Double Standard Anime Blog

So Claymore motivates me once again to post, no surprise there. It seems that dramatic buildup is a specialty of this season of anime, with Claymore, Gurren Lagann, Kaze no Stigma, and Darker than Black all headed toward solid endings. This is definitely a welcome change from the seemingly inevitable great shows which have dismal ends.

As I was saying, Claymore is on the path to anime greatness, call it shounen if you must but it still has some of the best fights in anime and has maintained rigorous quality in terms of both animation and plotting. Anything that was awkward, such as the battle moving to a volcanic crater for no apparent reason, was well worth it for keeping the show fresh and intense.

Considering my blogging frequency, it’s nearly pointless for me to summarize the episode, unfortunately. Anyway, in this episode Miria explains that Claire was an experiment by the Organization in a new method of creating warriors. As we already know, Claymores are produced through the union of Yoma and Human, making them 50% demon. However, from what I’ve gathered, a human can’t handle controlling that much power; thus, I’d imagine that Claire can more fully utilize her powers while maintaining her sanity since she is only 25% demon, her own blood mixed with the most powerful Claymore, Teresa, who was 50% demon. Of course, I can only guess since I have not read the manga.

Miria and friends finally get to the crater where Claire had been swiftly tenderized by Priscilla. They attempt to battle her while Claire heals. The group manages to sever one of Priscilla’s wings, but she is not pleased and powers up further, awakening fully. In her absurdly powerful state she demonstrates that a single fingernail of hers is far more powerful than three half-demons with broadswords.

Once again, however, Claire recovers from shock and painful memories and reaches for more power upon seeing her fellow Claymores scattered in bits and pieces around the crater.

Needless to say, Claire powers up again. If the battle next week is better than the Regardo battle, which it promises to be,…wow.

In retrospect, I didn’t really expect Claymore to end up this way, with a full final 6 episodes of solid battle. I was expecting more drama and less action, but I’m certainly not disappointed with the result. My main criticism of the series as a whole was that Raki seemed to be a highly irrelevant character in the middle of the series and continues to be up to episode 25. Besides his adventures with innocent Priscilla, he has not contributed anything to the plot. Regardless, the final episode approaches and I may be tempted to watch the RAW, time to scope out a source.