Claymore, Vol. 9 Paperback – August 7, 2007

Good desl

The ninth volume of this dark fantasy series is where things take another turn for both the good and the bad. The bad is that Clare and others of her friends in the Claymore Organization are sent on another suicide hunt, and also that Raki is said to have been captured by rogue slavers, and Clare must survive to save him. The good is that the bonds Clare has with her fellow warriors are strong and that she has gained new skills.In the past few volumes, Clare and others she knows among her colleagues have discovered truths about the organization, and that in turn caused the Organization to informally mark them for death. Fortunately, through incredible coincidence, this Clare managed to barely survive an attack from an insane fellow Claymore and gain power and skills as a result. How she gets stronger via learning and bodily help from another once-Claymore gets to an important point about the character.In fact, this is one of the defining character traits and strengths of Clare, as tv tropes points out, that she has the ability to analyze a situation and come to fast decisions, and copy techniques she sees. Despite being the lowest ranked among her generation of warriors, and thus the weakest, she really is phenomenally strong in that she can utilize such a wide-range of techniques. In other words, her strength lies in her intelligence and adaptability, which make her far stronger than her real skills would otherwise be.Because of this, the author gives a good reason for Clare rising so high despite her shortcomings, other than the power of plot. That actually is a strong point in his favor, as authors sometimes don't do this and it comes across as the author saving the characters at times in other works. Some folks think it's this here, but it really isn't. It's Clare's brains and such.In a manner that *Attack on Titan* also utilizes in it's own story, the ontological mystery is slowly being revealed. And that is really the key to what makes this story so entertaining for me. It has a mystery element that is being revealed to the characters and the audience at the same time. So it's not the cheesy thing of the character ignoring what they know until the audience is allowed to find out. They find out as we do and it happens quite organically.The only bad part is that the art doesn't always depict well what is happening. It has a lot of manga panel style of what I call "whooshes" and such. I wish the fighting were depicted better, although the mangaka, , does do better than Watsuki, mangaka of *Rurouni Kenshin*, at showing the fights.The best part along with the mystery being slowly unraveled is that earlier-mentioned growing friendship between Clare and some of her fellow Claymores. It continues the defrosting process that Raki began. Between Theresa's death and the aftermath, as well as her travels as a Claymore and folks' reaction to this, she was ice-cold, but Raki, and the other warriors, including Miria, have begun to alter this somewhat.This volume was an important one that was the ending of previous arcs, and the beginning of a new one, as well as one that pushed forward some of the character development and unraveling mysteries of the previous volumes. Highly Recommended.Rating: 4.5/5 Stars.

as always the fights are amazing and the story is stepping up in this volume to the next level of excitement , this a very worthwhile reading as i watched the anime first but i was told to expect much more goodness from the manga .

I felt like the last two volumes were losing steam particularly after focusing on one fight for so long, this actually starts to lead to a major development in the plots in ways that turn the focus of the comic and makes clear that Clare is a more significant character than it steams. Furthermore, some significant long-term antagonists introduced. Yagi's art continues to impress, but it is often hard to tell what is actually going on in a battle.

From here on out is pure intensity. It only gets better from here. Good arc and good intro to the next.

This is a great series that my husband and I both love. I had to return some because he already had some but these came in great condition and were exactly what I expected. I can't wait for the next book to come out!

AWESOME, started collecting them and this was a great buy i got a used one and it was just like new only a couple small stickers on the back of mine

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