I was not prepared for how good this series would be.
I think the aspect of it that I appreciate the most, is how focused it is. A lot of manga in the action genre have tons of filler or spend tons of time on arcs which are ultimately inconsequential.
Claymore isn't like at all. Not only are the fights cool, the plot is gripping and has tons of momentum while still being easy to follow. It's hard for me to explain why, but a lot of the time it felt like I was reading a mystery novel. The way the author reveals information gradually added so much drama!! Sometimes, authors can create mysteries and have lame or boring or cop-out solutions for the problems they set up, but all of the solutions or back info in Claymore is always super satisfying! >:O
Another thing I really liked was that the decisions and actions of the characters always made sense—even the villainous characters! Everyone in this manga acts in order to protect themselves or things they care about, and it becomes really interesting to watch the plot play out as the # of opposing agents increases.
There are more than 20 volumes of this manga, but nothing felt irrelevant or extraneous. In a story of this scope, that's incredibly refreshing. This is now one of my favorite series of all time BIG RECC
PS Unfortunately the translation quality drops A LOT around chapter 128. The translator switches and it becomes *actually* incomprehensible. Like not just grammar mistakes or misspellings—the dialogue straight up stops making sense.
luckily, mangahere.cc has the rest of the chapters translated by Gernot(the initial hiqual translator)—it took me a lot of searching to find them so I hope this is helpful to you! :)
http://www.mangahere.cc/manga/claymore/
Claymore