Claymore – Episode 15
14 July 2007
This episode was pretty slow, calm, a bit of an interlude from the fighting, setting it up pretty nicely for the rest of the arc, which judging from this episode, will be, quite frankly, a blood bath. There’s a large, male awakened being, sticking robs into claymores to force them to awaken. I repeat, sticking ‘rods’ into claymores, while the sadistic mastermind behind this, possibly very sexually perverse, scheme sits and watches.
Plot Number forty seven, Clare, after her last mission went missing. After some really slow, monotonous conversation, the upper echelon decided that Clare could not have possibly killed Ophelia after she awakened. The higher ups at the organization are concerned nonetheless and sends Ermita and Galaeta out to get her.
Clare, cross dressing as a man, is searching for Raki. She stops a man and a woman pulling a cart of apples and asks if they’ve seen a boy with a sword, ‘her’ brother. The man replies that no, they have not and that she should try looking in a town up ahead, many people pass through there. Clare thanks them and the man tells him good luck. His companion calls him rude, thinking that Clare is a woman. The man replies that there’s no way it’s woman, seeing how he’s carrying a large sword and how deep his voice is. Clare, slightly concerned at her guise, lengthens her vocal chords for a deeper voice. She arrives in the town and checks into an inn. While bringing up dinner, the Inn keeper tells her that there are four claymores in town, and that she should be careful. Just then, the four claymores past the inn, their steel shoes clicking against cobblestone streets. Judging from their numbers, Clare concludes that they’re an Awakened Being hunting party. She spots a short haired claymore and deems her the single digit member of the party. She thanks the inn keeper and pop a few yoki suppressing pills.
The next morning, Clare starts her search early, trying to catch the crowd at the market. Asking various people to no avail, Clare arrives at a large fountain and overhears a boy and a girl’s conversation. The girl points at the statue and says that they’re Clare and Teresa. Clare stops, a bit shocked, and remembers Teresa’s words, they were named after the twin goddesses of love. The girl goes on to say that a boy asked her which one was Clare and after telling him which one was, he suddenly got very happy. Clare immediately goes over to ask the girl when they saw the boy. The girl replies that he was covered in wounds and it happened about ten days ago, the boy probably left town already. A bit disheartened, Clare thanks them.
Meanwhile, caught in a sandstorm, Raki continues his own journey, vowing to see Clare again.
A member of the Awakened Being hunting party, bloody and missing a limb, stumbles through the town, scaring the villagers and asking for someone to help her comrades. She drops her sword and collapses, Clare catching her in time. The dying claymore mumbles something about how there was something different and how they seemed organized. Clare asks if the awakened being did this to her, the claymore realizing that Clare was one of them, tells her to go save their comrades and then dies. Clare, obviously going to off to kill the awakened being, begs the villages to bury the claymore as a human and leaves.
The three other claymores in the hands of the sadistic demon child and her partner, Duff, are being tortured. The child instructs Dff to add another ‘pole’. Duff pulls a pole from his body and skewers Jeane, number nine with it. Withering in pain, Jeane refuses to awaken. While her comrade, a thirty something named Kathia capitulates in the face of immense pain and awakens. Pleading for her to hang on, Jeane is shocked as she awakens. The child applauds Kathia’s cooperation and tells Duff to see how she is. Duff transforms as well, shocking Jeane even more. The two awakened beings attack each other, Duff reporting to the child that Kathia wasn’t good at all and very weak. Disappointed, the child tells him to get rid of her, seeing how they need a single digit after all, she turns her focus back to Jeane.
Clare approaches the mountains and is stopped by a band of youma. She leaps to avoid their attacks and falls for their trap, two flying youma attacking her in the air. With Irene’s arm, she dispatches them easily. She slays the rest of the youma, asking them before they died what they were up to, being organized and acting out of character. One of them replies that whether she wanted to or not, she was going to find out. Duff, back in the cave, senses her arrival. The child notices as well, commenting that her small yoki meant she was a low number and probably useless, she sends Duff out to do whatever he wants with her. Excited, Duff leaves.
Preview “The Witches’ Maw Part II” One of the screens got lost, eh. Anyways, I’m predicting a blood bath, total, gory, skinny girl in white body tight suit slaying large demons with large swords. It’s one hell of a set up, I’m expecting a really good fight.
Impressions As I said before, this episode was slow, almost a rest for the characters, the viewers and the animators. It’s not very exciting, but action, action and action gets somewhat boring after a while. It’s only natural that after such an ordeal there’d be a quiet episode. This episode was like an air in a suite, a pause, a breather, cigarette break, coffee break, snack, nap, time to inhale the fresh air before diving back into monster slaying action with subtle yuri undertones.
Clare as a man was funny. I don’t understand why putting up your short hair makes you look more like a man. Girls put up their hair, men do not. I’d say she looked more like a man without the ponytail than with, but what can you do? I’m glad Raki got a two second scene in this episode. The supposed romance between Clare and Raki was the reason I started to watch it, even if it was a really weird relationship. Apparently, I’ve said this many times before, it’s supposed to be a girl on girl thing, hence the reasons the entire organization is made up of females. Their attempt to build a sibling relationship between the two is rubbing me the wrong way. It might’ve been so in the manga, but the impression from the anime is that Raki is totally infatuated with Clare for saving him and that Clare has least has some feelings for the kid.
Duff and the nameless, sadistic demon child struck me as one of the funniest villain and sidekick pairs ever. The fact that he pulls ‘rods’ from his body and sticks them in other girls while the demon child watches, the fact that the claymores are all screaming out in pain and how much pleasure he takes in twisting his rods and ramming more and more of them into his captives…Such sexual innuendo, or is it just me? Anyways, I wonder if that demon girl has an awakened form. Apparently, the awakened being that attacked Ophelia, Raki and Clare back a few episodes was in the form of a small girl.
Another thing that concerns me, there are only forty seven active claymores, Clare being the lowest numbered. How fast does the organization produce their claymores? They’re dying by the handful, Ophelia, the three in this episode, maybe Jeane depending on how things turn out.
In any case, I’m ready and waiting for the giant bloodbath next two episodes. Clare better pull off some super cool, miracle and defeat Duff and that lil’ girl.
Claymore makes me sleepy, so I started calling it Claybore instead. I gave up after episode 7. If it ends well, though, I could possibly give it a second chance.
BrikHaus – It did slow down a bit in the middle, but I was determined to get to episode 12 to see Raki and Clare kiss. XD