neko's thinkbox

Omatase shimashita! I already watched the episode right after my Claymore 09 entry, but then I had to leave, and when I came back I started playing Touhou and Pangya… Well, that’s for the best, actually. My immediate reaction being unconditional Caps Locking in some IRC channels, I don’t think I’d have been able to provide you a legible entry then. Well, now that I’m bored playing, I finally found the time to convey my feelings. Enough blabbering already.
So… The tenth episode of Claymore fully lived up to my expectations. Not only because of the massive amount of action, but also because of a very unexpected turn of events. More after the jump~

Clare, against her teammates’ expectations, is the key to victory.

My question about male Awakened ones got answered quite rapidly in the episode. Indeed, it was an easy one, and I somewhat had it right in my last entry – originally, there had been male Claymores as well. However, their releasing the Yoma powers aroused them quite a lot, and their vulnerability to sexual pleasure (as we know how lecherous men are *cough*) let them release even more power. Eventually, their impulse made them surpass their limits, and thus they became Awakened Males, or Voracious Eaters.

The announced battle was a hard one. Helen and Deneve, despite her fast regeneration skills, were no match to that male Awakened One. Of course, Clare, being the weakest one (entirely to my dismay), got taken out even faster. Miria is the only one who is able to offer resistance to this powerful Yoma: she is able to dodge most attacks due to her special ability to move at lightning speed for the fraction of a second – she’s not the Number Six for nothing, after all. However, even if she’s able to evade the Yoma’s attacks, it doesn’t seem like she could defeat the Yoma with only that. Worse, the use of this ability eats up a lot of power, eventually slowing Miria and getting her caught.

However, she cannot finish the task alone. Need backup!

Then, as I said in the beginning, a turn of events took place – mind you, I already knew there would be a turn of events linked to Clare in some way, but not in this way. Because I thought that Clare would just go berserk and/or unleash a freaking huge amount of power…. Yet, that would once again be the Dragon Ball/Naruto/Gundam SEED effect, people are in a pinch and just let loose some kind of hidden power, that’s old. No, Clare will remain a powerless Claymore.
However, she has a certain skill, ie. to focus on the flow of the Yoki of her opponents and to learn it, so she could predict all of their moves and be able undertake any countermeasures.

In this case, Clare noticed that the Awakened One’s attacks are all directed to his opponent’s Yoki, so she simply has to hide or suppress her own Yoki to avoid all of the Yoma’s attacks. She can effectively approach him without being hit even once. Her own attack however is still very weak though, but in combination with Miria’s strength they’ll be able to defeat the Awakened One… or at least wound him critically. Because, the episode already ended. Heck, in the end I’ll still have written a small summary, even if I mixed in some subjective thoughts… Oh well.

Clare and Miria, double teaming the Awakened One.

So. What was so awesome in this ep? The fact that Clare, after all the disappointment in episode 9, still is an impressive and competent Claymore. As Miria supposed, Clare might have developed that technique particularly to defeat Awakened Ones. These creatures release the entirety of their Yoki, making it much easier for Clare to readout the flow. Against Claymores, that’s a whole another story, as they often suppress their own Yoki to a minimum as well, like in that one sparring match against Miria. Yes, Clare still needs to improve her fighting skills, but I bet she’ll get rid of her weaknesses in future. Go Clare!!…

Well, besides this, there isn’t really much to talk about, this episode consisted mainly of action and stuff. Or wait, there IS something that intrigues me a lot. For instance, why are they being observed from the distance by a Claymore, Galatea, and one of the men from the organization, Ermita? The Claymore being able to sense the Yoki from afar, she reports any change of the battle. Trivial fact, she even can distinguish feelings amongst the flow of the Yoki— lol? “Now, I can feel that someone’s arm is itching but she cannot scratch it because she has already lost it.” Anyway… What are they doing there, supervising the events?
Now, there is another thing, what was it during the dialogue between the Claymores and the Yoma, about the reason why they have been sent to him? As far as I can understand, any Claymore that has been sent to the Awakened One has been annihilated. For the organization to send such a small (and supposedly weak) party there definitely wasn’t unintentional, and the enemy himself confirms it by making allusions to Miria.

Is this the pinnacle of epicness, or just a lame attempt to get our hopes up?

So what exactly does this tell me? Are these events by any chance linked to each other? Did the organization dispatch these four Claymore only to get rid of them? For which reason? And in case they survived, would the 2 observers interfere? Well…. Maybe I’m pushing this a bit too far. I think it should be safe to assume that our Claymores will survive the Awakened One, but then again, who tells me he won’t come back in any way or another? Or in the case he is annihilated, how is it going to continue from then on? Is Galatea going to attack the rest? Is she the Number One, by any chance? Or a misfit? Soooo many questions… Whatever the reason, we’ll be smarter by watching the next episode. (And I didn’t even mention Raki even once…. Well he didn’t contribute to this episode at all (except stealing a minute off the episode) so he’s fine being ignored today. Rest assured :P)

A big question mark over these two guys. Good or bad?

Otanoshimi ni~~