The story starts of in an extremely vivid cut scene. A hideous monster is chewing what remains of a lifeless corpse, when suddenly a presence makes it turn around with fear, it claws and fangs soaked in blood. A silver warrior appears, in shining armour, lithe and strong, yet definitely female, as the thin sinews and swollen breastplate reveals. Her eyes shift from silver to gold, pupils dilating in quintessential anime fight sequence form, and a large sword slashes and hacks the monster in two, spewing violet gore from its torn flesh. Then the credits roll.
The theme song is ok, I suppose, but nothing spectacular. Nowhere near "Fake Wings" of .hack or "Anata ga ita mori" of Fate/Stay Night. The only thing i should warn any prospective viewer about beforehand is the extreme violence and gore in this anime. It is definitely not one for the weak hearted or those below 18, as themes tend to stray towards the carnal also. Within episode 5, though, you'll have seen so much blood spewing that it'll become sterotypic, so no worries if the first episode makes you queasy.
The initial story starts of with the portrayal of a sleepy little town, where a yoma (man-eating devil sort of creature.. think Orc in LOTR) has disguised itself as a human and is on a rampage eating the guts of humans at night. [Note : This will probably annoy you after a while. I dont know if its a subtitling defect, but in the version i saw, all yomas seem to eat only the guts of humans, no other flesh. Very idiotic, and repititive.] So the townsfolk decide to call for the aid of a "claymore". And so it begins.
The claymore arrives. Nothing special, she's just the chick in the opening sequence. Nice music here. Haunting. She walks into the village, ignoring the curses of the crowd "silver eyed witch" and other such expletives. She bears an air of helpless melancholy, and you'll immediately feel that this woman probably has about 26 lines in 26 episodes to speak. Well, you're not far wrong. She speaks very little. She heads over to the mayor, telling him that her fee should be delivered to a man who will follow after she completes her job. If she dies, no fee is required. She heads to the border of town, and here the boy Raki follows her.
Raki is a typical sidekick character. Only problem here is he's a damn pansy! He cries the whole frickin anime and just hugs Clare (the claymore-girl in question) whenever she's in trouble. Thats basically his role. And boy does he like fraternizing with the enemy!
Anyway, trudging onwards with the story. Raki meets up with Clare, on the outskirts of town, and sitting together, he tries to strike up a friendship with this cold woman. Later, on returning home, he finds himself face to face with the murdering yoma, and Clare arrives to save him. Raki is ostracized from his village as he has been living with a yoma under his roof, and so Clare takes him under her wing.
The story unfolds gradually, giving us insights into the limitations of Clare's power, and the different types of yomas. The next few episodes have a sort of Silent Assassin or better still, Assassin's Creed feel to it.. (you'll know what i mean if you've played the games).. a sort of arabic yet gothic nightmarish sequence where things get tougher and tougher, and slowly you're introduced to the entire hellish world, and right in front of your eyes Clare turns from a Leviathan to an ant.. She's too weak for claymore standards, as you'll find out later.
Then comes a three to four episode break where Teresa, Clare's mentor, and the most powerful Claymore history has ever produced comes into the picture. She is immensely powerful, and openly flouts the rules of the Claymore organization's administration. Scenes here contain sexual violence, and should not be viewed by pre-teens. She thus becomes a renegade warrior, and a dangerous liability to the organization, and so must be liquidated. So the organization sends a group of warriors, Numbers 2,3 and 4 to kill off number 1 (Teresa). A long fight ensues, resulting in the unleashing of the series' evil sociopath nemesis - Priscilla Awakened.
I'm not explaining a lot of things here, totally on purpose. I have no wish to ruin your experience watching this anime. Its very good, even though certain things are unexplained, even at the end.
( This paragraph is for people who've seen it already )
Rafaela's eye for example, and the strength of Alicia, the current number 1. Certain logical errors too, are prevalent. For example the fight in Alphonse with the horde of Awakened Beings suddenly stops with Rigardo's arrival. Incredibly stupid. They could have screwed the claymore team fifty teams if the Silver Eyed Lion twit hadn't ruined things. Furthermore, Raki detests yoma and yet when he's faced with Priscilla eating a man's guts he feels sympathy. Bull-frickin-shit! Raki's a two timing piece of *!@T&#%*^!%@! bloody coward! he didnt have the guts (no pun intended) to stand up for his thoughts. Yep, I've made it clear. I cant tolerate Raki. Pansy nincompoop! How dare he kiss Clare!! lol ;)
The series continues till episode 26, and entertains mostly till episode 20.. the final few are not that fun to watch, since you know the outcome will be a victory somehow. However, a subtle theme explored at the end is very heart-warming, where the ladies who are left decide to unearth more truths about the organization instead of following orders any more. They vow to meet again, and head into the horizon. Raki as usual follows Clare like a little lamb. Dumb nitwit. Priscilla too, is not destroyed, so basically the ending is not at all conclusive. I sense that Shonen Jump must have intended to pursue the series further, but somehow got bored and stopped it midway. A lot of questions still remain, regarding the Dwellers of the Deep, the truths in the organization which remain hidden and other such trivia.
All in all, my concluding remark would be : Definitely a watchable series. However, if you think you're going to get a Inuyasha, Samurai X, DBZ or a Fate/Stay Night sort of excellent storyline, I sincerely doubt it. Do watch it in English please. Perhaps it'll be better then.
Rating : 7.5 out of 10.
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