Claymore (manga)

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Claymore
ClaymoreCoverTankobon1.jpg
Clare on Claymore 1 tankōbon cover
Genre Fantasy, action, drama
Manga
Written by Norihiro Yagi
Published by Shueisha
English publisher Australia New Zealand Madman Entertainment
Canada United States VIZ Media
Demographic Shōnen, general
Magazine Originally Monthly Shōnen Jump
formerly Weekly Shōnen Jump
currently Jump Square
Original run May 2001 – ongoing
Volumes 21 (ja) (List of volumes)
TV anime
Directed by Hiroyuki Tanaka
Written by Yasuko Kobayashi
Music by Masanori Takumi
Studio Madhouse[1]
Licensed by Australia New Zealand Madman Entertainment
Canada United States Funimation Entertainment
Network NTV
English network United States FUNimation Channel
Original run 3 April 2007 – 25 September 2007
Episodes 26
Game
Claymore: Gingan no Majo
Developer Digital Works Entertainment
Genre Action
Platform Nintendo DS
Released 28 May 2009
Anime and Manga Portal

Claymore is a dark fantasy manga series by Norihiro Yagi. Claymore first appeared May 2001 in Monthly Shōnen Jump.

The English language Claymore is the original title to manga series. クレイモア (Kureimoa) is a transliteration for Japanese-language readers.
クレイモア is the original title to anime series, however.[2]

Madhouse adapted the manga into a 26 episode anime. Directed by Hiroyuki Tanaka the series appeared on Japanese NTV between 3 April 2007–25 September 2007.

Contents

[edit] Story

[edit] Island world

On a medieval island, humans are plagued by Yoma (妖魔 Yōma), humanoid shape-shifters that feed on humans. A mysterious group, known as the Organization, creates human-Yoma hybrids to kill Yoma for a fee. These female warriors wear Roman army-like uniforms, stylized in an Art Deco manner. The public refer to them as "Claymores," alluding to their Claymore swords,[3] or "Silver-eyed Witches," due to their silver eyes.[4]

Yoma and Claymore warriors alike are powered by a demonic energy, Yoki, which allows shape-shifting and extreme strength. When warriors use too much Yoki, they "awaken," becoming a super-Yoma called an Awakened Being.

Island world is divided into 47 districts, with one warrior assigned to each.[5] Claymore warriors No. 1 through 47 are ranked on their baseline Yoki potential, strength, agility, intelligence, sensing and leadership. A warrior's rank rises and falls according to the warrior's strength in relation to other warriors.

[edit] Arcs

The first arc introduces the protagonist of the series: No. 47, Clare, who saves a young boy, Raki, from a Yoma. The next arc flashes back to the time of Teresa, warrior No. 1 of her era. And the young girl she saves from Yoma—Clare. The arc ends with their tragic encounter with Priscilla.

Flashing forward to Clare's time, the Slashers arc introduces Miria (No. 6), Deneve (No. 15) and Helen (No. 22). The Gravestones arc introduces Ophelia (No. 4). The Witch's Maw arc introduces Jean (No. 9), Riful and Dauf. The Northern Campaign arc introduces Flora (No. 8), Undine (No. 11), Isley and Rigaldo. Raki and Priscilla reappear here.

[edit] Characters

Main article: List of Claymore characters

[edit] Clare

Clare (クレア Kurea) is the series' protagonist. Clare's personality is summed up by Ilena: "You already appear calm on the surface. But your real heart is a whirlpool of passion."[6]

Clare becomes a Claymore to avenge the death of her childhood mentor, Teresa. Clare's lifetime goal is to kill the "One-horned Monster" that killed Teresa.[7]

But as warrior No. 47, Clare is rated as the weakest of all 47 warriors. This is due to Clare being 1/4 Yoma instead of 1/2, having taken on the flesh of Teresa, rather than a Yoma.[8] However, Miria says, "It felt as if the strongest was standing before me."[9]

[edit] Teresa

Teresa (テレサ Teresa) is assigned to Teo village, where she kills six Yoma. Then she kills a seventh hiding behind a young girl.[10] Next day, Teresa tries to leave town, but the mysterious girl proceeded to hug her, who Teresa kicks away. But the girl persists in following her.

After a run-in with bandits in the forest, Teresa adopts the young girl. Teresa decides to call the girl "Clare," after one of the twin goddesses of love.[11]

Teresa is condemned to death, when she kills a bandit gang. She battles with the execution team, led by No. 2, Priscilla—Ilene (No. 3), Sophia (No. 4) and Noel (No. 5).[12]

The team is defeated by Teresa, but Priscilla's releases too much Yoki and partially awakens. She beheads Teresa, then fully awakens into the "One-horned Monster," wounding Ilena, then killing Sophia and Noel. Priscilla ignores Clare, then flies away to parts unknown.[13]

Thus begins Clare's quest for revenge.

[edit] Priscilla

Priscilla (プリシラ Purishira) is No. 2 of the Teresa era.

After awakening, Priscilla defeats the Creature of the Abyss of the North, Isley. But Priscilla loses her memory. Isley swears allegiance and promises to do anything. She asks to go south to find her family, which Isley agrees to.[14] When Isley gathers an army to invade the south, this sets into motion the Witch's Maw and Northern Campaign arcs.

[edit] Raki

Raki (ラキ Raki) is a young boy whose family is killed by a Yoma disguised as his brother, who Clare finds and kills.[15] Later, Clare rescues an exiled Raki from the desert. She allows him to accompany her as her cook.[16]

After a 3-way battle with Ophelia and an Awakened Being, Clare and Raki become separated.[17] Later, Raki comes under the wing of a new mentor—Isley, the Creature of the Abyss of the North.[18] After the 7-year Timeskip, Raki is an adult, who searches for Clare, while accompanied by Priscilla, now shrunk to a pre-teen.[19]

[edit] The Organization

The island is a testing ground for creating monsters to fight dragons on a distant mainland.[20] Anti-dragon forces have set up an unnamed "Organization" as a charity-front[21] for conducting experiments. The chief scientist is Dae.[22]

The most common of Dae's creations are "Yoma," similar in size to humans, and gargoyle-like in appearance. Despite their super-human strength and shape-shifting ability, Yoma are the weakest of Yoma-like entities. The Organization will release a number of Yoma to terrorize the general population,[23] who will in turn hire the Organization to send Claymores to kill Yoma.[24] Thus, Yoma provides funding and keeps the Organization running, despite being so far away from their home country.

Claymores are 1/2 Yoma, 1/2 human. They descend from a line of research trying to make a super-Yoma that can fight the dragons, yet not turn on anti-dragon forces.[25] When Claymore warriors use too much Yoki, they lose their human mind and "awaken," turning into a super-Yoma—an Awakened Being. Male Claymores are abandoned in favor of females, due to premature awakening.[26]

When a No. 1 Claymore warrior awakens, the result is a super-Awakened Being—a "Creature of the Abyss." In early Organization history, there are three instances: Isley of the North, Riful of the West, and Luciela of the South.[27] In the Claymore mutiny arc, three more appear.[28]

The latest of Dae's creations are "Abyss Feeders," made from the flesh of Awakened Beings. Their purpose is hunting Creatures of the Abyss.[29]

The most successful line of research uses identical twin sisters, with a merged mind—a two-body Claymore warrior in effect. One sister fully awakens, the other sister stays human and remote controls the other like a Predator drone.[30]Alicia and Beth are an example.

[edit] Media

[edit] Manga

Main article: List of Claymore chapters

Scripted and illustrated by Norihiro Yagi, Claymore began serialization in Monthly Shōnen Jump in 2001. When the magazine was canceled in June 2007, the series moved to Weekly Shōnen Jump. Claymore moved again to Jump Square on 2 November 2007.[31]

"Scenes" (chapters) are published in tankōbon volumes by Shueisha, which released Claymore 1 (volume 1) on 5 January 2002. As of 2 December 2011, 21 volumes (ja) have been released.[32]

On 18 July 2006, VIZ Media announced serialization of Claymore in North America in its Shonen Jump manga anthology.[33] "Scene 1" ("Silver-eyed Slayer") appeared in the 11 April 2006 issue and continued serialization only until VIZ released Claymore 1 on 4 April 2006.

As of 1 November 2011, VIZ Media has released 19 volumes (en-us).[34]

Claymore is released in Australia and New Zealand by Madman Entertainment. It is licensed for regional language releases in Russia by Comix-art (ru),[35] in France (fr) and Spain (es-es) by Glenat, in Mexico by Grupo Editorial Vid (es-mx), in Italy by Star Comics (it), in Brazil by Panini Comics (pt-br). And in Germany by Tokyopop Germany (de).

[edit] Anime

Main article: List of Claymore episodes

[edit] Japan

Madhouse produced an anime (26 episodes) based on the manga. Directed by Hiroyuki Tanaka, Claymore first appeared on a late night time-slot (1:26–1:56AM JST), being broadcasted on Nippon Television, 3 April 2007–25 September 2007.

Anime adapts Claymore volumes 1–11 for episodes 1–24, then uses original screenplay material for episodes 25–26.

Nine DVD volumes released by avex trax, 25 July 2007–26 March 2008.[36]

[edit] US

Released on DVD in six volumes by FUNimation, 14 October 2008–14 July 2009. 3-disk Blu-ray version released 16 February 2010. 4-disk DVD re-release 19 April 2011.[36]

[edit] Germany

Released on DVD in six volumes by Anime Virtual, October 2008–May 2009. 6-disk set released by Kazé Deutschland (formerly Anime Virtual), March 2011.[37]

[edit] France

Released on DVD in two 3-disk sets—5 January and 27 April 2011—by Kazé. Broadcasted in 2011 by KZTV (KaZe TV).[38]

[edit] Italy

To be broadcast 14 November 2011–6 February 2012, by Man-ga TV and Yamato Video.[39]

[edit] Soundtrack

Two pieces of theme music are used for the episodes: one opening theme and one ending theme. The opening theme is "Raison d'être" (レゾンデートル?, lit. Reason for being) by Nightmare. The ending theme is J-pop singer Riyu Kosaka's single, "Danzai no Hana~Guilty Sky" (断罪の花 ~Guilty Sky~?, lit. Flower of Conviction~Guilty Sky). These two themes are used in all 26 episodes.

[edit] CDs

Two CDs have been released for the Claymore. Claymore TV Animation O.S.T., the soundtrack for the anime series, was released on 25 July 2007 with instrumental compositions by Masanori Takumi. Spanning 32 tracks, the soundtrack includes the television-sized versions of the opening and ending themes.[40] This Soundtrack is not a complete collection of the tracks of the anime, though (for example the track in episode 17, at 1:55 is missing).

A CD of character songs, Claymore Intimate Persona: Character Song Shuu (CLAYMORE INTIMATE PERSONA~キャラクターソング集~?) was released on 27 September 2007. It contains ten tracks, one each for ten characters from the series, featuring songs performed by the character voice actresses from the anime adaptation.[41] These songs do not appear in anime.

[edit] Video game

Cover of Claymore: Gingan no Majo

Claymore: Gingan no Majo was released by Digital Works Entertainment, 28 May 2009, in Japan.[42] In this Nintendo DS game, the player controls Clare in a similar fashion to side-scrolling Castlevania and Metroid games. Player can alter the strength of Clare's Yoki by using the touch screen and stylus.[42]

[edit] Reception

In his review of volume 7, Carlo Santos of Anime News Network says about Clare's action scenes that "Clare's fights are nothing short of eye-popping, with page layouts designed for maximum dramatic effect." About the drama, he says that "even the occasional attempts at drama feel oddly distant." About the part in the story where Raki and Clare are separated, he states that it's more like "leave now because that's the obvious next step in the plot."[43] The art of volume 7 is rated A, story C+, and overall B.[44]

Theron Martin, also of Anime News Network, says in his review of volume 14 that "the series has lost some of its luster, and it seems like less and less is actually happening with each volume." About the action scenes, he says that "the actual fights lack some of the dynamism seen in earlier volumes." As for the art, he states that "as has been true in the past, Yagi's artistry lacks for nothing."[45] He rates the art A- in his reviews for volume eleven, twelve and fourteen.[46][47][48] However, in his review of volume sixteen, Theron Marton says that "Yagi is back on track," and that "he provides a good mix of old friends popping back up, new allies, startling revelations, dire threats, and of course good-ol' beatdown action, in the process returning the series to arguably its strongest level since volume 12."[49]

Theron Martin also gave his thoughts on the first five episodes of the anime. He stated that "while not without some flaws, the first five episodes generally get the series off to a strong start, practically assuring that Funimation has a solid hit on their hands."[50] The rating he gave for the anime is: story A-, animation B+, art A-, music A, and overall A-.[50] In ICv2's list of "Top 50 Manga - Summer 2008", which subjectively ranks manga based on sales and perceived popularity, Claymore placed 42nd.[51]

[edit] References

  1. ^ http://www.ntv.co.jp/claymore/cast/index.html
  2. ^ Kureimoa on IMDB (en-us)
  3. ^ Claymore 1, Scene 1, p. 20
  4. ^ Claymore 1, Scene 1, p. 17
  5. ^ Claymore 5, Scene 25, pp. 130–131
  6. ^ Claymore 7, Scene 38, p. 138
  7. ^ Claymore 7, Scene 39 pp. 183–185
  8. ^ Claymore 7, Scene 37 pp. 104–105
  9. ^ Claymore 5, Scene 26, p. 145
  10. ^ Claymore 3, Scene 12, pp. 85–95
  11. ^ Claymore 3, Scene 14, pp. 156–157
  12. ^ Claymore 4, Scene 18, p. 69
  13. ^ Claymore 5, Scene 24, p. 91
  14. ^ Claymore 14, Extra Scene 3, p. 159
  15. ^ Claymore 1, Scene 1, pp. 54–55
  16. ^ Claymore 1, Scene 3, p. 147
  17. ^ Claymore 7, Scene 34, p. 31
  18. ^ Claymore 10, Scene 55, p. 128
  19. ^ Claymore 15, Scene 80, p. 90
  20. ^ Claymore 15, Scene 79, pp. 68–69
  21. ^ Fragments of Silver Omnibus 1, "Yoma War Record I," p. 498
  22. ^ Claymore 18, Scene 96, pp. 7–17
  23. ^ Claymore 20, Shueisha edition, Scene 109, pp. 64–66
  24. ^ Claymore 3, Scene 12, pp. 78–80
  25. ^ Claymore 15, Scene 80, pp. 71–75
  26. ^ Claymore 5, Scene 27, pp. 183–184
  27. ^ Claymore 8, Scene 45, pp. 180–181
  28. ^ Claymore 21, Shueisha edition, Scene 115, pp. 68–69
  29. ^ Claymore 16, Scene 88, pp. 152–157
  30. ^ Fragments of Silver Omnibus 3, "Yoma War Record III," p. 722
  31. ^ "Shueisha to Launch New Monthly Magazine". Anime News Network. 2007-04-06. http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2007-04-06/shueisha-to-launch-new-monthly-magazine. Retrieved 2008-09-21. 
  32. ^ Claymore 21, Shueisha edition (ja)
  33. ^ "New Viz Manga - Anime News Network". Anime News Network. 2005-07-18. http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2005-07-18/new-viz-manga. Retrieved 2007-10-10. 
  34. ^ Claymore 19, VIZ Media site
  35. ^ "Клеймор". Comix-art. http://www.comix-art.ru/node/89. Retrieved 2009-11-14. 
  36. ^ a b Anime News Network encyclopedia on Claymore release dates
  37. ^ Kazé Deutschland on Claymore (de)
  38. ^ Kazé on Claymore (fr)
  39. ^ Yamato Video on Claymore (it)
  40. ^ "Claymore CD" (in Japanese). NTV. http://www.ntv.co.jp/claymore/dvdcd/cd.html. Retrieved 2008-09-21. 
  41. ^ "Claymore CD/Character" (in Japanese). NTV. http://www.ntv.co.jp/claymore/dvdcd/cd_chara.html. Retrieved 2008-09-21. 
  42. ^ a b "Claymore Ginme no Majo". National Console Support, Inc. http://www.shopncsx.com/claymore.aspx. Retrieved 2009-05-17. 
  43. ^ "Claymore GN 7". Anime News Network, Carlo Santos. 2007-09-13. http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/review/claymore/gn-7. Retrieved 2010-01-08. 
  44. ^ "Claymore GN 7". Anime News Network, Carlo Santos. 2007-09-13. http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/review/claymore/gn-7. Retrieved 2009-05-05. 
  45. ^ "Claymore GN 14". Anime News Network, Theron Martin. 2009-03-23. http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/review/claymore/gn-14. Retrieved 2010-01-28. 
  46. ^ "Claymore GN 11". Anime News Network, Theron Martin. 2008-03-15. http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/review/claymore/gn-11. Retrieved 2009-05-05. 
  47. ^ "Claymore GN 12". Anime News Network, Theron Martin. 2008-07-05. http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/review/claymore/gn-12. Retrieved 2009-05-05. 
  48. ^ "Claymore GN 14". Anime News Network, Theron Martin. 2009-03-23. http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/review/claymore/gn-14. Retrieved 2009-05-05. 
  49. ^ "Claymore GN 16". Anime News Network, Theron Martin. 2010-06-27. http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/review/claymore/gn-16. Retrieved 2011-02-10. 
  50. ^ a b "Claymore + Artbox DVD 1". Anime News Network, Theron Martin. 2008-08-19. http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/review/claymore+artbox/dvd-1. Retrieved 2010-01-28. 
  51. ^ "ICv2 Top 50 Manga - Summer 2008". ICv2. 2008-09-29. http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/13211.html. Retrieved 2009-03-05. 

[edit] External links

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