MOTTMBS: Claymore, by Norihiro Yagi
Dec. 4th, 2007 09:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccastareyesThings that Make Becca Squee: Day 2
Okay, so all of my weekdays are having a theme. Monday was 'traditional fantasy' -- by which, I mean fantasy set in another world that happens to be pre-modern. Tuesday is 'stuff I just started reading' --- things where I'm not caught up to the current releases, but damned if I'm not enjoying myself. The first thing I'm reading right now that is making me squee is the manga Claymore by Norihiro Yagi.
I realize that there's probably a few people who don't follow comics, so, I should explain some vocabulary. Manga is the Japanese word for comics, and is usually used both to describe comics imported from Japan and stuff done in that style. Shounen manga is manga whose target audience is boys. It tends to have a reputation for being mostly about fights and action, with minimal focus on romance -- friendships may feature strongly, though.
Claymore was originally published in Monthly Shounen Jump in Japan, and is being published in the US under Viz's Shounen Jump Advanced series. The first reason I mention this is length -- shounen series have a reputation for being long. As a comparison, the two other series I have that were serialized in a shounen magazine, and both were picked up by Viz's Shounen Jump/Advanced Shounen Jump imprints were Rurouni Kenshin (26 volumes) and Bleach (21 volumes translated, 31 volumes and still ongoing in Japan). As of my writing, it's at 10 volumes translated and 13 in existence and it's the second-longest thing on my list. (Granted, a lot of stuff comes close, and a lot of stuff is still ongoing, and a few you can argue about semantics.) I've currently read through 6 and own 7.
That being said, Claymore has something most shounen manga doesn't have -- many and competent female characters.
The Setting
Is nothing special, which is unusual for me. Everyone knows I'm a sucker for worldbuilding. But, Claymore is pretty much set in a generic low-tech world. There doesn't seem to be much organization at greater than a town level -- the only city I've seen in six volumes is a holy city with a cathedral, and some kind of generic Christian-esque religion.
See, there are these monsters, called youma, who can hide as humans and eat people, and are pretty damn difficult for a normal human to kill, because they are stronger and faster than humans and regenerate. Which, come to think of it is probably why there isn't much intent on building cities -- youma would find them to be lovely targets.
As the only defense normal humans have against youma are the Claymores, an organization of loose guns for hire that are strong enough, fast enough and tough enough to kill them. The reason the Claymores -- named for the ginormous swords they carry -- are able to do this is because they are part youma themselves. As a result, they have freaky silver eyes that change to gold when they fight, and if they use too much power or go for too long, they become monsters themselves, and have to be killed by their companions. Most people don't really like or trust them, except when they are killing things that eat them -- as a result, Claymore have a strict 'no killing humans, no matter what they do' policy, to keep any level of tolerance.
For reasons only barely touched on by the series, men tend to quickly flip out and start killing people -- women last a lot longer, so the Claymores themselves are all women (though the organization appears to be run by men). (For the record? The explanation had a lot of sexual innuendo. I don't know if it's because I've got a dirty mind or that was an intentional reading.) Thus, explaining why most of the main characters are women. Surprisingly, there's not a lot of gratuitous boob and panty shots, and the Claymores actually seem to wear semi-sensible armor for manga characters, even considering they regenerate. (It still hurts to get hit, and gives their enemies time to eat the bystanders.) I'd still give them a breastplate and whatever a back to a breastplate is, though.
The Characters
Clare: Clare is one of the Claymore. Turns out she was dragged around by a youma as a wee one as bait, so was pretty messed up. She latched onto Teresa, the Claymore who kills the youma, and one of the most powerful in the organization. The two make an unlikely duo. However, Teresa does the forbidden and kills a group of bandits menacing Clare, and several Claymore are sent to hunt her down. This doesn't go well -- one of the Claymore, flips out, transforms into a monster and kills the rest (Teresa and the others sent to kill Teresa). Clare swears revenge and becomes the first actual volunteer for the whole process.
All right, here's where I admit that I have a thing for characters trying to balance their human and non-human sides. Clare knows she's slowly transforming into a monster with every fight she enters, most 'normal' people fear her, and her sisters in arms are either going to get killed trying to kill monsters or when they get to close into becoming monsters themselves. Yet, she still takes in Raki and shows some degree of kindness towards him. Plus, Teresa and li'l Clare is really sweet, and there's interactions between female characters and it's so cool.
Sorry.
Raki: History repeats itself with Raki and Clare. After a youma kills his parents and takes the form of his brother, Raki gets kicked out of his village for being cursed. He ends up chasing down the Claymore who killed the youma -- Clare -- and talking her into tagging along. He even offers to help her by cooking for her. Honestly, he's a sweet sidekick character, and he makes Clare a lot more human in return, which helps a lot with her characterization. I don't think I'd like either as much alone. It's especially neat as a role reversal -- normally it's the female character bringing out the humanity in the male.
The Plot
It's decent, for a shounen manga -- meaning, be prepared for long fight scenes that look a lot better when animated. After setting up Clare and Raki's relationship, and going into Clare's backstory, the series then launches into an interesting discovery -- Clare and four other Claymore realize that they might have transformed more than they thought, and the organization is trying to subtly do them away by sending them against things that outclass them. Currently, things are in a 'we have to investigate' mode. So, the plot's a bit slow, but still interesting.
On Amazon
On Barnes and Noble
There's also an anime series, currently being fansubbed -- I've seen the first couple of episodes. It does have one of those 'Oh, crud, we need to wrap up the anime, but the manga hasn't ended yet' endings, according to Wikipedia. Apparently, around episode 20 of 26, the anime writers figure out they need to start making up a conclusion.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
yuuo, since I know you'll care about this, Clare is voiced by Houko Kuwashima (Filia) and Teresa is voiced by Romi Paku (Ed). (I don't recognize Raki's voice actor.)
Okay, so all of my weekdays are having a theme. Monday was 'traditional fantasy' -- by which, I mean fantasy set in another world that happens to be pre-modern. Tuesday is 'stuff I just started reading' --- things where I'm not caught up to the current releases, but damned if I'm not enjoying myself. The first thing I'm reading right now that is making me squee is the manga Claymore by Norihiro Yagi.
I realize that there's probably a few people who don't follow comics, so, I should explain some vocabulary. Manga is the Japanese word for comics, and is usually used both to describe comics imported from Japan and stuff done in that style. Shounen manga is manga whose target audience is boys. It tends to have a reputation for being mostly about fights and action, with minimal focus on romance -- friendships may feature strongly, though.
Claymore was originally published in Monthly Shounen Jump in Japan, and is being published in the US under Viz's Shounen Jump Advanced series. The first reason I mention this is length -- shounen series have a reputation for being long. As a comparison, the two other series I have that were serialized in a shounen magazine, and both were picked up by Viz's Shounen Jump/Advanced Shounen Jump imprints were Rurouni Kenshin (26 volumes) and Bleach (21 volumes translated, 31 volumes and still ongoing in Japan). As of my writing, it's at 10 volumes translated and 13 in existence and it's the second-longest thing on my list. (Granted, a lot of stuff comes close, and a lot of stuff is still ongoing, and a few you can argue about semantics.) I've currently read through 6 and own 7.
That being said, Claymore has something most shounen manga doesn't have -- many and competent female characters.
The Setting
Is nothing special, which is unusual for me. Everyone knows I'm a sucker for worldbuilding. But, Claymore is pretty much set in a generic low-tech world. There doesn't seem to be much organization at greater than a town level -- the only city I've seen in six volumes is a holy city with a cathedral, and some kind of generic Christian-esque religion.
See, there are these monsters, called youma, who can hide as humans and eat people, and are pretty damn difficult for a normal human to kill, because they are stronger and faster than humans and regenerate. Which, come to think of it is probably why there isn't much intent on building cities -- youma would find them to be lovely targets.
As the only defense normal humans have against youma are the Claymores, an organization of loose guns for hire that are strong enough, fast enough and tough enough to kill them. The reason the Claymores -- named for the ginormous swords they carry -- are able to do this is because they are part youma themselves. As a result, they have freaky silver eyes that change to gold when they fight, and if they use too much power or go for too long, they become monsters themselves, and have to be killed by their companions. Most people don't really like or trust them, except when they are killing things that eat them -- as a result, Claymore have a strict 'no killing humans, no matter what they do' policy, to keep any level of tolerance.
For reasons only barely touched on by the series, men tend to quickly flip out and start killing people -- women last a lot longer, so the Claymores themselves are all women (though the organization appears to be run by men). (For the record? The explanation had a lot of sexual innuendo. I don't know if it's because I've got a dirty mind or that was an intentional reading.) Thus, explaining why most of the main characters are women. Surprisingly, there's not a lot of gratuitous boob and panty shots, and the Claymores actually seem to wear semi-sensible armor for manga characters, even considering they regenerate. (It still hurts to get hit, and gives their enemies time to eat the bystanders.) I'd still give them a breastplate and whatever a back to a breastplate is, though.
The Characters
Clare: Clare is one of the Claymore. Turns out she was dragged around by a youma as a wee one as bait, so was pretty messed up. She latched onto Teresa, the Claymore who kills the youma, and one of the most powerful in the organization. The two make an unlikely duo. However, Teresa does the forbidden and kills a group of bandits menacing Clare, and several Claymore are sent to hunt her down. This doesn't go well -- one of the Claymore, flips out, transforms into a monster and kills the rest (Teresa and the others sent to kill Teresa). Clare swears revenge and becomes the first actual volunteer for the whole process.
All right, here's where I admit that I have a thing for characters trying to balance their human and non-human sides. Clare knows she's slowly transforming into a monster with every fight she enters, most 'normal' people fear her, and her sisters in arms are either going to get killed trying to kill monsters or when they get to close into becoming monsters themselves. Yet, she still takes in Raki and shows some degree of kindness towards him. Plus, Teresa and li'l Clare is really sweet, and there's interactions between female characters and it's so cool.
Sorry.
Raki: History repeats itself with Raki and Clare. After a youma kills his parents and takes the form of his brother, Raki gets kicked out of his village for being cursed. He ends up chasing down the Claymore who killed the youma -- Clare -- and talking her into tagging along. He even offers to help her by cooking for her. Honestly, he's a sweet sidekick character, and he makes Clare a lot more human in return, which helps a lot with her characterization. I don't think I'd like either as much alone. It's especially neat as a role reversal -- normally it's the female character bringing out the humanity in the male.
The Plot
It's decent, for a shounen manga -- meaning, be prepared for long fight scenes that look a lot better when animated. After setting up Clare and Raki's relationship, and going into Clare's backstory, the series then launches into an interesting discovery -- Clare and four other Claymore realize that they might have transformed more than they thought, and the organization is trying to subtly do them away by sending them against things that outclass them. Currently, things are in a 'we have to investigate' mode. So, the plot's a bit slow, but still interesting.
On Amazon
On Barnes and Noble
There's also an anime series, currently being fansubbed -- I've seen the first couple of episodes. It does have one of those 'Oh, crud, we need to wrap up the anime, but the manga hasn't ended yet' endings, according to Wikipedia. Apparently, around episode 20 of 26, the anime writers figure out they need to start making up a conclusion.
yuuo, since I know you'll care about this, Clare is voiced by Houko Kuwashima (Filia) and Teresa is voiced by Romi Paku (Ed). (I don't recognize Raki's voice actor.)
