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A brutal scourge stalks the land. Yoma, monsters driven by a hunger satisfied by only one quarry - Humanity. The dark breed knows but a singular foe: Claymore. Human-Yoma hybrids of extraordinary strength and cunning, the Claymores roam from skirmish to skirmish delivering salvation by the edge of a blade.Thus continues the twisting tale of Clare, one such sister of the sword driven by pain in both victory and defeat. Whispers of conspiracy fill the air, but the gravest peril is not hidden. Enter Ophelia, a Claymore of joyful cruelty with a zealot s devotion to the massacre of all who have Awakened. And Clare will suffer as her prey. Flesh will fall from bone, but there will be no rest until Teresa is avenged.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
34 of 35 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
On the face of it, Claymore is simply another anime series about the hunting and slaying of nasty monsters. It is well directed with fast moving action, some excellent animation, a straightforward plot, good screenplay and some interesting characters - and on this level it succeeds quite well. However, look a little more carefully, and one finds that it also possesses some quite satisfying depths in certain areas.
The artwork is unusual and extremely effective, employing bold drawing of the characters, often contrasted with pale colours occasionally fading almost into black and white, and incorporating monochrome tints and pale washes. The colours are well chosen, however, and this approach makes it even more striking when vivid colours are suddenly introduced for certain scenes. The lighting is also notable, often dramatic and sometimes spectacular.
Superficially the plot premise is fundamentally simple and often violent, as vicious, evil monsters are slain by claymore wielding heroines, but the character development is quite strong - many of the main characters displaying unexpected complexity - and ethical issues, as is frequently the case with anime, are not far beneath the surface. In fact, much of the series' plot and to a certain extent the characterization, revolves around the concept that power wielded in the name of Good can be corrupted into Evil if it becomes too great. That the characters in the story are morally aware is demonstrated by remarks such as Jean's : "I have no intention of compromising my honour just to live a long life".
Qualities like these manage to lift this Anime above the average, and, in my opinion, will further enhance the reputation of those brilliant women at Clamp, and all those connected with turning the manga into anime.
My initial four stars becomes five because I like the artwork so much, but even if the art doesn't work so well for you this is still an above average series.
The artwork is unusual and extremely effective, employing bold drawing of the characters, often contrasted with pale colours occasionally fading almost into black and white, and incorporating monochrome tints and pale washes. The colours are well chosen, however, and this approach makes it even more striking when vivid colours are suddenly introduced for certain scenes. The lighting is also notable, often dramatic and sometimes spectacular.
Superficially the plot premise is fundamentally simple and often violent, as vicious, evil monsters are slain by claymore wielding heroines, but the character development is quite strong - many of the main characters displaying unexpected complexity - and ethical issues, as is frequently the case with anime, are not far beneath the surface. In fact, much of the series' plot and to a certain extent the characterization, revolves around the concept that power wielded in the name of Good can be corrupted into Evil if it becomes too great. That the characters in the story are morally aware is demonstrated by remarks such as Jean's : "I have no intention of compromising my honour just to live a long life".
Qualities like these manage to lift this Anime above the average, and, in my opinion, will further enhance the reputation of those brilliant women at Clamp, and all those connected with turning the manga into anime.
My initial four stars becomes five because I like the artwork so much, but even if the art doesn't work so well for you this is still an above average series.
28 of 30 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
It's all killer and no filler in this dark-fantasy anime series, as episode after episode features bands of half-human/half-demon female warriors in a medieval setting hacking limbs and heads from purple-blooded creatures known as Yoma that terrorise small villages, eating the inhabitants.
There's more however than merely copious bloodletting in the storyline, the Claymore warriors acting under the command of a mysterious Organisation who seem to have a secret agenda of their own, sending selected warriors out to the wilderness to face even more deadly creatures out there. The amazonian Claymore warriors also have their own issues to deal with on account of in-fighting over rankings, and the always constant danger that over-extension of their powers will eventually transform them into Yoma themselves one day.
The pace never once lets up in the 26 episode series, the Madhouse production team constantly finding inventive ways to animate the story with meticulously designed and coloured settings, dynamic action sequences and an appropriate score that lifts it in all the right places.
Even within the limitations of a battle-heavy storyline, there is a lot more personality revealed in the individual backgrounds of Clare, Teresa of the Faint Smile, Raki and several of other warriors, all of whom have their own histories and personal traumas that bring them and the series to a powerful and touching conclusion.
Spread across 6 dual-layer discs, Manga's DVD collection gives the series an outstanding widescreen presentation, with the original Japanese language track in 2.0 and an acceptable English dub in a powerful 5.1 mix. Extras are not extensive, with repeated textless opening and closing sequences, but there are good informative interviews with the director and his production team, and galleries of the impressive design elements.
There's more however than merely copious bloodletting in the storyline, the Claymore warriors acting under the command of a mysterious Organisation who seem to have a secret agenda of their own, sending selected warriors out to the wilderness to face even more deadly creatures out there. The amazonian Claymore warriors also have their own issues to deal with on account of in-fighting over rankings, and the always constant danger that over-extension of their powers will eventually transform them into Yoma themselves one day.
The pace never once lets up in the 26 episode series, the Madhouse production team constantly finding inventive ways to animate the story with meticulously designed and coloured settings, dynamic action sequences and an appropriate score that lifts it in all the right places.
Even within the limitations of a battle-heavy storyline, there is a lot more personality revealed in the individual backgrounds of Clare, Teresa of the Faint Smile, Raki and several of other warriors, all of whom have their own histories and personal traumas that bring them and the series to a powerful and touching conclusion.
Spread across 6 dual-layer discs, Manga's DVD collection gives the series an outstanding widescreen presentation, with the original Japanese language track in 2.0 and an acceptable English dub in a powerful 5.1 mix. Extras are not extensive, with repeated textless opening and closing sequences, but there are good informative interviews with the director and his production team, and galleries of the impressive design elements.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
I should probably confess that I read a fair amount of the manga (it's an ongoing series which does not appear to be approaching it's conclusion quite yet) before watching the anime. As I enjoyed the manga, I was pleasantly surprised just how loyal the series was to it, the only major difference being the final couple of episodes, but this likely also coloured my opinion of the series as a whole.
There are a lot of almost too positive reviews (in my opinion) on this page, so apologies but this one will likely be rather more critical than most.
The series is based quite closely on the first eleven books in the series and, but for a few changes (presumably enacted to bring the anime towards its alternative conclusion), pretty much everything is just as in the books. It is the contrived and rather too sudden ending which I dislike most about the series. The series is quite gritty, obviously violent, with a tendency towards the bitter-sweet. Without giving too much away, the author was not averse to developing some characters before sacrificing them in the passage of the story. On this basis the ending felt too hasty, leaving too many threads unresolved and, in my opinion, out of kilter with the rest of the series.
My second complaint relates to the English language dub (I'm not a great fan of the Japanese dub with subtitles for anime). Whilst the voice work for Clare and several other significant characters (Theresa, Riful etc) is generally excellent, Raki in particular just grates. There are a few other, less major characters where I think the voice work could be better - Flora and Miria spring to mind, but Raki is a pretty good reason to want to flip the mute button. The use of voiceovers/monologues and over-dramatic music at inopportune moments does not help either.
My only other whinge about the series is common to both the books and the anime, in that it begins to feel like the storyline just descends into a series of "boss battles" which begin to drag. The confrontation with Dauf is one I'm not particularly fond off.
Yet despite these grumbles, I would still heartily recommend the series. It's well animated, has an engaging storyline and has some very likeable main characters (Raki aside, who just isn't!). I have to say that I haven't seen too many anime series I would rate higher than this one (Black Lagoon and Ergo Proxy being the only two that come to mind) and I consider it well worth a watch even to people not used to the genre. At least there are no giant robots attacking each other!
There are a lot of almost too positive reviews (in my opinion) on this page, so apologies but this one will likely be rather more critical than most.
The series is based quite closely on the first eleven books in the series and, but for a few changes (presumably enacted to bring the anime towards its alternative conclusion), pretty much everything is just as in the books. It is the contrived and rather too sudden ending which I dislike most about the series. The series is quite gritty, obviously violent, with a tendency towards the bitter-sweet. Without giving too much away, the author was not averse to developing some characters before sacrificing them in the passage of the story. On this basis the ending felt too hasty, leaving too many threads unresolved and, in my opinion, out of kilter with the rest of the series.
My second complaint relates to the English language dub (I'm not a great fan of the Japanese dub with subtitles for anime). Whilst the voice work for Clare and several other significant characters (Theresa, Riful etc) is generally excellent, Raki in particular just grates. There are a few other, less major characters where I think the voice work could be better - Flora and Miria spring to mind, but Raki is a pretty good reason to want to flip the mute button. The use of voiceovers/monologues and over-dramatic music at inopportune moments does not help either.
My only other whinge about the series is common to both the books and the anime, in that it begins to feel like the storyline just descends into a series of "boss battles" which begin to drag. The confrontation with Dauf is one I'm not particularly fond off.
Yet despite these grumbles, I would still heartily recommend the series. It's well animated, has an engaging storyline and has some very likeable main characters (Raki aside, who just isn't!). I have to say that I haven't seen too many anime series I would rate higher than this one (Black Lagoon and Ergo Proxy being the only two that come to mind) and I consider it well worth a watch even to people not used to the genre. At least there are no giant robots attacking each other!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Action packed
Good quality animation , non stop action and purple gore only con is it gets a little repetive but overall real good and bargain at this price :)
Published 28 days ago by james w jones
THE BOXSET IS A 2ND GRADE VERSION!!
Hey guys, I have not watched the series yet but It looks totally awesome right! ><
I'm writing to let you guys no this isn't the box sleeved version which contains 3... Read more
I'm writing to let you guys no this isn't the box sleeved version which contains 3... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Shahin Miah
good series but a minor word of caution
Everyone has already spoken lofty about the series so I have nothing to add to that... it is a great action/drama so if you're into that then this is most definitely worth checking... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Mellow Kirby
Wow, The best anime
I have to state this is by far one of the most creative and brilliant animes I have ever seen. Story is fantastical, I have seen it more than 5 times now. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Dr. S. S. Kamal
great
This anime is a bit weird like most of them but its still a very good anime got to my house in 2 days and I went for free postage and packaging!
Published 4 months ago by Mr. T. M. Hussey
Just what the Yoma ordered!
Claymore was a real suprise to me, I wasn't expecting to be as good as it was. I am really into the old skool anime as alot of the more recent titles i. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Gazey
great gift
I bought this item to offer to my best friend and it was perfect! We don't have that boxset in France so I was very happy to be able to find it in the UK.
Published 5 months ago by christelle
brilliant title
this is one wickedly good anime, just watch it you wont regret. its a great anime, supurb fight scenes . ive watch it five times
Published 7 months ago by paul
Wow the best manga by far
Not one to do reviews but felt compelled to tell people how good this is. To be honest it's the only Manga series I have bought and I'm so happy to have this complete set. Read more
Published 10 months ago by Mr. CA Cooper
Very good
Recommend it to anyone who likes anime really. The story is pretty solid, the characters are all very likeable (except for Rocky, hes likeable but he has moments where you want to... Read more
Published 12 months ago by Vega
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