Summary:

Surprised at how fast Clare has become, Ligardes and the others soon realize that she has Awakened her legs. Clare quickly attacks and manages to take a small chunk out of Ligardes’ leg, but he avoids any major damage. He is able to block Clare’s swings, but since he finds it inconvenient only to have one arm, he kicks Clare into a building and goes to retrieve the arm that got chopped off. Unfortunately for him, Helen uses her arm stretching technique to get to the severed arm first, and she proceeds to dice it into tiny pieces. Ligardes doesn’t get a chance to retaliate because Clare is soon charging at him again, and in their subsequent clashes, he realizes that although Clare can speed up rapidly, her body can’t keep up. He’s thus able to just sidestep her because she can’t make small adjustments after she gets moving, and he warns of a price to pay for her unnatural Awakening. After a few more attempts during which Clare feels that she still doesn’t have what she needs to kill Ligardes, he comments on how her movements are too big. The battle proceeds with neither side gaining an advantage until Helen tries to join the fight but misses. Ligardes manages to injure Clare on her follow-up attack, and when Helen attempts to hit him again with her stretchy arm, he switches targets to her.

Anticipating that Clare is going to try to attack him before he can reach Helen, Ligardes hold back his arm and let’s her rush past. To his shock though, Clare is able to recover and appear back beside them before he can act on Helen. As he contends with Clare’s power, Ligardes notices that he’s enjoying this, and he remembers that he hasn’t had this feeling since fighting Isley all that time ago. Getting serious, Ligardes formally introduces himself and starts powering up. Clare somehow manages to keep up with him despite his strength and speed, and the two soon resemble flashes of light bouncing around the town square. As she tries to aim her arm at Ligardes, Helen suddenly notices Raki wander into town. When She brings him to the building where the other Claymores are recovering, Miria recognizes him and suggests that he leave because it’s dangerous here. Raki, however, insists on seeing Clare because of the promise he made with her, and he runs back out into the battle. It is there that he finds Clare, but he is shocked at the sight of her legs. Although devastated to find out that Clare is Awakening, he still refuses to run away and instead remembers how Priscilla had cried out for her family. As he sees more of Clare’s face and legs though, he is reminded of all the Yoma that he’s ever encountered. Helen urges him one more time to escape, but Raki just drops his sword and falls to his knees.

Clare meanwhile continues to push herself because she feels she isn’t strong or fast enough. After smacking her down, Ligardes picks up a large monolith and throws it at her with all his strength, but what Ligardes doesn’t expect is that Clare somehow avoids being hit, and she counterattacks with more power than ever. At the same time, Isley and Priscilla are approaching town, and Priscilla becomes visibly shocked at what she senses. Ligardes is now unable to fully defend himself against Clare’s power, but his last words before Clare cuts him to pieces are in awe of her.

Preview

The two biggest changes from the manga that I saw were that Clare didn’t have to awaken nearly as much in order to defeat Ligardes (though they did make it clear that she was pushing herself harder and harder), and that Raki was put on the scene. Raki, however, didn’t really do anything except be shocked and be frustrated, though he may yet play a part in turning Clare back – assuming that’s the direction the story is gonna go. Then again, Jean’s still alive, and Galatea is in the preview, so any one of them (or even all of them) could play that part, and it’s possible that Clare’s physical changes will also manifest themselves in the next episode. Priscilla and Isley still have a part to play too, so maybe Clare will get to fight one of them (maybe both) while she’s still uber-powerful. Regardless, it should be pretty much all anime-original material from here on out.

76 Comments

  1. My theory

    Show Spoiler ▼

    Since the “Truth” in the manga hasn’t been revealed yet, they will make their own conclusions regarding those weaknesses.

    Brandon
  2. THEY ARE SO STUPID! WHAT THEY DID?!
    THEY RUINED IT! THE BEST PART OF ALL THE ANIME RUINED WITH THOSE STUPID CLICHES.
    RAKI WAS SUPPOSED TO BECAME A CLAYMORE 7 YEARS FROM NOW. JEANNE WAS SUPPOSED TO SAVE CLARE AND DIE. CLARE WAS SUPPOSED TO FULLY AWAKEN AND MAKE THE BEST PWNAGE FROM ANY ANIME THIS YEAR! I WAITED 10 EPISODES TO SEE THIS AND THEY FUCKING CHANGED IT!

    Jack
  3. No, Clare is not suppose to FULLY awaken. She does awake all of her four limbs in the manga version and manages to kill Ligardo with one blow.

    Like in the manga version, as Ligardo awaken, he quickly kills deliver fatal blows in all Claymore captains, except Miria. Jeanne is still alive but as she mentioned when saving Clare (helping her turning back), her wound was fatal anyway.

    What bothers me, like I posted before, is that after Galatea’s returning, there was the begining of a plot Show Spoiler ▼

    Show Spoiler ▼

    Mumu
  4. I don’t know where all the Raki as a Claymore rumors have come from, but they’re clearly ridiculous if you paid any attention to the series, since you would know that the Organization has long since stopped making any male Claymores…

    As for this episode, ruining Clare’s partial awakening is further proof that adaptations which turn away from their source are just stupid -_- That was the one last thing I was looking forward to in the anime and they blew it!

    Hiyono
  5. uuuh raki awakened????? ummm pass that spliff my man!! damn! that leg transformation looks hella painfull, like pirate legs..couldnt expect too much fo the rest of the series, im one of those who have been spoiled “ruined” by the manga

    BROOKLYN otaku
  6. lol, oh come on guys! Everybody is whinning about how the Anime is different from the Manga, but so what!? I watch Anime to watch Anime and read Manga to read Manga, not watch Anime and compare it to the Manga, lol. Think about it, would anybody be complaining about this episode if the didn’t read the manga? lol

    Brett
  7. Geez.. all I hear from you guys is how stupid the Anime version is getting by diverging from the manga. I don’t think we should judge until the last episode airs, and then we can say what we want.

    BTW- has there ever been an anime that stayed faithful to the manga until the very end? I have seen many and I never recall one…

    Blaze
  8. “where do u guys read claymore translated manga?”

    Well, cleanwater, you could always buy it. It’s a popular enough series that any major bookseller worth its salt is going to sell it. And considering each volume (of 9 released so far) is only $7.99 suggested price, a little legwork or websurfing will easily get you all of the ones released so far for under $60.00, possibly quite a bit under. And then you get to read it without destroying your eyesight or getting carpal tunnel.

    Or, you could just Google “Claymore” and “scanlation,” but any n00b can do that.

    quigonkenny
  9. Wow I think this anime is awesome. I’m glad I don’t read manga, so I don’t have to ***** and whine about how every anime adaptation I read is bad. Seriously, every time I watch an anime there are always that group of people who whine and whine about how much better the manga is. That’s great and all, but I’d rather see something in motion.

    Alex4life
  10. The reason why Claymore anime isn’t following the manga anymore from 21 onwards is because the anime studio which make Claymore anime had to end it with a few more eps.

    (Yes, Claymore only have 26 eps and we do not know if there will be any second season, so most likely the studio is rushing to make Raki meet back with Clare etc., be happy that the studio followed the manga really close all the way until 21… :D)

    Shadow X
  11. Ok, so story-line is now completely different, but lets see what happens. I have this feeling that they are going to end the season early with Claire killing Pricilla in the next few episodes. What a shame.

    O'Dalaigh
  12. They just killed the claymore show with this episode to me!!! I cant believe they didnt let clare awaken all four of her limbs to kill that lion dude!! My jaw dropped to the ground in disbelief and then turned to anger!!!! This was one of my favorite scenes in the manga,now im left with total disappointment. They can kill off all the claymores and raki,and let clare awaken fully then rpae whats left of their bodies for all i care!!

    Darkloco
  13. If you hook on MANGA…then don’t watch the anime…you get pissed off by it, when the story took a turn from Manga…
    Sit back and relax..just enjoy the anime…
    🙂 Expect the unexpected…
    Whether it is the manga or the anime, i do enjoy the storyline of Claymore..

    Jenny
  14. because the manga was good,and people liked it.Thats the reason it gets turned into an anime most of the time. So you can expect some changes of course,but when they rape scenes like they just did,you cant excuse that unless they make it better somehow. True fans wouldnt understand it…I Love claymore and they are butchering one of my favorite manga /anime shows.

    Darkloco
  15. Maybe clare dead after killing the lion king and isley. she killed by Priscilla and priscilla kill all the claymore but didnt kill raki and raki take clare head and become claymore. HAHAHA.. my prediction. maybe will become true. who know>?

    lame
  16. WTF y they change it i really wanna see raki be a claymore……lets wait………lets just see what will happen and thanks for the pics so coooollll
    but i really wanna see clare almost fully awaeken cuz the manga aint colored so plzz!!!!

    heero
  17. Looks like the animators are going to wrap things up with an original ending. The omission of other characters in earlier episodes was a big hint Claymore was only going to have one season. If you didn’t read the manga, it’s still a good anime to watch even with the deviations. I expect to see some major league fighting in the last few episodes and Clare awakening all her limbs.

    Sci-Fi
  18. manga or anime being different doesn’t matter

    claymore is claymore and its class has shone through

    please don’t spoil it for the non-manga readers as I’m enjoying this anime and have enjoyed the manga

    ark noir
  19. If I’m not mistaken, Raki leaves Pieta downcast in the preview. Therefore, there is the possibility that the glory of saving Clare is up for grabs.

    The presence of Galatea shouldn’t be a bad sign as to what might be next.

    ix
  20. from what i heard….claymore might not have another season (which i want it to last at least 100 eps)
    but if they shorten everything to fit in the last few episodes…….they better have some intense crap to make up for this episodes failure

    r3d
  21. Anime does not have to follow the manga exactly – it has always been this way, and you should judge it as a separate storyline rather than the same one.

    Even though I have not read the manga, I was somewhat disappointed (in relation to other episodes) with this episode. I expected much better animation for Clare’s partial awakening, as they barely showed her awakened state when killing Rigardo (Ligardes). The other major thing that bothered me was Raki. My friend absolutely hated him at the beginning of Claymore, but I didn’t mind so much because he was an important character for plot development and I pitied his weakness when he was attacked. Fast forward to now – I really hate Raki and his constant whining. I dislike him to the point that I even fast forward through his helplessness as it does nothing to further the story. I am irked to think that he will help Clare revert to human state in the next episode.

    Having done some research on the next Claymore titles, I am pretty sure this is the last major battle, as the other episodes are not related to each other – they are most likely explanation/conclusion episodes.

    As it stands now, the anime ending will be nowhere near as interesting as the manga ending (friends and their impatience with the anime :P), but I have to rate Claymore as one of my favorite animes of all time.

    Esmo
  22. Calling all manga freaks….if u read lots of manga…dont ever complain abt anime adaptations not following manga. Anime are made from manga FOR THE VERY PURPOSE OF DIVERTING FROM THE MANGA and giving people a different story or ending. So stop the stupid complaining. If u read manga and u dont want ur story changed, why even bother to watch anime in the first place?

    DarklynerZ
  23. It is not about following the manga, it is about the weak plots and the all around destruction of the story. Naruto was ruined because of it and Bleach did better as far as fillers and deviation by creating a totally new arc with the Bounto. I barely watch those anime anymore.

    They should do like they did with the Berserk anime and keep it open ended. If they created an ending that is remotely as entertaining as its manga counterpart then it would not be bad. Its like bait and switch how they follow the manga then deviate….and if anyone have not read the manga then enjoy the anime for what it is. The good news is there is only a few episodes left.

    Jounouchi
  24. What if we all donate to the company who makes the anime and / or bribe them to keep with the manga storyline and make a new season xD Other than that, Claymore has been my Anime #1 ever since it started. Great art, Aswome Fight scenes =)I’m kinda disappointed that there might only be a few episodes left =/

    Abvius
  25. I like her legs on the other hand lol.

    Woah this episode is pretty crazy. I think the manga readers need to calm down a bit… “destruction of the story?” I mean come on – that’s pretty biased since only manga readers will be able to compare the anime to the manga – in fact, the only people who can call it “shit up” as someone put it, IS the people who read the manga. The only reason I can think of you calling the plot weak is that you already know what is supposed to happen. I would love to see some valid critque on the actual episode, than manga-anime comparison – I mean man, they even said they’ll deviate from the manga like 3 episodes ago, so I don’t think this is something new. Other people will be watching this first time and find it good.

    Plus, the new ending will be something to look forward to perhaps.

    rin
  26. The only people complaining are the manga readers. I’m glad I never read it first. The manga will always be better than the anime anyway, alterations or not. So why argue that much? At least the smart ones will be enjoying it.

    yu
  27. I’m kinda over the not following manga thing, I read the manga was dissapointed at the anime when it changed but now i’m excited to see how its gonna end. Reckon Galatea will do a bring back on claire before a showdown with priscilla

    ryohei
  28. I love how they conveniently forgot about the other Yoma/Awakened who are hanging around. 27 or so came to Pieta, I think three were confirmed dead before Rigardo took the field, so now with Rigardo dead there are still 23 or so enemies for the Claymores, but nobody is worried about them – in fact, Raki just waltzed right through their perimeter and arrived at a place where Claymores are chilling and watching the fight between Clare and Rigardo.

    lightbringer
  29. WTF????? clare doesnt even awaken all 4 of her limbs!!??? even if this episode is still good, they didnt have to put raki in that, it totally uselesss!!!!

    Show Spoiler ▼

    im getting a little anoyed at the guys now.. for this time i liked the manga version better, it also makes more sense imo *_*

    Grayfoxx
  30. Hey I started watchig Claymore some time ago ad really got into it all at once. Saw all 18 eps I had stored on my comp in a couple days as soon as I started watching the first ep. But now I hear that the Anime is takig a differnt route from the Manga, which sucks in my opinion. Can anyone tell me why theyre doing this? Why not just continue with the regular storyline like They do with Naruto and Bleach?
    Also, can anyone please tell me Around what chapter should I start reading to read the original events that were suppose to happen here.

    Thanks.
    RDSVicious@hotmail.com

    RDSVicious
  31. Here’s my theory:
    Show Spoiler ▼

    Azmal
  32. RDSVicious, the manga is not finished – in fact, it’s not much further along than the current anime plot, only two more volumes or so. So the animators have opted for an anime-original ending.
    [spoiler]
    There’s a time skip of seven years, and only a little has been released about things that happen thereafter. We still don’t know where Raki is, for instance, although he went south with Isley and Priscilla. Galatea’s whereabouts are only indirectly indicated. We do see the seven survivors of the battle in Pieta, as they embark on their journey of revenge.
    [/spoiler]

    If you want to see how things are supposed to play out in the manga – the big divergence starts around scene 55 (middle of the tenth volume), which contains a semi-important event omitted from the anime. So I would start reading either from the beginning of the tenth volume, from scene 54, or from the very beginning of the manga.

    lightbringer
  33. Well, I hate to sound like a broken record….but there’s still nothing they’ve done that could prevent a second season thus far. Sure that could change, but other then little annoying people, I mean points, it’s still following the manga for the most part, albiet, it was disappointing with claire’s half-awakening. Also, for those that read the manga and recall about this time story wise, Alicia and Beth are formally introduced.

    Anyways….I’m still hoping for a season ending, not an ending ending….some animes are good short….this ain’t one of them.

    ZanathKariashi
  34. i’m really pissed off about the manga changes and what they’ve done with raki – they skipped clare’s full awakening, although they kept jean alive(whether thats good or still annoying), they’ve got the other claymores doing nothin but babysitting raki whose bawling his eyes out like a pussy and distracting us from the fight and now they’re bringing isley and priscilla in to the picture prematurely – unless things miraculously turn around and work themselves out i doubt whether i’ll even watch the second season. most of all though i REALLY hope that this in no way influences the manga plotline (though it shouldn’t)

    Gynok
  35. Hard to tell, but as of Side story 3, Pricilla’s actions when feeding and her constant sobbing for her family are accurate. And it’s still not impossible for things to end on the same note this arc did in the manga, Raki is just gonna have to be fooled along with everyone else, is all.

    ZanathKariashi
  36. i read the manga and watch teh anime as well. i love them both. i just LOL at the idoit whos was waitign teh see clare awaken form in color. lol that so funny. u guy are just lol. claymore is not final fantasy with nice beautiful color. claymore is a dead, darkage style anime with dull gothic color. even if they do show clare awaken form in teh anime, it wont be much, maybe a few gray color here and there, not much to see.

    1 possible ending to claymore if they want a endign ending for claymore

    clare 99.9999% awaken and beat the crap out of pricila. then raki recalling all his time he spent cruddleing up with pricila night after night stop clare. clare show mercy and stop. easly and pricila went back home (a happy couple, get marry, ahve some awaken children….) raki try to stop and brign clare back to normal. he failed and clare fully awaken. since clare was made form teressa who is half human and half demon, clare fully awaken to teh human half of terresa and become human again. clare ans raki took off together live hapily ever after.

    Valkyrie
  37. lol, why the hell do manga reader really want the anime to be the same as the manga ?
    you really want to see the same story twice ?

    i don’t give a damn for the manga 🙂 and it becomes boring to see people crying about diff with the manga, but i’ll have to cope with that ^^ twould be nice to have a forum for those people only

    this episode blows as always (even more)

    Thomas

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