Product Description

A brutal scourge stalks the land. Yoma, monsters driven by a hunger satisfied by only one quarry – Humanity. The dark breed knows but a singular foe: Claymore. Human-Yoma hybrids of extraordinary strength and cunning, the Claymores roam from skirmish to skirmish delivering salvation by the edge of a blade. Thus begins the twisting tale of Clare, one such sister of the sword driven by pain in both victory and defeat. A child silent and suffering hidden in her past, Clare’s march toward vengeance unfolds along a path marked by violence, solitude and scorn. In a land where even the predator is prey, the haunted hearts of hunter and hunted alike wear the scars of the age.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2182 in DVD
• Brand: Funimation
• Released on: 2009-10-27
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Box set, Color, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
• Original language: Japanese, English
• Number of discs: 6
• Running time: 620 minutes

Features

• Prey for Revenge.A brutal scourge stalks the land. Yoma, monsters driven by a hunger satisfied by only one quarry Humanity. The dark breed knows but a singular foe: Claymore. Human-Yoma hybrids of extraordinary strength and cunning, the Claymores roam from skirmish to skirmish delivering salvation by the edge of a blade.Thus begins the twisting tale of Clare, one such sister of the sword driven by

Customer Reviews

Fianlly, Claymore Gets the Box Set Treatment it Deserves
I'll come right out and confess it; there is much to be excited about when an anime company like FUNimation decides to release a beloved franchise in a single complete collection box set. Not only does it save the buyer money but it makes a given property much more accessible to viewers who would otherwise be reluctant to track down half a dozen volumes to enjoy the show in it's entirety. Enter Claymore the Complete Series, a property of which I've long been campaigning for a complete box set release. The show, which is really unlike any other anime series out there, has been released to the North American market thus far in a pace that could only be described as "trickling" as in six, 4-episode releases that each ran 95 minutes. I've got them all but won't lie about waiting impatiently for each release to come out so that the story could continue.

Coming in at a total runtime of 650 minutes, Claymore The Complete Series release contains all 26 episodes across 6 discs in three thin packs. The set is housed in a cardboard outer slipcase that is minimally artistically decorated (as should be with a show this mysterious). The show wears a very appropriate TV MA (17+) rating due to some rough language, topless female nudity (or maybe topless monster nudity is more appropriate), and a near-endless succession of violent/gory sequences.

Language options are standard fair sub and dub, which of course means dialog presented in either original Japanese (Stereo) or an English dub in Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround. And, like always, the choice to run English subtitles exists for either spoken language option.

Extras are surprisingly robust and include a pair of nice 24-page full color books highlighting key characters from the series, six commentary tracks from some of the English voice actresses and creative staff, Japanese staff interviews, original TV commercials, cast audition reels, textless songs, and a crop of Funimation trailers scattered throughout.

The story could best be described as a sweeping supernatural epic set in a grim fantasy environment in which an order of pale, blonde-haired girls are humanity's last hope in a struggle for survival against a race of beasts known as Yoma.

Yoma are incredibly powerful and twisted human/monster hybrids that come in many shapes and sizes and are driven by an endless appetite for consuming human innards.

The story primarily focuses on one of the Claymore sisters named Clare who sets off on a mission of bloody vengeance against the Yoma with hints of a disturbing and suffering-laden childhood popping up periodically along the way.

No ordinary pale girls, these Claymores, however as they are in fact only half-human and half Yoma themselves. Their beastie-half provides them with superhuman abilities (among them: strength, endurance, special attacks and healing capabilities), at the cost of a constant threat of accidentally "going too far" in a battle and hence allowing the Yoma portion of their being to forever consume them.

Should this happen, (a process called awakening here) the sister in question is to be slain by their own commanders-in-arms on the spot. As such the show presents a unique tension in the thralls of battle, as the temptation to push the limits of their fleeting humanity is a constant concern and more than a few Claymores will fall to the charms of the Yoma along the way.

Fighting the Yoma can best be described as a physically grueling hack-fest with blurring blades from multiple Claymores chipping away at the oftentimes massive forms of the flesh-eating monsters. The good news for the viewer is that this means some wickedly cool battle sequences where many (and I do mean many) lovely Claymores meet their gruesome demise in the hopes of taking down a few of the enemy with them.

Almost in a video game style of presentation, the show bides its time with the Claymore girls having to dispose of countless lesser beasts (such as the Abyss Feeders) while reserving the major player (think bosses) bad guy battles for the conclusion of the major story arcs. Among these is the wicked cool Silver Eyed Lion King (Rigardo), The White Silver King (Isley), and the Blood Soaked Warrior (Ophelia).

The show's art is fantastically appropriate with shadowy backgrounds, eerie lighting, and clear-cool skies that are sure to inspire a shiver. The character-model art is deliberately pale, bordering on black and white in fact, which goes a long way to provide an almost vampire-like appearance to the Claymore girls.
The soundtrack is made up of intense musical numbers and subtle stray electric guitar notes that are so well integrated that they tumble away into the creepy sounds of the night.

It should be noted that the finalized cover art is actually a bit different from the photo Amazon has shown here. The box is indeed white and features a depiction of lead character Clare but not quite so closely cropped. Rather she is standing to the right of the frame with her silver cape flowing over the title, "Claymore The Complete Series". A small discrepancy, sure, but not to worry, the finished art works just as well.

In all this is a must-have collection that will delight fans of most anime genres. Kudos to FUNimation for putting the fans first with a full boxset release at an asking price of little more than the 4-episode volumes have been going for until now. I simply cannot recommend this collection highly enough.

Love or Hate
I suspect that viewers will either really like or really dislike this series. As is the case with most Japanese anime, the story is bizarre. It's about a group of women, for the most part, who hunt monsters in a medieval European setting. These monsters are called Yoma. The women hunters are called Claymores. The Claymores have special abilities and traits that derive from the fact that they have some Yoma blood. Using these abilities causes them to run the risk of "awakening", i.e. transforming into monsters of extraordinary power. If they do so, or if they violate the rules of the group, they in turn will be hunted, though they might not be easy to kill. The story is quite violent, depicting gushing blood and severed limbs and heads, but it is also a well-told and intriguing one that is unpredictable and depicted in a wonderful graphical style with a great soundtrack. I can't report on the quality of the English voice acting in this series as I very rarely view any anime in its dubbed version. For me, a great part of the magic of the anime medium is how the Japanese voice actors/actresses bring their characters to life and through their skill endow them with individual personalities.

Claymore-Something new, in an old idea.
When I heard about Claymore I was suspicious. I'm usually suspicious of anime. Lets face it, anime is generally either really awful, or really good. The really good series's usually get most of the money giving them the ability to make a good series better, and the bad ones, well they generally don't. Yes, I'm being optimistic. I've seen many bad series get lots of money too, and they have disappointed me over and over again.

I discovered Claymore after trolling Anime forums while home from university about 8 months ago. I decided to watch it because I had nothing better to do. I thought it would be terrible, that the hype would lead me to some "Bleach esque" idiocy filled with filler and poorly voiced characters at best, and at worse, some B-grade movie quality story line with stiff dialogue. I figuered I should watch it though, since it was getting rave reviews. I wanted to know about it, but I went in expecting utter garbage. I was pleasantly surprised!

I was hooked after the first episode. I watched it non-stop until I had watched every single episode. I was shocked. The story is very unconventional. Some reviewers argue that it's weird... well yes, but the best anime's are a little weird, especially when you have to describe them to someone. I take it as a BLESSING that it's weird! Its DIFFERENT! Thank God. There is an underdog hero. Yes, there is NO super-powered for no reason teenage boy who is all angsty and has been some how against his will thrown into a plot to save the world, with the help of buxom anime babes and laughable joking less attractive male side kicks, while the main character broods and nurtures his effeminate looks all the while some how coming out on top of every ill-matched battle that faces him. I am SICK of watching that story over and over, and Claymore is a pleasing departure from the whole cliche anime story line. While I have read on forums that the manga is leaps and bounds above the anime, (well, that's sort of to be expected, right?) I have heard the manga readers claim that it is a very good start to the series, and they expect more from FUNimation. Manga readers are happy with the series? Seriously? that's amazing.

I watched Claymore with no idea what it was about, that made everything very exciting and new. I strongly suggest doing this, I found it made it even more exciting. It's a very unique, very exciting, very unexpected anime. There are so many moments you wont see coming, really, it breaks tons of expectations and cliches. It's really a very amazing series, I can't possibly explain it better, I do not want to give you a summary of the plot, (I hate spoliers) and I don't want to tell you about specifics too much (see above reason) but I do want to help sell you. So I'll say this... I've had this on pre-order for 6 months, and I dont regret it at all! This series is really great, something fresh and new, daring and unique, and I love it for that.

Cons, well I would say it's not as complete as I would like, but I regret to put that as a con, as I've heard buzz (which I dont know whether or not is true) that the anime will have a second season, because of the large volume of story in the manga. People have said that the anime covers the beginning of the manga. I haven't read the manga myself, as I said before, but if this is the case, then I can only be excited. It's a great series, and I can only see it getting better. It's worth the money, its beautifully animated, great voice acting (at least in the original Japanese) and a very unique and interesting story.