Claymore

I saw this manga featured in an infographic as a manga that exceeds in monster design, I got into this thinking it's going to be a fest of cool designs and interesting developments. And that's pretty much exactly what I got.

>Story
Starts off engaging and interesting, but as it goes along you start to notice certain consistencies and cliches within it. Like how every time our protagonist loses in a fight, someone else appears out of nowhere and helps hear deal with that, or how sometimes it relies way too much on dialogue during fights. These sorts of things didn't personally turn me off, because I started to notice them somewhere around 5-6 volumes into this manga. By that point, I was enjoying the plot development and the characters it had to offer enough to not pay too much attention to these consistencies. Other than that, the overall quality of the plot is consistently good throughout the whole manga.
What I personally didn't quite like however is the lack of worldbuilding. I mean, come on, it's a fantasy setting filled with monsters and an organization that hunts them, but why didn't the author show us around the actual world which they enhabit? There could've been lots of interesting and engaging stuff about something like cultures and people of each region? That would've been really interesting and something like this feels like a huge missed opportunity.
Despite that, the story definitely remains interesting to follow throughout the whole experience with this manga. The infodumps can get way too infodump-y sometimes, which leads to them feeling unnatural, the worldbuilding is kinda subpar, but other than that it’s alright. 7/10.

>Art
This is something I feel this manga exceeds at, as the art and the world here go together hand in hand. Each panel is drawn with this certain purity and cleanliness in the lines that it's hard to look away. And when that purity goes away in all the monster designs, it really makes them pop. That lack of purity is what makes them feel otherwordly and bizarre, which is exactly what they are. That is why I feel like the author really hit that sweet spot between the artstyle and the world design.
However, as all good things are, it’s not perfect. For some reason, the hands of the characters are drawn way too big sometimes, and the “sameface” phenomenon is pretty bad. Also, I feel like the author could take some lessons from Kubo on uniform design, because it looks practically the same on every character, apart from the little Claymore symbols on them. As a result, character designs can feel a bit repetitive. But I feel like those issues aren’t going to ruin your enjoyment with the art, since they start to seem insignificant when compared to everything else that’s amazing about the art in this manga. 9/10.

>Characters
Some are interesting, some are flat. Most of them are given backstories, but their personalites themselves are pretty ordinary. The interesting ones to me were the MC, Teresa and Priscilla. The rest? Not that much. They're not that BAD as characters per se, they're just really... bland. It's like the author didn't concern himself with giving these characters some more life besides being an acting point in the plot all the time. Also, I think post-timeskip is the weakest in terms of characters, because the mangaka adds way too much filler ones, not bothering to properly develop them. But, I guess, it's a problem in most shonen, so what can you really expect? 6/10.
[SPOILER]
Also I can’t necessarily say I agree with the author’s decision to have a character with this phenomenal design (https://i.imgur.com/PGabpSM.jpg) job to a literal corpse.
[SPOILER END]

>Enjoyment
I definitely did enjoy this manga. It's just so interesting and engaging to look at, following this kind of story in this kind of setting with this kind of art just takes my breath away sometimes. And I feel like the synergy of these three aspects is what really makes the manga tick. 9/10.

>Overall
I feel like this manga was pretty great. It's nothing that deep or philosophical (well, like most shonen), but it's fun enough to read to keep the reader's attention all the way through to the end. 8/10.

Yet another manga with a decent setup that ends up being plagued by more and more questionable direction as the story goes on. It feels like the author lost sight of what they wanted this to be halfway through writing it, and then just decided to milk the final conflict for 50+ chapters. If you are just looking for something with cool spectacle fights and badass characters, this is a pretty good choice. If you want a fulfilling story with developed characters, stay away.

Story (3):
This manga started with a mildly interesting story that took a while to get off the ground, but ran into some severe story and balance issues during the final "arc". That's in quotes because it's hard to even call it an arc, with it taking up what feels like the entire last half of the series. Let's not get ahead of ourselves. The initial premise of a bunch of badass female warriors fighting demons is interesting enough to carry the story for the beginning chapters. The first few arcs keep a good pace and don't overstay their welcome, with the author effectively fleshing out backstory in the Teresa arc while still delivering on the promise of badass women killing demons. This pace continues well into the midsection of the story, and the slowly unfolding plot of the organization's goals had me excited for each revelation from the main cast. The fight scenes also ramped up in intensity at a good pace, with multiple moments where I genuinely didn't know what the outcome of a fight would be.
All of this changed after the Pieta arc, as the main cast's plot armor grew exponentially, and so did the ridiculousness of the fights. Don't get me wrong, spectacle fights can be enjoyable given the right context and story. However, after building a gritty world where these warriors have to fight tooth and nail for the good of humanity (risking their own humanity in the process), the tension evaporates quickly when the fights devolve into deus ex machina-isms and countless times where the limits of the warriors powers are seemingly arbitrary. There are so many fights where someone hits the limit of their power out of nowhere after wiping the floor with the opponent whenever the author wants to switch up who is winning in the fight, or someone pulls out an unseen special move to win the fight because they hadn't reached their quota of badass moments. There is also the problem of over-explanation, where during every fight there is a convenient bystander that explains people's abilities and what happens during the fight in mind-numbing detail. Wasn't this published in Shonen Jump Advanced? Why does the author feel the need to explain every minute detail after showing it in the art just a few panels ago? This problem only grows as the series progresses, with the explanations actually becoming necessary to describe the ridiculous deus ex machina moments in a hand-wavy fashion. Needless to say, it became increasingly difficult to get immersed in the fights after the midsection of the story.
About the final conflict. By chapter 100, all of the pieces are in place for the conflict to climax and be resolved. A few times around this point I would look at what chapter I was on and think to myself "wow, there are so many chapters left, I wonder where the story will go after this arc?". The answer was, sadly, nowhere. This conflict starts, stops, starts again, runs around in circles a few times, and then ends after an arduous slog of adding more and more unnecessary characters and battles throughout. The actual final battle is a joke too, like it was one final "f*** you" on top of all the moments when a stupidly powerful person shows up and undermines the abilities/efforts of everyone else. Also, the last two pages of the last chapter... really?

Art (7):
The art is pretty hit or miss, especially in the beginning. Character's lose their nose from certain angles, and sometimes look like they just got punched in the mouth with how swollen their lip is. This mellows out as the series progresses, and wasn't a big issue for me as the main tour de force is the design of the Awoken. These beautiful monstrosities really carry the series towards the end, with the story getting boned just for an excuse to show more cool fights with them. There is a clear HR Giger influence that works really well with the tone of the series. Speaking of tone, the generic backdrops of medieval towns and random forests aren't interesting, but they do add to the desolate vibe given off by the rest of the art. The warrior design works alright, they all look pretty similar excluding hairstyles, but it makes sense given the plot. This limitation forces the author to use different means to differentiate warriors from one another, which we will get into later. The other humans are generic looking, but that's fine as they aren't the main focus. Actual fight scenes are good, not amazing, but they do their job. Sometimes it's hard to tell what's going on, but like I said in the Story section, there's always someone present to explain what's happening. As a side-note, I vividly remember the 2-page spread of Clare in chapter 39, with all the cuts going through the water... that was awesome and definitely a high-point. Overall, the standout here is the design direction of the Awoken, especially the Abyssal ones.

Character (7):
Like the story, this starts off on a good foot, but gets shaky as the story progresses. As stated earlier, the same-y warrior design forced the author to give the characters personality and backstory, which he did effectively until a little past the half-way point. Before that point there were some interesting interactions between the feared Claymores and the normal humans, and Clare was slowly but surely developing and understanding herself. The other characters and their motivations were touched on enough to satisfy and build out the cast. After that point there were so many different warriors that it devolved into the new characters just being "female with the XXXX ability". The main 7 were fleshed out and stayed prominent enough to suffice though, so it wasn't a big deal. They shined the most when interacting with each other. This was something that was done well, but sadly not often enough, as by this point the majority of the scenes were just one fight after another. Everyone besides Clare and Raki don't develop much, but they start out distinct enough for it to work. Clare's development is fine, with her understanding more and more about herself through her fights. Raki changes the most, but he is still one of the more shallow characters with him developing from generic person to different generic person. The "romance" between two of the characters felt forced and kind of weird, I think it would have been better if it stayed more like the familial relationship it was in the beginning... but this is just personal taste. I also want to point out that I appreciate the author not over-sexualizing the characters and not falling into the trap of making this a r*** fantasy. The villains are kind of meh, with the most interesting one getting killed off in the most unceremonious way pretty early on. That was a very disappointing moment.

Enjoyment (4):
I was enjoying this more like a 7 in the beginning, sometimes peaking like an 8, but this nose-dived pretty hard after the midsection. As stated in the Story review, it became more and more difficult to get into the fight scenes, which heavily impacted my enjoyment overall as the fight scenes make up the bulk of the last half of the series. All of the random fights injected in the last half also slowed the story waaay down, making me dread the inevitable moment when the bad guys pull out the 5th ace up their sleeve. Again, if you don't mind a weak story and can appreciate cool fights, you'll enjoy this a lot more than I did.

Overall (5):
Claymore was disappointing, not awful, just disappointing. I really wanted to like it, Clare and the Awoken are so cool, but it just dragged on for so long... much like this review (lol).

If you read this far, thank you :) I'm not sure what compelled me to write this, but what's done is done. Feel free to add me as a friend or message me if you want to talk about this, criticism and disagreement welcome.

claymore is a story about female warriors who take on the flesh of demons called yoma and become half yoma. this warriors are referred to as claymores. after a claymore warrior reaches their limits their demon flesh takes over their bodies and they become awaken beings. although all yoma look the same the awaken beings are all unique and fantastically drawn. the story has a lot of twist and a great plot. what i do have to warn you about is the fantastic characters. this manga is filled with great characters that the author has a habit of killing off. only character who is safe in this manga is the main character clare, everyone else could die at any moment. that is the only thing that bothers me about this manga, other than that it is fantastic

I love this manga from stunning art work, its characters, the plot development, the Medieval setting, the action scenes and not forgetting the horror fantasy, revenge and romantic elements for me this is a perfect read and found myself purchasing the entire collection very quickly as could not wait to pick up the next book.

The story follows Clare a young Claymore (a half human half Yoma high breed warrior) fighting to protect humans from Yoma (Monsters) for the organisation. This where she meet her future travel companion and romantic interests Raki a human kid (probably more from Raki side).

The story then expands out looking at back story’s and other characters past and present. Including what the organisation is all about.

Overall with all the twist and turns and the above mention make this a great read.

If you have seen Claymore the anime series then would recommend you read the manga as it is a level above.

But even if you have not if enjoy good art work and plot development it could be that next great read.

This anime is simply perfect. You don't need anymore words. This manga has no single scene that will make anybody bored. Every single chapter is an extreme excitement and perfect. What makes me exciting is the part where this manga has the best power balance when fighting. Awesome plans and it's never cheesy or something like Waa!! I'm angry so I'm gonna release my hidden power or suddenly change into a strong hero. There may be a little but it has the reasons and it's not cheesy. Even Naruto fight is boring compared to this real thrilling fight scenes.

First of all i do not write much reviews or give anime/manga recommendations, but for this series i decided to make an exception as this is my favorite series of all time.Claymore has a lot of depth in the story, characters are well developed,fight scenes are well balanced and pacing of the story is perfect.If you want to read a manga with a serious tone, with absolute zero comedy and no fan service this one's for you.The one thing which i truly loved about claymore is that the characters are not over sexualised.
Claymore is a highly action oriented dark-fantasy manga with a great plot and amazing characters.It is not your typical shonen series where all odds are in favor of the protagonist and neither does it hesitate to kill off major characters, which is a good thing as it helps for a better plot development. It is dark and gory making it more like a seinen series.

Story - 9.5/10
As far as the story is concerned claymore was always captivating right from the start and developed the story very quickly.The first 10-11 chapters are not that impressive but they are not bad as it just gives you a brief description of the plot,characters and all the misery claymores have to go through. But it is not too long before you get hooked to this series.The only major problem i had with the story was in the second half as the story felt dragged at that point such as the appearance of Riful 2.0, which was not necessary. The second half is definitely weaker when compared to the first half as the humanity of claymores was the most important theme of the series loses some of its charm towards the end, but the final few chapters make up for all its flaws and the shortcomings of the series.The best thing about this manga is that the pacing of the story and fight scenes are very well balanced, making it extremely enjoyable.

Art - 9/10
The art style of this manga is beautiful. While during the first few volumes the art style is pretty average, but after chapter 60 onwards the art improves significantly and keeps getting better, which is commendable.The character design are also very well drawn such as the awakened forms of Isley,Miata,Riful etc.

Character - 9/10
Claymore has a large array of characters, not that it is a bad thing, but it is difficult to develop such a huge cast. As far as the main characters are concerned (The ghosts), they are very well developed.Clare ,the protagonist is a very compelling character and extremely likable.Her actions are justified and her character is very well written as she always blamed herself for the death of someone very important to her.Raki is more like a bystander and is fully developed by the end of the manga.Then there is Teresa, without a doubt the best character of Claymore.What surprises me the most is how within a few chapters i got attached to her, as in the beginning i didn't like her that much. She is the soul of the story and has a key role in the ending of the series. The major problem is again in the second half as with so many identical characters makes it hard to sympathize with any of them. The only characters i cared for in the second half were Clarice,Miata and Cassandra as they were well developed.

Enjoyment -10/10
Claymore was always very enjoyable and the good thing is that it is fairly short compared to other large mangas. So give first few volumes a shot before judging it.

Overall - 10/10
All in all there's no doubt that this is one of the best series i have read so far as i am not a big fan of manga reading. I don't know why some people have problem with the ending as it ended almost perfectly and to be honest it has one of the best resolution to an epic story. Claymore is not the best manga but it certainly has all the traits needed for a great series. This series always felt underrated to me as i think it should be rated higher. So i highly recommend you check this manga out cause it is worth your time.

This review is quite unecessary if it's main purpose is to advertise this serie, considering the amount of magnificent reviews already present. But in case you do stumble upon this indistintinguishable review; let me share my thoughts with you about << CLAYMORE >>:

Content: <Capricious> <touching> <thrilling> <upsetting> <comforting>

It's an outstanding tale with an unduly simple premisse, but riddled with psychological sophistication.

A constant struggle between <Body> and <Spirit>, <Logic> and <Passion>. A struggle that you, as the reader, will not be able to forego.

As said before, the premisse is simple. One might even say, inconsequential. The story revolves mainly around it's character and the world is given shape through their <narrative force>. In other words, the world doesn't shape or confine it's characters. Every relevant character is like a metaphorical lake. The surface layer is visible, the water might possibly be quite clear in some cases, but some are as dark and unfathomable as an ocean. The characters have clear traits set in stone, but are unpredictable and liable to change slightly or even radically depending on the situations each of them faces.

<Good> and <Evil> does exist , but is mainly given shape by your judgement, as the reader. Every side gets it's equally objective walk in the spotlights sharing their motives and main narrative drive with the reader. It isn't always all love and roses (Well... It rarely is rosy ^^) and these characters will confront you with your own moral boundaries and preferred course of action.

I personally felt like short bursts of intense reading, instead of a slower approach proved to be a lot more enjoyable and captivating. I feel like it is a story best not dragged out too long when it comes to reading it. If you give yourself too much time reminiscing over each chapter, it'll probably start feeling quite arduous continuing on. The finale, though, is more than worth it.

I can go on like this for awhile in a very unstructured manner, but let's keep it at this and if you feel like wanting to know more, you know where to find the <message bar>.

Starts like Berserk (with "The Witcher" elements I may say), ends like Bakugan/Bleach or so. Typical shounen, nothing special.

On it's start you may expect an interesting story in Dark Fantasy setting, but then it turns to be a typical shounen with all that unrealistic "power levels" like in some japanese RPG.

That's why I can't stand "The 7 Deadly Sins", "Overlord", "Goblin Slayer", "SAO" and so on, because of their unrealism and a lack of solid logic in plot. Don't think that "Claymore" is an exception.

It has a lot of similiarities with "Berserk" (Middle Ages setting, demons and demon hunters with big swords, eerie atmosphere), but don't expect the same interesting, logical and dark story. It's just another shounen, maybe a bit darker than a typical one.

A fantastic journey through the series. I'd say the story has two parts to it: Part 1, is back story, character introductions, and trying to move towards the second part. Part 2, is where the story blooms from the backstory, and Clare is on the path of revenge.

I read an instalment of this manga in an issue of Shounen Jump, and found the art to be quite unique. That's how I got into the series. The beginning few chapters were slow, and it made Clare seem like a Mary-Sue. If I hadn't come across this in the Jump Magazine, I'd say this manga wasn't going anywhere. But, knowing that the action was going to get better, I continued reading. The more I read, the more addicted I became to the series.

Norihiro Yagi sensei has some serious skill, I must say. The art was detailed to begin with, and as new characters were introduced, it kept getting more and more beautiful. It's amazing how much of a diversity Yagi sensei managed to create out of light haired females wearing the same armor. And the yoma, although some are repulsive, the detail and fine lines made it all bearable.

I'd definitely recommend. This is a manga that does a different take on things. It's dark, the art is fantastic, and everything is well crafted. Give it a shot! :D

Claymore, I believe, is not a manga you would read unless you were into shounen or somewhat unaffected by gore. The manga revolves around a fictitous country where there are monsters known as "yoma" which are part human. In order to combat these monsters and save the people, a mysterious organisation has created soldiers known as "claymores" (they fight with claymores too, which are a type of sword fyi). These claymores are half human and half yoma. The towns which need to ahve yoma exterminated call upon the organisation for help and pay them in gold coins. Towns that cannot pay are - let's say - destroyed and vanish off the face of the universe. Claymores are all female (males who were claymroes lost control of their yoma nature and in a process known as "awakening" become yoma). These females have silver eyes and unbelievable strength. Some have develoepd special abilities too.
The story's main protagonist is Clare, the "weakest" claymore, ranked #47 in the organisation, at the time of the present storyline. It details her adventure with a boy named Raki tagging along. She met Raki after saving his town from yoma.
My analysis of the manga:
The manga's story is sort of unsuasual in that the plot remains vague and unclear throughout the series. The characters have pasts that are not always touched upon and the reader sees little of the inner workings of the organisation. The adventure, however, is utter heaven for shounen genre fans. There is gore, however, so be warned. But in defence, it is light and in black and white. The art is quite well drawn and is really guite detailed. From judging based on the story and the art, you can see the mangaka has put effort in and some details are left out on purpose so don't be worried when you don't see everything. For me, the art was difficult to get used to at first but once you read more and you are immersed into its interesting storyline, the art is more than tolerable and quite "nice".
The characters, which are mostly female, do look rather similar although they still are able to retain their personalities and this is what makes them distinguishable. Their names are quite well though out and if you take a look, there are many deeper meanings. The characters are bearable. Personally, becuase this manga is quite "dark" the characters do need more oomph in order to give the series a little comedic relief. The battles and fights are great and the action just makes the series a great favourite of mine.
All in all, Claymore is a good manga and I would recommend anyone browsing for a new, non-echi manga to try reading this manga. I finished the series (100+ chapters at the time) in a day. This is just further proof of the enjoyment-level of the manga series! :D
Rating: 8/10 OVERALL

I just finished Claymore and it was honestly one of the best manga I've ever read. I love action, I also love shojo. I love a lot of different manga's and anime's but this is definitely one of my all time favorites. The story moved me. It never really made me laugh, but it made me feel. The ending was perfect. I would recommend this to anyone. Yes, some of the art work is a little vulgar, but it is also beautiful. It's gory and grotesque, but it's phenomenal. If you haven't read claymore, you should. You won't regret it, or read another manga quite like it ever again. (But this is just my, very biased, opinion.)

This is my first review, but I've read/watched a fair bit of manga/anime before.

My verdict is that it is overall something that is more than worth your time. I started and finished the entire manga in one day, so it was quite unputtdownable.

The story has a neat premise, there are monsters in the guise of humans, and a human-monster mixed race has been created to fight them. This is spiritually similar to others that you may have read -- like Attack on Titan, Tokyo Ghoul, Parasyte etc. It is set in a medevial world, and we explore the characters' life in great detail.

The first two thirds of the manga is superior to the last third, because it does seem that the story is dragging on. The first two thirds is super tight, and an intense read.

The art is quite fantastic, super impressive, absolutely superlative.

Claymore lost its way somewhere.

THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS
in the form of revealing the structure the story follows, because it's the primary reason for my score. No plot specifics will be discussed.

Several years ago I followed Claymore probably first in anime and then in manga, both making a fairly decent impression on me. I didn't like Raki or some other things here and there, but it was a pretty nice story with a respectable pace and, a rare treat, power-level explanations that actually made sense relative to each other to a good extent and meshed in well with the progression of the story. Overall, as a certain character in a well-designed sequence and final scene said, Claymore was "Magnificent".

I recently happened to look back and notice that Claymore had been completed at 159 chapters. The anime stopped at 61, and I had stopped somewhere in the low 80's, though I went back to 61 because my memory wasn't clear after that point.

My individual scores are:
Story (5)
Art (8)
Character (7)
Enjoyment (6)
Overall (6)

Up to ~61 or so it probably would've been solid 8 across the board or higher, but after that it simply drops the ball. Perhaps these numbers are still too nostalgic, as the chapters after 61 are more than one and a half times by numbers. It simply ceases to be an entertaining story.

First of all, Clare is no longer the main character. I have no problems with the new main character since I preferred her more anyways, but there is a shocking lack of explanation as to why the story suddenly changed all focus. Or actually, it might be more accurate to say that the story no longer has a main character after chapter ~61. It's simply characters doing things. Which I don't have a problem with either; just as it's not unheard of to have a main character switch in a story it's also not unheard of to switch from a character driven story (which is what Claymore primarily is up to ~61) to a plot driven story... but it doesn't do that either. Again maybe I am being nostalgic as to the quality of Claymore 1-61, but except for the "new main character" everyone else is just a caricature of what they were. One even becomes basically nothing more than a mouthpiece for explanation, it's almost like the author couldn't figure out how to make this group of friends argue or discuss something into conclusions so this one comes up or decides the final thing every time the protagonists are in any kind of pinch. Why? Who knows.

Except for a handful of chapters/scenes which are devoted almost solely to worldbuilding, the story really fails to explain what's going on or why we should care. Two of them in particular were particularly notable in their detail and length, but they all come back to one minor confirmation and one miniscule payoff at the end. From ~61 to the end, the explanations come less often, the opponents get stronger at what we're told is a ridiculous pace (but you don't feel it because there's no oomph to anything anymore), and their defeats become ever more unforseeable with the most disappointing of methods and finalizations to fights. Something appears once or twice for its original purpose, then goes away, then comes back to remind you it's there, then goes away permanently - this happens multiple times with multiple things. Sometimes explanations even come out of nowhere, with literal flashback chapters stopping the flow of things to tell you why this out-of-nowhere thing happened. Like most other things don't mind the use of such a device in the absolute sense, there's always new and unforeseen circumstances, but this just keeps happening and there is almost always no payoff. Why should I care about what's happening? Destruction of towns and people dying en masse and getting their guts eaten, yeah but that's with like much lower tier stuff and the premise of the story - what about all this new stuff? All I'm told is they're powerful, and this guy is more powerful, etc. etc. etc. Great. So what?

Nothing pays off, It's unclear how powerful something really is, allies and enemies seem to appear almost always out of convenience, working together or apart no longer has any particular meaning, the world means less and less because things are either going too fast or getting destroyed too fast, and we have some infodumpers who tell us "everything" or decisionmakers who somehow resolve all conflict and it's over.

That's what the ending feels like too by the way. There are a number of stories out there that are pretty bad in the middle and basically everywhere except for the beginning, major events, and ending, like a master writer filled out those parts first and handed the rest to interns. There are also a number of stories out there that are basically a series of short dramatic stories tied together by what's basically an excuse of an overarching plot. Claymore after ~61, on the other hand, is actually just terrible. There's one, or two, or maybe three scenes that are good tear-jerkers and the artist really knows how to do panel composition, but the buildup and payoff of those scenes happen over the course of +/- 3 pages at best. The rest is action scenes, which consists almost entirely of running or things blowing up or who knows what's going on where and who has the advantage when. Perhaps it is rude for me to assume, but it felt like the author cared less and less as it went along, because the life just kept escaping from the story, being replaced evermore by "this is what a bullet point on a checklist would think is a good idea".

There's caricatures of characters (except for maybe the "new main character" who is unfortunately not very well done either), some good ideas but no execution or payoff in story, the art was good and the monster design pretty amazing but that's about it.

I can't recommend Claymore. Maybe up to ~61 I can, I'd have to read it again to check what's on the other side of the nostalgia goggles - but unless one is trying to study monster design, one might as well watch the anime instead I think.

This.... This is the best story that I've ever experienced...

Story: 10/10
This manga has kept me at the edge of my seat and the more I read the more intense it got. There is no shortage of epic twists and literally breathtaking moments where my mouth was open without me realizing just from the sheer impact that the scenes in this manga had on me.

Art: 7/10
I usually try to adhere to this rule: "An anime or manga must have an amazing story and great art in order for me to give it a 10." I don't give 10s lightly, but... this story deserves nothing less. I just couldn't give it anything less than a 10 in general because of how much I've enjoyed this manga. But with that said I did have some issues with some scenes and frames. In some frames the backgrounds had so much detail that I didn't really know what was going on anymore visually and it wasn't nice to look at.

Even though the art wasn't that good in my opinion, the story and overall presentation of the entire story and concept were fantastic. And I dare even call this a masterpiece by my own standards, which I think of very few pieces of art, whether they are illustrations, anime that I gave a score of 10, manga, concept art or movies.

At the end of the day, if you like Berserk and Attack on Titan then here is your next fix.


Over out

This is my First time writing a Review for a manga so im gonna make it straight to the point. Claymore is an amazing piece of Art the manages to cover many story arks. There are many comparisons that could be made but nothing to stop it from being called Original.

Story:
The Story starts out with a Female Warrior (Claymore), just doing her job to defeat the arch enemy of Humanity. In the start we follow her through her daily life of doing her job and her interactions with those around her. The story then brakes off into 2. The story was kept fresh but true to its own origins are it pressed on into the later chapter and kept me wondering what was going to happen next as i delved into the next chapter anxious for more.

Art: The Art in Claymore is well done with using low levels of detail when necessary and extremely detailed at other times along with average levels of detail in between. The only flaw i have with the Art lies with character design as many of the Claymore's look very alike and were sometimes mistakenly of one or the other if you were paying full attention to detail. As there are many character with repeating appearances it can be forgiven for this however.

Character: The Characters in Claymore were well done in terms of individuality, each one had their own goals and reasoning behind what they do how how they go about doing them while also maintaining a connection with the rest of the cast.

Enjoyment: I highly enjoyed reading Claymore, much more than i expected as i bought it out of fear of it becoming unavailible in the near future. After ever volume i was eager to read the next and cursing my eyes for falling closed due to the lack of sleep.

Overall: Overall i would highly recommend this manga for anyone who enjoys any of these listed Genres: battle/fighting, horror, romance, monster, action, adventure. If you happen to see it in the store i highly recommend you get yourself a copy.

Had I written this review a year ago, I would have given it a 7 or an 8. But unfortunately time has not been kind to this silver eyed warrior. I loved this manga when I started reading it. But thanks to an uncreative story line and horrible translations, I have lost my passion for it. I still read it occasionally, but it is not one of my must reads. This is one case in which the anime was prematurely ended while the manga continues to this day. At first I was furious at the broadcasters decision but now I can see it was for the best. The story line is now so far out there there is little left of the original flavor.