Claymore: Mature horror and gore with an interesting background

Written by Little_Wolf-18 on February 9, 2012 at 3:23 AM

Personally? I am not much into excessively violent anime, so I didn’t enjoy this as much as I could have. However, there is an interesting background story behind this anime, which very much saved it for me.

“Claymore” has a usually straight plot, and its basic concept, though at first glance being the usual good-vs.-bad pattern, is quite unique. What makes this anime work is its individual, well-planned, and quite unpredictable background which makes this anime interesting, though dark, and lifts it from the level of a brainless hack and slash. The plot is generally fast-paced, so much in fact that the end was rushed. Sadly also, a lot of questions were left unanswered. There doesn’t seem to be an anime continuation, although there is the manga (which I’ll go check out – it seems to be on Manga-Access.com, and I just hope it’ll solve the questions the anime left unanswered).

Characters are well developed with unique backgrounds, and fit perfectly into the anime’s dark atmosphere. Since the Claymore have the same hair colour and wear uniforms, they resemble each other a lot, but this anime isn’t just about badass women. ^^ Character development and dynamics are well done; even cold characters begin to warm up throughout the series. The main character, Clare, has a deep personality, and I must say I love the conflict centering around her quest for revenge. However, watchers are somehow left in the dark concerning her true relationship with Raki, a boy/young man (IDK his actual age -_-) she saved and is travelling with.

Genre-wise, “Claymore” contains loads of action, horror, and fantasy, some adventure, psychological/angst genre, and a little friendship/romance (depending on the watcher’s interpretation). With the female warriors, there’s a touch of ecchi in this. Action/horror/fantasy are the defining genres though, and as a warning: “Claymore” contains quite a huge amount of violence and gore. In English: THIS IS NO ANIME FOR KIDS. Period.

The dialogue is pretty much what you would expect. You aren’t left behind, but neither would it be very funny or quirky. It’s horror genre after all.

The music is good, not overly so but it fits; and for some reason, the ending song (once more) got stuck in my ears (I might just wonder how many anime songs are stuck by now ^^). The artwork is finely done, with quite a number of furious fights. Colours and atmosphere are rather dark and muted. The battle sequences are captivating, though this is a hardcore series. If you are into hardcore swordfighting action with horror/fantasy genre, a bit of friendship and a touch of ecchi but with a good background plot, this is definitely worth a watch since plot and battle scenes are intriguing. I should be issuing a warning for horror, violence, and gore though. NOT FOR UNDER-16.