Claymore 15
Posted: November 3, 2009 Filed under: Claymore 5 Comments »Norihiro Yagi – Viz – 2009 – 16+ volumes
I thought this was a weekly Shounen Jump series (and it was, at one point, but now it is Monthly Jump Square), so I was a little surprised that the volumes were coming out in English so slowly. I’m thankful that I read two back to back, though, since I got to see just how good the story is here.
I like fantasy stories, and I like them even more when they stay relatively straight-faced. Claymore has no humor, and this volume reveals just what the scope of the series really is. There is a huge reveal here, and I was quite impressed that it was completely understandable and worked so well as a turnabout to everything even for a new reader like me. I do think I’ll go back to the beginning of this series eventually, but I think I’ll read a few more volumes first just to make sure all the elements are working how I think they are.
Most of all, I enjoy the warrior system that has been established. It’s explained further here when everything is unveiled, but I just like that there’s a special class of women that slay monsters and can be saviors or pariahs depending on the town. I also like that there are further subdivisions. The women are half-human and half-monster, but it seems like there are (of course) more variations on this, and I’m interested in a character from Clare’s past who seems to have joined up with the story in this volume.
There are a lot of characters here, and I’m a little bummed that so many warriors suddenly joined the main cast. I’m also a little put out that the two main characters from the last volume don’t seem to be players in the story at all. But Clare is the main character, and she takes the story over again after the leader of the warriors explains the situation to everyone. The other warriors remain relatively faceless, which I appreciate, because I just don’t want to follow that many people, and I like when secondary cast stays low key.
The next volume comes out in June. I may pick up some additional volumes before then, or I may wait until I’ve read one more volume, but I know for sure I’ll be reading more. It does have a little bit of a vanilla taste to it, but I can’t help but like series like this.
This was a review copy provided by Viz.
[...] on vol. 4 of Breath (The Yaoi Review) Julie on Cigarette Kisses (Manga Maniac Cafe) Connie on vol. 15 of Claymore (Slightly Biased Manga) Erica Friedman on vol. 4 of Click (Okazu) Connie on vol. 1 of Fushigi Yugi [...]
Claymore was only in Weekly Jump very briefly (in fact, I think four flashback chapters may have been the lot) — basically, it was a stopover for the title between Monthly Jump and Jump Square.
Clarice and Miata are new characters. So far, their function in the story has really been to provide a reentry point after a timeskip, and to show the contrast between the organisation then and now.
I’ll note everyone who showed up here was an established character (to a greater or lesser extent. Three of them have about as much role as the blind nun Claymore). That’s a big, “Cool, they’re back!” moment there for some of us, even if it’s “Wow, mysterious warrors!” to you and Miata :) Starting where you did is something of an interesting jump-on point, since it is pretty much written to re-introduce things to the new major characters in a soft way (I.e. you’ll probably want to go back and read the rest because they’re cool, but this isn’t a Fallen Vampire situation).
Claymore has a reasonably sized cast, it just doesn’t insist on all of them getting a major role every time they show up, to keep it fast.
Thanks for explaining that. I’m glad I was able to pick up the story here, where everything is re-introduced and the beginning of the next major storyline getting underway. I didn’t mind the last volume either, with the unrelated characters and the introduction to the fighting techniques and terminology for the series. I’m also very happy to hear that the cast isn’t over-utilized, that’s one of my biggest pet peeves in shounen action series, even my favorite ones.
I think I will pick up the first couple volumes next time I see them. This has been my favorite of the shounen series I’ve picked up at volume 10+.
It starts pretty low-level (I don’t think you’ve even see a basic-model Yoma yet, the standard enemies Claymore fight day to day. The kind of foes Miata’s trained to fight) then ramps it’s way up in between there and here.