Claymore - First Impression
All those mixed reactions out there are an interesting turn of events for Claymore. It seems like a lot of people are actually turning this show away because it’s shounen. Well, it’s shounen according to them at least. Let’s hope that people are reaching this conclusion because they don’t know much about the series, not because they’re thinking about the typical ones that pop into mind when people mention shounen action. Claymore has plenty of gore and “real” action (it has that epic feeling basically), which should disqualify it from being labeled as shounen in my opinion. Anime’s been lacking serious action genre’s lately so I actually like it to the point where I can just ignore the fact that the opening is done by a visual-kei band.
The anime version turned out really nice, and it’s close to the manga more or less. All they did was take out of the filler-ish second chapter so there’s nothing wrong here. Claymore definitely shines animated since the manga art is a bit rusty even though I would say that kind of art is usually a given for a heavy (referring to all the blood in it) genre like that. I really liked the kind of shading they used even though Raki (the kid) looks a bit scary when he’s not supposed to as a result of it. This is also probably the one time I paid attention to the soundtrack. There’s a lot of odd sounding ones that fit in with the creepy moments. Claymore isn’t a manga I’m all familiar with though so from the general storyline, all I can say is that it’s similar to D-Gray.man. In this case, Yoma’s (demons in the series) disguise as humans to blend in with them as Akuma’s do. Only difference is that they seem to eat the humans they kill behind the scenes. I just want to wait and see if Raki will actually play a significant part in the story. I don’t know, maybe end up doing some fighting himself too since I think he had a sword on the opening. Usually, male characters who tag along with strong female leads tend to go pale and eventually become close to none existent.
Possibility of blogging is still unknown. Assuming I’ll continue to enjoy this series, I’ll pick it up if the negative responses remain at a constant value. Too bad Raki will probably be calling her Clare instead of onee-chan from now on. It was kind of weird hearing someone like that being called onee-chan, but in a good way as if Raki’s reminding her that she’s still human. Mind if I add that I never saw the sword would be sheathed into the armor? That’s a neat idea since I always wondered how it’s possible to firmly attach heavy swords to back. It doesn’t look like the armor supports double-wielding though. It probably just has two slots so they won’t have to customize one if they suddenly have a left-handed Claymore.
The art looks fantastic and the character designs delicious. Given that Madhouse has a good track record for the action genre, I’d definitely be picking this up. Thanks for the heads-up. :)
Normally I hate kids like Raki who tag along; but for some reason, Raki is just somewhat likable.
I don’t know what they can do to elaborate upon his character, but I guess we’ll see.
It certainly does look interesting, I might have to go read the manga :3
Stripey: Even though Madhouse does have it ups and downs, their action genre’s have been more than satisfactory. Tenjo Tenge wasn’t what people would consider as a good anime, but the way the action was animated (like Takayanagi’s kick in episode two) left a strong impression. Claymore’s on a whole different scale with apparently a high budget so it should be good.
Lainforce: I really can’t see what they’ll do with Raki except him getting in the way all the time. It’ll be painful to watch if he’s one of the guys who never develop and just stay naive until the end.
RunningKid: Yeah, I took a quick look at the manga before watching it. It’s okay. Sometimes it’s hard to tell the male characters apart. Oh, and there’s fan-service right in the first volume.
i dont like this show purely because i hate the character design…couldnt sit through more than 15 minutes of the first episode…tried to finish the episode but couldnt >_<
Eh, oh well. I can understand not liking the character design so there’s nothing wrong with it. =\
Better than forcing yourself to watch it like I did some shows in the past.
I’ve decided that Claymore is the best show to come out so far in the Spring 2007 season. My friends don’t like it very much because “there’s no lead guy” and “it’s all women” which I was really surprised at. I don’t think it should matter that much if the Claymore’s are men or women (although it’s sig in the show later but.. you know what i mean)
i liked what you said about the it’s so good you can ignore the openning by nightmare. i also felt that way! and the part about raki calling clare “onee-chan” humanizing her was insightful. i like clare and raki’s voiceacting. i think the soundeffects/track makes the show.