Reviewing Anime With Tinker

Claymore

***Anime information***

Seasons: 1

Episodes: 26

Episode length: 24:00

Genre: Action, Adventure, Super power, Demons, Supernatural, Fantasy, Shounen

Viewers rating: 8/10

Opening: Raison D’être

Ending: Danzai no Hana

Plot:
When a shapeshifting demon with a thirst for human flesh, known as "youma," arrives in Raki's village, a lone woman with silver eyes walks into town with only a sword upon her back. She is a "Claymore," a being manufactured as half-human and half-youma, for the express purpose of exterminating these monsters. After Raki's family is killed, the Claymore saves his life, but he is subsequently banished from his home. With nowhere else to go, Raki finds the Claymore, known as Clare, and decides to follow her on her journeys.

As the pair travel from town to town, defeating youma along the way, more about Clare's organization and her fellow warriors comes to light. With every town cleansed and every demon destroyed, they come closer to the youma on which Clare has sought vengeance ever since she chose to become a Claymore.

***personal input***

Personal rating: 7/10

Opinion: Despite how ugly this series may appear, the reviews I glimpsed over were correct when they said this show was a good one. After taking the time to finish it, I completely agree, this is a fantastic series, and let me explain why. Here's my review of the anime Claymore!

The story of Claymore is a classic tale of revenge, mixed with various other elements and concepts, many of which classify as shounen troupes. The anime is defiantly one of the better shounen series I've viewed in my time. This show is living proof that good shounen exist outside of One piece, Bleach, Dragon Ball, etc.

For the most part the story was very nice. Of course, the chronological events did get slightly jumbled when they inserted a flash back that lasted more than a few episodes. But besides this, and one other event where there was a three month time skip, the pacing of the show was solid, stretched over every episode down to the last minutes, and allowed for a smoothly told story.

The story itself is one that I was pleased with for the most part. Clare's revenge as she mercilessly hunts down Yoma was great plot material, but at times it felt like the series wasn't amounting to anything else. She would go kill weak yoma, find awakened beings and get her ass handed to her until she awoke to a new level and won the battle. It seemed like this was a single element of the show was always on repeat. So, at some point things did get slightly boring or restless.

I was also displeased with how little depth they actually went into when regarding the organization. Outside for the most basic information they made no effort to reveal anything major about them. This didn't change even after one of the characters did a private investigation of them. Hell, they were only shown on screen once the entire show!

Now, outside of the seemingly endless loop that dominated the majority of the show, and the lack of information surrounding the organization, I didn't have many if any other issues with the story. Towards the middle of the series, they took the risk of introducing new elements into the show as a way to keep things interesting. Despite the risk they did so, and it really paid off. The anime really caught me off guard with the sudden romance that it had injected into the story. It takes a lot to surprise me.

And the thing is, it wasn't actually sudden. Through the course of the show, in the smallest of quantities, the romance and love was brewing. However, it was hidden, for only the greatly keen could have predicted what was to come. That is, the show had excellent plot and character development throughout the course of its run time. Now, I can't say all of, or even some of the more important characters received such developments, and that wasn't the best thing for the show. Raki disappears from the middle of the show and doesn't return until the very end.

Being Clare's reason for living aside from her revenge, I believe him to be on the more important side of things, and believe he should have gotten more development. The other characters, however, were amazingly crafted throughout the series and allowed for a more believable cast. Seeing Clare change from a helpless child to debatably the strongest claymore was a sight that not a lot of series offer. Seeing the show introduce other characters that you couldn't help but attach to was another great move.

The story of claymore is a classic story of revenge. Claymore is a fantastic shounen, and while the story can be repetitive at time it takes the time to properly develop people and events. Ultimately creating a really good anime.

Now, the art of this series is something I cannot bring myself to praise. It isn't abstract or simply nice to look at. In terms of the yoma, the art style really helped to bring out their traits and portrayed them as the monsters they were. In that area I praise the art. However, when displaying the other characters, the claymores and the people, this style is, to be frank, gross. The characters weren't drawn in any appealing way whatsoever. Most of them have hairlines so high they look like they're balding. While the animation was quite good, I can't say the art is good. It may be the worst I've ever seen.

Contrast to that, the music was splendid. Both opening and ending did well and sounded great. Adding onto that, the OST tracks that played amplified the battles and made the show more dramatic and intense.

I've already mentioned the characters, but I'll do so again. An excellent cast. Each and everyone was interesting in their own regard. Most were provided with more than enough development, and they felt like real humans. This was a great, diverse and realistic cast and I found myself attached to many of them.

Claymore is a show I recommend to those who don't care about art style enough to turn away from a series. Anyone who likes a good shounen, or a excellent action or fantasy.

Favorite character:

Irene

Favorite part:

***Average***

Plot: 88

Op: 86

Character's: 84

Art style: 70

Enjoyment: 90

Claymore Average: 84 (B level anime)