Summary:

Unaware of what’s really going on, Raki heads with Isley and Priscilla towards Pieta, and he doesn’t understand what Isley means when he says that everything will be over by the time they get there. At that moment, the small army of Awakened Beings is approaching the town, led by Ligardes – the Silver-eyed Lion King – who had earlier told Isley about what happened to the three who were supposed to do reconnaissance. Isley didn’t minded that they hadn’t returned and after concluding that there was a force in Pieta with the power to defeat those three, he decided to send his troops to wipe out the town. With this threat now coming, Miria and the others rally around the idea of surviving, but when the fighting begins, several Claymores are immediately cut to pieces. The power of the five team leaders, however, helps the Claymores strike back and kill a few of the Awakened Beings. Outside town, Ligardes notes that it’s taking too long and assesses that three Awakened Beings are down at the cost of five Claymores. He is surprised at what he considers to be a miraculous outcome for the other side, and after counting five strong Claymores, he heads into Pieta.

Meanwhile, Raki notices that Priscilla is missing, and goes looking for her when he hears a scream from nearby. He sees a woman running away yelling about a monster, and after finding Priscilla’s cloak on the ground, he follows the footprints in the snow to a nearby cave. Inside, he discovers a naked Priscilla beside a campfire, and he soon realizes that she’s eating a man’s body. He quickly figures out that she’s a Yoma, but as he raises his sword to kill her, he hears her crying out to her parents and siblings. Unable to kill her, Raki starts to back away and bumps into Isley who had just arrived in the cave. After covering Priscilla with her cloak, Isley reveals to Raki that she’s not a Yoma but rather an Awakened Being. Raki then tries desperately to stop her and hugs her from behind, but she continues eating and crying. Back in Pieta, the Claymores have gotten surrounded in the town square by the Awakened Beings, but a sudden roar causes them all to leave. Appearing in the snowstorm soon after is Ligardes, and he compliments them for trying to cut a path to survival in this hopeless situation. Declaring that they can’t lose any more of their forces, Ligardes then changes into his Awakened form.

Miria immediately recognizes him, but before she or any of the other Claymores can react, Ligardes slices Veronica in half. His second target is Undine, and although she puts up a little resistance, he chops off her arms and then cleaves her in half too. Still wasting no time, Ligardes appears beside Jean who has figured out that he’s going after the leaders and instructs Clare to protect Flora. Jean manages to wind up her arm and flies at Ligardes, but he simply sidesteps her attack and impales her with his arm. This is enough to get Clare to get angry and charge at him, but he easily pushes her aside and heads for Flora, cutting her in half lengthwise with his claw. Having killed four of the Claymore leaders now, Ligardes roars with power and eyes Miria next.

Preview

Aside from the part with Raki discovering that Priscilla was an Awakened Being, this followed the manga’s battle at Pieta pretty well, expanding on a few parts to make the fight longer and perhaps a bit gorier. Last week, I had wondered if the change of not having Flora fight Clare would lead to Jean and/or Flora living, but since they ended up staying with manga in that regard, I still question what that change was all about. The only thing I can think of now is that they really wanted to emphasize how Clare wants to kill Priscilla, which will probably come in conflict with how Raki seems to want to protect her, even though he knows what she is now. Perhaps the better question is, if the anime intends for Clare to fight Priscilla, how Clare will get strong enough to challenge either Priscilla or Isley – each of whom is probably more powerful than Ligardes – in a short amount of time. Maybe they’ll cop out and just not have her directly fight the emotionally unstable Priscilla. For the time being though, next week looks like it’ll be about Miria’s battle and Clare getting involved.

47 Comments

  1. Well for anyone still holding out and hoping that they don’t pull an anime original ending this episode pretty much confirms it will be with Raki discovering that Prescilla is an awakened being.

    8GaugeBrett
  2. As expected, they fall one by one. Kinda depressing even though i read the manga a few months back, but seeing it animated sends a chill up my spine. So many potential characters getting butchered in this ep, such a waste. *groans*

    Shinn Agami
  3. This part was one of the more surprising ones in the story. It was amazing just how much more powerful Rigardo was compared to the rest of the awakened beings. I was almost annoyed that the top Claymores did not put up a challenge at all and just… died.

    Not really looking forward to next episode, since Clare v. Rigardo was not one I liked much. But after that, I’m sort-of looking forward to the anime original ending. Holding out against all hope that it IS possible to make something original, not mess up the manga storyline, and still be good. Based on the past examples… I’m not holding my breath.

    Meh
  4. ya im interested in seeing the anime ending too by the sounds of it the anime ending might be a ending to be proud of, As long as the claymore anime dosent turn into something like d-gray man has become ill stay happy.
    And you never know in 2 years or so they could always come back and start a new claymore series starting from ep 21 and following the manga again,

    tempus
  5. This was the episode that had most differences to the original story.
    -Clare did not fight the captain of her group.
    -Pricilla was not found naked and crying because claymores were dying,
    -instead found eating human flesh and identity revealed to Raki
    -Raki did not stay at the Awakened of the North’s camp
    -The Awakaned of the North did not discuss with Ricardo inside a camp
    -And more….

    @tempus
    I agree with you. As long as it doesn’t turn out to be like D-Gray man,
    i will be happy to see how this series end.

    banzemanga
  6. @ Banzemanga

    Actually Pricilla was found by Raki, naked and crying as the claymores were getting slaughtered, mentioning the part where the lights were disappearing. However, it was not in the same context as they are describing in the anime.

    Brandon
  7. Hmm pretty good episode, the additional bits added to the start of the battle in pieta were quite good. The additional Raki + Priscilla part was alright, and presumably necessary for whatever ending they have planned, except for me, I felt it was really badly placed. It broke up the sequence of Rigarde killing 4 of the 5 team captains, which really was a bad idea imo. In the manga they bit is so good because of how mercilessly fast it all happens, in this episode, it’s broken up into two parts, and so it loses some of the impact imo..

    willowywicca
  8. “Aside from the part with Raki discovering that Priscilla was an Awakened Being”
    Big difference from the manga. Now you can question yourself how they are going to end this series, make an own ending or finish as first season.

  9. Having an original ending could very well means this series will stay at 26 episodes, no second season or more. I mean if they had follow the manga then the chance of us seeing a second season to continueing the storyline woud have been higher. But now this great anime could just end anyway they want.

    Tom
  10. Do u guys notice how little time jeane took to wind up her arm to 21 this time. The first time (vs dauf) and the 2nd time (vs recon bug) took like forever. Now its like ….1…….21

    and she does it twice too….so much for a move that “she cant use so many times” she sure used it twice within a very short interval too.

    DarklynerZ
  11. i cant wait to see how much the anime will split off from the manga, im really not against it if they do a good job, plus it would mean that there could be a second season of claymore.

    zoozoz
  12. question o_o does Raki even know what an Awakened Being is?

    No. And it’s explained in this episode.

    And I really, really hope the change in Raki’s story isn’t going to affect the storyline in general. Because this is the big departure from the manga, where Raki was kept in the dark about everything. Even the fact that there’s a big battle in Pieta.

    Meh
  13. having not read the manga myself, i would say that so far madhouse had really done a very good job. this anime series totally got me hooked/addicted/drooling etc and argh i really hope there’s a 2nd series! by the look of it chances look SLIM (!) and lets all pray that they cont’d to finish up this anime with a really superb ending.

    know its gg to be tough for the faithful manga readers but no choice. if they screwed it up we can always revert back to the manga~

    and i hate odex for punishing singaporeans. cant even download my subs for now n hafta watch via poor quality streaming =X

    Lord Justinian
  14. @Lord Justinian

    If you think they are doing a good job with that anime, then you really should try to read the manga, that will explain why some of us manga reader are not too fond of where this anime is leading at the moment.

    John
  15. @ John

    I’ve read the manga from start to the latest chapters (up to the extra Millia story) and am still loving the anime. Though I am taken aback by some of the changes, they keep the general mood of the manga intact. No one is too obnoxiously OOC and if all goes well, it will be like a Trigun ending: way different from the comic but still a good story. As long as Teresa doesn’t resurrect herself or some other bull$hit like that, I’m good with whatever the anime does.

    tanuki
  16. What if….just, what IF….this anime is supposed to have a manga ending all this while, and the author actually used the anime as a way of describing the……situation Raki has been in for the rest of the manga.
    I don’t know, am I making sense? This brain block isn’t helping.

    GrimaH
  17. Just watched sub, this Lion king guy seems able to take on all the Claymores by himself… and he is underling of Isley, so I surmise that there is no freaking way Clare can get past BOTH of them to attack Priscilla…

    ewok
  18. i figured they wouldn’t have Jean following Clare around forever so she was expected to die but Flora was unexpected 🙁 wanted to see more of her skills! If they kill off most of the top-a-di-top claymores, who will be left to help Clare fight Priscilla and her Man? But wait! Remember Riful of the West and her man Dauf? Might end up that they join in on the fight. Who knows! Anxiously waiting for the next epi. So addictive! “my claymore” 😛

    venus
  19. Woaaah! Just saw this episode and I have to say it’s awesomeee. A bit gory, but didn’t mind at all. It was so full of action – I want to see more, can’t wait for the upcoming episode.

    And I was so surprised to see Flora just got…taken down like that, I mean even Undine put up some resistance, i was expecting Flora would at least defend herself. But I guess in that situation anyone would be too shocked, and scared of what might happen still. But man… can’t wait for more.

    L
  20. And oh… when you mentioned that he killed “four of the five” claymore leaders, does that include Jeane? Because… I can’t tell if she’s dead or not, she looks injured most certainly.

    L
  21. All things considered I’m of the opinion that perhaps there won’t be an “ending” at all. at least in the typical sense. I’m willing to bet they’ll leave it on more or less the same note as the manga did. True the revelation is a big change, but in truth, could actually happen as a flash back or something once the manga story picks back up again. It
    s still a bit early to tell, but given how much they’ve followed the manga, it would seem such a waste to just cap an ending, and them knowing that in November the Manga will start moving forward again. My prediction is that unless something major happens in the next 2 episodes, they’ll probably end it with the same cliff hanger as the manga. Which will then allow them to pick right up with a new season after the manga gets a good amount of new content down.

    I just don’t wanna see it turn into the Hellsing anime, Elfin Lied Anime, Full Metal Alchemist anime….etc…

    Anyway, thats my thoughts

    ZanathKariashi

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