neko's thinkbox

RAWR! Seldom have I seen an anime which built up so much WIN in the first episodes already. That or I can’t remember any good reference anymore. Either way, this episode was full of suspense and emotion, it simply owned, period.

Click here to skip the summary and proceed to the thinkbox.

Episode 4: Clare’s Awakening 「クレアの覚醒」

Right after the Youma’s nails pierced through Clare’s chest, it throws her to the ground to finish her off. But then suddenly a horde of guards is about to arrive at the cathedral, which forces the Youma to escape. Clare lies on the ground, heavily injured – she isn’t dead yet, however, she has lost consciousness. Since they had been saved by her, one of the two elite guards, Gark, decides to take Clare along, to repay the debt.

They take her to the head priest Vincent’s premises, where she can recover from her injuries. Raki is dead worried about Clare, and as the other guard nonchalantly predicts that she is going to die, Raki hits him in the face, yelling that Clare is a good-hearted person, despite her looks and her half-Youma nature. The guard hits him back, but doesn’t add anything further to the discussion and leaves. All there is to do for Raki now is to pray for Clare’s well-being, which he fiercely does. Clare sleeps two days straight before finally waking up.

Soon after Clare regained consciousness, the head priest gathers all of the other priests and monks that are susceptible to be the Youma in the cathedral. From the side emerges Clare, which causes a stir amongst the conservative priests. However, they grasp the gravity of the situation rather quickly, and accept her intervention. Clare checks up on everyone’s face, especially the right eye, whom she stabbed with a knife during their previous fight. But, even after examining priest Vincent himself, she starts getting confused. The Youma not being present in any of the priests bodies, there can’t be any more places where it could hide. Except… in the dead bodies that were lying openly in their graves in the baptismal hall. And who’s there at that very moment… Exactly, Raki.

Raki, who has been carrying some sort of a statue all along, lets that weight down on the ground and waits for Clare to pick him up. However, things won’t go as smoothly as he planned. Because the Youma is already emerging out of the dead body from behind, and immediately readies to attack Raki. Fortunately, Clare is able to prevent the worst, but the danger is still far from being banished yet; since Raki is still around, he’s the target of choice of the Youma. And this time, not even Clare could help him. Rest assured, we still can count on our two elite guards to save Raki from death again.

Clare and the two guards now triple team the Youma, but the two humans simply are no match for it. Even Clare is struggling hard to keep up with it, but the wounds from the last fight still aren’t fully healed. Raki tells Gark to throw the little statue he had be carrying along at Clare. Why, a statue? Does she need it? Of course! Because it has been the container of Clare’s sword all along. They used it to hide the sword so they could enter the city without attracting much attention. With this joker, the odds have changed, even if very slightly only. Because, Clare’s body has already reached its limit a while ago, and even Raki notices that she’s pushing herself too much. On the contrary, the Youma, although he has gotten his two arms chopped off, is still is able to fight back. Clare offers no resistance, and ít really looked like it was her end, when suddenly…

Her eyes turn golden. The power of the Youma inside her is unleashed, which gives her an immense strength boost. With this, she no longer has problems to slice the Voracious Eater in half. The battle is over, the Youma defeated. If it ended here it would have been a happy end. Unfortunately, it’s still not over. And this time, it’s the Youma inside of Clare’s body who is acting up. More precisely, he’s about to take over her mind for good now.

By making excessive use of the Youma’s power, added with the worn out state of her body, and a random factor, the flow of the Youki is now so strong that it’s no longer controllable. Clare herself knows that it’s already too late, this phenomenon cannot be reverted anymore. Against Raki’s protests, she requests of Gark to kill her like a proud human being, before she fully transforms into the Youma. But as Gark raises the sword, Raki runs to Clare and embraces her, telling her that he wants to be with her forever, and that if she died, he would die as well. And then the impossible became reality.

Like a whirlwind, a bright blast all around Clare, the flow of the Youki miraculously got stopped… by Raki’s words.

Days later, Clare and Raki already part with head priest Vincent and the two guards. Before they leave, Gark hands Raki a sword, so he could protect Clare even better in future. And thus our heroes set off once again on their journey.

Next Episode: Teresa of the Faint Smile 「微笑のテレサ」

the thinkbox

Win and Gold. Need I say more? I did watch it yesterday, but I couldn’t finish my entry in time, just as I came back from school half an hour ago, I watched the episode again. And it’s still awesome. Action, suspense, emotion, that’s everything there I need to be me happy. Add a beautiful heroine to the equation, and the win limit will be endless.

It was obvious that Clare wouldn’t turn into a Youma yet. However, the suspense and the emotion of the moment caught me in so much that I nearly believed it would be over. Thank god Raki repelled the flow of the Youki to return Clare back to her usual form. I wouldn’t have wanted to see anything else than that. Feel the love~~ I must admit I nearly did expect something like a… kiss *blush* But it’s only the fourth episode! …KORA! Isn’t Raki too young for her anyway?!? How old is he? And how old is she anyway????? D:

I can see forever… <3

What’s funny, in this episode, her eyes looked more “blue” than “silver”. Maybe it’s because of all the filters that have been applied to the video that caused this switch. Or my codecs are playing weird. Or my color perception is so flawed that I can’t even distinguish blue from silver… See for yourself in the picture above! (I did edit that picture a bit, a slight correction of contrast and levels, to make it look neater).

Now that I think of it. I need to rant a bit after all. Those two guards, Gark and that other guy whose name I cannot remember anymore because he’s a jackass. Both of them have been injured quite badly, haven’t they? Especially Gark! The Youma’s nails pierced his chest and his shoulders at least four or five times, yet he survives!! Same with the other guard! Well, I’m not saying they should have died from their injuries but still, they’re quite tough for mere human beings. But that may be the reason why they’re in that elite squad, I guess. Why do I keep saying elite, it hasn’t been mentioned once in the two episodes…

Oh… darn, I’m tired. I should immediately have conveyed my thoughts before writing the summary, I had so much in mind, and now after sleep, school and a few beers with PE teacher (it was our last PE ‘lesson’ XD), I nearly forgot all of it. Even after watching the episode again, I can’t remember. Oh well, it wasn’t anything important then. Well, to continue with our cross-anime character comparison…

I found an even better picture in this episode. I think it really really matches her. Mentar got it right ^^ In these pictures, Clare looks nearly exactly Arcueid from Tsukihime. Don’t tell me the others don’t know her!! The golden eyes, the hair… and in this picture, even the teeth (although, Arc’s face would have been more wrinkly…) Too bad I don’t have any good angry Arc picture at hand, else I’d have showed a comparison :P

Heh. In Claymore, Gundam SEED/Destiny, Tsukihime, Code Geass, Naruto and some other anime, whenever the main characters tick off, they all go berserk and their eye color changes. This just occurred to me, I don’t know why. Most probably because once they reach that state, they’re able to kick the shit out of their enemies with their ultimate limit break-like moves. I don’t know, is there always a series like that each season? Or am I wrong to believe that phenomenons like that happen more frequently in recent anime, only because I know a few anime out of thousands… lol.

And next episode, a new Claymore! Teresa’s her name, who knows what she’s up to! Good, or bad? Saa, let’s just watch it for ourselves!

Damn! Clare’s so hawt D: A few more episodes and I’ll be motivated enough to buy a Clare figurine whenever it’s on sale. Teyandei!