Claymore Episode 20—The War in the North (part 3)

Now that the big bad Awakened Beings were defeated, what else is there to do in a town where it snows every day and is devoid of life?

Disclaimer: all of this is based off of the RAW. Since I know very little to no Japanese, expect a 1/14 assed entry. Now that I have watched the subbed version, time to rewrite this entry a little bit.

While Clare and the others are still in Pieta, Raki, Priscilla and the bishonen swordsman are on their own journey. Priscilla keeps clinging to Raki apparently because his scent from the South region reminds her of her family. Raki wants to go to Pieta right away because he heard there were Claymores gathered there. But bishonen guy is like “lol were going there too why rush lol.” He notices Raki’s sword and soon begins to swing it. This is all non-homoerotic, btw. Raki is impressed with how well he handled his schwartz and asks him to teach him how to handle it.

Other Claymores meanwhile remark about how they felt they weren’t ready to go up against an Awakened Being and how they were scared they were going to surpass their limits. Undine gets tired of hearing them talk and goes off and secludes herself away from her subordinates. Deneve follows her and finds her hiding in a storage house converted into a Claymore supply room. OMG WHARE ARE HER MUSZLES?!?! Guess the steroids wore off. Undine seemed upset at herself when she couldn’t defeat the Awakened Being herself and that she nearly Awakened. Deneve eventually asks Undine about her two swords; she tells her how she carries it in memory of a former comrade but Deneve tells her that one is supposed to leave a fallen comrade’s sword behind as a tombstone. Deneve also brings up a story of a girl whose family was killed by yoma but was left to live after her sister sacrificed herself. This girl went on to become a warrior to avenge her sister. Helen was the one who told her that we’re all human, so having a fear of dyign or not being stronger is natural. Speaking of Helen, she finds Deneve but leaves her alone and they both leave as Undine is still going through steroid withdrawal. But she returns back later (with her steroid muscles) and just goes straight to sleep and doesn’t really answer questions from her subordinates. She just tells them not to die in vain.

Clare and Flora are now off in some forest and Flora makes mentions of how Clare has the ability of the former #2 Irene. She always wanted to test her windcutter skill against Irene’s flash sword but Jean comes out of nowhere to stop the shenanigans. Any attempt on Clare’s life is essentially an attempt on Jean’s but Clare snitches and tells Flora that she indeed has Irene’s arm and that she was hiding out from the organization. She also mentions her determination to take down Priscilla the Awakened Being. After all that, all three touch their swords together determined to fight together as one.

Back in the snowy forest, Raki is tired from a hard night’s worth of training and sleeps as Priscilla tries to comfort him. I bet you’re wishing Raki is gonna smash Priscilla and make a bunch of junior Rakis right? As both Priscilla and Raki sleep, bishonen man goes and meets another bishonen-looking dude named Riguardo. The topic of Pieta comes up and bishonen-man, whom we now as Easley now, sends him to Pieta to take care of the remaining Claymores.  By the way that scene reminded me of the scene in Bleach when Grimmjow commands his subordinates to go after anyone with reiatsu, no matter how small it was, and you also saw images of Ichigo, Rukia, Rangiku, and others.

Rating: a much more conclusive 8.7 out of 10 (I raised the grade a little because the episode did a lot to show the essence of teamwork…various Claymores were afraid and scared shitless during the last battle but people like Deneve and Helen provided their own forms of counseling to them and reminded them that “you’re not alone in all of this, we have each other” bla bla bla… If you factor the changes from the manga, the grade would be a 8.4 out of 10…there was no battle between Flora and Clare and I think it would have really kicked ass if it did happen but the way they did it here wasn’t *that* bad). I’ve no complaints about the animation and the plot advancement was ok. I wasn’t really going to factor anything from the manga in my overall review, especially now because the anime is supposedly going to have a different ending. The Undine emotional breakdown was more powerful in the manga because she nearly awakened in her battle (in the manga, it was a lot more obvious she nearly awakened…the anime made her near-awakening much more ambiguous) and that was why she had her emo stint. There was significantly less action but this episode had all the marks of being the calm before the storm, as it seems Riguardo knows a few Awakened Beings to send off to Pieta (based on the preview). Oh yeah, Undine in her non-muscular form does look hot. Yeah, I said it.

Expect screencaps NOW

Oh, Raki…I hope you are safe…

Psht!  I look hotter than Clare when I have a look of sadness

You look better without steroids

In the name of all my sexiness, I will attempt to draw my sword

Some people are turned on by apple-eating

Moar bishonen

More apple-eating (word to Ryuuk)

The rest can be found here.