This one got delayed a whole week because of my high school graduation. Of course, not a very fun ceremony when all you do is sit there hearings names and speeches for about three hours. Anyway, the fight with Duph was oddly extended into two different chapters when normally there’s only one chapter title divided into parts per scenario. Not the most exciting set of chapters especially with Clare rushing in recklessly and getting saved from awakening several times. Everyone’s favorite arc is just around the corner though.

Duph is the typical high-strength/low-intelligence tank I passed off as uninteresting, yet I’m still wondering how he produces that endless amount of rods. It looked he was throwing parts of his body as weapons like Kimimaro (aka Wolverine on steroids) from Naruto who pulls out and uses his bones as weapons. Riful, however, said Duph regenerates slowly so that’s not a possible answer. Best answer would probably be to just screw this puzzle since all shounen genre’s tend to dumb out and some points. Galatea, I actually found her disappointing at this point since she’s a boring defensive type. Normally, you would expect the good looking ones to be taken strong front fighters too. Later chapters show that manipulation is actually a rare ability so it kind of evens out. Well, like that is any important. What matters is that Galatea makes me feel all hanyan. Now only if Galatea would awaken and show us her human form. Bet she used to be an ojou-sama by those looks.

Dialog-wise, Riful stands dominant. This may be biased since I’m just a sucker for the polite-on-the-outside type of villians, but I would rank her as the second most amusing character in Claymore. Loved the way she handled the three Claymore like there were brand new toys before eventually deciding to break them. Yes, feel free to call her a psycho loli. On the more in-depth side, Riful said something in this chapter that brings in a question for clarification.

“Rather than forcefully making you awaken now, leaving you to ripen a bit more and then reaping the results seems far more delicious.”

So does that mean Awakened Ones are at the end of their line and will never get stronger than the way they are where as Claymores generally get stronger from level-grinding? Makes you really wonder about Priscilla. She reached level one-hundred with barely any effort value training and yet she’s still the strongest being in the world of Claymore. Claymore is actually on easy mode here. Imagine if Priscilla had awakened after she became a full-fledged Claymore. Loli Riful of the West wouldn’t even dream about defeating Priscilla in that case. Then there was this one…

“Do humans shed tears for the birds, pigs, cows, and sheep that become their food?”

This one is more about just this quoted statement alone and not from the context it came from. Twisted in the eyes of the majority since people generally care only about humans themselves, but this is something I strongly accept. In Claymore, there is no real good side. Yoma’s are just dismissed as monsters for eating humans, but it’s not any different from how humans eat animals. In a way, Yoma’s are even better than humans since humans don’t have to eat meat and yet they ravish all they can. Not sure if Yoma’s die if they don’t eat, but I’m pretty sure they’ll eventually grow to be very weak and be in a near-death state at least. Eventually Yoma’s grew to be more aggressive, and that’s only because humans relied on Claymores to fight back. It’s like how animals attack first if they feel threatened. That said, Abyssal Ones like Riful have every right to create an army in order to survive. Awakened Ones aren’t any different from organization deserters like Teresa. All they want is the right to be free and live, yet those geezers in charge of the Claymore organization want them dead. I actually find them to be the worst of the bunch. They claim they fight for the justice of humans, but do note that they’re not doing charity work. Claymores won’t defend villages that fail to pay. Better yet, where does all that money go? It’s just a silly struggle for power between all four sides of the world. If the good guys do exist in Claymore, it would be the ones who can finally break that conflict. We probably know who which group we’re talking about for the people who are up-to-date. Heck, why couldn’t those people just accept Yoma’s just like every other natural disaster instead of making the case worse?

And finally this quote just because I found it cute.

“Comrades are really important after all aren’t they? I would love to share in that friendship!”