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Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
Claymore (Kureimoa)-Complete Collection (Blu-ray) (2007)

Claymore (Kureimoa)-Complete Collection (Blu-ray) (2007)

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Released 15-Jun-2010

Cover Art

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Details At A Glance

General Extras
Category Anime Main Menu Audio & Animation
Interviews-Crew
Audio Bites-Voice Cast Auditions
Audio Commentary-6 episodes
TV Spots
Trailer
Booklet-32 Page Glossy
Music Video-Iextless Opening and Closing Credits
Rating Rated MA
Year Of Production 2007
Running Time 589:39 (Case: 650)
RSDL / Flipper Dual Layered
Multi Disc Set (3)
Cast & Crew
Start Up Ads Then Menu
Region Coding 1,4 Directed By Dong Joon Kim
Hak Bin Lee
Studio
Distributor
FUNimation Ltd
Madman Entertainment
Starring None Given
Case Amaray Variant
RPI $79.95 Music Masanori Takumi


Video Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame None English Dolby TrueHD 5.1
Japanese Dolby TrueHD 2.0
Widescreen Aspect Ratio 1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
16x9 Enhanced
Video Format 1080i
Original Aspect Ratio 1.78:1 Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures No
Subtitles English
English
Smoking No
Annoying Product Placement No
Action In or After Credits Yes, episode previews

NOTE: The Profanity Filter is ON. Turn it off here.

Plot Synopsis

     Claymore in a dark fantasy anime set in a world where villages of humans live in fear of Yoma, humanoid monsters that disguise themselves as humans as they hunt and feed on the humans in the villages in which they are hiding. Claymores are Human/Yoma half-breeds, all female (and typically curvy blonde lasses), who are pimped out to infested villages by a secret organisation to kill Yoma. Each Claymore wanders the countryside from village to village alone, feared by the humans that employ them, without a friend in the world and constantly fighting the demon within themselves. It doesn't sound like much of a life, save for the excitement of killing monsters.

     The series relies on loosely related plot arcs that all revolve in some way around Clare, a low-ranked Claymore with a tragic personal history. The story arcs move between her adult life, in which she rocks the boat by taking a human boy, Raki, along on her travels after he is orphaned by one of the monsters she is hunting, and her childhood, in which she herself was taken in by a rogue Claymore before becoming one herself. Over the course of the series the mythology around Clara and the Claymores in general becomes quite elaborate, and as it does the series becomes ever more engrossing for viewers.

    Claymore is based on a manga series that hails from the Shonen Jump stable. Shonen Jump is best known for spawning Naruto and Bleach, although Claymore is aimed at a more mature audience than those other two. This 3-disc set collates all 26 episodes of the show, which covers the first 11 stories/volumes of the manga.

     The animation style of the show is very symbolic of the source. The show plays out more like an animated comic than with the fluidity you would usually expect of a fully animated cartoon. There is a lot of static imagery, frequently with big pans across a still image, and virtually all the movement on screen is focused on whatever is happening, so there is very little in the way of background animation. This simple animation style may well have been born from a low budget, but it works quite well and suits the pace and tone of the story.

     The series does an excellent job of constructing the Claymore mythology and developing its central characters, however everything outside the central mythology is rather feeble. The Yoma are really nothing more than a macguffin (with a creamy purple filling to splatter everywhere), with the real conflict in the series the struggle between the Claymores and their inner demons, and the dubious morality of the shadow organisation for which the Claymores work. The humans in the series are rarely anything more than moving wallpaper.

     The pace of the show is slow at times, but after the first couple of episodes, which are a tad bland, it is easy to get into the vibe of it all. Claymore is very addictive, and fans will get to the end of the series desperate for more. The show is easy to recommend to moderately mature anime fans, though it is unlikely to convert anyone and is probably not the first anime prospective fans should be diving into.

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Transfer Quality

Video

     The show is presented in its original 1.78:1 aspect ratio in 1080i/60Hz.

     The show really doesn't look like it was ever prepared with HD in mind. Whilst the higher resolution of Blu-ray is noticeable, the video really doesn't look more spectacular than the DVD. The image is relatively soft and unevenly so from scene to scene. This varies from the point of looking OK, but not great, to looking like the camera has been covered in enough Vaseline to be ready for exploratory surgery. The interlacing is noticeable when there is a lot of movement on screen, but given that much of the show is quite static it is rarely distracting.

    The colours in the video are good, though there is relatively limited depth to the palette. That's not to say there aren't some pretty colours in there, just that the palette is never truly eye-popping. The basic colour scheme is quite reminiscent of the muted palettes of classic anime series, particularly Robotech or 1980s Astroboy, particularly the browns, greens and purples. There is a reasonable amount of detail in blacks and dark coloured areas. There is no sign of film artefacts or compression artefacts in the image.

     The English subtitles are a direct translation of the Japanese, which occasionally varies a bit from the English dialogue, although the general intent of the dialogue is reasonably similar.

Video Ratings Summary
Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

     The show features a choice of English Dolby TrueHD 5.1 or Japanese Dolby TrueHD 2.0. The audio is clear and clean. The dialogue is well placed in the mix. The sync for the English dub is predictably iffy, although reasonable for the original Japanese audio. Despite this, the English dub is without a doubt the audio track of choice, as its 5.1 mix is substantially better than the Japanese 2.0.

     The surrounds are put to excellent use in the English mix, and the subwoofer is used quite dynamically for both ambience and big thumps. The Japanese audio is good for a 2.0 track but lifeless in comparison to the English track, with modest subwoofer usage and no noticeable surround usage.

     The series features a decent score, which is a mix of hammy Hammer-esque orchestral and rock. The opening theme features a ripper of a guitar riff to boot.

Audio Ratings Summary
Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Extras

     The on-disc extras are fairly forgettable, and mostly in SD, however the set includes an excellent glossy booklet that substantially makes up for it.

32 Page Booklet

     The highlight of the set, this booklet features interviews with key members of the creative team, a wide variety of character profiles and production art. Definitely the highlight of the extras.

Audio Commentaries

     6 episodes (2 per disc) have audio commentaries, predominantly featuring members of the voice cast talking about the dubbing. Not particularly interesting in my book.

Crew Interviews

     Four interviews with members of the production crew, specifically the director (7:01), two lead artists (8:37 and 6:26) and the composer (4:17). Moderately interesting, though fairly routine PR stuff.

TV Spots

     Original TV trailers for the show. Pass.

Cast Auditions

     5 audio clips featuring auditions for the voice cast. Each runs a minute or two. Nothing terribly interesting here.

Textless Opening and Closing Credits

     Basically a music video for the theme. At least it's one worth hearing.

Trailers

     Each disc opens with a trailer for something else and 8 additional trailers for other shows are included as "extras" on the third disc.

R4 vs R1

NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.

    The Australian Region B set is identical in pretty much every way to the US Region A package, right down to the video on the discs themselves featuring only Funimation branding rather than Madman branding, though obviously the covers locally are labelled with Australia's garish censorship labels. The discs themselves are even formated for both Region A and Region B.

Summary

     An engrossing dark fantasy series for mature anime fans. Claymore takes a few episodes to get going, but is very addictive once it finds its feet. The extras are good, particularly the glossy booklet. The video and audio are a step up on the DVD, though a small one.

     At the time of writing the Blu-ray RRP is identical to the DVD, making it excellent value.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Adam Gould (Totally Biolicious!)
Wednesday, July 07, 2010
Review Equipment
DVDSony Playstation 3, using HDMI output
DisplayOptoma HD20 Projector. Calibrated with THX Optimizer. This display device is 16x9 capable. This display device has a maximum native resolution of 1080p.
Audio DecoderPioneer VSX2016AVS. Calibrated with Video Essentials/Digital Video Essentials.
AmplificationPioneer VSX2016AVS
Speakers150W DTX front speakers, 100W centre and 4 surround/rear speakers, 12 inch PSB Image 6i powered sub

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