Claymore Manga Part 2

Claymore Volumes 6-15 by Norihiro Yagi, (1984 pages in ten books)

Why, oh why does it seem the longer a manga series goes on, the more likely it is to fall onto the circular leveling track? For those that do not know what circular leveling is, it’s where the hero of the story trains and trains to beat people, and despite being at the top of their game they still come across a stronger opponent. This opponent either beats them, or right as they are about to die fighting, they discover this new power they didn’t know they had. Of course this allows them to win, and then they spend more books strengthening this power, until yet again it is not enough.

This cycle can continue indefinitely. It was why I stopped reading One Piece, though I am tempted to return to it. My main reason for disliking this cycle is the series gets kind of stale. Not that the series is bad, but I know what to expect. Every tenth book the hero gets stronger, the next three after that they learn to utilize their power better, by the halfway point they have mostly mastered their power. Around book *7 they can easily beat everyone they come across. *8 build up to the big fight. *9 the big fight where the hero faces death, or losing. *0 the hero wins/survives by gaining some power they never knew they had. Repeat as needed.

Now that my ranting is over, I can talk about the Claymore series itself. I have stated in previous blog posts, the Claymore series is about an origination of women soldiers who are half Yoma (a demon) and half human. This blend allows them to kill the true Yoma that exist in the world. This ability to protect humanity comes at a cost. Eventually a Claymore will be unable to control the demon within them and will lose control and become an Awakened, a super strong Yoma that has special powers. To prevent this most women sacrifice themselves when they feel the change happening.

For the most part the series follows a Claymore named Clare, but there are entire volumes where we don’t see her. In this nine volume run the focus is less on killing Yoma and more on the Awakened and Abyssal Ones. Abyssal Ones are former top ranked Claymores that failed to prevent themselves from awakening. They are extremely hard to kill and sort of act like demigods in the series.

While I can already see this forming into the infinite leveling, I still enjoy this series. Each Awakened being is unique in both form and power, and there is a massive underlying plot that I am quite curious about. I certainly will keep reading this series, though I don’t know for how long.