of them. Their tired, beaten up and have only one of their commanding officers left, and although Miria is the strongest of them all and has the best team management skills, how much will that really help when faced with such a massive powerhouse like Ligardes. Rather than a question of who will win the fight, I can only think that it’s a matter of who out of Miria, Deneve, Helen and Clare will survive this assault.

The only way I see a significant number of claymore getting out of this alive is if Clare suddenly develops some serious h4x. Other than that…maybe if the organization sent some heavy backup, like Galatea and Rafaela, or any of the other top five. But the “Lights fade. Lights disappear” of next episode’s preview makes it sound like we’re in for another killing spree next week

Again, I’m calling on the manga readers out there to give some manga vs anime comparisons for this week, are we really deviating far off the manga story line? But do remember, spoiler tags are our friends =)

Manga Countdown: 5 weeks.

~ Shirukii ~

Seems like nothing went right for Claymore this week. Aside from the delays from Eclipse (which they were very quick to respond to and inform) the episode itself wasn’t that great. The dialog was repetitive, nothing major in terms of plot was revealed despite the episode being pure talking, and the animation was worse than usual. But hey, every arc so far has had one really boring episode, I thought The War in the North was going to be spared that fate, but it looks like it was just put off.

And for the manga readers out there, yes, it has been confirmed, Claymore will be deviating from the manga plot, something that has never worked well for shounen in the past, but hopefully it doesn’t turn out to be a complete disaster.

Episode Rating: 7.5/10

Picking up from last episode, Raki has been picked up by Isley and has Priscilla hanging all over him. Isley manages to find him a horse so he can travel along side them, but is interrupted by some travelers who warn them to stay away from Pieta because there is a bunch of claymore gathered there, and where there are claymore there are surely yoma not far off. Hearing this, Raki decides to decline Isley’s invitation to travel with them and head off to Pieta in hopes of finding Clare. Isley begs him to stay with them, for Priscilla’s sake, convincing him by assuring him that Pieta is on their way anyways.

When the three stop to rest for a while, Isley takes the opportunity to question Raki for a bit. Raki tells him that the one he is looking for is indeed a claymore, named Clare, and even though claymore usually don’t make good companions for humans, he wouldn’t be alive if it weren’t for her, and this time he wants to repay the favor by protecting her. But Isley questions whether he has the power to protect her, taking Raki’s sword and showing off some moves from his claymore days. Noticing his obvious talent, Raki get Isley to help him improve his swordplay so he can be stronger when they arrive in Pieta.

Meanwhile, back at Pieta, the claymore are a little shaken up from their encounter with the awakened ones. Undine is disgusted by their weakness and heads to the weapons storage warehouse to get away from them. Deneve shows up soon after to find Undine in the back room with her yoki unstable and her normally buff physique reduced to a frail girlish look, shaking uncontrollably and crying. The two talk for a while, Deneve guessing the circumstances that turned her into the person she was today and lamenting at how common such tragedies are in their society. But Deneve can tell that Undine is a good person, one who values the lives of her comrades and will go to great lengths to protect them.

Suddenly, Helen shows up and when Undine is unable to bring herself back to normal just yet, Deneve covers for her until Helen leaves. Even though she’s a good person, Helen can’t keep a secret and knowing that a captain is breaking down would shatter the morale of the other claymore.

Deneve leaves Undine with the story of how she decided to become a claymore, a typical story of a family being attacked by a yoma and a small girl being the sole survivor bent on revenge. But in Deneve’s case, the fear of death when she was becoming a claymore was so strong that she became a defense type, despite her want for revenge. But then she met Helen, who assured her that it’s human instinct to want to survive and there’s nothing wrong with what she was feeling. Which pretty much sums up the feelings of all the claymore after the awakened ones attacked. Fear is nothing to be ashamed of, but it’s not something that you should let control you, and surrounded by so many comrades, they’ll somehow make it through.

Meanwhile, Flora’s interest in Clare is growing. She takes her aside for a talk and asks her about her right arm, noting the similarity to a certain former rank number 2, Flash Sword Irene. When Clare remains silent, Flora readies her stance to pit her windcutter again the famous flash sword, but is interrupted by Jean, who gives her usual “I owe my life to Clare, screw with her and you have to go through me first” speech. Clare gives in and tells Jean and Flora about how she got her right arm and the determination she has to take the head of Priscilla, Flora accepts that as a good reason to fight and raises swords with Clare and Jean, vowing to survive through this war.

Elsewhere, Raki and Isley come back from training and Raki passes out from fatigue. Isley notes how amazing it is that humans can push themselves to their limit yet still accomplish so little. He notices someone off in the distance and leaves Raki and Priscilla cuddling together by the campfire to go speak with him.

He meets up with Ricardo, the commander of Isley’s military, and instructs him to attack Pieta, the front lines of the northern lands of Alphonse, and completely wipe it out, leaving no survivors.

Thoughts

lol, you know you’re in trouble when Miria starts praying for survival

Again, quite a boring episode, but I guess it was a necessary one. A war is about to break out and this episode illustrates the tension that everyone is feeling, sort of a ‘calm before the storm’ type feeling. In my opinion, it didn’t warrant an entire episode of sitting around and worrying but as long as the next episode capitalizes on the build up, I won’t complain.

Not to say the episode didn’t have it’s good points though, the main one being Priscilla. I’ve mentioned before that I’ve always liked characters who act all cute and innocent but in reality have the power to rip your head off at any given moment, and while I don’t like her quite as much as Riful, this side of Priscilla is quite an improvement. I swear it’s not just my lolicon tendencies coming through here >_> …really.

It’s also too bad that Clare and Flora didn’t have a short sparring match. The abilities the two posses are really close in their inherent nature, I’d go as far to say that Flora’s Windcutter is based off the Flash Sword. When the Flash Sword was first described, Helen noted that Irene drew her sword, attacked, and sheathed it before the average person even noticed her move, which is exactly what Flora’s Windcutter is. And if Flora doesn’t end the fight on the first strike, she’ll probably keep her sword out after having drawn it and just move it at blazing fast speeds from then on…which is exactly what the Flash Sword is. I’m not seeing the difference. Which is why I was disappointed when they didn’t clash swords, it might have given some insight on how the two differ, however slight.

Next episode looks like the beginning of the raid on Pieta. The ominous preview made it look like Ricardo took quite an army of awakened ones with him to get the job done. And no matter how much the claymore have improved either individually or as a group, the amount of damage they sustained when taking on three AOs that were just scouts doesn’t bode well for what’s to come.

As for the whole manga vs anime issue. Can any manga readers tell me how much the anime is deviating from the manga at this point? Are they going off in a completely new direction, or are the changes only slight, while the plot as a whole remains largely the same? I’m curious to know because, for one, it’ll give me an idea of how scared i should be for the ending of the Claymore anime, and secondly, whether I can start reading the manga yet.

Manga Countdown: 6 weeks?

~ Shirukii ~

Well, looks like another arc is managing to outdo the last. The War in the North arc is proving to be an action filled ride, what I was expecting when I first went into Claymore. Major story development is sacrificed with episodes like this one, but this is shounen, there needs to be some good old fashioned ass kicking once in a while and this arc is doing a great job with it.

And OSHI- Priscilla.

Episode Rating: 9.5/10

The fight against the three AOs (apparently this has been the abbreviation of awakened ones, but no one bothered to tell me ;_;) who launched a preemptive assault on the claymore. It’s apparent that the number of claymore that are able to stand up to the AOs are limited, the rest being little more than cannon fodder.

Flora and Undine’s teams are up against the AO that can control the flow of yoki. After some quick exchanges of blows, the AO lures Undine into charging him head on. Defenseless, he manages to take control of Undine and tries to make her cut off her own head, but much to his surprise, Undine’s brute strength is enough to overpower his control to a certain degree, much like the Duff vs Galatea fight we saw before. However, it’s clear that Undine’s movements are being restricted to a point where she can’t effective attack.

Deneve and Clare step in, knocking Undine out of the AO’s range and taking over the fight. The AO uses his yoki manipulation to put a temporary stop to their attack, but Clare and Deneve are no ordinary claymore. They push themselves past their limits to break free from his control and use the moment of surprise when the AO is confused about why they didn’t awaken to land some solid blows. It’s Deneve and her rapid regeneration technique that manages to finish off the fight, getting close enough to dig her sword into the AO’s neck, with some help from Undine’s brute strength they manage to relieve his body of his head.

Unfortunately, his consciousness hangs on long enough for a last ditch attempt to take some claymore with him. But Clare jumps in and uses her Flash Sword to chop his head into smaller pieces before he can do any harm.

Elsewhere, Jean’s team is finishing up as well. Using defense type claymores Veronica and Cynthia to distract the enemy, Jean charges up her GIGA DRILL BREAKER to its maximum 21 rotations just in time. Helen uses her extending limbs to bind the AO and Jean tears away it’s limbs and most of its shell, leaving Veronica and Cynthia to deal the final blows.

After taking care of their enemy, Clare begins to worry about Miria, who had to take an AO with only one team, but Deneve reminds her who they’re talking about. And sure enough, Miria finishes the job without so much as a scratch, making it evident that her growth compared to Clare, Deneve and Helen has been even greater.

After the three AOs are dealt with, Miria takes the opportunity to take a damage and status report. Despite heavy injuries, none of the 24 claymore were killed. However, Undine is unimpressed with Miria, saying that it was obvious the claymore without experience with AOs were just going to be a distraction, but Miria made them participate anyways, needlessly endangering lives. It’s Flora that steps in to answer the question, while it’s true that many of the claymore hadn’t dealt with awakened beings before, but now they have, and the experience gained from the fight serves to increase the overall strength of the group, no doubt Miria’s intention from the beginning. Undine reluctantly accepts the explanation, but still believes that it was a reckless move that could have cost them.

Meanwhile, Raki is wandering the North in search of Clare, checking the gravemarkers of fallen claymore to make sure Clare is still alive. In a deserted town he meets what seems like a small, defenseless girl (lol harem-esque boobgrab). The two of them are approached by a man who proceeds to question Raki a bit before inviting him back to their place to seek shelter from the cold, surprised that the girl, who apparently doesn’t take much interest in others, seems to have taken a liking to him. With that he suggests going home to the little girl…whose name just happens to be Priscilla.

Thoughts

Why helo thar Isley

Priscilla is moeeeeeee! Quite a change from the violent, entrails loving on horned monster we saw during Teresa’s arc. When she first appeared on screen I thought that it might have been Priscilla, but when she didn’t eat Raki’s guts on sight, I figured it couldn’t be. I’m curious as to how they’ll explain the change in behavior, it’ll most likely either be that Priscilla had an epiphany after her awakening and calmed down a lot, or Isley’s presence somehow has a calming/controlling effect on her. But based on the comments in previous episodes and Riful’s explanation a couple episodes ago, he’s probably weaker than her anyways.

And what becomes of Raki from here on? Unless all the awakened beings gathered at Isley’s place disguise themselves as inconspicuous humans all the time, Raki is bound to figure things out really quickly. Then what? Do they turn him into a yoma/claymore and awaken him to join the army? I think that would be reasonable, it would undoubtedly lead to Raki and Clare finding each other on the battlefield and give Clare an opportunity to repay the favor from when Raki brought her back from awakening. As a bonus, Raki receives a powerup abling him to fight on par with claymore without actually becoming one!

For the manga readers who are going to tear this theory apart, please remember to use the spoiler tags ;_;

Not much to say about the rest of the episode, it was purely action oriented, which was a nice change in pace. It’s also becoming apparent how Clare stacks up to the rest of the claymore, especially the scene where she surprises Flora by beating her to making mince meat out of the yoki controlling AO. Flora is now undoubtedly interested in her and knows that her power is far beyond that of her number 47 rank suggests.

The next episode looks like it’ll shift focus to Raki a bit. The preview showed him being confronted by a male claymore…or was that just Isley? I couldn’t really tell. In either case, not much speculating to be done aside from the whole Raki bit, so that wraps things up for this week.

Manga countdown: 7 weeks

~ Shirukii ~

Well, I certainly wasn’t expecting to be thrown into this level of action this soon. Claymore has a record of having really boring arc openers which take their time explaining the situation and hinting at how things might play out. But this episode was almost military in its organization, the claymore are gathered, squad leaders and teams are formed, and battle begins. Much better than sitting through an entire episode of background dialog, but then again, I guess “We’ve been sent here to kill monsters, get in your groups and get started” is pretty much all they CAN say.

Episode Rating: 10/10

The episode starts with the aftermath of the encounter with Riful. Jean follows Clare, vowing to return the favor for saving her life, despite Clare saying that helping her Flash Sword’s technique is a good enough reward.

Amidst their conversation, Rubel appears from the shadows, accompanied by rank #5, Rafaela. Urging them not to throw away their lives by fighting her, Rubel says their purpose for appearing before them is twofold. Firstly, to show that they can be tracked down and killed at the organizations discretion. And secondly, to assign them a new mission, numerous awakened beings have begun to collaborate in the north under the command of Isley, they are to join an army of claymore being sent to take care of them. As extra incentive, Rubel tells Clare that Raki has been spotted heading north as well. Rubel also lets them know that Galatea is alive and well, despite having lied to the organization, but will be on various dangerous missions for some time.

Much to the surprise and worry of the citizens, 24 claymore gather in the first city in the north, Pieta. When Clare and Jean, Clare is given an surprise welcome attack from Helen, one of the other three who were with Clare in her first awakened being hunt. Jean doesn’t know what’s going on and steps in to protect Clare, only to be attacked by Deneve, another of Clare’s old friends. Rounding out the reunion, Miria shows up and takes her place as the leader of this operation.

Miria explains the situation, that contrary to their normal behaviour, numerous awakened beings have begun to work together, and so this team of 24 have been gathered to kill them. They are separated into teams of four or five with team leaders being rank #6 Miria, rank #8 Flora, rank #9 Jean, rank #11 Undine and rank #13 Veronica. Each team is responsible for their own actions with the only goal being the killing of the awakened beings.

After the teams disband to rest, Clare heads out to the reunion party with the members of her first awakened being hunt. They’re all glad to see each other alive and join swords once again. A bit of an uproar is caused when Jean shows up behind Clare, but Clare assures everyone that she’s one of them, a half-awakened being. They briefly talk about the mission and the leader of the awakened beings, Isley, and how their chances for success are pretty much nonexistent. But their reunion is cut short when they notice a surge of yoki coming from the outskirts of town, the awakened beings have struck first.

A team of three awakened beings shows up in the middle of town, one already in form and slaughtering citizens. Miria’s leadership abilities shine through and keep everyone relatively calm and notify them of the two others. The two hidden awakened beings are impressed with Miria’s skills as a leader, but know they have the upper hand in this attack, even with the element of surprise ruined.

And so the fighting begins. Miria’s team attacks the one already in fighting form in the middle of town. Flora’s team has Clare, rank # 47 and another weak one, rank #39, so Flora figures it’s best to end it quickly, before he can even change into his fighting form. Well that plan goes out the window when they realize this awakened being can control the yoki flow of others by synchronizing his flow with them. Clare ends up being the one who saves them from a quick death, putting her new and improved control of the Flash Sword to use. But that alone won’t win the fight, so Deneve’s team headed by Undine arrives to back them up.

Meanwhile, Jean’s team has been wiped out. Aside from Jean, it was a pretty useless team, and instead of making them stay back, Jean tried to protect everyone and ends up heavily injured herself. Thankfully, Helen’s team arrives in time to help.

Aaaand, cliffhanger =(

Thoughts

I guess this is what people were talking about way back when Claymore started, the scenes with a bunch of claymore on screen and the difficulty trying to tell them apart. But oddly enough, I didn’t have much of a problem doing so. The all have distinct enough appearances, voices and personalities that I can recognize them almost immediately, or at least soon after they speak. It may get a little confusing once they start flying around mid battle, but as long as they use their trademark moves, it shouldn’t be too hard. Well…except maybe Clare’s Flash Sword and Windcutter Flora’s battojutsu-esque quickdraw/sheathing.

It was also great to see Deneve, Helen, Miria and Clare all reunited, seems like every time they meet they’re doomed to be thrown into a situation of almost certain death. But they’ll make it out just fine…hopefully…maybe? The death count in Claymore is so high, it’s almost impossible to pick out who lives and who dies, aside from Clare.

There’s one thing that kind of bugs me from this war though, under the assumption that there are 47 claymore spread out through the north, south, east and west, this war is exhausting just over half their warriors. Sure they may just be pawns, but sacrificing half your infantry just to buy some time seems pretty stupid. I know the organization still has the majority of its power intact, with the top 5 ranks being on a completely different scale, but still…seems like too much of a loss just to stall.

On the topic of the top five, shouldn’t Miria be rank #5 now? With Ophelia having awakened and killed soon after. Unless the organization had someone in reserve who immediately replaced Ophelia as rank #4. The ranking system in Claymore looks like it’s more or less useless at the moment. With half their warriors about to be killed off, dynamic shuffling of the ranks would be a futile endeavor. lol, imagine Helen, mid-battle celebrating her rank going up every time a higher number got killed off XD

Anyways, there wasn’t too much in terms of plot development this episode, and with the arc looking like nothing but all out war, there probably won’t be much speculation to be done for a while. The only plot advancement that we saw this episode was Rubel’s display that the organization has the power to end Clare’s live at will and the rest of the half-awakened gang finding out about Isley. So I guess that leaves me free to just sit back and watch the corpses pile up =D

Manga countdown: 8 weeks

The conclusion of The Witch’s Maw ends with Clare, Jean and Galatea alive and well, much to my surprise, I thought Jean was a goner. I know I’ve said this before and I’ll probably say it again, but this was my favourite arc so far. Not only did it have considerable amounts of action (even if the animation quality isn’t exactly the greatest), it did a great job at advancing the plot and throwing some twists which kept the series interesting, something that Claymore is very good at.

Plus it had Galatea, who now hovers in the same region of awesome as Clare and Teresa.

Episode Rating: 9.5/10

Clare arrives at Riful’s torture chamber only to find Jean in the midst of awakening. But surprisingly, even though her body has awakened, Jean’s strong will is keeping her mind in control. Seeing this, Clare gambles and tries to get Jean to revert to a human. Miraculously, with Jean’s determination and Clare borrowing Galatea’s technique, Jean manages to revert and joins the ranks of the half awakened ones.

Meanwhile, Galatea is taking the beating of her life, unable to do anything against the tough skinned and overpowered Duff. So Clare and Jean’s arrival to back her up came not a moment too soon, and with someone who can break through Duff’s ridiculously hard exoskeleton, the read fight begins.

Galatea and Clare charge head first at Duff, while Jean stays back and prepares the move that can penetrate Duff’s defense. With the two on one situation, Duff loses a bit of his concentration and Galatea’s ability to manipulate his yoki flow becomes usable once again.

When Jean gives the signal that she’s ready, Clare and Galatea pin down Duff’s hands and open a path for her strike. However, Duff’s raw strength is far beyond that of a claymore and he manages to break free from their bind. With no clear path, Jean only manages to break away part of Duff’s hand, instead of cutting straight through his throat, as was the original plan.

With all three claymore lying seemingly unconscious and unfit for battle, Riful smiles and declares this her victory. Only to have Clare stand up, ready to fight some more, urging Jean to do the same.

Clare entrusts Jean to use her crushing move one more time while she buys her some time. Riful is annoyed that they won’t accept their defeat, but at the same time, impressed by Clare’s determination and proficiency in combat, especially with that borrowed arm of hers.

When Jean gives the signal that she’s ready, Clare stands behind her and tells her to charge straight ahead. Pouring all her concentration into focusing on the flow of Yoki, Clare read’s Duff’s movements so precisely that she is able to direct her Flash Sword strikes at specific points that would inhibit his attacks, all while avoiding hitting Jean. With some last minute help from Galatea, who stops Duff from firing off any yoki charged rods, Jean’s attack lands and she drills a huge hole straight through Duff’s neck.

But when she turns around to deliver the final blow, Riful finally steps in and puts an end to the fight, knocking Jean aside before she can kill Duff.

Caving in the mountain, but not killing any of the three, Riful seems impressed that they managed to take down Duff. Allowing Clare to land a hit, Riful holds up her end of the promise and tells Clare the location and name of the Abyssal of the North, the one who allied with Priscilla, in the northern region of Alphonse, Isley. With little hope of them beating him alone, Riful extends the offer to team up with her anytime they want, and with that, vanishes from their sight.

With their little side mission over, Galatea returns to her original objective, taking Clare back to the organization. But when Clare declines the offer and Jean readies herself to take on Galatea along side her, she gives up and plans to tell the organization the two of them died in the encounter with the Abyssal. She bids them farewell, not knowing if they’ll be friends or foes the next time they meet, but wishes them well until then.

And what would a Claymore episode be without some deaths, so the episode ends with a cut to a claymore team in the north who were unfortunate enough to run into Isley and are being picked off one by one. So long Kate and Lucia, a pity we never got to know you =(

Thoughts

For a series that has such a unique character design template, I’m continually surprised at how well their characters are developed. I suppose when every character looks so much alike, you have to rely on their personalities and mannerisms to distinguish them as individuals, and this is something that Claymore continues to do very well.

In addition to Galatea, another character that won me over this arc was Riful, and that’s not just the lolicon inside me talking. Her innocent and playful demeanor covering the reality of the pure destructive force she’s capable of is such a great contrast. And it’s clear that she’s well versed in battle, aside from being a former Rank #1, her ability to evaluate abilities and tactical situations mere seconds after seeing them is top notch. I also like the fact that she’s not really hostile. Sure she wants to build an army of awakened ones, but that was only in response to Isley’s provocations, and she does her best to avoid killing them…unless they’re weak…

…okay, maybe it is just my inner lolicon speaking here.

Can’t help but feel sorry for Clare too, having realized the immense gap in strength between herself and the Abyssals. And as many readers have been so kind to point out, without the use of spoiler tags mind you =P, Priscilla is probably even stronger than them. She may be feeling powerless now, but this is Clare we’re talking about, she won’t stay discouraged for long before she realizes that gaps are possible to close and hardship is only there to be overcome.

Her befriending powers are also growing at an alarming rate, having made some pseudo-alliances with Galatea, Jean and even Riful, to a degree.

As for Jean…meh, I’m kind of disappointed that she didn’t die. I’m not too fond of her, being one of those characters who rely on brute strength as their power. Although I will admit that her drill-like attack is quite effective at what it does. An attack that mimics a drill is pretty much as effective as melee attacks get. For one, it’s a strike that is aimed at a single point, MUCH harder to anticipate and deflect compared to the path of a swing. Secondly, it employs the mechanics of a drill, so in addition to the strength of the thrust you get things like couple moments, angular momentum (moment of inertia*angular velocity) and tangential force helping you out. The only downside is that the damn thing takes forever to charge, making it almost useless in one on one combat. Not to mention the fact that all I could think about that whole scene was Simon’s superior drill from Gurren Lagann XD

Out of boredom, I made this to illustrate my point:

The next episode is the start of a new arc ‘The War in the North”, and it looks like we’ll be seeing a whole slew of new characters. One of the claymore pictured in the preview even dual wields! I’ve been waiting to see that.

With an unfamiliar cast of characters and not much information given about the movements of Isley and Priscilla, I’m not going to try predicting what happens this time. I’ll just sit back and enjoy the show for now. All I can say is that given Riful’s speech on Isley’s army, I expect them to be damn strong and more organized than any group of yomas we’ve ever seen before.

Oh, and just for clarification and reference for future entries. Isley? Easley? Does it matter? How does the official manga/scanslation group translate it?

Manga countdown: 9 weeks

~ Shirukii ~