Review: Claymore, Vol. 7

Claymore: Fit for Battle, Vol. 7
by Norihiro Yagi

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Claymore, Vol. 7 / 9781421547626

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.

Volume 7 provides the following scenes:

Scene 34: The Endless Gravestones, Part 4
Scene 35: The Endless Gravestones, Part 5
Scene 36: The Endless Gravestones, Part 6
Scene 37: Fit for Battle, Part 1
Scene 38: Fit for Battle, Part 2
Scene 39: Fit for Battle, Part 3

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

Episode 13: The Endless Gravestones, Part 3
Episode 14: Qualified to Fight

Spoilers ahead!

This volume comes close to finishing out the Ophelia arc, though the final battle with the Awakened Ophelia is saved for the next volume.

Clare flees with Raki after Ophelia narrowly misses sacrificing Raki to an Awakened Being in order to taunt Clare. The two split up in the woods, since Clare knows that Ophelia will hunt her and will not be able to track Raki. Ophelia corners Clare and destroys her arm, but before she can kill Clare, Ilena -- the Number 2 warrior assigned to hunt Teresa after her defection -- intervenes. Ilena saves Clare, and after some discussion and training she grants Clare the use of her arm, as well as her famed Quick-Sword attack. Meanwhile, Ophelia awakens and confronts a healed Clare in the forest.

Not much is different here from the anime, but it is revealed that aggressive warriors *can* regrow limbs, it's just that the limbs are no stronger than normal human limbs.

~ Ana Mardoll