I'm camping

My article on No Country for old men is delayed, i'm camping. Be back Monday
from
EE

Claymore......yeah

Her hair being a plot device losses its effect when the manga is in black and white

Right, first review of the summer, where hopefully I might be able to make more of these, were off to a somewhat niche start. So lets start with a manga if just finished reading, Claymore. Now, the most basic premise is a bunch of women warriors using large swords to fight against monster in a dark and crappy world.  Now, when I first heard that I feared for the worst, because I figured, in my typical cynical fashion, that the manga would simply be an endless series of fights involving a wide range of scantly clad women who run around with massive swords that could be used as bridges and destroy demons, in such a fashion that we audience is bombarded with a seemingly endless line of panty shots and cleavage.  So I was somewhat pleasantly surprised when it turned out that the series dodges the temptation to indulge in mindless fan service, and the various female characters not only wear reasonable clothes, but also don’t get their clothes tore off regularly, which is a plus, and they also use reasonable sized claymore (a two handed Scottish Sword for those who don’t know…not really what it is, but that’s what people call it). 

            Anyways, the problem about explaining the premise of this series is that it goes against my normal style of doing things.  Normally, I’d snarkly explain the premise while pointing out the various unanswered questions and plot holes while I’m at it, like saying

            “The story takes place in a world which is seemingly made up of one island without any other context.  This world is plagued by demonic creatures called “Yoma” that are apparently the next step on the food chain above us.  They are nigh unkillable, and hunt humanity, but apparently despite being able to work together and having quite a large population, not to mention unbelievable hard to kill, they haven’t wiped out humanity or even any of the small nations in the world.  They are hunted by these women who have been injected with Yoma blood, called “Claymores” who are super solders able to hunt and kill them.  They are run by the shadow organization called…the organization.  Who create the claymores and use them basically as a mercenary force, accepting contracts from various towns to clear out Yoma…, which is kinda horrible when you think about it.  The organization seems content to allow these demons to wander around and do there thing unless someone pays them, and doesn’t seem to take an active role in actually you know…stopping them.  The Claymores use Yoma power to fuel their own abilities, from regeneration, to speed, to fighting ect.  Apparently using it is an addiction, something like an organism, and so many Claymores give in to the sensation and turn into ‘Super Yoma’ or ‘Awakened ones’, who are much more powerful than normal Yoma and have a much more diverse appearance.  These guys are also left on their own, and the Organization doesn’t seem to do very much to prevent the creation of more, in fact seem pretty ambivalent towards them.  The Claymores are ranked between 1 (the best) and 47, and even through most of them get killed or go batshit crazy, the organization never seem to really care.  The heroes go on a series of seemingly endless series of fights with no rhythm or reason.” 

            That is what I wanted to say.  However, this is ruined for me, because about half way through the plot, all of that is revealed.  No seriously, (actually it is morel like ¾ through the currently translated plot, but I imagine this series is going to last for awhile), it actually has a reveal that makes perfect sense and ties up almost all of the loose ends.  Pretty well actually, and it isn’t something that you’d be expecting, but make sense after you hear it.  So I suppose…that works out.  I admit that if I hadn’t been basically threatened by my friends to keep reading it, I would have dropped the book without ever getting to the big reveal that explains the entire premise in context, but once I found it, the entire series felt…I don’t know, better.  It went from a boring action flick to something with a bit of a premise.  So much for mocking the plot, but there is plenty other stuff to go into.  The thing about Claymore is, I want to spoil it, and as I really didn’t really feel really connected to the plot until the massive spoilers, I am really tempted too.  But I suppose enough people would like it to prevent me from doing so.  But basically, the story isn’t really that attention grabbing or engrossing until like half was through.

            Ok, the story follows a Claymore named Clare, the weakest and most pathetic of the group, at least at first (I’m not spoiling anything trust me).  She goes around killing Yoma, and the story reveals the almost comically dark world that she lives in.  Since I can’t really go into the plot, I will say that it starts off as a series of random adventures but then moves into...ah, screw it.  Look, until you get the more advanced plot points later in the series, the series just isn’t that interesting.  It is well drawn, with some cool characters and decent writing, but not enough happens to catch your interest until they develop it.  So basically, here is the non-spoiler run down.  Claymore is a show that has a good deal of thought into it, and has some really fun fight scenes.  And the story is pretty good; it does a lot with a limited premise.  However, t suffers from some really bad storytelling at times.  The story is told mostly through exposition, and flash backs (the whole one eyed twin story happened so fast that you couldn’t really feel any attachment) between the many fight scenes.  The fights themselves are interesting, but get old quickly, and near the end of the story, many (but not all) of the fights feel like they are just going through the motions.  The characters are all distinctive, but they are introduced then leave so quickly, it is hard to get attached to them, and only the ones with the most extreme personalities (like Helen, my favorite character) actually stand out.  Now I know every character is given a different hair cut, but the faces are all too similar and as they wear very similar clothes, it is absurdly hard to tell people apart, as the personalities are distinctive enough to really tell them apart. Through the story does get kudos for showing women with realistic breast size.  No, I'm not being perverted, I think it is really good to have women who aren't supermodels (well, they are but not as much, but thats not the point) as characters, its alot more realistic and might help with self esteem issues

            When I first finished reading the series, I was pretty optimistic about the whole series; I came away feeling pretty good about the whole series.  But while I was actually reading it, it was kind of forgettable.  I was doing monotonous stuff online, and I wanted something to keep me easily entertained, and Claymore in that respect did far better than I expected, I got a cynical interesting story with a strong plot and next to know character shields (seriously, anyone can die it seems).  But the story telling is so expeditionary (is that a word?) and the characters, while not flat, don’t make enough of an impression to really keep me engrossed in the series.  Even as I was writing this, I just couldn’t sum up anything to say about it, it just didn’t really resonate.  I was left feeling kinda impassive about the whole thing.  Unlike some series, Claymore doesn’t really resonate in my mind after finishing it.  I’m really not that impressed by it, through far from disappointed.  I don’t feel very much suspense for any of the characters (except Helen, Knife Thrower dude and the Man in Black…cause they are hilarious).  But it was still a good read, and will easily own most mangas out there, even if it doesn’t get to EE’s top list of manga.  Now great, but still a good work on its own right, it just is forgettable.

            I’m sorry that I couldn’t end this with some sort of decisive option of the series, it’s just that, once looking back on it, I could find very little to say.  I guess it was just never really close to me as a series, it left no emotional effect rather than a vaguely positive “yeah that was pretty good”.  So here is my recommendation.  If you want a dark, intelligent manga with decent fights, good story and some nifty characters to kill time with, then I recommend Claymore.  It isn’t going to change your way of looking at things, but it will be fun to read at least

From

EE

FINALS ARE OVER

Ok, today is officially, my last day of Jr. Year. I haven't written...anything for the last like two and a half weeks, because of finals. I love you guys, and i love writing, but i am not going to risk failing a final because i've been writing. But i'm done, last day of school, i am free. So now i can get working on teh back log of reviews i have crushing me
from
EE