Genre: Action

Age Rating: Teen +

Price: $7.99

When a world of fantasy is terrorized by shape-changing monsters called Yoma that prey upon humanity, it is apparently the job of every able-bodied hot young woman to take arms and defeat the Yoma threat and save humanity. If you read the first few chapters of Claymore, that's indeed what you'd think. But things are a bit more complicated than that.

Claymore chronicles the adventures of a specific able-bodied hot young woman named Clare, who has become a Claymore, a woman who has had the blood and flesh of a Yoma introduced into her body. She is a Yoma who is still a human, and a human that can harness the unique abilities and strengths of the monsters that attack and eat people.

The downside of all this power is that eventually a Claymore will lose control of their yoma powers, and become one of the vicious monsters, and must call out to other Claymores to kill them before they lose complete control.

Claymore, however, isn't just about Clare and the Yoma. It's about the psyche of people and their interactions with Claymores, and it shows the stark reality of a life lived in fear of something you can't understand. This psychological significance gives weight to the story, and makes it more than just a shonen bloodfest.

The art is clean and the characters are interesting, but it's the same type of setting and story. What differentiates Claymore is that it presents the "same old subject matter" in a way that's fresh and unique, in an uncompromising, no-holds barred way. The storytelling is the main reason to like this manga, and as an introduction to a long series, Claymore volume 1 is a good introduciton.

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