DVD: Claymore Chapters 1 & 2 (2 discs, 228 mins, 2009)

Amazon review title: Women with big swords. (Revised & expanded from its original appearance, heh)
Rating: 4 stars

To be honest, I wasn't expecting much of this. The last couple of mangas I'd watched had either been genuine kids stuff or giant robots, so this came as a refreshing change.

First off, it keeps things simple. In a fantasy world, a group of women warriors known as Claymores (after their swords) are genetically altered and trained to fight shape-changing man-eating monsters called the Youma. The first three episodes introduce the world, Clare the warrior and the boy she befriends. Then we find out Clare's origin which focuses on Claymore No.1 (they are ranked according to ability) who has taken her, as child, under her wing. The final three episodes bring us back to the present where Clare joins a group of Claymores hunting a very different kind of monster.

And that's basically it in nearly four hours and ten episodes and it works very well. I like the uncluttered feel of it all, the simplicity of the physical settings, both town and country. In a way, it works because it lacks depth. The cast is small and the focus is narrow.

The animation is fairly typical for TV in the lack of detailed backgrounds, having characters who only move their mouth, stock character designs, lots of still panning, but you quickly get used to this. There's also a bleached effect rather than the expected visual assault of primary colours. The lack of detail also makes the violence, which is more gruesome to describe than to watch, more acceptable. I think the 15 rating is rather harsh despite the severed limbs which litter the screen. Though there is a subtle accusation that Clare is using the boy in an inappropriate manner (she isn't).

It could be argued that this is aimed more at a female audience with its predominantly female characters but this presupposes that teenage boys won't watch nubile limb-severing monster-killing women. I know I'd have jumped at the chance.

With the implications that the world is a more complicated place than has been so far revealed, I actually want to find out what happens next which I suppose is as good a recommendation as any. Wonder if that nice Mr Amazon Vine will send the second DVD, due out real soon.

One last thing, the Claymores have a psychic connection to the monsters so you can say that, despite their normally dour manner, they do have a sense of Youma.