Warning: Undefined array key "HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE" in /var/www/minitokyo/www/includes/common.inc.php on line 360 aureawolf's Claymore Tv,manga Review - Minitokyo
»

aureawolf's Claymore Tv,manga Review

Claymore

Claymore tv,manga Review

In the world of Claymore, humanity is being terrorized by "youma," beings who live for destruction. Worst of all, these beings can disguise themselves as humans.

But soon, hybrid warrior women - half youma, half human - appeared, to destroy the youma. These women were known as "Claymores," and their silver eyes can recognize a youma that is disguising itself as a human.

Credits: SingerYuna

Story & Playability

I knew Claymore anime by pure chance as a gift from my little sis. Now, I'm such a huge fan that she regrets it xD. The following aspects that I'll review, apply for both anime and manga.

I agree with everyone when it comes to the ending of the anime, so I'll not go there. Anyway, this extreme interest of mine was born from the story, which had a strong impact on me since I'm a feminist: every character has her own story of pain, grief and survival in a world where they only can be ignored or feared and despised. It is quite significant the fact that only women are able to restrain their yoki (which may well be interpretated as the animal instinct, the sexual energy).
May be you already know this, maybe you don't... but in the field of arts, women have a stronger relationship with their bodies, so the bleeding, the mutilation, the physical torture have different meanings: as females, generally we are used to bleed; as mothers, perhaps we may know what is like to share flesh and blood; as women, the pain of being abused is very familiar for so many... such a tragic reality! That's why I think Claymore is a powerful manifesto about women's strenght.

In the other hand, is also very interesting that all warriors resamble physically (Yagi-sensei's style, after all), what makes them different from each other? Their names, their personalities... they're unique.
Driven by dispair and sorrow, women are abandoned, sold, tortured, taken away from their humanity and transformed into something without consciousness: expendable tools. The Organization seeks to separate them from the human world, that's why there's this rule: "No matter the circumstances, a Claymore cannot meddle into human affairs and kill them. If so, they'll be executed by their comrades." It is supposed to be the only proof of their loyalty to the human side... Is it? Really? Teresa recovered her humanity in the same instant when she rescued Claire: she realized that the world is not black and white, that most of the times the real danger are humans, that power should be used for protecting (those circumstances are defined by one's own conscious), that solidarity and love are the key for hapiness (nevermind the briefness). I don't remember very well who said it, but someone at the Organization makes the following remark: "The best warriors are the ones who die quickly... if the live too long, they start to think dangerous things". Very eloquent.

That's the same reason for which Priscilla goes mad: in order to preserve the memory of her lost family, in order to avenge them, she convinced herself of a fictional world, where humans are all innocent victims and anyone who kill them is an absolute enemy. When Teresa menaces to break that frail conception, the manichean Priscilla looses it.

I don't want to make this a long treaty (we can always discuss the rest of the topics in the forum or something), I just want to add that the key word all along the story is: nakama, which means 'partner', 'comrade' but it can also mean (in some Claymore contexts) 'friend', 'sister of circumstances'. All warriors are bound by their stories, they live similar tragedies, they share the same fear, the same sadness... despite all the Organization efforts, they talk and know each other, they reflect on the other's eyes, they think, they remember, they yearn of regaining their humanity: only through love (as sisters, as daughters, as mothers, as friends) they can achieve that. Miria shows it whenever she protects her subordinates, Irene shows it when she supports Claire's aim, Helen shows it when she screams that they are only humans... and the best example is given by Jeanne, the one with the strongest will.

(One advice: read the manga. There are so many samples of this that are not in the anime. You can't be satisfied with those few episodes, I bet that lots of your currect questions will be answered by those pages).

Rating: 10

Graphics

Magnificent art. I've seen some comments about the clothing and how does that make Yagi-sensei a little ecchi, I desagree. Sure, that armor may not be really useful, but it's quite clear that light fit clothing is the best to fight. The bodies look quite fine: you can see its muscles, its strenght, its athletic shape (I was so releaved when I finally saw a body with flesh instead of skiny twigs, and a firm chest instead of a pair of wiggly waterballoons).
My only "but" would be the blood and its physics... I'm cool with its presence, it's just that it's a little too Kill Bill.

Rating: 9

Sound

Excellent sound! Not only the seiyuus (all the gals made an awesome work by modulating their voices according to the situation), the swords, the speed, the fights... all those things sound really cool. I was impressed specially with the transformating bodies sounds: that woody screech combined with rubber being twisted... gives the actual impression of the flesh and bones changing.
Masanori Takumi made a wonderful and deep OST (no matter how short the tracks are): every one of them transmit solid emotions and depict particular places, which can be both dark and gloomy or bright and cozy.
Finally, the "Claymore Intimate Persona" is just lovely: each song is sung by a seiyuu and tells the story and personality of their respective character. The one thing I didn't like at all is that Sophia has a song and Jeanne doesn't!

Rating: 10

Fun

In my opinion, this is one of the most feminist stories ever (ironically, written by an extraordinary man). This are my appreciations about is. If should be any presentation, I think that the ending, "Danzai no hana", describes perfectly what's the core of Claymore:

My heart... is still locked in your memories.
My body... I search for one for I have none.
Today I will once again see someone somewhere shed tears,
And again it's my destiny to return nothing but a cold smile.
As I hold on to this fate that cannot be abandoned,
I am standing here right now....

(Translated version taken from animelyrics.com)

Rating: 8

Final Verdict

9.1667 (very good)

Reviewed by aureawolf, Apr 27, 2012

Comments

  1. angelxxuan Banned Member Apr 27, 2012

    not a bad review for your first one, it probably would have been better to break down the anime from the manga or at least touch on the art of both and/or compare/contrast them. in the sound, you could have added which part you watched, the subbed/dubbed and did a small piece on the voices. the plot seemed a bit empty to me, since you were doing both the anime and manga you could have listed characters not found in the manga and/or vices and the likes. thus the reason why I suggested a breaking down of the manga and then the review for the anime. two reviews ;) also the first part of the review should have come with a warning, in my opinion, a somewhat mature reading setting, due to the content at hand which shortly followed. at least you did keep the review pg 13 so kudos to you for that. hope that this was of no offense to you and I hope to see/read more of your reviews in the future :) also welcome to mt :)

  2. aureawolf Apr 28, 2012

    No offense whatsoever! Thank you for your remarks and your kind welcoming :D. Gee... I never imagined that my review would seem of mature reading, so you think I should write a little warning for starters? O.O
    I hesitated about whether I should talk about both anime and manga or just one, and I decided to do it like this because the very things that I like are present in both. I didn't want to include missing characters and such because I have the terrible and annoying habit of dropping spoilers without noticing and I didn't want the readers suffer from that xD Anyway, I hope that I'll improve my reviewing with time :).

  3. angelxxuan Banned Member Apr 28, 2012

    yeah spoilers are a big no-no around here, it's bound to happen to drop them but if they aren't too large...but it's just me, I mean any female knows about that sort of thing as a lot of males do, but some on this site don't know just yet. and since you did keep it within the confines of the rules, you don't need to really mention the mature part, just need to remember to check the rules and keep them in check when writing reviews. sometimes reviews needs some of the flavor/taste of what to come, it could scare the reader away from watching it, or watch it to show how true to word and get the same feeling that the poster of the review did and so forth.

    like I mentioned this was only your first review, mine was similar and the likes, and don't hesitate to look around and get some ideas from other reviews in the past, that's what I've done to take upon my own style and ideas, haven't had time to write any in quite awhile, time isn't always my best of friend, but there is a group you can check out too which might be helpful if you're interested http://minitokyo-review.minitokyo.net/ they also got some helpful info in there as well. hope to see more reviews appearing in the future with your name attached to it.

    Claymore is on my to watch list, I read the spoilers to it long ago, totally forgotten them and now, once I have the time I will be diving into this anime as I have others on my list. I'm not a manga reader so I can't help with that department but the link I provided about the group will also help there as well. happy reviewing :)

  4. aureawolf Apr 30, 2012

    This will be really helpful :D! Thank you so much! :3

  5. angelxxuan Banned Member Apr 30, 2012

    you're very welcome, I can remember when I first started doing reviews that it looked awkward to me, and when I started seeing how others did theirs I realized mine was so simple, sure I still keep it simple and to the point to hold my attention span, but other than that I prefer to do a review the way that I would enjoy it :) besides there isn't a character limit, just spoilers aren't very welcomed, the rest is open season to what a person can do to their own review :) and I have actually seen people re-do reviews at a later time, they will do a review on the same thing and it would be a totally different reviewing style, so it's what you get out of it and put into it sort of thing and the rest is all about the fun !

  6. yothsothgoth Sep 23, 2012

    Pretty good review. I haven't completely finished this series yet, but I agree with many details you've put. As for anime/manga differences - you've already had that discussion. Good job for a first review!

  7. aureawolf Oct 03, 2012

    Thank you yothsothoth! I'm very glad that you liked it and I'd be even more glad if we could chat about these details. Anyway, I'm already working on more reviews and I hope they'll come out more neat and inviting :)

  8. Drakill Oct 10, 2012

    Really good review! I would've given it a 9 as well.
    I agree where you gave the graphics a 9 saying that "it's just that it's a little too Kill Bill." I don't really like Kill Bill XD
    Well done with this review :)

page 1 of 1 8 total items

Only members can post replies, please register.

Warning: Undefined array key "cookienotice" in /var/www/minitokyo/www/html2/footer.html on line 73
This site uses cookies. By continuing to browse the site you are agreeing to our use of cookies. Read more.