[MANGA] Claymore Side Story Extra Chapter 2 (OMG 8263827 SPOILERS WITHIN)

If you don’t read the Claymore manga, you might want to turn around, do some isometrics to stretch out your leg muscles properly, and then run far away because there are going to be more spoilers here than you would find in a refrigerator left outside with 50 cartons of milk that expired two weeks ago.

Now that I have given anime-only watchers more than enough warning, let’s talk about this chapter. As the Claymore manga takes a brief hiatus before it relaunches in a new monthly manga magazine, mangaka Yagi Norihiro has been treating us to some side chapters that are meant to be canonical with new details about certain characters. Side chapter 1 was about Theresa; chapter 2 focuses on Miria.

Miria finds a discarded claymore with a symbol that she recognizes. A flashback sequence begins and it takes place during a time when Miria was only ranked #17. She was friends with the former #6, Hilda. Hilda comments about Miria and her potential and tells her she has the capability of being a single-digit ranked Claymore in the future. Hilda hopes Miria does indeed become a single-digit so that they can fight together on Awakened Being hunts.

Ermita and another Claymore watch Miria battling Yoma from a distance. Ermita is impressed with Miria in combat because she has skills that even rival #1. He gives her a nickname—Phantom Miria. He asks the Claymore next to him why she isn’t fighting. She replies that she wasn’t interested in fighting regular Yoma but rather against Awakened Beings. Oh yeah, this Claymore is none other than my Ophie-chan, Ophelia.

Flash forward an unknown number of years and Miria is now the #8. She is part of a four-Claymore Awakened Being hunt. Because the team had two single-digits, the higher-ranked Claymore is the leader and it is none other than #4 Ophelia. As they embark on their journe, Ophelia asks Miria about the single-digit ranked Claymore she was friends with; Miria mentions that they both entered the Org at the same time and she became stronger with her guidance. Ophelia brings up the Yoma hunt that Miria was in—the same hunt Ophelia observed from a distance. A Claymore reaching her limits met up with Ophelia and gave her a black card. The black card is given out by a Claymore when she requests to be terminated, usually when she is about to become an Awakened Being because she is on the verge of surpassing her limits in power. The card is sent out to another Claymore and the one who receives it has to kill the Claymore who sent it out. Ophelia was told that this black card was to be entrusted to someone very close but this Claymore couldn’t even sense her aura anymore. As a result, Ophelia ripped up the card on the spot.

Miria was shocked at this news but had little time to reflect as the Awakened Being they were hunting appeared. Ophelia goes in first and easily deals lots of damage. As the Awakened is now missing two of her legs and an arm, Ophelia tells Miria to go in for the kill. As she does, Miria is wondering why this Awakened Being was holding back her power. It then hits her—this Awakened was none other than Hilda. Miria asks her why she never called out her name. Ophelia says that she no longer had her human memories because she Awakened. Miria nearly Awakens as a result of not being able to hold back her emotion after realizing she killed her mentor and friend.

Now, back in the present, Miria takes the claymore she found and plants it on the mountainside. The claymore was indeed Hilda’s and she places it on the ground to serve as a gravestone for her old friend (this is the usual standard operating procedure for dead Claymores—you use their old sword as a gravestone). Helen calls on Miria to hurry up. As Miria leaves, she hopes Hilda can bear witness to her and her new comrades in spirit as they fight on in her memory and in the memory of the Claymores who died in the North.

PERSONAL REFLECTION: this chapter does a good job explaining some aspects of the Miria-Hilda relationship that the anime and manga kinda overlooked. In the manga, we never even got to see Hilda’s face; the anime showed it briefly. While this chapter does give us some backstory, it does create a conflict in the anime. In whatever episode it was (Epsiode 11) where we first see the flashback of Miria’s near Awakening, it showed two other Claymores getting killed by the Awakened Being that turned out to be Hilda. Here in this side chapter, the other two Claymores are shown to be alive as they witness Miria’s near Awakening. EDIT: I went to look at the video tape and it showed that two Claymores didn’t die.  So just ignore all that nonsense I wrote earlier.  HOWEVER in the anime, Miria did most of the hacking and slashing while in the manga, it was Ophelia who did; Miria was the one sent in to behead the Awakened Being and kill her. Now we know what Miria’s resolve is—to fight on in the memory of her mentor/friend/senpai.

There is supposed to be another side chapter in a month, but I have no idea what it is going to be about.

And yes, expect more manga reviews here in the future.