Claymore

Claymore is an action driven story line with just a few twists, but they are good enough to keep pacing moving and create a dynamic story line. Again, smooth transitions, fluid animation and great voice acting. There is an underlying discussion of how much control a person actually has over their lives and how their free will decisions enslave them further, but this is over shadowed by great combat.

The time frame is a little odd, but seems to be based on medieval times of Europe. Claymore is the coloquial term for agents of "The Company". This company sends out women that have been trained since they were merely children how to kill and fight. It is their job then to come and aid villages that need their help. In this universe the country side is plagued with these...demons, or "Yoma". The Yoma feed on humans and have a few abilities that aren't ever really expressed, but just seem to be understood such as regeneration, or able to morph their bodies. As far as powers go for characters and villans alike, you have to sort of roll with what's going on. The manga does a better job at flushing things out, and I'll argue for the anime being pretty consistant with the manga with only a few differences as the anime ends prematurely.

The main tension in the series arrises from a constant struggle in the characters to stay human. The female agents of this Company are special because in some way or another they have been infused with Yoma blood. From this, they gain their amazing strength, agility, regenerative abilities, endurance, and power. It also is what separates them from those that they try to protect. Their appearances are always blonde with silver eyes. The village people refer to them as Claymores because of the massive swords they carry.

Running 26 episodes, this is a great "closed" series that greatly rewards you for watching the anime and then launching into blazing through the manga that is still going on. The plot, as I've mentioned, is much better and more complex than the few turns in the series culminating in only a few large scale fights. To be honest, watching through the first few episodes made me very happy in the way fights were done. In the first episode when a certain someone gets punched through the back, I knew that encounters would happen right. None of this getting punched through a mountain density stuff.

With the only down side of this anime being to have to watch Roki (souns like Rock-y) for a good portion of the series, a character that deserves your hate and want to punch.