Claymore

I guess it's about time we found one of these. A traditional hack and slash anime with a lot of horror elements mixed in, Claymore is a pretty conventional story about a character who becomes what she is for revenge, but has to learn to get beyond that. There are few surprises and it's a pretty formulaic and predictable story, only made more interesting for those who revel in shock value. But that's enough stalling. Hope you haven't eaten anything recently, this one's a bit gruesome, and you might lose your lunch.

The first time I'd heard of Claymore was a couple of years ago when they showed the first three episodes at the local anime club. If anything, I was kind of repulsed by it because of all the gratuitous violence. But then again, it is a series where folks are regularly disemboweled, dismembered, and otherwise mutilated on a daily basis. Claymore was produced by the studio Madhouse, for viewing on the Nippon Television network in the year 2007 (probably in a really late viewing slot). It was based on the manga by Norihiro Yagi which is currently ongoing, but this series only ran for the average 26 episodes.  If you care to get a hold of it state-side, Funimation holds the licensing rights

The story follows the exploits of a swords-woman named Clare, whose job it is to go around the country slaying these monstrous beings known as Yoma, on the behalf of this enigmatic organization that remains unnamed. And what is a yoma, you ask? Their basic characteristics are pretty disgusting. They can function as human dopplegangers when the situation calls for it, but they are really monsters in disguise, and they like to eat human entrails to the point of obsession. You see that a lot as the plot progresses, which is why it is recommended that folks shouldn't have eaten prior to viewing. The organization has been charged with keeping this population under control by recruiting young female warriors to undergo a process of being infused with Yoma flesh and blood in order to have the power to fight these monsters. It's a sort of "to fight them you must become one of them" kind of a deal, and really, it kind of sucks in my opinion, because once you become a claymore, which is what these warriors are called by the local populous, you can't really live a normal life anymore, and you're always worried about using your powers too much for fear you might become a total yoma yourself. Meanwhile, the chances that you are killed while on the job are prohibitively high, so it's a thankless job, with very few returns. You'd think the least they could have done is offer a retirement package that was slightly better than "don't turn your back on the organization or we kill you."

We first meet Clare through the eyes of Raki, a young, and soon-to-be homeless boy whose parents were eaten by a yoma that had already devoured and started impersonating his brother.  After Clare dispatches the fiend, he follows her out of town as it becomes apparent that people are afraid his close proximity to the yoma might have made him one of them and no one is willing to take him in. With no where else to go and nothing better to do, he takes it upon himself to follow her to the ends of the earth out of gratitude. She's skeptical of him at first, but then decides to humor him by allowing him to be her cook. It's really a poor excuse since her yoma infused body makes it so she doesn't need to eat as much as a normal human, but at least it gets him to stop whining.

After he follows her around on a couple of missions and she tries to lose him in a couple of the towns where she stops, they end up coming to a heavily populated city where a yoma has taken up residence, and in the fight, she ends up burning too much yoki (the rough equivalent of claymore/yoma energy) and nearly goes into a full transformation before Raki talks her down, sending us into an extreme flashback mode that takes us back....   um several years? Decades? It's hard to say. To be honest the writers are very vague about details in this anime, but I'll get to that later. We are then introduced to another claymore named Teresa who takes on a similar caretaker role to another orphan who turns out to be a younger Clare. It seems Teresa broke a cardinal rule for the orginization by killing some human bandits in the course of defending Clare from them, as killing humans is strictly forbidden. As a result a group of other claymores came to hunt her down, but unfortunately, the one who actually offed her, a new recruit named Priscilla, went into a full transformation as a result and flew off as an awakened being, which is what ascended claymores are called. 4 episodes after we got into this flash back (which really was almost a mini-series in itself) we return to find that Clare is called to join some other claymores out to hunt an awakened being which forces a parting of ways with Raki with the promise that they will see each other again. The rest of the story follows Clare along the road she walks afterward, as she encounters Irene, the lady who was in charge of the party that was sent to kill Teresa, as well as few others, including Jeane, a claymore who had been  tortured into awakening after which Clare managed to call her back. After some meandering, it becomes clear that the endgame is intended to deal with settling Clare's score with Priscilla who's been hiding out in the North with some guy named Easley.

Plot-wise, it's not a bad story. There's some discussion relating to that fear the claymores often have of becoming that which they are fighting, and they try to get into the heroic nature of loyalty and remembering those who are dead and fighting for those you care about. There was also some interesting debate on whether or not a claymore can revert back after ascending to awakened being status, which becomes important to the endgame, but there aren't any serious surprises. The only real twist of note is that Clare isn't technically a true claymore because the organization gave her Teresa's flesh instead of the flesh of a full yoma. But predictable does not mean bad. I think the writer warmed up to the idea of camaraderie among the claymores later on and gave them a little more personality which helped make the hellish nature of the last few battles in the in-game a little better. There's also a point where Raki tries to man up and learn how to fight, but he's not quite there yet at the end of the series. (He does get points for trying though.) The main emphasis still seems to be on the gory dismemberment of the latest ugly thing that's crossed the heroine's path, along with the dismemberment of the heroine and any potential allies. These girls lose limbs a lot. Most of them should have been dead so many times over it's almost silly. (Like this lady here whose been run through by what looks like a small telephone pole? Yeah, she'll be fine.) As far as combat is concerned, the show's got plenty of that, in excruciating detail. It made me want to wince every time someone got an arm chopped off, or had their stomach run through. Torture also occurs on a few occasions along with a near rape, and several decapitations. I guess it kinda tells you something that the first thing you see in episode 1 is a yoma getting its head cut off.

When it comes to the villains, they're mostly just a bunch of intelligent monsters that got hit over the head repeatedly with the ugly stick, and have some really nasty habits, (like the guts-eating thing). That's okay for the yoma, but for the awakened beings, things should be more complicated. It seems like they maintain some amount of consciousness and ability to keep a certain amount of humanity, but almost none of that is taken advantage of. In the case of Priscilla and Easley (who, strangely enough, seem to have both gained appearances that are physically attractive) it almost seems like the the artist did try to give them some depth, and tried to express it from Raki's viewpoint as he encounters them briefly while off on his own, searching for Clare. (Priscilla and Easley seem to have a policy of not eating humans they like, in spite of the fact that Priscilla is just trauma-stricken crazy by the time we meet her again.) Unfortunately, beyond what Raki sees, that depth is not explored! I was certain Easley at least had to have some sort of motivation above that of the common monster, something to make him a more compelling villain, but we don't find out what that is. My suspicion is that he might be a former claymore from back when the organization used to take male recruits, but it's never actually brought up, which is too bad because I like to know what drives a villain. But no, instead we get the big fight with Priscilla in which Easley just watches, and in the end, he and Priscilla aren't even properly defeated, they just call it a draw and ride off into the sunset like nothing happened. Meanwhile, Clare nearly goes ascendant again but only gets pulled back because one of the other claymores goes suicidal to stop her. It's not quite climactic because no one really wins in that situation. 

Then there's the information issue. No matter how far anyone travels in this world, there really doesn't seem to be more than a vague sense of place. There's no maps to look at, no real sense of the world the characters live in, who's running it, or what other places are out there. The most we get is that there is at least one other country, and that there is some form of religion among the human populous that is somewhat organized and includes a pair of love goddesses in the pantheon. That's it. Are the yoma prevalent in other countries? It's never said. All there really seems to be is the next town where there's a job, with maybe a few terrain changes to make it different from the last town. Sure, a couple of the towns have names, but the frame of reference is so limited there's nothing to gain by remembering them. That makes me sad, because usually in adventuring stories like this, one expects more detail. Otherwise, you just feel lost. In fact, this problem exists even down on the individual level. Most of the townsfolk all look alike, and it seems like all the claymores do too to some extent. It's hard to tell them apart from a distance, and even when the show goes into closeup, you're often relying solely on trace differences and personality to tell them apart. The intro and end credit tracks are also kind of forgettable, and though there is some interesting background music used, there aren't any themes I'd randomly start humming out of the blue.


As anime goes, its definitely not the worst that's out there, and it functions as a decent story. If what you're looking for is a good old-fashioned gore-fest incorporating a fight for one's own humanity, this one is for you. But if you're looking for a little something more, or perhaps you have a weaker stomach, you may want to steer clear. And that's the tiger's two cents.


Images taken from Claymore.

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