Claymore – Extra Scene (Manga)
4 July 2007
When it comes to manga and anime, I’m there mainly for plot and characters. Since, from what I hear, the plot and characters of Claymore are identical in manga and anime, I’m not going to read through all of the manga. It’s, for one thing, going to spoil very nicely the rest of the anime, and for another too much work, it’s already 73 chapters and I’m going to have to start from scratch!
But, scanning through One Manga, I saw Claymore Extra Scene and decided to read it. It’s an extra scene, 30 something pages of scanlations about Teresa, I’m in!
The plot is pretty straight forward, Teresa of the Faint Smile, current number one, all out powerhouse is sent a black card from the current number two and former number one. At this point, I’m thinking the sender, number one, wants someone who bested her into end her life. I hit kinda close. Turns out, Rosemary really just wanted to challenge Teresa to a match. She’s already awakened though and the two are fighting it out. Teresa, I have to, is really bloody arrogant, but I suppose she has reason to be. So anyways, Rosemary after awakening, thinks she has the upper hand. However, as Teresa releases her yoki, Rosemary is easily defeated. As she dies, she calls Teresa a monster and Teresa replies, “Monster, that makes two of us.”
I thought it was a nice short side story. It didn’t tell us a whole lot about Teresa, but I suppose in comparison to her character when she meet Clare, you can see how it changed her. I liked the whole arrogance, superiority feel to her former self. It’s the confidence she has and that awe and fear she generates. She’s totally kick ass, not like Kamina from Gurren Lagann kick ass, it’s similar to Vicious from Bebop’s cool, menacing kick ass-ness. I’d compare her to Spike, but he’s just too damn cool. If I had to pick a character to call my favorite from Claymore, it’d be Teresa. Clare is runner up, with Raki. Then, from the characters I’ve been exposed to, would be Ophelia, ironically.
And a thing about yuri, heh. When I first started watching Claymore and learned the entire organization were girls and Raki, from the looks of it, was going to be the only male lead, disappointed me a lot. I really don’t swing that way, although I can’t complain. The girls, though I’m not that fond of the character design, are just as good at demon slaying and ass kicking as the guys. Maybe even better, because there’s a calmness to them that male heros don’t have, see Inuyasha, Naruto, possibly Bleach. And in another sense, it’s a bit refreshing to see instead of a mob of girls chasing after the hero, it’s one kid with a bunch of silver eyes, bleach blonde girls.