Years ago, this series immediately turned me off when i noticed that all the lead female characters were unneccessarily-blonde, perhaps there was a reason in the plot/setting, but that-was-that, a superficial annoyance turning me off,
i chose something else to watch, and moved on - anime being the smorgasboard it is,
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Now that i've actually watched it, as the series has progressed, some of the effort put into the methods particularly, of the monsters versus the rather stale & near-homogenous heroines, kept me interested,
when i might've otherwise got sick of the repetitous competitive-aggression vs. Disciple theme amongst the heroines , which although parallel to the conflict, limits how diverse the 'good-guys' ARE,
which indirectly makes them LESS-interesting than the monsters (plus a few other more diverse characters like the shadowy leader/liason of the org that's constantly giving orders),
And-then, because the monsters are usually / mostly disposable characters, the lack of diversity remains and the limited culture if that's not too much of a word for it, amongst the org. Doesn't change or adapt all that much, and there seems to be an obvious abscence of non-Claymore powers of the (100%)humans themselves, aiding, working parallel, or even at times, competing-with the Claymores, in their OWN defence.
That simplification of the 'settled'-balance of relied-upon power in the setting, limits what-happens in each episode, as-well-as who gets involved in the ending,
so while there isn't too much to have to think about, if intrigue bores you, especially if still-frame + opening&closing mouths visuals bore you, and the series DOES do a reasonable job of making sure there's enough action and visuals progression for an anime, to keep you interested most of the time, i can't help but feel that there's a a niggling few missing-realism-pieces to a more complete setting, so i had to shave a star off for that.
Aside from the setting/writing/breadth,
the deliberativly limited weapons/armour consistencies of the Claymores also seemed un-neccessarily homogenous/limited, even-if you're to believe they're an order with rules/reg.s,
surely the grumpy/cynical/better-survivors amongst them, would have a crossbow or two with good penetration, or grenades, or poison, or something - instead, the constant 'big-sword' perhaps-even peeny-envy/imitation ... :D ... got a bit... mmm ... difficult-to-swallow?
Surely axes-with-spikes / picks/hand-scythes / spears , would've made better piercing weapons, for the persistently tough-skinned monsters, but instead they all go for long-blade slashing, which just doesn't seem to match up.
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On personality, many of the Claymores are far too limited by relative similarities with-few-differences amongst-the-disciplied,
and of the a-little-but-not-enough cynical +more aggressive , too limited by their org.s rules/reg.s, despite being cynical-enough to've ended up higher-up amongst the org., even-if they had to stick with the same armour/weapons.
Some of the side-characters or non-Claymore characters are more diverse and realistic, but considering how much TIME we spend with only-Claymores, the more we hear of their stories, the more reluctant they seemed to me, to be likely to have contingencies that break the rules - there were some exceptions, i have to admit, but the 'established-balance' (of the order ) still seemed too unrealistically inflexible, if more flexibility would've meant it could keep greater numbers, as-well-as be able to rely on more ranges of capacities.
The simple acceptance of the hidden/secretive leadership, without a more realistic range of DIStrust, considering that the upper leadership protects itself by sacrificing the lower members is just too much as a balance - it seems more like an abscence-of a balance.
Although that's perhaps an OK realism in the context of the internal-doubt in EACH Claymore, in terms of losing-control,
the by-product of that chosen-constricted-realism, should've created more cynical / mixed-loyalties / conditional-service ANYway - as in, although you can set-aside how much wider-society could-not trust and rely on something that limited, INdiverse, and constrcited, for example, none of them even seem to ride a horse, for instance, for faster arrival times?.. you can still RE-criticise the abscence of more RANGES of capacities of an org. That's supposed to be USED TO protecting against different threats - surely the humans would at least have other mercenaries or something, that can fill a gap / meet a challenge that the Claymores cannot - a wave of FLYING ones, say - Claymores standing around with 2-handed swords would be useless - surely humans would've fostered / supported similiar orders / mercenaries,.. something,.. with more ranges of readiness-FOR different threats.
Had to drop a star for that, too - the setting seems to have quite advanced building and metalworking crafts, but i barely remember ANY missle weapons, and there was a near-total abscence of magic weilding BY humans also, which is also too-unrealistic.
Especially considering that the more powerful of the monsters, amongst the awakenedBs, start to RELY on psychic / mind-control / soul/aura capacities, and humans willingness to sacrifice themselves when we/they have SHORTER lives. I.e. With a short(er) life, there is less sacrificed compared to lost, with each Claymore lost - at one point the dialogue contained that they don't AGE - yet both the order AND the humans, are happy to have them constantly losing their experience, by this limited gear/weapons rule?
Why. Couldn't give it 7, when just too many plot-conveneiences to have the two opposing sides going at each other constantly withOUT human resistences/help, forced a limit on the entire setting's goodly-types versus the force-of-evil - althoug the terrain/scene-by-scene settings change a little, the persistence of the useless-humans-in-contrast-to-neccessary-evil within EACH Claymore, was an interesting limit on their powers UNlike many series where the heroes are too over-powered, the various LANDS and powers they travel THROUGH ... all have the same policies!
There's never any monster-hunters, never any mercenaries, never any standing-armies elite forces,.. nothing!
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Has a well suited stop-start rythmn intro tune eliciting altenation between blocking & swinging a weapon / running & stopping, etc,
time-management / storyboarding/scene-sequencing is good, and the art itself, is a suitably dreary mostly-greys & blacks, which indisputably maintains a consistent 'north' / winter setting, but then, humans seem to go around in temperate clothing! :D
so yeah, a little more double-checking in the realisms in the plot-balances / fleshing out the world/setting would've made for a more complete plot/setting, and then a few more sub-plots / additional antagonists / changing-style as the Claymores moved-throughout various lands, would've made for more of a ... we're-a-responsive-emergent-order-that-responds-to-monsters-emerging-to-ADD-TO-what-you've-got-for-defences-locally ... mmm ... arrival, in a theatrical sense.
Instead, it felt like more like repetitive games of chess / lined-up ... select-your-team to fight the repetitous monsters, and on-that, those that they fought MOST of the time, were visually pretty-plain, rather than more cunning / a hidden-monster-or-two-amongst a population, like there was in the first episode.
Yes, Claire's own adventure is meant to be SCALING up, else she might've been just continually doing similar scale work, but as the conflict, well-beyond her own direction/control, clashes with what SHOULD be more cunning/better-surviving monsters, most of them simply start to get larger / stronger / in greater numbers - that got repetitious too - more creativity in HOW stronger ones were supposed to've ALREADY learnt to survive weaker Claymores, SHOULD've meant more moderately strong, but intelligent ones - instead the few intelligent ones, kept leading plain, lizard-like / golem-like muscle-mass target-practice styles, and that really didn't make for much of a challenge. I'm exaggerating a little, maybe the balance was 40%/60% ... i wanted to see 80/20 ... not-many, would be simple/armour+strength ones, if they're exactly the kind easily chopped-up by the supernaturally-strong Claymores - there's a who would've survived question there left un-addressed - over-time, the monsters would've become LESS crude&chunky.
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Some of the word usage, at least in the English-translation, is too-modern, too - unsuited for a medieval setting - swearing, concepts of divinity/prayer are all christian ... is it meant to be a christian setting?... etc.
If they were meant to NOT be in a christian setting, then why do some of the characters, again at least in the english version, call out to / pray to "god" ?
Yaaaawnn...
