Claymore Collection [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.

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.

I trully enjoyed this series, a realy nice story line with some intriguing caracters (except for Raki who is incredibly annoying with all his whining and crying). There's some low to moderate amount of gore present and some lost limbs and stuff like that, but i din't find it exagerated (most of it is purple anyway).

However, the reason for the 3 stars is that this Anime is not complete, although the discs contain all the episodes launched until now, the story is not concluded. I searched for the manga and apparently this Anime only covers 11-12 volumes of the manga books. The manga itself is not concluded yet, and you might have to wait a while until that is finished and you can see an ending to Claire's story. Altough i don't regret buying this I do hate the fact that the story is suspended like this.

In conclusion: if you want a finished storyline you'll have to wait some more as this is only about 2/3 of the story.