A New York Times best selling, multi-arc, character-driven story with great battles and strong-willed females that will appeal to males and females alike.
In a world where monsters called Yoma prey on humans and live among them in disguise, humanity's only hope is a new breed of warrior known as Claymores. Half human, half monster, these silver-eyed slayers possess supernatural strength but are condemned to fight their savage impulses or lose their humanity completely.
After finding herself mysteriously drawn to the lair of Riful of the West, Clare made contact with the fused form of Rafaela and Luciela, which Awakened and transformed into the terrible being known as the Destroyer. Now, the entire land of Lautrec is subject to its dreadful, relentless assault. It seems that nothing, and no one, can halt the devastation. But there may be one force that is greater still…
Norihiro Yagi (八木教広 Yagi Norihiro) is a Japanese manga writer and artist from Okinawa Prefecture. He started making manga in 1990.
Norihiro Yagi is a successful manga artist, having won the 32nd Akatsuka Award for his very first work, Undeadman. Undeadman appeared in Monthly Shōnen Jump and has had two sequels. Yagi's first serialized manga was his comedy-genre Angel Densetsu, which appeared in Monthly Shōnen Jump from 1992 to 2000. His most recent work, Claymore, has been running in the magazine since 2001.
Better than several previous volumes but I doubt it will ever get 5 star worthy like early volumes. There is some nice action, some big developments and some big players leave the stage and I'm genuinely curious to see where will this new arc take the overall story.
“This enemy we’ve been fighting since yesterday may just turn out to be our friend.”
I swear, this series just keeps reminding me why it’s my favorite manga. This was such a good volume, and I had so much fun reading it. I’m honestly so glad I decided to do my one book a day challenge for 2026 because if I didn’t, I probably wouldn’t have picked this series up for a re-read this year. That would’ve been a huge loss because I forgot just how good these later volumes are. The last few volumes have been hitting one after another, and this one is no different. The hardest part now is forcing myself to stop. All I want to do is grab the next volume and keep going, but I’m trying really hard to stick to my reading schedule.
I don’t think there was a single chapter where I wasn’t completely locked in. It felt like something huge was happening the entire time, and the tension never really let up. I also love that the fights never feel like they’re there just because it’s an action manga. Every battle gives you something new, whether it’s learning more about the world, seeing what different characters can actually do, or understanding how everyone fits into the bigger picture. One thing I really appreciate in this volume was seeing more of the other characters get their moments. At this point, there are so many characters that I care about, so it’s always fun when the story gives them a chance to shine instead of keeping the focus on just one person. And the artwork… goodness, it’s got so good. Some of the creature designs are just straight up disturbing, and I mean that as a compliment. They look creepy without ever feeling messy or hard to follow.
If I had to nitpick one thing, it’s that some of the enemies that used to feel completely unstoppable don’t seem quite as scary anymore because the series keeps raising the bar. It’s not a big complaint at all, just something I noticed while reading. It definitely didn’t take away from how much I enjoyed this volume. If anything, it just made me even more excited to keep going. I already know what’s coming since this is a re-read, but somehow that isn’t making it any less exciting. If anything, I’m appreciating it even more this time around. Now I just need enough self control to not ignore my one book a day rule because this series makes it way too easy to keep saying, “Just one more volume!”
This volume is just a huge huge huge mess!!! Everything became really messed up! I am not sure what to say but Clare just made a really huge mistake in this volume! I hope it would turn out well... and I am so glad about those people that are trying to help them! I also adore their camaraderie! It's just amazing!
The previous volume was OK with moving the plot along. In volume 18, however, most of it appears to be filler until the very end. The plot increasingly seems to get lost in favor of battles with creepier and creepier monsters. The main cast keeps getting bigger and bigger and it's difficult to keep track of who's who. I could also do with less blatant explanations of what's going on, but this is not as bad in Claymore as it is in other manga.
I think I belong to the minority who enjoyed this volume. Is it because of my love for fight scenes? who knows. Clare meeting Priscilla is one of the moments I've been waiting for and it's finally here! I'm also excited to find out what's going to happen to Raki.
3.5/5 Yuck I read this in 20 minutes. You're not getting much bang for your buck there.
Uma and Cynthia get attacked by Beth who was infected by The Destroyer (Rafaela/Luciela Awakened Thingy) This interferes with Alice who can no longer awaken while she's fighting Riful and Dauf.
Priscilla shows up after giving up on the peaceful life restraining herself with Raki, who has also been infected by The Destroyer and is taken away by The Organization.
We see Priscilla pretty much wipe the floor with everyone and everything and then at the end she's facing off against Clare, Helen, and Denever who are already drained from fighting Destroyer Spawn. This volume is once again just one giant battle. The characters aren't given time to grow or be interesting which is unfortunate but it is pretty.
World: Great art, the fighting is amazing. The world building is what it is at this point, nothing new added this time around, just the same pieces fighting from the last book.
Story: The fighting continues and does not end at the end of this book, it’s still going. It’s a really fast read as a result. Due to the time we spend with the squad we care about the characters, there’s melodrama on the battlefield and it’s earned and it’s good.
Characters: The characters are not deep by any measure but we’ve spent time with them and I care about them and seeing them in dire circumstances is stressful. The character work is basic but it’s still resonating.
I can't believe we're here. This manga has so many moving pieces and separate storylines that it becomes a surreal experience to see characters like Priscilla interact with anyone other than Raki. Also Priscilla showed up, which is insane considering we've got a solid 9 volumes left. Makes me wonder if there's gonna be a twist villain, or if the fight with Priscilla will truly take 9 volumes. Only time will tell.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
3.25/5 This book was a mixed bag, the story is finally moving forward but on the downside, all the supervillains that were hyped up so much in previous books were easily wiped out like they were nothing which felt very underwhelming.
This is the 18th volume in the Claymore series. There was tons of action in this installment and the story was very cohesive, just like the last volume in this series...so there wasn’t as much jumping around.
Clare, Deneve, and Helen are trying to survive the attacks of the Awakened Rafaela/Luciela. Riful has an encounter with Beth and Alicia. Then Priscilla gets hungry and decides to break her fast. She pretty much destroys everything she touches. When Priscilla catches Clare’s scent she will stop at nothing to kill her. Lastly we get a brief snippet with Raki, he is captured by the organization for investigation.
I really enjoyed this volume of Claymore. The last couple volumes have been some of the best in this series.
This series continues to be action-packed and has excellent illustration. Things are really starting to come together. The complete destruction caused by Rafaele/Luceila was absolutely amazing. It was also very awesome to have Priscilla back in the picture and causing massive trauma.
Overall this was a wonderful volume in what has been a consistently well done action-packed fantasy manga. Highly recommended to those who love fantasy manga. I can’t wait to see where the story goes next.
"I have no interest in miserable weaklings like you."
While volume 18 technically starts a "new" arc it is an immediate continuation of the last one and the series in general builds off all that has come before. This is not the place to start reading - go back to the beginning.
The Ashes of Lautrec is the culmination the last several volumes have been building to and is the longest arc yet. It will span ten chapters (parts 1-6 here) and heavily involves all the major forces, established and new. Major changes and casualties are in store, with the shocking end of volume 17 merely the beginning. Besides just the incredible battles themselves, other big draws here are key reveals of true motivations and hidden agendas as well as finally getting a harsh glimpse of how the power levels of the seven, the Creatures of the Abyss, the Destroyer, Alicia and Beth, and another key awakened one truly compare.
This arc is a masterpiece of brutality, intrigue, despair, and sacrifice. It draws on story elements spanning all seventeen previous volumes and is as gripping as it is fittingly disturbing.
This is getting very close to the part where I DNF'd. At some point, I forgot all the reasons why I stopped reading Claymore, and then I started looking back on it with nostalgia. I remembered all the things I loved about it—the art, Teresa being badass, the coolness of centaur-warrior Isley—and I swept all the bad stuff under the mat.
Whole volumes dedicated to monotonous, repetitious fights between an ever-growing band of "outcasts" and the overwhelmingly powerful enemies who are always eventually defeated without fail... This is boring.
(Zero spoiler review) I am going to read through this series as fast as I can, just to be done with it. I can no longer bring myself to care a jot about this world or its characters. I really can't find much positive at all to say about this. Someone is going to get a boxed set of this series pretty cheap as soon as I can force myself to read the rest of them. I can't stand this dreck. 2/5
Today's post is on Claymore volume 18: The Ashes of Lautrec by Norihiro Yagi. It is the eighteenth the long running Claymore series, you need to have read the first seventeen volumes to understand the story. It is 191 pages long and is published by Shonen Jump Advanced. The cover has Riful and Dauf standing it. The intended reader is someone who likes dark plots, high action, and strong female characters. There is mild foul language, no sexuality, and lots of violence in this book. The story is told from third person close of the main character. There Be Spoilers Ahead.
From the back of the book- After finding herself mysteriously drawn to the lair of Riful of the West, Clare made contact with the fused form of Rafaele and Luciela, which Awakened and transformed into the terrible being know as the Destroyer, Now, the entire island of Lautrec is subject to its dreadful, relentless assault. It seems that nothing, and no one, can halt the devastation. but there may be one force that is greater still...
Review- As with the previous volume we pick right up where the last one left off. Riful is fighting one of the twins and she is losing but then the Destroyer makes one twin lose her mind. Priscilla makes the other twin lose it because she is just so dangerous. We get to see a lot of Priscilla being tougher and faster then everybody else and when Clare sees Priscilla, she almost fully Awakenings on the spot. Priscilla has stayed with Raki because in some way that he smelled like something she wanted remember and she has followed that smell to Clare. So Priscilla has been looking for Clare without knowing why and Clare cannot stop herself from fighting Priscilla. There is going to be much blood in the last eight volumes but I am curious about how Clare is going to defeat Priscilla when she is so much more powerful.
I give this volume a Five out of Five stars. I get nothing for my review and I bought this manga with my own money.
Bom, nesse volume temos finalmente a reaparição de Priscila, e descobrimos que ela estava usando Raki como uma forma de rastrear a Clare, mesmo que ela tenha apagado totalmente de sua memória a forma como a conheceu. Então, finalmente ficou explicado aquele apego todo do primeiro encontro dos dois ainda nas terras do norte.
A respeito da Organização, ficou claro que eles estão começando a considerar a fusão de Rafaela e Luciela uma espécie de criatura perfeita, então, creio que nos próximos volumes os planos deles envolverão mover ou tentar replicar aquele tipo de criação.
Infelizmente nesse volume, minha diva Riful finalmente encontrou a sua derrota após ser obrigada a travar uma batalha em várias frentes simultâneas, ela realmente caiu lutando até o fim, mas como ela até mesmo já havia suspeitado, ela não era páreo para Priscila nem em um dia normal, ferida então, não houve nenhuma chance.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Tre stelle regalate solo perché continuo ad essere curioso di sapere come finirà la storia. Però è drasticamente peggiorato rispetto ai primi volumi. È tutto completamente fuori posto, personaggi di cui non ti frega nulla, livelli di potere completamente scombinati, la storia è stata costruita in un modo per farti pensare che alcuni avversari sarebbero stati importanti e poi sono stati messi da parte in favore di altri nuovi a caso, la protagonista quelle poche volte che appare fa cose che non hanno senso, tutto quello che succede viene sempre accompagnato da spiegazioni traballanti che cercano di farti capire come sia tutto pensato e invece si capisce perfettamente che l’autore stesso non sa neanche più che i pesci pigliare.
Sono molto deluso, i primi 10 volumi mi sono piaciuti tantissimo ma ha avuto un tracollo incredibile
Fuuck, of course, Raki got shot, mess. Saying that the thing that makes Clare not awaken is Jean was a bit out of pocket random. Why say it when you can show it? It's a manga. We have already seen that you can talk to yourself inside your mind, so why not have the memory of Jean stop her or something? The longer this goes the more it's clear that it's dragging, would have been better to have a solid goal, because right now everyone's power level is so underpowered, how the hell are you supposed to believe that they will fight the Organization or Priscilla? Also if you want to make me believe that Isley, Priscilla, and Raki became a family in these seven years, make me care. Show it. Don't just say it happened, as a passing line. I like the manga but somethings are pissing me off.
A huge battle between many factions in this volume, and we see Raki again briefly. We have Beth and Alicia, as well as Riful and The Destroyer and now Priscilla, as well as the active Claymores and Claire's group. The abyss feeders are there somewhere, but get slight page time. I am also interested to know where Clarice is... There are so many threads going on. The battles and art are great, but I feel like theres not much underneath that. Even so, still a really good series!
I’m of the mind that Claymore will no longer surpass my expectations. The earlier volumes held special POTENTIAL power. Am I reviewing myself? Narf narf, j/k. As far as rating goes I’ve tried to keep my stars consistent with how I’ve viewed the series as a whole, not just individual volumes. Claymore will not get 5 stars (maybe individually) from me, it’s gonna either wrap up with 4, if it can eke that out somehow, likely we’ll settle for 3.
It’s just weird. It has good, consistent elements mixed with its opposites. The food tastes good. My stomach feels like it’s gonna reject it. Know what I mean?
Kickass volume. We get a name for an organization bigwig, I think one of the ones we've seen before in prior volumes, but I'm not going back to check - Dae. He's gonna be a love to hate him kinda guy, I can tell already - in a similar vein to Rubel.
Priscilla is so fucking scary. That basically sums up my thoughts on the rest of the volume - almost everything else I liked about this volume is downstream of how fucking scary Priscilla is.
Priscilla's look of disappointment even being included in this book is similar to how I feel when I drink pop from Wendy's and the syrup needs to be replaced so it's just like sipping the foggy aftermath of flavor that memory can no longer remember
Dost thou recall the tincture and pomp of that which was once called spicy water? Nay, I fearst not. Such are the fleeting folktales of yore, ne'er to be collected by the minds of humankind again.