Just right off the bat, I read most of the manga before starting the anime, so naturally my experience will be different from those who never read the manga. With that said, I also enjoyed the anime more than the manga. In fact, when I first started the manga, I felt the story was kinda boring and I didn’t really like the art that much. However, the team at Madhouse did a great job of really bringing this story to life, and giving it an adequate pseudo-ending.
Story
The anime stays very faithful to the manga for the first two-thirds of the season, and does a very good job of speeding through the boring parts and covering the essentials. However, with the manga moving rather slowly, the decision was made to create an original ending. The final battle itself is lackluster, and involves a lot of stereotypical power-ups; this is a shame because throughout the series, most of the characters got by without merely randomly getting more powerful in the middle of a fight. I think the final battle could have been better choreographed, but overall I had no problems with how the season ended. There were not a lot of ways to end the season that would not confuse fans who never read the manga. Also, with the way everything ended up, a continuation is possible in the future; everyone who is supposed to be dead is dead, and everyone who should have survived did.
Characters
Claymore was very well received, but to be honest it is really just a typical shounen story. We follow Clare as she meets up with young Lucky and pursues her quest for vengeance. Clare is pretty bland as far as protagonists go, and she doesn’t exhibit much character growth in the series. Heck, even Teresa exhibits more growth than Clare. Coupled with the fact that Clare gets all fugly in battle and groans “MOAAAARRRR” all the time, it’s clear that Clare isn’t really all that cool.
Lucky is not cool either. As Clare’s sidekick, the bar is set much lower for him, but he manages to mess it up by going on an extended emo-trip in the end. He spent most of the last episodes bitching and moaning, and then a gravely injured Jean had to carry him to the volcano. This is not at all inspiring, especially with all his talk about protecting Clare. While Lucky did provide some unintentional comedy, it’s easy to see why the start of the season was not that good, as it was just the Adventures of Lucky and Clare.
Fortunately for the series, the company that Clare works for hired/created a lot of really cool employees. The strength of the series has to be the colorful comrades that Clare encounters, and their unique powers. While some powers are stock (Miria’s mirages, Deneve’s powerful self-healing), quite a few are really tricky (Galatea’s Yoki manipulation, and Helen’s Gum Gum arms). It’s sad that many of the best episodes center around other Claymore, but sometimes that’s the way it goes.
Tilt
The non-story aspects of Claymore were very strong. Production values were good throughout the series, even though Clare’s fights were mostly speed-line affairs. The art remained consistent with the style of the manga, and I liked the way Madhouse used colors to evoke certain moods. I found that the music also enhanced the series greatly, and of course the OP/ED were good.
Verdict
Overall, I enjoyed Claymore and I was entertained by Claymore. While it was a well-executed shounen series, it didn’t quite have enough powerful emotional highs and lows to really make it a great series, but it didn’t have many weaknesses either. I also applaud the Madhouse team’s consistency, and their ability to resist over-using tentacle attacks (aside from that one that was all up in Miria’s face).
Kabitzin’s Rating: 4/5
8 Comments
Thats interesting, an actual manga follower that didn’t flame the anime adaptation. I’ll have to agree with most of the things you stated and yes the speed lines used as the sorry excuse for action were annoying and looked unnatural. It seemed like they had a good budget I mean the art turned out very very solid they could’ve animated some of the fights at least. The last episode was a disappointment, Priscilla looked like an overgrown chicken and Clare looked like a crab…not charming! Most of the shows that ended had some sort of high emotional note by the end or by the last few episodes, Claymore unfortunately didn’t making it not as memorable as I hoped it would be. Heres hoping a second season is in the works.
Yes this was the battle between the two ugliest man-girls ever. Shocking deviation frm the norm, in terms of aesthetics. God, Clare is so ugly!! “MOTTO MOTTO”. Her request for more motors was granted and she became really speedy.
I would have preferred Ophelia had more screen time. Her seiyuu was really good.
Lucky? LMFAO! You mean Raki? Had to stop reading there. You lost all credibility. On a side note, why do all anime chicks have to look irresistably gorgeous and cute while displaying massive amounts of fanservice while fighting to get males to appreciate them?
Ever heard of transliteration?
らき☆すた -> ra-ki ☆ su-ta -> Lucky Star
Now, who has lost their credibility, Mrs Big Boobs?
When ever Clare went all manly monster like, I always liked to think about what the seiyu looked liked when she was yelling. It makes those silly fight scenes really funny.
Where’s my sequel!?
By the time the ending rolled around, I had forgotten what Clare’s normal voice sounded like, because of all the monster-voice that we had listened to for so many episodes.
lol i think the seiyuus did a wonderful job with the throat-killer voices.
the last episode was an utter disappointment for me. i refused to watch it because i knew (after stumbling upon a real sour spoiler) it would infuriate me and ruin the rest of my week, possibly weeks. but dispite that, the anime is at the pinnacle of my favorite’s list along with some other compelling series.