neko's thinkbox

Oh my. How…. cute! *blushes* Clare pulling out a smile (with brown eyes on top of that!), who would have expected this? I hoped for it, but didn’t really expect it so soon… That’s just awesome. This episode couldn’t have been any better.

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Episode 3: Darkness in Paradise 「まほろばの闇」

Clare and Raki’s journey continues, and their next stop is the the city of Rabona, a holy city, where a Youma had been killing priests to eat their guts. The head priests of Rabona decided to call the Claymore for help, however, the internal laws prohibit any presence of unnatural creatures in the city. Clare, as a Claymore, also falls in that category. But the organization helps her out by giving her some pills that suppress the powers of the Youma. Those pills make the color of her eyes turn back to normal, but since her powers are back to human, she won’t be able to sense the Youma anymore. The pills last for half a day. With this, Clare is able to enter the city without trouble, and with a smiling face, she books a hotel room for Raki and herself.

As the both of them are on the way to the cathedral to meet the head priest, Raki can’t hide his surprise to see Clare like that. Clare simply plays it down by saying that it had been part of her training to learn the standard behavior patterns of society. She could even imitate the seductive smile of a prostitute, but Raki declines that offer (YOU FOOL! …sorry).

In the cathedral, Clare pretends to the guards protecting the place that she wants to be baptized, so she can enter the baptismal hall, where the head priest is. After he found out about her identity, the priest tells Clare to meet in a hidden place late at night, but warns her of the evening curfew enforced throughout the city.

The same evening, the effect of the pills already worn off, Clare heads off to meet the priest. He tells her about the recent happenings and requests of her to get rid of the Youma. Clare agrees, and repeats the money policy of their agreement – if she dies and fails the mission, they won’t need to pay. However, this time she also asks of the priest to take care of Raki in case she really died.

After that, Clare starts roaming above the rooftops of the city to search for the Youma, but gets intercepted by some elite guards who willingly mistake anyone disrespecting the curfew for a Youma. The conflict does not last long since Clare soon flees the battle scene, but the guards identified her a woman.
The day after, Raki wakes up, to see Clare with her eyes again. But very soon, the guards from last night raid the hotel to search for the woman. They immediately suspect Clare, but she managed to swallow a pill in time, so her eye color would turn back to being brown again. Yet they won’t give up suspecting her, but Raki’s rather violent intervention made the guards change their minds about Clare.

In the afternoon, the both of them return to the cathedral to talk with the priest again. Clare suspects the Youma in the city to be a Voracious Eater, a long-living Youma with a huge appetite, a rather tough enemy. She also mentions the probability that the Youma might be hiding inside the cathedral.
Later in the evening, Clare sets off to the cathedral again, but this time the two elite guards have been waiting for her. They now found out that she is indeed a Claymore and engage her. But once again, the fight is of short duration; from the direction of the cathedral emanates a desperate scream of terror, which Clare immediately follows, the guards as well.

Inside the cathedral, Clare only sees the corpse of a priest, whose guts have been eaten, lying in the middle of the dark hallway. In that same instant, she is attacked by an agile and bloodthirsty Youma from behind. It would have been a hard combat, but she most probably would have defeated it if only it hadn’t been for the two guards who have been following her. They are easy targets for the Youma, who immediately charges them. And suddenly, for some reason, Clare gets in the way as if to protect them, and entirely intercepts the attack with her body. It doesn’t really affect her, but the Youma already is aiming a blow to kill the guards again. Clare nails one arm down with a knife and orders the guards to leave, but then… the nails of the other arm of the Youma stretch to spear through her chest…

Next Episode: Clare’s Awakening 「クレアの覚醒」

the thinkbox

Once again, I love this episode. Not only have we been able to witness Clare’s different facet (she CAN smile, for a fact, even though it’s only a fake smile), but we could also see her true from, that means, the true color of her eyes. A beautiful brown. Aww, doesn’t she look sooooo much cuter like that? But Raki, that BAKA! He should have accepted Clare’s offer for the small demonstration, I bet it would have been… interesting XD

What I don’t understand is the way the guards think about her. I mean, okay, at first they didn’t know she was a Claymore, but during the second encounter, they recognized her as one. They could have deduced from her presence in the city that she was after the Youma. Yet still, they wouldn’t let her go. Why, I wonder. It’d have been so much easier if they had joined forces beforehand to get rid of the monster together, laws or not. Or would they have preferred to let more people die by the hand of the Voracious Eater? Heh.

But not only was it unwise to label her an enemy, but it was even more of a bad idea to follow her into the cathedral only to have her sacrifice herself for them. I don’t know, Clare usually wouldn’t even bother looking at those guards if they were attacked by the Youma, however she even caught the enemy’s attack with her body for them. Maybe the pills made her more vulnerable to human feelings, like… pity. Who knows. Maybe we’ll know more about that in the next episode.

From what we can see in the preview (the title already spoils it a bit), it seems like she’s going to unleash the Youma power. Those golden eyes… Now, very honestly, I think she resembles more and more a character from another anime, who also has blonde hair and whose eyes turn golden when angry or in danger. The only difference would be that the color of ‘her’ eyes are red when normal. Sheesh, to make it even more obvious, I changed the eye color of the picture on the right to make it look like ‘her’… Still no clue? Come on, you must know her! Who is it? ;)

Soooo hard… XD