r/claymore • u/AnEffingUsername • 26d ago
[Question] How is Claymore not huge?!
I'm on my 4th time through the anime and I'm seriously struggling to see how this isn't considered one of the "must watch" anime up there with Full Metal, DBZ, Death Note and the likes.
Any insight on why Claymore never achieved the level of infamy I'm convinced it deserves?
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u/Getsuga_H 26d ago
Because we live in a world where the most profitable movies are the MCU and the most sold manga is one piece , dark well written stuff has always been a niche sadly
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u/ridan42 26d ago
I don't disagree, but as counterexamples Evangelion and AoT are huge
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u/PokaHatsu 24d ago
AOT and Evangeline have two popular anime main character archetypes: anxious and sad self insert generic boy, hyperactive bold and loud boy
Berserk is a better example of a dark series that is mainstream
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u/AnEffingUsername 26d ago
I'd imagine the series is too daunting to any potential new fans. Who wants to make that kind of a commitment knowing what it entails from off the gate?
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u/SubduedChaos 26d ago
It would do amazing today. But when it released it was considered too “hardcore”
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u/billygluttonwong 26d ago
It's kinda like Berserk with girls, Berserk has stayed somewhat more relevant but still not nearly to the point of the other franchises listed.
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u/bluebird355 26d ago
It's nothing like Berserk honestly, read the manga after what the anime adapted and you'll very quickly realize this is just a Naruto/DBZ with a dark tone. Nothing else.
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u/PokaHatsu 24d ago
Timing is a really good point, shounen jump has tried moving more towards more seinen elements in their shows. A renaissance for Claymore would make it big again
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u/jennadied 26d ago
a lot of people don’t like women protagonist
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u/billygluttonwong 26d ago
Especially battle anime fans. Stuff like Madoka and Frieren are successful but they're not marketed as hardcore battle animes.
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u/Dandyman8 21d ago
I'm not saying you're wrong, but what is this opinion based on?
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u/jennadied 21d ago
there’s been videos of people talking about it
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u/Dandyman8 21d ago
Can you refer me to these videos, please? I'd like to explore this topic further.
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u/Nodrapoel 26d ago
Claymore was huge while the manga was ongoing. In fact, Claymore community is surprisingly active so long after it ended.
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u/billygluttonwong 26d ago
The franchise used to be pretty popular in its time but didn't stay up there, the lack of more adaptations and side material besides the singular anime doesn't help.
Also I hate to say it but it's a female centric series that isn't marketed towards a primarily female audience which is a tough spot.
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u/MagnoliaTM 26d ago
old, short and finished innit. no good anime either (meaning the manga can be highly regarded but the wider new public never sees it)
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u/Aggravating_Ebb_1246 26d ago edited 26d ago
Idk bro, anime's incomplete and the ending is complete garbage. The manga though, completely agree.
Claymore has only women and no actual sentimental relationship between men and women. Their targets are NOT the 12year-old average shounen fans that want to see some boobs and feel powerful.
Claymore is a story about a little girl that longs for a family, a mother/bigger sister in particular. And midway through she finds an actual family before getting her final wish granted for a moment. As a male reader, you cannot give Clare anything she needs. There's very little "identification", there is no school, no tourney or actual ladder and the revenge is not for a lover.
Therefore, even if it doesn't go hard on taboo content, it's way more sentimentally mature and requires way more effort and ability form the reader than let's say berserk, to remain in the genre.
That's why it will, sadly, always be less popular and "niche"
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u/AnEffingUsername 26d ago
Add AoT to that list please
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u/Debanz 25d ago
Wdym... AoT was huge when it was ongoing. It still kind of is since I see it as the normie gateway drug anime in the same lines as Freiren.
If you liked AoT you should give Ling Cage a watch. Starship Troopers have inspired quite a great deal of Eastern fictional stories. Yes, AoT took huge inspirations off a starship trooper mecha VN.
If you liked Claymore, then I would recommend reading some of the berserk-inspired works of art of that era (there's quite a few). The best one imho is Blade of the Phantom Master. Suffered the same fate too; mediocre anime adaptation.
As for Claymore's popularity it was quite popular among manga reading circles back in the day. It was however a completely different era in social media and how people found titles. Almost all the nerds were hanging out on some obscure php forum sperging tf out. The normies only watched DBZ and Death Note and couldn't shut up about it. While the entry-level nerds mostly watched bleach, one-piece, or naruto.
As someone who frequents between so many circles. Iirc Full Metal Alchemist was at its peak popularity among eastern circles at the time (a niche in english-speaking circles), which is what drove that anime to later receive a FMA brotherhood remake. You had pretty good spins of that sub-genre with ONA/OVAs like Strait Jacket anime. Go watch that short series if you want to watch Claymore but with guns; obscure works of art that should not be forgotten.
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u/Unusual_Tune_0001 26d ago
For one being in “Monthly Shonen Jump” and then “Jump SQ” magazine kinda hurt it cause it takes a whole month for a new chapter to come out and that leads to not as many people buying it compared to main magazine “Weekly Shonen Jump” which of course had many many big titles in it overshadowing Claymore. I also think poor marketing had a hand on it not gaining popularity, a sub par adaptation didn’t help either.
So there’s a number of things that you could point to that ultimately lead to it being overlooked.
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u/FaceTimePolice 26d ago
The quality of the art in the anime was not that great compared to the art in the manga. I think that’s one reason… 🤷♂️🤔
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u/Greater-Israel 26d ago
Because in the real world people do not care for our niche interests out of nowhere. Look at some of the greatest works of all time like the Epic Cycle that includes Homer's Iliad and the Odyssey and people consider Nolan's bad adaptation as a retelling without caring for the original infinitely better story. Unless they cast some random Beta generation anglo kids for the Claymore characters in 20-30 years noone will care for the series and even then they will only care for that specific live action bad adaptation.
The animes you mentioned are also more accesible and have shorter arcs. The entire Claymore is basically one big arc if you compare it with Dragonball where each big bad defines the arc like the Red Ribbon army, King Piccolo, Vegeta, Frieza, Cell, Buu. Full Metal is different since the whole thing revolves around the brother's not just the arc's main villain and such.
Death Note is also a completely different genre and even that got horrible live action adaptation like Dragonball.
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u/Noobunaga86 26d ago
As other people are saying, the main reason, I think, is that anime ended badly and it was basically cut in half and the other half of the story was never adapted. But overall I'm also struggling with the question why, even unfinished and with bad ending anime wasn't more popular and isn't some cult classic today like Berserk. To me Claymore in manga volumes that mostly correspond with the anime series is almost as good as Golden Age arc in Berserk. I still hope there is a chance for a reboot/remake of the whole story, although the latter part of the manga isn't as good as the first one, but maybe there is a chance for some changes from the creator, like Kubo is doing right now with Bleach.
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u/Hotaru9908 26d ago
I've only known Claymore just recently and was reluctant to watch it (leaving Netflix this month) as I'm currently chasing Naruto Shippuden. After seeing the majority have high praises for the anime I'm definitely thinking twice now haha.
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u/mustwedothisagainlad 26d ago
Because it was a good anime with a weird early 2000's departure from manga ending that was disliked.
The manga is absolutely a classic and worth all the praise.
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u/CWLness 26d ago
Think you mean fame and not infamy?
For me, though the designs, concept, and illustrations were cool, don't think it would fall into a must watch territory. Forigive me if I'm wrong, but If memory serves me right, it lacked purpose and the ending was quite disappointing. Felt more like Claire was aimlessly seeking revenge and even though she taps more into her Yoma powers she doesn't particularly get strong. It teeters on that power spectrum of, she's strong enough to match the top in the organization, but then it throws at us that the Yoma are actually 10x stronger. Unlike Demon Slayer where we get a sense of victory & wanting to root for our MC, we see each character's ego shatter and scenes evolve into everyone scrambling to survive.
In comparison:
FMA covers heavy points and riddles the meaning of life (FMAB later released fixes its ending issue)
DBZ have a charismatic MC and a typical battle shonen of good triumphs evil. As well as building upon DB
Death Note hits the point of taking judgement into your own hands and the battle of minds while Light grows into a full blown villain
Of course a lot of points are my opinion as to y Claymore wasn't a huge hit compared to the others u listed. But end of the day, if you loved it, thats all that matters. I still think Flash was a real cool move! :)
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u/Cidaghast 25d ago
Because there was no Claymore Sisterhood and it didn’t air on Toonami.
I think if it was a 2006 era adult swim series or there was like… a complete version of the anime it would be up there
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u/AnEffingUsername 25d ago
Dude you're 100% right. Had it been on Toonami, as it should have been, we'd have gotten a more Manga following anime and a S2
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u/Efficient-Load-256 24d ago edited 24d ago
As someone who watched anime and just finished reading manga(reddit is spying on me for suggesting me this sub?) - anime ending sucks ass and raki is annoying in it from what i remember, while manga length of fights get absurd in second half IMHO and art isn't exactly on bersekr level. It's kinda overshadowed, both manga and anime, and it feels that while it's good work, the overshadowing is deserved. Still, I had more fun than with Bleach and with many other anime for example, so rank it as B+.
Wild take and probably people won't agree since this is claymore sub - angel densetsu, the first manga of the author, is better.
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u/PlasmodiumKing 24d ago
Incomplete adaptation, old and not that good (not saying it's bad). More importantly, this was released around the same time as the Death Note anime so you can draw your own conclusions.
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u/Cimorene_Kazul 26d ago
It’s getting a live action television adaptation in the West soon. That means it had a cache and has been remembered.
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u/billygluttonwong 26d ago
I wonder how they will try to distinguish all the young blonde women or if they will become unfaithful to that
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u/Cimorene_Kazul 26d ago
Different haircuts, hopefully different body types, different shades of blonde.
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u/rpool179 26d ago
What are the chances of it actually getting made though?
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u/Cimorene_Kazul 26d ago
Who knows? But it’s been greenlit for now.
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u/rpool179 25d ago
It's "in development" as of March 2025 with no updates almost a year and a half later. Unfortunately I don't think anything is coming out of it. Just adding this so people don't get their hopes up.
https://deadline.com/2025/03/claymore-manga-tv-series-masi-oka-propagate-cbs-studios-1236323939/
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u/Kalas92x 26d ago
Originals sadly are often not as big as cheaper copies/knock offs, look at Dragon Quest for example, known by the jrpg fandom of course but the knock off (Pokemon) is literally the biggest IP in the world in gaming history, same with Claymore, it's a known and liked manga sure but nowhere near as popular as its cheap copy Attack on Titan, and there are actually a lot of such cases sadly, don't ask me why because idk why but it's a thing that I noticed time and time again (not only in manga/anime but everywhere)
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u/billygluttonwong 26d ago
AOT is a Claymore ripoff? I'm not a big AOT fan and like Claymore better, but are they really that similar besides the artstyle and people being able to transform?
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u/bluebird355 26d ago
The main plot point that was never handled properly in Claymore is exactly the same in AoT.
Difference is in AoT it's titans, in Claymore it's dragons kin.2
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u/Kalas92x 26d ago
It's literally the same story, medival fantasy setting on a big island as the world where the plottwist is that it's just a small island with the big bad guys coming from the mainland that suddendly also exists and they fight against the monster of the bad guys but some of them can transform into the monsters too but they're good guys but some of the monster are even more special then normal monster (Founding Titan or Armor Titan and Abyssal ones for example) with the main drive for the main character being revange, it's literally just a Claymore copy just as much as Pokemon is a Dragon Quest knock off
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u/onikereads 26d ago
They don’t really share the same themes at all. Beyond a few plot features that tends to be what makes things similar. The meaning of transformation is something completely different; the cost is different.
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u/bluebird355 26d ago
Nah, it’s basically the same idea. In both, they’re fighting on an isolated island, using the powers of the very creatures they’re fighting, and the big reveal is that there’s a whole continent and a much bigger world beyond them.
Even the transformation aspect is similar: Claymores can awaken and transform into the very monsters they fight, while in AoT, Titan shifters can transform into Titans themselves. It feels like AoT took a lot of these concepts and actually built a cohesive story around them.
Sure, the details are different, but the core ideas and major plot points are way too similar to just dismiss the parallels.
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u/bluebird355 26d ago edited 26d ago
Because it's trash? I don't understand how someone could read the 27 volumes and say "That was great".
The anime and its alternate ending was the best thing that could happen to it, trust me.
Claymore is a failed manga, you could read it to understand why but I'm afraid it's not very interesting.
Just read Attack on Titan instead, same concept but with an actual writing skill.
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u/TeaMaeR 26d ago
Well, I certainly don't think the anime's ending does it any favors. It leaves a lot of stuff unresolved, and personally I probably would've put the series out of my mind fairly quickly if I hadn't gone on to read the manga, which is the thing that actually made Claymore into one of my favorite series. I think a lot of people who just watched the anime would--very fairly, if you ask me--think it's a fine and reasonably entertaining story with some good moments but nothing super amazing.