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Episode Summary

The show begins with a monster (known as yoma) making a meal out of a human. A girl with a sword appears, and as her eyes glow yellow, she easily slices and defeats the yoma.

We shift to a village, where the townspeople have found the remains of another dead body, making that 6 dead total. In a town meeting, it’s revealed that there is a yoma in the village, but once yoma have disguised themselves as a human, it’s impossible to tell who the yoma is. They start arguing amongst themselves, and then the head of the village says that he hired a Claymore to come defeat the yoma. The others at the meeting raise objections, but the elder says there’s no choice and that Claymores are the only ones who can detect yoma when they are disguised.

Raki is waiting outside for his older brother, who tells Raki that a Claymore is coming and that Claymores are half human, half yoma. Then someone shouts that the Claymore arrived and Raki runs with everyone else to go see. Raki learns that Claymores are only female and are called silver-eyed witches. As the Claymore enters the village a lot of people whisper nasty things about her and are met with her glare.

Everyone runs from her as she walks through the town except for Raki, who runs up behind her. She draws her sword on him but realizes he’s not a yoma and sheathes it. He follows her around and tries to have a conversation with her, and she is surprised that he isn’t scared of her. She tells him that her organization has no name, and Claymore is what everyone else calls them. Later in the day she sits to take a nap, and Raki tells her that his parents were the first to be killed and that she can defeat the yoma for him. She tells him she is not here to assist with his revenge. He says he understands, and leaves to go make supper. He introduces himself and asks for her name, but she tells him he’d just forget it anyway.

When Raki gets back to the place he’s staying at, he finds the family dead. His brother had been eaten by the yoma that killed his parents, and the yoma disguised himself as Raki’s brother afterwards. He tells Raki that he has to leave the village now because of the Claymore, but he’ll eat Raki first. Just when it looks like Raki will die, the Claymore appears and slices off one of the yoma’s arms. She reveals that she could sense the yoma on Raki, and so if she followed Raki she would find the yoma. She slices the yoma a few more times and defeats it, but the terrible scene and the Claymore’s glowing eyes terrify Raki and she leaves him huddled in a corner.

Later, the villagers literally toss Raki out of the village because they are afraid he will also turn into a yoma. He wanders through a desert wasteland, and just as he is passing out he thinks he sees the Claymore from earlier. He wakes up in a bed in town, and is told he was carried there by a Claymore, who also paid for him to be there. He runs out in search for her and a villager tells him a Claymore in the forest was looking for him.

He gets to the forest and finds a different Claymore there. He thanks her for paying the inn and she says that they, the Claymores, had kind hearts originally. He remembers the first Claymore saying their organization has no name and figures out that this is a fake Claymore. The now revealed yoma uses Raki as bait to lure out the Claymore from earlier. The Claymore throws her sword away at the yoma’s request, and the yoma throws Raki away and attacks, putting a hole through the Claymore’s stomach. The Claymore maneuvers herself and the yoma towards the fallen sword and slays the yoma, and then her own wound heals itself.

The Claymore tells Raki that throwing the sword away was the only way to keep the yoma from running. As he turns to walk away she asks if he was thrown out by his village, remembering her own similar experience as a child. When he starts to cry, she invites him to go with her as her cook until he finds a place to stay. He agrees and asks for her name again, and she tells him it’s Clare.

Characters

Raki

Calophi: Through Raki has lost everything - his family, foster family, and a place to live - he remains pretty resilient and strong for someone put in that situation. He seems to be a fairly thankful and optimistic boy, and though he will surely have depressed moments, he will bounce back from those over and over. He will almost definitely stay a normal human and not receive any powers. I think that although he will continue to be targeted by yoma as Clare’s weakness, he will actually be her strength that allows her to fight even when the situation looks hopeless.

Clare

Calophi: Clare seems to have little emotions, but it is very clear that the yoma hit the money when it said that Claymore once had kind hearts since they are half human. It was suggested that Clare lost her little brother to a yoma and may see Raki as such. Her own terrible experience with getting thrown from her village - which most likely ended up with her becoming a Claymore - leads her to ask Raki to accompany her. It also seems that using her power to defeat yoma brings her pain and almost makes her lose control of her yoma half, which will surely come up in the near future.

Storyline Thoughts

Calophi: The storyline so far has been done a lot, you know, innocent kid being taken in by the antihero. I’m a bit worried that it will turn into a monster-of-the-week sort of format for a bit, but hopefully as we meet more of the Claymore a deeper plot will be revealed and the storyline will pick up a little.

Eurkos: Like Calophi said, it’s been done. Hopefully they drop something in to make it more interesting. Normally this is one I’d watch more for the action scenes. Deeper plot developments would be nice, but I have a feeling I already know what’s gonna happen. Seems like a pretty predictable setup.

Final Verdict

Calophi: The artwork and mood of this series is supurb. The first thing I said as I watched was that the scenery and locations were beautifully drawn. The action scenes are appropriately dark, also, and gory. It looks like it will be a fairly serious and somber show, which contrasts nicely to a lot of the other series that are out this season. Though it looks like the story might be a little “blah” for a while, I’ve also been told by Haro that it really picks up as you get further in, so with that in mind as well as my interest in what happens to Raki, I shall faithfully move foward to the 6-episode test with this series.

Eurkos: It passes. I’ll keep watching for now. Like I said in the storyline, it seems fairly predictable. I’m almost curious to see if it goes the way I predict or of it does something different. I’ll be happy if it does something different. I didn’t really have anything to add to the character parts that Calophi didn’t already say, so I don’t have anything else to say here. Normally a series at this point would be watched mainly for the action, but I’m still having issues getting used to the faces. They’re fine unless they to a profile shot, and then they look way too pointy. Almost like rat-people. We’ll see what happens.