Claymore Ep. 1

Disclaimer: I watched this episode last night after I got in from celebrating a friend's 21st. I may've been a touch inebriated, having indulged in a few cheeky drinks as the kid do these days, so I don't know how much to trust my shit-faced perceptions of the show.

Still, Claymore is pretty cool (when drunk).

Art-wise, Claymore has a sharp, lucid style that I really like. Character design is lovely; quite high-brow shonen fantasy stuff with lots of quirky minutia. The colour pallet is fantastically vibrant, fostering a broody, murky atmosphere that goes a long way to accentuate the success of the show's tone and mood.   

Yet I'm well aware that, while having a solid reputation, Madhouse do suffer from the old 'tend to tart up their first episode and gradually diminish into passable mediocrity' (ref: NANA) that prevails in most modern anime. I'm not worried about it, though, because Death Note remained decent and Madhouse aren't prone to GONZO-style fuck-ups. It'd be naive to expect them to maintain the high quality found in this episode, however, which means no whinging in five episodes time, anime blogsphere.

As far as the non-aesthetical things go, Claymore lingered around Entertaining But Nothing Particularly Inspired, which probably explains why my drunk, thuggish mind had lots of fun watching it. Based on a Shonen Jump manga that I have no experience with it has most of the tropes you can imagine involved with fantasy action anime/manga. To be fair, though, I can imagine that its manga counterpart is wholly appropriate for VIZ's otherwise patronising Jump Advanced imprint; Claymore's anime adaptation is definitely more mature and serious than most standard Jump fare. And it works to its advantage, assuming there are no horrible surprises loitering around the corner. If they somehow manage to crowbar an irritating comic-relief sidekick/mascot into the show in the forthcoming episodes, then that's it: I'm dropping it with brutal disregard.

There's definite potential for that happening, which troubles me, but I'm giving it the benefit of the doubt for now. Claymore is what I need from anime at the moment: solid production values; interesting premise; mindless violence. Our stoic lead Clare looks to suffer from being too hardcore for her own good, which could get boring, but again I'm happy to give Claymore the benefit of the doubt. Simple, attractive fun.

 

Comments

[Lupus]

Woooo welcome back!

I'm not planning on watching this show - in my experience, no anime with a Shounen Jump background is worth watching, even if it's a not particularly Shounen Jumpy one.

[Hige]

Cheer Lupus. It's good to actually have shows that are worth writing about again!

And I know what you mean about Jump anime being a bit dire, but this one seems to be quite watchable. Not mind-blowingly great, but entertaining in a straight-forward, actiony sort of way. But then, I was impressed by NANA's first episode and that just got a bit wank as it went on.

Not placing a massive degree of faith in its success, but it's nice to have one more show to enjoy. I recommend it.

[Danny Choo]

I'm on the second episode so far and think its OK. Will see how the story progresses. The animation can be a bit rough in places though.