Claymore 14
Posted: March 4, 2009 Filed under: Claymore 8 Comments »Within the first few pages, this series struck me as Berserk-lite, and that impression just stuck with me for the rest of the volume, much to the benefit of this story. They’re fighting demons with swords, they do insane things like blind themselves to escape detection, there’s a naked woman bathing herself in blood… even the art is pretty detailed for a Jump series, though nowhere near as insane nice as it is in Berserk.
The plot seemed pretty straightforward. Unlike some of the other shounen series I’ve been jumping into lately, which required explanations of factions and mafia babies and demon heierarchy and special powers and whatnot, this seems like a simple story about a race of ladies that kill monsters with their big claymores. Admittedly, I was a little confused when I got to the bonus content since it had nothing to do with what appeared to be the two main characters in this volume, but it didn’t detract from the story in any way.
I actually liked the simplicity of the story a lot. There weren’t a lot of pretexts. Two girls show up in town where they’re not supposed to (apparently Claymores aren’t allowed in this town?), then they find out the town is being haunted by a demon. Except… well, they didn’t come to kill a demon, they came to hunt down some sort of rogue agent. One of the two girls is a leader and the other one seems to be a fighter with some sort of mental handicap, she calls the other girl “mamma” and doesn’t speak or do much for herself. She does manage to dispatch everything that needs dispatching though, so I guess that’s just how those two roll.
The two find the rogue agent pretty easily and the fight begins, which is then interrupted by the demon. The rogue agent starts to fight the demon so it will stop murdering the townspeople, except… the pair of agents aren’t there to slay the demon, they’re there to kill the agent. Hm. See? Very simple. I like it. Lots of swordplay, demons, blood and guts, etc. Not something I have to think a lot about, but I prefer it over the convoluted fights and power structures you find elsewhere.
There are two side stories in the back that just make me want to read this series even more. The last one is probably about the main character of the series, though she isn’t even referenced in the main story here.
I think this is the first time I’ve ever read a random volume of a series that made me really, really want to go back to the beginning. It’s not a must-read-fantastic-story, not the part I read at least, but I’d be willing to believe there’s a lot more going on than what I saw here, and I like the premise and simplicity enough that I know I would love it if went back to the beginning. Simple stuff, but it knows how to do simple shounen, which is more than what can be said for a lot of other action series.
This was a review copy provided by Viz.
[...] on vol. 16 of Basara (Slightly Biased Manga) Isaac Hale on A Capable Man (Manga Recon) Connie on vol. 14 of Claymore (Slightly Biased Manga) Charles Tan on vol. 24 of Eyeshield 21 (Comics Village) Kristy Valenti on [...]
Hmmm, this series has been compared to Berserk a lot but I think it’s ridiculous to compare this to something as good as Berserk. Both story and art are just far, far below Berserk. I actually enjoyed Claymore anime more than manga, which is really rare in my case. I mean character design (all faces look pretty much the same) and fights (Clare always swings her sword and that’s it) are really poor in manga but they’re better in anime.
I want to read this one, too. A lot of people I know like it.
“Berserk-lite” were my exact words when I started reading this series. And really…it’s so true. But probably just the dark fantasy atmosphere, and nothing about the story itself.
The easy-to-read aspect makes the series more addictive, I remember flying through these books, even the slow parts.
I haven’t been keeping up with Claymore lately but I would wholeheartedly recommend going back to the beginning. It was a pleasant surprise at a time when I was rather tired of a lot of shounen series. The joy of it is however that it is a story simply told but not a simple story. The claymores are great characters. Under a different pen they could’ve easily become glorified battle dolls but their portrayal is really sensitive and thoughtful. The relationships between the claymores are the real draw of the story for me because it’s difficult for them to classify what they mean to each other but sometimes all one claymore has is the company of other claymores. Anyway! Hardly what I expected from the author of Angel Densetsu. :D
PS. I also don’t think going back to read the beginning of Tail of the Moon would be a complete waste of your time. ;D
I only compare it to Berserk because it’s clearly inspired by it. I mean, it might be fair to say that it’s also inspired by every other sword-and-sorcery series out there, but even just looking at it makes me think of Berserk. It’s certainly far below Berserk in terms of quality since it’s more of a mass-consumable series I think, but it still seems like it would be fun to read.
Admittedly, from the little I saw of Clare, she does seem somewhat stoic, but I’d hate to judge her based on one side story. I liked the other characters well enough from what I saw, and I do really like serious fantasy stories like this, so I’m really looking forward to trying this out. Though I can see what you mentioned about the action scenes.
Now that you mention it, it did seem like the three or four Claymores that were in this volume all had pretty unique personalities. And I sort of like the promise in this volume that the story breaks off from a main group of characters to focus on others, because that promises that the rest of the characters aren’t just one-dimensional foils for the main. The two in this volume were sort of an unlikely pair too, a really powerful girl who didn’t really seem to have the capacity to get by without the other girl, and she was a darker-haired Claymore that everyone seemed to dismiss outright as weak.
I love fantasy series like this, and finding ones that take themselves seriously is pretty hard. I think I would go back to the beginning for that alone.
I have to say, I didn’t like Tail of the Moon nearly as much as I liked this one. But I’ll file that away for when I see the series on sale.
The Claymore’s personalities are a big part of the series to me. The early few volumes are mostly Clare and her sidekick, but later on more get introduced, several of whom are really fun. There’s also more to some of the demons than you’ve seen in this volumes.
Btw, the reason everyone dismiss Clarice as weak (it’s not really a spoiler as it’s mentioned early on) is that when Claymores become full Claymores they lose all pigment in their hair and eyes, giving them the nickname “Silver haired witches”. For Clarice to still be brown haired means she’s “How did they even decide to send you out in the field?” weak. Miata, on the other hand, is a deadly little tyke bomb :)
I was wondering how the pigmentation worked. I wasn’t sure if you were born a Claymore, or had to earn your power, or what. It was one of the reasons I sort of wanted to go back to the beginning of the series, because that sounded potentially very interesting.
I was also kind of wondering about one of the side stories, which featured a demon that wasn’t slain, or… someone that was part demon, or something. That got me pretty curious too, because it means that the battles have the potential to not be one-sided. That could be very interesting.