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Banned
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: Thessaloniki - Greece
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Claymore is like Berserk, with more boobs and less context. That is how I see this series. And in case you haven’t watched Berserk because the animation is bad, well, it’s your loss.
Claymore’s strong point is not its story, which to be frank is linear, straight-forward and ends in a rather open way. The basic premise is about fighting fire with fire and thus the monsters that plague humanity in this series are to be dealt by humans possessing monster abilities. It sounds interesting to build something around it but that only happens in terms of characterization amongst the cast and not in terms of world-building. So yeah, we have monsters and monster hunters and a Medieval-like world. If you expect anything more to it, you won’t get much. There will be very little info about why the world is as such. Where did the Yoma come from, where are the rest of the Claymores mentioned, what about the other organizations that are mentioned? The pacing of the story can easily be divided into short arc with each one having its own set of monsters and settings. Each one adds something to the whole, but as I said, it only does it in terms of characterization and not world-building.
In all, the story is average and ends openly (it even deviates from the manga it is based on) thus it gets less than the base (4).
Characters on the other hand are the meat of the series, as most of the selling point is their psychoanalysis and interaction with one another. Claire, the main heroine, begins as a heatless killing machine and along the way we get to see a lot about her which make her far more than a robot without will, following orders and going around killing things just because she was ordered to do it. The same can be said about most other main characters, such as the rest of the Claymores and that annoying sidekick Raki.
A thing to notice is that this series reverses gender roles. The Claymores are all women yet behave as brute males, while Raki is a guy and is a spineless idiot who is better fit as a daddy’s girl. Feels weird but it is not negative.
What does feel negative is the adversaries, the Yoma, who to the most part are just mooks that exist to be killed or generic bosses. And as I said we get very little about where do they come from. Not only that, but they don’t really feel like monsters most of the time. Rather they are shape shifting cannibals with too human behavior for the gruesome creatures they are supposed to be. Makes them look stupid.
But who cares about them, the story is about the Claymores, whose worst enemy ends up being their own selves, as they slowly all turn to Yoma themselves. Yes, nice idea to build something around it but since the story ends openly, it kinda ruins it. Plus Raki is an extremely annoying character, unable to be sympathetic to anyone. He is supposed to be the guy who reminds Claire that she is still human and make her have cozy feelings and such but ends up being a burden who the only thing he does is nagging, making unrealistic remarks, standing in the way, and generally causing more trouble than help. Supposed, that is what it means to be human but come on; monsters are eating alive people everyday and he wanted everybody to be a big happy family. This stops being humane and ends up being utter bullshit. If humans are so naive, then hail to the cunning cannibalistic Yoma.
In all, the main cast is interesting and gets lots of immersion but at the same time it is left without complete catharsis, the enemies outside the frenzied Claymores are cardboards, and Raki is an ass. Thus, they are a bit above average (6).
The art is very good as far as shapes and backgrounds go. High on detail with lots of filters and dark palette colors to transmit the feeling of a grim world overrun with dread and death.
I found the character figures rather unappealing, as the way the faces were drawn felt weird. Plus, all Claymores look too much alike because of their identical uniforms, weapons, hair color and eye color. Also the common Yoma are drawn too simplistic and human-like and it’s easy to see them just like brawn-skinned bandits with fangs.
Action scenes are also not that great. Although there is a lot of gore going around, most of it is limbs flying and fountains of blood gushing all over the place. Internal organ anatomy is way off. Most battles don’t last much either. Also, there practically very little actual animation to the fights as most slashes are nothing but frozen pictures with a silver line followed by over the top amounts of blood.
In all, the aesthetics are great but character figures are kinda identical and simple and there is very little actual animation going around for such a heavy on action series. Art gets the base (5).
Music themes are very good and fit with the mood of the series. The dialogues are also ok as long as they are about mission information and character immersion. All the rest are a mess. Just like in any retarded shounen, the characters will be talking for 10 minutes during battles, revealing all sorts of information their opponent would have no reason to know, especially when all they plan to do is just kill him. The Yoma again talk like simple bandits, the illiterate kind, and hardly have any filter to make them sound like the monsters they are supposed to be. Also, Paki’s moral speeches are unbearable, as he keeps saying the most out of place things all the time. He is not the voice or reason or the good angel sitting on the right side of the brutal Claymores. He is a retard with zero understanding of reality and that makes him sound unbearable.
In all, the music score is great but the dialogues are not. Sound gets the base (5).
I don’t find much replay value in this series, since the story is too linear, simple, ends openly and has Raki inside it. (3)
My enjoyment is also low (4), as the negatives outnumber the positives.
Average: 4.5/10
If this series had more animation, less retarded dialogues, a more complete world-building, and Raki would be dead from the first episode, then I would give it a 10.
SUGGESTION LIST
Berserk (same thing; only better)
12 Kingdoms (great world building)
Serei no Moribito (great characterization)
Sword of the Stranger (great fluent animation in battles)
Guin Saga (generic but has its charm)
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) but we will see with the later entry since after all they just might use him to make the next big 3. We should start to see Clare, Miria, Miata, and maybe a few others starting to reach the level of a number one warrior soon (or have it revealed that they were already at that level). However the discrepancy in terms of power is just as vast, if not greater, as it was when Clare first learned of the Abyssal Ones. Lets face it since the AOs didn't gain a more powers during the seven years and ghosts were training everyday to get strong enough to have a chance against them (even though they didn't seem quite there yet). Point being if the Era hadn't changed the ghosts would have had hope so Yagi is just pulling the rug out from under the protagonists to remove any chance of hope they might have seemingly had. 
Graphic Designer
, which throws you for a loop the first few times it happens. 
