Claymore - Episode 4 Discussion / Poll

[NightWish]

Welcome to the discussion thread for Claymore, Episode 4.

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[White Manju Bun]

Oooo yay Claymore sub-forum!

Actually epi 4 surprised me a bit
I was on the track that the priest was behind it since I thought it was kinda obvious...now I know better Seeing Clare do her thing and not finding the Youma really surprised me. Then BANG! corpse!!
I still dont quite get how Raki "saved" Clare, but I still find him slightly annoying for the time, hopefully he'll get bit less emo later.

[Guido]

My posted thoughts for episode four.

Scene 04 - Clare's Awakening

[Child_of_Sierra]

yeah, the scene with Raki and Clare pushes my sense of disbelief near its limits, other than that it was a great plot twist about the youma's identity.

[83jnd8]

"Luki" needs to die. Now.

[NoSanninWa]

It would be nice if you could at least post a reason why you don't like him. Particularly in episode 4 it is hard to understand your response.

[Fenrir_valindri]

People are too hard on Raki, he is a good kid.
Not his fault that he has to rely on Clare, especially her being the only person who accepted him after the episode 1 Yoma incident.

I think some people are letting their testosterone get in their way of understanding someone like Raki.

[Tempest35]

Heh, I like Raki. Not for what he's suppose to for Clare in keeping her in touch with her own humanity, but that he will risk his life for her, even though he can't fight. That takes just as much guts as Clare using her Youma power to cleave the VE even when she was seriously hurt. Raki's seen what Youma can and will do to a human and Clare was about to turn into one, yet he still ran to her side.

And he's just a kid...he'll be swashbuckling soon enough.

[monir]

Yay! Yay! I was wrong. Youma wasn't the priest. It was the mummy. Well, some room for optimism I suppose though I should have made the observation that Youma can hide itself in anything other than a live human being. Clare's insistent on that she might have missed something on episode 3 should have got my head turn on that very brief display of the mummy at the beginning of the episode 3.

Anyway, even though the episode held some unpredictability, the story telling is still congruent to the monsters. So, I've put more focus on the background drawing, animation, and the music.

While the BGM and the background art was solid as can be seen from the above example, the animation seemed a bit off. Perhaps Madhouse didn't consider this episode worthy of giving too much focus when better one are yet to come? The shounen-fan in me sure hope so.

Raki's breaking down was kind of nice though I can't still stand the VA. Couldn't there have been an alternate VA who could have been just as suitable to play the role required for Raki's character? This VA sounds too whiny which makes me unreasonable unsympathetic towards Raki's character even though I can sympathize with his situation, or his devotion to Clare. That flares of light when Raki declared that he was willing to die with her also seemed to indicate some sort of future growth in Raki's character. Does this mean he will turn out to be a legitimate backup in strength to Clare? hmmm..

Give this episode a 7 for pointing out the lack of observation in part.

[NoSanninWa]

I'm glad you've resumed watching the show after some hiatus. I'm glad that you were slightly surprised by this episode. The surprise was almost cheating since it is easy to assume that a youma would have to pretend to be a living being. It made me wonder if they can even pretend to be a statue. Still, it must not have been too out there since some people in episode 3 figured it out. I suspect their insight might have come from that meaningful display of the mummy when Clare suggested she missed something.

Originally Posted by monir

Anyway, even though the episode held some unpredictability, the story telling is still congruent to the monsters. So, I've put more focus on the background drawing, animation, and the music.

Is the story telling really contingent on the monsters? In episodes 3-4 it seems that the youma is merely a plot device. The episodes are really about developing Raki and Clare's relationship. They are also about the beginning of Raki's journey as a fighter. These episodes also create a dozen more threads which can be picked up by future story arcs. To my eye, the monster is merely part of the setting for the real story, not a driving force.

[monir]

Originally Posted by NoSanninWa

Is the story telling really contingent on the monsters? In episodes 3-4 it seems that the youma is merely a plot device. The episodes are really about developing Raki and Clare's relationship. They are also about the beginning of Raki's journey as a fighter. These episodes also create a dozen more threads which can be picked up by future story arcs. To my eye, the monster is merely part of the setting for the real story, not a driving force.

Just from looking at how this couple of episode was presented, I thought the development between the two were pretty non-existent until near the end of episode 4. There have been a tid-bits of showing of Raki's wanting Clare's attention here and there, but all of those seem to have ended up in some kind of mini-speech comprised of 2-3 sentences by Raki. I quickly toned out all the Onesan this, Onesan that as they were uttered in that whiny voice. When Clare said she wouldn't have intervened if Raki were to beat by those men in episode 3, I thought we were getting to know Clare and her Claymore kind a bit more. All of Raki's praise also seem to indicate the personality make up of a Claymore.

I'm currently watching episode 5 and now this is character development between two chracaters.