Claymore: Power, Monstrosity & and the Price of Humanity

What if the only people who can save you look more like monsters than the threats you fear? We dive into Claymore’s bleak, beautiful world to explore how a secret Organization forges half-human warriors, why townsfolk call them silver-eyed witches, and what it really costs to wield Yoki without losing yourself. Along the way, we pull apart the show’s stark palette and austere tone, showing how the lack of color is a feature—not a flaw—that keeps you on edge in a society stalked by shapeshifting Yoma.

We walk through Claire’s origin and the choice that sets her apart: taking Teresa’s flesh makes her one‑fourth Yoma, granting a wider margin of control and a terrifying upper limit she can touch without fully Awakening. That thread weaves into a larger conversation about identity, restraint, and revenge, with Raki’s presence anchoring Claire’s humanity. We also unpack the mechanics behind Yoki and Awakening, why early experiments with male warriors failed more often, and how the series uses fear to police both saviors and civilians. If you’ve ever compared Claymore to The Witcher, you’re not wrong—shared DNA runs through body-altering rites, social exile, and the moral math of becoming monstrous to slay monsters.

Then we get honest about adaptation. The anime’s infamous, anime‑original ending undercuts the looming threat of the Abyssal Ones and chops out critical journeys that the manga handles with patience and purpose. We lay out why the print story sings—better pacing, deeper stakes, true consequences—and why a modern, faithful reboot could thrive with today’s appetite for dark fantasy. Whether you loved the show’s brutal fights or bounced off its bleakness, there’s a richer narrative waiting on the page.

Hit play to hear our verdicts, our best watch‑or‑read roadmap, and where Claymore sits among demon‑slaying classics. If you enjoy smart dives into anime worldbuilding, character arcs, and adaptation pitfalls, follow the show, share this episode with a friend, and drop us a review telling us: should Claymore get a full reboot or remain a gray‑toned classic?

Chapters

• 0:01 Kicking Off And Why Claymore Now
• 0:47 Setting The World And The Organization
• 2:16 Art Style, Tone, And 2007 Context
• 4:08 Male Claymores, Yoki, And Awakening
• 6:22 Witcher Parallels And Intentional Grit
• 8:56 Fear, Skinwalkers, And Silver Eyes
• 10:55 Why Men Fail And The Allure Of Power
• 12:22 Anime vs Manga: Read Or Watch
• 14:25 Industry Detours And Madhouse History
• 16:24 Claire, Raki, Teresa, And Revenge
• 18:46 Claire’s One‑Fourth Yoma Edge
• 20:34 The Abyssal Ones And A Bad Ending
• 22:20 Can A Reboot Work After 18 Years
• 24:01 Classics, Gateways, And Genre Lineage
• 26:06 Final Verdicts And Closing Thanks

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:01

What up, gang? Let's talk about Claymore. Uh, this is one of those classics that you know what, for some reason I just never got around to actually watch it. But Together Guys keep talking about it. And uh, I heard that Claymore and some others was getting removed from Crunchyroll, but here's the thing. Uh me watching Crunchyroll through Prime Video, I can still watch those anime that got axed per se. So I don't know when it's gonna take full effect yet, but yeah. I just figured, you know what? Since that happened, I might as well go ahead and talk about it. So let's just go ahead and get right into it. Long ago, Yoma, these thick-changing demons, took form human form in to live in under the skies of human town. He they keep feeding on them in secret. And a secret nameless society has discovered a way to implant Yoma plus into humans to create hybrids powerful enough to defeat Yoma. A hybrid standard abilities include faster healing, limited effects, modification, the ability to detect Yoma and other hybrids, and overall enhanced physical prowess, allowing them to wield massive claymores for which they are named claymores. Get it? For reasons not divulged, only women are selected to be claymores. They are often chosen for implantation after being the sole survivors of a family attacked by Yoma. This ensures their loyalty and willingness to endure the painful hybridization process, and the society sends claymores to towns that can afford their fees to kill Yoma. The society is often stretched and harsh. The claymores who break the rules risk being hunted down by their fellow warriors, and the story of Claymore falls humans of a beautiful warrior Claire, who fights demons while struggling to hold on to her own humanity. Now, that was the premise. Let me just say, first of all, the opening theme song is decent. The artwork is fine for what it is back in the day. Sometimes the characters have this baby doll look on their face, and I'm not complaining. But compared to the anime of today, this one is definitely a product of the time. Really, I wanna say it was a lack of color for me. Like, I mean, I guess that was intentional, but at the same time, it's like everything just looks so it just feels like everything's the same color. You know, I don't know. Like, maybe I'm tripping, but that's just my impression, even though to be fair, this is me watching this anime in recent times after the anime was released in what? Uh let me chat real quick. 2007? Yeah, that sounds about right. That sounds about right. The action is satisfying, gets bloody and brutal at times, and I think plot-wise, anime such as Claymore paved the road for the demon-slaying subdrama that we're getting nowadays. You have this half human hunting demons, except there's no comedy to taste the cruel hard tones of series. Like straight up there, like none of that. Oh happy hugging and learning, bullshit. Nah, shit happens, people die, get over it. I I was like, hey, damn, like it's like, oh, we just go on to the next bullshit. Like, yeah, yeah, that happened, but don't worry about that. Just you just gonna have to cover um covering that buttercup, you know. Before I go any further, uh, cookie I said, how you feeling about Fleet Moore as of today?

SPEAKER_01: 4:15

I got a couple things real quick. Uh, first off, it's it's a very interesting premise that uh to have onto it. Um, so first thing is they actually do explain why it is that men are not chosen. They did experiment with men. Men was actually the first ones they tried to. Um, it is actually explained in the anime and the manga, but it's only like really brief, so it's easy to skip over onto it. However, it's there's a lot to say into this one, but I'll try to keep this beginning portion brief into it. Um, men play no role in the anime, but if you actually read the manga, men play a huge role in the story, actually. Both men and women do. Um, the anime for people who have read the manga, actually, even a lot of people who have not read the manga were they felt deterred from it because they said they didn't like the anime. A lot of people felt the exact same way that you felt, even as far as like the color themes, is so just dark and gritty. There's no little slight bit of comedy, it's just a straight dark anime, dark series, and stuff like that. Actually, that and that's all intentional. This series was made to specifically push into the harsh realities. Yoma was actually um they the mangaka wound up having a thing about it where Yoma was explaining how it's young how the Yomo was like the people who are eating away at us in society, secretly eating away. And we have people that rise up to protect us, but because that they rebel out, in order for them to be able to protect us, they have to be kind of monstrous themselves, also. The people are scared of the claymores because they have yokai in them, because they have this incident, and the issue is that with men and with the women, what can happen is that they have percentages that they're allowed to do. Like almost every claymore except Claire, Claire is unique, she's the only one that is one-fourth Yoma, whereas every every other claymore is half because of how they did it. Um I would go so far as to say that Claymore is the Witcher, uh, but for women instead of for men, like how the Witcher franchise is. It's pretty much the same process. It's a magical thing where they incorporate monster flesh into their body, and the process is literally very similar to the Witcher franchise into it, almost not an exact copy, but very close to it.

SPEAKER_00: 6:48

Um, I was thinking it, but I didn't want to say it.

SPEAKER_01: 6:52

No, no, that's that's actually on purpose. Um, that is actually on purpose, it's made um in close proximity together. When Claymore was written, it's around the same time that the Witcher franchise was first made. Um, as far as the video game franchise was first made into it, so it's actually similar on purpose. Um, so no, no, that's that's an extra thing to mention. The dark gritty tones was on purpose, is to make the series feel irritable. Um, some people are very familiar with Junjo Inji. Um, no, sorry, Junjo Iti, Pito. My wife is a huge fan of that mangaka. He makes nothing but dark, creepy, disturbing anime and manga. Everything is like you go from body harmor to mental disruption, all types of anything dark and gritty is Junjo does that. Um, and so this one, without going that far, was kind of a play onto that of taking on anime in a sense of just straight dark tones, similar to Ghost Michelle. Um, Ghost Nachelle has no funny moments to it, it is nothing but dark sci-fi fantasy of just talking about the harsh, cruel reality of things. The the color theme is specifically gray and dark tone in order to highlight the fact that it's supposed to feel irritable. You're supposed to feel a bit uncomfortable on edge because every character is on edge. All the townspeople are constantly afraid because like skinwalkers per se. Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_00: 8:24

That's crazy that you're saying that because I'm thinking uh ghosts in the show. Now that I think about it, like now that you bring that up, like crazy thing is, like, for the most part, I didn't really think about it, but wow, like uh Kusanagi, she's like the only one that's like have like color for the most part. I mean, there's there's there's a robots too, but I'm just saying, like, other than that, like most of the carriers, like and uh it's like they just it's bear, but they they just don't really stand out that much.

SPEAKER_01: 8:55

And they're not supposed to. This is a gray world. There's not like there's no pops of color here because everyone's nervous. The thing about this, anybody could be a yokai because these yokai pretty much like skinwalkers, they can hide out as anything. There's people where imagine you go to you take your child to because you got to work, you take your child to um this babysitter. You don't realize that the babysitter is a yokai and they eat your baby, or you take your child and then all of a sudden your child that child was playing in the backyard, a yo a yoma ate them and then disguised themselves as that child. The babysitter didn't know, so you go back, you go and you pick up your child and you go back home and you say, home and make a dinner today, and then boom, find out your child's a yoma, and they they've now attacked you and killed Junior and your family.

SPEAKER_00: 9:39

Did you mention how claymores are known to be uh silver eye witches?

SPEAKER_01: 9:45

Because no, no, that's part that's part of the um process. Go ahead.

SPEAKER_00: 9:50

No, but I was just thinking like um, because I know you're talking about the witcher, and I'm thinking like now that I think about it, they call claymore silver eye witches, so that kind of I mean, but then again, witcher don't witches have like golden eyes, but then again, with the claymores, when they're about to awaken and whatnot, then they have the golden eyes.

SPEAKER_01: 10:10

Golden, their eyes become more monstrous, and that's why it becomes scary. That's why people are terrified of them as well. So, yeah, that's also the reason why they don't do male um claymores anymore either, is because the issue is that when you do this process, you're incorporating the Yoma DNA into them. These that that's why people are terrified of them because they're like, you're willing to go through this to make yourself a monster. And a lot of these claymores try to defend themselves, like, I'm not a monster, I'm not a monster. No, you realize you are a monster, like you you really are is the problem, and that's where it's like the biggest grimace into this. Like, are you willing to become the demon to to save everyone? You know, sacrifice yourself for the better for the betterment of everyone else, but also understanding that risk that you could become full-fledged monster, also, because the more that the claymores use the yoma powers, the more they lose their psyche, their brain starts becoming more encompassed by the yoma DNA, it starts taking them over more, so they they only have a limited time. They're specifically told, just like with Witchers, the Witchers are told that once you go through this Witcher process, your lifespan is you may think it's extended, but realistically, you're going to die. And even if you don't die from going out fighting, you'll die because this process will deteriorate and destroy your mind and destroy your body. Like that's just the issue with that. You're you're going to die a horrendous death.

SPEAKER_00: 11:40

That is the same issue that these claymores go through, is that the edge runner.

SPEAKER_01: 11:47

Yes. So that's the issue is that you're either going to die in battle or you're going to die by turning into a Yoma. And when you turn into one, then um a fellow Claymore is going to have to kill you. And the thing that they also is mentioned more in the manga, but not in the anime, is that the Claymores keep their ranks. Uh, not the rate, they're able to keep their numbers because whenever a claymore dies, they take someone and make them a claymore. Not all those claymores are willing. A good portion of them are not willing. Some of the higher ranking ones, because they have higher determination, they have higher willpower, that's what makes them stronger, but they still need to have some claymores. Remember, there's there's a ranking system of a hundred. Every single time.

SPEAKER_00: 12:35

And we decided to give you a spot in our um organization. But but but I don't want to like, well, we're not giving you a choice. We'll break someone with us married.

SPEAKER_01: 12:45

So a lot of a lot of people did not, a lot of these women did not have options, they were forcibly taken. Just like uh what uh um thing, um, Black Widow from Marvel. It's the same thing. A lot of these girls were you know they would take specifically orphan children, um, orphan little girls, and take them. So what they found is that because men are because men in this world are very different, they're more emotional than a lot of women are.

SPEAKER_00: 13:13

There was something in my note that I wanted to mention now that you got on to the point. I like how they said that uh the thing about uh Yoma and Claymore is having uh demonic energy called Yoki and whatnot, they can awaken, becoming awakened beings. And the act of awakening is likened to the feeling of sexual climax. So while both male and females can exist in the past, only women were successful in doing that uh to resist um becoming awakened while males are more inclined to awaken. So that's why they stopped doing male play more.

SPEAKER_01: 13:51

Yep, that's exactly why. That's because men would get so incorporated by the power, get incorporated by the feeling of it, and that's what became a big issue. And so one of the biggest things I also even I would highly mention is this one. I I hate and saying it, I love the animation style of the anime, but I would literally say don't watch the anime, just read the manga. And I realize in some of our reviews, I'm saying that a little bit more now, which is a bit disturbing, but it's the honest truth into this. This is one that I would not recommend the anime.

SPEAKER_00: 14:24

No, no, no. You know what, that is okay because it's like what I keep telling people on these reviews. Sometimes when you're not on them, but I keep telling people that look, the way I see it, anime adaptations, anything that's an adaptation, I consider a companion to the source material. So just like with these reviews, it's like us saying that, hey yo, like you can hear us talk about all you want to, but we're just gonna highly recommend you uh read the source material or whatever the source material is to see for yourself. So it's like the same thing. It's like even like I mean, I still like the anime for what it is, but that's kind of the point. It's supposed to encourage you to read the manga.

SPEAKER_01: 15:09

Ideally, but the problem is that there's also a lot of story um contest that gets cut out, like a good bit of story uh feels weird, like uh the last arc of the anime where they finally go up against the um against the girl that wound up becoming the awakened beast that Claire's been trying to go after.

SPEAKER_00: 15:27

Now you know those two last two episodes were anime exclusive, right?

SPEAKER_01: 15:30

Yes, that's what I mean. And so all of that stuff felt weird, and you're like, wait, this doesn't make sense. This is a that's not something just that felt off to the story, and that's that's what I mean about that. Even the journey for them getting there, there is actually a more to the story about how they journeyed to get to the north, but they cut that and made it almost like they fast traveled type thing. But it's like, why would you there's so much that's cut from it that actually is not necessarily like important to the plot per se, but it does help the the pacing of the story. It feels like it makes sense, it feels like you're really journeying along with Claire and the other Claymores and getting things through.

SPEAKER_00: 16:09

So it's like that's the anime wasn't catching fire, so we're gonna have to like wrap it up.

SPEAKER_01: 16:20

Pretty much, and that and that's what wound up happening is that it never got renewed for a second season. They never they never did anything for it because people were upset, they didn't like how it how things went, and then boom, it just fell off the face of the earth per se. And so it's like there's a bunch of people who just straight up is like, nah, the anime just they really kind of ruined it. Some people say the anime ruined it, some people say, well, because it became an anime, is why some people actually even decided to read the manga, so it still did work in some form of fashion. So the manga did get a chance to finish, but the anime just cut off on a horrible ending that's not canon, and a lot of people think that dang, this just had a terrible ending, and it's like that's not yeah, the anime had terrible ending, but not the story itself, the actual story was significantly better, and it's it's terrible, it's terrible to have to say into that aspect because even when I was watching it, the and to me, the animation is beautiful, the story felt beautiful as I was going through, minus there was some pacing issues that I didn't realize was anime only pacing issues, and it's just like okay, like I feel I feel bad about it, like I feel bad in even having to put this out in review. But you know, we're we're honest on our opinions on things, we're gonna give y'all the truth about it. So it's like I want to give high praises into it.

SPEAKER_00: 17:42

I still do appreciate the anime, but I hate that the anime butchered the manga, and so it's like that reminds me, I'm gonna review Dead in Wonderland tomorrow.

SPEAKER_01: 17:55

Exactly.

SPEAKER_00: 17:58

That was like the perfect example of how fucking Darial. Like so much information and shit before and after where the anime picked up, where I'm like I I just don't yeah, I just kind of wish for a reboot, honestly.

SPEAKER_01: 18:25

True. Now I will say some people are nervous into this aspect because Claymore, if you're gonna reboot it, you have to be faithful to the manga for it to really pick up well. But the thing about it is is because of the fact that the taste that the anime has already given, there's a lot of studios that's not willing to re to do a redux on Claymore. They're not actually that no one's gonna try to pick up a season two because of the ending, like they'll have to do the same thing they've done to so many other manga, but so many other animes like Blue Exorcist and stuff, where and Demon Lore retry where the season two like rewinds back time and just says, Oh, pretty much forget about what you what you saw in season one. This is the redo for it, and now we're just gonna continue on from this one. But it's been years, it's it's been years, almost 20 years now. There's no way to do that, it would have to pick up where it left off at, and it's not gonna really work out that well.

SPEAKER_00: 19:22

Well, hold on, to be fair, like I think the own well, the main example nowadays that was like, all right, you know what, you get a pass, I would say blue exorcist, because keep in mind it was years since um the first season, and we're thinking like, okay, they kind of rushed towards the end. Then they came out with season two, season two was all right, season three came out, season three was alright. Season four, ooh, okay, now we're on to something. And season four got me thinking that okay, now I see why y'all did what y'all did in season one because y'all weren't sure if it was gonna catch fire, but now that y'all kind of redone it and y'all acting like, okay, let's pretend those last couple episodes in season one doesn't count. That way you kind of like redo it, and now that it's getting more traction and whatnot, like, okay, cool, cool, cool. So I'm like, okay, good on blue acts. Same thing with Black Butler now that we're thinking about we just did a review. Oh, yeah, but yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 20:23

Yeah, I was I didn't get a chance to be on get a chance to run to that one. Yeah, my bad on that. I got I got sick, but um, yeah, kind of the same thing you're right, because yeah, with season two, black butler wound up not being correct. But here's the thing about it, though. That's why I mentioned as far as how many years it's been with Blue Exorcist. Yeah, we had years, we had like I think it was like three or four years or something between that. Like I said, this is almost 20 years at this point, it's entirely too far gone for that. It would have to be a complete remake starting from scratch from episode one.

SPEAKER_00: 20:58

I mean, well, okay, I don't know if it's like the best example, but we did review Panny and Stalking 2. That shit came out nowhere after 20 years.

SPEAKER_01: 21:07

Was that a 20-year gap? I thought that was only 10, but that was also a straight continuation, too.

SPEAKER_00: 21:13

No, no, no. Let me see. Let me check, let me check. Because I swear to God, it felt like 20 for me, but it might be right.

SPEAKER_01: 21:23

Yeah, I remember Penny Stalker came out like after playing brothers.

SPEAKER_00: 21:28

Yeah, so yeah, it was it was 15 years, so okay, 15. It was halfway down. Okay, technically, I mean, it gives it could go either way, certainly.

SPEAKER_01: 21:42

Yeah, but plus also they were able instead of like redoing it, they just picked up where it left off at. And plus, people like penny stalking for what it was, like there was it, they didn't have to like redo anything. Now, granted, we did review and uh in our review into it, we did say they didn't necessarily change the story, it just changed the approach of how things went in the continuation. They didn't like say, okay, well, forget what happened to season one. Yeah, they they referenced season one quite a few times, making sure we we had a bunch of callbacks to those episodes and continued some of those stories. But for Claymore, because it would have to say that those last few episodes that you watch don't exist or that they don't count, and we're just gonna re-pick up from right here after it has been how many years into it? That's why I'm just saying, as far as about the pickup, like I know there's a whole big thread discussion onto it on Reddit and Core. It's it's a whole big thing into it. Some people's like it may work, some people's like it may not, it's not really gonna work. Um, I'm kind of on the people in the face of people, like, yeah, I do agree that it's kind of late to make it not work. If you're going to do it, it would just be best to start from scratch. But at the same time, are you willing to do so? Because you're now having to take a chance where in this series, in this day and age, where your the dark and gritty story would fit. My hero academia, Demon Slayer. Like, even though they have some comedy moments into it, we still have dark gritty anime that people do enjoy watching. Um, dark grit storylines, that's fine, but there has to be kind of a balance into it. You would still have to make a little bit of change into it as well, too. And so it's like I don't know, it would be best to stay to the source material, but maybe some people might not appreciate that for a second. But like you say, it can go either way, but I mean it's just it's too many great areas, and because of that, is why it's just left as a classic. Um, I'm still happy that it still does get a classic uh classic seal to it. Like people do consider it that, um, even if it wasn't like the most well enjoyed or most well picked up into it. It's definitely not gonna be on Dragon Ball Z Bleach One Piece. It's not gonna be on one of those scales, unfortunately, at all. But it will still have a high ranking into it of like a good classic anime itself.

SPEAKER_00: 24:06

If we're gonna stick to the demon slaying jump subgenre, like I said, I would say that damn like I would say ironically, even though we're talking about silver eye witches, at this point, as far as like classics and demon slaying, I would say it's like, for me personally, it's like silver metal compared to anyasha. Because that was the one that really uh started it all when it comes to the demon slay. I mean, there might have been older examples, but that was like the main one where it was like long-running anyasha in the game, just going around killing all Naroku demons and whatnot. Like, that was the main one that like see anyasha for me is like dot hat compared to SAR. Like, really, I want to say.hat started all when it came to the MMO anime craze, like, but dot.

SPEAKER_01: 25:00

There's always gonna be older anime, like some of the 80s animes that do touch base onto the 80s anime movies. They didn't do series, they did movies. But so yeah, I do fully agree with you on that. As far as when it came to anime, yeah, Inuyasha, dot hat, those would take the medal of kind of not just necessarily start starting the anime series franchise of it, but also as getting the popularity of it. So, most definitely.

SPEAKER_00: 25:26

It's like you just had to be there.

SPEAKER_01: 25:30

I mean, on bright news, thanks to the internet archive, you have an opportunity of still kind of watching it, you just don't look at it from the eyes of now, you have to be open to what the eyes of then was.

SPEAKER_00: 25:42

And that's how I'm gonna see some things kind of different, and that's the approach I took with Claymore to where I'm like, okay, to be fair, it's been a while since Claymore's been outside. I think okay, no matter how old it looks, is like, all right, fine, the look of it gets a pass, but I just need to know if it's a good story. And I do like the way uh, even in the anime, it kind of did pace evenly to where it's not just a whole bunch of bullshit all uh all at once. See, it started off simply as like this simple story. So you have Claire and most, and like most Claymore, she's like this stoic demon slayer lady, and he helps kill these Yoma and this boy Rocky, who by the way I immediately recognized that voice after uh Todd Hapricorn, who did Naga Sue Me from My Brides and Mermaid, he was not sue from Fairy Tale, um, he was a bunch of notable characters, but um long time money. Yeah, like he did a lot of shit, but um this boy, his family got killed by Yoma, and he decided to go tag along with Claire. And once you get later on into the story, you realize that there's a reason why she was like, I mean, at first she was like disantuned, but I don't know, it's almost like uh Rocky reminded Claire of herself when Teresa was not at least okay, at least it wasn't as bad as Teresa to where and I'm I'm trying to uh get to my point, but oh you think you know there's this uh simple story where she's going around playing demons but also trying to wrestle with her own physiology. But you have this boy who's like so friendly towards her, and she's like kind he's like kind of reminding her to hang on to her humanity, and I liked it in the simple sense of that, but then you find out that oh, it's more like revenge because Priscilla killed Teresa, the Claymore that killed the Yoma that killed Claire's family. But uh when uh Claire at first she didn't she was like kind of traumatized, you know, she was like uh held and hostage by a Yoma, and she couldn't speak at first, but um she was like keep getting close to Teresa and was like trying to thank her and whatnot. And then Teresa was straight up kick her in the face, trying to like get the fuck away from the trip. Damn. Uh but eventually Claire um kind of melted her heart a little bit. Just like, ah well, all right, fine. So you keep following me around. All right, you can come along with me and just but uh you know, bandits kept fucking with him, and when Claire got kidnapped, and Teresa was like, hey, you know what? Fuck it, like just fuck it. Like, and then you know, the claymore tried to go after her, and they I don't know if they like this Claire's slide, but like it was almost like she was like the number one girl at the time, so I'm like, good luck killing her. Yeah, good luck killing her.

SPEAKER_01: 29:18

Teresa Teresa was number one. They tried to get her for the fact that she was um harboring that she was harboring Claire, and it's like it that was against the rules to be able to do so. When you choose to become this, you're not allowed to be your own person. Yeah, it was like you're not allowed to be your own person at all. So she technically individuality in it, agency over your life. Pretty much, yeah. Like, because when you're part of the program, you have when you're part of the this group, you your life is signed over to them, you're not allowed to do anything for yourself, but yeah, Teresa was like, I'm number one, like I am the strongest. None of you bitches can do anything to me, and yeah, and Priscilla, you know, quickly being young and Rising her way up the ranks, you know, she really thought that she was about that shit. Keep getting her ass all about Teresa too.

SPEAKER_00: 30:07

I like how Priscilla was like the apologetic type at first, but she was like low-key danger, especially when you see that alleyway, you see all those different Yoma just like littered on the ground, like corpses and shit. I'm like, oh shit. Like, okay. But um, then next thing you know, she gets awakened, she ends up killing Teresa, and she kills just about everybody except Claire, and she was like, eh, I ain't gonna fuck with you. And then next thing you know, Claire gets some uh Teresa's quest uh trying to get the Claire more treatment, and that's how she gets her start. Um Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 30:46

And I like how so we have that point in mentioning there is that Teresa, like I mentioned before, Claire is the only is the most unique one, while everyone else is half, she's one-fourth, because instead of getting a Yoma, she could took Teresa's DNA and incorporated into her. Um, that does give Claire an a home field advantage because, like I mentioned before, the more that they use their Yoma powers, it starts incorporating their mind more. So they only have a limited amount of time that they can do so. But with her being one-fourth, she has more humanity control over it. So she's not only able to use her yoma powers more often and stuff, she can actually push herself to further limits, limits that would make a regular claymore immediately turn into an awakened beast. She's able to awake to get the powers of an awakened beast while still maintaining her humanity.

SPEAKER_00: 31:41

And I like how, despite all that, he's number 47, and the other claymore is like, oh, what the fuck? She's like the weakest one.

SPEAKER_01: 31:52

Yeah, yeah, pretty much. Because it's like kind of made her underdog in a way. Yeah, I think I said 100, but it was 50. They only have like 50 at a time, but yeah, um, she is, she's literally one of the weakest that there is, but she quickly moves up, and then they they do recategorize her later on. Um, she winds up making like top 10. She's still not number one by the end of the manga. Like she's she's still not necessarily was number one. It was just, but she still was ranking high, especially because they haven't though she couldn't um got to a number four.

SPEAKER_00: 32:28

Like, she couldn't get the top ten.

SPEAKER_01: 32:31

Yeah, I know. All she got was top ten, that was about it. Um, but that's also one of the things into the manga, too. So, like the biggest the biggest hiccup that happened into this anime was the final was the ending of it, where cool Claire and the group finally managed to take down um Priscilla. But the thing about it is that even in the anime, they hype on more to the fact that there's three awakened, like awakened beast kings. I don't remember exactly what they're called, but they hunt down the other awakened beasts.

SPEAKER_00: 33:01

But Priscilla was actually known before Creatures of the Abyss. I I had to look it up honestly. I was gonna ask you, like, hey, what do they call them again? Uh let me look it up before we actually do this here.

SPEAKER_01: 33:13

See, yeah, the creatures of the abyss, and there's three of them. They're like the king awakened beasts that no matter what could never have been taken down. However, they're different.

SPEAKER_00: 33:23

Each of them are the number one at a certain point. Yep. Like uh Rico was the youngest number one in history.

SPEAKER_01: 33:32

Yeah, and it was it was it one or two of them that were male? I think it was one of them that was a male.

SPEAKER_00: 33:36

Easley was definitely one of them. I don't know about the third one, I forgot it was the third one was.

SPEAKER_01: 33:42

But that's one of the things about it is that the way the anime it sends up is like we talk about these these three kings that's there, but then we stop at Prisc, we stop at Priscilla, and then like, oh, that's the end of the series. And it's like, wait, what? No, there's literally what Priscilla was the right hand man for one of them. Like, see that you you don't end the series being like, oh, we gotta take down the kings. Oh, we took down the vice captain, and that's now the end of the series. What the fuck? That doesn't make sense. I don't like that. Wait, wait a second. It doesn't it doesn't matter, and then the way they ended the the way they ended the anime too, because it was not it was one of those moments who like, oh, it took this much to be able to take her down. We're definitely not ready to be able to take down one of the one of the kings of the abyss yet. So we know we're gonna need some more power, we're gonna need to get stronger and stuff. It's like okay, and then they leave, and that's it. And I'm like, what the fuck?

SPEAKER_00: 34:43

Oddly enough, it kind of made me want to review Black Clover because I was getting that same vibe where you know how uh eventually the black bulls gotta go up against those devils, and I'm like, it kind of gave me that same aura vibe when it came to Easley. It's like, okay, so you think you tough shit by taking down a couple awakened beings, like, oh, check this out. There are motherfuckers that is like even stronger than them. It's it's like how we felt when we watched Yu Yahka still and the fucking um brothers were only B-level demons. I'm like, what the fuck?

SPEAKER_01: 35:22

Yeah, he's sitting sitting here like talking about this, like, oh my goodness. I couldn't get over that. This dude was swore he was gonna die. He was like, Oh, Tagoro's gonna beat Yusuke. This is it. This is the end of everything. Nigga has at the end of everything, but you say this is the higher ranking. That's not the end of everything. Them other demons will tell me take him out like it's nothing. What are you talking about? It doesn't make sense. It was I don't know. It felt like it they uh they weren't sure. It felt like uh he was not sure if he was gonna continue the series at the girl brothers, but then was like, you know what? I'm gonna throw a curveball. It's gonna curve ball myself too. He was only B-ranked. I'm like, man, what the hell? But yeah, but it's just one of those ones, like imagine that. Imagine the Uhawk show ended at the Dart tournament. They said he was only B-ranked. What? Yeah, this one.

SPEAKER_00: 36:14

Like, hey bro, like, congratulations on winning the tournament. What if I told you that he's small fit compared to what you got to deal with after that?

SPEAKER_01: 36:24

Yeah, and then it's just like, oh, okay, and then they're like, well, we need to get stronger into the series. What? Jesus Christ.

SPEAKER_02: 36:32

Why are you in the series?

SPEAKER_01: 36:34

Oh, well, you might as well read the manga. Have a little note onto it. Story continues in the manga. The animation studio is too cheap to continue.

SPEAKER_00: 36:48

Hey, hold on. Who was the studio that did this anyway? So I'm curious now. Uh Madhouse. Oh, yeah. Yeah. They probably had a whole lot to say going on. They were like, eh, you know, we got other things going on. Hold on. Let me check on what they did in 2007. Oh. Well, hold on. Between 2007 and 2010. Oh, don't mind me. I'm just looking.

SPEAKER_01: 37:10

You're looking. Go ahead. So. See, the manka ended in 2014.

SPEAKER_00: 37:20

Oh God. Okay, okay. They did Catherine Sins. I'm just doing a couple examples. I'm not doing all of them. Catherine Sins, Chaos Head, Needless, Fucking High School Dead, Hunter Hunter, Patoom. Yeah, yeah. You know what? They had so much shit on the plate. I'm not even blame them. You regularly imagine high school, no game, no wife all that other shit. Yeah, like they had a lot of shit going on anywhere. Oh, hold on. That's crazy. You know what's crazy? We're gonna do Parasite and Death Parade this month. Madhouse did those too. Crazy. I swear to God, they did 91 Days. I'm like, uh, that's not coincidence anymore. Because 91 Days was the only other okay, they didn't. Okay, cool. But yeah, like three anime that got taken off a crunch roll was shit from Madhouse. That's crazy. Or supposedly. But yeah. That's crazy. What else about Claymore? Nah, I don't I don't I can't think of anything right now. I thought I thought it was pretty good. Like, I for what it is, I thought it was pretty good.

SPEAKER_01: 38:44

To be honest, I there was not much to have in notes for this one because it's incomplete. Like we've we've had this happen before. Like we could rant, but there's no point in it. Like, it's just one of those ones that like straight up, this is an incomplete series, and us having to review it like 17 years later, like almost 20 years later, is one of those ones of like no, not set 2025 reviewing. So, no, it's uh 18 years, so it's just like we're literally sitting here reviewing what should have been finished. They it had I feel like they've had time to be able to do so, but I understand they dropped it. The DVD sales did not go well. Um, a lot of people would not really want to pick up a lot of people not tuning into it as much, so they decided to go ahead and just drop it and you know, just not pick it up again. It would be nice if we have an opportunity. Um, I just found out that uh anime series that me and my wife are very interested in, Dory Hidoro, was just announced finally season two after Oh yeah, um guy with uh lizard head all that, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 39:54

And the month of Molly, yeah, yeah, okay, okay, I got you.

SPEAKER_01: 39:58

Yeah, so season two was just announced onto that one. It has been years. Me and my wife thought they was just done and they weren't gonna do anything. Um, I mean, it still hopes because hell bleach had a long ass gap between when it finally released out Thousand Year Blood War Arc. So um, and then the manga, like Thousand Year Blood War Arc had ended like years ago, and now Kubo is trying to do is trying to do the Hell Arc um in the manga series now doing continuation. So that I mean there's still hope per se. There is still kind of hope. So it's like maybe Claymore may get a pickup again. Maybe we might uh maybe they might just pick up and just say forget those last three episodes and then kind of restart, and then like pick up where the manga was at. Maybe they start over. We'll see.

SPEAKER_00: 40:50

There's another example that's a a recent example that one that we definitely gonna read. We were gonna do it at some point, but with the recent news coming out, I'm kind of glad that we didn't do it yet. Ronin Warriors. That shit came out in the 90s. A sequel is coming out next year.

SPEAKER_01: 41:07

Yeah, okay. Yeah, like age. You know, I was looking up something, I was looking up longest running anime. I don't know why we're talking, I was just very curious. And you know, One Piece is number 16.

SPEAKER_00: 41:19

My bad. It was like late 80s, my bad. It was like as far as Japan, it was like April 1988, but you know, it didn't come to us until the 90s. Yeah, but that was like one of my first, to be honest with you. That was like the male equivalent of uh I mean, aside from Sailor, uh Ronin Warriors like the male equivalent of Sailor Moon for me.

SPEAKER_01: 41:44

Sailor Moon. That's exactly what it is. It's while Sailor Moon focused on the magical girl, Ronin Warriors got the opportunity of having not Sentai because we already had so many Sentai Warriors, but magical male. It was just an opportunity to really kind of push through with that. So yeah, no. Um, especially one thing you don't realize too. Dragon Ball, if it most of you, if y'all don't realize Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z are 70s anime. We didn't get in America until the 90s.

SPEAKER_00: 42:19

And really, those were the ones, like that's why I say Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, Sailor Moon, Yu Yu Haga Show, Mobile Su Gunham, all of them. Uh, they talking about all the big sis of the 90s. No, no, no, no. Like, okay, you can call them that if you want to, but I dare say these are the forerunners. These are the ones where, like, if you were there at the right time during the golden age of Toonami, these are the ones where I'm like, okay, this will um probably uh get you in the door.

SPEAKER_01: 42:50

So, yeah, definitely. I wish I could, I really wish I could put Claymore on that list. Um, but it is just one of those ones that if you enjoyed the anime, fantastic. I definitely enjoyed the anime. If you are looking for an anime recommendation, uh, I just personally I cannot recommend it. Um, I would still give it a rating. I forgive if I'm jumping on rating time, but um I would definitely give it a rating of a 6.57. Um again, it's just one of those ones that I have to be. Okay, okay, decent. Um I'm not even gonna say enjoyable to watch. You have to really know the story.

SPEAKER_00: 43:34

Hold on, since he kind of dove into the manga, anyways. Okay, um, how about rating claymore as a whole? Because at this point, we're probably not gonna revisit the manga or anything like that, anyways. I'm like, you might as well rate the unless they do decide to bring it back.

SPEAKER_01: 43:52

Yeah, now if I rate it all together as a story into it, oh no, the story is an absolute nine. Uh the story is absolute nine based on manga-wise. Again, the pacing in the manga is fantastic. Um, it doesn't feel over like I'm not gonna say nothing, nothing's perfect. You're gonna have like little moments that you're kind of upset that a chapter cut off at a point, but the series is completely now. You can binge the manga nowadays. You're not waiting the next week or two weeks for the next chapter. Just go ahead, you can binge it all now, and it's gonna feel a wonderful pacing to it. Um, as well as also the art style into it without you having to worry about the colors. It's the same art style. Madhouse did a fantastic job doing almost a 1v1 from the manga to the anime as far as the how the characters look. The what you mentioned as far as him having like a doll face type of thing is actually important. That's Claire. Claire specifically has that, she has that face. That was something that apparently like was a thing for her.

SPEAKER_00: 44:49

Was that made a reference to that one time like in the anime today? Like they baby doll at one time. Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. I remember that.

SPEAKER_01: 44:57

I'm like, confused, like she had a unnatural, she had a very natural slash unnatural beauty to her. Like, there's some people that's just like naturally beautiful, you just can't understand it. Like, there's a um not it's not Rosie O'Donnell. I don't know why I'm thinking her, but there's an actress that's well known for having big eyes, and she even talked about stories to that too, where she says unfortunately she's had some weird past relationships where some of the guys that she dated just they didn't like her eyes. They said her eyes were just too big, and it just felt weird. But that's just I think so. And so that but that's the thing about that's the thing for Claire. Claire has naturally I mean, I don't mind.

SPEAKER_00: 45:39

I'm just like I just hear the criticism. I'm an April, like uh, I mean, he's fine, he's fine with which he is. Like, I'm I'm not complaining. And everyone's got their own unique qualities. I'm gonna watch TV too.

SPEAKER_01: 45:53

And that's one of the things about Claire too, is the fact that while the other silver-eyed witches, the other Claymores, you can kind of see into it for her, it's just like you can see from a distance. Oh, that's a silver-eyed witch coming type thing. Like it because her eyes are big, and that's a thing for it. And because her eyes are big, while everyone else is always expressionless, even when they're about to die, they tend to show almost next to no expression. Everyone is like bland facing Claire does not, she she can't, she still has she has more than half of her humanity because part of the humanity that the claymores lose is some of their emotions as well, too. But again, with Claire being one-fourth um Yoma, but actually still being three parts with human, she's still able to wear emotions on her face, she can't hide it, she's able to actually show it, and so it makes her so unique from the other claymores. So that whole like that stylization again was on purpose. It allows us to be able to follow her through of how things are. But that that would be from me onto that one.

SPEAKER_00: 47:15

No, I feel I feel I like that. I like that. See, yeah, I didn't know. I mean, I wasn't sure if I was gonna read them all out. I I don't know. I just want to hear your opinion on it. Ooh, excuse me, that's just but uh if I were to give it a rating, the characters were okay. The artwork since okay. You sold me on. Well, I I kind of knew it was intentional anyways, but some of the details I didn't know was intentional. So I'm like, okay, okay, I'll give a point for that. The music was okay. I did like some of the theme, like some of the emotional tones and whatnot. I like how they kind of kept it serious about the whole fucking thing. Uh, no jokes, nothing to kind of smooth over the fact that some important character or unimportant character died. Oh, that's what's pretty good, like I said. I still want to give it like a good 7.5, maybe an eight.

SPEAKER_01: 48:20

Okay.

SPEAKER_00: 48:21

The main thing is, the main thing is, like you said, if it was more faithful to the manga and ran longer, my score would probably have been higher.

SPEAKER_01: 48:34

Almost that mine would most definitely be higher if it did. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 48:38

But it was it was incomplete, and it was like they had to just make shit up at the last minute. So I'm like, I can't give you the 10. I can't, I can't even give you the nine. But at max eight on a good day, an eight. That's all I got. That's fair. Uh yeah, you know, let's go ahead and wrap this up because we got to uh thank you for being on the show as always. Uh to the listeners, thank you for listening to us again. Remember that great things are coming to stay nerdy. Go ahead and have yourself a good morning, good afternoon, good evening, good night, but ultimately take it easy. And remember, stay nerdy.