Episode 2 made me realize 2 things: one, as I suspected the OP is growing into me; and two, Clare has short hair. ( My turn on is short hair girls, as the poor guys of AB.net unfortunely know…), so she makes my new Moe target.
“Ah, I spilled the tomato juice…”
Summary
Ep 2 focus on the organization behind the Claymores and more in-depth info about the Claymores themselves: The Organization creates and manages all Claymore related activities, sends them missions and provides them allthey need such as gear and money. One of his members is following (or watching?) Clare activities, and seems to suspect on the reasons why Clare leaves Raki follow her.
This guy delivers Clare an object with a special meaning: a Black Card. Due to their hybrid Yoma/Human nature, Claymores keep only their “evil” part at bay thanks to their human will. Even if the Yoma part gives them abilities such as Yoma detection capability, increased strength and agilitiy, less need for food, rest or sleep and even increased regeneration, each time they actively use their powers, they get a step closer of losing their humanity and control. So they all have inside their swords a Black Card with their personal brand (the same brand marked on their swords.) Clare was sent that card by her only friend of their Claymore training time, Elena, meaning she wants Clare to kill her. even with the objection of Raki, she does her job, even if it costed the last person she had considered as a friend.
Impressions
The story is getting better and better. Havingg read already the 1st 6 volumes of the manga, I’m happy with the conversion, but I hope it wont suffer from the FMA syndrome: starting to diverge from the manga plot, jumble events around and freaking screw the anime around.
One thing that I’m afraid is general viewers reaction to Raki. The kid will be annoying as Euphie from Code Geass and can lead to some exaggerated fan reaction. But we need to reference he is Clare’s link to humanity and I doubt the mangaka will do anything drastic with him.
I’m am a bit unhappy with the soundtrack too. We still only have only the tracks from ep 1, who were reused in this ep. Still,we are still at ep 2 so let’s see if they will keep with the Etnich Techno and Dramatric Trance for the scenes.
I agree, the anime version isnt far off the manga. I really do need more of the manga tho >.
Well, seeing how the manga is being serialized ONCE A MONTH, I can imagine that this anime would run out of source material quickly unless they included fillers or diverged from the source material.
If it does end up going like FMA though, I hope they think up of something good to wrap up the plot.
I’m addicted to the manga & the anime. I agree that the music is a bit off for the show in my own opinion, but I’m managing to overlook it.
I never found Raki to be annoying, it’s pretty obvious why he’s the way he is; in the manga it’s explained in Clare’s back story, which should explain Raki in perfect detail for most people. Hopefully…
If they do need to add filler, I would love to see more detail about the other Claymores, and maybe even more about Priscilla & Ophelia before/during their appearances.