Customer Reviews

Claymore, Vol. 1

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I'm a Claymore fan. I'm recently reading the 10th book in Japanese and I'm loving it. When I first saw this comic, I knew right away that I was going to like it. It reminded me of "Gunm"(Battle Angel Alita) in that it appeared to be a pure action piece but actually had much deeper themes. I have to admit that the art in the first few volumes isn't perfect, but like Rumiko Takahashi who found her stride somewhere in the middle of "Urusei Yatsura" (Lum), you can recognize a huge difference in creator Norihiro Yagi's art (yes, it's Yagi, not Yago) when you get to #6. Maybe earlier, but it really hit me at #6. I hope Viz continues to put this out in English as this title deserves a wide fan-base. The pace is slower for this comic to come out in book form because it is published in the Monthly Shonen Jump (as opposed to Weekly Shonen Jump). Monthlies tend to have more mature, less commercial titles and are therefore usually more interesting. When they hit book form, they are packaged just like the weekly books however and so tend to get some prime shelf-space.
I had to snicker at the Publisher's review of the comic being 'pleasant' though. There is hacking, slashing, and a lot of bleeding, but it's stylized enough not to be gory (bloody, yes; gory, no). No cutesy stuff either. No animal side-kicks, no easily packageable fluff. Just great story, great art (trust me, it does get better), and great characters. I only wish the books came out faster.

Claymore first came to my attention via the scanlation exchange community. I'm a sucker for a woman warrior story, especially a story that has such a compelling heroine as Clare. I soon became enamored of the series not only for its original blending of archetypes that so uniquely identifies Japanese manga, but for the depth of its world building and character development.

The story revolves around Clare, a female warrior whose whole existence is given over to hunting Yoma, shape-shifting monsters who devour human entrails to survive. In the first story arc, we meet Raki, a young boy who encounters and is fascinated by Clare when she comes to his town upon request to eliminate a suspected yoma infestation. During the course of her mission, Clare eliminates the yoma but her actions inadvertently cause the townsfolk to reject Raki. Thus, the two end up journeying together and the true adventure begins.

To say that Claymore is fantasy is incorrect. In later volumes, it becomes clear that Claymore is, in fact, a slipstream story. There are hints in the art and supporting characters presentations that foreshadow this, but the hard facts have only just come out in the scanlated serializations.

As I mentioned, the characterizations are what keep me drawn into Claymore. Clare and Raki's relationship is very endearing, all the more so given Clare's desperate struggle to resist the inhuman "modifications" that she has been subjected to which allow her to fight the yoma. Raki's devotion to Clare and her own tenderness and concern toward Raki (which happens despite her attempts to avoid them), drive the pair down a long road of hardships and separation. Clare's own back story is heart-wrenching, and even the supposed "villains" are shown to have not sprung from the background "whole-cloth", but rather to be human beings who all came down through harsh experiences to land where they are.

I think the fact that the story starts out more or less simply with a few mysteries that then deepen and broaden above and beyond the spheres of influence of the immediate characters also pulls me in and keeps me going. This is not to say that the story or art are perfect. There are a few "gimme's" that are somewhat hard to swallow in the plot and how Norihiro-sensei draws human heads, hair, and faces can, at times, be joltingly bizarre. However, in the overall view, there is such depth in all the details of the story and graphics that you can easily lose yourself sifting through it all.

Another point that keeps me reading the story is the innate nobility of Clare and her friends. Some Claymores succumb to the temptation to cruelty. Other even give into the alien flesh inside them and become "Awakened Ones", a sort of super-yoma evolution of Claymore. However, Clare and her companions fight to retain their humanity and protect what they can. This resonates deeply with me in that it doesn't paint the world completely black and white, but rather acknowledges the role that personal responsibility and choice play in how we find our places in the scheme of things. This level of insight raises Norihiro-sensei quite high in my esteem.

This is a seinen manga, intended for male readers. Women may find the overly endowed heroines and frequent nudity off-putting, although the fact that women are presented as the only "stable" platforms for anti-yoma weaponry may assuage the more overtly feminist. Regardless, the story is telling in terms of emotional content and lack of cliche in plot. It truly is an original concept worthy of having on your shelf.

Additional pictures and reviews available at http://darwinsevolutions.com

Claymore, Vol. 1 / 9781421506180

I've actually watched the complete Claymore anime first before getting into the manga; when I started deconstructing the incredible anime series on my blog, a kind reader was nice enough to mail me the first five manga volumes as supplemental material. I wasn't sure how closely the anime followed the source material, but so far it's been a very close match, with some extra (and delightful) details available in the manga.

I really love the artwork in this volume -- the drawings are black-and-white, and manage to be very detailed but with a consistently 'clean' simplicity that I find really appealing. The original formatting of the Japanese book was maintained instead of flipped, so you do have to read right-to-left and back-to-front with this volume. The right-to-left reading is a fairly simple adjustment for my eyes (though I do sometimes forget when I drop down a panel), but the back-to-front reading was a bit harder for my hands to get used to -- it's hard to shake years of muscle memory at the drop of a hat, but in this case it's worth it.

Volume 1 provides the following scenes:

Scene 1: Silver-eyed Slayer
Scene 2: Claws in the Sky
Scene 3: Memory of a Witch
Scene 4: The Black Card

For those following along with the anime series, this volume corresponds to:

Episode 1: The Great Sword (An adaptation of Scene 1 and Scene 3 from the manga.)
Episode 2: The Black Card (An adaptation of Scene 4 with an opening shot illusion to Scene 2.)

This volume follows the introduction of Clare and Raki, their meeting one another, a decision to journey together, and the receipt by Clare of Elena's black card. If you liked the anime series, I am certain you'll like this manga volume; I recommend it for extra detail and backstory on the Claymores and their organization.

~ Ana Mardoll

After reading five of the books from this manga series, I can tell this will be a fairly interesting plot line and I look forward to getting through the rest of it. However, the art leaves something to be desired. It's mainly the human faces I have trouble with... the main characters are done well enough, but the rest all look mildly deformed or indistinguishable. On the whole, most the human forms are not very proportional and the artist seems to have trouble with foreshortening.

I could not believe this when i saw it. It was great.

First of all a claymore is a human who has drunk a monsters blood in order to become half monster so that they can seek out and destroy these human possessing monsters. Only Females live through the process.

In the first chapter you get a sense when she first shows up she is a heartless monster. But later on through the book you see that she has a kinder heart than you might think.

It has a very dramatic/action/adventure plot and great characters that have deepening stories to be told.

I reccomend this to anyone who is interested in something new and exciting. This is not for younger children. It has Blood/language/partial nudity/violence.

The good: Story is interesting fast paced and makes you wonder what will happen next You can't put it down.

The bad:The artist has probably excelled at drawing female portraits and posing females. The male characters look like children's drawing e.g. all character faces in this book look like females be it men or boys, which will take some time for you to get used to. Even the monsters look like females ... You will immediately see the quality of work between a male drawing and a female drawing in this series, one is professional the you other looks relatively amateurish. The other weak point is that the artist is strong in poses but in battle scenes most drawings look like rigid poses which seem awkward and don't convey the fast action. The artwork leaves you wanting.

Conclusion: Despite the flaws and anatomical errors in art the story is interesting and you easily overlook the other issues and accept it as series' trademark. I started with vol.1 last week and already bought vol.5 . I hope the artist will get better and give everyone a distinct face and improve the action scenes but even if he doesn't I'll finish this series anyway.

Update: Well I finished 10.... After 10 volumes, all you have is endless battles and a minor progress in the story. It gets too repetitive and monotonous to look at pictures which only has sound effects.... and then you read 5-10 pages of actual story to conclude each book. I can read a book that has sword wielding claymores hitting some enemy with thud! crash! etc kind of effects for a while, but to actually create entire 10 volumes out of this material is not right.
Consequently my new vote is a 2 because of the artists exaggerated focus on drawing endless battles in each volume and his inexplicable refusal to put a little more emphasis on the story. The whole story up to volume 10 could be condensed into one book- the remaining 9 volumes is just fighting.

Writers who try to do fantasy don't always get the beginning of the story right. This series didn't have that problem and the first volume of Claymore has just the right mix of violence and mystery to draw in the average reader. By the end of the few too short chapters here you have figured out that Claire is a not quite human mercenary who is hired through a shadowy group to defeat shapeshifting demons which invade towns and devour the humans they can catch.

The story doesn't have many twists in this first volume, but it has enough to build the mystery of who are the Claymores and what is the mysterious organization that creates and sends them out.

I recommend this quite often to people I run into at the few bookstores near me. The writing at this point in the story is far better than any American comic book I've tried to read in the last decade.

I started reading Claymore about 2 years ago and stuck with it through vol 14 before finally losing interest. So this review is more about the series as a whole then just volume 1.

This book and the first few volumes start strong, introducing a medieval world under siege by shape-shifting demons called Youma. The human race's only defense are the Claymores, women with Youma blood who can go toe-to-toe with the demons but, as we learn, the more they use their powers the closer they come to losing control.

It's a great set up, with lots of mysteries and chances for adventure and I really loved the first few books.

But I found as the series went on it became more and more padded. Where once we had several adventures in a single book, we now had 200 page fight scenes.

So I recommend it, but with the warning that the series will lose steam.

I've already read this series basically online, scanlated, However, this series is so good, it's deserving of being physically bought. Although not exceedingly original it does well with what it has and makes what could be a bad series, into a series every manga fan should read. SO buy it if you want action but if you want comedy or romance then don't buy it.

Breakdown of scores:
Volume 1: 3 1/2 stars
Volume 2: 4 stars
Volume 3: 4 1/2 stars

I've never been into Manga. I always thought it was for really nerdy people, so it was with hesitation that I picked this title up.
I'm glad I did.
I blazed through it in one sitting and went back to the store to pick up the 2nd and 3rd volumes.

Volume one introduces us to the protagonist, Clare. It doesnt' take long for the action to start either. We jump right into the meat and potatos of this series with Clare being dispatched to kill a Yoma: a superpowered demonic type monster that disguises itself as human.

In volume 2 we get more of the same and it seems like the whole series is just going to become a predictable format of Claymore vs. Yoma. However, by the end of volume 3 I was hooked.

Clare's origin story begins in the middle of the third volume. From the moment Teresa of the Faint Smile is introduced, the series really takes off. I'm hooked.