To be honest, this episode was quite good, but I’m not too sure about Priscilla. Not only is her character even more annoying than Raki, she also came from nowhere, as this anime portrayed it. I liked Irene, and Noel and Sophia also work well with her, but there’s something I just don’t like about Priscilla.

I think it’s the fact that she got her powers just a bit too easily. Power comes with with experience, and she looks more like one of these shounen-heroes who suddenly got hold of an incredible power. I would have liked to see her at fourth or fifth place at this point, so that we could really see her develop a bit more, as her character definitely is interesting.

I’m also interested about the next episode. There are going to be two possibilities: Teresa dies, or she lives, but she continues to hide herself. I actually do hope that Teresa is going to kill Priscilla, but that probably won’t happen. I can see her become some kind of major antagonist later on. Something’s telling me her devotion to the right is going to have a major smack in the head somewhere in the future.

I’m wondering, though… why don’t Noel and Sophia appear in the OP?

The Teresa-arc so far has been better than the Raki-arc, in my opinion. Even though the young Claire herself could have been more interesting, it’s Teresa who really stole the show in this episode. The emotions that Claire evoked from Teresa were much more captivating than when Raki saved Claire from turning into a Youma.

I especially loved when Teresa realized the real reason why Claire kept following and hugging her. It’s not because she saw her as her only way out, surprisingly. She realized that Teresa herself was in the same pain as herself, and she wanted her to realize that. Later in the episode, we see Teresa actually killing humans for her, a crime that can’t be forgiven. Because of this, she’s going to be hunted by the four strongest Claymores, apart from herself.

The question now remains: where does Elena come into the game? Will Teresa survive all this? If she does, then where is she now? And what made Claire decide to become a claymore herself? I’m also curious about what happened even before this arc. Why did Teresa become a Claymore, and how did she become the strongest? Has Claire been travelling with that Youma ever since she was born, or does she have one or two childhood memories with her parents before the youma killed them? These last questions will probably not get answered, though.

It’s also interesting, in the previous episode, I saw Raki similar to the younger Claire, but this episode showed that the two of them are entirely different. Raki didn’t really stay with Claire because she looked in pain. He just found it unfair for people to shun her like that, despite her caring personality. Teresa also took Claire in because of pity, while Claire probably let Raki stay because Teresa did the same to her in the past.

Ah, finally Terese arrives, and things go quite differently from what I expected. We first see a total shift of focus, with no Claire whatsoever. She also gets a child who keeps running after her, just like Claire, so I assumed that it took place at the same time in which Raki appeared. I was quite surprised to see that this actually was Claire herself, in a younger form. This does explain why she took in Raki so easily, it happened to herself in the past as well.

I’m quite surprised at Eclipse, who managed to get the episode out after less than one day. I think I’m going to continue following Claymore in the subbed version now, unless Eclipse pulls a TV-nihon, somewhere in the middle. In any case, the caped guy also looks quite a few years younger, either that or it was a different guy. I’m not sure how their system works, exactly. How do they manage to find the Claymores, time after time? And is there one guy for every Claymore, is there just one of them, or are there a certain number of them, who all work for an amount of Claymore?

In any case, the guy calls Terese the 182nd warrior of the 77th class of Claymores. Whatever that means exactly, I have no idea, but she does appear to be the strongest Claymore who’s running around. In fact, she’s so strong that she never needs to use her Youma-powers in battle. Perhaps that’s why she didn’t turn as cold as Claire, but rather sadistic.

It’s interesting, I thought that Elena was the only Claymore significant in Claire’s past, but it seems that she first ran into Terese, who took her in for a few years. Then, at one point, Helena probably handed Claire over to Elena, and around that time, something happened to cause Claire to become a Claymore herself.

In the current timeline, I wonder where Terese is now. It seems that Claymores turn into youma whenever they use their youma-powers too much, but Terese just never uses them. Because of that, it’s quite possible that she’s still alive. But then again, I don’t really know how long it usually takes for Claymores to transform

Short Synopsis: The Youma in the church is finally found. Now all that’s left is to defeat it.
Good: The final part of the episode was touching…
Bad: …but also cheesy and predictable.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 7,5/10

The current arc of Claymore has definitely been interesting, but it’s been nothing special. This episode was mostly meant to bring Raki and Claire a bit more together, but they did this through a rather cheesy scene. Claire is about to permanently transform to a Youma when Raki comes to her and… well, I think you can guess what happens next. The fight itself also wasn’t really interesting. Okay, it did have a lot of blood, but I’d very rather much have the fights of Seirei no Moribito or Deltora Quest.

So, what was good about this episode? Well, the relationship between Claire and the two guards. At the end of the previous episode, I saw them as a bunch of idiots, but in fact, they’re just trying to protect their city, and don’t care whether they die or not. Claire was just as thoughtless as the two of them, by refusing to accept their help. I liked this. I also liked how the Youma turned out to be a corpse, instead of a monk. This just shows that they’re able to take any kind of form they please. Could they perhaps transform themselves to inanimate objects (like flowerpots, for example) as well? I doubt that, though.

Claymore definitely has potential, and I’m really looking forward to the arrival of Teresa, the rumoured turning-point for the manga. The current episode was nice, but when compared to the other episodes to have been showcased this season, it isn’t the best. I wonder if the rest of the series will change this.

Short Synopsis: This episode shows a mission in which Claire gets bothered by a couple of guys who don’t know who they’re dealing with.
Good: Claire’s acting was quite interesting.
Bad: The episode was nothing really special, though.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 7/10

After the previous episode, Claire gets a normal mission: killing a youma who’s been haunting a holy city. As Claymore aren’t allowed in that city, she decides to go undercover. For that, she needs to change her eye-colour, which is done with a special medicine, which suppresses her youma-powers, including the ability to sense other youma. I was surprised to see her acting-abilities. We often see a cheerful girl turn serious, but you don’t often see a serious girl turn cheerful (the only other example I can think of was Sheila from Mahou Shoujotai. Obviously, she had a bigger impact than Claire did ^^;).

Even though this episode did introduce a few new things, it wasn’t as good as the previous two episodes. Ah well, this series needs to build up as well. I read somewhere that the first volume of the manga only contains missions like these, while things really kick off with the second volume. I’m willing to wait for that.

The episode also ended in a cliff-hanger. The medicine suppressed Claire’s youma-powers, she doesn’t have her claymore with her, the youma is exceptionally strong and furthermore Claire is getting bothered by a bunch of idiots who think they can slay youma. Overall, it’s nice, but a tad predictable as well.

Short Synopsis: Raki experiences Claymore killing each other for the first time.
Good: Interesting climax.
Bad: Raki does have his annoying moments.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 7.5/10

While El Cazador and Wellber no Monogatari advanced their plot in the second episode, Claymore used this to provide more explanation of the concept. It’s quite logical, as you can’t just explain everything about the Claymores in just one episode. It’s clear now why … was added in the story, because the viewer will be able to learn the same about the Claymores as he does. He also couldn’t have had another personality, otherwise he wouldn’t just have followed Clare, but the fact does remain that he’s annoying.

Okay, let’s sum things up a bit:
- Claymores have been infused with Youma flesh.
- They can go without eating for more than a week, though they do need to eat occasionally.
- Claymores get their powers by awakening their Youma blood.
- Eventually, Claymores turn into Youmas themselves. They will then be killed by other Claymores.
- When a Claymore has to kill another Claymore, she gets a black card, probably specifying the identity of that Claymore.

We also see the introduction of one new major character: Clare’s boss. He comes to her to deliver some new clothes for her, which got themselves a nasty hole in the previous episode. He uses that opportunity to give Clare a black card. The Claymore that has to be killed seems to be an old friend of Clare, which is why she’s shocked when she sees it. I’m not sure why the guy told Raki about all of this, though. What is he hoping to achieve by letting him see Clare killing a friend of hers? Sure, he’ll cry and stuff, though it won’t make him leave Clare or anything.

I quite liked the Climax, though. The clash between Raki’s and Clare’s morals was quite interesting, and still they both mourn afterwards.

Short Synopsis: Humans have been forced to coexist with Youma, who like to eat their flesh. In order to fight them, the Claymores appeared, after having themselves infused with Youma’s blood. Because of this, they’ve become feared as well, and everyone’s scared of them. Apart from one boy, that is, who has been saved from a Youma who killed his entire family by a Claymore named Claire.
Good: Knows its priorities for a fighting-series, nice art style, great ED.
Bad: Interesting, the first series of the new season with no bad points.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10

About two weeks ago, during my post about the 1500th comment, I made a little experiment, allowing people to vote on one series of the spring-season. That series would be blogged no matter what. The result: Claymore. No need for a quick first impression, since it’s certain that I’m going to blog this, and so far, I’m impressed. A lot.

At first sight, this series may be about the bloody fights. Sure, there is lots of blood shown, but so far it’s been more about the characters than action. We’ve got ourselves a young, naive boy who tries to make contact with the main character: Claire. As Claymore are half-human, half-Youma, they’re feared by everyone. This guy, however, isn’t afraid of them. Heck, he’s actually grateful. It’s promising to be quite interesting.

I also love Claire. Because most Claymores are either feared or hated, she’s got a really cold personality, due to the fact that she’ll never be able to become friends with anyone. I apparently spoiled myself a bit on Wikipedia, but this did give me enough information in order to follow the episode quite well, even though it was in raw. Most Claymores fuse themselves with Youma-flesh unwillingly, though Claire is the only one who volunteered. It’s for quite an interesting reason.

The Youma already have proven themselves quite clever, being able to take on the shape of humans and all. The art style so far has been really nice, and different from usual. I like it. The background music features all kinds of eerie tunes, perfect for an anime like this. It’ll be interesting to see where this anime goes. I wonder when we’ll see more Claymores appear.