hontou ni
9Apr/0710

Claymore 01

The stars are shifting in the Hontouni universe. Zyl blogs about To Heart 2 and Stripey falls in love with an onee-type character. (I'm just waiting for someone to accuse my good brother of being a siscon albeit the shota-siscon variant given his penchant for older sisters.) Frequent readers of Hontou ni Taihen desu may be disappointed with the lack of goth-loli-meido-siscon (imouto sect) fetishings in this post. But the womanly gar-ness of Clare and winsome-ness of Claymore need to be proclaimed.

I have great faith in Madhouse action. Black Lagoon, X TV, Jubei chan 2, Gungrave, Lodoss War, Tenjou Tenge and Ninja Scroll (movie) contain some of my favourite fighting scenes in anime. But their animation strength is not limited to beautiful battle choreography or cinematography (which even GONZO is sometimes capable of). Madhouse's true strength, or so I like to think, lies in their characters. My beef with most anime series is their soul-less characters, often given away by out-of-character chatter, pointless prattle or banal course of actions. For convincing character behaviour/response, it needs to flow naturally from a credible reaction of circumstances and character disposition/background/motivation. It's ironic but our unfeeling half-yoma Clare has got more soul than some politicians in this country. Kudos to Kuwashima Houko for balancing so perfectly the humanity and yoma that is both Clare.

Of course besides the beautifully crafted onee-character and stylish action, I'm also drawn by the promise of more humongous swords and ornate plate armours. A residual passion from my dice-rolling, paper and pen AD&D days I suppose. Yes, before Stripey, the goth-loli-meido-imouto-loving tanuki, there was ****** the Paladin and Zyl was our omnipotent Dungeon Master. Fortunately for Soumou readers and selected Lunamaria figures, he has retired and is now a shadow of the deity he once was. XD Ah well, we all grow out of our manhood/divinehood sometime. I can already sense that Claymore, specifically Clare, would be restoring some manliness to this once-glorious-paladin-turned-tanuki.

Now if you'd excuse me, I have sword practice with Fate-chan, Saika san and Yumil tan.

Related posts:

  1. Claymore 1-4
  2. Claymore 11
  3. Claymore: Big Sword for the Big Sister

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  1. greyscalefuzz
    April 9th, 2007 - 08:56

    Hey I caught this one too and think I might stick with it for the shows this season. Seriously too many mecha shows out there this time around, so Claymore is kinda refreshing.

    I have the nagging suspicion, though, that we’re in for some “monster of the week” episodes ahead before the real story arcs in. Though, as with most “deep character” plays, the background story should be interesting to watch.

    *looking forward to more armour and steel*

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  2. Xellos-_^
    April 9th, 2007 - 10:09

    >>once-glorious-paladin-turned-tanuki

    *rolls on the floor laughting

    Greyscale: considering how fast the madhouse is determind to get to the good stuff you wouldn’t have to wait long till we are pass the monster of the week stuff. Once we are into the the Teresa arc we will be getting into the good stuff.

    And there is a tibit of fanservice for the siscons in the later chapters.

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  4. Stripey
    April 9th, 2007 - 13:27

    greyscalefuzz: Glad you enjoyed it bro! I haven’t made my round with the Spring offerings yet but StrikerS and Claymore stays on my to-watch list. Sola looks promising with possible non-blood-related siscon XD. As for monster of the week Claymore, I don’t mind it as long as it’s merely a story platform to advance plot or develop character. :)

    >And there is a tibit of fanservice for the siscons in the later chapters

    Xellos-_^: I don’t want mere tidbits, I want a full 7 course meal! :P Actually I just want a good story with a nice sprinkling of drama :)

    Zyl: LOL! gomen gomen! I think DRM tan must have mistaken you for me… XD

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  5. quigonkenny
    April 9th, 2007 - 22:40

    “A residual passion from my dice-rolling, paper and pen AD&D days I suppose.”

    I played D&D, too!

    (No one is going to get that reference…)

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  6. maglor
    April 9th, 2007 - 22:54

    My favorite class was the versatile Fighter/Magic-user/Thief, followed closely by Cleric/Magic-user, which my DM forbid me from using them for being too creative with spells and creating all sort of crazy spell combo that drove enemies nuts or made everyone fall to the floor laughing due to its humourous ( but not often lethal ) after affect.

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  7. Xellos-_^
    April 10th, 2007 - 11:15

    my preference is for a fighter/mage type as well. With the sorc now availble it is Fighter/sorc. I usually take enough melee levels to keep my sorc alive in the advent i ran out of spell. Most of my classes are in sorc and 70% of the spells are in the combat catogory.

    So what turn a once proud champion of justice in sis-con tanuki? Were you seduce by a Sucubas who went Oniichan?

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  8. muhootsaver
    April 10th, 2007 - 12:21

    First episode of Claymore was great. However, it seems that they do not have that big of a budget so I’m kind of worried that quality will drop badly (like what happened to Nana..). Anyways, if you liked the first episode, (and assuming if you haven’t read the manga), you will love the rest of the series. It just gets better and better. In Fantasy genre, I like this manga as much as I like Berserk. By the way, first episode reminded me a lot of Berserk.

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  9. Stripey
    April 12th, 2007 - 03:55

    quigonkenny: Those good ol days! :) I think lots of D&D fans lurking around. I mentioned THACO before and there nodding folks :P

    maglor: It’s interesting cos our party was made up almost entirely of pure classes. :) I think we wanted to be very clear about our niches in the party and also to prevent us from killing each other for class specific treasures :)

    Xellos-_^: LOL! I think it was Nemu…. my eternal imouto XD

    muhootsaver: Heh, if we use black lagoon as a benchmark (since it’s closer in genre and one of their latest offering) I think we can be assured of animation quality :) And with your affirmation of the manga, I really can’t wait for ep 2! :)

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  10. crimson
    April 13th, 2007 - 10:20

    I’m still waiting for more decent cyberpunk stuffs…
    Been playing fantasy games all along… been reading berserk too…so yeah, cyberpunk pls…

    I skimmed thru Claymore’s manga abit. Doesn’t seems to be my type ;)

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