Claymore

[Vintniv]

Havent seen of thread of this manga, but her goes.



The gist is, Clamyore are women who are used to hunt down creatures who eat humans called youma. And..yeah, other stuff happens like hunting bigger youma, and keeping the human populations safe.


I like manga because the art and story are pretty good. There's a level of artistic modesty given to the Claymore so they are not sexualized. The monsters can get pretty warped in terms of their design which only improves with time. I also like the premise that the story is very direct, not getting bogged down with psuedo-love interests or big discussions mid battle.

I would wager to say this is probably in my top 5 favorite mangas (as the anime cut off the good bits). Your thoughts?

[Zainox]

I've seen the anime and loved it, because of it I went and bought bits and pieces of the manga. I plan to buy more before I start reading because the volumes I own are random. I do like though how this is a manga dominated by female characters and they don't try and deal fan service. The art is really well done, but the faces have always seemed a bit off to me. :/
Not off putting enough to not enjoy it though. :3

[taichokage]

I think it's very solid the art is highly on point, the action and mature themes are very well done as well. I'm dry surprised though that it's labeled as a Shounen. It's more akin to a Seinen in my opinion. I haven't caught up just yet but I'm a bit past halfway. My only criticism is that the Claymores look so similar that I can't always remember who's who.

[KillKaylaDead]

I LOVED the anime. I need to look into the manga! Just hard to find the time... Blah. I really wish the anime didn't end so quickly. I suppose that's why i need to check out the manga ;P

[T-Stew]

Here is my Claymore Manga collection as of now. Claymore is what really brought me into anime/manga. I had tried to watch anime before, had friends in college big into it, etc. But I just never really got into it, mainly since most of the stuff I saw was more towards the younger audiences. When I saw Claymore, for whatever reason it just appealed to me like very few shows ever had. Everything seemed so much more my style. Pretty much all the characters are adults, drawn more realistically, no sillyness or excessive fan service thrown in. It depicts a grim existence in a bleak world. Dark setting, subdued color, death around every corner, blood glistening. This is no sugar coated fantasy here. Much more serious, a big struggle for just a chance at survival. It starts off just a bit slow but speeds up, almost too fast. Think they could have done a bit more character development. Seems many come and go to quickly. But there is just enough to give you a 3 dimensional feel about everything without slowing this fast paced story down. But don't want any spoiler so I'll stop there.

I read the manga after watching the anime. I'm not sure which I'd recommend first, either way would be ok. But realize the anime ending deviates considerably from the manga. The anime more or less ends, leaving viewers a bit puzzled, and feels like a lot was unfinished. Not terrible IMO but not great either, and well not the true ending anyhow. The manga keeps on going, in fact many believe it only gets better afterwards.

They deviate starting with the battle with Rigaldo. Which would start with Scene 21 "Invasion of Pieta I" in the anime, but I believe it isn’t until Invasion of Pieta II where they deviate, which is basically the start of book #11 in the manga. So if you've already seen the anime, and don't want to start over from the beginning with the manga, start from #11.

For the most part the anime and manga are nearly identical until the aforementioned deviation in the final few episodes of the anime. There are very minor differences, and some different verbage used here and there. One example would be at the end of the Darkness in Paradise (Clare's Awakening in the anime) Sid kisses Clare and Raki kicks him in the nuts. Didn't happen in the anime, but the anime showed Galk tossing a sword to Raki as a parting gift which didnt happen in the manga. So there are small differences but generally its about identical. I started over from the beginning, wanted them all for the collection anyway, and enjoyed re-experiencing the whole story in its original form.

I'm usually more into the shows, Claymore is the only manga I've ever read yet. Seems like the manga misses so much with no animation, color, music. Seems like the anime just depicts so much more. But at the same time I think the manga can too, its just up to the reader to create the action and fill in the gaps. And some of the artwork in the manga is so much nicer, if only a couple images here and there go into such detail. Seems like many images in the manga leave a lot of detail out, many scenes dont even show faces. Sometimes that works well for that particular scene (in the shadows, etc) but far to often detail is left out. But other scenes have beautiful detail.

I'm not caught up yet btw, about midway through book #20. As to not burn out, I like reading it very slowly, I like the series so much it deserves to be savored I guess. It took me a few months to watch all the anime, and even longer to read the same stretch of manga, and since book 11 its taken me over a year now to get up to 20. Sometimes I only read them as a bit of a reward after I accomplish something... a race or a mountain hike etc. I've really been able to keep my interest in it maxed out for a couple years this way, instead of watching it all in a day and reading all the manga in another few days. I just love knowing there was still so much more of it to come, and hate now that I'm almost there!

I really ought to make a proper display of all my memorabilia, I have quite a bit for Claymore! And I really wish they would make another season (as well as correct the ending of the current one), they have enough material now but it will probably never happen.

[Hypatia]

I am yet to finish reading the manga. I really like the art style that is used and the story itself is very interesting. It keeps me reading I hope that it ends well.

I watched the anime and I thought that it ended to soon not to mention the fact that I hated the ending! I think that with a series of this depth the ending of the anime could have been much better.

[SuXrys]

Wait, there is an anime? I have completely missed that. I just started to read the manga today so I havn't come so far yet

 

have come little longer then the part where Clare meet Teresa

but it seems okey.



To check if I have understood it correctly: The word Claymore - is that the name of their swords? Is there anything special with them? It feels like I have missed something.

[T-Stew]

To check if I have understood it correctly: The word Claymore - is that the name of their swords? Is there anything special with them? It feels like I have missed something.

Yeah that was pretty much addressed in the first book, scene 1 actually. Its no huge revelation or anything, but I'll put it as a spoiler just in case...

 

The organization the silver-eyed witches (Claymores) are a part of has no real name, but people simply started calling these warriors Claymores after the large swords they carry.

[Idiotchan]

It's a very good show. I still re-watch some episodes because I love them.
Also, it has some great characters. The story's great and there are no boring parts. I even like the way it ended...for some reason.
My favourite characters are Teresa and Clare. I also like Galatea, Irene, Helen, Deneve and Flora a lot.
About a year ago, we had to write something like a review for our favourite show (for school). I made a review about Claymore. I was really obsessed with the show back then. I still am...a little.

This makes me want to re-watch the whole show once again.

[Major.Tom]

I loved Claymore, reminded me of berserk a bit.
Liked the way it was drawn, the fighting was great!
Also incredible sotryline.

[Digimon_Sommelier]

Never seen it, never read it.

[T-Stew]

Been years since I signed in here, but due to recently finishing this series I felt like I owed it some report, and this thread seemed to be the most recent titled Claymore. I have always taken a bit of issue with it being ranked shonen, though I guess its shonen advanced whatever that means. I put it right up there with a few other seinin like Ghost in the Shell which is another favorite. Originally I didn't even know what shonen meant, I was not very versed in anime/manga this was the first one I really liked. Ironically I liked it for it's more adult feel. Kiddie anime/manga I was never interested in, being that I'm getting into this stuff a bit older than most. I really prefer shows and stories with more of an adult cast and not holding back on content (but not ridiculous fan service, just a little bit that is subtle perhaps), along with a good solid story and some character and plot development. Claymore excelled at all of this. Perhaps it's still quite enjoyable for the younger crowd too, but I enjoyed it greatly.

Anyhow I finished the manga finally, earlier this week. Such a great read, it's amazing it has been going on now since 2001 up to 2014. You can see how the art changed over the years, characters were refined a bit, and different directions and feel the manga took.

After having watched the anime and read the manga I can say that they both deserve a watch, but the anime was cut short and covers only about half of the manga, and has a ending that deviates greatly from the manga many consider to be terrible. So the anime is nice to see for the first half, but don't expect a great ended. The manga continues on and takes a bit of a different feel after the midway point. I won't give any spoilers but despite being a bigger fan of the anime originally, the story really is best in the manga. And the ending doesn't disappoint, in fact it's one of the best endings! It's been a very special part of my life these last few years and it's sad that its over now. Lots of fan fiction and other stuff out there though to feed me yearnings for a bit longer.



Claymore. A story of hybrid warrior/monster women. Lots of them. And they kick donkey with very little silly stuff like excessive fan service (well I tiny bit it's very subtle).

Some of them really hulk out with their strength abilities. Awesome!


And if they are not careful to tap just enough of their inner monster they are hybridized with it will take over and they loose there humanity...


Just an incredible story with some kick donkey women!