Review: Claymore, Vol. 10

Claymore: The Battle of the North, Vol. 10
by Norihiro Yagi

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Claymore, Vol. 10 / 978-1421511825

I've watched the Claymore anime before following the manga, and I absolutely love both. I love the crisp, clean, black-and-white artwork, and I'm finding that the "action" panels are getting easier to follow as I progress into the series -- I think that the artists behind this series are truly talented and skilled at conveying a complex story and wonderfully emotive characters.

And, on an excited side note, I notice now that the entire series is available in e-book form as Nook Books; I hope they'll be ported to other stores soon, to serve as many readers as possible.

Volume 10 provides the following scenes:

Scene 52: The Battle of the North, Part 3
Scene 53: The Battle of the North, Part 4
Scene 54: The Battle of the North, Part 5
Scene 55: The Battle of the North, Part 6
Scene 56: The Battle of the North, Part 7
Scene 57: The Assault on Pieta, Part 1

For those following along with the anime series, this volume corresponds to:

Episode 19: The Carnage in the North, Part 2
Episode 20: The Carnage in the North, Part 3
Episode 21: Invasion of Pieta, Part 1
Episode 22: Invasion of Pieta, Part 2

Spoilers ahead!

This volume continues the Northern Campaign arc and ends with Rigaldo taking out all the Claymore leaders except Miria.

The Claymores gathered in Pieta deal with the three Awakened Beings sent as advance scouts, and then take some time after to heal their injured. Deneve has a conversation with Undine, and they discuss their survivor's guilt from both childhood and their stint as warriors. Flora and Clare spar in order to determine their relative strength, since Flora believes that the strong have a responsibility to be leaders. More Awakened Beings attack, and Rigaldo intervenes to remove the leaders from the battlefield.

Here is where the manga really starts to diverge from the anime. There are a number of notable differences here; to begin with, the arc with Raki, Isley, and Priscilla is notably different. Raki does not travel to Pieta, nor does he even learn that there are Claymores fighting in the city. Nor is Priscilla revealed to Raki as an Awakened Being. Raki merely lives and travels with Isley and Priscilla, aware that the couple is odd but not fully understanding the significance of their actions.

Meanwhile, in Pieta, Clare and Flora spar uninterrupted rather than being halted by Jean as in the anime. It is revealed that Clare is now marginally faster than Flora, who was hitherto the fastest warrior in the group. This is foreshadowing: ultimately, Clare will adopt Flora's Windcutter technique when she has to abandon use of the Quick-Sword in order to suppress her aura while in hiding.

~ Ana Mardoll