The first thing you'll notice immediately about this show is that it looks and feels pretty dated. You can tell it came out in the mid to late 2000's. You can especially see it in the edgy style, the animations and the way they use certain editing techniques. It's not a bad thing, but it's definitely noticeable. The other thing is the way they drew the lips on the characters. Why does the upper lip protrude so much over the bottom one? It looks weird man! Lol. The body proportions are pretty ridiculous as well. My gripe with this show is that it felt rushed, especially towards the end. It felt like they introduced all these characters and lore and didn't give enough time for these things to breath and be explained. I was pretty disappointed with the way things unfolded at the end. It wasn't what I was expecting at all. The ending of this anime suffered similarly to the ending of GOT. It kind of leaves it open for a 2nd season, but they never went through with it. So it kind of finishes with a lack of closure.

The art style is sick. It has a dark fantasy vibe similar to Berserk. The world and the setting are awesome - it's got sort of Skyrim vibes. It takes place around sometime during the medieval era in a fictional world where monsters called, Yoma's, kill and feed on people. It's a brutal and unforgiving world where people are constantly losing loved ones. Thankfully, there's these half-human half-monster warriors called Claymores who go around fighting and killing the Yoma that terrorize the land. What makes the show interesting is the mystery that it's shrouded in. They only give us just enough information to know what's going on, so we end up having more questions than answers. We don't know much about the Organization or how it was formed or how the Claymore's came to be. The storytelling is great and the premise is intriguing. The way the plot progresses makes for a very entertaining watch. The characters are very interesting - they basically make the show more engaging. Once Teresa comes into the picture, things start to get more interesting. Teresa and Clare's backstory was the highlight of the show. It was so shocking and out of nowhere what Priscilla did to Teresa. That was so grimy. Talk about suppressing your inner darkest demons - Priscilla went full Yoma god mode. That whole scene was pretty horrifying to say the least. The show got dark really quick. But wow, what an amazing and brilliant way to setup Clare's origin story. So frickin good man. It made me root for Clare the whole time. I wanted to see her succeed so bad, especially after finding out that she's the lowest rank in the continent. Ophelia is just a straight up sadomasochist psycho. I like how Ilena bumped into Clare's life again. What she did for Clare was amazing and completely selfless.

The fights are sick. The music and soundtrack are solid. The voice acting is great. The dialogue can be kind of redundant at times especially when they narrate what just happened. Parts of the show come off kind of silly and ridiculous but it fits the show somehow and doesn't take away from it. The clanking of the Claymores' metal boots reminds me of cowboys with their spurs. All the cracking and squishing noises in the show are unsettling. There's this sense of uneasiness throughout the show that I found interesting. All the lore tied to the world is fantastic.

It can get pretty dark, disturbing, violent and gory. But at the core of this anime lies a very human heart. This show explores how humans who are considered to be monsters can care for humans and be more human than their monster counterpart. It's essentially about how beautiful and empathetical humans can be regardless of how monstrous they can become. I couldn't help but feel bad for the Claymore women. They're shunned by humans, isolated from society and are basically lone wolves who's only purpose is to kill Yoma's. They know no love, they don't have any family or friends to share feelings or emotions with and they're treated as if they're not human. What's even more perplexing is how beautiful these women are. It's an anime that explores themes of morality, identity, freedom of choice and the human condition. The show is honestly so good that the episodes fly by without even noticing. Even though the ending was pretty disappointing, it's an awesome show and a great revenge story.