Great TV While High: Claymore

For weedists who enjoy anime with badass sword fights and women who kick ass, Claymore is a must watch. Claymore is an animated adaption of the first eleven books of Norihiro Yagi’s manga series of the same title. The anime has a total of 26 episodes, approximately 20 minutes each, so it would be easy to get nice and baked and finish the series in a couple of days. All 26 episodes are currently available for streaming at Hulu.

The series is set on an island where humans are plagued by the Yoma, shapeshifting monsters that can take on human form and feast on the innards of humans. The Yoma are a constant threat to the humans and their only way to defend themselves is to enlist the help of the Claymores. Claymores are half human, half Yoma warriors created by a mysterious group called ‘The Organization’ to fight the Yoma for a fee. The Claymores are each given a ranking between 1 to 47 and are assigned to one of the 47 districts of the island. Claymores wander from town to town completing their assignments from The Organization to slay Yoma.

The townspeople call the soldiers “Claymores” in reference to the swords they wield, or they are sometimes called “silver eyed witches” because of their silver eyes and superhuman abilities. Claymores incredible combat abilities come from their Yoma powers, which they release to boost their strength and speed. Some high ranking Claymores even have special powers such as the ability to control the energy of Yoma to cause their attacks to miss. When Claymores release too much of their Yoma energy they become monsters themselves, called “awakened beings” who cannot revert back to their human form. The Claymores have a strict code not to kill any humans in order to gain the trust of the people they serve, who see them as monsters themselves.

The series follows one Claymore in particular, Claire, ranked number 47, the very lowest ranking of the Claymores. In the first episode Claire saves a young boy named Raki from a Yoma that killed his entire family. Raki takes an interest in Claire after she saves him because she is the only person who ever treated him with kindness. The villagers banish Raki from their village after the Yoma attacks and he wanders through the desert until he collapses, before he is saved by Claire yet again. Through Raki’s companionship, Claire is able to reconnect with her human emotions and find purpose in her life as a trained killer. I would highly recommend this series to the action loving weedist.

Check out other posts from Weedist’s Great TV While High series!