Last week I promised multiple things.
1) That I would create the wondrous MANGA MONDAYS.
2) That I would post something for the men.
I have delivered on both of those promises today. It is a great day for Panel Bound.
Today’s Manga pick is Claymore.
First of all, the name should tell you everything you need to know about how awesome this story is. Anybody in any nerdy spectrum is well aware of what a claymore is:
Claymore is an action/horror shonen (male genre) manga created by Norihiro in 2001 and is still on going. The entire story takes place in a world that is inhabited by humans and yoma. Yoma are these terrifying monsters that feed off of the flesh of humans. As pictured here:
How do they keep yoma from completely taking over the world via eating the guts of humans? Simple. The organization of half woman half yoma warriors named Claymores by the general public. The story mostly follows Clare, the lowest ranked of the Claymores on her journey of revenge.
The story line gets more complicated than that, but it’s one of those mangas that if I say one thing it gives away part of the plot, and then it’s just not fun anymore. The entire story is just thrill after cliff hanger after sexy women after gratuitous violence after more sexy women and cliff hangers and a dash more of gratuitous violence.
The art in it is superb. It’s gory, terrifying and dark. The story is a little bit harder to follow than most other mangas as there are a lot of strange names and corresponding numbers to follow, but as you get more into it, you start to figure out who is who and why they are important (usually because they kick ass in some kind of terrifying way).
Although the characters are all strong women, this is a male based manga. One can generally tell the difference between the two because their eyes don’t get big, there is a lot of blood and a very big lack of male sex appeal and a huge emphasis on gorgeous women wearing skin tight uniforms with some armor and killing things with big swords.
I highly recommend this manga as well as the anime (which is on netflix instant view). Everything about it is one big adrenalin rush that never seems to end. You don’t get attached to characters, you don’t have to deal with any sappy love story, you get action, lore and blood. Lots of yoma blood.
Purchase Claymore vol. 1 here: at Amazon.com
Until next Manga Monday (or until I have another interview)
-Eastyn