The villagers in Lucky’s town have been plagued by gut-eating demons called Yoma. The Yoma can disguise themselves as humans, and only the half-human/half-Yoma beings known as Claymores can detect the Yoma’s aura (Yoki). Although the Claymores are useful, the villagers fear the “silver-haired witches” almost as much as the Yoma and samurai in groups of seven. Lucky is very interested in the Claymore that shows up, but she gives him the cold shoulder. She won’t reveal her name (stating that he would just forget it), and tells Lucky that her group has no name; “Claymore” is something that humans came up with.
It turns out that Lucky’s brother was actually taken over by the original Yoma that killed Lucky’s parents. Lucky-Brother-Yoma wants to eat Lucky now that the Claymore has arrived, but the body still cries tears for Lucky. Fortunately, the Claymore saves Lucky from the Yoma. Contrary to his name, Lucky is thrown out of the village (his whole family was eaten, and the villagers fear he might also be a Yoma), and then later taken hostage by a second Yoma in another town. The real Claymore shows up and saves Lucky, and allows him to tag along with her as his cook. She clearly identifies with Lucky’s plight, and the fact that he is not afraid of her makes him special. As he runs after her, she finally reveals that her name is Clare.
The first episode was pretty decent, and better than what I remember of the manga introduction. Undoubtedly the first few episodes will be a standard monster-of-the-week deal until we start really learning more about Clare. The opening included a lot of information, insinuating that Clare will be fighting against ecchi tentacle monsters in the future. It seems her little fork symbol has some significance as well, as other Claymores are shown with different symbols.
I like how they show that Clare has a human side, both with her care of Lucky and in the tears that the Yoma cry (in the flashback and with Lucky’s brother). I didn’t get that far into the manga, so I look forward to learning more about Claymores. All I remember is that they fight for leotards and shoulderpads, but past that everything is a bit hazy. The OP was kinda catchy, and the creepy music lended a lot to the atmosphere. The ED was good, and kinda reminded me of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. Clare’s VA also did a great job. I especially liked that Lucky was not at all thrown off by an ostensibly emotionless tsundere with special powers; boy’s clearly up on his anime!
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Hahaaaaa… Kabitzin on board. Lookie lookie.
So how much of the manga have you read yet? Volumes 1-6?
I haven’t read that much, just to where it started to look like a real story was developing. It was a while ago though, so all I remember is getting a lot of explanation about the various advantages and disadvantages to being a Claymore.
The first episode greatly reminded me of Vampire Hunter D the movie. I haven’t seen the show though, but the movie was basically the exactly same kind of towns, with baddies attacking villagers, and D is this half-vampire half human who gets rid of them and can because he has the powers to. I hope this series changes a bit and isn’t a clone of that show because I didn’t like that show that much. I hear lots of great things about Claymore though, so here’s to hoping.
This anime is simply amazing! I’ve read up through volume 6 and I love it!