Reviews for Claymore (7.58)
chozopuffs
Kim Dong-Sik
Takada Haruhito
Tanaka Hiroyuki
Umehara Takahiro
Hey AniDB, so Claymore… another anime with no conclusion based on a manga that is (as of this writing) still ongoing. Seems to happen more and more these days… here’s my two cents of how thi...
Home
Twitter
- Unrated
02.07.2009 06:30 - direct link
(rs7000)
Hey AniDB, so Claymore… another anime with no conclusion based on a manga that is (as of this writing) still ongoing. Seems to happen more and more these days… here’s my two cents of how this one went down.
Animation
Seems kinda hard to identify these characters
Yeh, it is. All the Claymores essentially wear the exact same costume… a white spandex bodysuit with silver shoulder pads, skirt and boots. They all wield the same exact sword (a Claymore is a two handed sword with a cross hilt if you’re wondering) and they all have silver eyes and blonde hair. There are little nuances in the faces on a few characters, but for the most part, it’s one character over and over again…
What about the content?
Well the coloring is good. Low saturation, very drab colors, looks good… and the line quality is good too. They do a good job of trying to capture the look of the manga… the manga characters look a little younger though. There isn’t an overwhelming amount of movement… lots of camera pans, flashes of stuff that are supposed to represent things moving fast. Trickery to keep the quality consistent and within budget ya know?
No, I mean what about the “content”... the gore factor man!
There is no shortage of flying limbs, severed heads, pools of blood… the gore details aren’t too descriptive… if that’s the right word. You don’t really see muscles, organs, or bones kind of details… just a juicy red (or purple) spray, or the old fashioned all one color with a little white bone in the middle of the limb…
Demon women with swords slicing stuff up sounds like it could be a fetish…
I think it is… but not here… there are females all over but there is no sex appeal at all… I think I saw a few purple demon nipples, I dunno.
• Looks/Visuals : 7/10
Sounds
How well did the voice actors perform?
There was no Japanese voice actor that stood out in my opinion. Hoko Kuwashima is our lead, and her resume is extensive (Inuyasha/Sango – Noir/Kirika) but I’ll be honest… her character Clare just didn’t have a wide range of emotions for her to work off of. The rest of the cast was just a bunch of over-tense screaming militant women. No memorable performances…
Anything else bad you want to say?
Yeh, there is… I was really bothered by the voices of the demons. All of them. They talked way too much, and they sounded stupid having just regular voices and being demonic or huge and monstrous. They needed some kind of effect to be deeper, and better dialog to sound more “larger” then a street punk talking smack…
Alright, well let’s hear something positive… the soundtrack?
Ah, this I liked. The music during the series was some fun “Kill ‘em All” old Metallica style distorted pop-thrash guitar riffs throughout. Get me pumped at least, I love hard rock and upbeat tempos. There were probably only 4 or 5 songs (they felt repetitive) but they were cool. No vocals. The music though wasn’t necessarily reflective of any part of the anime save it fits the violence…
Opening and Ending theme songs?
They keep the upbeat Marshall guitar sixteenth note barrage theme going strong… only one opening theme and one ending theme. Opening themes vocals stunk but the first guitar riff is GREAT. I need to learn it. “Reason for Being” by Nightmare (these guys also did the opening/ending for the first season of Death Note). Fun riff. The ending theme is by Riyu Koska… it starts a bit lame, but give it a moment and once the drums kick things off into punk rock speed it’s fun too.
• Score/Voice Acting : 7/10
Story
Okay, so it’s based off a Manga that is still ongoing…
Yep. And it is REALLY faithful to the manga, except towards the end… which uses many of the manga elements, but is changed a bit so that no new story lines (Dragon-kin, Black Claymores, etc.) are introduced… essentially, the last 2 episodes are semi-original.
What are the chances of a season 2?
Let me get my magic eight ball. The 26 episodes of the anime are the first eleven volumes (about 60 chapters) of the manga. As of May 1st 2009 the manga is up to volume 16 (chapter 92)… so the answer is… well, quite a while if it comes out at all.
So does it just end and leave us hanging like Berserk or something?
It’s not near that painful. Berserk (the anime) just ends right after a mega-super climax. This series I just don’t see being interesting for another 26 episodes… it follows in the same steps though… a billion unanswered questions still not answered in the manga… plot feels a bit lost towards the end, or maybe I just stopped caring.
From the story we do get, what of it?
Well right off the bat I can say one positive thing. Great pacing! The arcs are short (about 4 episodes) so it covers a good deal of ground. Our hero has quite the number of adventures and a few of them are really fun. Unfortunately the fun ends when the characters start to go “Dragonball”…
• Story : 6/10
Characters
So Clare is our main protagonist… a sword wielding female demon hunter of sorts right?
Yep. She’s a hybrid, half human half demon… works for a secret unnamed organization that hunts and destroys “Yoma”. She’s very militant and void of emotions. All the Claymore are for the most part. She reminds me of Sabre from Fate Stay/Night… only she doesn’t really get cool.
What about this “worthless male character”?
Oh my gosh I want to strangle Raki with his own hands… worthless is the only word for it. He’s a killjoy… he does to Claymore what that stupid “I’m a Mac” kid/actor did to Die Hard with a Vengeance. Sucks the fun out of every scene he’s in.
Well what about the villains?
Can’t spoil that… Claymores are their own worst enemy, struggling with the half demon within… that’s all I can say of this. I can say though that the other enemy… the endless demons… the weak grunt of the Yoma is drawn really poorly, but is humanoid… but the higher ranking ones for whatever reason start to look like animals… Turtles and Lions and stuff… I thought it came across very comical and didn’t fit….
• Characters : 5/10
Value
On what fronts does Claymore deliver?
Well, it delivers on all the tags… there is medieval action and adventure, demons, gore, superpowers, teamwork and secret organizations, tragedy to a degree…
What anime is it most like?
Claymore is probably the bastard child of Berserk and Dragonball Z… its uncle is probably Blood+ and its nephew Bleach.
Is it worth following the manga from the end of this anime?
If you like it’d it, sure! Like I said, it’s VERY faithful. Skip to manga chapter 55 or so and go on from there… but be warned, the manga is setting itself up for being never ending…
• Value : 6/10
Enjoyment
At the end of the day, how did you like it?
Well despite my mostly negative comments… it’s okay. The action scenes are fun. The heroes aren’t invincible and get a thrashing which I like. A few battles have some really neat elements… I like not knowing if a character necessarily will or will not live. That aspect is great! Now if they cut the Raki character out completely… made the villains look, sound, and act cooler and more mature and evil… and didn’t have the dopey “number ranking” and feeling power levels and super power attacks and going Super Saiyan thing with altered states, I’d probably like it more… despite the death and gore though, it is just too kiddie in my opinion.
Favorite moment?
Well the cannibalism in the cave was cool, but I’d have to say Episodes 5 through 8… fun story arc.
• Enjoyment : 7/10
Overall : 6.5
If you read it, please rate it, even if you hate it
Thanks!
Animation
Seems kinda hard to identify these characters
Yeh, it is. All the Claymores essentially wear the exact same costume… a white spandex bodysuit with silver shoulder pads, skirt and boots. They all wield the same exact sword (a Claymore is a two handed sword with a cross hilt if you’re wondering) and they all have silver eyes and blonde hair. There are little nuances in the faces on a few characters, but for the most part, it’s one character over and over again…
What about the content?
Well the coloring is good. Low saturation, very drab colors, looks good… and the line quality is good too. They do a good job of trying to capture the look of the manga… the manga characters look a little younger though. There isn’t an overwhelming amount of movement… lots of camera pans, flashes of stuff that are supposed to represent things moving fast. Trickery to keep the quality consistent and within budget ya know?
No, I mean what about the “content”... the gore factor man!
There is no shortage of flying limbs, severed heads, pools of blood… the gore details aren’t too descriptive… if that’s the right word. You don’t really see muscles, organs, or bones kind of details… just a juicy red (or purple) spray, or the old fashioned all one color with a little white bone in the middle of the limb…
Demon women with swords slicing stuff up sounds like it could be a fetish…
I think it is… but not here… there are females all over but there is no sex appeal at all… I think I saw a few purple demon nipples, I dunno.
• Looks/Visuals : 7/10
Sounds
How well did the voice actors perform?
There was no Japanese voice actor that stood out in my opinion. Hoko Kuwashima is our lead, and her resume is extensive (Inuyasha/Sango – Noir/Kirika) but I’ll be honest… her character Clare just didn’t have a wide range of emotions for her to work off of. The rest of the cast was just a bunch of over-tense screaming militant women. No memorable performances…
Anything else bad you want to say?
Yeh, there is… I was really bothered by the voices of the demons. All of them. They talked way too much, and they sounded stupid having just regular voices and being demonic or huge and monstrous. They needed some kind of effect to be deeper, and better dialog to sound more “larger” then a street punk talking smack…
Alright, well let’s hear something positive… the soundtrack?
Ah, this I liked. The music during the series was some fun “Kill ‘em All” old Metallica style distorted pop-thrash guitar riffs throughout. Get me pumped at least, I love hard rock and upbeat tempos. There were probably only 4 or 5 songs (they felt repetitive) but they were cool. No vocals. The music though wasn’t necessarily reflective of any part of the anime save it fits the violence…
Opening and Ending theme songs?
They keep the upbeat Marshall guitar sixteenth note barrage theme going strong… only one opening theme and one ending theme. Opening themes vocals stunk but the first guitar riff is GREAT. I need to learn it. “Reason for Being” by Nightmare (these guys also did the opening/ending for the first season of Death Note). Fun riff. The ending theme is by Riyu Koska… it starts a bit lame, but give it a moment and once the drums kick things off into punk rock speed it’s fun too.
• Score/Voice Acting : 7/10
Story
Okay, so it’s based off a Manga that is still ongoing…
Yep. And it is REALLY faithful to the manga, except towards the end… which uses many of the manga elements, but is changed a bit so that no new story lines (Dragon-kin, Black Claymores, etc.) are introduced… essentially, the last 2 episodes are semi-original.
What are the chances of a season 2?
Let me get my magic eight ball. The 26 episodes of the anime are the first eleven volumes (about 60 chapters) of the manga. As of May 1st 2009 the manga is up to volume 16 (chapter 92)… so the answer is… well, quite a while if it comes out at all.
So does it just end and leave us hanging like Berserk or something?
It’s not near that painful. Berserk (the anime) just ends right after a mega-super climax. This series I just don’t see being interesting for another 26 episodes… it follows in the same steps though… a billion unanswered questions still not answered in the manga… plot feels a bit lost towards the end, or maybe I just stopped caring.
From the story we do get, what of it?
Well right off the bat I can say one positive thing. Great pacing! The arcs are short (about 4 episodes) so it covers a good deal of ground. Our hero has quite the number of adventures and a few of them are really fun. Unfortunately the fun ends when the characters start to go “Dragonball”…
• Story : 6/10
Characters
So Clare is our main protagonist… a sword wielding female demon hunter of sorts right?
Yep. She’s a hybrid, half human half demon… works for a secret unnamed organization that hunts and destroys “Yoma”. She’s very militant and void of emotions. All the Claymore are for the most part. She reminds me of Sabre from Fate Stay/Night… only she doesn’t really get cool.
What about this “worthless male character”?
Oh my gosh I want to strangle Raki with his own hands… worthless is the only word for it. He’s a killjoy… he does to Claymore what that stupid “I’m a Mac” kid/actor did to Die Hard with a Vengeance. Sucks the fun out of every scene he’s in.
Well what about the villains?
Can’t spoil that… Claymores are their own worst enemy, struggling with the half demon within… that’s all I can say of this. I can say though that the other enemy… the endless demons… the weak grunt of the Yoma is drawn really poorly, but is humanoid… but the higher ranking ones for whatever reason start to look like animals… Turtles and Lions and stuff… I thought it came across very comical and didn’t fit….
• Characters : 5/10
Value
On what fronts does Claymore deliver?
Well, it delivers on all the tags… there is medieval action and adventure, demons, gore, superpowers, teamwork and secret organizations, tragedy to a degree…
What anime is it most like?
Claymore is probably the bastard child of Berserk and Dragonball Z… its uncle is probably Blood+ and its nephew Bleach.
Is it worth following the manga from the end of this anime?
If you like it’d it, sure! Like I said, it’s VERY faithful. Skip to manga chapter 55 or so and go on from there… but be warned, the manga is setting itself up for being never ending…
• Value : 6/10
Enjoyment
At the end of the day, how did you like it?
Well despite my mostly negative comments… it’s okay. The action scenes are fun. The heroes aren’t invincible and get a thrashing which I like. A few battles have some really neat elements… I like not knowing if a character necessarily will or will not live. That aspect is great! Now if they cut the Raki character out completely… made the villains look, sound, and act cooler and more mature and evil… and didn’t have the dopey “number ranking” and feeling power levels and super power attacks and going Super Saiyan thing with altered states, I’d probably like it more… despite the death and gore though, it is just too kiddie in my opinion.
Favorite moment?
Well the cannibalism in the cave was cool, but I’d have to say Episodes 5 through 8… fun story arc.
• Enjoyment : 7/10
Overall : 6.5
If you read it, please rate it, even if you hate it
Thanks!
