Cat’s Eye and Orguss: 2 Golden Oldies

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Why you should buy them! (probably)

I think you should buy them. In fact, I demand you go buy them.

I think we are extremely lucky that ImaginAsia has come along and decided to try this. Classic shows released in the past have done notoriously bad. Not because the shows aren’t good, but fans seem to be superficially obsessed with the way a show looks. I’m not saying style doesn’t matter because there are some things that are so ugly is it hard to look at it. But to miss out on a really good show because of it seems counter productive.

Well, I think a lot of ImaginAsia‘s plan to pick up older series come with the fact that they have a novel distribution system that makes it economical to release niche titles to a niche audiences and still get some kind of profit. First off, ImaginAsia is a cable channel so they can put anything they license right on TV, which is an advantage that most anime distributors don’t have. Then ,they are releasing them on high quality press on demand DVD-Rs. This means they are possibly not as high a quality a disk that has been factory pressed DVD, but the only real difference between the two will been seen 5 or 10 years so I guess we shall see then. For now they see good enough quality.

Since they are so cheap to make, can be made in house, and since they are only distributed on the Internet, ImaginAsia can sell them at a lower price than normal anime DVDs. Also since they are print on demand. They don’t have to worry about a factory filled with thousand of unsold DVDs if a title is unsuccessful. Also since they are going for a niche market, so they’re not spending big bucks on a dub. All in all this seems the best way to see a old anime series that does not have nostalgia factor like Voltron. I wonder if other companies will start to do the same thing if ImaginAsia makes a profit.

But for me, I really love 70’s and 80’s style so the vintage of a show is not really an issue for me. I jump at the chance to watch some older shows. And as such have jumped at these ImaginAsia releases.

Yeah, there are a bunch of really good classic series that could use some U.S exposure. Captain Harlock, Rose of Versailles, and Dirty Pair come to mind right off the bat. There are also some legendary old sports anime like Aim for the Ace, Touch, Attack No. 1, and Tomorrow’s Joe. Some of the greatest hits of anime go unknown in the US because they are old sports shows but are an integral classics of anime in Japan.

I like the way they are released even-though some people take issue with it. Of course, they are subtitle only, which doesn’t bother me since I don’t even listen to the dub track, ever, not even as a test, for most shows. The first disc comes in a thick box that holds all the discs. The box is nice, comes with artwork and all the discs have artwork on them, too. Then each disc after that just comes in a … So you just continually add discs to the big case filling it up. It saves space, is cost effective, and quite frankly is the only way we are ever going to get shows like this in America. And if these releases do well, we can expect more in the future. It would be wonderful to get a lot more classic shows here in the U.S. Especially since Rose of Versailles is part of the TMS catalog. It’s a long shot, but you never know.

Well there is always the rumor that Riyoko Ikeda is super duper crazy and is the main obstacle preventing Rose of Versailles from getting licensed.

I like the boxes and they are pretty nice looking. Most people prefer smaller boxes as opposed to single boxes for each DVD anyway. I mean I don’t even keep most of my DVD cases anymore. I throw all my DVDs in CD notebooks. I need space. Otherwise where am I going to keep all my Saber figures?

Well we can talk all day about what a good distribution idea ImaginAsia has but if the shows stink who cares? Or if you hate the types of show they licensed then why should you care. But I think ImaginAsia picked at least two good series in Orguss and Cat’s Eye. They are very different shows but both have a distinctly fun old school vibe. They have yet to ship me Nobody’s Boy Remi so I don’t know how good that series is.

Orguss is about Lt. Kei Katsuragi is a fighter pilot who is assigned to protect a dimensional bomb set to blow up an enemy space elevator. When the engineering team assigned to detonate the device has to flee as the battle turns south Kei decides that he don’t need no stinking dimensional science PhD to set off a highly complex dimensional bomb. Since Kei is 80’s anime protagonist, and a huge jerk, he sets off the bomb horribly incorrectly. This has a two fold effect. The first effect is Kei is transported 20 years into the future. The other is that he rips time/space in half and mixes dozens of different world together rather unstably. Kei pops out with his transforming fighter and is discovered by a traveling band of merchants. They take him in partially out of the kindness of their hearts and partially because he is an idiosyncratic point. What an idiosyncratic point is unknown to the viewer but everyone in this new mixed-up Earth seem to think one is very valuable. In fact the militant Terram keep sending soldiers to capture or kill Kei because he is an idiosyncratic point. Kei stays with the Emaan merchants because they seem to have his best interests at heart. Oh and because he is a horn-dog that probably has a shrine to Ataru Moroboshi in his room and the Emaan ship is filled with cute girls and sexy ladies.

Orguss is space opera lite. There is a serious plot but the show doesn’t seem to take itself too seriously. The main characters are not dark and tragic, at least not so far. Kei is a super-flyboy, jerk as far as I can see with glimmers of sensitivity. But to counter act this, he is slapped in just about every episode. Mimsy being the one doing the most slapping. Mimsy the love interest, although I feel like it is really rushed.

Well, the whole Mimsy and Kei like each other does sort of come out of nowhere. I guess since Kei hits on anything that moves and is female he was bound to eventually get someone who was interested. Mimsy also seems interested because Kei is different and not a super prat like her fiancée Sray (who I’m sure is going to die sometime in the last 5 episodes of the show). I’m sure they will string the romance along by making her go back and forth between Kei and Sray until Sray gets killed.

Plus ,he uses the guaranteed techniques of world famous pick up artist Mystery. Duh!

On the Emaan side, there seems to be a lot of women in high ranking roles, which is nice. Most of the ship is female. They have a female captain and their best pilots are also female. I wonder if this has to do with their society. But of course Kei is just way better than anyone. Although, this sort of makes sense considering the Emaan society are merchants.

Well, a large female casts with leadership roles lends itself (but does not guarantee) some strong female character roles. The captain Shaya seems capable so that is something. Maaie and Lieea are somewhat more cutsey but seem decent at supporting Kei. I remember reading on Anime Jump that someone theorized that if Orguss was made today it would be a harem show and all the girls would love Kei.

I guess I can see that, but I don’t really think it would have to be. Thank god this is not a harem show, sorry people. I also really like Muum, the little girl robot. Her first appearance is the first time we see Kei seem to care about anything. He dots on her like a little sister. I see her as a super-adorable R2D2 that fixes his ship and gives him information.

Well, having watched the second disk she does sort of slip into proto-moe. She definitely has a crush on Kei but thankfully Kei does not seem to be a robo-pedo.

Why, why!?

Because Moe had to come from somewhere.

Cat’s Eye is one of those shows that you just have to roll with. The premise is so outlandish that you have to be in it for pure entertainment.

Hitomi, Rui and Ai beat Superman in the worst attempt to hide someone’s secret identity. These three lovely ladies run a little cafe called the Cat’s Eye by day. By night they are the notorious cat burglars called Cat’s Eye. They steal various pieces of art and always leave a calling card. They always steal pieces of art that had been part of their father’s collection before it was broken up after he disappeared. They hope by collecting pieces of their father’s collection they will find some clues as to what happened to him.

And they also where outlandish outfits! Like roller skates and bright colored scarfs in combination with their jumpsuits, I swear they look like they are going to a roller disco. They also have access to everything ever, ever. Planes, boats, all sorts of equipment. I suppose all of that cash from the art their father collected keeps them going, as running a cafe probably isn’t raking in the money. But then ya gotta wonder why the art was sold and now they are stealing it back? Where were they that they didn’t inherit it?

Then there is Toshio, Hitomi’s fiancée, frequent visitor to the Cat’ Eye cafe, and the detective assigned to stopping Cat’s Eye. Obviously Hitomi is dating him for his gentle compassion and rugged good looks not for his common sense or stunning intellect.

It is so hilarious! Especially when he takes people who need his help with Cat’s Eye to the Cat’s Eye cafe to discuss their plans!

The show seems rather episodic with the women from the cafe lining up another piece of their father’s collection, them doing prep work, them pulling off the job, and then how they get away.

This seems to be a popular method for caper shows. It makes sense and allows the series to continue for a long time. But it also makes me want to watch it in spurts as opposed to straight through. Once again that isn’t bad but it is a different experience. There is an over-arcing plot but for the most part I could watch it once a week and grasp what is going on. And if there ever is something I need to remember, they will probably remind me of it when it comes up.

From what I understand in 37 episodes in the first season and 36 episodes in the second season we only get real answers from the manga. Japan really seems to like formula shows like Lupin and Conan. They were definitely made to be watched once a week and if you missed an episode you would be fine tuning in next week none the worse for wear.

I found both shows to be entertaining and full of 80’s charm! Not to mention music. They are both fun and don’t take themselves to seriously, which I can appreciate. With both a good price and a good quality release they are a great buy. I am definitely going to continue to purchase these shows and look forward to other releases from ImaginAsia.

I also really hope this works out for ImaginAsia because I just keep dreaming about what other awesome older shows they could get from TMS.

Narutaki Currently!
Watching Innocent Venus
Reading Spiral
Listening to Adrift ~Sky Hurricane~

Hisui (Brainwasher Detective) Currently:
Watching Le Chevalier d’Eon
Reading Yotsuba&!
Listening to Jungle P by 5050

MangaNEXT 2007

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Let me start out by saying, we completely forgot about this con until less than a week before it! Whoops. But we busted our butts and got our panel together along with fliers for the blog.

MangaNEXT, for better or for worse, is very much a small convention. This is the convention’s second year. If it will always stay a small time convention is another story but for now it is a little con. The down side to a small time convention is less guests and smaller guests. There is also less programming, panels, dealers, and workshops. The up side is a greater sense of community, not waiting for anything, and a lot more access to guests and panelists. The ability to just come up to the guests and just chat, even sort of hang with a guest, is almost unthinkable at larger cons. If you thought Anime Expo was going to let you within 10 feet of CLAMP you were sorely mistaken.

I like both types of conventions, one kind is really crazy and goes by like a whirlwind and the other is relaxing and slow-paced. I have equal amounts of things that I learn from both. Besides most of the guests I want to see, no one cares about anyway! This is terribly unfortunate but completely true since I like to see the directors, producers, character designers panels. However, even when there aren’t a lot of people, at a big con you still don’t get to talk one on one much.

We started our trip on Saturday because the three of us (Narutaki, Hisui, and Kohaku) had work on Friday so that made Friday a no go. There was a Media Blasters panel that might have been interesting. Media Blasters licensed The Gorgeous Life of Strawberry-chan by Ai Morinaga and I was curious if they were looking into other Ai Morinaga titles.

The panel I was interested in was one Jason Thompson mentioned he did on Friday, about Japanese manga magazines. I was even most interested in it after he inferred, in a panel later on, that Weekly Shonen Sunday is not doing so hot.

There was a panel on strong female characters. I would have liked to have seen. I’m sure I would have had some interesting conversation with the panelist for that one. We saw her the next day and she gave us her list of shows with strong characters. It was mostly good, but there were some interesting choices on the list. Miaka Yuki and the dolls from Rozen Maiden are hardly anything near strong female characters IMHO.

I remember her from the previous MangaNEXT, and she did other panels about women. She seems to know a lot and has a good deal to say on the subject. If I had had time, I would have liked to see her reasoning behind some of the choices on that list. You will remember her best as the woman running the panel where that girl said Misa Misa was a strong female role model.

I’m also very curious to have seen what was talked about in the famous manga-ka and their not so famous works panel. You can sometimes be surprised what other works can come out of a manga-ka you think you already know. The fact that Rumiko Takahashi does both Ranma 1/2, Rumic World, and Mermaid Saga might not be immediately obvious.

On Saturday, we started by signing in at Panel Ops. MangaNEXT was pretty cool in the fact that we got special panelist badges. I don’t remember getting any special privileges due to the fact that we got panelist badges but it was still cool.

I was so stoked to get special badges! I want everyone to do this from now on. We had a regular badge and another badge letting them know we are panelists. I think this would be especially helpful at bigger cons where people are trying to get through lines to check in and not be late. Sure people would use them to always get in a few minutes early, but is that really so bad? After all, we are helping at the con. And why is it that Panel Ops always looks so baffled when we check in early, are anime fans really that unreliable?

The first panel we went to was Women in Fandom. We only caught the final part but it mostly seemed to be a discussion of how women have different experiences being a part of anime fandom than men. It seemed an interesting panel so I’m curious in what was discussed in the earlier part of the panel.

It is pretty obvious that women and men show and experience fandom in different ways but also in similar ways. Being that I sort of had knowledge of this already I didn’t learn anything new but it is nice to share experiences with others.

We went to the dealer’s room, it was small but it had doujinshi so we were happy. Nartutaki and Kohaku bought some doujinshi from a dealer that let you browse before you buy it. I almost got a Akiha figure from Melty Blood but I decided to hold off from buying it. Maybe I will pick you up another day you wacky incestuous tsundere.

I see that dealer at all the east coast cons and never knew I would open anything! Actually, they are on our little side bar, Ultimate Doujinshi, and they are always getting new things. This time around they had lots of Fruits Basket, I however did not pick any up. I finally found a Cowboy Bebop doujin that was good and also grabbed a fun little Bleach one as well. I don’t really care if the dealer’s room has tons of vendors, but boy, was it cramped! It was really clogged up on Saturday, I could barely breath.

We saw part of a rather mediocre Manga vs. Anime. Dubbed vs. Raw panel. The part we came in on mainly seemed to be bashing the Naruto dub and how awful it is. I’m no Naruto fan but the dub seems at least to be to do an adequate job. If any Nate the Ninja fans want to chime in on their opinion, I’m interested to hear what people think of it. I thought the guys complaints seemed sort of a super weaboo argument to me. There was another guy who was supposed to do a similar panel at the same time, but due to a mix-up he never got to do his panel. I’m curious if his panel would have been any better.

Okay, I dunno what nice pills you were taking, but HELL YEAH THAT OTHER DUDE’S PANEL WOULD HAVE BEEN BETTER! That panel was awful, there is no way it could have been worse. It was exactly what I try to avoid, panels that deteriorate into nothing more than, “yeah I hate this,” “me too,” “isn’t this cool,” from a bunch of kids that think Naruto is the end all of anime. Gar. I know panels like this exist, but damnit I got roped into one for a few moments and it was so not cool.

We then went to Jason Thompson’s panel on his new book Manga: The Complete Guide. He basically talked about how he got started in the anime and manga business at Viz and how that eventually led to him writing a book for Del Rey about manga. He then talked about his book which is a complete guide to all the manga published in the United States. It seemed very thorough and will be getting regular updates online. My only objection was the fact that all the entries were reviews. I tend to like my reference books without an opinion. I don’t want to go to the encyclopedia and have the author tell me why he thinks the Holy Roman Empire was lame sauce. I will probably still get it but I would have preferred a comment free guide.

Well, I am definitely buying it. Even before we met Jason Thompson, who is a really cool guy, I heard about this book. He read some entries out loud to us, and what was really great was the reviews themselves are entertaining. You are getting a “what’s out there” guide along with some witty commentary. Most of the reviews are written by Jason, he became a Hikkikimori for a year to do it, and the hentai and yaoi sections are mostly written by a few friends of his. His experiences at Viz were funny and he was an all around charming guy. He is no longer with Viz, he said he had to leave before he wrote the book because he wouldn’t hold back!

The Del Rey panel was a well done but rather standard industry panel. Other than the announcement of the licensing of Faust there were no shocking revelations or announcement of note. Faust seems to be a light novel anthology so it’s the first of it’s type licensed in the US. I’m kind of curious how well it’s going to do. There are some illustrations in the magazine but it’s mostly text. That means a lot of translation and adaptation so it’s riskier than some licenses IMHO. But it has Decoration Disorder Disconnection in it so I’m waiting for that with bated breath. I also heard that some little known female mangaka named CLAMP have done illustrations for the magazine. Might be a selling point for some people.

I had never heard of Faust magazine, no surprise really when I looked it up to find it was mostly a light novel publication. The official Japanese site is really great as it lets you see sample chapters and art, from what looks to be every issue. I really like the concept of following a novel chapter by chapter every month, kind of exciting like TV. I’m looking forward to more novels making it over from Japan, so this sounds like a great way to kick start it. However, Del Rey did mention they won’t be localizing the entire thing, so it is still unclear if we will be getting a monthly adaptation or just anthologies released every few months with their picks. They also mentioned they will be having an event at the Kinokuniya grand opening near Bryant Park, NYC on November 3rd. I haven’t found confirmation of this online yet but hopefully it is still going on.

Mari Morimoto had a panel about her experiences as a translator. She gave an overview of how she got into the industry, what a translators role is, how a translator works with others to make a manga come to the U.S., her views of the industry and how its changed, and then she gave advice about how to break into the industry as a translator. It was a good behind the scenes peek at one of the vital grunt jobs of the industry. Morimoto was very friendly and open so the panel was very relaxed and informative.

Mari is the semi-famous translator of Naruto, since the original translator was panned by fans. She almost always does Shonen translations, she mentioned that translators have to have a different voice depending on the genre. She says by now if she did a shojo series it might sound awkward. She also does Saint Seiya (Knights of the Zodiac) and we sort of bonded over it! She brought a new release of it with her, so cool! It was also hinted that the Saint Seiya manga is in the bottom 10 of sellers for Viz but they are on contract to finish the series, 28 volumes! We talked to her a lot after her panels. Kohaku asked her if she knew anything about Princess Knight but we found out it will not be released.

Morimoto was at the next panel we went to as the translator for Hiroki Otsuka. He used to be a Japanese erotic/shojo manga-ka then he came to the U.S. to pursue a slightly more relaxed career. He is currently living in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. He seemed like a friendly guy and spoke a decent amount of English, not enough to go without a translator but still a good amount. If nothing else, we reaffirmed the fact that being a popular manga-ka can be hellish and that editors are often like co-writers in Japan. I also got a good insight how a Japanese artist makes it into the Japanese manga industry. It was definitely a unique experience to find a Japanese manga-ka living and working in the U.S. and getting to hear him talk. Often manga-ka are so busy that they can’t often come to American conventions and when they do they often are not that accessible.

Hiroki was a delight. It was the first time that I heard a manga-ka be very frank about the manga industry. He wasn’t completely candid, but a lot more open about what goes on. This could be because he is no longer working in it. It was fun to hear about his adventures in doujinshi and fan-made games. That was actually how he got discovered and was hired on. He has done a variety of genres but likes shojo best as far as I could tell. He has a shonen series out in the U.S. called Boys of Summer although he only does the art for it. He also has an exhibit at the Japan Society in NYC which I am hoping to check out. Hiroki seemed to think that as a growing artist, not just manga-ka, NYC was the best place for him to be.

On the way back, we ran into some internet celebrities in the form of Erin and Noah of the Ninja Consultants. They were rather delightful to talk to. I distinctly remember the topic of strong female characters in anime turned into a conversation about NANA.

Well, I never miss a chance to theorize about NANA. I had only spoken to Erin and Noah briefly at Otakon so it was cool running into them again and having a chance to chat.

We started Sunday with our own panel. Our panel examined the history, methods, and impact of scanlation in America. I think it went pretty well but it was the opening slot on Sunday so we had about 6 people at the panel all together. If nothing else, everyone who came to the panel walked away with a decent amount of free manga. One girl got the old versions of of Cardcaptor Sakura and Magic Knight Rayearth.

I always get so nervous right before a panel! Ugh. But once I start going, I get into it. All the people who came were very attentive and talked a lot with us afterward. Seemed that most of them had dabbled in scanlation but hadn’t really known much about it. I do wish there had been more people but luckily no one got up and left. I would love to do it again in a different time slot. When I mentioned to panel ops how few people we had they said the feedback panel only had about 10, it was running at the same time, so I didn’t feel too bad.

We inadvertently got roped into a horrible D.Gray Man panel. The panelist itself seemed to be rather well-informed and well-prepared but she also seemed like a ferret on cocaine. We had to leave when she left all of a sudden to talk to her friends. I think that was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

Okay, it was my fault we went in that panel. I love D.Gray Man. It’s true. It was not truly awful but once again, it was a panel that I could have looked everything up on Wikipedia for if I wanted to. D.Gray Man is full of dark and religious themes, plenty of fodder.

I think the main problem with panels about one title is they are just why title X is so cool and why character Y from title X is so cool (and maybe why we hate character Z and hope characters A and B get together). I really would like to see more panels like the panel I saw at Otakon about Hellsing. A detailed analysis of characters and themes of a title. A more mature and detailed examination of a work. That would make me happy.

Exactly, I don’t feel anymore that people go to panels about shows to learn about them. There are just so many other resources for that. The only thing I learned before hi-tailing it out of there was that D.Gray Man will be going on after 52 episodes. I probably would have known this if I wasn’t pissed at the show at the moment. But now maybe I can get over it since it is continuing, hopefully without filler.

We ended the day with the Manga Industry round-table panel. All the guests were on one table and Morimoto acted as moderator as she asked questions of all the guests and took questions for the guests from the audience. Morimoto started the panel with the joke that she recognized everyone in the room from other panels she had given over the weekend. I guess that show once again that most of the time people who come to conventions don’t care about the guests.

All in all I think MangaNext was worth the time and the money. I had fun, learned some stuff, and met some very cool people. I would like it to grow a little more so they might draw some bigger guests, while keeping that same relaxed and comfortable atmosphere.

MangaNEXT grew by leaps and bounds since last year. I am proud to be a part of it. And hope to do a panel next year as well.

P.S. This con report is ridiculously long.

Nartutaki Currently!
Watching Gundam 00
Reading Saint Seiya
Listening to L’arc en Ciel

Hisui (Brainwasher Detective) Currently:
Watching Orguss, Super Dimension Century
Reading Negima! Magister Negi Magi
Listening to Tobira Wo Akete by Anza

Claymore, no yuri scenes depite how much you want it.

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The yoma food pyramid consists of one section, as opposed to the six sections of the human food pyramid. Unfortunately for humans, the sole section of the yoma food pyramid is labeled human organs.

In the Claymore universe, there are demons called yoma who are shape-shifters. They hunt humans by eating their victims brains and then using the memories they gain to impersonate the people they have eaten to infiltrate their victims communities. The yoma are also stronger and faster than humans and can regenerate as well as turn parts of their bodies into weapons.

An unnamed human organization has created a special breed of warriors to combat the yoma, they are called Claymores. The organization takes young women and creates half-human/half-yoma hybrids that gain a degree of a yoma’s strength, speed, and abilities. These hybrids then have silver hair and silver eyes making them easily distinguishable from normal humans. The appellation Claymore comes from the humans they protect not from the organization or the warriors themselves. People call them Claymores because they wield gigantic Claymore swords almost as big as they are.

What first attracted my interest was the female dominated cast, in powerful roles. In fact, men rarely show up at all, minus Raki, until the very end of the series. It’s rare that a clearly shonen show has an all woman cast and it is not fan-service central.

Well, there is somewhat of a non-Raki male presence before the end; there are those two church knights in episode 4. But the major purpose of the two church knights is to show that you can be an awesome human fighter and that you are still nowhere near the same level as even the weakest Claymore.

When Claire appears she seems to be a flawless killer. Claire is certainly a stoic character, and I almost mistook her for completely emotionless. But as the story goes on I believe this exterior is melted to some extent through her interactions with others. Also, it helps to give depth to her motivation to find out she is the lowest ranked warrior. I think it is worth pointing out that Claire does have many qualities that are typical of shonen male heroes. But as the story progresses and we see some of her back story, I felt I saw a woman.

I think the writer wants Claire to be a mystery in the beginning. He wants Claire to be the same enigma to the audience that most people see when they see a Claymore. In fact, the writer tries to go out of his way to make Claire seem like a monstrous killing machine in the first few episodes. Most people see the Claymores as emotionless monsters only a little better than the Yoma they hunt. Only as the series progresses do we slowly learn that Claire has feelings, inner conflicts, and personal goals and desires.

In fact, in the early episodes all the Claymores we see are rather emotionless and serious business like. It’s not really until Helen and Deneve do we start to see Claymore who are somewhat playful or personality filled even if it’s a definitely psychotic version of playful or personality filled.

I like that Claire is the weakest of the Claymores. She win fights more on learning and cleverly applying new techniques or using teamwork with other Claymores and their abilities, more than winning because she has a hidden, previously unknown, mysterious power that makes her super strong and lets her win due to brute force.

Raki is vulnerable yet determined and I think Claire sees a lot of herself in him. Unsurprisingly, he has a strong desire to protect his savior and works towards becoming stronger. He also brings the only fully-human sided perspective to the situation. As his race completely rejects and abandons him because his family was killed by Yoma.

Raki is the stereotypical shonen hero who wants to get more powerful to protect the ones he cares for. In most shonen anime Raki would the protagonist who would grow stronger with his hidden previously unknown mysterious power and Claire would either die or be surpassed by Raki. Although it has yet to happen in the manga I feel one day Raki might be able to fight along side Claire as an assistant and comrade but I don’t see him ever surpassing Claire and I find it unlikely he will be her equal. His role will always be support. At least that is my prediction.

Since Raki also appears in the first episode, it t is almost strange that he wasn’t the main character. I like that. I knew what Claymore had in store but for a split second those formulas came to mind. I am quite enjoying this string of shows that have both female and male protaginists that both grow. We also have to remember that Raki just decided to become strong right when we meet him, but Claire we really don’t have a sense of how much time has passed but it seems like a significant amount.

Raki’s other importance to the plot is to be the naive person who has how the world works so the audience learns how the world works as well.

I don’t think Raki has totally been rejected by humans in general. I think he was definitely abandoned and cast out by his home village but he had several chances to stop following Claire and just settle down in another town that does not know his family was killed by Yoma. Both Raki and Claire were abandoned by the people of the town they lived in and they both had chances to leave the people who saved them but stuck with them despite the fact that their lives would be far easier if they stopped following the person who saved them. It’s not like Raki has to follow Claire. He wants to. That’s an important distinction.

I loved the comradery that became a ongoing theme. In a series where everyone seems like a loner, this is a nice touch. It makes the characters more tangible to realize they need other people. The friendships you see can sometimes be unexpected in the situation everyone is in. But then maybe that is what makes these vital, a lot of these woman I assume “grew up” together if you can call it that. You truly see this between Deneve and Helen who appear later as friends. While we don’t get full back stories of anyone except Claire, there is a lot of things one can infer through the way characters deal with one another. The the group of half awakened beings that form a kinship are especially strong as a group who have a common bond.

I think that I like all of the interactions between the Claymores because besides comradery you also see a wide variety of different relationships between them. You have fierce rivals, friendly rivals, devoted companions, standoffish business relationships, bullies, mentors, subservient lap gods, loyal retainers, and more. It’s almost like two Claymores don’t interact with each other in the same way. It speaks a lot to how quickly and carefully the Claymores are developed in the series. Since a lot of the Claymores don’t last a long time it would be easy to simplify their characterization, but the writer takes the easy way out in that respect.

I also have to say that, as we both sort of hinted, Helen and Deneve have the most interesting relationship outside of Raki and Claire. They are characters that would easily be voted as characters most able to have their own spin off series. They have a close almost sisterly relationship while still being sort of messed up 6 ways until Sunday really makes them fascinating characters. I’m also sure that there are like 5 million yuri doujinshi of them only being surpassed by the 6 million doujinshi of them getting raped at the same time. Oh doujinshi. :(

I’m also surprised you did not mention Jeanne who I was pretty sure is a character you would marry (or at least make your BFF with benefits) if she were not a fictional character.

Well, this was the great thing, I thought it had a steller cast in general. I liked Claire, Raki, Helen, Deneve, Miria, Theresa, and Jeanne. Okay, but you’re right Jeanne was my dearest. Although she doesn’t show up till much later she brings honor and pride, without arrogance. Her sense of duty to those around her, especially Claire, bring real depth to her personality. And lets not forget her totally awesome ability.

Raki and Claire’s relationship brings me back to my point about seeing a woman in Claire through a sort of seemingly male figure. But I must admit, the turn it took between these two happily surprised me. It could have gone a number of ways, but I liked this route. I also felt like this could create a really dynamic interaction that is not often explored.

I feel that the change of the relationship is unexpected and interesting but not out of the blue. Their relationship was definitely always building and always growing so it’s not like anything was thrown in just to be thrown in because it was time for something to change. It also subtly changes both characters without being to subtle as to be almost no change in the characters or too bold as to be unrealistic and out of character.

The ending was pretty weak in my opinion but this doesn’t devalue the show for me. I felt like the Claire and Raki relationship, that I thought would be dynamic, just collapsed in on itself and it was just a role reversal.

Well the dynamic part of the relationship really falls apart when the stop using the manga as a guide and start making their own ending. I have a distinct feeling that the writers of the anime did not fully understand how Claire and Raki’s relationship worked so they fell back on the formula they already knew and just changed the roles.

I also feel the writers could only do so much with the ending of the series. Where the manga ends and anime basically ends is a very open ended part of the manga. It seems the writers wanted to put some sort of ending on the series because it does not look like will be getting a second season of Claymore. They basically had to pull together plot threads that were not together in the original manga to make some sort of resolution. That kind of abrupt patch job will always lead to a ending that is less than it should be. I think all in all it did what is set out to do. They wanted to get you wanting to read Claymore while being and be okay with the ending if you can’t read the manga.

There are a bunch of things I would have liked to have seen but we never got to see but I think a lot of them just have not come up in the manga so there was not much to be done about it. I would have liked to have seen how Claymores are made and trained. We have a vague idea of how it’s done but I’m sure there is something important about the processes and how it’s done. I would also like top know what the deal with the Claymore organization is. It seems that even the Claymores themselves have almost no idea how the organization works and they seem to have their own less than savory agenda. I would have also really liked to have seen more done with the Yoma’s ability to take on other people’s shape and how you can never know who is a yoma. I think that could have made some really interesting stories but they stop focusing on it after the first few episodes.

There are things I wanted to know, but I don’t fell like the series suffered from not telling us. In fact, being brief and vague can be good when done right. I like when the writer lets me infer things, make guesses , and come to my own conclusions about some things. But you are right, these are all things that haven’t been throughly explored in the manga yet either, so we will get our answers eventually.

I have to say, nothing has capture me in the same way as Berserk did, until this show came along. Although not quite as violent and gory, it is enough to satisfy. This show has a pretty large following if the Internet can be believed. But I personally doubt we will be seeing anymore animated productions of this series. I suspect it is very well loved among otaku and did well in its time slot, but not better than expected. I guess we will just have to wait and see what is on the table for the spring line-up. I also expect to see theis series licensed in the near future. In any case, I am definitely going to start reading the manga.

This show just finished up in Japan and also on the fan-sub circut. Now you can watch it straight through, we were watching week by week. It’s fairly easy to come by, too. I recommend the Eclipse translation. And don’t forget, if you like this show be sure to mention it at cons and write in saying you want it licensed!

UPDATE: Claymore is now licensed by Funimation!