Claymore

Claymore depicts a dark, cold, cruel, depressing and creepy world where happiness seems to be as rare and brief as the light of a shooting star. We follow the story of seemingly cold and distant but secretly burningly passionate beautiful characters who defy all difficulties and struggle to resist the monsters who could destroy everything good and pretty in existence at any moment. As the story develops, everything that we get attached to are instantly torn away from us again, and yet we are left with hope that it might all work out in the end. And to me, all of this is just magical.

Once I stop to think about it, I'm not really sure why I love Claymore so much. In fact, I'm pretty damn embarrassed by it. While I would objectively still rate it as good, there's a decent amount of cheese and cheap stuff in it which should prevent me from being utterly amazed by it. But it doesn't. I guess I just happen to have a soft spot for this kind of cold and depressing but beautiful atmosphere and Claymore has randomly found that soft spot and squeezed it to oblivion. Or maybe it has something to do with the fact that both times I watched it I had a high fever. Whatever it is, Claymore could have turned out to be one of the most wonderful screen experiences I've ever had.

That's right, *could've*. There is exactly one very big and obvious flaw with Claymore. As it is based on a portion of slowly advancing, still ongoing manga, staying faithful to manga would require the anime to have an abrupt ending. Because of this, the producers of the anime (apparently never intending to continue the anime series) have changed the last portion of the anime storyline in order to give it some feeling of closure. And... they have utterly, miserably failed at it. Not only is the ending just as abrupt, on top of that the last few episodes are now filled with nonsensical hysteria. It is so horrible it just makes me cry. It is not even my personal opinion, everyone else say the exact same thing.

I would have been more than happy to see the anime series remain faithful to manga all the way, even if it meant just leaving it hanging in the end. Were it to be continued in similar quality after several years, it would have been a perfect 10/10 and hands down my favourite anime and just one of my favourite things, ever. Even with those fatal flaws, I am still loving it. If everything was the way it should have been, it would have simply blown me away.

In the end, I have to call Claymore on its flaws and can't recommend it as a genuinely brilliant anime, only as a decent one. But if my rant about cold and depressing but beautiful atmosphere rung a bell, I suggest you give it maximum chances as maybe, just maybe it will find your soft spot just like it did mine.

The recommendation came from a Discord chat which was not even related to anime or manga. Needless to say, thought the affair wouldn't last long.

I binged it in 2 nights.

Animation is as you might expect from a budget anime produced in 2007 but it still makes it on my list as one of the best anime I have ever watched. Grippingly intense without going too much overboard. There were some weakness in parts of Clare's character development towards the last few episodes but all in all, a very good story line.

It is a pity there hasn't been enough interest in making a reboot, improving upon the story line or continuing on with a season 2 finale.

Highly recommended.

This TV show, Claymore in English, is a great show that many should watch for its entertaining and compelling content. It is set in a medieval world where humans co-exist with bloodthirsty yoma (demons). The only way to stop these monsters is to call upon the fearful half-yoma/half-human women warriors named after their main weapon: the Claymore. This show follows the story of one Claymore, Clare, as she slays demons with a young human boy, Raki, that lost his family to the yoma. This is not just any "monster of the week" type of show: character development is a key part of the story and it gets more and more interesting with every episode. This is still a good show to watch for those not that familiar with the Japanese Anime genre. Even though I am not an anime fan, I can still say that it is one of my favorite TV series if not the best. This anime series is definitely not fun and fuzzy like Pokemon or Inuyasha, nor is it full of filler episodes like Dragonball Z where its takes a whole day to watch somebody go super quadruple invincible God Mode. There is action in every episode and you will not be disappointed. Be careful, there is a lot of blood and gore present in the series: it is not a show for the faint-hearted.

I've always been a fan of anime series, my favourite being Berserk. I tend to focus a lot on the pacing and the built tension when I watch anime, and Berserk is The master of pacing. Another thing I tend to focus on is character development and overall sentimentality of the show. Many anime characters are quite over-the-top, a major let-down for me. As are many scenes in anime. Claymore succeeds on most levels. The pacing is some of the greatest I've ever seen, and the inclusion of ranked characters just adds to the excitement. It's always interesting to see who's got the higher rank. Furthermore, you really start caring for the characters and picking out your favorites (mine being no. 6, Miria). The show only fails on a few levels. You're in for a lot of melodramatic scenes, and the protagonist's male friend, Rocky, is just another annoying brat who cries more than good is. It's no worse than so many other animes and gets better halfway through. The second, and final, major letdown is the anti-climatic ending. There is an epic battle, but the way it ends after the battle is simply not good enough. It feels unfinished, ill and way too sentimental and moral for a show of this kind (it might have something to do with the continuing issues of the manga).

However, you're in for a treat. And you're not going to want to put this show down, before it's ended.

For those who know nothing about anime it should better be on your list of firsts.Except in the last 2 episodes and some scene in third last episode and hardly in some scenes of other previous ones the anime story follows the main story.but the real -2 on the anime is that it is hastily ended on following the manga it ends in a total wreck.besides that the main characters are excellent ; well connected to the story , the story-line is strong and the animation is good.what makes this anime good are the characters of the story line,they are complex as well as fairly simple to understand and feel for.the story line since is a monthly shonen so,doesn't suffer much stretching as for most of the weekly ones and has a sense of flow to it.It has everything you'd expect from a sword,dark fantasy tragedy anime and much more.

so if you are anime fan and like to watch it i think you should skip last two episodes and continue the story-line with manga.