Graphic Novel Review – Claymore Vol 12 by Norihiro Yagi (4/5 stars)

Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Manga/Fantasy
Size: 200 pages
Publisher: VIZ Media LLC
Release Date: July 1, 2008
ISBN-13: 978-1421519364
Stand Alone or Series: 12th book in the Claymore series
Source: Bought
Rating: 4/5 stars

This is the twelfth book in the Claymore series. It was well done and starts 7 years after volume 11 ended; dealing with a whole new generation of Claymore.

In this book we follow Rafaela as she travels to battle her sister Luciela of the South. Then we follow the new 47, Clarice as she travels to the far north with some other Claymore to battle a pack of Awakened Ones. There we find out what happened to Clare and her fellow warriors and get a flashback into the last moments of that battle 7 years ago.

As normal there is a lot of fighting Awakened Ones. We are introduced to new Claymore and their special fighting abilities. I was a bit distressed to find Clare and her fellow warriors completely absent from the story, but fear not they come into play later in the book.

I thought the battle between Rafaela and Luciela was a bit anti-climatic and that is all I will say about that.

We meet the new number 47 Claymore and her name is Clarice. She is surprisingly inciteful, but weak in the fighting arena (as expected of a number 47). We also meet a very unstable single digit Claymore named Miata that Clarice is charged with working with. Riful of the West makes another appearance as well.

The storyline has started to get a bit complicated for this series; with multiple storylines and different groups of characters that we follow. However that being said there is always a little blurb about the story so far at the beginning of each book which is a big help. There is also a blurb at the end reminding the reader of unanswered questions and events to be covered in the next volume.

The only downside to this series has been that sometimes I have trouble keeping all of the different Claymore straight. They all look very similar and now that we are jumping between different groups I am struggling a bit to keep all the names, faces, and events straight. It would be awesome if they had a grid of faces/names of Claymore at the beginning of the book so that I could cross reference when I get confused (this is something the Fables series does and it really helps to keep everyone straight).

Overall an excellent installment in this series. I like where the storyline is going and enjoy the complexity of it. I do have some trouble keeping all of the different Claymore straight since they look so similar, but I am still able to pick out the important characters. I am eager to see where this story goes next. I definitely recommend this series to all the lovers of fantasy manga out there.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
– Graphic Novel Reading Challenge
– You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge