Claymore Episode 5
10 05 2007
After all that happened in the previous episodes, this was a rather unexpected change of pace. It really looked like a new story, which threw me off at first - Clare was nowhere to be seen… Only right before the end of the episode was I finally able to understand what the whole episode was about…
Also, please read the last paragraph of this entry. Do it, or else it’s going to explode right in your face in the following weeks.
Click here to skip the summary and proceed to the thinkbox.
Episode 5: Teresa of the Faint Smile 「微笑のテレサ」
Another Claymore, another story. Teresa is her name. She’s the 182nd warrior of the 77th class of Claymores, and like all of them, her job is to find and kill the Youma. And no matter how many enemies there are, she can kill them in the blink of an eye, without using any of her powers.
Which is also why she is called ‘Teresa of the Faint Smile’, for her unchanging expression is said to be smiling as she kills the Youma. Amongst the Claymore, Teresa is the most powerful of them all. Her employer, Orsay, thinks of her as a monster.
Teresa’s next mission is to take care of several Youma that have settled down in some town. As she enters it, she immediately takes care of the first Youma and slices it in half. The problem is, they all took the appearance of regular humans, which makes it impossible for non-Claymores to distinguish the Youma from themselves. As a consequence, since they only see people being killed, the townspeople start running scared. Teresa, impassible, slays all of the Youma one after another amidst the screams of horrified people. In the end, she killed six monsters, however, before she entered the village, she did feel the presence of seven Youmas. One was also hiding amongst the people, and Teresa soon has spotted it. It had been clinging onto a little girl like a parent would, but to Teresa it was only taking the girl as a hostage. She swiftly disposes of the Youma, without hurting the girl, who doesn’t react at all to all the violence though.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
She stays at a inn for the night. She doesn’t seem to find any rest on the bed though. Sitting on the ground with her shoulders leaning on the sword is more comfortable to her… right. In the morning, the people want to give her money for completing her job, but, as always, she has to tell them that a man in black clothes will come to the village to pick it up later on. And then suddenly, the little girl from yesterday grabs her clothes. Teresa overthrows her though, and asks the townspeople who she is. They tell her that the Youma, who had been acting as her parent, had brought her into town, so she probably lost her parents some time ago, and the Youma kept her in its custody, for some reason or another. She never spoke a word though, it was as if she was mute. As they speak, the girl tries clinging onto the Claymore again. But once again, Teresa prods her away, telling that she is not her savior and that she will kick her hard if she tries again. And so it happened. Eventually, Teresa leaves the town.
Later in the evening, as the Claymore is resting in the forest, the girl sneaks up on her again. However, after looking away for a second, Teresa has disappeared; more precisely, she is already standing behind the girl, sword in hand. She clearly is running out of patience, and she threatens to kill the girl, but in that same moment, they both get attacked by several people. Teresa realizes that they’re all human, but as one lays a hand on the girl, she immediately chops it off. It turns out that those people are bandits who just want to have some… ‘fun’ with the Claymore. While one would expect that she could easily kill them all in one blow, she can’t. And the boss of the bandits knows precisely that weak point of hers.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
There is a certain rule that says that Claymores are forbidden to kill humans, no matter the circumstances. If it ever happened, even in the most unlucky accident, the organization directly disposes of the Claymore that was responsible for that. So even if a gang was to rape her, she wouldn’t be allowed to kill them. This rule was necessary to keep the Claymore on the human’s side.
But even if Teresa can’t kill them, the least she could do is to knock them unconscious. That’s what you would expect of her next - on the contrary though, she agrees to fulfill their demands. She admits she would even be glad to serve them with that body of hers, and rips open her clothes to expose her chest. We do not get to see anything (lechers!), but I guess nobody would have liked to see that either. Because the reaction from the bandits is far from being joyful - far from it! They even distort their faces in disgust and horror. Teresa explains that that is the body of the creatures that the humans call Claymore, and that they could take it anytime if they wouldn’t mind it. However, that sight was so ‘intense’ that it instantly chases the bandits away. ‘Monster’, they call her.
Teresa, unimpressed, tells the little girl that a ‘monster’ like her isn’t able to take care of children. As she is leaving, she orders her not to follow her anymore. She probably wasn’t convincing enough, as the girl keeps tagging along for another half a day. Unlike the Claymore though, she cannot keep up that indefatigable pace without food nor water and breaks down. Teresa, exasperated, makes sure that the girl won’t follow her anymore and jumps down a high cliff. But once again, she didn’t anticipate that the girl would indeed risk a jump down the cliff. She tries clinging onto a limb of a tree in mid-air, but breaks because of her momentum, which caused her clash down onto the grassy ground in free fall. Teresa observes as the girl is trying to get up again, but who will collapse eventually. The Claymore can finally continue her way without being followed anymore and walks away.
Or at least that’s what the thought at first. Because if the girl was to die, it would have been Teresa’s responsibility, and since she has been seen with her, there are no excuses. So, she returns to where the girl is lying and picks her up.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Teresa throws the girl into a river to wake her up and tells her that the water is potable. She is totally dehydrated, so she needed to drink. Teresa also tells her to wash herself, and notices from her scars that the girl has been treated very badly by the Youma. She realizes that the townspeople didn’t take care of the girl anymore, for she had been in contact with the Youma all along. Teresa feels sorry for her and gives her food. In the end, she allows the girl to follow her now. She even saves her from falling down a canyon as she slipped out on the borders.
After a few nights, Teresa asks for the name of the girl, but since she is mute, she can’t tell. So Teresa goes ahead and makes up a name for her… ‘Clare’. (Fake) coincidence or not, the girl tries to express herself with gesticulations that it was her name indeed. Teresa explains that her and Clare’s name are those of the two beautiful twin goddesses of love, and that those names were given to them because their parents most probably loved them very much.
And this is how Clare’s story began.
Next Episode: Teresa and Clare 「テレサとクレア」
the thinkbox
As I said beforehand, it really did take me the whole episode to realize that it had only been a flashback!! Because before she mentioned Clare’s name, I was wondering about what this episode was all about. I thought, we’d get to see things now from someone else’s perspective, but since the Clare we know hasn’t been around, this couldn’t have been possible. Or, maybe she would have met Clare after long years of separation, and since Clare never mentioned her as a friend, it could have been her rival. Or anything along these lines, I mean, I kept assuming that Clare had brown eyes, after the previous episodes in the holy city where she had to use those pills to conceal her silver eyes. So… brown wasn’t her original eyes color, after all… *sobs and deletes all of the previous screenshots T_T*
However, green is also a beautiful eye color. Moreover, we know now that the Claymore also could have a different hair color when they were still human. It would have been quite strange to have only blondes apply for being a Claymore. Yes, I really would like to see adult Clare with her original hair and eyes color now.
Here’s for you lolikon lovers out there - have some nekkid Clare.
Although this episode hardly offered any action at all, it brought a lot of clarification upon Clare’s past. Now I can finally understand what the man from the organization meant with ‘indentifying Raki with her past’; he is in exactly the same position as she used to be. I bet Clare inherited more from Teresa than only her kindness… what precisely, I don’t know yet. However, they’re still a bit different. Teresa always wears a faint smile (which gave her that nickname), but she did smile a few times towards the end of the episode. Unfortunately, I can’t pretend having seen Clare smile heartedly like that once. She did smile in ep 4 yes, but remember, she only faked it. Damn it. T_T
From what I can see in the preview, I guess the flashback will continue the next episode. I still am wondering what it is going to be. Will Teresa meet Clare again in the future? Will they still be friends or enemies? In the worst of cases… did Teresa even turn into a Youma…? Saa, otanoshimi ni!
Off-topic, brace for impact: I’m really losing my patience soon. I caught a cold today, as well as a bad headache, and I’m not willing to get everyone’s damned sweet talk anymore. All I see is people pass by this blog without even looking at it. Yes, they’re all bots. About 90% of the 35k hits I have are from the bots. Fuck those hits. I’d reset them to 0, for I don’t fucking give a damn about them. Proof that it ain’t people: No comments, and no votes on the poll - only 6 people voted in 4 days!! So many visits and people are even unable to click two times! Is that normal??? No seriously this ignorance is hurting me, I’m starting to become really fed up with this!! I created this blog on January 14, now imagine that the most users I ever had at the same time on my blog was on that fucking date!!!!!!!!!!!!! All these months, not even ten people were on my blog at the same time!! Tell me… what the fuck? Everyone loves writing, yeah whatever but even so, noone likes to be ignored as bluntly like that! What have I got to complain about, I already have 54 COMMENTS! If that isn’t a LOT! I bet I did half of them! THANK YOU ALL! THANKS ME!
If the whole blogging community only revolves around the big blogs, or their secret “friend networks”, then just don’t fucking allow newbies to start their own blog anymore! That saves many people a lot of frustration. Seriously, what on earth is this concept, the readers are to have expectations of the writer, NOT THE OTHER WAY ROUND!!! Oh my god. I’m not going to put up with that much longer, I tell you. Feel free if you want to flame. At least that shows me that there is a god damned reaction from some random fucking soul.
Wow. I’m sorry to hear that you’re getting passed by so much. I just found your site today and I’m enjoying it very much. Please keep it up!
Also, on the Claymore front, I’m anticipating this arc and the awesome battles to follow very much.
*slight spoiler*
4 on Teresa fight action is win for all.
It’s because you use “Claire” instead of Clare ^_^
Seriously though, that’s the crux of blogging: It’s always a certain step from reading to comments. The problem with your poll is that there isn’t really any option to pick. Technically, I like your entries alot - none of the options you listed would apply to me.
If I’d give a piece of advice, it would be shorten the summaries (these only make real sense for shows which are not subbed almost immediately), and to increase your comment section. Write what’s on your mind about the show/episode, and if you’re smart, write something controversial (to generate initial comments). Or ask your readers about something. For some reason, there’s a major hurdle to make the very first comments. Once the second is in, people tend to reply much faster.
So, I hope you’re not discouraged, I really like your entries alot. Even though I didn’t vote (lack of option applying to me) and hardly commented yet!
Until now I haven’t heard someone being called Clare in my whole life. I assumed that for the English, it’s obvious that they omit the ‘i’ in her name, but around here in Europe, it usually is not the case, so I stuck with Claire because the other one just sounded wrong. Yet, it’s the Japanese defining their names, even Eclipse uses Clare. They also say that the English release of the manga also used that name… Sounds wrong, but I guess I have no other choice. (Then again, I see some blogs where they use “Lucky” for Raki…
Well thanks guys. Mentar, I still have hope that things are going better for this greedy bastard. I am not discouraged yet, but… all the little annoying things around this blog built up to make a huge pain in the neck, and all of this is really making me lose my time in proportion of the feedback I receive.
As for the summary part, I know it’s a bit of a waste summarizing already subbed episodes, but since Claymore wasn’t that far ahead I just thought I’d catch up to the most recent episodes so later on I could be on the front as well. For Gundam SEED Destiny, I only write my thoughts about it, since it’s old already.
Controversial topics? Hmm… I always hoped for people to react to things I write because I am controversial by nature, and when I’m not happy I really tend to become sarcastic and stuff, as you might have noticed here and here. I’m sure of it, people would have reacted to this if they even had noticed in the first place. Impz for instance, only got to that post by chance (as I was ranting in the #ab channel), and he’s the messiah that finds it an injustice as well, or at least that’s what I get from reading his blog from time to time… Whatever. I guess if people don’t know me, they won’t take their time to read such long complain posts. Why they won’t go “too long; didn’t read”, is a mystery. And many replies, for now, never helped. In my last rant topic, I did ask my ‘readers’ a lot of things, but same thing as above. Once again, I have placed expectations on them while it’s supposed to be the other way around…
And finally, the poll does have an option to add custom answers, no? If nothing fits, you could always add yours there.
Thank you for the support nevertheless.
Clare is the “older” version of the name, both ways of writing are still in use. It’s seriously a tossup. We decided to stay consistent with the semi-official Viz version whereever it’s feasible.
On a technical point of view, your blog is pretty amazing ;) … very well done. I’d say the main question is what your primary goal is: To increase the page visits as quickly as possible, or to have fun while doing all that. I wouldn’t say it’s mutually exclusive, but… it’s two different things.
I’d say those blogs whose authors are clearly having fun, who don’t take things too seriously and who poke some _positively_ silly stuff every once in a while tend to attract the most replies. When you get the impression that the author is “giving his best” and “working hard”, for some reason the hurdle to comment is higher :) … now everyone has his own style, just some food for thought. Write when you’re having fun, not as part of a hardworking schedule. Also, roam other popular boards and crosslink to your blog - some positive air should help. Finally, getting befriended animeblogger sites to announce and recommend you would also benefit you.
Just food for thought.
And I hope you continue with a bit more enjoyment than you seem to feel lately ;)
Thanks for your advice, Mentar. Indeed, sometimes I just feel like I’m writing too serious, but whether I try to be more funny or silly, I don’t know if it would make that much of a difference. I should try, although, then again I don’t really know where and how to change it. I don’t want it to be ridiculous as well, as I already believe my Gundam SEED posts to be. My problem is that I keep comparing myself to those huge upstarter blogs, and then I start wondering why I can’t be as popular as them. Yay inferiority complex. Things do take time, and I’m being too impatient right now. But even knowing that, I’m still not happy with all of this.
I’m hurt by the fact that ‘friends’ play a huge role in all of this. If you know the one who wrote the entry, you can catch their drift more easily and also be more motivated to reply. Also, if you’ve gone missing, your friends will keep asking for you. Most people say, ‘we write for fun’, but that’s because they have friends, readers that share their fun as well. I can’t really pretend that on my side. I’m really not the ‘friendwhore’ type of blogger who goes around posting his blog link in every comment field and redirect users towards here. I feel like stealing users from other sites, and that’s really not how I want it to be. And either way, once the readers have settled down with one or more blogs, they won’t have any more extra time to check the noobs’ blogs.
And, other blogs that announce and recommend me? o___o Now that would be news. Is the church still standing??? No, seriously, that won’t happen. They also have their ‘pride’, have they?
It’s exactly the same phenomenon I encounter on the wallpaper sites, where I occasionally submit a wallpaper. ‘Proud’ people are not supposed to view the noobs’ wallpapers and to comment it, to give advice, and stuff. They only do that for their friends, because that’s the ‘elite’. And once you voice your anger, you get oppressed. It’s that easy. Someday… Someday I’ll overthrow all of them whores. I’m sure of that ;)
Until then… my blog still needs lots of work. If it wasn’t for these router issues here at dorm, I’d already have installed a few interesting plugins that might enhance this page a little bit, for instance, a thumbnail viewer, so people aren’t restricted to looking at those tiny pictures. And other things… maybe a new theme, who knows. This color scheme doesn’t please me much nowadays, and a wider column for writing might be of advantage for readability (also makes it look as if I wrote less).
And, Mentar: freakin’ awesome job on Claymore. Didn’t expect someone from Eclipse to check by my blog (already checked in IRC)… I’m honored ^^ Außerdem ein Deutscher. Wenn das kein Zufall ist :P Love your subs so far ^^ Just watched ep 6, entry should be done in an hour or two.
I think this was the best episode so far, because atleast viwers are finally fed with some interesting information and story about Clare’s past. Technically-wise it was still solid, although this serie doesn’t really have a lot of “eye-candy” animation like Gurren Lagann or Seirei no Moribito, it’s been consistent so far. And the background art has been rather impressive as well, with a lot of attention to details. I’m digging this show. :)
P.S. If I were one of those bandits I would have probably tried to ignore her “thing” on her chest and tried to approach her anyway. Heck, she’s one smoking hot Claymore. :)
I’m going to apologize in advance, because when I read your rant about bots and lurkers, I just had to laugh. But if it makes any sense, I was laughing in admiration because it was such an AWESOME rant. Seriously, you put your honest feelings right out there and that was impressive — in fact it made this lurker de-lurk long enough to respond.
For what it’s worth, I only came across this blog today. Having caught “Claymore fever”, I started looking around for what people are saying about it. And certainly that’s one thing that would draw a reader like me to a site, if they’re discussing a topic that interests me. The other requirement is that there should be a recognizable point of view or ‘personality’ behind the writing, something that I can connect to. (That’s why I don’t usually read episode summaries unless I’m curious about something I’m not watching myself or if I am confused about something I _did_ watch and want someone else’s perspective.) Based on that, here’s some positive feedback: I really like the Thinkbox sections! That’s where it gets interesting, with opinion and insight into an episode or a series or a genre. And from what I’ve read so far, you have interesting things to say. Keep it up!
I agree that it will be hard to compete for readership with blogs that employ more than one blogger and are therefore able to cover more series and topics. I think there’s also something to what you say about the insiders’ circle of bloggers posting comments on each others’ blogs; I’ve noticed that myself. But I hope you continue; it’s worth doing.
Oh yeah, and about Claymore: I’m not usually a fan of shounen action series, but I gave this one a shot. First couple of episodes had enough promise of character development in between the fighting scenes to keep my interest. Then episode 5 came out, and I’m watching it thinking “that waif’s eyes look awfully familiar”. . . yes! It’s a surprise flashback to Clare’s origins. Now I’m hooked. Episode 6 was even better. I’m really wondering where it’s going to go from here. It doesn’t look good for Theresa, but…in the opening animation, don’t we see a brief shot of Clare and Theresa crossing swords? It could be a spoiler for future developments.
Honestly, I get the same with my site, I shut most of it down because of these same problems~ Lack of interest from the viewers, basically. Don’t have much time to talk, but keep it up. This article is getting me into Claymore.. so thank you. :)
I just passed by your site while I was looking for episodes for Claymore and I found it interesting but I went away to watch the episode first and I remembered to read your blog. Very interesting.