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Review: Claymore (2001-2014)
I’ve been meaning to reread Claymore for a while, and I finally got around to picking it up again. Though I read it many years ago, I recall having a good impression of the manga, particularly the portrayal of female characters.
I would highly recommend this manga for those who are into dark fantasy, action, or monsters. I would also recommend this to people who like well written female characters! I would warn that this manga is a little violent and does have some gore. I am normally an extremely squeamish person, but I think the fact that I had already read this manga before made the violence and mild body horror easier to digest.
Spoilers ahead!
Story
The story was tight. Near the beginning, a main goal was established, which was for Clare to exact revenge by killing Priscilla. This mission bracketed the story, and allowed the story to stay focused. Though our characters did go on side plots, I felt that they did not meander too much, as all conflicts eventually relayed back to the main conflict of subduing the awakened beings and abyssal ones who were harming the people, as well as taking down the organization.
The manga was well paced. I think the fact that it was a monthly serialized manga played a role. From my observations, mainstream weekly shounen manga do often have poor pacing. One of these reasons is probably because weekly shounen manga are among the most popular and most mainstream. It is in the mangakas’ interests to drag the story out for as long as possible. As well, the weekly schedule would allow them to do that. Since the chapters are shorter, it can be justified that a major event cannot happen each weekly chapter. And the fast turnaround time probably pushes mangakas to work under high stress with less planning. On the flip side, I think it’s reasonable to believe that monthly chapters are more well-planned. The art of Claymore in particular is beautiful. But I also think that the story is well-planned. Though we don’t necessarily have a bombshell dropping every chapter, I think most chapters add something to the overall narrative.
One thing that I really appreciated about this manga was the characters. Most people would be skeptical of a shounen manga featuring mostly female characters, but in my opinion, I don’t think that these characters are particularly male gaze-y. Of course, all of the Claymores are very fit and athletic, and we did see them naked, but it didn’t seem overtly sexual to me, as a woman. And even if they were viewed as sexual, I didn’t mind, because their nakedness and sexuality had nothing to do with their personalities. Throughout the story, we met many Claymores, with distinct appearances, personalities, and motivations. Female characters made up both the heroes and the villains.
I also really appreciated Yagi’s varied use of characters in the story. We had characters from several different factions, and all of them contributed to the story in different ways, whether they had extended screen time (like our group of seven rebels) or short screen time (like Teresa or Jean). All of the characters contributed to the manga in their own ways. For characters like Teresa or Jean, they had short screen times, but their impacts on Clare were important. For characters like Anastasia of Raftela (I’m just using random examples), their screen times were short, but her efforts in battles were recognized. And out of these characters who only popped in briefly, we were still given enough information to care about them. For example, Cassandra’s character seemed like an excuse to have another big bad villain for the final fight in addition to Priscilla, considering she was really only introduced for that fight. But I didn’t mind, because her backstory was adequate and interesting.
My only gripe with the story was probably Raki’s involvement. I didn’t mind the close relationship between Clare and Raki, because it mirrored her own with Teresa, and the memory of Raki constantly grounded Clare. But Raki being a pivotal part in the battle with Priscilla made me pause for a bit, since this was a manga about women warriors. But it’s really just me being sensitive.
This interview with Norihiro Yagi gave me some insight into his writing process. The vibe that I got was that he likes to include only what is necessary. He said that he would create characters, but only keep the ones that “stuck,” the ones that developed a life of their own. He also mentioned that he hadn’t developed the world a lot, because it wasn’t necessarily relevant to our main character, and I really appreciate that. In fact, we didn’t even find out that much about that other land that this war was faring on, because they were not relevant to the continent that our Claymores lived on. These Claymores just wanted to live life peacefully, without being terrorized by monsters. And even though Clare is a hero, she is just one person, and like Yagi said, it doesn’t make sense for the entire world to be fleshed out if Clare isn’t going to do anything about it.
The ending was a very happy ending. The Claymores’ goal is to protect the continent that they live on, and it’s going to be easier to do that now that they’ve eradicated the biggest threat on their land, Priscilla. With how strong the warriors have become, any other awakened beings are probably going to be a cakewalk for them.
Overall, great story! Exciting with great writing and great female characters.
Art
The art in this manga is absolutely beautiful. I felt like Yagi tried to put as much detail in each panel as possible. The landscapes where our warriors fought were never lacking. If they fought in a forest, every tree would be given proper detail to evoke the richness of the greenery. If they fought near a cliff, we would see every jut of the crag.
It was really easy to see the care in detail in the action panels. Of course, it is not easy to show motion in an unmoving manga panel, but I appreciated the efforts by the artists to show us that these warriors were moving in ultra-high speeds, with maximum power. I don’t have the language to describe the art, but in conjunction with the last paragraph, I just wanted to say that there was a lot of detail put into the drawing.
I was really impressed by how Yagi was able to draw so many different recognizable women, being limited by their hair and eye colour and their uniform clothes. A++ on the character design. Helen and Clare both have short hair, but I would never mix them apart in the manga.
And of course, when talking about the art in this manga, I cannot leave out the monster designs! As mentioned, I am a squeamish person, and I normally would not pick up anything that was mildly violent or gorey. I don’t even remember why I picked up Claymore all those years ago. Initially, it did take me a bit of time to get used to the fighting style, but never once did I feel sick, like how I might with gore from horror manga. And with the monster designs, I thought that they were so creative, and beautifully drawn.
Excellent art by Norihiro Yagi and his team!!
Characters
This manga has a lot of characters! I’ve tried to include the ones that I felt were more impactful on the story.
Clare
Clare was our main character. She was stubborn and determined, but not in an annoyingly self-sacrificing way. She would get called out by the rest of her team if she ever tried to do something stupidly martyr-like. I wouldn’t say that her character archetype was particularly new or complex. Revenge was her reason for living, and she was willing to die in getting her revenge on Priscilla. But along the path in becoming stronger, she built new relationships that made her realize that she wanted to live. This is not new. But I still found Clare a very likeable character. Maybe it’s because her teammates all like her so much and vice versa.
What’s interesting is that for a period of time, Clare was trapped in the blob with Priscilla and was out of action in the story, but she is still unmistakably the main character of this manga.
Teresa
The phenomenon of Teresa is incredible in that she has so little screen time and yet she is undoubtedly one of the most popular characters in the fandom. Perhaps part of it is her sheer power, and perhaps part of it is because of Clare’s lionization of Teresa.
I get it though. Teresa was unflappable. She was strong and she knew it. She was confident in her every move. Even when she realized that she was growing soft because of her love for Clare, she accepted it without question, and lived for Clare. She is such a graceful and steady character.
In addition, Teresa and Clare’s relationship was one of our first looks into what kinds of relationships Claymores could have in this bleak world. Teresa was the picture of the perfect Claymore; we thought that people could only reach the top by being cold. But seeing that such a Claymore still had the capacity for loving, and that humans in this cutthroat world still had the capacity for unconditional love like Clare, was very touching in such a bleak setting.
Teresa returned briefly at the end, materializing as Clare’s awakened form, though I think it was explained that she was partially a figment of Clare’s imagination. It makes sense. I think Tersa was Teresa’s flesh being animated by Clare’s imagination. Teresa was so badass!!
Priscilla
Priscilla was perhaps the strongest Claymore/awakened being ever to roam the land. I think Dae had theorized that her power was simply just because her hatred for yoma was so intense. In any case, I don’t think it’s super necessary to think of reasons why Priscilla is so strong. She just is.
Priscilla lost her memories after she became an awakened being, and she had ended up in the companionship of Isley and later Raki. Apparently she had taken a liking to Raki, because she had smelled scents of Teresa on him via Clare, and Priscilla had subconsciously wanted to fight Teresa again.
However, Dae had said that the human side of Priscilla, the one that had feared yoma, had put one safeguard on herself, which was that she would not be able to detect young girls at all, in hopes that she would have mercy on the little girls who would one day become Claymores who could slay her, which was exactly what happened to Clare.
I thought the concept of Priscilla being able to “create” (and not simply regenerate) was so cool. Dae and Rubel had discussed this as they watched Priscilla fight with the awakened being that was Riful and Dauf combined. Priscilla being able to recreate herself out of nothing was basically godhood.
At the very end, the hatred in Priscilla overtook her being and we saw how she grew and grew as an awakened being. Teresa brought her down, with the combination of her energy and the skills that Clare had accumulated. After that, Priscilla faced her past. Her father had turned into a yoma, and she had killed him. However, she was starving in the locked in shed and she had to eat her own father. This was the cause of her own trauma. She acknowledged that she had redirected the pain of her trauma towards Teresa, and at the end, she parted the world on peaceful terms.
Miria
Captain Miria!! Though Clare was our main character, she had traits that did not make her a good leader, and I like that the story acknowledged this. Miria was smart and steady, which made her a good warrior, but she was also sincere and kind, which inspired the loyalty of others.
Before anything, Miria always protected her fellow Claymores, whether they were fighting with her or against her. In the battle against the awakened beings in the north, Miria had concocted a plan for the Claymores to play dead, in hopes that at least some of them would make it out alive. And even when she went to face the Organization on her own, she only struck the Claymores down and did not kill them. Later on, in the various battles that she led with large numbers of Claymores, she would always tell the higher ranking Claymores to protect the lower ranking Claymores. And in the battle in the north, she had divided up the teams so that the lower ranks could gain experience. So she was very kind and considerate.
I did think Miria did one dumb thing by trying to take on the Organization alone. Though she was very strong, she was up against the whole fleet of Claymores that the Organization had with them. I think Miria had done it because she did not want to put the other members of her team in danger. She did not wish for them to fight for her dream. Of course, the team later caught up to her and told her that she had been thinking silly thoughts, because the Claymores had pledged their loyalty to her long ago.
Miria had also inspired loyalty among all of the Claymores that were still with the Organization, which I thought was so touching. She did not kill a single one of them, because she had a soft spot for all of her fellow Claymores. Later on, when the Claymores woke up and started to attack her, none of them were willing to lay the killing blow on her. I think that deep down inside, the Claymores related to Miria more than they cared for the Organization. If Miria was rebelling against them, perhaps she had a legitimate reason for doing so, and I think the Claymores wanted to believe in her.
We saw that Miria’s sincerity, calmness, and conviction won over all of the Claymores in the Organization. She led the Claymores in the final battles against Priscilla and Cassandra. And after they’d been defeated, Miria was responsible for leading the Claymores in eradicating their world of the rest of the yoma.
Deneve
Though Miria was very calm, Deneve was perhaps the most neutral and observant member of the group. When Miria had done a dumb thing and tried to face the Organization on her own, Deneve explained to her why her thoughts were misguided, and when Clare thought she became weak for not being able to lay her life down in fighting Priscilla, Deneve explained to her that she was not wrong for feeling the way she felt. Deneve basically acted like a Vice Captain, because of how insightful she was, and how good she was at counselling the others.
I also thought it was cool that Deneve fought with two blades, taking on one of Undine’s after she had died. I’m not sure how well that works since Deneve was supposed to have a more acrobatic style, but the sentiment is nice and the aesthetics are cool lol.
Helen
Helen was a more mischievous Claymore, liking to joke around and have fun. When she and Clare first met, she was easy to dismiss her for being a weakling, but we saw that over time, she came to respect Clare. She and Deneve were always together, and they were a good balance to one another. Sometimes Helen would say things that were a bit rash, and Deneve would be there to soften the blow. And Helen was also somewhat of a mood maker, which was surprisingly fun and cute for such a solemn group.
Cynthia
Cynthia was one of the Claymores who survived the battle in the north. She was known for having great skills in yoma synchronization, which basically meant that she could help other warriors regenerate their bodies. So essentially, she was the healer of the group. As a person, she was nice and friendly, but also had an undercurrent of being responsible (hence, why Miria stuck Cynthia to Clare when she wanted to venture west).
Tabitha
Tabitha was another of the Claymores who survived the battle in the north. She was very good at sensing youki across vast distances, which was helpful for the group. In addition, she had not released her youki once in the seven years since hiding in the north. Tabitha was a more serious person. She was very upset when she realized that Miria had struck her down so that she could face the Organization alone, but of course, her feelings were out of love and loyalty for her captain. Tabitha died in the battle against Priscilla :( She was supposed to be somewhat of a secret weapon. Since she had not released her youki, the warriors had hoped that she would go relatively undetected by Priscilla during their battle, but no such luck :( As she lay dying, Tabitha warned Miria that she could still sense Priscilla even though the warriors thought they had defeated her.
At the end of the manga, Miria took on Tabitha’s Claymore, as appreciation for her loyalty all these years. RIP Tabitha T_T
Uma
Uma was the last of the seven warriors who had survived the battle in the north. She was probably the weakest of the warriors, but over the seven years of training, she had become so strong that she could rival any of the single digits in the Organization. Uma was somewhat meek, which made sense because she was among such high powered warriors. I think she definitely looked up to Miria and the other warriors in the group. Later in the manga, Uma learned to synchronized youki like Cynthia did, and she was very proud of herself :3
Alicia & Beth
The concept of Alicia & Beth were so cool. They were twins, the Organization’s #1 and #2, but they actually functioned as a single unit. Alicia would awaken, and Beth would protect the human part of her soul so that she would not become a full blown awakened being and become corrupt with the power. However, because they spent so much time training, it was noted that Alicia and Beth did not really have much of a personality. They died in battle against Priscilla.
Galatea
Galatea!! One of my favourite characters. As a Claymore, she was ranked right below Alicia and Beth, and she was known for her terrific youki-sensing abilities. She deserted the Organization and served as a nun in Rabona, blinding herself to avoid attention being drawn to her silver eyes. Even after she was revealed to have been a former Claymore, she did not leave her post as a nun. I think it was because she found that she liked living among the common people, and it helped that the people in Rabona were slowly warming up to Claymores. She was overall a very friendly and nice person, even chatting with Dietrich and preemptively inviting her for a drink after all the fighting was settled.
Even though she never donned the garb of a Claymore ever again, Galatea remained a respected leader. She was one of the leaders at the battle of Rabona, and she was instrumental in helping Clarice to ground Miata as she awakened.
Ophelia
Ophelia was an extremely memorable villain. In fact, she was the one villain that I remembered by name from my first read through because her serpentine awakened form was so memorable. Ophelia was the Organization’s former #4. She was very cruel, toying with people’s emotions for the fun of it. Miria had warned Clare against Ophelia, because Miria had been forced to fight her friend Hilda because Ophelia had refused to pass on Hilda’s black card when she had sensed that she was going to awaken soon.
Ophelia and Clare were supposed to take down an awakened one together, but Ophelia wanted to toy with Raki, which of course was a big no-no with Clare. Ophelia being a danger forced Clare and Raki apart. Ophelia had run into former #2/#3 Irene, and was beaten to the point that she awakened.
In Ophelia’s battle with Clare, Ophelia started remembering some of her memories as a human. Ophelia had an extreme hate for yoma, which makes sense, since she had a traumatic past (many of the Claymores did). But as she turned into an awakened being, Ophelia probably realized that she didn’t want to live anymore. She started to remember things about her childhood, and she started to encourage Clare to kill her. It appears that Priscilla had also killed Ophelia’s family, and basically, Ophelia told Clare that if Clare wanted to be able to beat Priscilla, she had to be able to beat her. In the end, Clare did, and Ophelia died relatively peacefully.
Rafaela
Rafaela was the Organization’s #5, though she was temporarily out of the Organization before that. Before experimenting on awakening Claymores using twins, the Organization had experimented with sisters. Rafaela was responsible for grounding the human conscience of her sister Luciela, but it had not worked. Luciela had awakened, being an abyssal one, and Rafaela lost an eye.
We only saw Rafaela briefly, but she found Luciela, and killed her. Though Rafaela clearly still loved her sister, I think she worried that Luciela would bring about too much destruction to the world. She took advantage of the fact that Luciela would probably let her guard down around Rafaela, and she killed her.
However, in the process of doing so, I think their souls became mixed together, and Riful found Luciela and Rafaela fused as one. They later awakened as this one awakened being that would constantly shoot out projectiles of yoma that was a great big mess, and eventually, Rafaela & Luciela, as one grotesque mass, absorbed Priscilla in order to incapacitate her, and absorbed Clare as well.
Rafaela as a person was pretty solemn and quiet, not unusual for a Claymore having gone through lots of difficulties in life. But I think she was almost entirely unconcerned with power. She probably cared not for the objectives of the Organization, and the relationships among the Claymores. All she cared about was taking Luciela down.
Jean
Jean was the Organization’s #9. Riful had forced her to awaken. While she was still conscious, she pleaded for Clare to kill her. However, Galatea had stopped Clare from awakening earlier, and Clare tried to do the same with Jean, and was successful. Thus, Jean considered Clare her saviour, and she followed her around. Jean was a very earnest and honourable person, it was pretty cute lol.
In the end, Jean returned the favour to Clare by bringing her back when she had awakened in her fight against Rigaldo. Jean died via Clare’s blades that she could not control in her awakened state.
Irene
Irene was a former #3 of the Organization, having been demoted because Priscilla had risen to #2. Other than Clare, she was the closest person to have observed the fight between Teresa and Priscilla. Irene was touched by Teresa having found happiness with Clare, and so she had done much to help Clare, going so far as to give Clare her arm so that she could use her quicksword technique. Clare did rely on quicksword often at the beginning, when she had limited offensive skills, but of course, she later caught up with her other skills as well. And in the end, Clare and Raki returned to see Irene :3
Miata
Miata was the Organization’s current #4. She was a child who had limited social skills, but very strong instinct and an almost beastlike fighting style. It seemed that all Miata ever wanted was care and attention, which Clarice gave to her. With Clarice’s care, we saw that Miata started to come out of her shell a bit. Over time, she was speaking more, and was less shy.
At the battle of Rabona, Miata and Clarice synched their youki, so that Clarice could protect Miata’s subconscious while Miata awakened. The task was very taxing on Clarice, and she died after giving a “charm” to Miata. It was theorized that the charm was for Miata to forget Clarice, so that she wouldn’t have to remember Clarice leaving her.
After Clarice disappeared, Miata regained her memories of her parents, but she found herself crying even though she knew her parents had died a long time ago. So I think there is a part of Miata that does remember Clarice and is grieving for her.
At the end of the manga, Miata stayed in Rabona, where she was seen at the church interacting with the other kids.
Clarice
Clarice was the #47 of the current generation of Claymores. Her hair hadn’t even changed colour, which was very strange and it gave off the impression that she didn’t have much youki. Clarice was sent to look after Miata. After having seen Miata in action, Clarice did feel troubled, because she felt that Miata was a monster, especially with how she moved.
But I think that over time, Clarice saw that underneath Miata’s exterior was a sweet girl who’d been traumatized. Clarice did care for Miata a whole lot.
I also think that Clarice did have some hangups about being a weak Claymore, and she felt that supporting Miata was one of the most valuable and rewarding things she could do, which was why she gave it her all in grounding Miata as she fought Europa.
Clarice died with no regrets, only hoping for Miata to live peacefully.
Anastasia
Anastasia was one of the current warriors who eventually helped our group of rebels. She liked to thread her hairs all over the battlefield to give herself a foothold. This eventually became a strategy used by all the warriors in the battles that she participated in.
Dietrich
Dietrich was so extremely lawful neutral. She was initially very loyal to the Organization, because she believed that the Organization had saved her life. Thus, even though Deneve and Helen had rescued her, she had some reservations about helping them back. That was sort of a front though, because she later claimed that she had to repay Deneve and Helen twofold for saving her XD She was just looking for a reason to help them without looking like she had feelings. Even later on, Dietrich’s comrades (I forgot if it was Anastasia or Audrey) had to tell her that what she felt for Deneve and Helen was “friendship,” and that it was okay to just help them because she liked them.
Dietrich joined the other Organization Claymores in fighting at the Battle of Rabona. Galatea had asked her to join her for a drink after the battle had concluded, and we did indeed see Galatea drinking her under the table XD
Raftela
Raftela T_T She was the Organization’s #10. It was explained that #10 was always the anti-warrior warrior, regardless of her true power. When we first met Raftela, she was helping the Organization fight Miria. It was due to Raftela that Miria started seeing hallucinations of Hilda, and was struck down and nearly slaughtered.
The Organization attempted to kill Raftela after she showed sympathy to the rebel Claymores. However, she did not die completely. When the Claymores allied with Miria and turned on the Organization, she used the last of her strength to help them. Raftela explained to Raki that she had always trained alone, and she was envious of the other Claymores for being able to work together in camaraderie. So with her last breath, she wanted to feel like she was part of something bigger. At that point, the child trainees who were with Raki helped Raftela, presumably with healing her wounds T_T It was very cute T_T
Raftela was seen in the battle of Rabona.
Riful
Riful was one of the abyssal ones. She had the appearance of a young girl, which made sense because she was the youngest Claymore ever to become #1. Her personality was a bit more childish and peppy, but she did have her priorities in order.
Riful was considered a villain because she was constantly capturing Claymores and forcing them to awaken. This was because she had sensed that there would be a war among the abyssal ones, and she was building up her army.
Riful had an interesting relationship with her sidekick Dauf. In a flashback, we saw that Dauf was a former #3, back when Isley was still #1 and Riful was not yet #1. In the current day, Riful was very dismissive to Dauf, often chastising him. But in desperate times, we saw that they cared for each other quite a bit, protecting each other with what last breath they had.
Riful was killed by Priscilla, and was later briefly resurrected as an awakened being that was fused with Dauf. I think that being was developed by absorbing all of the matter and energy around them. We first saw this being as just a pair of legs that was slowly browning into the ribbons of Riful’s awakened form. And when this resurrected Riful was fighting with Priscilla, Dae and Rubel commented that this form got its energy by absorbing that of others. This resurrected form was also killed by Priscilla though.
Dauf
Dauf was Riful’s sidekick. However much Riful berated him, however, he was still extremely powerful on his own. After all, he was a former #3 Claymore, back when there were still male Claymores. He was somewhat slow, but still very powerful, and very loyal to Riful.
We saw that he went mad when Priscilla had nearly killed Riful, and he had purposefully let himself get hit by the projectiles from the awakened being that was Luciela and Rafaela, in hopes that he would become powerful enough to face Priscilla. We saw that that didn’t work.
As mentioned, Dauf was later fused with a resurrected Riful, but they were taken down by Priscilla.
Isley
Isley was the organization’s first ever #1, a man. He was a relatively calm guy, even back then when he was a Claymore. When we met him, he was with Priscilla. My interpretation on their relationship was that he had wanted to keep an eye on Priscilla, because he knew that she would surpass all of the abyssal ones in power. We saw that at one point in their relationship, Isley had even found himself yielding and submitting to Priscilla, recognizing that the world was doomed because she could no longer be stopped.
Isley also picked up Raki along the way, probably because Priscilla would not let go of him. Anyway, Isley taught Raki to fight yoma, something humans generally aren’t able to do. He taught Raki to take advantage of the fact that Raki would be ignored by Priscilla because of that difference in power.
Isley parted ways with Raki and Priscilla when he sensed that the Organization was after him. The Organization had sent their abyssal feeders on him. He commented that facing the abyssal feeders was just waves after waves and that it wore him down, and he died by their hand.
Let me also just say that Isley’s awakened form looked super cool. He basically looked like a horseback archer.
Rigaldo
Rigaldo, known as “the lion,” was Isley’s second-in-command. He was formerly the #2 Claymore of the Organization, and he was salty that Isley was placed #1 without them having fought. After they did fight, Rigaldo pledged his loyalty to Isley.
Rigaldo was killed in the battle in the north. Clare was forced to awaken in order to defeat him.
Luciela
Luciela was Rafaela’s sister, the former #1 and one of the abyssal ones. She and Rafaela worked as a pair, in which Luciela would awaken and Rafaela would hold onto her consciousness so that she would not go corrupt. However, Luciela eventually awakened, turning into an abyssal one, and Rafaela lost her eye.
She had challenged Isley in order to take over his land but had lost. When she had retreated, she bumped into Rafaela. Of course, their reunion was emotional, as they still loved each other very much. However, Rafaela took the opportunity to kill Luciela.
Luciela gave me the impression that perhaps she was a bit childish or unaware, or she’d just been awakened for so long that she forgot what humans were like. When Rafaela was killing her, she tried to get Rafaela to stop, promising her political power. It seemed not to have occurred to her that Rafaela was killing her for other reasons, likely so that she would not wreak more havoc upon the world. Nonetheless, she was loved by Rafaela very much.
As mentioned, Luciela and Rafaela were fused into one being that Riful tried to awaken, then they wrought havoc on the world lol.
Cassandra
Cassandra was a former #1 whose corpse was kept by Dae for experimentation purposes. She was resurrected for the final battle. I loved that Yagi gave us just enough backstory for the three #1s that Dae resurrected. Cassandra bore a grudge against Roxanne (who usurped her), because Roxanne had forced her to kill her one true friend. Though not exactly a new concept, that context made their fight so much more awesome. Though Cassandra was a loner, I thought it was interesting that one of her defining traits was her pride. The Claymores repeatedly used Cassandra’s pride against her to lure her.
Cassandra was known as “the Dust Eater” because her technique involved her swooping in low on her enemies. This technique was extremely memorable, and it was one of the few that I remembered from my first read through. I also thought it was awesome that Cassandra’s awakened form reflected this position. Cassandra’s awakened form included a body with no head and arms lying down, mirroring how Cassandra would always be bending at the knees and getting low, and had a lot of tentacles with heads that would hold the body up, very much like dust eaters. I just thought it was such an interesting monster design.
I thought the fact that Cassandra just yielded to Teresa in the end was a little bullshit, but I’ll let it go because the Cassandra vs. Roxanne fight was so much fun lol.
Roxanne
Roxanne was called “Roxanne of love-and-hate.” My guess as to why this was her name was because she would get close to warriors, steal their techniques, and then kill them off. Roxanne was such a good villain in that she made you hate her, but in the good way. She was so fun to hate, but without the actual rage. She was so evil (affectionate).
Like Cassandra, Roxanne was only introduced briefly for the last battle, but we got enough information on her so that her battle with Cassandra would mean something. In the end, Cassandra defeated Roxanne.
Hysteria
Hysteria “the Elegant” was the last of the former #1s that was resurrected and awakened for the final battle. As a Claymore, when Hysteria was about to awaken, she refused to send a black card, so the Organization had to send Claymores after her, many of whom Hysteria slaughtered. It was Teresa and Rosemary who eventually took her down. Hysteria’s battle with Miria and the Claymores was interesting and fun to watch. She seemed scarier than Cassandra and Roxanne particularly because she was up against the Claymores. Hysteria was killed after being lured into the battle between Cassandra and Roxanne by Miria. She seemed to show some sorrow at her death at being forced to kill so many of her comrades.
Octavia
Octavia, known as “the Wild Horse,” was a former #2, an awakened being. She came into the story at the end. Like many other awakened beings, she had gathered at Rabona to see how the battle with Priscilla would play out. She and the other awakened beings eventually joined when Priscilla and Cassanra proved to be bigger problems. Unfortunately, Octavia was eaten by Priscilla.
Europa
Europa “the Idle” was another of the awakened beings that had come to gather. She was apparently good at playing dead and being lazy, but if she put her mind to it, her power would have rivalled that of an abyssal one. She was supposed to awaken to defeat Cassandra, but instead, she had gotten hungry and headed towards Rabona to eat fresh meat. There, she engaged in battle against Galatea and the Claymores, and was ultimately defeated by Miata.
Chronos
Chronos was a former #4 of the Organization, back when male Claymores were still in use. He seemed like a pretty wise guy. He’d gathered at Rabona to observe Priscilla, and had engaged in battle when Cassandra proved to be a problem as well. Chronos was eaten by Priscilla along with Octavia. They did try to fight back against Priscilla, but were destroyed by her.
Lars
Lars was another former male Claymore who seemed to have a close relationship with Chronos. They had travelled to Rabona together, and after Lars was killed in battle, Chronos said he wanted to get revenge for him.
Raki
Raki was a human boy who had followed Clare around after she had saved him from yoma. He was an orphan, so he had nowhere to be. It was clear that Clare let him follow her around, because she had once done the same to Teresa. Raki had taken a huge liking to Clare. He felt that she was kind, because she was nice to him personally, and also because she was giving her life to kill this yoma for the humans who despised her.
Raki and Clare were forced apart after being chased by Ophelia. Raki and Clare did share a kiss at the parting, but is it weird that I didn’t see the kiss as romantic? I’m not saying that it couldn’t have been romantic, but it could have been platonic too, an expression of love from Clare because she didn’t know what else to tell Raki how much she would miss him.
Raki kind of wandered around until he bumped into Isley and Priscilla. Priscilla had taken a liking to Raki because she was subconsciously attracted to the scent of Teresa which clung to him. Raki had asked Isley to train him, which Isley agreed to.
After Raki grew up, we saw that he was able to slay yoma, with the help of Priscilla pointing out the yoma to him. They had parted ways with Isley after Isley had sensed the abyssal feeders on his trail. Priscilla left him after she was attracted by the youki of Rafaela & Luciela.
Raki was then locked in a cell, but he was let out by some of the Claymore trainees in the ruckus. He’d helped the kids find safety, and after finding Deneve and Helen, he joined them to help Clare. Raki helped pull Clare out of the lump of flesh that included Rafaela, Luciela, and Priscilla, and they had a lovely reunion :’)
Raki sparred with Priscilla in her human form for a while, but of course she brushed him off very easily. But it was after he was injured that he took advantage of her ignoring him and stabbed her to distract her.
After Priscilla was defeated, Raki and Clare went to go see Irene :3
Galk & Sid
Galk and Sid were two soldiers living in Rabona. We had first met them when Clare was assigned to find a yoma in Rabona. Like other humans of Rabona, they were a bit wary of Claymores, but when Clare gave her life to help them, they saw that she was good people.
Galk and Sid came back in the story when Clarie and Miata went to Rabona. Seeing that she was a Claymore that had to hide her status, they helped her. And of course, they were seen in Rabona during the great battle. Cool dudes.
Rubel
Rubel was part of the Organization, and was Clare’s liaison when she was still a Claymore. He always wore sunglasses and a hat. However, it was revealed that he was a spy from the other side of the war to the Organization. As a result, he leaked information to both Miria and Clare, Cynthia, and Uma, hoping that it would motivate them to take down the Organization.
After Priscilla was defeated, Rubel left the continent, but the twin trainees, on behalf of Miria, told him that he was never to come to their continent again.
Dae
Dae was the mad scientist of the Organization. He did not have skin on half of his face, which gave him a very Two-Face (from Batman) sort of appearance. I’m not sure how much of the experimentation at the Organization was his own personal work, but it was clear that he at least found all of this fun, and intellectual pursuit. He always had theories about the Claymores and the yoma.
Dae was killed by Priscilla. He actually found it to be an honour to have been killed and eaten by her, saying that it was almost like sex. Yes, weird, even Priscilla thought so. But awakening was compared to sexual climax before. Perhaps it was Dae who made that comparison first, and it was he who likened submission to power as something akin to sex. Like I said, mad scientist.
Rimuto
Rimuto was the head of the Organization. When Miria tried to take on the Organization, she found him in the basement, with a being that was twice as tall as a human, with a dragon-like monster, both chained up. Those were the beings that the humans were up against on another continent. I think yoma was the result of these beings’ flesh being implanted into humans.
In any case, Miria did not care to know about Rimuto’s theories on why they needed to do this to win the war, and she killed him.
Themes
Corruption and Power
What is corruption? Becoming an awakened being is basically the corruption of power, but many of the awakened beings are of lucid mind. So what is corruption? Is it simply having different priorities? We saw that among the abyssal ones, they worried about things that were a lot different from what a typical human would worry about.
The definition of power in this manga was very clear, the freedom to operate independently of the Organization. The abyssal ones and awakened beings could not be controlled by the Organization.
Becoming a monster
The struggles of Claymores were that they were killing monsters in the process of becoming the monster themselves. It was a contradiction, but one that broke many of them. Many of these Claymores had so much past trauma relating to yoma. Becoming yoma was definitely not a healthy way of dealing with that trauma.
Overall
This was such a great manga. Though Yagi Norihiro wrote and drew it over the course of 13 years, it still felt like a tight story, and not one that would drag on like many other serialized manga. The character designs and writing were EXCELLENT. This manga remains a favourite.
I would highly recommend this manga for those who are into dark fantasy, action, or monsters. I would also recommend this to people who like well written female characters! I would warn that this manga is a little violent and does have some gore. I am normally an extremely squeamish person, but I think the fact that I had already read this manga before made the violence and mild body horror easier to digest.
Spoilers ahead!
Story
The story was tight. Near the beginning, a main goal was established, which was for Clare to exact revenge by killing Priscilla. This mission bracketed the story, and allowed the story to stay focused. Though our characters did go on side plots, I felt that they did not meander too much, as all conflicts eventually relayed back to the main conflict of subduing the awakened beings and abyssal ones who were harming the people, as well as taking down the organization.
The manga was well paced. I think the fact that it was a monthly serialized manga played a role. From my observations, mainstream weekly shounen manga do often have poor pacing. One of these reasons is probably because weekly shounen manga are among the most popular and most mainstream. It is in the mangakas’ interests to drag the story out for as long as possible. As well, the weekly schedule would allow them to do that. Since the chapters are shorter, it can be justified that a major event cannot happen each weekly chapter. And the fast turnaround time probably pushes mangakas to work under high stress with less planning. On the flip side, I think it’s reasonable to believe that monthly chapters are more well-planned. The art of Claymore in particular is beautiful. But I also think that the story is well-planned. Though we don’t necessarily have a bombshell dropping every chapter, I think most chapters add something to the overall narrative.
One thing that I really appreciated about this manga was the characters. Most people would be skeptical of a shounen manga featuring mostly female characters, but in my opinion, I don’t think that these characters are particularly male gaze-y. Of course, all of the Claymores are very fit and athletic, and we did see them naked, but it didn’t seem overtly sexual to me, as a woman. And even if they were viewed as sexual, I didn’t mind, because their nakedness and sexuality had nothing to do with their personalities. Throughout the story, we met many Claymores, with distinct appearances, personalities, and motivations. Female characters made up both the heroes and the villains.
I also really appreciated Yagi’s varied use of characters in the story. We had characters from several different factions, and all of them contributed to the story in different ways, whether they had extended screen time (like our group of seven rebels) or short screen time (like Teresa or Jean). All of the characters contributed to the manga in their own ways. For characters like Teresa or Jean, they had short screen times, but their impacts on Clare were important. For characters like Anastasia of Raftela (I’m just using random examples), their screen times were short, but her efforts in battles were recognized. And out of these characters who only popped in briefly, we were still given enough information to care about them. For example, Cassandra’s character seemed like an excuse to have another big bad villain for the final fight in addition to Priscilla, considering she was really only introduced for that fight. But I didn’t mind, because her backstory was adequate and interesting.
My only gripe with the story was probably Raki’s involvement. I didn’t mind the close relationship between Clare and Raki, because it mirrored her own with Teresa, and the memory of Raki constantly grounded Clare. But Raki being a pivotal part in the battle with Priscilla made me pause for a bit, since this was a manga about women warriors. But it’s really just me being sensitive.
This interview with Norihiro Yagi gave me some insight into his writing process. The vibe that I got was that he likes to include only what is necessary. He said that he would create characters, but only keep the ones that “stuck,” the ones that developed a life of their own. He also mentioned that he hadn’t developed the world a lot, because it wasn’t necessarily relevant to our main character, and I really appreciate that. In fact, we didn’t even find out that much about that other land that this war was faring on, because they were not relevant to the continent that our Claymores lived on. These Claymores just wanted to live life peacefully, without being terrorized by monsters. And even though Clare is a hero, she is just one person, and like Yagi said, it doesn’t make sense for the entire world to be fleshed out if Clare isn’t going to do anything about it.
The ending was a very happy ending. The Claymores’ goal is to protect the continent that they live on, and it’s going to be easier to do that now that they’ve eradicated the biggest threat on their land, Priscilla. With how strong the warriors have become, any other awakened beings are probably going to be a cakewalk for them.
Overall, great story! Exciting with great writing and great female characters.
Art
The art in this manga is absolutely beautiful. I felt like Yagi tried to put as much detail in each panel as possible. The landscapes where our warriors fought were never lacking. If they fought in a forest, every tree would be given proper detail to evoke the richness of the greenery. If they fought near a cliff, we would see every jut of the crag.
It was really easy to see the care in detail in the action panels. Of course, it is not easy to show motion in an unmoving manga panel, but I appreciated the efforts by the artists to show us that these warriors were moving in ultra-high speeds, with maximum power. I don’t have the language to describe the art, but in conjunction with the last paragraph, I just wanted to say that there was a lot of detail put into the drawing.
I was really impressed by how Yagi was able to draw so many different recognizable women, being limited by their hair and eye colour and their uniform clothes. A++ on the character design. Helen and Clare both have short hair, but I would never mix them apart in the manga.
And of course, when talking about the art in this manga, I cannot leave out the monster designs! As mentioned, I am a squeamish person, and I normally would not pick up anything that was mildly violent or gorey. I don’t even remember why I picked up Claymore all those years ago. Initially, it did take me a bit of time to get used to the fighting style, but never once did I feel sick, like how I might with gore from horror manga. And with the monster designs, I thought that they were so creative, and beautifully drawn.
Excellent art by Norihiro Yagi and his team!!
Characters
This manga has a lot of characters! I’ve tried to include the ones that I felt were more impactful on the story.
Clare
Clare was our main character. She was stubborn and determined, but not in an annoyingly self-sacrificing way. She would get called out by the rest of her team if she ever tried to do something stupidly martyr-like. I wouldn’t say that her character archetype was particularly new or complex. Revenge was her reason for living, and she was willing to die in getting her revenge on Priscilla. But along the path in becoming stronger, she built new relationships that made her realize that she wanted to live. This is not new. But I still found Clare a very likeable character. Maybe it’s because her teammates all like her so much and vice versa.
What’s interesting is that for a period of time, Clare was trapped in the blob with Priscilla and was out of action in the story, but she is still unmistakably the main character of this manga.
Teresa
The phenomenon of Teresa is incredible in that she has so little screen time and yet she is undoubtedly one of the most popular characters in the fandom. Perhaps part of it is her sheer power, and perhaps part of it is because of Clare’s lionization of Teresa.
I get it though. Teresa was unflappable. She was strong and she knew it. She was confident in her every move. Even when she realized that she was growing soft because of her love for Clare, she accepted it without question, and lived for Clare. She is such a graceful and steady character.
In addition, Teresa and Clare’s relationship was one of our first looks into what kinds of relationships Claymores could have in this bleak world. Teresa was the picture of the perfect Claymore; we thought that people could only reach the top by being cold. But seeing that such a Claymore still had the capacity for loving, and that humans in this cutthroat world still had the capacity for unconditional love like Clare, was very touching in such a bleak setting.
Teresa returned briefly at the end, materializing as Clare’s awakened form, though I think it was explained that she was partially a figment of Clare’s imagination. It makes sense. I think Tersa was Teresa’s flesh being animated by Clare’s imagination. Teresa was so badass!!
Priscilla
Priscilla was perhaps the strongest Claymore/awakened being ever to roam the land. I think Dae had theorized that her power was simply just because her hatred for yoma was so intense. In any case, I don’t think it’s super necessary to think of reasons why Priscilla is so strong. She just is.
Priscilla lost her memories after she became an awakened being, and she had ended up in the companionship of Isley and later Raki. Apparently she had taken a liking to Raki, because she had smelled scents of Teresa on him via Clare, and Priscilla had subconsciously wanted to fight Teresa again.
However, Dae had said that the human side of Priscilla, the one that had feared yoma, had put one safeguard on herself, which was that she would not be able to detect young girls at all, in hopes that she would have mercy on the little girls who would one day become Claymores who could slay her, which was exactly what happened to Clare.
I thought the concept of Priscilla being able to “create” (and not simply regenerate) was so cool. Dae and Rubel had discussed this as they watched Priscilla fight with the awakened being that was Riful and Dauf combined. Priscilla being able to recreate herself out of nothing was basically godhood.
At the very end, the hatred in Priscilla overtook her being and we saw how she grew and grew as an awakened being. Teresa brought her down, with the combination of her energy and the skills that Clare had accumulated. After that, Priscilla faced her past. Her father had turned into a yoma, and she had killed him. However, she was starving in the locked in shed and she had to eat her own father. This was the cause of her own trauma. She acknowledged that she had redirected the pain of her trauma towards Teresa, and at the end, she parted the world on peaceful terms.
Miria
Captain Miria!! Though Clare was our main character, she had traits that did not make her a good leader, and I like that the story acknowledged this. Miria was smart and steady, which made her a good warrior, but she was also sincere and kind, which inspired the loyalty of others.
Before anything, Miria always protected her fellow Claymores, whether they were fighting with her or against her. In the battle against the awakened beings in the north, Miria had concocted a plan for the Claymores to play dead, in hopes that at least some of them would make it out alive. And even when she went to face the Organization on her own, she only struck the Claymores down and did not kill them. Later on, in the various battles that she led with large numbers of Claymores, she would always tell the higher ranking Claymores to protect the lower ranking Claymores. And in the battle in the north, she had divided up the teams so that the lower ranks could gain experience. So she was very kind and considerate.
I did think Miria did one dumb thing by trying to take on the Organization alone. Though she was very strong, she was up against the whole fleet of Claymores that the Organization had with them. I think Miria had done it because she did not want to put the other members of her team in danger. She did not wish for them to fight for her dream. Of course, the team later caught up to her and told her that she had been thinking silly thoughts, because the Claymores had pledged their loyalty to her long ago.
Miria had also inspired loyalty among all of the Claymores that were still with the Organization, which I thought was so touching. She did not kill a single one of them, because she had a soft spot for all of her fellow Claymores. Later on, when the Claymores woke up and started to attack her, none of them were willing to lay the killing blow on her. I think that deep down inside, the Claymores related to Miria more than they cared for the Organization. If Miria was rebelling against them, perhaps she had a legitimate reason for doing so, and I think the Claymores wanted to believe in her.
We saw that Miria’s sincerity, calmness, and conviction won over all of the Claymores in the Organization. She led the Claymores in the final battles against Priscilla and Cassandra. And after they’d been defeated, Miria was responsible for leading the Claymores in eradicating their world of the rest of the yoma.
Deneve
Though Miria was very calm, Deneve was perhaps the most neutral and observant member of the group. When Miria had done a dumb thing and tried to face the Organization on her own, Deneve explained to her why her thoughts were misguided, and when Clare thought she became weak for not being able to lay her life down in fighting Priscilla, Deneve explained to her that she was not wrong for feeling the way she felt. Deneve basically acted like a Vice Captain, because of how insightful she was, and how good she was at counselling the others.
I also thought it was cool that Deneve fought with two blades, taking on one of Undine’s after she had died. I’m not sure how well that works since Deneve was supposed to have a more acrobatic style, but the sentiment is nice and the aesthetics are cool lol.
Helen
Helen was a more mischievous Claymore, liking to joke around and have fun. When she and Clare first met, she was easy to dismiss her for being a weakling, but we saw that over time, she came to respect Clare. She and Deneve were always together, and they were a good balance to one another. Sometimes Helen would say things that were a bit rash, and Deneve would be there to soften the blow. And Helen was also somewhat of a mood maker, which was surprisingly fun and cute for such a solemn group.
Cynthia
Cynthia was one of the Claymores who survived the battle in the north. She was known for having great skills in yoma synchronization, which basically meant that she could help other warriors regenerate their bodies. So essentially, she was the healer of the group. As a person, she was nice and friendly, but also had an undercurrent of being responsible (hence, why Miria stuck Cynthia to Clare when she wanted to venture west).
Tabitha
Tabitha was another of the Claymores who survived the battle in the north. She was very good at sensing youki across vast distances, which was helpful for the group. In addition, she had not released her youki once in the seven years since hiding in the north. Tabitha was a more serious person. She was very upset when she realized that Miria had struck her down so that she could face the Organization alone, but of course, her feelings were out of love and loyalty for her captain. Tabitha died in the battle against Priscilla :( She was supposed to be somewhat of a secret weapon. Since she had not released her youki, the warriors had hoped that she would go relatively undetected by Priscilla during their battle, but no such luck :( As she lay dying, Tabitha warned Miria that she could still sense Priscilla even though the warriors thought they had defeated her.
At the end of the manga, Miria took on Tabitha’s Claymore, as appreciation for her loyalty all these years. RIP Tabitha T_T
Uma
Uma was the last of the seven warriors who had survived the battle in the north. She was probably the weakest of the warriors, but over the seven years of training, she had become so strong that she could rival any of the single digits in the Organization. Uma was somewhat meek, which made sense because she was among such high powered warriors. I think she definitely looked up to Miria and the other warriors in the group. Later in the manga, Uma learned to synchronized youki like Cynthia did, and she was very proud of herself :3
Alicia & Beth
The concept of Alicia & Beth were so cool. They were twins, the Organization’s #1 and #2, but they actually functioned as a single unit. Alicia would awaken, and Beth would protect the human part of her soul so that she would not become a full blown awakened being and become corrupt with the power. However, because they spent so much time training, it was noted that Alicia and Beth did not really have much of a personality. They died in battle against Priscilla.
Galatea
Galatea!! One of my favourite characters. As a Claymore, she was ranked right below Alicia and Beth, and she was known for her terrific youki-sensing abilities. She deserted the Organization and served as a nun in Rabona, blinding herself to avoid attention being drawn to her silver eyes. Even after she was revealed to have been a former Claymore, she did not leave her post as a nun. I think it was because she found that she liked living among the common people, and it helped that the people in Rabona were slowly warming up to Claymores. She was overall a very friendly and nice person, even chatting with Dietrich and preemptively inviting her for a drink after all the fighting was settled.
Even though she never donned the garb of a Claymore ever again, Galatea remained a respected leader. She was one of the leaders at the battle of Rabona, and she was instrumental in helping Clarice to ground Miata as she awakened.
Ophelia
Ophelia was an extremely memorable villain. In fact, she was the one villain that I remembered by name from my first read through because her serpentine awakened form was so memorable. Ophelia was the Organization’s former #4. She was very cruel, toying with people’s emotions for the fun of it. Miria had warned Clare against Ophelia, because Miria had been forced to fight her friend Hilda because Ophelia had refused to pass on Hilda’s black card when she had sensed that she was going to awaken soon.
Ophelia and Clare were supposed to take down an awakened one together, but Ophelia wanted to toy with Raki, which of course was a big no-no with Clare. Ophelia being a danger forced Clare and Raki apart. Ophelia had run into former #2/#3 Irene, and was beaten to the point that she awakened.
In Ophelia’s battle with Clare, Ophelia started remembering some of her memories as a human. Ophelia had an extreme hate for yoma, which makes sense, since she had a traumatic past (many of the Claymores did). But as she turned into an awakened being, Ophelia probably realized that she didn’t want to live anymore. She started to remember things about her childhood, and she started to encourage Clare to kill her. It appears that Priscilla had also killed Ophelia’s family, and basically, Ophelia told Clare that if Clare wanted to be able to beat Priscilla, she had to be able to beat her. In the end, Clare did, and Ophelia died relatively peacefully.
Rafaela
Rafaela was the Organization’s #5, though she was temporarily out of the Organization before that. Before experimenting on awakening Claymores using twins, the Organization had experimented with sisters. Rafaela was responsible for grounding the human conscience of her sister Luciela, but it had not worked. Luciela had awakened, being an abyssal one, and Rafaela lost an eye.
We only saw Rafaela briefly, but she found Luciela, and killed her. Though Rafaela clearly still loved her sister, I think she worried that Luciela would bring about too much destruction to the world. She took advantage of the fact that Luciela would probably let her guard down around Rafaela, and she killed her.
However, in the process of doing so, I think their souls became mixed together, and Riful found Luciela and Rafaela fused as one. They later awakened as this one awakened being that would constantly shoot out projectiles of yoma that was a great big mess, and eventually, Rafaela & Luciela, as one grotesque mass, absorbed Priscilla in order to incapacitate her, and absorbed Clare as well.
Rafaela as a person was pretty solemn and quiet, not unusual for a Claymore having gone through lots of difficulties in life. But I think she was almost entirely unconcerned with power. She probably cared not for the objectives of the Organization, and the relationships among the Claymores. All she cared about was taking Luciela down.
Jean
Jean was the Organization’s #9. Riful had forced her to awaken. While she was still conscious, she pleaded for Clare to kill her. However, Galatea had stopped Clare from awakening earlier, and Clare tried to do the same with Jean, and was successful. Thus, Jean considered Clare her saviour, and she followed her around. Jean was a very earnest and honourable person, it was pretty cute lol.
In the end, Jean returned the favour to Clare by bringing her back when she had awakened in her fight against Rigaldo. Jean died via Clare’s blades that she could not control in her awakened state.
Irene
Irene was a former #3 of the Organization, having been demoted because Priscilla had risen to #2. Other than Clare, she was the closest person to have observed the fight between Teresa and Priscilla. Irene was touched by Teresa having found happiness with Clare, and so she had done much to help Clare, going so far as to give Clare her arm so that she could use her quicksword technique. Clare did rely on quicksword often at the beginning, when she had limited offensive skills, but of course, she later caught up with her other skills as well. And in the end, Clare and Raki returned to see Irene :3
Miata
Miata was the Organization’s current #4. She was a child who had limited social skills, but very strong instinct and an almost beastlike fighting style. It seemed that all Miata ever wanted was care and attention, which Clarice gave to her. With Clarice’s care, we saw that Miata started to come out of her shell a bit. Over time, she was speaking more, and was less shy.
At the battle of Rabona, Miata and Clarice synched their youki, so that Clarice could protect Miata’s subconscious while Miata awakened. The task was very taxing on Clarice, and she died after giving a “charm” to Miata. It was theorized that the charm was for Miata to forget Clarice, so that she wouldn’t have to remember Clarice leaving her.
After Clarice disappeared, Miata regained her memories of her parents, but she found herself crying even though she knew her parents had died a long time ago. So I think there is a part of Miata that does remember Clarice and is grieving for her.
At the end of the manga, Miata stayed in Rabona, where she was seen at the church interacting with the other kids.
Clarice
Clarice was the #47 of the current generation of Claymores. Her hair hadn’t even changed colour, which was very strange and it gave off the impression that she didn’t have much youki. Clarice was sent to look after Miata. After having seen Miata in action, Clarice did feel troubled, because she felt that Miata was a monster, especially with how she moved.
But I think that over time, Clarice saw that underneath Miata’s exterior was a sweet girl who’d been traumatized. Clarice did care for Miata a whole lot.
I also think that Clarice did have some hangups about being a weak Claymore, and she felt that supporting Miata was one of the most valuable and rewarding things she could do, which was why she gave it her all in grounding Miata as she fought Europa.
Clarice died with no regrets, only hoping for Miata to live peacefully.
Anastasia
Anastasia was one of the current warriors who eventually helped our group of rebels. She liked to thread her hairs all over the battlefield to give herself a foothold. This eventually became a strategy used by all the warriors in the battles that she participated in.
Dietrich
Dietrich was so extremely lawful neutral. She was initially very loyal to the Organization, because she believed that the Organization had saved her life. Thus, even though Deneve and Helen had rescued her, she had some reservations about helping them back. That was sort of a front though, because she later claimed that she had to repay Deneve and Helen twofold for saving her XD She was just looking for a reason to help them without looking like she had feelings. Even later on, Dietrich’s comrades (I forgot if it was Anastasia or Audrey) had to tell her that what she felt for Deneve and Helen was “friendship,” and that it was okay to just help them because she liked them.
Dietrich joined the other Organization Claymores in fighting at the Battle of Rabona. Galatea had asked her to join her for a drink after the battle had concluded, and we did indeed see Galatea drinking her under the table XD
Raftela
Raftela T_T She was the Organization’s #10. It was explained that #10 was always the anti-warrior warrior, regardless of her true power. When we first met Raftela, she was helping the Organization fight Miria. It was due to Raftela that Miria started seeing hallucinations of Hilda, and was struck down and nearly slaughtered.
The Organization attempted to kill Raftela after she showed sympathy to the rebel Claymores. However, she did not die completely. When the Claymores allied with Miria and turned on the Organization, she used the last of her strength to help them. Raftela explained to Raki that she had always trained alone, and she was envious of the other Claymores for being able to work together in camaraderie. So with her last breath, she wanted to feel like she was part of something bigger. At that point, the child trainees who were with Raki helped Raftela, presumably with healing her wounds T_T It was very cute T_T
Raftela was seen in the battle of Rabona.
Riful
Riful was one of the abyssal ones. She had the appearance of a young girl, which made sense because she was the youngest Claymore ever to become #1. Her personality was a bit more childish and peppy, but she did have her priorities in order.
Riful was considered a villain because she was constantly capturing Claymores and forcing them to awaken. This was because she had sensed that there would be a war among the abyssal ones, and she was building up her army.
Riful had an interesting relationship with her sidekick Dauf. In a flashback, we saw that Dauf was a former #3, back when Isley was still #1 and Riful was not yet #1. In the current day, Riful was very dismissive to Dauf, often chastising him. But in desperate times, we saw that they cared for each other quite a bit, protecting each other with what last breath they had.
Riful was killed by Priscilla, and was later briefly resurrected as an awakened being that was fused with Dauf. I think that being was developed by absorbing all of the matter and energy around them. We first saw this being as just a pair of legs that was slowly browning into the ribbons of Riful’s awakened form. And when this resurrected Riful was fighting with Priscilla, Dae and Rubel commented that this form got its energy by absorbing that of others. This resurrected form was also killed by Priscilla though.
Dauf
Dauf was Riful’s sidekick. However much Riful berated him, however, he was still extremely powerful on his own. After all, he was a former #3 Claymore, back when there were still male Claymores. He was somewhat slow, but still very powerful, and very loyal to Riful.
We saw that he went mad when Priscilla had nearly killed Riful, and he had purposefully let himself get hit by the projectiles from the awakened being that was Luciela and Rafaela, in hopes that he would become powerful enough to face Priscilla. We saw that that didn’t work.
As mentioned, Dauf was later fused with a resurrected Riful, but they were taken down by Priscilla.
Isley
Isley was the organization’s first ever #1, a man. He was a relatively calm guy, even back then when he was a Claymore. When we met him, he was with Priscilla. My interpretation on their relationship was that he had wanted to keep an eye on Priscilla, because he knew that she would surpass all of the abyssal ones in power. We saw that at one point in their relationship, Isley had even found himself yielding and submitting to Priscilla, recognizing that the world was doomed because she could no longer be stopped.
Isley also picked up Raki along the way, probably because Priscilla would not let go of him. Anyway, Isley taught Raki to fight yoma, something humans generally aren’t able to do. He taught Raki to take advantage of the fact that Raki would be ignored by Priscilla because of that difference in power.
Isley parted ways with Raki and Priscilla when he sensed that the Organization was after him. The Organization had sent their abyssal feeders on him. He commented that facing the abyssal feeders was just waves after waves and that it wore him down, and he died by their hand.
Let me also just say that Isley’s awakened form looked super cool. He basically looked like a horseback archer.
Rigaldo
Rigaldo, known as “the lion,” was Isley’s second-in-command. He was formerly the #2 Claymore of the Organization, and he was salty that Isley was placed #1 without them having fought. After they did fight, Rigaldo pledged his loyalty to Isley.
Rigaldo was killed in the battle in the north. Clare was forced to awaken in order to defeat him.
Luciela
Luciela was Rafaela’s sister, the former #1 and one of the abyssal ones. She and Rafaela worked as a pair, in which Luciela would awaken and Rafaela would hold onto her consciousness so that she would not go corrupt. However, Luciela eventually awakened, turning into an abyssal one, and Rafaela lost her eye.
She had challenged Isley in order to take over his land but had lost. When she had retreated, she bumped into Rafaela. Of course, their reunion was emotional, as they still loved each other very much. However, Rafaela took the opportunity to kill Luciela.
Luciela gave me the impression that perhaps she was a bit childish or unaware, or she’d just been awakened for so long that she forgot what humans were like. When Rafaela was killing her, she tried to get Rafaela to stop, promising her political power. It seemed not to have occurred to her that Rafaela was killing her for other reasons, likely so that she would not wreak more havoc upon the world. Nonetheless, she was loved by Rafaela very much.
As mentioned, Luciela and Rafaela were fused into one being that Riful tried to awaken, then they wrought havoc on the world lol.
Cassandra
Cassandra was a former #1 whose corpse was kept by Dae for experimentation purposes. She was resurrected for the final battle. I loved that Yagi gave us just enough backstory for the three #1s that Dae resurrected. Cassandra bore a grudge against Roxanne (who usurped her), because Roxanne had forced her to kill her one true friend. Though not exactly a new concept, that context made their fight so much more awesome. Though Cassandra was a loner, I thought it was interesting that one of her defining traits was her pride. The Claymores repeatedly used Cassandra’s pride against her to lure her.
Cassandra was known as “the Dust Eater” because her technique involved her swooping in low on her enemies. This technique was extremely memorable, and it was one of the few that I remembered from my first read through. I also thought it was awesome that Cassandra’s awakened form reflected this position. Cassandra’s awakened form included a body with no head and arms lying down, mirroring how Cassandra would always be bending at the knees and getting low, and had a lot of tentacles with heads that would hold the body up, very much like dust eaters. I just thought it was such an interesting monster design.
I thought the fact that Cassandra just yielded to Teresa in the end was a little bullshit, but I’ll let it go because the Cassandra vs. Roxanne fight was so much fun lol.
Roxanne
Roxanne was called “Roxanne of love-and-hate.” My guess as to why this was her name was because she would get close to warriors, steal their techniques, and then kill them off. Roxanne was such a good villain in that she made you hate her, but in the good way. She was so fun to hate, but without the actual rage. She was so evil (affectionate).
Like Cassandra, Roxanne was only introduced briefly for the last battle, but we got enough information on her so that her battle with Cassandra would mean something. In the end, Cassandra defeated Roxanne.
Hysteria
Hysteria “the Elegant” was the last of the former #1s that was resurrected and awakened for the final battle. As a Claymore, when Hysteria was about to awaken, she refused to send a black card, so the Organization had to send Claymores after her, many of whom Hysteria slaughtered. It was Teresa and Rosemary who eventually took her down. Hysteria’s battle with Miria and the Claymores was interesting and fun to watch. She seemed scarier than Cassandra and Roxanne particularly because she was up against the Claymores. Hysteria was killed after being lured into the battle between Cassandra and Roxanne by Miria. She seemed to show some sorrow at her death at being forced to kill so many of her comrades.
Octavia
Octavia, known as “the Wild Horse,” was a former #2, an awakened being. She came into the story at the end. Like many other awakened beings, she had gathered at Rabona to see how the battle with Priscilla would play out. She and the other awakened beings eventually joined when Priscilla and Cassanra proved to be bigger problems. Unfortunately, Octavia was eaten by Priscilla.
Europa
Europa “the Idle” was another of the awakened beings that had come to gather. She was apparently good at playing dead and being lazy, but if she put her mind to it, her power would have rivalled that of an abyssal one. She was supposed to awaken to defeat Cassandra, but instead, she had gotten hungry and headed towards Rabona to eat fresh meat. There, she engaged in battle against Galatea and the Claymores, and was ultimately defeated by Miata.
Chronos
Chronos was a former #4 of the Organization, back when male Claymores were still in use. He seemed like a pretty wise guy. He’d gathered at Rabona to observe Priscilla, and had engaged in battle when Cassandra proved to be a problem as well. Chronos was eaten by Priscilla along with Octavia. They did try to fight back against Priscilla, but were destroyed by her.
Lars
Lars was another former male Claymore who seemed to have a close relationship with Chronos. They had travelled to Rabona together, and after Lars was killed in battle, Chronos said he wanted to get revenge for him.
Raki
Raki was a human boy who had followed Clare around after she had saved him from yoma. He was an orphan, so he had nowhere to be. It was clear that Clare let him follow her around, because she had once done the same to Teresa. Raki had taken a huge liking to Clare. He felt that she was kind, because she was nice to him personally, and also because she was giving her life to kill this yoma for the humans who despised her.
Raki and Clare were forced apart after being chased by Ophelia. Raki and Clare did share a kiss at the parting, but is it weird that I didn’t see the kiss as romantic? I’m not saying that it couldn’t have been romantic, but it could have been platonic too, an expression of love from Clare because she didn’t know what else to tell Raki how much she would miss him.
Raki kind of wandered around until he bumped into Isley and Priscilla. Priscilla had taken a liking to Raki because she was subconsciously attracted to the scent of Teresa which clung to him. Raki had asked Isley to train him, which Isley agreed to.
After Raki grew up, we saw that he was able to slay yoma, with the help of Priscilla pointing out the yoma to him. They had parted ways with Isley after Isley had sensed the abyssal feeders on his trail. Priscilla left him after she was attracted by the youki of Rafaela & Luciela.
Raki was then locked in a cell, but he was let out by some of the Claymore trainees in the ruckus. He’d helped the kids find safety, and after finding Deneve and Helen, he joined them to help Clare. Raki helped pull Clare out of the lump of flesh that included Rafaela, Luciela, and Priscilla, and they had a lovely reunion :’)
Raki sparred with Priscilla in her human form for a while, but of course she brushed him off very easily. But it was after he was injured that he took advantage of her ignoring him and stabbed her to distract her.
After Priscilla was defeated, Raki and Clare went to go see Irene :3
Galk & Sid
Galk and Sid were two soldiers living in Rabona. We had first met them when Clare was assigned to find a yoma in Rabona. Like other humans of Rabona, they were a bit wary of Claymores, but when Clare gave her life to help them, they saw that she was good people.
Galk and Sid came back in the story when Clarie and Miata went to Rabona. Seeing that she was a Claymore that had to hide her status, they helped her. And of course, they were seen in Rabona during the great battle. Cool dudes.
Rubel
Rubel was part of the Organization, and was Clare’s liaison when she was still a Claymore. He always wore sunglasses and a hat. However, it was revealed that he was a spy from the other side of the war to the Organization. As a result, he leaked information to both Miria and Clare, Cynthia, and Uma, hoping that it would motivate them to take down the Organization.
After Priscilla was defeated, Rubel left the continent, but the twin trainees, on behalf of Miria, told him that he was never to come to their continent again.
Dae
Dae was the mad scientist of the Organization. He did not have skin on half of his face, which gave him a very Two-Face (from Batman) sort of appearance. I’m not sure how much of the experimentation at the Organization was his own personal work, but it was clear that he at least found all of this fun, and intellectual pursuit. He always had theories about the Claymores and the yoma.
Dae was killed by Priscilla. He actually found it to be an honour to have been killed and eaten by her, saying that it was almost like sex. Yes, weird, even Priscilla thought so. But awakening was compared to sexual climax before. Perhaps it was Dae who made that comparison first, and it was he who likened submission to power as something akin to sex. Like I said, mad scientist.
Rimuto
Rimuto was the head of the Organization. When Miria tried to take on the Organization, she found him in the basement, with a being that was twice as tall as a human, with a dragon-like monster, both chained up. Those were the beings that the humans were up against on another continent. I think yoma was the result of these beings’ flesh being implanted into humans.
In any case, Miria did not care to know about Rimuto’s theories on why they needed to do this to win the war, and she killed him.
Themes
Corruption and Power
What is corruption? Becoming an awakened being is basically the corruption of power, but many of the awakened beings are of lucid mind. So what is corruption? Is it simply having different priorities? We saw that among the abyssal ones, they worried about things that were a lot different from what a typical human would worry about.
The definition of power in this manga was very clear, the freedom to operate independently of the Organization. The abyssal ones and awakened beings could not be controlled by the Organization.
Becoming a monster
The struggles of Claymores were that they were killing monsters in the process of becoming the monster themselves. It was a contradiction, but one that broke many of them. Many of these Claymores had so much past trauma relating to yoma. Becoming yoma was definitely not a healthy way of dealing with that trauma.
Overall
This was such a great manga. Though Yagi Norihiro wrote and drew it over the course of 13 years, it still felt like a tight story, and not one that would drag on like many other serialized manga. The character designs and writing were EXCELLENT. This manga remains a favourite.