Claymore delivers exactly what it's name implies: medieval fantasy sword fighting - and lot's of it. However the heroine of this anime is not some wimpy girl high up in a castle waiting to be saved, but rather a claymore (referring to her huge sword) herself - a half-human, half-demon mercenary. That's right: half-human, half-demon. Which means there have to be actual demons too - and that's exactly what she hunts for a living. It's clearly far from the most cheerful anime of this season, if not the darkest of them all. But first - let's get on with a little introduction to Claymore's setting shall we?
Background
The world has become infested with demonic shape-shifting creatures called Yoma.In response a group of half-Yoma beings (all female) - called Claymore by the regular populace (due to their huge swords) - decides to hire out it's services to whichever town can afford them. These mercenaries scour the lands, defeating Yoma wherever they go. The Claymores are understandably unpopular with the locals due to their half-Yoma nature, but receive many assignments regardless of their background because they're also the only people who can distinguish between a human and a Yoma - not to mention the only people capable of defeating a Yoma.
Episode Summary
The episode starts with a Yoma which is feeding on a woman
it has just murdered. Suddenly a Claymore appears in the distance - and just as the Yoma charges towards her, she rushes in and slices it into pieces. Then it shifts to a small village which is suffering from a series of Yoma murders. As the village council gathers, the elder announces that they'll be receiving help from one of the dreaded Claymore. The council is outraged that the elder is letting one of the 'silver-eyed witches' into town, but is soon silenced by him.
Outside a young boy called Raki stands to meet his brother who just returned from the council meeting, when suddenly the town bursts out into an uproar as a Claymore approaches the village. Most everyone goes out to watch, but fearfully moves out of her way quickly. However Raki is interested and follows her around town - but she tries to warn him off. Raki doesn't listen and keeps following her - and when he calls her a Claymore she reveals that that is not what they call themselves. Towards the end of the day the two stop at the edge of the village. Both of them sit down and Raki tells the girl about how his parents were killed by the Yoma and only he and his brother survived the attack - although Raki passed out in between the slaughter. Before Raki leaves to cook dinner for the people that let him stay over, he ask the girl for her name - which she refuses to say, because he'll just forget it. Then he tells her that he'll treat her to some of his delicious cooking later and leaves.
Later that day Raki returns home only to find his uncle murdered by the Yoma - as he steps back shocked he notices his brother in a corner... except it's not his brother, but the Yoma. After a futile attack the Yoma grabs Raki and only moments before it kills him - they're interrupted from above by the Claymore (with golden eyes this time) crashing down through the roof, slicing off the Yoma's arm. After some screaming it charges at her, but she's too fast and slices it in half before it can react. Raki is left trembling - as the woman wipes off the blood on her sword and leaves the village.
Some time after the events earlier in the episode, Raki is wandering through the desert - having been outcast from his village for fear that he might turn into a Yoma too. He passes out - and wakes up shortly thereafter in an inn in a different town.
Raki hears from the innkeeper that he was brought in by a silver-eyed witch and immediately races out to find her. Just as he's about to give up, someone passes by an tells him that a Claymore was looking for him and waiting in the forest just outside the village.Raki makes it to the forest, but he finds an entirely different Claymore waiting there. It soon becomes apparent that this is not a Claymore at all since it refers to itself as a Claymore - Raki notices this, but it's already too late as the disguised Yoma grabs him and calls out to the real Claymore - the one who saved Raki earlier. She appears and the three find themselves in a stand-off situation.
The Yoma demands that the silver-eyed witch throw her weapon away, or she'll kill the boy. It's convinced that the girl will reply as it saw her carry Raki into town earlier. Surprisingly the Claymore does throw away her weapon - an opportunity the Yoma gladly utilizes to rush forward and pierce the girl with it's arm. The Yoma relaxes - thinking it has won the battle, but the girl somehow contracts her muscles to stop the bleeding and then pulls the Yoma along with herself over the cliff. When they reach the bottom the girl reaches for her Claymore and slices off the Yoma's hand - only to finish the job mere seconds later by cutting it's head in half.
After this fierce battle the Claymore drops down to her knee from her wound, but then proceeds to tend to it - pulling out the arm and somehow still stopping it from bleeding any further. Raki quickly rushes down and apologizes for what happened to her because of him - to which she replies that she didn't do it for him, but only because it was the best option at the time to kill the Yoma. He then says he doesn't care about any of that and he'll never forget her. She then asks him if he was outcast from his village... upon which she sees some sort of flashback of her past.
After the flashback she asks Raki to accompany her as a cook. Surprised Raki doesn't really know how to respond, but as the Claymore starts walking off into the distance he shouts out for her name. 'It's Clare' she replies - to which he smiles and runs out after her - on to further adventures...
Impressions
I hadn't heard about this anime before viewing it and was most pleasantly surprised. It's certainly one of the darker anime this season, with an unusually grim setting and plenty of blood flowing throughout the episode. The story seems really interesting and this episode raised a lot of questions - such as why the Claymore are all female, why does she decide to take Raki along with her and what was that flashback all about? It all seems very interesting - and I hope Madhouse will manage to keep it at this level and reveal those answers as the anime progresses.The visuals are certainly unique, with superb backgrounds - and rather unusual character design. I like the way most of the characters look, but the Claymore's faces look a tad off-putting and very similar to one another. Regardless the animation is splendid - with some really nice battles throughout the episode. The way Clare acts like an actual mercenary is pretty cool, with little regard for doing the right thing, but more for profit - so far. In terms of music Madhouse nailed it... I particularly liked the background music during the final Yoma fight of the episode - and hopefully they've got more similar such themes reserved for future episodes.
As for the opening and ending sequences. The opening song (Raison D’être) will be loved by fans of Death Note as it's done by Nightmare - but the animating is rather sub par. The ending sequence was fairly bland, but I liked the song (Danzai no Hana~Guilty Sky~ by Kosaka Riyu) a lot better than the opening song - it seems to suit the anime rather well. Neither was particularly good, but they weren't disappointing either - all in all just very mediocre.
In the end this first episode of Claymore managed to hook me pretty good. Whether it's the callous lead female character or the mysterious story so far... something just makes me want to watch the second episode right now - and all the others while I'm at it. Claymore has it's flaws - and might be a tad too serious and bloody for some people - but I'm loving it... and I'll certainly be covering further episodes of this new anime. As for my rating of this episode - I decided upon an 8.5 out of 10.
