Summary:

Since she feels that her life is owed to Clare, Jean continues following her around until she can repay the debt. Clare, on the other hand, feels that the debt has already been repaid because it is due to Jean that she learned how to control the Quick Sword technique. However, before the two of them can get very far on the next leg of their journey, they get found by Rubel and the Organization’s Number 5 Rafaela. With the two of them surprised because they weren’t able to sense her at all, Rubel explains that Rafaela is the best at suppressing her Yoma energy. He also jokes that Galatea was executed, but he then admits that they actually let her continue on as a Claymore because she still has her uses. As for Clare, the Organization is willing to give her a pardon, but she needs to go on a mission to the North where a group of Awakened Beings have appeared. As an added incentive, Rubel also mentions that Raki has gone North, and although Clare doesn’t like the circumstances, she does end up heading that way with Jean.

In the snowy landscape, the two arrive at a town called Pieta where many other Claymores have started gathering. Clare immediately gets attacked by Helen, and a small fight almost breaks out when Jean tries to protect her and Deneve responds accordingly. Helen had only attacked as a greeting, and she’s dumbfounded as to why a single digit like Jean would be with Number 47 Clare, so Jean questions why ranks are important when Clare had saved her life. After the girls introduce themselves and apologize to each other, the Organization’s Number 8 Flora calls all of the Claymores there to assemble so that they can outline the operation. Helen thinks that Flora is the leader since she’s the highest ranked one there, but Flora reveals that someone else is: Miria. When the Number 6th ranked Claymore gets down to the details of how they’re up against numerous Awakened Beings, the others are shocked at how this could happen and how the enemies are grouping together. One Claymore who isn’t afraid is Number 11 Undine, a girl with plenty of muscles and two swords, but Deneve thinks that Undine is just showing-off with those muscles, and the two soon start arguing.

In order to shut them up and call everyone to attention again, Flora unleashes her own technique and blows all the snow around her away without even seeming to have drawn her sword. Seeing this, Jean explains that Windcutter Flora is known for how fast she can draw her sword, swing, and sheath it again. Flora and Miria then call up the other high ranked Claymores – Jean, Undine, and Number 13 Veronica – so that they can split up the 24 Claymores present here into five normal sized groups. Explaining that their overall strategy will be to use the normal one team versus one Awakened Being, Miria then places Deneve in Undine’s team and Helen in Veronica’s. Later that night, Clare sneaks away to a cave to meet with Miria, Deneve, and Helen privately. She is followed by Jean, who she explains is in the same situation as the rest of them, and she proceeds to tell everyone what happened with Jean and Riful.

Miria can’t believe what she’s hearing, but the thing that she’s particularly interested in is how Clare’s arm is different from before. Since Clare doesn’t want to talk about it, Miria concludes that Clare’s situation isn’t very good, and Clare responds that that could be said about all 24 of them gathered here. When she questions what Miria thinks their chances of success are, Mira admits that she thinks they are zero. The reason is because she believes that there is someone behind all the Awakened Beings, someone who Clare knows to be the Abyssal One Isley. Miria suspects that the Organization is just trying to buy time with this operation, meaning that they’re just sacrifices. At that moment, on the outskirts of Pieta, three male Awakened Beings who were sent as reconnaissance decide to attack the town. One of them immediately jumps into the middle of Pieta and starts killing civilians, so the entire force of Claymores responds. Miria can sense the other two too, so she assigns one Claymore team to each of the Awakened Beings and puts the other two on standby.

As the battle begins, Miria’s team attacks the Awakened Being in front of them while Flora’s team heads for the one on the nearby rooftops. Flora’s team includes Numbers 39 and 47, but Flora thinks that those two won’t be much use, and she personally attempts to finish off their opponent before he can transform. Her attack, however, appears to miss the Awakened Being, and she’s stopped from using it further because her teammate attacks her. Clare quickly realizes that this enemy can control Yoma energy, and it proves to be quite strong because he is able to pin four of them to the roof while he uses their fifth teammate to try to kill them. Clare reacts by powering up her borrowed arm to cut the building to pieces, and it succeeds in freeing them. Flora then attempts to finish off the Awakened Being one more time, but it dodges and transforms. Nearby, Jean and her team are having trouble with their Awakened Being, so Veronica’s team come to help. Undine’s team also comes to aid Flora’s, and Deneve in particular wants to draw their opponent’s attention so that they can finish this in one go.

Preview

Seeing all these Claymores gathered together makes me wonder how many of them Clare is now stronger than. With that arm and Quick Sword technique, she’d could probably be re-ranked somewhere in the single digits, though probably not as high as Miria. If nothing else, this battle seems like a good place for her to shine, particularly when someone like Flora thinks that Clare won’t be of much use because of her low rank.
Still, this first battle up north seems to be just introducing new characters and reintroducing old ones more than anything else. In the scheme of things, it’s hard to imagine that three Awakened Beings would give too much trouble to 24 Claymores, especially with the likes of Miria and Clare with them. So while it’s interesting to see the various abilities and Claymores working together, the threat of Isley and Priscilla is a lot more compelling. Hopefully they’ll make an appearance once this relatively forgettable reconnaissance group is defeated.

41 Comments

  1. They might break it into a second season since the manga is being released in a monthly basis. I really don’t know why they don’t put the manga in a weekly basis though.

    banzemanga
  2. I just realize that ‘action’ arc/scene goes much faster then the ‘conversation’ arc/scene, if compare to manga. I think maybe because the ‘action’ arc/scene are easier to animate than drawing, you know, like try to recreate an or few ‘action’ in drawing, needed pages of details movement, sort of. I think ^_^

    Davwon
  3. Given that they have stayed almost religiously true to the manga so far I can’t see them pulling an anime original ending on this one. Let’s pray they finish up this arc and put the sequel project on hold for a year or two (then actually come back and finish it). Bleach or Naruto style filler episodes or an anime original ending would be nothing but a huge disservice to the fans regardless of weather they have or haven’t read the manga.

    8GaugeBrett
  4. Well – actually the idea of 24 Claymores vs 3 AB isn’t as uneven as you wrote. Consider that the one Awakened Being that we actually saw getting killed took an entire team of half-Awakened Claymores who were all easily ranked in the single-digits in terms of power (as Miria said – by half-awakening, each one of the four could easily hold their own from ranks 6-10) – and even then, two of them were basically out within seconds of the fight.

    Of the 24 Claymores, there are only 3 in the single digits and the rest are weaker – with the majority being fodder as Miria said – the expendable. Of those, perhaps half, if that, has had experience with the sheer power of AB at all. Remember – to take out even the weakest of AB, a team of 4, including one single digit, and 3 who are usually in the top 10-20, is almost always needed (okay that one with Ophelia was an exception since she was in the top 5).

    In other words, in terms of sheer power – the battle is actually weighted towards the 3 AB.

    Show Spoiler ▼

    Taelrak
  5. Teresa is still the most badass, whoever has read the extra chapter of Claymore manga will understanding what I mean and how powerful she is against a top awaken being. I think Teresa is still the only one who has a chance against Priscilla or any abyssal one in a one vs one battle. Not to mention Teresa probably is more powerful or at least equal to all 24 of them combine.

    Mike
  6. This anime is supposedly to become great if the setting is not always dark and unwatchable.
    We can barely see what’s going on all the time.
    This is why the manga is wayyyyyyy much better than the anime.

    Anone
  7. Actually, all minor faults aside, content-wise the anime flows better, since alot of smaller glitches are worked over. And if the show is too dark for you (old CRT, maybe?) I’d get a new monitor. It’s dark, but certainly not unwatchable at all on properly working setups.

    Mentar
  8. Ho hum.. as for the voices, Flora’s was rather high and well… girlier than i expected (but still works well with her character),and Undine voice sounded gruff and arrogant. Spot-on perfect voices in my opinion xD

    ShiningNinja
  9. NO CLAYMORES CAN MATCH TERESA SKILL, EVEN PRISCILLA… ‘CAUSE SHE MADE MISTAKE AND IN A SPLIT SECOND LOOSE HER CONCENTRATION TO CUT PRISCILLA HEAD OFF….
    PS : SHE’S HOT TOO..

    BAKABAKASHI
  10. In the scheme of things, it’s hard to imagine that three Awakened Beings would give too much trouble to 24 Claymores, especially with the likes of Miria and Clare with them.

    Please, Ligardes hasn’t gotten here yet.

    Bio
  11. @HAHAHA
    It was taken out, but i dont see it affecting the story very much. Probably they thought it was one of these scenes that could be cut off.

    and YEAH! Finally Northern war :DDD
    The greatness :E Can’t wait to see the other battles animated…

    Unknown Voice
  12. @ tritoch,

    I have not read the manga yet but flora did notice it was Clare who freed them out of the yoki control. I bet that made her to want to see how strong she really is since a #47 is not supposed to be able to do that. Not to mention it surprised the AB as well. Flora expected her to be useless.

    As well it was clear only a few actually have experience with fighting AB which probably won’t be more then 10 of them. They never take numbers lower then 25 for AB killing teams as far as I know unless they get send there to die. I believe this was said by Miria very early as well.

    The 3 AB are all males as well and from the old days. The can be expected to be very tough and will need that many claymores to get killed. However I do expect to see a few die especially by that preview in the end where it showed standing swords being under snowed.

    Show Spoiler ▼

    PS, they should put the manga on a weekly release >

  13. I’m actually a bit worried with all the stuff they skip (mostly dialogue things)…makes me wonder if they plan on doing a bunch of fillers or something during the 2nd season that requires certain facts to be altered (especially since the manga hasn’t progressed very far beyond the current arc).

    taelrak
  14. @anamesis
    It is confirmed that there will be 26 episodes.
    So they can fully spend episodes 23 24 25 for cognates arc, and the last ep for first JOined arc, leaving us with damn good cliffchanger.

    Unknown Voice
  15. Well, Clare could never be ranked higher, because she’s only quarter-youma. So, even if she had the potential to be the organisation’s number one, it just couldn’t happen.
    Well who cares for the organisation anyways? They’re jerks.

    I guess the anime will stop after the Northern Campaign. Such a long way to go for more Chapters… make this series weekly t_t

    @Kurudesu

    Yes, Chapter 74 will be out in November, there will be Extra Chapters until then. That’s because Monthly Jump doesn’t exist anymore and Claymore will be in Weekly Jump (monthly though, don’t keep your hopes up) until Jump², the new monthly magazine is released.
    Ahh I want to know about Galatea :/

    Kamion

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