Claymore

[Assassin]

awesome end to the arc...i really hope jean joins up with clare in her journey now. btw, what was up with riful's comments? saying that she saved duff cuz he was her man, and then following up with "you're like the only one who can accept me without breaking, you know?". seems like riful is giving it to duff up the ass.

but overall, i love the ep. and the next arc seems like it wont disappoint either. But i do wonder about thier numbers though....theres only 47 claymores total at any given time it seems. But we've already seen like 4 die (the 3 from jeans squad, and ophelia) and it seems another half dozen will die in the next ep. wonder how many fresh recruits they have lined up, awaiting official claymore status....or maybe it not like joining the army, and new recruits are hard to come by. I'd think the latter since claymore dont age, so the same claymore could technically keep fighting for like 100+ years.

[Yukimura]

@Assassin: It's been said that all Claymores eventually reach their limit and either awaken or send out a card, but the time frame hasn't really been established. However I doubt that they can live too much longer than a normal human lifespan without the Yoma side forcing either death or awakening.

Another awesome ep. Jeane was excellent, she managed to maintain a personality while still declaring herself Clare's tool. In the manga she seemed much more mechanical and stiff. And Riful was amazing as well, so huge and overwhelming it really shows you that they never had the slightest chance of doing anything she didn't want them to do.

[complich8]

I really liked how that went down...

And yeah ... I imagine anyone with less than Duff's iron skin would totally just disintegrate when faced with an impassioned embrace from that insanely powerful thing that she turned out to be. Anyone else notice how she basically shredded and disintegrated the mountain around them? I'd certainly hate to be within a mile of her when she's showing off her "o-face"

[Knives122]

I've seen something like her in another anime before, was basically just a bunch of vines. If that's the case(and it looks like it is) it's going to be extremely difficult to kill Riful.

And it's pretty cool that we have the awesome personality that is Jean join Clare, as opposed to that loser Raki.

[Idealistic]

It would be awesome of Jean joined Clare. Finally Clare will have a Claymore friend. All the others were sort of like neutral with her, but I guess you can count Irene too.

Man I love this show. The different personalities and skills each Claymore has is awesome.

Easley looks godly... lol.

Wait are there 3 or 4 Dwellers of the Deep? Which one is Riful again? South?

[Ryllharu]

There are three "Abyssal Ones"

Riful of the West, Isley in the North, and an unnamed one in the South. The east is controlled by the Organization.

The most correct spelling is Isley. (イースレイ, Īsurei). Eclipse's one mistake "Dwellers of the Deep" is subjective on how you translate the term, but this one is not.

[complich8]

On another note, I've noticed a lot more awkwardness and random grammatical errors in this release than is typical for eclipse. Anyone else?

[masamuneehs]

yeah, comp, i thought this episode had some really funny sentences that totally didnt fit the characters' emotions or personalities... i chalked it up to subpar writing rather than bad fansubbing.... but maybe that's it? kudos to eclipse though, as i've found their work to be more than satisfactory sofar on this series

Ah, so the term 'Abysaal One' finally comes up... i thought 'Dwellers of the Deep' wasnt' really all that good of a term...again, a translation error?

[Munsu]

There are three "Abyssal Ones"

Riful of the West, Isley in the North, and an unnamed one in the South. The east is controlled by the Organization.

The most correct spelling is Isley. (イースレイ, Īsurei). Eclipse's one mistake "Dwellers of the Deep" is subjective on how you translate the term, but this one is not.

You can't go by the spelling, but by the sounds of the word to get the intended spelling. In Isley, the first syllable sounds like "ice", while with Easley it sounds much like it sounds. If I were going to make a katakana of Isley, I would right it as "aisurei" or "aisuri".

[Ryllharu]

Well, that depends on if you make the first 'I' long, like the katakana shows イ. Phonetically, "Easley" would be more accurate if it started with エ.

It's not really correct, but I don't mind it as much as "Dwellers of the Deep." The Japanese is clearly "しんえん の もの shin'en no mono" which is "thing/person of the [unfathomable depth]." The important aspect is that it's an implied incredible depth, the most appropriate english analog being "Abyss."

If anyone else wants the last word on this phonetics side-track, take it. I shouldn't be diverting the topic.

I really like the way Clare's development goes. She's increasing her strength by using the tools she's given instead of shamelessly powering up once more. She takes her impressive ability to precision-sense Yoki and applies it as a method of controlling the Flash Sword. Unlike the typical "I must get stronger" [burst of power super saiyin style], Clare has started to think about how she uses the talents she's already gained. Combining skills she already had to make another more deadly. To save Jean, she remembered how Galatea helped her and performed the same, as any Claymore with decent control over the "wavelength" of their Yoki could.

[Koyuki]

Nice episode. Seems like Irene’s arm is a good addition to Clare's style. She could read yoki while the arm was awakened. I wonder if we'll have some new group consisting of Half-awakened claymores.

[Munsu]

Well, that depends on if you make the first 'I' long, like the katakana shows イ. Phonetically, "Easley" would be more accurate if it started with エ.

Isley, in English, is pronounced (ĪZ-lē)... "ice + lee".

I don't think you understand how Japanese pronounce their words, unless I'm misunderstanding you. In no shape or form would エ make a sound that represents Easley, if you're talking about phonetics.

"Īsu" doesn't make the sound as "ice" like Isley requires; "aisu" makes that sound.

Also in Japanese the "long I" only extends the same sound of "I", it doesn't change the pronunciation as in English does. So in Japanese a long "I" and a short "I" sounds exactly the same, only with the "long i" being pronounced longer because there really is no "long I"; it's just the same "I" two times. "Ī" doesn't mean "long i", but it means "ii"; the "i" sound two times.

That's why there are so many confusions and pun jokes in Japanese, the differences are very miniscule. Just compare the words "biiru" and "biru"... "ojisan" and "ojiisan".

Of course, "Isley" could be pronounced differently in some language other than English, but I don't know about it, and I doubt many of you, if any, do.

Anyways, you said that VIZ used "Abyssmal"? I wonder why Eclipse is not using it then, when they explicitly said at the start of the series that they were using the terms as according to VIZ.

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Anyways, great episode. The ending was interesting, with all those Awakened Beings ready to massacre the group of Claymores. I wonder how big Riful's army is... or if it's simpy Duff and herself at the moment. I would've assumed that she would have been sorrounded by more Awakened Beings if she indeed had an army, instead of all those weakass Yoma. It looks like that Easley army is very overwhelming, if you count that he subdued Priscilla (who can probably be considered an Abyssmal One), himself, and all the other Awakened Beings they have around them. Look at all the damage that just Duff and Riful did by themselves, and we can imagine how powerful the Easley army is.

[Ryllharu]

Viz uses "Creatures of the Abyss," the literal translation of the Japanese, while the scanlations use the compressed form of that, "Abyssal Ones."

It does seem that Riful hasn't had much luck making friends. Perhaps her standards are too high? She implied that she and Duff had gone through several Claymores when she had Duff "test out" Katia. They seemed quite pleased that they had caught Jean, and Riful said it would only be worthwhile to have someone at least as strong as Jean. She changed her mind when Clare started performing well, and half-awakeneds seem to interest her a great deal. I really love the way she switches from feigned concern for her "playthings" to berating Duff for interrupting her. Her short conversation with Galatea talked briefly of Isley suddenly building an army after he got his woman. He had a big head start.

[Munsu]

Humm, that's true... She seems interested in only strong Awakened Beings. So, maybe the army in the North is full of weakass Awakened Beings, so maybe there's a bit of hope for our Claymores up in the North... for now.

[masamuneehs]

unfortunately for Riful, her one (and apparently only) follower is Duff, and he got chewed up by three top level, albeit unAwakened, Claymores... Considering that Priscilla was one of the very top (was she number 1?) when she Awakened, I'd imagine she'd handle Duff pretty easily... Riful needs to get some more goons, pronto, if she hopes to really take on this Easley/Isley

i suppose he did have a head start though over her... and I wonder where Priscilla falls on the "all time AB list"? I'm tempted to agree with Bud and say she's as good as the other Abysaals, even if she hasn't been around for nearly as long as they have... It just doesn't seem right that the main character's arch-nemisis wouldn't be at least in the top 3 of powerful enemies...

[shinta|hikari]

Priscilla was number two, unless you count her chopping Teresa's head off as her promotion to number 1.

I think Priscilla would at least be on the top 5 most powerful enemies in claymore. Top 1 would be a bit over the top, and less than that would make Clare's revenge seem less meaningful.

With the sheer number of ABs in the preview, Im thinking the north guy is going for numbers instead of pure quality. He does of course have Priscilla, but the other ABs would at least have to be significantly weaker than Duff, or else the claymores dont stand a chance.

[Kraco]

Since it's an army, it makes perfect sense to build some numbers even if all the soldiers aren't of top quality. Even a couple of weaker ABs are enough to temporarily slow down a strong opponent, which can then be more easily destroyed by a key AB. After all, the idea of an army is not to have lots of individually powerful soldiers acting alone, but a unit that carries out the given missions as a single entity.

Maybe the North guy is doing just that. Riful might be still looking at things the wrong way. But building actual armies cannot be an old thing for these three Abyss fellows, so it would be understandable.

[Munsu]

I have to agree... as of now, I can't see anyone more powerful than the Abysmal Being of the North. Didn't Riful say that he defeated Priscilla or that he's controlling her or something? That should be enough to show that Priscilla might not end up being the most powerful enemy Clare faces; who knows, maybe the guy will kill Raki making him the most meaningful, as well as poweful, enemy Clare will face.

[Ryllharu]

I think it would be a really interesting twist if Clare's arch-nemesis wasn't the most powerful creature in all the lands. It wouldn't be a cliche first of all. We could assume she'd kill Priscilla, or die doing so, and just let the Organization finish the rest. Riful said that he became overzealous after he made Priscilla his woman. That probably means Clare and co. (hopefully now including Jean) will have to go through Isley to get to Priscilla. Riful is really overprotective of her lover, despite how much she abuses him. Isley probably is too.

(as a side note, that's an interesting parallel to Clare and her boy-toy.)

Well, in any case, I'm still hoping Clare and co. will join Riful, even if only temporarily, in order to kill off Priscilla and Isley. She's too likable a villain to have to kill off.

[Buffalobiian]

Do you think our Third Abyssal is going to join the fun? Riful says Easley's raising an army, and she decided to play along. Didn't mention anything about her southern friend. Anyone else think Jeane's attack was another technique using "fully awakened" arms?